I'm going to be honest with myself; we weren't really friends in the first place. I just had to make a show so that Chrysalis can actually do her job. That perverted bug told me of her other attempts to take Equestria for herself, and it was like she was in the plot of Sword Art Online. You know, getting defeated by some bullshit, split-second, power gain. I could understand any other time, because they have those elements which basically increase their defense hundred-fold, but being defeated by a worn-down princess and a guard makes her look weak. Not that she is weak, per se, but her plans actually do suck though.

I made my way to the hive, feeling a lot more carefree about it. Twilight assaulting my privates gave me the perfect opening to actually escape and discuss some matters with Chrysalis. The emotional damage she just took was really a bonus. I wonder if that would defeat most of Equestria's defenses as a whole, because I know that the Elements of Harmony can only work if all 6 of them believe me to be a threat. I have no doubt in my mind that two of them have high chances of not going with it. Twilight because of our last interaction, and Fluttershy because she gives the benefit of the doubt a lot. Should make the job easier.

I made it through the forest and to the hive with relative ease. I'm surprised RD or AJ didn't come up to try and get me to talk it out with Twilight. I'm not saying nothing about that situation made me mad; I was kicked in a spot that would normally cause a huge fight back on earth, but that was very uncharacteristic of Twilight to do. Taking it too far, some would say. As I made my way to the entrance, I noticed a big difference in the two guards. They were a little bit taller and had a lot more muscle. It's like someone turned them into a Jojo reference.

"How did you two gain so much muscle?" I asked. They smiled to me. Even their teeth were sharper and more intimidating than before.

"Thanks to the book you got for us, we could surpass our usual magic limits." They also sounded a little more intimidating, like a dragon who rules over the volcanic wastelands. "The queen awaits you as she wants to discuss plans to attack Canterlot... again.."

"I'm heading there right now. I got the perfect opening to escape those ponies so I can now stay here as much as I want." When they don't reply, I make my way over to the throne room. Everypony that I pass has had some sort of muscle added to their body, except the females who have a more menacing look to their horns. It kinda makes me wish I could change how my body looks in my pony form. I made it to the throne room and opened the doors to see a bug queen with a complete makeover. Instead of having a black coat, she now had a cool shade of forest green. Her hair naturally flowed in a non-existent wind, and her horn looked like a crystal along with a gem floating an inch above it. She looked like the god of a forest, just to simplify.

"If it isn't my favorite partner." If I were myself a few years ago, that voice would've made me shit my pants.

"I see that the hive's firepower got a complete overhaul." I said neutrally. Her smile could kill a filly.

"Yes, it did, and it's all thanks to you. Now, we must discuss our plans to overtake Canterlot." I raised an eyebrow.

"Don't you guys need love to live? You are telling me that you are already strong enough to take over the city?" She chuckled at my ignorance.

"In truth, we actually can't live without magic in our bodies, but the only way previously to get magic was to convert love from somepony else. Since we broke our limit, we can get magic from other ways, the main one being eating anything in general. However, taking love still dominates all other sources." She explained. I nodded and changed the subject.

"Your hive could probably just initiate an uncoordinated attack and do just fine, but the problem lies on how the new Canterlot operates." She gave me a confused look.

"New Canterlot?"

"Yes. You see, when I came here and started to do my own thing, Ponyville and Canterlot were split on whether I am a good person here or if I was on par with King Sombra in evil-doings, so now there are about three kingdoms in Canterlot, only one being an official power." For Chrysalis, that was hard to take in.

"Why would Celestia allow such a thing to happen inside of her own country, her own city no less?" She asked, completely confused.

"I didn't know that question myself until I saw the firepower that these two unofficial groups. I mean seriously, they could probably take over Equestria themselves with their kind of strengths. Since I'm the leader of one of the sides, I technically should be arrested right now for illegal assembly, but there are two factors that keep me out. Can you guess them?" She thought about it for a moment.

"I assume number one would be that you could easily overpower Celestia and the entire castle by yourself alone," I nodded. "What would the other reason be?"

"The other reason is that if I did let her arrest me, that would cause an internal war within the country. With her own citizens no less."

"Do these groups really have that much power?" I nodded. Chrysalis looked at me in awe.

"Hey, I was surprised too when I learned this information, but as long as you do not touch the blue side, then I don't really care who you suck the love out of. However, you harm any one of them then our ties with each other will be no more. I know how villains think. Hell, I was one. Don't think you can betray me and manage to beat me. Do you think I would get a book that makes you stronger than me?" Chrysalis thought on this then smiled.

"We have a deal." She said. She cleared her throat before accessing her magic. "All guards are to be ready in front of the hive, it is time that we raid Canterlot once more. This time, we shall succeed!" She said with ever-knowing confidence.

"How fast does it take them to get ready?"

"About an hour. You're free to do what you want until then." I nod and make my way out. I finally get to test my new sword that I had been making. I have decided to name it Grimfrost due to its abilities. It has four abilities and can gain new ones with every kill. Its first two are self explanatory. One makes it lighter and the other one makes it sharper. Nothing too big, until you get to number 3. I call it 'Curse Forge'. The ability makes things age, and is very deadly against almost everything. The only thing it wouldn't be useful on are any ores resistant to aging, such as Mithril. I have to call the ability forth to use it, because if I accidentally cut myself, then I would have to take time reversing the process. The fourth one is also a calling ability, and I named it 'Christmas Day'. The ability freezes literally anything except time. I could make a global freeze if I wanted to as well. That's about it, since I don't want to think about that fourth ability too much. Not like I will ever have a reason to create a global freeze, although freezing enemies may be a different story.

"Hey, you." I call over to a changeling who looks bigger and stronger than all the rest. He stops his pacing and turns to me. "How do you feel about sparring me when we get in front of the hive?" He looked nervous at first, but then realized that he was stronger than he was and accepted it. How I could tell? He looked over himself then got a cocky grin on his face.

I spent the hour memorizing the entire hive so that I wouldn't be lost later on. I managed to get most of it before having to be at the hive entrance for the march. I just have to tell myself not to be anywhere near the top floors, as I did not memorize those. I walked towards the entrance where I saw Chrysalis stand in front of quite a huge number of changelings. She walked over to me and whispered in my ear.

"I don't think they take you very seriously." Yeah, no shit. I look over to see them with cocky expressions pointing towards me.

"Wait, why are they looking at me like that?" I whispered back.

"I may have told them that I would have you spar one of them today." That actually makes the timing of this perfect. I walk away from Chrysalis and look at the huge army. Its been a little bit since my last fight. King Sombra wasn't that much of a match, but he was the best out of all I fought.

"One of you already knows who you are sparring." They were confused for a second until one of them pushed past the front line and made their way to me.

"You ready to lose?" Taunting now? Just let them lose, Axel.... just let them lose. I turn to Chrysalis.

"Sound us off." She nodded and made her way to the center.

"This is a sparring match between Therion and Axel. All types of magic are allowed, including fatal ones since you both can be revived afterwards. The matched starts on go... get ready.."

He moves into an offensive position. I sit there looking like my guard is down.

"Get set." His horn ignites, I'm still not moving.

"FIGHT!" She yells. The changeling, now knowing his name is Therion, starts with a magical blast in my direction. Instead of dodging it, I waved my hand over the fire and it disappeared. Therion seemed bewildered on how I did it. I sent a sword attack of my own, but quickly learned that his coat was hell of a lot thicker than I thought it would be. The slashes I sent his way were practically bouncing off of him. Wow, the same amount of power I used against Twilight doesn't work on the Changelings. That really isn't much of an achievement, seeing as basic swords can cut ponies.

"Your coat is pretty strong." I comment.

"Your sword is pretty sharp yourself. I could feel it almost prick me." His voice kinda sounded warlord-ish.

"In all honesty, I'm holding back. I'm only using the same amount of power that I use on the ponies. If I went for a max power sword, then they would cut you cleaner than butter. Don't take this offensively but-"

"You've been holding back?!" Oh. He is pissed now. "Are you underestimating me?"

"You know, two ponies so far have told me to do my best. The outcome of both? Ended in my victory without a single wound." I looked up into the air and remembered my two fights between Twilight and Blueblood. Leave it to Therion to shake me out of my thoughts by attempting to slash me with his horn. I grabbed it mid-slash and headbutted him.... and immediately regretted it. What the fuck is his head made out of? Fucking tungsten? I rub my head as Therion smiles up to me.

"You aren't that tough." Therion said. Chrysalis had a fearful expression for a few seconds before going stoic after I look to her. I didn't bring this up with her, but I knew she was watching my fight with Blueblood, which I assume the curiosity came from my fight with Twilight, that one of her spies saw. Both times the enemy taunted me or insulted me. The results?

"Oh boy, I'm going to have fun with you. If you get me to use a hundredth of my magic power, I'll end the fight in your victory." Therion thought I was bluffing about being that strong. Little does he know, my mornings are spent fighting dummies more intimidating than he is. He rushes in for another horn blow and I hand chop the thing in two. Basic rule of fighting: the same tactic won't work twice, especially if it didn't work the first time. The crowd gasped as he fell on the ground, trying to stop his horn from bleeding.

"H-How did you.." Another grunt. He must be in some serious pain. "What kind of magic is that?"

"Dude, I didn't even use magic to break your horn. If you know where to hit and how to angle your object of choice, it can be sharper than any sword." I throw out my hand, causing the severed horn to appear above him and reattach to his head. He suddenly takes his hoof away from his head and looks up to me. I look to the crowd and everypony stares at me in disbelief. A moment passed and I was starting to get a little uncomfortable from the attention. The cons of being alone for a long time is that big crowds suck. At least when I test my weapons, people actually run away and pay no attention to me. Now that the same thing I do on earth only attracts eyes, I feel a lot different.

"Maybe we should just believe his word and say he is stronger than any of us." Someone in the front line says. Everypony, including Chrysalis, at once nods twice. The amount of synergy in that little action was funny as hell, but now isn't the time for that.

"If we are done basking in my strength, I'd like to get the main event started." Chrysalis nodded and turned to her army.

"Today, with the help of Axel, Canterlot is ours!" There was a mutual cheer between the crowd. "Let us waste no time, and use our newly found strength to enslave these ponies!" We're enslaving ponies? Thought we were just going to take over the government. No matter I guess, although I gotta ask if I can use some ponies for my own personal experiments. I'm not going to say it's good to exploit their social status, but testing what spells can do on them could prove useful. Of course I'm not testing any spells that purposely harm an entity, but any spell for psychological and beneficial use? That is another story.

"Yo bug-queen." The queen, not entirely amused at the name I called her, looked to me. "Do you mind if I can get some of the ponies you enslave?" She laughed at the question I asked her.

"I'll let you have the ponies who wronged you, minus Celestia, who I want all to myself." If I were any dumbass cartoon character, I would ask why, but since I already know, there isn't a reason to. Celestia starved these creatures for years; part of the reason I'm helping them in fact. Also, the amount of love these ponies share for the Princess would probably completely supply the hive for their entire life. I wonder why they starved these creatures. Aside seeming a bit sinister, Chrysalis and the others were genuinely nice creatures just trying to survive. I guess the power of friendship only applies to actual ponies, something terrible as much as racist.

We took a detour around Ponyville, not being terribly hard considering that these guys can shapeshift. We had to do it so that Canterlot won't be alerted of us. We made it to Canterlot at sunset, perfect for a hostile takeover. Since it was dark, I could look at the gate without much risk of getting seen, as long as I'm in the dark, and I noticed something strange.

"I don't see any guards." I whispered to the queen. She looked over and saw that I was right. "Wait here, I'm going to do some recon." Getting a nod from her, I look around and don't even see any cameras. Do security cameras even exist here? I'm wondering how good technology is in this world. By the looks of it, its like being in the old human times. I look around the street, looking for any sorts of monitoring. Not a single guard or a single camera in sight. Some of the windows had light in them, but when I went to look into them, the house was completely devoid of anyone. It was as if Canterlot was abandoned. I looks around and still saw the flags from the two organizations and went to check if the blue side had anybody.

I walked into the inn that Mythic allowed me to stay at. I looked around and saw no one in sight. Okay, now this is getting creepy, as if something swooped by and made everypony disappear. I made my way back to Chrysalis and motioned for her and her army to come to the castle slowly.

And so we begin our slow trot, every single changeling being on edge from the sudden disappearance of the city. It was weird to have hundreds of changelings slowly sneaking about, but something tells me that the city is empty for a reason. My thought process was interrupted by a sudden scream. Everypony turned to the direction of the scream to see a changeling in the air, a balloon being tied around his neck, cutting off his air supply. By the time we knew about it, it was too late. His body stood limp in mid-air. It didn't take a guess to know that he is dead.

"W-What happened?" Chrysalis asked, fear threatening to take over her voice. I summoned my swords, being more on-guard than ever.

"I'm not sure, but I know I have a bad feeling about this." I looked to assess how everypony else was doing. Some were shaking just as hard as Chrysalis at what they had seen, while others tried to pretend that they didn't see one of their brothers die. I'm gonna need therapy myself. I did do some killing in my past life, but seeing someone be hung around their neck with a balloon and dying is almost as illogical as it is disturbing. "Let's continue." I said. She hesitantly nodded and we walked even slower than before.

As we walked, more illogical things started to happen. Everypony started letting their fear be known by either screaming or holding their head between their knees as their comrades started dying in weird ways. To name a few, we had one that turned into stone and crumbled away, another that burned in a suddenly ignited flame, and another who's head exploded in a mixture of blood and confetti. These were all things that could scar anyone not used to seeing people die. I wasn't going to be effected much by what is transpiring, but I sure will need a drink after this. As everything started to get quiet, I tried to assess who was left.

"Chrysalis?" She turned to me with a dull gaze, "How many Changelings did we bring to Canterlot?" She mulled over the number in her head before answering.

"A-A-About t-two thousand." She answered, completely broken over seeing her children die. I would be too, and when I saw how many were left, I was disturbed. Out of two thousand changelings, only ten remain. How did whatever did this rack up kills this fast? If he plays COD, then hes logging in to my account. Me and Chrysalis both looked over to the remaining ten and saw that they were dying as well. One of them suddenly choked and started coughing blood, losing life by the second. Another looked dehydrated and was dehydrating fast. A third suddenly started bleeding heavily out of her chest. I don't get this at all. How are they dying? There has to be some explanation for this. I looked over to the remaining seven.

"Do you guys want me to give you a painless death?" I asked them. Chrysalis looked to me furiously, tears rolling down her eyes.

"WHY WOULD YOU KILL YOUR ALLIES, YOU TRAITOR!" She screamed. I looked to her for one second before replying.

"What would you rather have, Chrysalis? Children who die a quick and painless death, or children who die a super painful death and maybe live with the scars they received?" Chrysalis looked deep in thought, and looked over to the changelings who were now saluting.

"Permission to speak freely!" Chrysalis gave a weak and dead nod, "We would love to die in peace for you. Please allow the human to kill us off, so that way you don't have a guilty conscience over killing your own kind. We wish the best for you and will be rooting for you in the afterlife for your success. It has been a wonderful time being a child for you, and we wish you the best of luck." Chrysalis looked to the ground for a second before looking to them.

"Do you all feel this way?" They nod. The queen sighed and turned to me.

"Don't worry, if you feel any hatred towards me, then I will just deal with it so that you don't have to. Beside a certain timber-wolf, you are the only person that ever got to know the real me. You allowed me to do what I want, so I'll take on this burden to return the favor." The tears that were shed earlier from her increased tenfold at my words.

"If it isn't any trouble, I would ask that you kill the remaining changelings, as painless and as swiftly as possible, if you don't mind." I nodded and turned to the changelings.

"You guys ready?" They all stood straight and nodded, closing their eyes. I turned my sword yellow and swiped once. They were all confused for a second until I put my sword in the ground, causing all of their heads to immediately fly off their body. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Chrysalis looking away.

"Are you ok-"

"T-thank you." I looked to her in bewilderment, "Thank you for sticking with us until the end, and I'm sorry if I must ask you this."

"What is there to do left? All of the changelings have been slaug-" She put a hoof in my mouth.

"I-I know... I know... I just have one last mission for you before I go into hiding in the Everfree." I turned my ear to her, allowing her to whisper in it. "Avenge my children." With that, she suddenly started running towards the city gate and flew out towards the forest.

I turned to the castle entrance and made my way inside, eager to avenge the ones that looked up to her.

I made it to the throne room doors and opened them. It was dark inside, but I made my way in, being cautious of what was around me. Suddenly, the doors behind me closed shut and purple torches on the walls suddenly lit. I looked to the lights, on edge at what was going on. Suddenly a laugh rang through the room and I immediately knew who I was up against.

"Discord, you finally show your face."

Author's Note

Its been a hectic month as well. I didn't think that I would have computer problems, but it happened.

The next chapter will be the end of Volume 1 and Volume 2 will be coming soon after. I hope you have enjoyed the story up until this point. This is the first ever story I have ever put more than a few chapters in, and I hope what I'm writing is okay for you. Another note is that the next chapter will be released sometime after the thanksgiving special. I hope you look forward to it!