Prisoners of War : A Beatrix Belladonna Tale

Practicing what her teachers had taught her by herself, Beatrix watched the trio of elements she conjured combine into a spinning sphere, its glow refracted across her violet eyes and skin. Her platinum hair, cape, and hat aflutter from the winds.

“Not bad,” she told herself. “But not enough!”

Beatrix concentrated on tripling the size of the tri-elemental spell while maintaining control over its stability, only stopping when she knew it would burst. Satisfied, the witch gently allowed it to fizzle and shrink, red, blue, and yellow wisps of the elements evaporating into the air.

“Got to be in top shape if I'm about to take on two whole armies. Not to mention that damned cult..!”

The unicorn mare brushed the eye-shaped Prima Materia that held her cape in place, her connection to the Demiurge, which the Cult of the Nemesis once coveted. But thanks to her Onoma, Erebus, she’d learned to work with the abomination.

Her frown resurfaced. “I’ve overcome that fate! I’ve proven darkness can be used to protect and save others! If not for Oona, I…”

Beatrix paused her self-motivating talk once the subject of her beloved came up. Her snout scrunched, feeling her chest tighten. She must be so damn worried and alone, praying for her safe return!

And yet, here she was, preparing to fight a battle that probably didn’t need her.

Outside of the threat the Nemesis posed with their reappearance, the feud between the Crystal Empire and the Chrysalis Hive wasn’t that complicated to resolve, in the grand scheme of things. Even with the numbers against them, their side boasted incredibly potent casters, bruisers, and even a few swift ex assassins.

Then, once Chrysalis was out of power, Marathyssa seemed like a suitable replacement to ingest her royal jelly! As for Fiery Kickstart, the witch was certain Moon Hammer wouldn’t allow him and his followers a chance to continue his supremacist regime.

So did Beatrix really need to ensure their desired outcome? Or was Iclyn, and others of a similar mindset, right in accusing her of avoiding rejoining Oona’s side for the sake of continuing this adventure?

“No,” she reaffirmed, shaking away these lingering doubts. “If I return to them now, I’ll bring this catastrophic mumbo jumbo with me. That’s the last thing I want to do! I have to stay until I’ve sorted this out!”

“And how long will that be, I wonder…”

Beatrix jumped at the chilly voice of her cold-hearted instructor behind her. The witch groaned, resting a hand over her voluptuous chest. “I hate it when you do that! I feel like I’m one hop from an early grave every time!”

The cyan doe snorted. “I wouldn’t kill you. Just leave you perpetually frozen for the remainder of time, letting all who see you bask in your failure.”

The image of being a perpetual popsicle sent a shiver down the violet mare’s spine. “Would you at least give me the honor of picking my final pose..?”

Iclyn gave a dry huff. “Unlikely.”

“Figures,” the wayward witch pouted. “So did you come just to ridicule me some more, or...?”

“Actually, I’m here to tell you I’ll be off shortly,” informed Iclyn. “Arcanum Folklore says he’s making final preparations. Thought I’d let you know.”

“Ohh… well, thank you,” said Beatrix. “Really, for everything. I wouldn’t have-”

“Save it for after you manage to undo this mess,” the icy deer cut off before turning around to walk. “Better yet. Save it for the enormous apology you owe Oona and Abadonna.”

Beatrix’s face hardened, brows furrowed as she watched the deighdyr enter her tent. She could tell this wasn’t a normal insult. Iclyn was subtly challenging her to back up her choice. So the witch would respond accordingly, treading after her icy instructor through the polyester flaps.

Inside, Beatrix gave a sharp noise of surprise, her eyes drawn to the cyan doe's naked figure as she shed her winter coat. The contours were feminine, her chest small yet nowhere near boyish. Iclyn’s round shapely backside could possibly rival hers. Hell, even Moxxi’s full figure! Of course, her female assets were offset by the limp penis hanging between her slender legs.

Beatrix gulped, face flourishing. She never noticed how sexy the snow fawn was, unable to help but stare.

“Take a picture,” Iclyn scoffed. “It’ll last longer.”

“Eh! S-sorry!” The blushing unicorn said, clearing her throat. “Any reason you’re, uh…”

“Was about to shower,” answered the cynical doe. “Figured I wouldn’t have a chance when the bugs arrived.”

“Yeah. Won't be much room for fun then…”

Her antlers glimmered with auroral light as a swirling gray nimbus formed from the atmosphere, showering the transsexual deer with small flakes that melted over her blue fur. Beatrix continued to stare awkwardly, prompting Iclyn to roll her eyes and increase the cloud’s size to provide more room.

Getting the hint, the violet witch waved her hand to magic away her attire and took to the cyan doe’s side under the frost shower. She did her best not to quiver too much while enveloped by the icy mist.

“This is an… unorthodox way to get clean,” admitted Beatrix. “But it does feel nice!”

“Less of a mess this way,” Iclyn commented, rubbing her arms and shoulders.

With a heavy sigh, the unicorn witch relented. “I’m… not sure whether I'm making the right decision. What will happen to Oona and Abadonna, now that the Cult of the Nemesis is back?” Beatrix tried to relax her tensed muscles while stroking her forearms and thighs. “What if they're like the Eldritch and can hound me across dimensions? I have to finish them here!”

“You would be leading them to a land full of battle-ready warriors,” Iclyn pointed out.

Beatrix grunted, “Yeah, who probably blame me for the war brought to their islands.”

“And why should that matter? You already make adversaries on a daily basis. Half of your friends were enemies, yes?”

“Y-yeah, but—“

“Look,” the deighdyr interrupted again, staring Beatrix stone cold. “I don’t know what the correct course of action is, if I were you. But I’d do it regardless because I love Oona. Is your reputation more important?”

Beatrix pushed back with her own glare. “Of course not! I love her with all my heart. It pains me being this far away from her for so long!”

“Then leave with me to the Isle of Parras, defend her and your child against Tatyana during Walpurgisnacht. Have faith your friends can hold the fort here in your absence. Not everything has to revolve around you!”

“B-but the Cult! They’ll… I-I—“

“Or stay and fight for your friends on a crumbling planet while your lover, her family, and I face the Sovereign Witch and her allies by ourselves.”

Beatrix curiously questioned, “How come you’re not confident you can take them?”

“I am. But I’m also not a colossal dumbass like you,” she spoke down sternly. “Nothing is guaranteed. All I know is that I would rather live life without more regrets weighing me down.”

The witch heaved, slumping her shoulders. “Hard to believe that when I feel I’ll regret any choice I mak-wuaahey!!”

Iclyn jerked the busty witch closer to her, a hint of a blush on her cold color cheeks. “The only time you’re cautious about your decisions is after the world goes to shit. Gods, you’re so pathetic. I’d feel more disgusted about this if you didn’t look so fucking adorable.”

Before the violet mare could stammer out a response, the frost doe crashed her snout into hers again, suckling Beatrix's lower lip. Gently but firmly, she pushed the witch back onto a bed, trailed one hand across that platinum hair tinged by violet tresses and the other across one of those motherly thighs.

Hands wandered amidst needy kisses, Iclyn offering a stiff groan when Beatrix laid her hands on her chest, groping her tiny breasts. Likewise, hers could only grasp the bottom of the witch’s hefty chest, opting to just smack across her wobbly titties.

“A-aaugh~!”

“These fat cow tits,” grunted Iclyn, slapping each gelatinous mound. “Your stupid clothes barely fit; I’m surprised you don’t just walk around naked.”

While the deighdyr tugged on each deep purple nipple, coaxing more moans out of the witchy bimbo, her aurora green eyes leered down her slim stomach, and a smile formed upon spotting how wet her quivering slit was.

“You getting off to me bullying you, skank?”

When Beatrix didn’t produce the correct response, Iclyn delivered another harsh slap across her bosom, making her cry out, “Yeeeaaass!!”

“Masochistic freak,” the doe taunted in amusement before rubbing her sore tits. The whimpering witch attempted to return the favor by stroking down her chest and stomach… but paused when it neared Iclyn’s stiff erection. It wasn’t small by any means, though it couldn’t compare to the monstrous beast shaft Omen packed. Still, it was unusual to feel up a girl’s penis that wasn’t a product of magic or an elixir.

“I-I, um…I’ve never laid with someone like you,” she confessed sheepishly. “I'm not really sure how-”

“I’ll show you,” Iclyn assured, her monotone dipping into a softer voice.

The blue doe pressed herself into the witch’s perky body, layering soft kisses between her breasts and stiff areola before trailing down her navel. Beatrix squealed when she felt that cold wet tongue drag along her soaked labia and winking clit.

“Y-you're good at this,” she admitted and pressed her crotch harder into the snow fawn’s snout. Iclyn's reply was muffled while focusing on reaching deep with her tongue, earning more writhing moans out of Beatrix, who teased her nipples with slow circles. Warm mare cum leaked out of her moist pussy, staining Iclyn’s lips and Beatrix's puckered pink sphincter.

Her antlers briefly glowed when she formed an ice cube, rubbing it along Beatrix's slim stomach. Goosebumps dotted the witch, who shuddered and squirmed, helpless to do anything but give into her teacher’s foreplay. Naturally, the ice dissolved, a trail of water left to slide down her smooth belly for Iclyn to lap up.

The deighdyr fingered and tongued her slutty partner, making Beatrix twist and coo beneath her. Sensing she was nearing her peak, Iclyn withdrew her snout and replaced it with her hardened cock, poking the tip in and out of her winking snatch in teasing fashion.

“H-hurry, please!” Beatrix whined. “I was so close!”

“Louder,” Iclyn ordered, a cruel smile twisting her snout. “Let the whole ville know what a desperate whore you are!”

Her cheeks brightened with embarrassment before she cried out, “Pleeease pound my pussy like the pathetic slut I am! I can’t go one minute without wanting to get fucked~!!”

“There she is, back in full force,” the cyan doe chortled before slipping her turgid tool inside those velvety folds, shuddering from how hot it was inside Beatrix. Those slick pink canal walls wrapped around her shaft, trying to pull her further inside.

The pair started off with a steady rhythm, hips bucking into each other. Beatrix's oversized breasts bounced under each slow but firm thrust. She tightened around that cock, and wrapped her legs around Iclyn's back and butt to draw her in closer once she picked up the pace to take her.

“Bet you’re imagining Omen or some other creature in my place, huh?” Iclyn grunted, grabbing a handful of plump purple tit to squeeze.

Between pants, Beatrix replied, “Y-you can call me a dirty monster fucker all you want. But like you, I didn’t-ooh~! chose my biology! It's the Demiurge inside me...wants me to get knocked up by the most powerful eldritch entities p-possible...!”

“K-keep telling yourself that,” teased Iclyn as she began to rut her into the creaking bed more violently. “Just an excuse to take all kinds of monster dick. Or tentacles, or whatever other twisted thing you want stuffed in your fuckholes!”

“M-maybe a little...never could be fully satisfied without drowning my womb in cum~! Can’t get pregnant, other than in special cases, anyway~!”

“Yeesh, more pregnant talk? You must miss having a foal in your belly that badly!”

With a wordless cry, Beatrix marked Iclyn with the first climax to come, uncaring of how her paramours used her so long as she left pleased. A fact many were quick to take advantage of, Iclyn included, who tensed up and fired her load into that barren womb.

Of course, she hardly stopped there. Iclyn rose, shifting Beatrix to further bend her over the bed. And after drawing rings across her rectum until it was smeared by the cocktip under feminine lube, Iclyn used that mixed nectar to help shove up her ass. "Yikes...!" Beatrix's buttcheeks slapped under her thrusts, sodomized by the doe, who harshly yanked on her platinum mane and tail.

Beatrix stared out the open tent flap at the blackened sky, her pendulous breasts left to hang and swing, enhanced by the moonlight that fell across them. Due to alchemical enhancement, her titties had blossomed to the limits of her natural cup size, not to mention the exaggerated jiggle she gave them, which drew the eyes of stallions and mares alike since they wobbled like delicious mounds of flan whenever she moved.

The violet witch cried out from the raw passion her lover brought. Asscheeks were spanked, squeezed, and kneaded as Iclyn repeatedly slammed into her ass with every inch of herself. Her half-lidded eyes wandered to the villa outside, where minotaurs gathered to clap and cheer, holstaurs played instruments and danced, and in the center of it all was Cerise, the barely clothed princess dancing and pulling simple tricks in flight, her cheer infectious to the onlookers.

She came anew when cum surged up her bowels; the cock popped free as more ropes of cum were fired across her lower back and buttocks, glazed and shiny under the moon's rays to match Beatrix's matted, sweaty fur. Iclyn huffed, her snowy white hair disheveled. “Had enough?”

“Nu-uh! You still have one hole left to fill~!” Beatrix spun around to kneel before the icy doe, planting wet sloppy kisses and licks all over Iclyn’s meat popsicle, which throbbed in approval.

“Nnhgh… I-insatiable floozy,” Iclyn groaned, but was nonetheless content when she stroked her bitch mare’s mane, while she eagerly serviced the snowy cervine with lewd slurps and head bobs.

It didn't take long before Iclyn clenched up, Beatrix desperately rubbing and fingering her still winking, creamed cunt as her cheeks ballooned and swallowed down Iclyn's final load. She withdrew halfway through and stuck out her tongue, letting more bursts coat it and her face, forced to close one eye as a particularly violent cumshot exploded across her blushing face.

Inevitably, Iclyn collapsed onto the sheets in an exhausted mess, another deluge coaxed out by Beatrix's fingers buried in her snatch until she, too, reclined face-to-face beside her. Their fingers interlocked, lost in their afterglow.

“Huh… not bad,” Iclyn admitted through husky breaths. “Wasn’t expecting to go that far.”

“Me neither,” Beatrix agreed, chest rising and falling. “Thanks. You were way hotter than most of the ‘monsters’ I’ve taken~.”

“Pft. You’re just saying that.”

“No, I mean it!” The witch shuffled closer to look Iclyn in the eyes with sincerity. “I may be a fetish freak, but nothing feels more pleasurable than making love with your peers.”

The snow fawn looked taken aback by this statement; her eyes widened a bit. “You… consider me that highly? Even when I’ve done nothing but insult you?”

Beatrix nodded, throwing her a sly wink. “I wouldn’t have been able to discipline myself properly without your ‘help.’ You might not be the most approachable person in the world, but I know you’ll give it to me straight when the others won’t. Inside that icy shell, you’re one of the most caring people I know. And you know what? I’m glad Oona pushed us together.”

Iclyn was speechless. Truly moved by her acknowledgment and acceptance. Not only of her preferred gender, but her whole being. For so long, it boggled her what Oona could see in such a pig-headed witch-bitch. Only now could she look past the childish bravado and see the wonderful, loving mare her ex spoke highly of.

A rare, genuine smile graced her snout as she replied, “… I think I am too.”

The unlikely couple spooned each other for a few minutes, soaked in each other's radiant heat, when the music suddenly stopped. Instead, murmurs started to rise from the crowds outside.

Beatrix strained to rise and peer out the tent. “Huh? Why did-”

Iclyn rose beside her, eyes narrowing. “Trouble!”

What at first appeared to be a storm cloud that eclipsed the moon soon became clear was a swarm of Mi-Go-infested changelings in the distance, ready to converge on the village.

“No time to waste,” the snow fawn said, summoning another cold shower to douse them both down. Beatrix shivered, dried off, then waved a hand to place their clothes back on. Then, conjuring Erebus in an inky cloud, she gathered Iclyn close and opened the flap where she floated down to the town square.

Several of their allies were scrambling to their positions, with more on the way once the warning horns sounded. Penumbra brandished his white scimitar to point at the blackened moon and announced, “The enemy will be here in an hour, at most. Prepare yourselves for a long siege. The Mi-Go won’t rest until we’re dead...or worse. Far worse. But stand united! We’ll outlast them all!”

“Well said,” snorted Moon Hammer, his blacksmith hammer resting over a broad shoulder. “Noncombatants! Take your places, so we can protect you.” His men helped herd the holstaurs away to shelter. When Moonlight stumbled up while pulling up her pants, he held out his hand. “Miss Moon, you shouldn’t-”

“Like hell I’m staying on the sidelines while you boys have all the fun,” the thestral barked back, a grin on her face. “Better believe I’ll be fighting beside you!”

“As will I!” Cerise said, landing beside him while adjusting her top from quickly changing back to her normal attire. “I can form a barrier around the village!”

“Best to save it, sister,” Penumbra suggested. “Those crystal constructs fade after a time. It also drains you to maintain them.”

“O-okay,” she pouted before slipping beside Moonlight, who handed her herd mate some light armor to adorn. Small pieces that wouldn’t interfere much with her movements.

A cosmic black cloud dissolved once Beatrix and Iclyn entered the scene. “Where's everyone else?”

“Arcanum is still working on that ritual,” Moon Hammer answered. “The ‘maid’ is assisting Deinos with creating a cure for Midnight's and Shining’s condition. The former commander is under watch by my most trusted warriors, while my wives are tucked away with the non-combatants. And...oh! Almost forgot!” The bull-man approached his cart and shuffled through what his men had delivered in a clatter of metal, his snout split in a smirk.

Moonlight sucked in a breath. “Is-is that...?”

“Yep. Tuned up and ready for battle. Same for you, Penny.” The minotaur unveiled a slab where the newly refined bat wing constructs, somewhere between the cybernetic and magical ones he fused, a beautiful clockwork mechanism that shimmered under the moon's kiss. Likewise, a meticulously crafted metal arm rested
on display. “They should snap right into place and bond to your bodies. Go ahead, try them on.”

Wetness filled Moonlight's eyes when Cerise helped her place the wings into the scar slits on her back, and like he promised, the enchanted clockwork mechanisms melded with her flesh. Moonlight released something between a sharp cry of pain and a low moan, flexing her wingspan. “Th-they feel like my old wings...so sensitive,” she said with a blush as Cerise tenderly stroked them.

Penumbra discarded his false arm on the slab and slipped the mercury clockwork arm into place. He twisted it, flexed its fingers, and found it moved faster. Likewise, he squeezed the slab and lifted his brow once the metal cracked and bent.

“I've loaded the prosthetics down with weapons too,” explained Moon Hammer. “Darts hidden in the wings that can be tipped in poisons, like you specified. Tiny metallic bolts that can be fired at will from your mercury arm at a rapid pace, exactly what we may need to turn the tide.”

He smiled wider when Moonlight threw her arms around him and kissed his snout with tears. “Oh, thank you! Thank you so much! Can't wait to fly..!”

“You will soon,” he promised. Then he whispered, “And if you want to thank me later, you can always put on that maid costume again~.”

She held back a flirtatious giggle and nodded as one of his meaty hands squeezed one of her plush buttcheeks through her leather pants.

“My dear Lily should be pleased too,” snickered Penumbra, who found the silver hand could vibrate with a low hum under his will.

Cerise then asked, “What about our friends outside? Middy, Kitsune, and Kyube are still out there! Oh, and Equinox, I guess…”

She hated the marauder, especially after weaseling her way into her husband’s lap. But that didn’t mean she wanted her to die!

Penumbra said, “You were putting together a scouting party and supplies in an attempt to rescue them, weren't you Moon Hammer?”

“Don’t worry, I already sent them out,” the minotaur said, frowning. “But with the swarm between them, their chances aren't looking good. Nonetheless, I can't risk any more of my people.”

Grimly, Penumbra nodded. “They’ll have to try and make it on their own. Fortunately, relatively speaking of course, it appears the majority of the swarm is drawn this way. No doubt to try and claim the women here for the hive. Barbaric.”

“Leaving them out there was a mistake!” Cerise tightened her hold on her spear. “We should've-”

“Midnight and Equinox are loose cannons,” her brother reminded, wrapping his arms and plumage around his shaking sister. “The vulpines appear quite capable of looking after themselves, though I believe they're still hopeful the cosmic storm might send Chisana and Wispy Willow back to this dimension. No wonder they volunteered.”

“The cosmic interference did get pretty crazy there,” Lightning Spark added, recalling the powerful voltage her Onoma summoned. After a heavy meal, she had repaired her Wonderbolts-styled costume and taken up a spear of her own, all of them provided by the minotaur.

Everyone took their places, gates locked down on all sides of the village, and minotaur soldiers at the ready. Over the next hour, while they waited, a buzz started to become audible, carried on the wind while blackness swallowed up the moon…

White Shadow Penumbra's keen eye spotted the first changeling that closed in on the village. He flew to intercept it and, with his sword arm upraised, he chopped down and shouted, “Fire!”

Arrows whizzed from the ballista and archers, a hail of arrows slamming into the angry black cloud that buzzed in the distance. High-pitched screeches resonated through the skies as dozens of the invaders were impaled and left to spiral, discolored blood pouring down like oily rain.

But the pale pegasus assumed Queen Chrysalis sent her most disposable drones first. The real threats were yet to come. While the archers reloaded, the small number of casters stepped in to cover them, led by Beatrix and Iclyn, since magicians were all but nonexistent in this solitary villa. The skies lit up and screamed in a wave of mixed elements, launched from open palms.

Scorched and frozen corpses tumbled outside the walls. Holstaurs warded their young into shelter. For a moment, the area quieted down, until a scout with a telescope in hand rushed to Moon Hammer's side. “Another wave incoming!”

The minotaur nodded grimly and turned to Cerise. “Princess-!”

“Already on it!” She chirped, raising her arms, and erecting a wall of crystalline that enveloped a small radius around the villa, her features tensed in concentration. Beads of sweat formed and rolled down charcoal fur and skin as she worked.

“Remember not to exert yourself too much, sister!” warned Penumbra, who hovered above and fired a small spray of bolts. “Should you pass out, the barricade will crumble instantly-!”

“I know, I know! Quit babying me!” Cerise shouted it more sharply than intended, determined to prove to everyone else and herself how useful she could be. But the charcoal mare took heed of her brother’s caution, cognizant she couldn’t keep the crystal barricades up forever.

Half the swarm buzzed ahead and ended up trapped past the crystalline barrier, rendering them easy pickings for Moonlight and Lightning, who'd gone ahead with the ground troops to deal with any strays that breached their shield.

Bolts of electrical plasma hissed and popped each time they lit up the air as Lightning Spark called upon the power of Hebe, the arcane form of electromancy she had yet to master, but appeared to be bolstered by the cosmic storm. At her side, Moonlight's prosthetic wings launched rows of tiny darts tipped in toxins that thudded into the enemy's shiny obsidian exoskeletons.

The pair of mares left blurs behind them, able to zip at unbelievable speeds. A few strays escaped, and Penumbra sailed down after them, soon back-to-back with Moon Hammer, the minotaur's war hammer hefted to crush more drone skulls.

Like a white whirlwind, Penumbra's scimitar diced limbs from drones whenever he dive-bombed to aid Moon Hammer, the latter awash in insect chunks and ooze. The minotaur snorted at the foul odor left in their wake wherever they expired. “Yugh! This will take weeks to clean out,” he grumbled as slime sluiced down his armor, vein-line muscles tensed to deliver a fresh two-handed blow that smashed another invader.

“Occupational hazard,” mused Penumbra, his silver arm raised, whereupon it launched more metal bolts. Like a cloud of shrapnel, it tore apart the black carapace of a drone that shrieked and tumbled to the earth. Left to thrash in its slime, the swordsman marched forward and, with a precise stroke, removed its head to end its misery. “No casualties reported on our side...yet.”

“Good. Let's keep it that way!” Moon Hammer's muscles rippled, and with another swing of his weapon, he smashed a drone from the air and splatted the infected insect's innards across the raised podium Cerise had recently danced upon.

Underground, the land shook under the blasts of spells. Sediment drifted from the ceiling and left a dusty cloud around Deinos, who used his six limbs to furiously complete his experimental pill with what was on hand. No longer confined to a pony form meant he could work thrice as fast.

Marathyssa, still disguised as a crystal maid, held her hands over her ears. “This one can hear the pained screams of our brethren,” she whimpered. “The noise feels awful…and profoundly sad!”

“I know,” acknowledged the arachnomorph, brows furrowed with concentration. “But we must bear through this travesty if we’re to survive the night. Once Chrysalis has fallen, what remains of the hives will look to you as our future sovereign.”

“This one doesn’t feel ready…”

“You will be,” Deinos reassured, looking at her with hopeful red eyes. “Radiant Hope believed you were meant for greatness. And If any changeling was meant to liberate us, it would be you, a protoquen that never coveted power.”

Marathyssa held back her complaints and patiently watched her mutant friend mix around with his equipment, and shuffle chemical liquids around various flasks until eventually…

“Done!” he announced, the contents of his concoction funneled into a capsule. He examined the details with each of his six eyes. “With Midnight currently unavailable, Shining Armor will have to serve as our first test subject!”

Marathyssa accepted the pill with pursed lips. “This one knows he wishes to make amends. And to do so, he must have an opportunity to prove himself worthy of redemption.”

“Just be careful,” the spider changeling gently urged, stroking the crystal maid's prismatic cheek. “We can’t afford to lose you, protoquen.”

“You won’t,” she promised with a smile, curtsying before she rushed off to deliver the goods.

Likewise, Deinos wasn’t content to hide away here, aware that his people were condemned to death by the will of Chrysalis. A drone wasn't meant to question a queen, but blindly obey her whims. He clambered out of the darkness, away from the others locked in combat, and climbed the crystalline wall constructed around the land, where he perched and readied himself for battle.

Each of his four limbs transmuted into a weapon he assimilated into his biological structure. His horn lit up with slime-green energy, mandible jaw split apart to increase his intimidating visage.

Deinos greeted his kindred with a challenging roar, flinging web bolas to entangle aerial drones into each other. Others that flew close were met with sharp blades, fire, and superior strength. He ripped another infected bug in two and bashed its remains against the swarm like a pair of meat mallets.

The rogue changeling pulled out a tiny ball containing a small strand of hair he ‘borrowed’ off Lightning Spark. Clicking it, it began to glow rhythmically. Slow at first, before beckoning faster and faster. Deinos tossed it at the buzzing squadron before it exploded into rapid bolts of electricity, frying a large chunk of the invaders into ashes as their noises were swallowed up.

While pleased his experimental weapons were paying off, there were too many changelings. His eyes were drawn to a larger breed fluttering in. Not quite his size, but impressive nonetheless. They landed and scampered across the crystal dome. These Mi-Go bloated up like balloons, popped and melted themselves down in a spray of stomach acids, which started to melt the surface of the crystalline walls in drifts of steam. More and more of these creatures sacrificed themselves and turned their flesh into acidic bombs, which steadily ate into the shield and allowed some of their brethren to slip in, despite Cerise's efforts to heal the breaches. Snarling, Deinos broke the neck of a Mi-Go that passed his way and lept up to ward off the kamikazi drones.

There wouldn’t be time to disable them all, but he had to push through if it meant the survival of his species! Funneled into a small hole, it was a simple matter for the archers and casters to shoot them down...but the waves of zombified insectoids appeared endless at this point, a droning black mass that buzzed so furiously the crystalline walls themselves quaked. Cracks formed around the portions where acids ate into, and the entire structure threatened to collapse while a desperate Cerise continually reinforced it.

A shatter resounded when a portion of the wall crumbled. Glittery shards rained down, whereupon a flurry of Mi-Go hurled in. “Protect the women and children,” ordered Moon Hammer while he and Penumbra were flanked by his men and the clockwork bull sentinels. The sound off battle cries erupted as the troops strained to deal with invaders that attempted to sail past them and seek out more suitable prey.

All it would take is a moment, and a holstaurs or child could be eaten alive, contaminated, or worst of all zipped away to an incubation hive...

Shurikens and kunai hailed from above and thunked into the back of changeling skulls. Iclyn and Beatrix paused their spell slinging to spot the nine-tailed kunoichi sail into battle, said tails left to drift behind her until she landed. Kitsune’s face was drawn taut in focus, her eyes narrowed while she rained death upon the strays in an attempt to fend the insects off the locked-down homes.

With the last of her projectiles eventually spent, the vixen unsheathed her katana blade. An arc was left behind as, in a flash, she cleaved apart a couple of Mi-Go drones with measured strokes.

“Forgive me. I arrived too late,” she lamented, having failed to arrive before the storm hit.

“Nonsense,” replied Moon Hammer with a warm smirk. “You're just in time!”

“What happened to your partner?” Asked Penumbra.

“Kyube stayed behind to make sure Midnight and Equinox don’t escape their detention,” informed the vixen, who looked away and quietly added, “…I hope.”

“My men are heading to that area as we speak,” the blacksmith told her. “He’s given us the slip a handful of times. He’ll be alright.”

Kitsune held his words tightly before diving back into action; bushy tails whipped around her when she spun and diced up another Mi-Go. However, her eyes widened and her ears flattened when cannons sounded in the distance. “That’s-!!”

A scout ran in and reported, “Sir! Crystal Empire soldiers approaching twelve o’clock!!”

“Fiery Kickstart!” Penumbra presumed grimly as he lopped another changeling head with a swift thrust of his scimitar. "So he came after all!"

“Damn that fanatic!” growled Moon Hammer, another insect bashed into the dirt by his bloodied weapon. Cannonfire rippled across the crystal walls, and cracks spread further in the wake of the blast. “Bastard! He'll bring the whole barricade down! Don't tell me he plans to...!"”

“If he can't have the minotaur’s aid, he won’t risk leaving us alive when the resurgence is dealt with,” the pale pegasus cooly observed. “It’s likely he plans to raze the entire area. Scorched earth.”

Even Kitsune openly balked at this. “Genocide?!”

“A calculated risk,” confirmed Penumbra, able to understand his enemy's barbaric tactics. “Anything and everyone he can’t use to win this war is considered either a liability or an enemy. Especially when the Mi-Go can use your bodies to spread its influence and fill their ranks...”

“Not gonna happen,'” yelled Moon Hammer. “Not while I can still draw breath!”

Penumbra nodded, then proposed, “Then we'll have to split off to block out the Crystal Empire's forces. Beatrix, Iclyn,” he called over the crowds to catch their attention. “Support Cerise and deal with the swarm here! Kitsune, watch their backs!”

“Understood,” replied the cyber kunoichi, cleaning the bloodied blade in hand. She helped cover Penumbra, Moon Hammer, and his men while a portion of their forces split up to go deal with Fiery's army approach. Fortunately, the acid-eaten portion of the crystal barricade worked in their favor and allowed a sizable portion of the defense numbers to split out the villa unimpeded.

Another blast shook the land. One of the acid-eaten minotaur-shaped sentinels toppled with a clunk, ruined beyond any hope of repair.

“One guardian down,” lamented Kitsune. She weaved from foe to foe and dispatched them with haste. But sheer numbers threatened to overwhelm them, since more Mi-Go were able to swarm in, their defense squads further divided. Even with some of her awakened Yokai abilities, it proved to be a more of a hurdle than anticipated.

More perspiration pooled down the charcoal princess, who huffed and kept her trembling arms raised as Cerise strained to patch each new hole. For a moment she swayed on her feet, eyes half-closed, but snapped herself back to awareness. Everyone inside her construct would pay the price if she fell! She couldn't bear to let down that many people who depended on her!

Beatrix and Iclyn were equally fatigued, launching flurries of spells and icicle-shaped shrapnels at every bug-eyed abomination that spilled in, yet it appeared there was no end of the Mi-Go swarm…

The one upside was that Fiery's cannons didn't discriminate, scores of Mi-Go also reduced to char and ash each time they bucked and fired...

*****

Seated naked in her pool with the mushroom Mi-Go situated on the shore, Chrysalis telepathically directed her infected minions through the invasion. An eerie emerald glow reflected over the queen's moist curves, mycelium connecting to her spine while strips of light traveled between her and the eldritch fungus. The hivemind were all extensions of her will, ready to fight and die for their queen's pleasure. But Chrysalis strained to make each drone enact a solitary will, now forced to divide her attention, and whenever she did so the drones resorted to pure instinct.

“Blasted Fiery Kickstart and his battalion,” she hissed under her breath, feeling more zombified consciousnesses diminish under cannon fire.

A three-way battle was set to erupt between the minotaurs, Fiery's army, and her swarm, which she hoped would be able to claim the villa's voluptuous sow inhabitants. To think how powerful mixed holstaurs and changeling broods would prove! But were it all burnt to ashes...

The hushed, whispery chants of cultists reverberated a few paces away. The cloaked and hooded acolytes appeared to float around the crystal coffin while they invoked an ancient ritual. Ethereal energies funneled into the relic, which glowed and started to throb in a heartbeat-like pattern. Finally, their words came to an end and the shift of the casket stopped abruptly.

Chrysalis paused her work and furrowed her brow. “....that's it? You promised-”

“Patience,” answered a deep but hushed, disembodied voice. Then, black smoke blossomed from the coffin's shiny surface, which cracked in answer, and like an evil genie released from a cursed lamp its dark prisoner escaped.

The darkness struggled to take shape before settling on a nude, well-built stallion. The resurrected King Sombra was reduced to his umbral form after his demise, coughing hoarsely when he took in his first strained breaths.

“Finally!” snapped Chrysalis, who waded onto land and attempted to touch him, a slick trail left behind her stride. “You have returned to me~!”

Her smile diminished when her hand phased through his chiseledchest, earning a scoff from her dark paramour. “Not fully, it would seem.”

Chrysalis directed her anger to the cult spokesman. “What treachery is this? He walks the earth again, and yet I can’t touch him!”

“The ritual worked as intended,” Vox insisted, unmoved by her. “We have liberated Sombra’s soul from damnation as promised. How he returns to physical form is entirely up to you.”

“You two-faced-”

Her insult was cut off by the sound of Sombra’s wicked chuckle. “Serves you right for relying on lesser unicorns for my resurrection!”

“Don't you dare laugh at me,” she warned amidst a shrill hiss, her snout twisted in sheer spite. “I brought you back from beyond the grave, and I can easily send you back to the abyss!”

“That would be unfortunate for both of us,” mused the umbrum unicorn, who leered in appreciation at the queen’s voluptuous nakedness, fangs visible when he smirked and licked his chops. “Surely, it won't be too much trouble to find me a suitable body. My powers are limited as a specter, so if you be so kind…~”

Rolling her eyes, Chrysalis called, “III!” The boy toy in question scuttled into the rocky chambers, denuded to male perfection. “Take on Sombra’s shape!” The drone bowed and in a green flash reformed into a perfect copy of the dark tyrant.

Sombra grinned ear to ear while his deep voice slithered, “Yessss… This will do!”

The umbral apparition floated over number III until it lined up with the drone perfectly, then took possession of the bare masculine flesh. For a moment the boy toy settled as if asleep, then snapped open eyes that glowed with energy. Sombra roared with triumphant laughter.

“At last! Warmth, Blood, Flesh, Bone!!” He rolled his neck and cracked his limbs. “This calls for a celebration, won’t you agree, my dear~?” He approached Chrysalis, rested a hand on her wide hip and the other around her waist to pull her in.

“What do you think you’re-oohm~!” Her protestations were snuffed out when he crushed his lips to hers, shapely breasts squished upon his chiseled pecs. He slid his hand low, hovering it over the slope of her supple ass, his ebony cock erecting from its sheath and dragged across her tummy. She returned his hungry kisses as their tongues wrestled for dominance and their hands wandered. Finally, Chrysalis withdrew her mouth, still connected by strings of saliva when she blushed and huffed. “Ravenous, aren’t we~?”

“Years of eternal slumber have left me with quite an appetite...how long have I been entombed?” However, before the queen could answer, Sombra's flesh started to squirm in her hold. “What the...ack!” He howled in unspeakable pain and pulled away from her, feeling the skinsuit he wore resist his dark presence like he was a virus it needed to expel. “Ach, it hurts! Why does everything hurt?! Gaaaaugh!!” He clutched his rattled skull, which creaked like it would burst.

Chrysalis yelped and raised her arms to cover herself when number III's body popped like a balloon. Ruptured flesh, exoskeleton chunks, and stinky ooze splattered her, the cultists, and the rock walls around them. She glared down at the umbral unicorn. “Uugh! Look at what you’ve done! Another of my precious harem wasted, and for what? And besides that, I'll need a fresh bath!”

The spectral stallion grumbled. “Oh, like you don't routinely throw them away on a whim!”

“Do you know how many weeks it takes to create just one,” the crooked monarch hissed. “How much of my energy their births take?! The pain and humiliation I endure to create my minions!”

Usually, she kept a rotation of sixteen perfected males and four females in her harem, trained solely to fulfill their queen's every sordid desire.

Sombra brushed aside her imperious rants. “And yet none of them are suited to harboring my unmatched power. If I am to win this war-”

“You require a suitable vessel,” answered an ominous voice. The royal couple turned their heads as the Cult of the Nemesis parted to the sides, allowing a new robed figure to enter the cavern. Shadows twisted to conceal his face, but his malevolent eyes gleamed through and his snout was just visible to show a small smile.

“One who shares your cursed bloodline,” the entity continued. “And fortunately for you, such a candidate awaits you on the battlefield.”

Sombra raised a skeptical eyebrow. “And who are you supposed to be?”

“Who I am is not important to you,” he stated.

But Chrysalis knew better. She recognized this twisted pressure, eyes widening and hair standing on end. This was the unknowable thing that used Flurry Heart as its mouthpiece, before turning her last fleeting moments of awareness into agony. The one who turned the poor alicorn into the unicorn cursed wand she now wielded.

He was the anomaly the cultists now followed. Their so-called 'God of the Quiet Mind'.

“All you need to know,” he continued. “Is that without me, you wouldn’t be here, dwindling in the twilight of existence like a skulking ghost. For that reason, my dear tyrant, I command your respect.”

“No one commands me,” Sombra sneered with bared teeth, insulted by this enigmatic hack’s declaration. “I am the rightful ruler of the Crystal Empire! King of all Equestrians! I will not bow before a wannabe messiah!”

He then formed an angry grin, tensing his phantasmagorical body. “However, as thanks for returning me to the mortal plane, you will have the honor of hosting my immortal soul!”

Chrysalis hitched her breath, reaching and crying out, “Sombra, wait! Don’t-”

But he ignored her and rushed at the hidden figure with mad laughter. The smile on the anomaly’s face widened as he opened his arms in a welcoming gesture. The phantom phased through his chest, preparing to fully possess the arrogant bastard…

But nothing happened. Silence hung in the air until Sombra’s whimpering voice came out of the anomaly’s mouth.

“Wh-what is this? Everything feels… wrong! Why aren’t I..?!”

Then he began wailing in more excruciating pain, clutching at his head. The mind-rotting experience Sombra’s soul was going through forced the body down to his knees, yet no angle of light revealed the creature’s face as Chrysalis tried to peer through the darkness.

The queen shrieked in alarm when he raised his face, that same tar-like substance oozing out of his unblinking pale eyes. Laughter rumbled out throughout the tunnel that wasn’t the tyrant unicorn’s.

“ꅐꁝꋬ꓄’ꇙ ꅐꋪꄲꋊꍌ, ꇙꄲꂵꃳꋪꋬ?” The entity asked mockingly. “꒯ꄲꋊ’꓄ ꌦꄲ꒤ ꒒꒐ꀘꏂ ꌦꄲ꒤ꋪ ꋊꏂꅐ ꁝꄲꂵꏂ~?”

His head distorted, one half splitting apart, expressing pure terror.

“꓄ꁝ꒐ꇙ ꒐ꇙ ꅐꁝꋬ꓄ ꌦꄲ꒤ ꅐꋬꋊ꓄ꏂ꒯! ꋬ ꃳꋪꋬꋊ꒯ ꋊꏂꅐ ꃳꄲ꒯ꌦ ꓄ꄲ ꓄ꏂꋬꉔꁝ ꋬ꒒꒒ ꅐꁝꄲ ꄲꉣꉣꄲꇙꏂ ꌦꄲ꒤ ꋬ ꋊꏂꅐ ꒤ꋊ꒯ꏂꋪꇙ꓄ꋬꋊ꒯꒐ꋊꍌ ꄲꊰ ꀰꂑꂦ꒒ꈼꋊꀯꈼ!”

“N-not this! I don’t want this! Please, stop! I’ll do anything! Anything!!”

“…ꋬꋊꌦ꓄ꁝ꒐ꋊꍌ?”

“Yes! Just let me out! LET ME OUT!!”

At the snap of his finger, reality fizzled into brief static, events of the last few minutes moving in reverse until Sombra’s incorporeal form collapsed into the earth. The figure lurking in the shadows returned to his previous posture, telling him, "... I thought as much."

Chrysalis held her own head, an irritating ache in her skull. Faint white noise rang in her ears. “Auugh… what’s going on?” she murmured, blinking her eyes while observing her dark paramour lift himself on shaky limbs. “Huh?! What happened to you?”

Sombra couldn’t aid the changeling’s lapse in memory, utterly petrified by the things he saw while infiltrating the unknowable fiend’s body, muttering them to the best of his comprehension.

“Eyeballs opened and smiled at me… mountains falling through the clouds while rain ascended the ground… the darkness should have obeyed me..!”

“Not anymore,” the cult leader stated coldly. “You’ve been gone for so long; the shadows have forsaken you. Now, they belong to me. And I plan to unleash them upon this wretched place.”

He looked up at the towering figure with uneasy eyes. “J-Just what are you…?!”

A grin much too large for his face stretched through the dark veil, revealing sharp teeth as he vaguely answered, “A disheartened remnant of what once was… and the one you really need to fear.”

Sombra cast his hundred-yard stare to the ground, his confidence and pride completely shattered. Slowly, he took to Chrysalis’ side, the queen herself equally disturbed by how swiftly her consort was brought in line by the Cult of the Nemesis and their nefarious leader.

“As I was saying before you so rudely interrupted,” the entity resumed. “Your perfect host body awaits you at the minotaur ville. You will accompany me there in secret.” His head turned to red-hooded acolytes listening behind. “Then, when I give the signal, all of you shall join their efforts to win the battle without question.” They nodded simultaneously. When he motioned for the stallion, Sombra hesitantly complied with a sour visage. He cast his scarlet glare on the infected monarch. “Return to your pool and press the assault. We will be there momentarily.”

Chrysalis withheld her petulant anger before turning around to walk back into her chamber. But not before hissing, “He better have a body when he gets back!”

The nightmarish figure grinned slyly at the feeble threat as his cultists ushered the umbral wraith into the enshrouded darkness. Suddenly, his crown of thorns lit up to transmit another ominous signal, causing him to shudder and groan.

“Another vision?” Vox questioned.

“Yes,” replied the anomaly, mentally reading the images he foresaw before putting the pieces together. “Walls refracting memories. An endless maze? Shadows dancing in a—”

His eyes widened, realizing the dream’s meaning and his face cracked into a smile.

“Ahah… so that’s who threatens to hinder my sleep~!”

*****

Flames crackled around Fiery Kickstart's blade and left a blaze in his wake each time he slashed. He led his army from the front, shaken by the trick with the corpse of 'Snowy Blizzard'. The mustard stallion would take to the skies soon afterward and raced to seek out his forces, convinced they would fail without his aid.

No, they needed to succeed in their mission, whatever it cost the burn-scarred commander!

Embers popped off his saber, drones or minotaurs not spared the taste of heated steel. A clockwork sentinel that barred his way was soon left a smelted, steamy pool that hardened over the earth, after Fiery sliced his way past an acid-eaten hole in the barrier and into the villa.

On his way in he'd passed his wives, Chezka and Panna, the amazonian centaur and fawn, clearly hesitant when they crossed paths with Penumbra and Moon Hammer. Despite their fierceness as female warriors, it was clear to him they utterly lacked their husband’s ruthless convictions.

Rather than stay to watch, his attention was instead on the former supreme commander, as rumors claimed he'd been spotted around the time Moon Hammer's caravan disappeared. On his way inside, he scanned every tent and shelter the coward could have possibly hidden away in!

That’s when he noticed a duo of armed minotaurs standing around a thick post. Tied to said post was Shining Armor in plain clothes, an inhibitor ring around his unicorn horn to nullify his magic, which he dared not channel lest the buildup of magic risked immense pain or potentially death. The rest of Fiery’s surroundings blurred when he marched towards the prisoner post, solely focused entirely on his most hated enemy.

“Halt,” warned one of the minotaurs at the mustard stallion's approach, wide hands on an axe. “Step no further, Kickstart!”

“Out of the way, cattle!” the pegasus yelled back, who flew at the minotaurs, his flame sword upraised. He moved with such speed a fiery trail was left behind him. The first minotaur's belly opened and blackened under his hellish slash.

His comrade had hesitated to intrude on what he believed would be a duel...only to find it was over sooner than expected. Once more, the proud bull warrior hesitated to attack the intruder from behind...only to vomit up blood as the flame sword pierced his muscled torso in a second.

“You lack… honor,” the minotaur spat with a dying breath before fully immolating, his charred body tumbling at the swordsman's thick boots.

“Yet the winner takes all,” huffed Fiery, fully convinced the ends would justify his actions. Once more his heated glare met the cool stare of the bound paladin. A smirk twisted the unburned side of his mustard face. “I’m surprised they didn’t mount your head on a spike, given you’re the most loathed stallion in all of Equestria.”

“I’m not the one burning every bridge to whatever allies we have left,” Shining scoffed, the air filled with a reek of cooked meat and a crackle of fire.

“It was only a matter of time, really,” rebutted Fiery as his broadsword blazed amidst embers. “Peace has to be enforced if you want shit done. It’s a hard truth; one you refused to accept.”

“Thunder and Snowy would have never accepted thi-”

“Keep those names out of your fucking mouth!!” Fiery said irate, cutting him off with a hard fist to the cheek, bloodying the unicorn’s snout with a sharp crack. “You don’t get to say that after you lead them to their deaths!!”

Shining spat out a tooth, crimson staining his teeth and lips. “If I could take back that one night, I would,” he confessed, rendered solemn. “I loved her. With all my heart. And I know you did, too.”

Fiery stared blankly with dilated pupils, his sword upraised and reignited to a full blaze. “I would choose your last words wisely, old friend…”

Shining Armor chuckled at his well-earned fate. “You wanna talk about reputation? Yeah, I sullied mine. The moment Cadence and Flurry Heart were taken away from me, I went down a path of despair no man could ever return from. I nearly doomed those under my leadership. Doomed every relationship I had left. But if you think anyone will overlook the slaughter of these poor holstaurs and their children just to gain an edge against the swarm? Then the years of war have made you more deranged than I am. I’ll be forever seen as a fallen hero. But you’ll be remembered as the wrathful tyrant who set his foundations ablaze. A burning king!”

Fiery refused to show emotion, but his adversary could tell by the way his clenched hand trembled he was doing his damnedest to hold back all his bottled up rage. With a sharp inhale, he lifted his molten blade up to behead him...only to upturn and knock aside an arrow thudded at his head.

He glared at the lone prismatic crystal maid, a crossbow in her hands. “Lay down your arms, little girl. You have no business carrying that weapon, let alone worthy to stand in my way.”

“You seek to annihilate this one’s race,” she rebutted bravely, another arrow readied. “It’s already her business! Now leave him alone!”

The paladin panicked. “Mara, no!”

“'This one?' Wait… it can’t be!” Realization dawned even before the prismatic crystal maid vanished in a flash, and Marathyssa revealed her true moth-like form. “The protoquen,” Fiery snarled in disbelief. “How did you escape?!”

The mustard pegasus took flight when she fired off another bolt that partially pierced his armor and burrowed into the flesh of his gut. Grunts rose from Fiery, who flew at the protoquen while she fumbled to reload the weapon and slammed a mailed fist into her cheek with a violent crack.

“Marathyssa!” The paladin kicked and squirmed, helpless to do more than feebly watch as Fiery resheathed his weapon to rain blows down on the protoquen. The exoskeleton cracked and splattered them in colorless blood, the supreme commander making an example out of another that dared defy his will. She whimpered and tried to block her face, nearly beaten into a stupor as crunches sounded under his strikes.

Fiery pulled back a bruised fist, pressing his boot on the changeling’s face. “Still too valuable to kill you just yet. Be thankful that I only cripple you!”

“P-please… it hurts,” pleaded Marathyssa, runny eyes milky as her exoskeleton threatened to split fully open. She quivered and curled up into a ball, this portion of the villa eerily quiet save for the dim crackle of flames and battle in the distance.

“Don't you worry,” the pegasus seethed over the battered protoquen. “You’ll be heading back to your cell, where you can spend the rest of your miserable life popping out hyper soldiers until I—”

A burst of flame exploded behind Fiery, who drew out his sword in a red arc to block the sudden assault. A makeshift flamethrower wielded by Deinos spat hellish death, matched by a blaze that burned hotter by the moment, cast by a broadsword that drew on its wielder's power.

They shoved each other away, the spider-like changeling standing before Mara protectively. Fiery slid to a stop and rubbed his shoulder. “Tsk. So you’ve decided to show your ugly face here as well, Webs?” Shining Armor blinked, staring at the mutant monster with perplexion, while Deinos’ face hardened. Fiery smirked. “That’s right. I figured out your little secret well before your ‘death’. Found it odd that for every report of the rogue changeling, you were never present.”

“Everyone’s got something to hide,” the arachnomorph chittered, analyzing his fire sword. “Those flames. They aren’t natural, are they?”

The mustard stallion chuckled and ran his hand over the immolation until he wielded a flicker ball in his palm, unscorched. “Nothing gets by you!”

Marathyssa gasped. “But isn’t that..?!”

Deinos nodded. “The same mysterious magic Beatrix, Iclyn, and Lightning Spark possess. His Onoma!”

“So there’s a name for this, huh,” he noted, balling up his mailed fist in fire. “I’ve been using this little trick ever since Shining took charge of the operation. Wasn’t aware others could tap into it as well. Not that it matters!” The mustard stallion unfurled his wings and retook his stance, a vermillion pyre burning brightly in his wake. “This awesome power will prove the key to victory!”

Deinos lunged at Fiery with a war shriek, locked in desperate combat while a half-conscious Marathyssa crawled towards the post, a bloody trail left in her wake. A limb shook to recover a discarded arrow, its head used to cut the ropes that bound the alabaster unicorn. For a moment, Shining Armor considered whether he should render aid to Deinos...then decided he would be in the way. Instead, he almost stumbled on his new prosthetic leg while he helped Marathyssa lean on him, then shuffled away with her to seek shelter while the two combatants were deadlocked in attempts to butcher each other.

*****

By now, the crystalline walls threatened to buckle, hammered by cannon-fire that pummeled the cracks. Lightning strained to direct her arcane bolts at her targets, which crackled in a flash across the air, her mane and fur stood on end.

“Whoa! Take it easy, spark plug,” warned Moonlight, almost hit by a stray bolt that her combat partner called down from the stormy sky overhead. Likewise, more zaps nearly hit the soldiers below, and electricity crackled across the earth when its wielder struggled to properly conjure her Onoma, especially under pressure.

“Naagh! I-I can't control it!” Lightning Spark tried to redirect the blasts, her mane and fur on end in under static. “I need to get farther away! Maybe I can meet back with Kyube and secure Midnight!”

“Lightning, you can't! That’s deserting the battle!”

“I don’t care; I’m not a fighter like you, remember! And I won’t abandon my twin brother!” She zipped off in an electric blue blur.

“W-wait...!” Yet the former cadet was ignored as the electrical pegasus sped away. Groaning, Moonlight pushed her newly attached prosthetics to the limit and almost kept pace, despite her lead. The labyrinth of trees rushed by them.

The moment Lightning zipped to an abrupt stop, het eyes widened, cheeks ballooned, and face turned green once she violently threw up the heavy meal she'd eaten before the battle. While Hebe’s power allowed her to move faster than before, it was untrained for such punishment, like her body, which still needed proper rest and recovery after her extensive imprisonment.

“See what happens when you get ahead of yourself?” Moonlight lightly scolded, hovering at her side with a tsk and shake of her head.

“Y-yeah, sorry… just thought I saw-”

“Lightning!” Their heads lifted to see her armored twin soar up, a look of relief on his face.

“Middy!” She squealed when squeezed in her brother’s arms. “You're okay!”

Midnight let go and turned to his childhood friend, who grimaced at the mere sight of him. “M-Moonie, I—“

“Don’t,” the bat mare sneered. “You have some nerve talking to me like nothing happened!”

The pegasus knight lowered his head and sheepishly replied, “I know. I’ve made a lot of mistakes and hurt both you and Cerise. B-but hey! At least your wings are-”

“Hurt doesn’t even begin to describe how I feel,” Moonlight lashed out, teary eyed. “I’ve suffered through more bullshit and abuse than you could possibly imagine. And what’s worse? I had no one but Moon Hammer and Marathyssa to rely on there, after my ordeal with your dad.”

Midnight winched at the mention of the bull blacksmith, recalling his dream. “I-I’m sorry, really! I should have been better than—“

“But you weren’t!” Exclaimed the distraught batmare. “No. Instead, you were fucking around with other mares to supplant your needs without thinking or considering us. We were your herd..!”

A tight lump appeared in his throat. “‘Were’?!”

“Don’t act so surprised, Middy,” Moonlight dryly stated. “If I truly meant that much to you, you would have restrained yourself. Maybe then you wouldn’t have worn away so rapidly…”

“Moonie, c’mon,” Lightning said at her twin's side, crestfallen. “We’re in the middle of an all-out war for survival! This really isn’t the time to—“

“You’re right,” said the teal-maned batmare. “Which is why I’m letting him know where I stand.” Her yellow eyes pierced into Midnight’s watery green orbs. “As far as I'm concerned, my best friend is dead. And I have to move on…”

“Moonie, please,” he pleaded. “Don’t do this! We can talk this out!! Give me one last chance-”

“Quit wasting your breath on that lousy cunt!” Everyone’s shoulders tensed when Equinox whirled up behind Midnight, a sharp grin emblazoned on her face. “She’s made her choice, as did you. It's not your fault the little bitch doesn’t know how to ride a dick properly~.”

Moonlight growled and started to form a sharp response, then shook her head. “You’re not worth it…”

“See? Doesn’t even have the stones to fight back!”

“Enough!” Lightning cut off, sparks crackling around her wild mane and wings. “We don't have time for this crud! It's not safe out here!” Another cannon blast shook the air with such violence the fliers were almost thrown to the ground, a reminder of what was at stake. She continued, “There are so many enemies all around us! Chrysalis, Fiery's army, this supposed cult… we have to deal with the real enemy before-”

Equinox sped forward in the middle of her pleas and punched her in the gut. Under the impact, Lightning doubled over and sputtered, almost falling before Moonlight raced in and caught her.

Midnight was livid. “Hey! That wasn’t called for!!”

“She’s a traitor!” Equinox accused, flexing her knuckles. “You saw with your own eyes the way she willingly gave herself to that beast! Probably knocked the bitch up! She’s with the enemy!”

“She’s my twin sister!!”

“Tough shit, snowflake! There’s probably a maggot growing inside her belly as we speak! I’m doing myself a favor by-haguh!?”

She didn’t get to continue her point when Moonlight raced to counter the unprovoked attack. “I’m sick of your shit, you pirate-eyed whore!” She bellowed, ejecting venom darts from their cartridges in her prosthetic wings and replacing them with paralysis rounds, which she hurled at Equinox, only for the war band raider to loop behind a tree to take cover from them.

Equinox cackled. “Finally airborne and you're still crippled! Keep whining over the fact I fucked your man better than you ever could~!”

While the thestrals sparred with each other, Midnight fluttered over to check on his twin, who regurgitated more stomach juice. “Are you okay?!”

“I’ll… mmngh… be fine,” Lighting assured weakly, her electrical energy dimming down. “Just… need a breather before I get that bitch!”

“I'm so sorry, sis. This is all my fault…” He looked to see the mayhem below, the dying screams of minotaur soldiers and changelings alike. That’s when he spotted the crystal barrier, recognizing Cerise’s geomancy. “…I have to make things right!”

With a flap of his mighty wings, Midnight flew in a blitz towards the burning, smoking village, convinced Moonlight could handle herself and his twin with her new prosthetics…he'd make it up to them later. That, and everything else. For now, he needed to reach his wife!

“Brother, wait!!” Lightning yelled after him, yet winched at the ache in her body. While her Onoma had settled, the after effects proved too taxing on her undernourished form. There was no way she could catch up to him in this state!

Past the battlefield outside the villa below, Midnight weaved between the tree trunks, oblivious to Moon Hammer's and Penumbra's skirmish with Fiery's squadron, led by Chezka and Panna. Holes were punched into the crystal wall, swarmed by more fungi-warped changelings. But he ignored them for the moment, his keen eye focused on finding Cerise somewhere up ahead.

Penumbra, however, noticed his brother-in-law speed over his head and glowered. “Moon Hammer,” he called to the minotaur that battled behind him, the clash of steel heavy in his ears while he unloaded more bolts. “Looks like Midnight escaped his confines. I’ll take care of him. Can you handle the situation from here?”

“No sweat! Leave it to me!” Moon Hammer's weapon battered the shield of a trooper.

Chezka, who'd held back from fatal blows up to this point, nonetheless drew back her bow with muscled arms, the centaur adorned by armor across her toned body, her face adorned in war paint below her wavy white ponytail. “Halt!”

Panna, the fawn that instead wore only light armor, held twin curved knives in both hands. She threw and slashed with them, more hidden within her clothes, but she also resisted the deliverance of death blows. “By Amazon code, we must honor our small debt to you, Moon Hammer! Stand down! Please~!” She pleaded with him, only to be knocked down by Penumbra.

“Forgive me,” the pale pegasus said as the Amazonian fawn crumpled at his feet. Not once did he commit such an underhanded tactic...but the life of his sister was now at stake if her berserker of a husband was searching for her!

Guilt weighed his conscience, aware he and his brother, Ashen Dunes, had babied her for too long. Because they hadn’t taken her seriously, Cerise was now obsessed with proving her worth, pushing herself beyond her limits!

While the fabled 'White Shadow' raced ahead, the battle continued behind him, Chezka and Moon Hammer locked in a standoff with her nocked arrow poised to strike the minotaur's heart, bloodied flesh exposed since his armor tore...

*****

At first, Cerise had been able to control the manifestation of her crystals, fighting the strain on her body. But then it had started to spiral out of control, a labyrinth instead of a wall formed around the radius of the villa. She assumed it was a sideffect from the cosmic storm, like it had bolstered her sister-in-law's Onoma powers!

But then, Cerise witnessed a calf end up separated from her bovine mother and run off to pursue the child… only to end up trapped in a maze of her own unintended making!

Despite her attempts to mentally banish the reflective crystal walls, they refused to disperse. Moreover, the princess found herself in an unusually long corridor. “Wait… something isn’t right,” she whispered to herself. “I feel like I’ve been through this before. Are my eyes playing tricks? Did that mother and child even really exist...?”

It didn’t help that nothing but darkness loomed above and ahead, closing her into this confined space. The dancer stopped her running to explore the maze more cautiously. Panic tightened around her neck like a noose. How did she get so lost..?

No. Much like her life, she needed to move forward without fear.

With a deep breath, Cerise reached out a palm to touch the wall, which lit up under contact. The dimmed crystals relit to guide her way. Was someone helping her...? Or leading her into a trap…?

This setting painfully reminded Cerise of her initial interactions with the Vice Lord, Doppia. The spiteful creature who'd possessed Rhenaes' body before stealing her own. If not for their teamwork, they might have never gotten free!

“I wish you were here with me, Rhenaes! I hope you're okay..!”

As if in answer, one of the walls glitched with static before playing a familiar scene within its crystal, drawing the princess towards it.

“Huh? That’s…”

It was a depiction of her father, King Sombra, and she blushed from head to toe, his naked glory on full display. Then Cerise saw herself reflected in the crystalline, also sans clothes, where her father sat on his throne, pulled her into his lap, and met her lips when he entered her. The pair of them made love, much to her disgust.

“N-no! Stop, this isn’t funny,” she cried, “I don't want to see this perversion! That was long ago!!”

Another wall pulled her attention when it shimmered to life. And her horrified gaze widened upon seeing herself at the mercy of Zeloph, the angel's heavenly sword pointed at her, a callous smile on his lips. The skies of her desert world were set ablaze, giant abominations stomping around, trampling her beautiful city and its people under thunderous footsteps.

Bitter tears leaked down her face, teeth clenched. She'd never been able to forget how many of her people perished by his hand! How the fallen one manipulated her father! Hurt her mother! Slain so many of her people! It didn’t matter to her how much he had changed on his path of redemption. He could never hope to wash away all his sins!

Wherever she looked, more scenes played out on the walls, depicting many of her shortcomings in life. Her fight with Beatrix in the tundra, losing to Doppia, and even her recent arguments concerning Midnight and his dwindling health.

And then there were scenarios that hadn't come to fruition. Alternate timelines? Possibilities? Her face burned once more, seeing her brother Penumbra and his soldiers crowded around a campfire under a starry night, wine tipped over her supple naked flesh when the males took her over and over. The princess left to squirm and squeal while they brought her to repeated climax.

Incest wasn't uncommon in their ancient royal bloodlines...but it wasn't something she ever intended to indulge in! Not since the darkness Zeloph once unleashed manipulated her and Sombra, which drove them to make love...

Cerise tried to run before hitting a crystalline pillar, depicting another scenario that filled her heart with ache. At first, she thought it was showing one of Midnight’s depraved dreams… except she recognized it as her own!

This was the terrible nightmare she suffered during their respite at that strange house. In it, the charcoal princess was chained to a stripper pole, forced to dance while watching her husband bounce Equinox’s firm hips in his lap, forcing every fat inch of his turgid tool into the marauder’s breeding hole.

Cerise cried for Midnight, pleading for him to stop and help her. But he ignored her pained cries, focused solely on his passion with the one-eyed thestral, who mewled and cackled in elation.

“You had your chance, slut,” Equinox taunted when Midnight draped her on the platform, sucking on her heavy tits that jiggle with every thrust. Her eye was pitch black, gunk dripping out the socket. “Could have been a real queen if you’d have let Middy breed your worthless cunt. But honestly? Being a cuckquean suits you just fine~!”

“N-no, stop!” Cerise sniffled, bashing her fists against the crystal. “That isn’t true! I’m not-!!”

“N’aww, poor baby,” the dream apparition pouted mockingly. “Feeling left out? Don’t worry. You can bear that brute’s children instead~!”

Her head snapped at the rhythmic slapping of hips behind her. Her eyes dilated upon spotting a monstrous bulky Midnight pulverizing Moonlight, who looked brain dead and grotesquely stretched, veins left to throb over stretched skin.

After the pegasus hulk finished inside the limp batmare, his unblinking stare found Cerise’s frightened gaze. He uncorked his gargantuan horse cock free, pulling out Moonlight’s stretched vaginal walls in the process. He then approached his next lay while stroking his wet meat.

Feebly, she screamed at this monstrous variant to stop, trying to kick and squirm when he slapped his pulsating dick against her puny entrance. Cerise physically flinched when he hit her flank.

And no matter how tightly she closed her eyes, the image of herself crying with agony as her husband forced his way in and recklessly pounded her pussy to a pulp burned in her psyche...not unlike the day when Doppia had controlled the hyper-stallion, forced him on her.

‘Look, at you, sniveling like a baby,’ Iclyn’s snide voice echoed within her mind. ‘You’re nothing but a selfish, spoiled brat!’

‘You’re the reason Midnight no longer loves me,’ spat Moonlight. ‘It’s because of you we’re no longer a herd! You stole what's mine!/i]’

“No!! Stop it!!”

‘I should be with Oona right now,’ Beatrix’s sour tone rang inside her ears. ‘But instead, I’m stuck doing your labor on some dull, backwater world. I thought we were friends…’

'You're the weakest link in our family,' Penumbra's barritone beckoned. 'You'll never amount to anything!'

‘YOU MADE ME LIKE THIS,’ Midnight’s bellow snapped. ‘YOU! MADE!! ME!!!'

She manifested her amethyst spear in hand before surging the blade forward, bawling,

“STOOOOOOOOOOOPPP!!!”

The pillar shattered into pieces, dissolving the horrible scene. Cerise fell to her knees, pouring out her anguish for everything that had happened. She could still hear the voices of her loved ones and colleagues tormenting her for being such a weakling.

It sounded believable. Felt real… but was it?

Despite how heavily sorrow weighed her down, Cerise managed to stand back up, eyes opening once she wiped away her tears. Her brows furrowed, her soulful eyes bright with fury.

“None of this is real,” she deduced with a firm voice. “Just an illusion meant to slow me down, like the one Doppia spun! But I’ve grown out of that phase of my life. I'm no one's victim.”

Strengthening her determination with a clenched fist, she held her head high to the blackness and loudly proclaimed, “Do you hear me, you anomalous bastard? I know it’s you behind this! You're the one toying with us, thinking you can mess with me and my friends like we’re puppets for your play with! But we’re stronger than that! I’m stronger than that!” Her snout lowered to the ground. “My husband has hurt so many people. Me and Moonie included. And despite my grievances with him, I know he needs me now more than ever. I love him with all my heart, and nothing anyone can say or do will change that!”

Cerise raised her face and glared at her reflection. An exit was spotted just a few feet behind her. She could sense the ominous presence around her, and she needed a way to draw it out.

So the princess came up with a risky maneuver. A king’s gambit, as Midnight taught her in chess terms from the rare times they'd played.

Cerise gave a dry laugh. “You’ve sorely underestimated me. I am the daughter of King Sombra; I know this game! By picking me as your opponent, you’ve unknowingly revealed to me who you are. And If I can learn your identity, so can everyone else! So why don’t you go ahead and show yourself, you gutless coward!”

With that said, Cerise turned to leave with a sway in her hips, trying to suppress a victorious smile. But it pulled through when the various images of her past, present, and future distorted into white noise before fading to black.

“Awww, did I bruise your massive ego~?” The dark dancer continued to taunt playfully. “Can’t handle being outwitted by a lowly brat of a princess?”

The sound of footsteps resonated throughout the crystalline halls, where a figure walked through the exit, her path blocked. Cerise sucked in a breath and took a stance, still beaming with pride that her plan to flush him out actually worked!

‘Hook, line, and sinker,’ she thought smugly. ‘Who's the master manipulator now, prick?!’

But all her feelings of triumph immediately died when the anomaly emerged from darkness, his unmistakable silhouette draining all the color from her face. Fierce hot pink eyes dilated, reflecting the antler-adorned evil facing her.

The gray buck’s mouth formed a welcoming smile, and his maroon eyes held a cool gaze.

“Hello, princess,” the nahtdyr greeted. “How lovely it is to see you again~!”

When he took a step forward, Cerise took a step back, unable to stop her limbs from shaking. Dread and confusion clutched the charcoal mare’s heart before managing to muster words that matched her scattered thoughts.

“I… I don’t understand… W-Why… How could I have..? ...Oh, gods!”

Omen chuckled darkly. “Sorry. There are no gods here…”

His eyes held a malevolent red glare, his smile twisting into something more sinister.

“… ꒻꒤ꇙ꓄ ꂵꏂ~!”