Followers: 3,900

Next Divine Rank at 4,000.

That’s the first thing I see when I wake up. Why does it keep rising higher when I don’t do anything? Closing the system my thoughts get derailed when I see the state Nightmare is in. Her mane disheveled and she’s drooling on her pillow with the occasional snore. That’s some good fuckin sleep right there. I’m jealous.

“Ahem.” I hear someone clear their throat behind me and slowly turn my head to glance back at Luna. She looks like she just woke up as well. Did I wake her up?

“Did I wake you? I haven’t really done anything except open my eyes.” I try to turn and fully face the Goddess but it would appear I am completely restrained. There’s no way this is comfortable for her, though, right? I’m laying on two of her legs and the other two laying on top of me. Her forelegs are hooked around my neck.

“Nay. I woke you I’m afraid. I’m not just waking up Ignis, I’ve just now made it to bed. I’ve spent the last four hours interrogating the changeling you sent us. Stubborn creature refuses to say a word.”

“Sorry. I didn’t think you would be the one to deal with it.”

“The moon was in the sky, so the responsibility fell to me.”

“Well since I’m already awake…I need to go find that article you all have been talking about. Spitfire called me the God of Canterlot last night and I can’t wrap my head around how that title came about.” I start to slowly move Nightmares limbs off of me when I feel a weight settle on my back.

“You ran off to go play Guard and participate in Day Court for two days in a row. Leaving me in this bed, alone. Not even visiting Night Court! You will not abandon your duties a third time. Stay right where you are.” Oh. Wow, when she puts it like that I guess I have been a bit of a shitty boyfriend the past few days…

I’m surrounded by a telekinetic aura before rotating around so that my back is facing Nightmare. Her limbs settle back down once Luna is done moving me. Then Luna promptly lays down on her side with her back to me. With my arms free I slide one under her neck as I rest my other arm on her wing and dangle my hand down over her belly. After that I complete the loop by grabbing my own hand, forming a sash between her forelegs, and pull her tight up against me.

This results in a face full of starry night mane, but that’s fine. It’s actually kinda cool to the touch, like satin. “You have my deepest apologies for the neglect I’ve done to you over the past two and a half days. But, you know I love you, right?”

She pushes back, pressing against me just a bit more as I feel her finally start to relax. “I’ll forgive you just this once, but only cause you’re cute. You also have all of my love.”

With that I close my eyes and force myself to sleep once more.

“”First Bladesinger in Millenia! Capable of reviving the dead, and now photos have surfaced along with eyewitness testimony of the Lunar Knight going hoof to hoof with Discord! Most surprising of all, he was winning! Ever since the incident the Bladesinger has been seen with an ethereal mane and there are reports of the creature having a new transcendental presence when walking about the castle!” Okay I think I can see the picture they’re trying to paint that leads us towards the God title. Some of this is so exaggerated though.” I comment while chugging some water while I read the news article that got published a day after my ascension.

““When you see him you just get this overwhelming urge to lower your head, but most of us just end up staring at him. It’s almost like he’s an alicorn except he can revive the dead. Something that was thought to be impossible, with no recorded cases. I know Her Majesty forbids any religions from worshiping her as a deity, so I guess the Princesses aren’t Demigods? But, if you consider everything he can do and has shown, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that he’s a God.” Wow, I've never seen so many words dedicated to saying nice things about me. That’s not even the end of it!”

“”A Deity that appeared before us in our darkest hour, and defeated the God of Chaos. Knight Ignis then impaled the entire city of Canterlot with magic chains. Using those chains with nothing but brute strength He stopped our capital city from plummeting hundreds of feet to our deaths. I can’t speak for everypony but this Canterlot Daily journalist is all but certain that the God of Canterlot, capable of carrying the entire city, has blessed our glorious city with his protection.” Ah so that’s the kicker. Wow this one journalist managed to convince over 3,900 people to worship me. That’s kinda incredible.”

“Perhaps you should give her an interview? If they announced it beforehand and took in questions via the mail from their readers it could prove quite fruitful. Also I looked into it for you and the reason you saw a secondary bump in followers is likely because Canterlot Daily takes an extra day or two to publish in the other major cities. That secondary jump would’ve likely been much higher if those ponies had actually been able to witness you like the ponies here in Canterlot.” Nightmare responds from the corner of my office.

I had fully intended on attending Night Court tonight, but I realized it’s Friday. Which means no court. Instead I’m in my office, finally doing my job again. Definitely not pretending to do work while I read and talk to Nightmare, I would never. “Honestly that’s not the worst idea but I have some reservations about it. It could go really bad. I have a tendency to be quite blunt. Eh fuck it, I’ll head over there in the morning before bed. I think I’m going to go have a visit with our new little bug friend in the dungeons.”

The dungeons are actually quite medieval, compared to how everything has a hint of modern styling. I’d be depressed as fuck if I had to live down here. “Evening ladies! I wanna talk to the changeling. Where is it?”

“Good Evening Sir! I’d be happy to escort the two of you, if you’ll follow me?” The thestral is much more chipper than any of the other ones I’ve talked to. That’s not to say they all have a stick up their ass, but none were as peppy as this mare. It’s almost too suspicious.

After quietly muttering the incantation for Detect Poison and Disease I’m surprised to get no alerts on the thestral. Guess she’s just an exception to the rule.

“Lead the way.” She tilted her head as I did my incantation, but I told her it was just a mental warding spell. After a couple of minutes we’re led to a cell that is much different than the rest. Instead of a big metal grate it’s just a solid chunk of metal. “Why is this one different?”

“We’re unsure of just how much they can change their forms when they transform, so we opted to replace the door with something that has no gaps in it. Minimize the risk of escape.” After she finishes the explanation she slams her hoof into the metal door three times before pressing her Night Guard badge against the metal. Once the badge touches the door a small square in the middle of the door opens up. “Alright changeling, you know the drill by now. Move to the back of your cell, stand up on your hind legs and rest your forelegs against the wall. Do not turn around.”

I’m flabbergasted when the changeling actually listens without complaint and moves against the wall. Now that the door has opened up I get a mental alert of a venomous creature from my spell. That’s good, I had no doubts that this was a real changeling, but just in case…

“That’s not necessary, open the door. If it tries to do anything it knows how quickly it’ll turn into green paste on the walls.” The guard looks extremely hesitant, so I’m probably breaking standard operating procedure. Luckily I’m high enough rank that most ponies will just hesitate for a few seconds before deciding it’s not worth the trouble. This mare is the same as she opens the door after a few seconds. As I walk in I close the door behind me, but tell them to leave the slot in the door so they can listen and watch.

“Alright bug, I heard my Goddess had a very one sided conversation with you this morning. Do you plan to give me the same silent treatment?”

The changeling, now relaxed on its shitty cot looks at me as its eyes flash green and glow with a magical aura. In an instant my hand is on the hilt of my Moonblade, but then it just starts to laugh. “I could never ignore you, my elusive buffet. I knew if I had the drone ignore your mate she’d send you down eventually. Truly I’ve been looking forward to this conversation. It’s been so long since you left your mark on my carapace and claimed me.”

I can hear something cracking as I clench my jaw in reaction to her voice. “Chrysalis.”

“You address me so flippantly…I’ll allow it just this once. Now then, how can I help you? More importantly, how can you help me?”

“The only thing I can help you with is an express ticket to the afterlife. I have a few things that I want to know, however. Why did you replace a random therapist in the castle? Was it just on the off chance that I popped into his office?”

She laughs in my face. “You were only able to figure out that much? Oh dear, oh maybe invading Canterlot won’t be as difficult as I thought it’d be. I’m in a good mood though, so I’ll let you in on a little secret. It’s for your ears only though, so you’ll need to come closer.”

It takes everything in me to not impale the creature into the wall with my sword when I see the absolutely smug toothy grin on the changeling's face. “Sure. I’ll humor you.”

I take two slow steps across the cell before suddenly snapping my hand around the changeling's neck and lifting it into the air. I pull it closer to my face as I increase the pressure around its exoskeleton. Chrysalis is just giggling as she stares into my eyes. “Closer.”

I lean in so close that we’re nearly touching. “It wasn’t on the off chance, my dear. You visiting that particular therapist was set in stone as soon as your fellow Knight was left alone in that room with my drone. It took a few sessions, but soon enough the suggestion to refer you took hold in her mind.”

I can feel the hair on the back of my next stand on end as she reveals much more than I expected. Then I freeze and feel a primal fear deep in my mind as I come to a realization. The wisdom saving throws, the fuzzy memories of the sessions. It wasn’t because our conversations triggered a trauma response for me to forget. “What did you do to me?” I somehow manage to keep the trembling out of my voice.

“Oh you figured that part out rather quickly~ I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that though.”

“I have nothing else to worry about. Tell me what you’ve done to me or I will fill your hive with a tasteless, scentless gas and cook you and all of your drones alive when I light the match.”

“Oh but you do, you poor thing. I’m afraid a few of your little villages near the badlands are about to suffer a disaster. If you want to save all of them you should probably get out of here, mister hero.” I’m not receiving any indications that she’s lying. I throw the insect into the corner of the room with a moderate amount of force before teleporting outside of the cell.

My face must be pale or something because Nightmare instantly looks worried as she moves in close. “What’s wrong? Did she say something to you?”

“The therapist was already replaced when Force was doing sessions with him. He implanted the suggestion for her to bring me to his office to make sure I got the disguised drone for my therapist. He definitely did something to my mind as well. There are portions of those sessions missing from my memory.”

“What do we do? Can’t you cleanse your mind of any corruption through the same spell you used on us when we were corrupted by Discord?” Wait, she's right. I can use Greater Restoration. But, that was specifically related to memory manipulation, and the only reason that worked is because Greater Restoration also works on the Modify Memory spell.

“Wait, I'm stupid. I’m immune to charms and compulsions from any creature that isn’t equal or higher than my Divine Rank. She can’t touch me! Anyways not important, the dragons are about to attack our border villages near the badlands. She warned me they’d be attacked soon and I didn’t get any indication that she was lying. I need you to tell Luna and wake up Celestia, we need to mobilize as quickly as we can. I’m teleporting to the town we used as a rest stop on our way to the Summit and I’ll fly to the border towns from there.”

“Wait! You can’t just go on your own! That’s idio-”

She’s interrupted as I grab her cheeks and press my lips against hers. I pull away and she’s blushing up a storm as she glances at the guard standing there looking confused. Looks like if there’s strangers around she’s still a tsundere and a sudden kiss is the easiest way to make a tsundere go through a mental reboot. “Love you Moonie, I’ll be back before you know it.”

“IGNI-” I don’t give her a chance to convince me as I activate my divine greater teleportation.

I look around as I appear in the vaguely familiar town where Celestia and Luna got to sleep in a house while we all slept outside. Why is it so peaceful? Shouldn’t this place be getting attacked by dragons? Giving myself wings I shoot up high into the sky and look for any billowing smoke across the horizon. Seeing nothing I activate my magic propulsion and shoot towards the border of the wasteland.

Maybe that town just isn’t close enough to the border to be considered a target. After 45 minutes of flying I reach the land where the ground starts to shift from lush green grass to cracked earth with no signs of life. Zipping back up into the air to look across the horizon I can barely make out some black smoke rising into the sky. Without hesitating I speed up to speeds I would normally not be comfortable with. I’m going fast enough that I have to squint to even see things, but it’s all blurry.

In less than a minute I’m close enough to make a town completely razed to the ground, with shattered wood and bricks strown all about. It doesn’t even look like it used to be a town, if I didn’t know any better I’d think it’s just randomly scattered debris. Shooting down massive waves of fire into the wreckage is a huge red dragon. Once I’m closer I realize some of his scales are drained of color, looking gray and dead. This is the dragon that nearly killed me at the Summit, and I gave him those scars with my Shadow Blade.

As soon as he realizes I’ve arrived he suddenly opens his claws on his right hand before blowing fire into his claws. That was how they sent letters right? Did he just call for backup?

“BLADESINGER! SO, YOU’VE COME TO DIE?!”

Roll for Initativ-

“Enable real-time combat.”

I drop to the ground and glare up at the dragon as I unsheathe my Moonblade. “Looks like you still prefer to hide in the air like a coward, huh?”

I can actually see his eye twitch as I hit him with the same taunt I used at the Summit. He responds by unleashing a massive roar as he pivots in the air and starts to divebomb me. Perfect.

I blast off into the air flying straight up towards the dragon with my own battlecry. I raise my open off-hand into the air above my head, palm open. Alter Size. Colossal.

The distance between me and Inferno closes in an instant as my body expands in every direction at once. If this were a game board I’d be occupying a 30’x30’ square instead of the standard 5’x5’, and my height is staggering 66ft tall. Not only does it increase my size but it allows me to increase the size of a “personal intelligence weapon” which is definitely an accurate description of the Moonblade.

Inferno’s eyes widen as I suddenly become even bigger than him and wrap my hand around his neck and part of his body. He’s too stunned to speak apparently as I flip over so that I’m facing the ground now. Then he starts to roar and spew fire as I squeeze him tightly and throw him into the ground as hard as I can, at least 100ft away from what was once apparently a town.

If I remember the size charts correctly I weigh around 125 tons right now, and my carrying capacity, maximum push and pull weights have increased exponentially. Inferno slams into the cracked earth and kicks up a huge cloud of dirt and sand as he craters into the ground with a roar.

He’s writhing on the ground in pain and I decide to not let up. I stop flapping my wings and point my Moonblade down as I start to fall towards the dragon. I let out a roar of my own as I’m about to run the dragon through with my blade, but I hit something earlier than expected and it throws me off balance. My Moonblade bounces off of the….SHIELD? And I land on the ground in a roll as it feels like the entire planet is shaking under me when I land.

Quickly rising to my feet I see the dragon kneeling on the ground looking fatigued already. “You’re not the only creature that can use magic, bladesinger. I’ve learned a few tricks since we last fought, but it appears you have as well. cough Oh! Perhaps you could perform a concert for me like you did when you fought Discord.”

“Or I could just kill you.” Hand of Death. I’m fairly certain he counts as a mortal, but even if he does he’s basically guaranteed to pass the saving throw. It’s worth trying though.

His mouth opens to say something but pauses as he glances around looking confused. After a couple of seconds nothing happens and he returns his glare to me. I cast Haste and attempt to activate my True Bladesong, but nothing happens. I don’t have any mana to change the frequency of. I can’t match the frequency of the world if I don’t have any mana to begin with. Shit. This is actually really bad.

Well time for plan B. I’m gunna hit him really hard. Slightly bending my knees I take my stance, ready to cleave the dragon.

“You couldn’t break through my shield just now, what makes you think it’ll work this time?”

“I’m expecting it this time.” I point my left index finger at the giant shield shimmering in front of the dragon and start to chant a new incantation. Since I learned this spell when I leveled up I don’t even need the Mizzium “Disintegrate.”

A bright green ray fires from my hand and slams into the shield, causing green lightning to spread out all over the shield. “You really thought something weak like that would-”

The instant I spot holes starting to form indicating the shield is collapsing I surge forward. I have no clue how much damage this will do in this giant form, but fuck it. 7th Level “Divine Smite.”

A blinding light flashes as my blade zips right through where his shield was half a second earlier and slams into his neck. My eardrums nearly go deaf as a loud thunderous crack is unleashed and I hear the sound of something heavy hitting the ground and bouncing several times. Each impact further and further away.

One second later and the light clears and I spot Inferno on the ground around 40ft or so away from me and he’s clutching his throat with one of his clawed hands as he stares at me with wide eyes. He’s filled with fear. “Shame, I was really hoping to go clean through and sever your head.”

Now that I’m looking closer I can see scales missing and blood pouring out from under his hand. I didn’t behead him but I got him pretty bad. I start to slowly walk towards him and he scrambles to his feet before flapping his wings to try and take off. He doesn’t make it very high as I grab his tail and yank him back down. “Oh you’re not going anywhere, you overgrown lizard.”

With one tug he yelps in pain and is sent flying back into the ground. I bring my blade up in the air, but stop when I hear my name.

“IGNIS! Stand down, now!” Squinting towards the sound of the voice I spot Celestia standing on the ground below me. After glancing at Inferno to see if he has any fight left in him I judge that it’s safe enough to return to my normal height. Alter Size.

“I’m come to an agreement with the new Dragon Lord, but it’ll all be for naught if you kill him.”

“Celly…that entire town was destroyed by this asshole. I didn’t even detect any signs of life in the rubble.”

The alicorn hums in thought for a second. “That’s okay. There was never anypony there to begin with. In fact, that's not even a town. It’s just debris we scattered around and lit on fire.” I start to swing my Moonblade at what must be a changeling disguised as Celestia, but suddenly stop mid swing. Glowing green eyes stare into my own and I find myself unable to move.

“It’s truly incredible how guarded your mind still is after my drone left so many openings and anchors for me to exploit. I’m afraid it was all for naught though, Ignis.”

What? But…is it because I didn’t have a Divine Rank when the therapist violated my mind? Or…no. She can’t be a Deity…right?

“Oh I can taste your confusion and it is delectable. I’m afraid I won’t spoil the surprise, though.” Chrysalis drops her disguise finally and I feel a small bit of satisfaction when I notice a small collection of grayish brown lines forming a spider web of sorts on the right side of her body at the base of her neck.

There’s one crack that shoots up from the web and goes up her neck and into the bottom of her eye, with a small bit of the line emerging from the top of the open eye. That’s where I struck her with my final blow as the hive collapsed. That’s what she meant by marking her.

The changeling looks over at a barely conscious Inferno. “You did well holding out on your own, dragon. Tell the Dragon Lord that phase 1 is complete. With the Bladesinger being held here, Canterlot should be easily capturable for his elite dragons. They can just hold the citizens hostage and Celestia will comply. I know you wouldn’t comply though, would you, my future king? You’re not weak like them. That’s why we had to get you out of the city first.”

Just like that? I don’t get a saving throw? I’m defeated with a mere gaze? No. No no nonono. MOVE DAMNIT!

“Oh and tell that arrogant Lord as well that from here our deal is over. We shared the knowledge both of us promised and I cleared a path for him to take Canterlot. I’m taking the bladesinger, and he can do whatever he has planned on his side.”

This can’t be happening. I have to warn them. Remote Communication, nothing. Sending, nothing. I can’t even activate my magic. I’m going to lose everything…

“Oh that is some delicious despair. Come now, dear, let’s get you back to the hive.” Chrysalis turns and starts walking and my body begins moving on its, following her step for step.

I’m sorry Luna. Nightmare. Force. I misjudged the situation completely, and I don’t think I can get out of this one.

As my body continues marching on I can only scream out into my mind.

Author's Note

I wanna get off Mr. Desti's wild ride... wait that's me.

It's fine. Nothing bad ever happens.

So it turns out the plan was always for Ignis to catch one of her drones at some point. It's unlikely she knew he'd be able to hear the prayers of the victim and teleport straight to them, but when the opportunity presented itself.... ya know? Also if anyone is wondering what would've happened if Ignis flew up the border instead of down the border, he would've happened upon the same scene but with a different dragon. They had multiple staged sites ready to go and whichever one he showed up at would ignite their letter and send it to Chrysalis.

We're finally hard derailing off of canon in such a way that we can never go back. Feels good to finally cash in on some of the shit I left behind forever ago. Welp uh... I don't wanna keep ranting and accidentally spoil something and I also kinda went over my bed time by like an hour...I'm gunna be tired af tomorrow.

Thanks for reading! <3