Drastic Measures

Author's Notes:

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is owned by Lauren Faust, Hasbro Studios, DHX Media/Vancouver, Top Draw Animation, and The Hub. This is a non-profit fan-made story. Please support the official release.

“Checkmate.” A stallion with a crimson mane with indigo highlights and a gray coat said with a bored expression on his face, while leaning on his right front hoof, the chain on the hoof's shackle knocking over the opponent's king. It was basically the exact same routine for the past what, 10 years? Not even the stallion could remember.

Most of his days in Tartarus were uneventful and felt like it was under a schedule; pick rocks, eat, and then sleep. There's not much to explain rather than he kind of expects the outside to be much more advanced in just pretty much anything ranging from buildings to magic.

Back to the chess game, the stallion had placed his bishop in the same diagonal line as the king, while his other bishop had been placed next to the king while being protected from his queen, thus blocking the opponent’s path.

“What?!” The opponent, which was an ogre, roared in disbelief. His voice was deep and sounded nearly demonic, as if he needed to clear his throat. “There’s no way you won in 5 minutes! How in the name of Tartarus do you always win, Solus?!”

“You shouldn’t have wasted your queen so quickly.” The stallion rebutted, leaning back on the wooden chair he was sitting on, now with a smirk on his face. “You should try challenging me to something different besides chess all the time.”

“Grrr!” The ogre growled. “Then maybe I will.” He then quickly stood up—which caused the chess table to fall over—and grabbed the slim pony by the neck and drove Solus back against the stone wall.

The ogre tried being intimidating by giving the pony a menacing look and huffing and puffing, but Solus looked fearlessly into the beast’s eyes with a smug smirk, taunting the brute.

“This challenge is to see who can stay conscious the longest.” The ogre said before he gave a smile with his decaying teeth. Solus would have used his magic by now, but there was a magical barrier outside that kept him from using his magic or leaving his cell. The ogre then raised his other fist up to throw a punch, but he was interrupted by an odd buzzing sound that started to rise in volume.

Bzzzzzzzz! The sound continued for many seconds. The ogre turned his head to the direction of the buzzing and squinted hard at the dark hallway of which the sound was coming from.

“By the realms of Logres, what is that noise?” The ogre furiously asked as he continued to observe the dark hall. The buzzing soon grew louder and what emanated from it were many odd looking black... creatures that had holes around they’re bodies.

“What are those things?” The ogre curiously asked, still holding the stallion’s neck.

“I don’t know.” Solus replied, glancing at the holey creatures. But he knew exactly what they were; they were changelings. Even though he had been locked in Tartarus for a while, he had previously encountered with them.

The changelings started slamming and head-butting the magical barrier, trying to infiltrate the small holding cell. The ogre looked at them in confusion while the stallion just stared at them with an emotionless expression.

“They're pretty headstrong, I'll give them that.” Solus muttered to the ogre, cocking an eyebrow and smirking.

After a minute of the changelings constantly hitting the magical force field, it finally shatters into pieces—like glass—and the changelings let themselves in.

“What are you bugs doing here?” The ogre asked.

“Our Queen told us to break out as much as we can.” One of the changelings said with a raspy and hoarse voice, “Especially you.” The changeling had pointed at the gray pony. Solus blinked in surprise.

“Me? Why me?” Solus questioned. He could probably guess why she made this ‘prison break’, but he figured it was wrong, as always.

“She’ll tell you once we break you out,” A few changelings then shoved the pony forward, “So let’s go.” Solus decided to abide by their orders and followed the changelings, his shackles screeching on the rocky terrain.

There were a few changelings that tried to push the ogre, but the beast was too large and heavy. The ogre noticed them and gave the changelings a terrifying look and stomped his way out, smacking a few that were in his way.

Chapter 1: Nopony Wins With a Headbutt

The stallion entered the changeling hive. It seemed like the inside of a bee hive, considering the changelings’ buzzing reminded the stallion of bees, and there only seemed to be one place for the black holey ponies to rest. Solus didn’t seem very intimidated, even with the changelings occasionally giving him odd looks and his escorts sometimes shoved him. The ogre that was with him was led around the hive, along with many other vicious beasts from Tartarus.

Earlier, before the two rivals were parted, the changelings had attempted to pick through the stallion's shackles, meaning they bit on the chains that were connected together in a rectangle.

The cuffs that held the chains were designed like a royal gray shoe with gold locks that looked similar to a button, and they were placed a half-centimeter above his hooves.

The old and rusty metal broke easily through the changelings' sharp fangs. The result of the 'lock-picking' was now only a small millimeter of the used-to-be chain on each side of each hoof.

“You sure you're comfortable with this?” said somepony behind the stallion. The unicorn looked behind him and saw a... changeling? Well, it had the characteristics of a changeling; the holey legs, the dark coat, the fangs. The thing that seemed odd for it to be a changeling was that it had a tattered, gray mane that had the same shading and texture as a clump of spider webs put together, and it was tied into a medium-sized ponytail. Another thing was that the changeling had moss green pupils and eyelashes, unlike the other changelings.

“Yeah,” Solus replied, looking dumfounded by the changeling's appearance but then flipped his expression into one of apathy. “I think your queen would actually ENJOY me being in chains...”

“Not unless she's the one ordering you around.” the changeling softly retorted, slightly gritting her teeth, as if in annoyance. That's when Solus realized that this changeling didn't have the nasty and raspy voice the others had, but a soothing and clear voice—even though there were still some noticeable buzzes here and there—that sounded like a mature mare's voice. Not too posh, but not too southern; it was normal.

“Well,” Solus started, “I should probably be getting to her before it comes to that.” The other changelings had already finished their teething session, so the stallion already started walking off.

“All right, I'll be seeing you.” the female changeling said, “And by the way...” Upon hearing her last words, Solus stopped and listened.

“What?”

“Not everypony is who they may seem to be.”

Solus then turned back to the female changeling, but she was already gone, as if she disappeared or used some kind of invisibility spell.

Strange. But I've seen stranger things. Much stranger things... The stallion thought.

Solus then made it to the Queen’s throne, which seemed to only consist of a chair of bones and a hill of debris that supported the throne. The Queen, known as Queen Chrysalis by her subordinates, was sitting on the bone chair, looking pleased.

“You said you wanted to see me?” the stallion asked flatly. He was suspicious of this entire scenario. He didn’t want to head back to that ghastly pit once more just because somepony busted him out without him even knowing.

“Ah yes, you.” Queen Chrysalis said, giving a menacing smile. “I’ve heard quite a lot about you.”

“I bet.” Solus said, still giving the Queen a serious look, “How did you do it?”

“What, break you out?” Queen Chrysalis chuckled in pride, “That poor excuse of a guard dog was easily taken care of; as for the gatekeeper, he posed a bit of a problem but we quickly took care of him.”

“I suppose you're not going to tell me how you defeated the gatekeeper?” Solus inquired as he raised an eyebrow.

“Why should I? It wouldn't benefit any of us.”

I can guess Cerberus got distracted by a bone and the gatekeeper got overwhelmed by a changeling rush.

“All right,” the stallion unnervingly replied, “But why me?”

“I know about the ponies you are trying to find. And since I’m feeling somewhat generous today, I’m willing to give you their location.” Queen Chrysalis smiled sinisterly, her long, tattered dark cerulean mane covering half of her two-sided face.

Not everypony is who they seem to be...

“Why should I believe you?” Solus inquired while cocking an eyebrow. He surely wasn’t planning on being baited into a trap, or any sort of scheme that wasn’t worth the untrustworthy information. Queen Chrysalis menacingly smiled, as if she anticipated that retort.

“Maybe this will change your mind.” Queen Chrysalis said, tossing a miniature wooden box to the unicorn, while getting a transitory chuckle in. The unicorn staggered back a step once the box rolled to him. It was carved into a pentagon and had borders on the edges that seemed vaguely familiar.

The box’s top then popped open to reveal three ponies standing together, the two tallest ponies on the side of the small middle pony, as if like a family. The box then played the tune of ‘A River Flows in You’.

Solus' eyes widened as nostalgic memories engulfed his mind. He could feel at least a single tear escape his eye and dribble down his muzzle. He shook his head and took deep breaths to postpone any incoming tears.

“Who gave you this?” The stallion tried to growl but it came out as more of a shaky breath. The Queen snickered.

“I’ll tell you. But only if you do what I ask.” The Queen ordered.

The stallion sighed. “What’s the catch?” He complied, not knowing if this was the right choice or not. Well, there were a few times he felt like this; but hay, nothing can really compare to now, right?

“Good.” Queen Chrysalis smirked. “What I want is for you to get rid of the elements of harmony.”

“I’m guessing they’re the ones that defeated you?” Solus sarcastically smirked. He thought he may as well irritate her if she wasn’t going to spill the beans. Queen Chrysalis scowled at the stallion’s jest, and decided to rejoinder.

“Do you want your information or not?”

He sighed once again, “Where can I find them?” He thought he may as well quickly finish this before he gets sent back to Tartarus.

“My most recent subject has seen one of the elements, Twilight Sparkle, in Ponyville.” The Queen then flew back up to her ‘throne’ and motioned with her punctured hoof shooing the stallion away. “You have one week before we plan our attack; and take that worthless box that you call a ‘treasure’.”

Solus decided to just use his magic in the hive by teleporting to Ponyville. Due to his knowledge in spells, he was able to teleport very large distances. Unfortunately though, he never went to Ponyville before, but he has been near it when he was young.

The stallion closed his eyes and concentrated hard while a red aura coming from his lightly gray horn conjured a large sphere around him and his music box. After a few seconds of channeling the spell, he was finally teleported.

his eyes slowly and he had sensed that he was in a different area, a different atmosphere. He felt a cold and chilly breeze roll up his spine, which caused him to open his eyes in confusion.

“Huh?” Solus muttered as he shifted his eyes left and right, scanning the place he teleported himself to. “Are you kidding me?!” The stallion angrily said, “Of all the places to get relocated, it had to be on the summit of a mountain?!” The summit was a small patch of barren land with a few spots of snow around the edge, with his music box lying on the closest spot of snow.

He sighed and murmured, “Talk about odds,” before circling the peak—very steadily and cautiously at that—of the mountain to find a safe place he could teleport to. But unfortunately, there were many clouds under and around the summit of the mountain, making it completely difficult to see anything else.

“Great.” Solus unsteadily exhaled before his horn started glowing with a red magical aura. “I guess I can only cross my hooves.”

Solus then closed his eyes again and proceeded to perform his spell for a second time, but his thoughts were interrupted by a rumbling in the wind.

“What is that sound coming from?” The stallion said, breaking his concentration. He tried squinting through the clouds, attempting to see what is producing the unusual noise.

Then, almost instantly, a rainbow blur filled his vision and caused him to spin in a circle for more than six times. After being whirled around he barely planted his hooves, and his eyes were spinning constantly due to his dizziness.

“Whoa… Stallion Gonzales over there is breaking the sound barrier.” The stunned Solus sarcastically said. He then shook his head and strongly blinked his eyes, which steadied his vision and irises. The stallion then noticed that one section of the clouds had been cleared, which exposed several pieces of lower terrain.

“Well at least I can get down now.” He said attempting to seek a place he can transfer himself to. He then found a flat, grassy area where he can teleport himself to. Not to mention that it seemed far down, so he can probably get to the ground from there too.

“Perfect.” The unicorn grinned before he started the spell again. While in deep focus, the rumbling had resumed, interfering with the stallion’s conjuration.

“Great, what is it now? Usain Colt?” The presumably peeved pony grumbled. He tried to peer through the open section of the dense clouds, but all he could see were hazes of colors in the sky due to his vision.

“I should either get glasses soon, or I’m near the northern lights.” Solus joked. But suddenly, the colors started approaching closer, as well as the colors gradually started to form to a large mob of various colored pegasi.

But before the gray unicorn could react, the pegasi nearly overwhelmed the pony by jetting past him with an incredible velocity. As soon as the entire platoon of pegasi passed the unicorn, he was practically about to fall off the mountain. He struggled on getting his rear hooves back on the summit, attempting to levitate himself back up.

With his extreme anxiety of falling, he couldn’t concentrate on his magic and he felt like he was panicking. His breathing went rapid and he could feel sweat bead down his face and muzzle. Although he should be focusing on getting himself up, he couldn’t stop looking down at what might be a long and painful fall. He then saw the music box he took, which helped him calm down and motivate him on ascending himself-

“Watch out!” a voice shouted from a distance, which caused Solus to snap out of focus. He opened his eyes only to briefly see a pegasus with a light gray coat and a pale, light grayish apple green mane rapidly approaching him. His eyes widened for a second as he realized the warning of the gray pegasus and when the pony didn’t cease to fly or yield as the out-of-control pegasus came nearly muzzle to muzzle to him.

Before he could react, their noggins collided with a force strong enough that felt like it could shatter a building into shambles. After the collision, the impact of it caused the stallion to do an aerial back-flip that followed-up with a downward spiral.

Solus' vision was shaky and the sounds he heard were more trebled than resounding. He nearly lost consciousness from the hard head-butt due to his weak noggin.

After falling for about ten seconds, he noticed the upcoming ground that would soon clash with his head. He closed his eyes to brace the impact and immediately lost consciousness after the crash.