“I think you’ll love what I’ve done to the place.” Chrysalis tells me as we appear in front of a very familiar colosseum. I was not expecting such a drastic redesign. From the outside it looks exactly as it did during the Summit, but as soon as we pass through the entry tunnel I can feel my eyes widen.

The ground is covered in lush thick grass, a far cry from the desolate wasteland just a few feet away. Nearly half of the colosseum is covered by changelings who are all kneeling with their heads pointing towards a giant white marble statue of the Queen. Considering this place was big enough for three ancient dragons and all of their foreign soldiers and royalty with their tents means there has to be at least 1,000 of them.

She figured out how to do it… she’s a Deity. That explains why Power of Truth didn’t catch anything and how she’s still able to mess with my head. What are her domains? How many followers does she actually have? The sun should be up soon, so perhaps I can gain the last 100 followers I need to ascend to the next rank.

“You really did a number on my home, Bladesinger. It took us weeks to clear out our tunnels and reestablish the support beams. During all that downtime I focused on two things. Maintaining the alliance with the Dragons and laying eggs. It was a delicate balancing act to use our limited love to hatch new larva, but we found a rather efficient solution. Did you a single dragon can supply the same amount of love as nearly 250 ponies before their minds are shattered? It was quite the discovery for us, and it just made me even more curious how much I can get from you.”

Her voice drops to a huskier tone as she runs a hoof along my chin. I’m not even able to feel my body and I still feel like I’m going to be sick. She frowns a bit as she pulls her leg away. “That’s new. You’ve never been revolted in any of our previous encounters. No matter, just another thing we’ll need to work on for your reeducation.”

The small changelings start to slowly stand one by one and walk towards the entrance to the hive and I can hear their murmurs. “Is that him? The one the ponies stole from us?”

What propaganda has she been feeding these drones? Now that I’m thinking about it, her pose in that statue isn’t right either. She’s standing proud and determined with her chest out and her mane blowing in the wind. It’s almost…heroic. “I can’t believe the ponies spit on the generosity Her Radiance offered, and stole our sacred sword.”

“You are confused. Perhaps I should have one of my Bishops refresh your memory on what happened here just months ago. It would seem you’ve been brainwashed, you poor thing.” She’s deliberately choosing her words since so many of the drones can hear her right now.

“Your Radiance,” to my surprise one of the drones walks right up to her and bows as he addresses her. “We’re all in high spirits to see you earlier than planned with the sacred sword in tow. Do you require anything?”

“Not at the moment, Bishop Aurora. It seems my dear sword has had his memories tampered with, so for now I’ll be bringing him to my quarters. I want you to gather the other Bishops and have them gather at the High Altar in one hour.” Her voice just a few seconds prior was filled with sarcasm and smug playfulness, but she effortlessly addressed the drone with a neutral tone. It still carried an air of superiority and a small level of sternness. But all of the drones passing by and heading inside are lowering their heads respectfully and greeting the Queen as they pass.

I think I get the jist of it. She likely has a portion of the hive sworn to secrecy that knows the true history of everything and they are the ones used as field agents and infiltrators. She hatched the rest of these seemingly for the sole purpose of bolstering her number of worshipers. What a vile creature.

It’s a 10 minute walk to reach what is apparently her personal quarters, but just from that short glimpse inside this place I can tell she’s put a lot of effort into this. You can tell which corridors and rooms suffered most from the collapse, but some of the rooms have been upgraded. Glossy black floors with stark white walls that all have some small statue or portrait of the queen. She’s set up numerous prayer rooms.

My fear spikes again as the stone blocking the archway slides down into the cave floor and allows us entrance to her bedroom. What is she going to do to me?

“Take a seat on the bed. I had my royal sleeping pod temporarily relocated in preparation for when I captured you.” I sit on the edge of the bed with my legs dangling off, and the changeling sprawls out on her side behind me. Curled up just enough to put her head in my field of vision as she lays there.

“I could tell from your initial reaction to having your body possessed that you were deeply afraid when I mentioned the Dragon Lord invading Canterlot. But, I think you are underestimating your Princesses. I wanted no part in his plan because I’m aware that just because those overgrown lizards learned some spells it’s not going to be enough to overcome the power disparity. Although if I had gone to Canterlot with them myself, it’d likely be a different story.”

“Then why didn’t you go with them?” My eyes go wide as I’m actually able to speak. I’m free?! The despair quickly seeps back in when none of my limbs respond to me.

“The hive is only barely managing to maintain enough love to keep the drones sustained, and I determined that fighting both of your Princesses would likely use up enough power that we’d be in a food crisis if something unforeseen happened that would cause me to retreat. I know you think I’m just a battle crazed Queen determined to amass as much power as possible, but I do actually place the well being of the hive over my own ambitions.”

“Then why have you spread so many lies to your own people? We both know you’re not some generous benevolent hero. Why are they calling me the sacred sword?” The queen gives me a wide smirk when she hears the venom in my voice.

“I’m sure you’ve already put most of it together. While the world leaders were gathered here one of the Equestrian Princesses decided she wanted to have you. Since you were acting as the sacred sword for Aurora that wasn’t possible. On the final day of the Summit both alicorns mounted a surprise attack in the heart of the hive. Subduing you and killing Queen Aurora, but in the chaos I empowered myself on the last of our meager stored love. I heroically led the charge into the throne room, but it was too late. Following the trail of blood we found you unconscious next to the corpse of the queen.”

I scoff out loud at how much bullshit she has in this story. I’ll admit it’s a very creative way of twisting the narrative, though. “Being the generous and benevolent Queen I am, I offered to spare all of their lives if they left right then and there. Of course they didn’t, the ponies are greedy. The ensuing battle was so intense it collapsed most of the hive, but in that critical moment I ascended and saved all of my drones. Once the dust had settled we realized the ponies had managed to take you when they teleported themselves away.”

“That’s quite the tale. None of them questioned why the tall and lanky bipedal creature was in the hive to begin with? What about the hundreds of changelings that were there when the hive collapsed? I know they weren’t all in the throne room, but there still has to be a significant number of drones that know good and well you killed Aurora.”

“Only a dozen or so. Even if all of the lings present that day were aware of the true events it still wouldn’t matter. The only drones left in this hive are my own, there are no remnants of Aurora left here. If I explained why I was telling such a tall tale and ordered them to never reveal what really happened, they’d obey without question. The story of your origin is by far the most unbelievable, though. I simply explained that you were a gift to us from Harmony, the last of the Bladesingers, meant to act as an extension of the Queen.”

I don’t have anything to say anymore so the room just has a lingering silence for several seconds. “You’re probably wondering what I intend to do with you now that I have you. Your life will not be one filled with hardship, I can assure you. You’ll gift the hive with a new generation of powerful drones, and in between hatching cycles you’ll live out your happiest dreams in that pod right over there. An endless supply of progeny and sustenance for thousands of years. Of course once you’ve completely submitted and been reeducated I plan to have you by my side.”

“The drones won’t wonder where the sacred sword is? Aren’t I supposed to be an extension of you?” I somehow manage to keep my voice from trembling.

“The mental corruption from the Equestrians deteriorated you far more than expected, so you’ll be bound in a recovery pod in my quarters for as long as it takes for you to recover. I’m the Goddess of Trickery, Ignis, it’d take more than that to expose me.”

“There’s just one thing I don’t understand. Why? If you truly do place the hive above your own ambitions, why drain your food to the brink of a shortage, kill the Queen, and make yourself an enemy of Equestria? The only person benefitting at the end of that is you, and it’s not even a major benefit. It’s just power.”

“Aurora was queen for over a millenia. In that time that hive saw over 50 royal drones come and go. When one becomes queen and becomes the center of the hivemind they no longer have to worry about the woes of aging. That’s likely because the core of the hivemind is deemed the most important, so miniscule amounts of life force is drained from any drone connected to the hivemind. I was royal drone 57, and I had no intentions to wither away and die because my mother determined I was not fit to be queen. My options were to leave and start my own hive, build up a sizable number of drones and love, and establish my own hivemind. Or, kill Aurora and seize the mantle. The knowledge of how to establish a new hive mind has been lost for centuries so it was an easy choice to make.”

“But why do it during the Summit? Why did you take Luna and put her in a pod? Beyond that why go this far just to take me? You know Luna and Celestia will not stand for this. As soon as they find out I’m here they’ll come straight here and crush you.”

“How will they find you, hm? You left Canterlot to engage with an invading force of powerful dragons. They can’t scry on you or even contact you as long as you’re here. They’ll just think you died in your battle against the dragons, or they’ll think Dragon Lord has you. There’s no reason to suspect me at all.”

If I could I’d make my own smug smirk now. “Unless one of the dragons attacking Canterlot blabs. I mean Nightmare Moon knows you were the one that even gave me the tip about the invading dragons, so that already gives them a loose reason to suspect you.”

“Very few dragons knew the true purpose of today's plan. Most of them just knew to ignite their paper when they made contact with the enemy. They weren’t told who would be contacted by igniting the paper, or who they were expected to fight. Communications between myself and the Dragon Lord have either been face to face with a select few of his subordinates, or through dragon fire. For the latter my messages go directly to him.”

“Luna won’t give up on me that easy. She knows I wouldn’t die to a measly dragon. If they assume I’m being held prisoner by the Dragon Lord they’ll invade. Once they determine I was never there, they’ll remember that you were the one that led me out to the badlands and come straight here.”

“You are finally correct, but by then I’ll be exponentially more powerful than I am now. Strong enough to defeat anyling stupid enough to challenge me. Now why don’t you go ahead and rest your weary head, lay down and get comfortable. I need to go relay the next steps of my plan to my Bishops and receive the weekly reports. After that I’ll march back in here and join you.”

There’s a new surge of panic as my body follows her command and lays down on my back. I have to come up with something in the time she’s gone. There has to be something I can do. No technique or spell can be this absolute, there has to be a weakness.

Although the weakness is probably that it took multiple probes by someone else who left behind back doors for his queen. Even still there has to be something.

No there doesn’t. This isn’t a game, this is real life, there’s no such thing as balancing in this world. Despite what Harmony tries to do. Think Ignis, think!

Wait! I can dream! What are the odds that either Luna or Nightmare are looking in there though? I don’t even know how the dreamscape works here. If they can’t contact me here then would being in a dream make any difference? Wait, if that counts as their Divine Realm then that’s where they’re most powerful. This has to work.

I don’t have a lot of time, probably an hour at most. Forcing myself to sleep I just pray that I wake up before it’s too late.

Within a minute or so I find myself back in a familiar dreamscape. The one where I built my little house with all my source books and a computer. Quickly remembering that last time I had to consciously make the decision to allow Nightmare into the dream I focus and exert my will to allow Luna or Nightmare to come through.

While I’m waiting I start to go towards my study so I can look through my D&D source books, but I realize there’s basically no point. Even if I find a perfect spell or feat it won’t matter because I can’t cast any spells anyways. Wait, if I go up in Divine Rank I can choose another Salient Divine Ability or Feat. Okay let’s look through all of the feats, there has to be something.

There’s not. I can’t help but sigh as I lean back and start talking to myself out of desperation. Maybe if I walk through it out loud I can bounce something off of myself. “All I can do then is hope Luna finds me or hope that I get enough followers to ascend to the fifth Divine Rank. Even then I have to hope that it’s enough to allow me to at least contest her abilities.”

“Consider yourself found.” My eyes open wide as my gaze snaps toward the sound of a familiar voice. Luna is standing in the doorway of the study, and she does not look happy. “I thought you’d learned your lesson about being reckless, but imagine my surprise when Nightmare comes to inform that you’ve teleported to the border to fight an invading force of dragons. I teleported as soon as she contacted me, but any trace of you was gone. It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes, so I assume you walked right into a trap?”

While she’s talking I slowly walk towards her, eyes glued to the floor as her words cut deep. This is a lesson I’ve learned numerous times and it just doesn’t seem to stick. I always act before thinking. Once I reach Luna I throw my arms around her neck and bury my face in her mane. Only for a fraction of a second, I know I don’t have a lot of time.

“I’m sorry Luna. The thought of it being a trap crossed my mind, but my power said she wasn’t lying when she said the dragons were invading. I didn’t think I could afford to waste even a second if I wanted to save as many as possible. If there was a trap I knew I could overcome it and last until you and the others arrived. It’s bad Luna. I think…she could’ve been lying then too. I don’t even know what to think anymore. I think the dragons are heading straight for Canterlot. They were never attacking villages on the border; it was staged with fake debris to lure me in. Once I arrived Chrysalis showed up and before I even had a chance to react she trapped me in my own mind. Oh! I almost forgot, the dragon I did see used magic. He was able to cast a shield spell. It was weaker than Shining Armor’s but not by much.”

As the words start to pour out my voice gets faster and faster and everything I had been bottling up to try and hide from Chrysalis starts to bubble to the surface. “I’m a passenger in my own body right now. She has complete control. She has Divinity, Luna. Enough that I didn’t even get to roll my dice to try and resist her power. I’m in her hive right now, her bedroom specifically, and she has prayer rooms and altars and statues. And…..and I can’t think of anything. I can’t come up with any plan. There’s too many unknowns and I don’t even know which of my own abilities I can trust to work against her. This hive has to be her Divine Realm. You can’t fight her here, even if it’s you, Celestia, Nightmare, and Cadence you still won’t stand a chance. The element might work, but I doubt she’d even give them a chance to be used.”

My voice started to be shaky around half way through and at the end my legs collapsed under me.

Something soft rubs the back of my head causing me to glance up at the alicorn. “Do you know what she plans to do with you? How much time do we have?”

“She…she wants progeny. After that she says I’ll be put into a pod. They’ve prepared one just for me in her bedroom. I don’t know how much time you have Luna. She’s attending a meeting right now and has left me laying in bed, but I’m pretty sure she intends to proceed as planned as soon as she gets back.”

The more I talk the more panicked and desperate I sound, and the more Luna’s face shifts. I’ve never seen her this angry before. I shouldn’t have told her about the progeny. She might be just as reckless as me and come charging in here on her own. I don’t want to see her upset like this.

“It’ll be okay, Luna. I can just retreat into my mind and I won’t even know what’s happening. You have to make sure Canterlot is safe and secure before you even think about coming up with a plan to help me. You absolutely cannot charge in here in a blind rage.”

She still doesn’t respond. Luna looks like she’s on the verge of losing it. “It’ll be fine, really, Luna. I’ll figure something out, I always do. Once the sun comes up I’ll probably gain enough followers to be promoted to Divine Rank 5, and that’ll surely give me some way to fight back…Please say something.”

“Draw a circle to represent the colosseum. Then give me your best guess at the layout of the hive compared to the colosseum above. Make sure to include where you are.”

“You can’t fight her here, Luna! I’m telling you it’d take Harmony herself to win against her here.”

“We don’t have time, draw! Please just trust me!”

I conjure a whiteboard and two markers, black and blue. Quickly I draw a giant circle to represent the colosseum, and notate which way is north. Then I start from where I entered the hive and do my best to remember all of the possible turns along the way to her bedroom and which turns we actually took. It was a short walk I remember that much.

Intelligence Check

13 + 6 + 2 = 21.

Once that’s done I mark with an X approximately where I am.

“There. That should be pretty accurate. Just…please don’t get yourself hurt or captured. If something happens to you because of my fuck up that made you come to save me, I’ll never forgive myself.” I try one last time to plead with her not to do anything reckless.

Persuasion Check

9 + 2 + 2 = 13.

“You’re starting to wake up. We’re out of time. You need to buy as much time as possible when you wake up. Stop being so reliant on these stupid abilities and divine powers. If she lets you talk then deceive her, taunt her, do anything to delay. You might even be able to free yourself if she takes the bait. Believe in you, not in your System.”

I can feel the dream start to crumble. As it fades away I look Luna in her eyes for what might be the last time for a long time. “I love you, Luna.”

I can see her mouth move but the dream fades away before I can hear her response.

“You were truly relaxed enough to sleep for the brief period I was gone? Incredible. Did you have sweet dreams?” Chrysalis is just standing next to the bed right next to me, looking down on me.

“I didn’t dream. Elves don’t always dream when we sleep, or if we do we don’t remember it.”

“Don’t worry once we’re done here you’ll remember all of your dreams, living out all of your ambitions.” She flashes a predatory gaze when she finishes speaking and walks around to the other side of the bed before slowly climbing onto the mattress.

“You don’t have to do this, Chrysalis. Wouldn’t you rather get more insight into the intricacies of Divinity? Perhaps some state secrets from Equestria that even you don’t know about? Surely there’s something that has a higher priority than this.”

The changeling arches an eyebrow, and she seems surprised at my change of tone and lack of hostility. “I can get that while I’m enjoying you. Your mind is my playground afterall.” After overcoming the confusion she starts to move closer.

Followers: 3,925.

The words that I’m about to spill from my lips almost cause me to dry heave. I have to suppress it though if I’m going to be convincing. “Then can I at least enjoy it?! I can’t feel any of my limbs, and surely it’d be better for you as well if I wasn’t just some unmoving corpse lying beneath you?”

Deception Check

19 + 2 + 2 = 23.

The queen pauses and smirks at me. “This is the same Bladesinger who felt so much revulsion it insulted me not even an hour ago at the thought of lying with me. You really think I’d believe that you are even capable of enjoying this?”

“Maybe if you transformed into someone else I could convince myself that everything is normal. C’mon, we both know I can’t do anything to you anyways. With just a thought you could seize my body and force me into that pod to live out the next several millennia. Especially now that we’re in your hive. Unless…you’re scared of me?”

Persuasion Check

16 + 2 + 2 = 20.

She’s silent for several seconds as she weighs her choices. “Ha! You almost got me, but there’s no way I’d risk anything going awry in my plan just for a little more momentary pleasure.”

The changeling is now standing over me on the bed, and she starts to kneel down lowering her face towards my own.

Followers: 4,010

Ascending to Divine Rank 5!

Next promotion at 9,000 followers.

Choose a Salient Divine Ability or Feat.

There’s one choice here that I think would save me, but there’s no telling what kind of consequences it would bring in return. There’s a Salient Divine Ability called Undead Qualities, that turns me into an undead. One of the qualities is a total immunity to “Mind-Affecting effects” and there is no mention of this being negated by a Deity of equal Rank or higher.

There’s huge drawbacks though. I can only be healed by necrotic damage instead of normal healing, and if I drop to zero hit points I’m instantly destroyed. I don’t want to risk Luna, Nightmare, or Force having something horrible happen to them, though. This might be my only option. It’s not permanent, if I’m hit with a resurrection spell I’ll be returned to how I was before I became an undead.

“Please trust me!” I know she’s still insecure about this. The same things that plagued her 1,000 years ago still haunt her now. If I do this and try to escape and the worst comes to pass then not only would I be dead, but I’d die with Luna thinking I don’t trust her. Knowing that I didn’t listen to her. Just like her family did back then.

Ha….hahaha….how is this even a decision? What kind of paladin would I be, if I didn’t trust my own Goddess? Hell screw being a paladin, I couldn’t even call myself her knight or her follower at that point. If I’m supposed to be the manifestation of hope, then that’s what I’ll be. For everyone else, but I can’t be my own beacon of hope. Those mares will be my beacon.

“I choose Increased Spell Resistance.”

Increased Spell Resistance: Your spell resistance increases by 20.

Spell Resistance: Your opponents must roll a d20 when choosing to target you with a spell. For their spell to even target you they must roll higher than your spell resistance after calculating all modifiers. Regardless of if they succeed on this roll if the spell requires a Saving Throw you will still roll that Saving Throw for a chance to resist the spell that successfully targets you.

Right now it’s not going to be that much help versus Chrysalis, her spellcasting modifiers are probably higher than mine, meaning she likely has at least a 70% chance to roll over a 20. I could’ve sworn I was able to take this Ability more than once, but there’s no mention of it here. Then again Spell Resistance isn’t even a thing in 5.5e, so we’re already way off script here.

The system starts to fade and I try to sharpen all of my senses. Hone my focus. Just ascending one rank might temporarily break me out of the spell, but if it does she can just use her magic on me again. I’ll only have a fraction of a fraction of a second. Dump as much divinity into my right hand as possible and slam it straight into her. Then I can capitalize on the surprise attack and kill her here and now. No, that’s idiotic, that’s why I’m here in the first place. Just teleport, instantly. Back to Canterlot. Do I teleport first instead of hitting her? The teleport will take a fraction of a second longer to cast compared to how fast I can strike.

Yeah, let's hit her first. Assuming this actually does momentarily break me free.

Time resumes with her face close enough that she’s all I can see. All of my thoughts are focused and screaming for my fist into her as fast as possible. I feel the surge of power one microsecond after time resumes, and one microsecond later I can no longer see her face. The impact comes next. My entire arm reverberates and screams at me as soon as it collides with her carapace-covered belly.

Before Chrysalis as even impacted the ceiling I’ve started picturing Luna’s bedroom as clearly as possible in my mind, and then I use the Divine Ability of Greater Teleport. There’s a massive cloud of dust as the changeling collides with the ceiling and lets out a shrill scream of anger mixed with pain.

Why am I still here? Teleport! Greater Teleport!

Hit Points: 94/120.

Oh my right arm is definitely broken.

I can’t gather my thoughts because Chrysalis launches herself off the ceiling towards me. Rolling off the bed I manage to avoid her as I quickly back pedal away from the bed and start panicking. Maybe I have to snap my fingers? I was just doing it on instinct before but I didn’t think it was necessary.

Snap

Snap. Snap.

Her eyes glow green and I freeze in fear, but quickly realize I can still feel my limbs. Did she get unlucky and roll below a 20? She doesn’t seem to be reacting, maybe I can play dead and pretend she’s regained control over me.

“To be in this situation, as fearful and confused as you were. You were still able to not only escape my grasp, but in that briefest moment of freedom you managed to cleanly attack me with every ounce of strength you could muster. You continue to amaze me. Unfortunately you’ve also angered me greatly. Based on your repeated snapping and spiking panic I can only guess that you were attempting to teleport away. I’m lucky you didn’t try to run instead. No creature can teleport into or out of this place. Why do you think I teleported us to the colosseum and walked with you down to this room?”

I don’t say anything, committed to playing “dead” at this point. Clicking her tongue in annoyance at my silence she starts to walk closer. The changeling starts to charge her horn and I’m beginning to think I might have to ditch this strategy. “Cure Wounds!”

Hit Points: 120/120.

Followers: 4,200.

I need my arm to not be broken if I want to use this beautiful sword. Unfortunately that means the jig is up. I could’ve used Mystic Arcanum to silently cast it, but the spell still glows so I wouldn’t have gotten away with it.

Thankfully this bitch was arrogant enough to keep my weapon in the same room as me. As soon as I cast Cure Wounds I reach out with telekinesis and fly over my sword, staff, and Mizzium. Chrysalis looks stunned at the fact that I can still move. Her eyes glow again and I slam my staff down on the ground. Activating its Magic Absorption feature. I’ve been intentionally keeping the charges low ever since Daybreaker, so I could absorb at least one super powerful spell without risking the damn thing exploding.

To my surprise the staff glows and starts to vibrate. I almost shit my pants when the charges in the staff go from 9 to 37. Equestrian spells are so stupid. Pointing the staff at her I channel the charges inside the staff and use it to cast, “Lightning Bolt!” at 7th Level.

Accompanied by thunder that almost makes my ears ring a massive bolt of lightning envelopes the changeling completely. An instant later and the spell is done casting, and there are just a few tiny scorch marks on her carapace. That did basically nothing and it was a direct hit.

Hoping to catch her off guard I launch myself towards the exit of the room, but I only make it a few feet before the bed from earlier is picked up and hurled into me. Sending me crashing to the floor and bouncing into the wall.

“I suppose we have to do this the hard way then. On the brightside you’re going to need to spend quite a while in the pod to recover after this, so I won’t be able to enjoy you immediately. I’m going to enjoy this though.”

The entire room turns into a black void. I can’t see her or any of the furniture. With no warning there are suddenly several Chrysalis's and they’re disappearing into and out of the walls of the void. This is an illusion.

Followers: 4,644

The next instant I see a flash of the same green spectral daggers she used against me when she killed Aurora. Only this time there’s well over 10 of them and they’re coming at me from every direction. I’m able to twist, lean, and contort my body enough to dodge a few of them and I deflect another couple of them with the Moonblade. I feel one sink into my left arm right under the shoulder, and the other one cuts my right thigh before burying itself into the dark ground.

Constitution Saving Throw

18 + 2 + 2 = 22.

You are paralyzed.

NO! I don’t understand…I thought I was a higher rank than her now?! Don’t tell me she’s been Rank 5 this entire time?! What is the level 17 feature for my domain? Nightmare said she looked within her divinity and instinctively knew what her abilities were. That means I can do it too. It’s a level 17 feature for a cleric, there’s a decent chance it can get me out of this.

Relentless Faith: You can use an action to fill one willing creature with determination. That creature is cured of all conditions and is immune to all damage and conditions until the end of your next turn.

So I get six seconds of complete invulnerability? And I can use this five times per day?

My entire body, including my hair, clothes, and eyes glow with a brilliant golden light. It cures my paralysis but the room is still a dark void. Does that mean this illusion isn’t a condition? It might be related to her domain if her domain truly is Trickery, that’d make sense with the duplicates I saw a second ago.

Doesn’t matter, I have six seconds. “Lunar Blessing!” Now in addition to the golden light emanating from me I have a cylinder of moonlight shining down on me from the Moonbeam. I don’t know where she is but this room isn’t that big and this Moonbeam does 2d10 to anyone that’s close enough.

Next since I’m immune to all damage I’ll channel all of my power into my legs and try to cover every square inch of this room in the remaining 3 seconds. My vision starts to stretch and blur from the sudden speed and I start running up and down the room covering every square inch of the floor. Since it’s 40ft tall it also covers the dark walls when I run along them as well as the ceiling.

I’m about 65% done covering the room when I hear a hiss and instantly point my staff in that direction. Using 7 more charges I upcast at the 7th Level, “Fireball!”

Followers: 4,846

I’m in the radius as well but I still have a second left on Relentless Faith. For a fraction of a second thanks to the light of the massive explosion I can make out the queen's seaweed looking mane. Letting go of my staff and sword, they float beside me in telekinesis. I need my hands free as I reactivate Relentless Faith for a second time, and jump into the ceiling as hard as I can where I saw the changeling.

“WHAT?!” The queen squawks out as I slam into her, pushing her into the ceiling. Wrapping my hands around her throat I drop down to the ground and just start repeatedly swinging the bug into the dark void covered ground, using her neck as a handle.

I hear her making increasingly frustrated noises followed by the familiar ting sound of metal bouncing off of something. Her spectral daggers are just bouncing off of me while I radiate this golden light.

The room returns to normal, only with several craters on the walls and ceiling as she recalls the dark void illusion. Or it just timed out, but I doubt that. The changeling turns into black smoke that slips through my hands before reappearing across the room. She is absolutely pissed now. She might actually kill me, food be damned.

She still doesn’t even have a crack in her carapace. She really is damn near invincible in this place.

I use Relentless Faith two more times for a total of four times as we continue to unleash attacks at each other. When the second Relentless Faith ran out she realized I could still be teleported and restrained within shields or walls of force. Using that she’s started to adapt to the point that by the end of the fourth Relentless Faith I can’t even touch her anymore.

When the golden light fades for a fourth time I start panting heavily, I was worried the damage and rebound on my body would accumulate and hit me after the golden light faded away, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. The fatigue however, does stack up and slams into me like a truck when that light fades for a fourth time.

“Are you done now? You’re going to regret this rebellious act when you’re begging me for death later.”

“I doubt it. You can’t control me anymore.” I mutter out between heavy breaths.

“We’ll see about that.” Her eyes glow green once more and I realize I never re-equipped my staff. I grabbed my Moonblade during the third Relentless Faith, but I never grabbed the staff again. It’s too far for me to absorb this spell if she targets me.

Wisdom Saving Throw (Disadvantage)

19 and 3.

3 + 8 = 11.

Dread washes over me as everything starts to go dark and I lose feeling in all of my limbs once again. This is insane, I can’t believe she got Divine Rank 5.

Followers: 4,912

Suddenly the entire room starts to shake violently as dust and dirt is knocked loose from the ceiling. Chrysalis looks straight up with a very concerned gaze. The shaking becomes even more violent and nearly makes me fall to the ground since I can’t control my limbs.

That’s when Chrysalis starts to scream, “No! How dare you?! Those drones are innocent!”

I have no clue what she’s talking about but suddenly I’m in control of my body again. The changeling hasn’t even noticed as she ignites her horn. She mentioned innocent drones and the entire hive was shaking…

Did Luna…? It’s the only thing that makes sense. She just obliterated some section of the hive that I wasn’t in, based on my crude map. Killing so many drones that Chrysalis has fallen from Rank 5 to Rank 4 or even Rank 3. That means I should be able to, “Counterspell.”

Her horn sparks and pops making her flinch. She turns towards me and her gaze is mixed with anger and despair. If Luna really did that, I can understand the queen’s anger. I won’t sympathize with her, though.

Ignis?! Can you hear me?

Raising my Moonblade into the air as I glare down at the changeling, I get ready to start slashing her until she stops moving. Until I find myself clutching at my head in pain. From a stream of voices all talking over each other.

“Please!”
“Your Holiness, please spa-AGHH”
“God of Can-”
“Mister Knight, I’m scared-”
“Help, maker abo-”
“IGNIS!”

Followers: 4,854.

It’s hundreds of voices, no maybe more…it’s too much. Even with the filters, they’re all panicked and screaming. It’s so overwhelming I can’t swing my sword, I can’t do anything except clutch at my head. I’m so sorry.

“It’s enough to drive you mad, isn’t it? Now that the hive has been torn open you’re hearing all of your devoted followers screaming out for you. I never thought a pony of all creatures would do something like this.” It’s the same thing that just happened to her.

Followers: 4,689.

“Well Bladesinger, are you going to ignore all of those prayers and spend who knows how many minutes trying to kill me? Or, are you going to go save your followers? With the hive torn open you can teleport out now.”

I have to kill her now. It won’t be fast though. She’s still a Deity even if she’s a lower Rank than me now it’ll take time.

Followers: 4,522.

If I let her live she’s going to relocate and by the time I find her again how much stronger will she be by then?

Followers: 4,403.

What am I supposed to do?!

Hundreds have already died…I have to go, as much as it frustrates me I can’t afford to waste anymore time here. My parting gift to the changeling is a hard kick to the head as I use Remote Sensing on the next prayer I hear and teleport straight there.

Author's Note

If you're thinking "wow this feels rushed" just remember it's already been over a week since Discord. The dragons want to strike as quickly as possible while Equestria is still in a reconstitution phase.

"Why even have the Chrysalis thing happen then if we're going to focus on the dragons and he escapes one chapter later?" For an in world reason, she wanted Ignis, the dragons wanted to attack Canterlot, the changelings and dragons were already collaborating (shown in the season 1 epilogue) and the dragon they're using for love came at a price. That price might've included Chrysalis assisting in weakening Equestria for the invade as one of the conditions and she played them like a fiddle because she was able accomplish her goal while pretending that she was doing it to help the dragons.

From an irl "why?" literary purpose perspective?
I don't think any of this will spoil any future plot points, but it gives alot of my thought process and it's very likely you'll be able to accurately guess some aspects of the future. So read with caution.
I want to build more hatred and conflict between Ignis and Chrysalis, to make their eventual climax more satisfying meaningful. It also let's me establish the ground work for her Divinity. I also needed to give Ignis a real come to Jesus/humble pie moment. He has consistently mentioned needing to curb his "act first, think later" reckless behavior and yet he keeps doing it.

That reckless behavior wasn't a reason why everything went sideways during the Discord arc, so he slowly reverted back to that behavior. But this? Yeah this will probably stick. Being able to combine those two things (Bug-Ignis conflict + Ignis humble pie) I wanted to do while also letting Chrysalis flex her planning/plotting and manipulating ability.

I'm just writing all this cause I still feel the need to defend last chapter, but this will probably be the last time I comment about it or reference it. All of you were very respectful with your criticism, well except one of you, and I've been quick to admit when I've fucked up things like the summit, the rushed gala debacle, the shining armor thing. So I don't want to give the impression that I don't want criticism. BUT in this instance I am adamant that intentional character flaws are being misinterpreted.

Unless they aren't, and people just don't like the character flaws. In that case uhhh, yeah idk man go read something else haha. Making mistakes and losing is a core part of any character imo, and this has been his first real, major, tragic fuck up. The previous ones could've been really bad (like taunting Inferno about his brothers death at the Summit and endangering the entire crowd) but for the most part he got lucky. Luck runs out eventually.

Anyways, sorry for crashing out in the author notes. Even if I disagree with the criticism I still walk away realizing I probably just didn't explain something properly in the story and still try to take a lesson from it. So, please feel free to keep it coming. (If you just straight up insult the story though and either have bad reasoning or literally no reasoning I'm just ignoring anything you say in the future. I've already blocked two commenters lmao.)

For everyone else, sorry about the rant! (also the chapter is 6969 words haha, unplanned)
Thanks for reading! <3