Celestia 3rd Person POV

Celestia’s eyes snap open in frustration, knowing she’s only been asleep for 30 minutes or so. They decided to push on and arrive at Canterlot tonight instead of midday tomorrow, and after dealing with some confused spouses she went straight to bed. Her frustration of interrupted sleep quickly turns into a blind panic when she realizes what has caused her to awaken.

A massive surge of mana towards the badlands. If it was just the mana it might not have stirred her from her slumber but this mana. This sinister mana. She is intimately familiar with this presence. “Nightmare and……Ignis?”

The mana it was mixing with was not her sister but the elf. Igniting her horn she calls out to Luna. “Sister, what’s happened?”

“I stupidly allowed this paladin of mine to go investigate a situation that I knew he wouldn’t be able to handle. I really wanted to think he’d be fine. He saw Aurora’s children being led in chains to the throne room and wanted to see how Chrysalis was handling the old breed of changelings. The situation is cruel sister. She’s allowing them to convert to her rule and renounce Aurora or be exiled. When they choose exile she swiftly has them executed. I watched him fight his emotions for several seconds but when I tried to teleport him out he resisted it. Shortly after that our telepathic connection was severed. I want to feel proud of him, his unwillingness to allow this to happen despite the condition of his body, but at the same time I’m so frustrated he’s throwing his life away for something he cannot change.”

“Luna. Why is the Nightmare there?”

“He exploded with such rage and hatred I would not be surprised if she was able to feed off of his emotions through the indirect connection he has with my moon. She currently has no control over him though. Just as he resisted my teleportation, he seems to have resisted her will. He’s revealed himself now, he announced to Chrysalis that he will kill her. Right here and now.”

“You need to teleport in there and grab him, now. We cannot risk him losing control and allowing that demon back into our realm. It’s also very unlikely he will survive a confrontation with Chrysalis in his condition. She should be significantly weaker without the stockpile of love in her system, but she’s still a Queen. As she is now she should still be fairly even in a confrontation with one of us, without pulling power from our source.”

“I cannot, Tia. The Nightmare is preventing me from appearing. I could probably appear a few hundred feet from the hive, but by the time I get to him this fight will be over. It’s strange though. My divine connection to him isn’t severed, if anything it’s improved. It feels like the most pure and direct connection I’ve ever had to anything, the exact same as the moon. It’s almost like a connection to Nightmare is what he needed for the true connection to form….”

“We can worry about that later, Lulu. You need to move. I agree the fight will likely be over but she won’t kill him, she can’t. You can still move to recover him from a pod. What of the hostages? Are they going to return to their homes alone or will they return to Canterlot with you and allow for a transport?”

“The minotaur left, but the griffons will return to Equestria with us. I’m teleporting over now, catch my ping and scry on that location. You can keep an eye on him in the throne room while I make my way into the hive.”

Closing her eyes she faintly catches the mana ping hundreds of miles away and summons a scrying orb in the location. When she opens her eyes and looks into the spell her jaw clenches and her eyes squint in anger. “Luna, why does he look like that?”

Ignis 1st Person POV (A/N: Woah a major boss fight that’s finally from 1st person POV? O:)

“I’m going to kill you now.”

Green flames engulf the changeling queen and the result is a little disturbing. She walks out of her own fire on two feet. A jet black humanoid with two long elf ears, her sickly blue hair now draping over both of her shoulders covers two round mounds on her chest. She gives me a toothy grin exposing her oversized fangs as her green eyes shimmer a bit and she stares at me. Four translucent wings that look similar to her original ones unfurl from behind her, the bottom two are shorter and point down, diagonally. The two upper wings are much longer and point diagonally up. Her jagged horn parts her hair as it points out of her forehead and becomes enshrouded in a pale green aura, two daggers appear in her hands.

“After our last encounter I realized how useful your form is in a fight. The dexterous abilities of these hands combined with the flexibility of your body. Every inch of you is optimized for killing.” She puts her left hand against her chest and continues. “I was also quite hoping you’d be more enticed by this form. Imagine my surprise when I did detect a momentary spike in lust, hehe. What do you think, dear?”

Imagining my magical runic device inside my left arm I start to twist two cogs. Strengthen. Strengthen. Next I point a finger at Chrysalis. “You know what I think?” I channel mana through my body and as the magic approaches the runes I lift my thumb and turn my pointing hand into a finger gun. “You talk too much. Firebolt!” The same instant the mana hits the first rune I call out the incantation for my cantrip and feel the connection to the weave mix with the mana as both of them explode through the imaginary runic device.

Chrysalis watches with amusement as the mote of fire appears and her look turns to panic as the mote rapidly expands and hurls furth significantly faster than it normally does.

15 + 9 = 24.

Error. Fire Bolt incompatibility. Error.

The roaring ball of fire slams into the changeling queen and explodes into a tornado of fire. I’m a bit confused when no damage dice appear, but the fire is suddenly suppressed with a burst of wind and I’m shocked to see the insect with scorch lines on her body and a supremely annoyed look on her face.

She barks out, “Evacuate the hive. Looks like I’ll have to be a bit rough with this one. I hope you’re into that kind of thing, bladesinger.”

“I SAID SHUT UP! FIREBOLT!” I fire off another empowered firebolt, but before it leaves my body I see another dice appear.

Roll for Initiative.

7 + 5 = 12.

I don’t even get a roll to see if the firebolt hits, but it doesn’t matter. As soon as the spell left my hand Chrysalis shot into the air and unleashed her own green ball of flame. “Shield!” I turn my finger gun into an open palm and thrust my hand forward projecting a shield and panic as the shield instantly shatters. I form an “X” with my arms in front of my face and wince as I’m thrown backwards into the cave wall. Hitting the wall my body tries to release a yelp of pain, but instead all I get a gasp as all the air is knocked out of my lungs.

-22 HP. Hitpoints: 41/63. Prone.

I try to stand, but wince as my body is shocked from the pain still lingering around from my last encounter with this demon. My reduced movement speed. I’m able to just barely get to my feet as a jet black human foot slams into my gut, cracking the wall behind me.

-19 HP. Hitpoints: 22/63.

This time a brief scream erupts from my mouth along with a bit of stomach acid as I crumple and slide down the wall, back onto my ass. Chrysalis says something but I can’t understand it. All I hear is ringing. Placing my hand against my ribs I wheeze a breath in and out as my eyes vibrate and I try to gather myself.

Why do you use mana so inefficiently? I can’t have my future host dying, so let me give you a tip. Your body is already magical, and your hands can already project spells. You don’t even need an air rune. Just use that same feeling to project runes into the air. It’ll be a physical thing at that point and shouldn’t even use your concentration to maintain its form. It’ll only last for a few seconds but that’s plenty of time for you to project mana through it.

“Shut up.”

Chrysalis crouches down in front of me and takes a handful of my own hair as she starts shaking my head back and forth, laughing at me. Sadistic bitch.

Bladesong. As the lights and aura start to form I channel all my mana into my heart and send it to every limb I have. Please just let me use the True Bladesong one more time. Please. The motes of light and silver aura start to flicker, ripple, speed up, and go wild like flames.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmQim_bxBjM (With dialogue overlaid.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4uveN0YhHw (No Dialogue. Same song.)

Chrysalis keeps shaking my head but stops laughing to speak again. “Hey. Answer me, whelp. You imbecile, sad sack, coward, good for nothing!”

I have no clue what she even said before so I just keep quiet and focus on spreading the mana.

The changeling starts to laugh. “It’s just as I thought then, you really are a disgrace! Just like me.” She starts thumping her hand against my head, forehand, backhand. “What are you attempting with this pitiful bladesong? I’d love to see you try and cut off my head with that useless, battered, disgraceful, pitiful body of yours. COME ON!”

I look up at her with the meanest glare I can muster before slamming my foot into her chest.

19 + 5 = 24.

2 Bludgeoning Damage.

The queen is sent staggering back a few steps, and she quickly dashes backwards as I stand up and face her. Fighting my own body with everything I have I force it to start running after her.

“I have to ignore all the pain in my body. Endure!”

As I get closer to her and start to swing my Moonblade I remember our last encounter, and how her hard exoskeleton was able to repel my sword.

“I can’t just use my arms. I have to use everything, summon EVERY OUNCE OF STRENGTH LEFT!”

Exhaustion Level: Error, +1. 3. Movement Speed: 15ft Unknown.

Focusing all the mana into my feet I jump, shattering the ground. In an instant I’m right in front of her as all my grief, rage, and despair surge within me again. I feel an intense heat on the back of my head and watch as my sword ignites in a bright blue blaze. Belting out a scream, venting all my emotions I tighten the grip on my hilt and swing at the changeling with everything I have.

“AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Two dice appear but all of the numbers just look like scribbles and they seem to roll endlessly. Eventually they just disappear and time resumes and I transfer all the mana from my feet and heart into my right arm. My right arm leaves a trail of silver light and the blade a trail of blue fire in the air as they shoot forward.

Chrysalis looks extremely unsettled as she leans backwards, causing the blade to miss her entirely. I can’t stop the mana fuelled momentum and the blade slams against the hard floor of the cave.

A bright flash of light erupts and it sounds like a bomb went off. I watch as one of my level 4 spell slots disappear and the ground turns into a deep crater. I land on my feet and watch as cracks quickly shoot out in all directions from the edge of the crater and the entire surroundings begin to shake. Pebbles and dust fall from the roof as the pillars in the throne room also begin to crack at the base and top of their structures.

I look towards Chrysalis, who is now 20ft or so away, and am surprised to see that for the first time she looks genuinely scared as she looks at the ground where she once stood. Before I can even think of my next move I drop to one knee and stick the Moonblade into the ground to lean against it. I cough and watch as blood spatters onto the floor of the cave. The next thing I feel is an intense explosion of pain that threatens to knock me out as darkness creeps into the edge of my vision.

Exhaustion Level: Error. +1. 4. Movement Speed: 15ft Unknown.

Hitpoints: 11/32.

Looking up at the ceiling I start desperately gasping for air. Stabilize the mana. Breathe. Slow down, calm down.

“Ignis, you have to escape!” Celestia?
You can’t continue. Run. Nightmare Moon?

My own voice, in a posh accent, speaks into my head. “We cannot survive this, you have to run.” Even my own soul?

Chrysalis with her voice that sounds like nails on a chalkboard speaks. “If you keep going you’ll really kill yourself.”

Down the hallway I hear my favorite voice quietly echo into the room from a distance. “Ignis, please?! You have to RUN!”

Staggering to my feet with blood dripping onto the floor, I gather my focus. Precisely spread the mana to every fiber of my muscles. Through every vein in my body.

Off in the distance I can hear crashing and rumbling, the entire hive is collapsing. Suddenly the scene shifts and I’m in an unfamiliar courtyard with my father squatting in front of me, looking me in the eyes. “If you are ever feeling defeated and that you are not enough… set your heart ablaze.”

I look at the terrified changeling queen and clench my fist. As I start to scream I feel the intense heat on the back of my head rise up once again, even hotter this time. Smoke and flames appear at the edge of my vision.

“Shut up, all of you! Changeling, Luna, Celestia, and even you, elf. Today you’ll all learn a lesson. I’ll show you THE INDOMITABLE. HUMAN. SPIRIT.” In a flash I cover the distance between me and Chrysalis. I watch as flames spread onto the floor of the cave and the blue blaze engulfs my sword once more. "I'M GOING TO WIN!"

Use every ounce of strength left!

I wave my left hand over the blade of my sword and three Strengthen rune circles appear. It looks like the blade is piercing through the 3 glowing circles. I send every molecule of mana into the hilt of my sword as I hear the feminine voice inside the sword start screaming in pain. I belt out my own scream as I swing the blade towards Chrysalis and channel my last level 4 smite.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!”

The cave begins shaking and rumbling once more as I listen to what sounds like large rocks falling all around me. The entire cave is illuminated by a fire that seems to be coming from my body.

I watch as the blade zips through the air and Chrysalis ignites her horn. I hear more crashing sounds as the blade is centimeters from her neck. The same instant the blade makes contact with her neck I feel a hoof touch my back. My entire vision is filled with a bright white light. I hear something crack followed by a pained scream from the changeling queen, and everything ends as darkness creeps into my vision and I black out.

Author's Note

Well uh. Hm. Listen. This is a sample of the distant future of the fic, I figured I'd warn readers now that at some point in the future Ignis will not use the system, at least for combat.

For now though, it should be pretty obvious that continued use of outside magic will kill him and he cannot handle it. We are creeping firmly into the territory of "Power Fantasy" and that's fine for me, that was always supposed to be the direction this story went, but I understand that it's not for everyone.

I'm still going to try and at least make the power feel "earned" but we'll see if I can do a good enough job with it. I can at least say that you won't need to worry about this for a minimum of 30-50 chapters, I won't spoil future chapters any more than I have already, but stuff like this won't be available for Ignis for a while after this fight.

Obligatory apologies aside, I'm happy with this chapter. We'll have 1 more adventure/combat focused arc that should be pretty short, and then it'll solidly be slice of life for a long while. Always happy to answer any questions in the comments.

Thanks for reading!