End of an Era: The Upheaval

A meltdown struck at the hive's heart. The ensuing explosion swallowed up most of the changelings at the center, vaporized in an instant and their screams lost in the blazing holocaust. A wide-eyed Chrysalis lit her horn and erected a magic barrier at full-force, while she scooped up Cadance, still buried balls deep in her lower holes, and with a buzz of her wings attempted to flee the fires. The blast rocked the caverns with a shudder, the dark queen and her prize knocked from the air amidst the impact. Fortunately, her throne took the brunt of the attack, warped and melted by flame.

The air continued to blaze above, the slime and cobwebs above aflame. Chrysalis remained hunched on all fours above Cadance, still lodged in her tight and wet confines, and didn't dare rise. “Don't worry, my precious prize,” she purred, and stroked her toy's mane and cheek. “I won't let anything happen to you! Mmm, but I underestimated how powerful your fanatical 'Sword' truly is...!”

She saw no sign of her captured mares, and assumed they were lost in the explosion. A small setback, since there were plenty more left! Slowly, she rocked her hips, and made the pinned Cadance moan out beneath her, skewered on twin cocks separated by a thin layer of fertile flesh.

Chrysalis sucked on Cadance's ear and whispered into it, “I won't allow our clutch to perish! I can still hear them and all that cum slosh around your womb,” she teased as Cadance's rounded belly rolled, and likewise her suspended breasts bounced and swayed amidst harsh, dominant thrusts.

Nonetheless, Cadance barely heard her, her eyes wet. So many of her beloved ponies, dead in an instant. Her precious twins,Foal-Bearer and Wet Nurse, a number she didn't know by name, even Ocellus despite her deception and betrayal, and...Fiery Kickstart? She hazily stared into the fires...

The stallion knelt nude, burst into flames, yet somehow, he appeared to still live...!

Anger turned to madness inside Fiery, who'd seen his beloved twins one moment, then they were no more the next, unaware that Grayscale Carnifex had spirited them and Ocellus away to the afterlife. His voice boomed deeper. “The ones I loved.... Gone.... All is lost...” He staggered to his feet, his spread plume also afire. He puffed his chest, arms wide, fists balled. “Chrysalis...~!”

When he stalked forward, flaming footsteps were left in his wake.

As he rounded the throne, Chrysalis tightened her grip around Cadance's chin while she continued to fuck her into submission and warned him, “Don't come any closer, or I'll snap her pretty neck!”

“You won't,” he retorted. “She's far too important to your plans!” With a sweep of his muscled arm, he formed a saber made from white hot fire in his hand, which he poised to assail her.

Chrysalis froze up, at a loss. She'd never learned how to teleport, her personal guards were all dead, and she dared not rise into the superheated air. Already, she could feel his mere presence feet away threatened to light the mares up. “Wait! Come any closer, and you'll consume your queen, too! The one the 'Swords' swore to protect! What's the point of you, if you can't even save her...?”

For the first time since his rebirth, he faltered. The intense heat that filled the cave died down.

“That's it,” taunted Chrysalis with a grin, while she rolled her hips and drove into Cadance, the pink mare lost to blushes, moans, and spatters of her juices while she was impaled. “Poor, lost little boy! Why not serve me, instead? You can have her when she's not in use by me! A harem of changelings and mares to do whatever you please with! Together, we can conquer the rest of Equestria!”

“No chance,” he barked with a snarl.

“F-Fiery,” whimpered Cadance weakly. “S-save as many ponies as you can...!”

With a nod, he raised his white sword once more, ready to strike a fatal blow. The inferno in the cavern started to sweep ever closer, and Chrysalis cowered, with no cards in her deck left to play. Before he struck, beams zapped in his direction, which rattled his nude, aflame musculature.

Unharmed but shaken, it was nonetheless the distraction Chrysalis needed to fly up with Cadance. He flew up to follow, while more mystic lasers zipped around the air, which he evaded.

“Stop him,” ordered Trixie, flanked by Fuchsia, Lavender, and more acolytes. The echoes of Chrysalis' cackles resounded while she continued to fuck Cadance in mid-air as she escaped. Her triumph turned to a pained scream when a sound wave swept over the pair of mares.

“Sorry my queen,” said Thunder Storm, careful to limit his powers so as not to harm her much. He arrived with a number of resistance in tow, his wife and children included. They had picked up every stray stallion and mare they could on the way there. Chrysalis and Cadance spiraled to the floor.

“We've lost control,”cried Fuchsia.

Lavender replied, “There must be some way to still turn this around!”

Both sides rushed into battle, surrounded by flames and the occasional shake of the hive, a reminder that the world would soon collapse. Stallion soldiers raised discarded wands they'd found scattered and discarded across the battlefields, and used them to counteract the cultists.

More changelings came to support their queen and the cult. Metal clashed and clanged, while Showy Blizzard used her power to snuff out the flames that licked near her family and friends. Unfortunately, nowhere was safe anymore, especially with the Eldritch further in the hive.

“You...came...,” whispered Cadance mutely, prostrating on her side. “Where's Chrysalis?”

“Escaped my queen,” said Thunder Storm, and offered a hand to help her rise. “We can't tarry. Too many need us. You're still compromised. Someone needs to stay behind and protect you-”

“I'll do it!” Midnight snapped a salute at them. “With these new wind powers, it should be a breeze!” He chuckled at his bad pun. “Moonie, sis, we have to protect the civilians, too, so let's do it!”

“Gotcha,” said his foalhood friend, who with the help of her mom Moonflower prepared some more toxin-laced darts. “We can win this! Cerise, you're still with us, aren't you?”

“Of course,” she answered, her spear at the ready.

Lightning Spark pouted with a hand on her hip. “Where's my elemental power already? It's so unfair that I'm a late bloomer!” Nonetheless, the Wonderbolt took her mission to protect them seriously. They helped form a circle around their queen, the last form of defense amidst the chaos.

Night Blade announced, “Leave this to us my queen.” He and Thunder Storm, alongside a number of commanders and their soldiers, were the first back into the conflict that carried on around them.

Shining Armor embraced and kissed his wife, tears in his eyes. “We'll fix this! Somehow!” With a pained nod, she waved him back into the war, aware others needed her far more than she did.

“Wait,” murmured Cadance to the hyper-stud, unable to deny how much he'd developed in such a short amount of time. She took a sword from one of her guards. “Midnight Blitzer, kneel and lower your head.” He quirked an eyebrow, but went to one knee before her as she raised the blade. “I hereby knight you as my 'Fifth Sword'. Perhaps some would say it's unearned, but we've seen your potential from a short time after you enlisted, and hoped you would succeed your father one day. Unfortunately, that time arrived sooner than expected. Now, prove I've made the correct choice.”

“I will, my queen. I swear it,” he said sincerely as the blade rested above his skull.

With the sword handed back to her soldier she commanded, “Rise, my 'Fifth Sword'. Go forth and uphold the code of chivalry in my name.” Perhaps she appeared undignified in her current state, her mane and makeup a mess, her belly heavily rounded, and completely naked soaked in her own releases and those that had ravished her, but she carried herself with all the pride she could muster.

Most of her troopers remained loyal as ever, and looked upon her with admiration.

Equestria's spiral out of control rushed on unabated. Grayscale Carnifex, who'd spirited a number of souls to the afterlife, warned the twins and Ocellus of their fate. “Anyone that perishes in a time loop doesn't come back," he explained. “While your names will be remembered by the survivors, they'll be a distant memory, and it's likely they'll assume you were lost in the invasion.”

He'd continued, “But there will be exceptions. Some of the fallen, those blessed with a special destiny, will be reborn on the planet Eden. Perhaps you'll be able to meet them, one day. Until then, it will be like you're in a deep, peaceful sleep, while you dream of a perfect universe!”

Unfortunately, to enact his plan he'd put Beatrix, and by proxy Bellatrix and Cerise at terrible risk. He rarely intervened directly, in fear it would draw out the puppet masters and render him vulnerable, but this was so out of hand he had no choice. He'd have to head into battle himself.

Of course, he couldn't do something so vulgar as to assassinate Chrysalis directly. Such a vulgar display of his power would act as a beacon to whoever threatened the multiverse. Yet the Eldritch were a different matter, creatures far beyond mankind, which he could dispatch without consequence. He descended back into the mortal plane, with his newest allies in tow...

*****

Earlier, the founder and leader of the Order of Reapers in question, along with his current companions, observed how all this drama unfolded. When the souls he'd claimed transcended their destroyed, physical forms, they reappeared, nude and translucent. “I'm back to my old self,” cried Ocellus in her phantasmal form, when she materialized beside Foal-Bearer and Wet Nurse.

“It all depends on how one perceives themselves,” noted Grayscale, while they were able to witness the Crystal Empire with their now enhanced vision. “You'll learn to form clothes, in time. But we have more pressing matters, do we not? The multiverse has started to collapse here, but anyone that is swallowed up by that dimensional rift will survive! We must try and protect them until then.”

Foal-Bearer snapped to attention. “Tell us what we can do, master.”

He chuckled. “You'll serve as my eyes. Guide everyone you can into the nexus!”

“We'll do our best,” said Wet Nurse, as she and her sister bowed. “Ocellus?”

“I...I'll help too. It's the least I can do...” Ocellus sniffled, aware that her clutch would be no more. But better off dead than warped into these murderous, ravenous monsters, she decided. “How much can they see and hear us?” She concentrated, and discovered she could float about freely.

“You'll be faint...but your voices should be able to reach them,” said Grayscale. “However, try and evade the cultists and especially the Eldritch. They can potentially perceive and snuff you out!”

“You released the Eldritch didn't you,” reminded Foal-Bearer. “And put everyone at terrible risk!”

Wet Nurse added, “Beatrix, Bellatrix, and Cerise aren't even part of this war!”

“A calculated risk for the sake of the multiverse. Remember, I'm not supposed to play favorites, and I have a responsibility to every universe! Beatrix is blessed and cursed with importance, much like Zafire Heart and Moon Hammer! Bellatrix and Cerise weren't supposed to be here...but even I made mistakes. Still, it's up to us to save everyone we can! So let's be off, shall we?” He sailed away.

In the present time, the cataclysm and war went on unabated. Beatrix, Bellatrix, and the succubi, invaded by drones warped by the dark arts, now were puppeteered to aid the cult and Eldritch. Trixie, Fuchsia, and Lavender cackled in triumph, certain they would be unstoppable now!

“We're finally reunited, my little hellspawn,” noted Trixie at Bea's side. “Hmm, but it's no fun when you're so doll-like! Or should that be zombie-like? Unlike the beautiful entities that have attached themselves to us, this isn't permanent!” The trio of witches allowed a moist tentacle to slide from their slits and swipe at the air. “Don't worry, we'll implant one of these in you once we've won!”

“Don't count our chickens yet,” reminded Fuchsia, who shuddered pleasantly with her companions whenever the creatures inside their hot cores squirmed to reward them with tremors of bliss.

“D-don't be so pessimistic,” faltered Lavender, as their eyes rolled into their heads and their snatches spattered a small puddle of their lust on the already murky hive floors.

Beatrix, like Bellatrix and the succubi, stared blank-eyed ahead, reduced to little more than meat to be piloted about. They lurched awkwardly, while the changeling grubs inside them adjusted to their new, unfamiliar flesh, yet soon found they could still call on the magic inside each puppet. More of the swarm searched out new hosts, a Protoquen like Ocellus able to birth hundreds at a time.

They were on the prowl, the newborn changelings not starved for choice with all the barely protected, fertile pussies around them, ready to be forced open and burrowed into. Warm, wet wombs would serve them well as new homes, their squishy, slippery insides not so different from the hive. Yet instinct drove them to not choose just any mare they crossed, but to seek out the most potent amongst them, strategic in their search to claim the most dangerous of the females.

Ones like Zafire Heart, who marched ahead, heavy sword in both hands. Her impressive magic turned upon her own followers, even their arcane tattoos unable to bear the brunt for long. Panna and Chezka were forced to take cover under the mystic assault that peppered the Amazons.

Chezka couldn't bear to fire on her. “My queen, why...?”

“She's been possessed,” cried Panna. “And we will be, too, if-!” She screamed when a swarm descended on them. Their repeated attacks from every direction stripped the protective runes from their curves, leaving their flesh exposed, as they desperately slashed and kicked at the black mass.

“N-no,” yelled Panna, as she saw one of the bloated drones force itself head-first into Chezka's horsepussy amist a wet pop, then felt another one squirm into her own stretched out pussylips. They squealed and writhed when the insects squirmed within them, and their eyes went blank.

“We're too late,” murmured Foal-Bearer, as the phantoms that arrived observed the fall.

“Two more of our allies down,” replied Wet Nurse, who held her sister's hand.

Ocellus went off on her own, despite the fact that the Eldritch could potentially locate and snuff even a specter out. Her main concern was Fiery, who she wished to somehow make it up to him. To tell him the twins were 'okay', that the imminent time loop would fix this unthinkable disaster.

Instead, what she spotted in the caves made her pause. Gasps were swallowed down.

A number of the Eldritch, which surrounded a fallen, muscled succubus. They appeared to be performing some twisted form of surgery on the corpse, with a mixture of tools and black magic, which funneled into the carved up carcass. For a moment, it appeared they'd dissect her. Instead, the white-robed aliens breathed a new form of 'life' into Sanguine, who shuddered when the jaws that covered her heavy breasts and snatch started to snap and drool, until she shambled to her hooves. Groans rolled from her bloodied lips, as she strained to form a coherent sentence.

“Must...kill...” Her meaty fist slapped a couple of Eldritch aside.

Yet her brain was warped by their psychic reconstruction. A similar feat they'd once performed on Bellatrix, to lure Beatrix into a trap, but while that succubus was recreated in a perfect manner, the she-devil warrior had her mind twisted to blame her old allies for what had befallen her.

“Rend...slay...crush...maim...” She stalked on, doused in blood, and Ocellus heaved and hid.

Eldritch turned in the direction of Ocellus, able to faintly sense her while they communicated by telepathy. She would've paled, were it still possible, and raced into the maze of a hive.

“We have to hold the line,” shouted Moon Hammer. Gore painted him, Redrum, and a number of minotaurs, who had showered the hive walls in the insides of the drones they encountered. Unfortunately, they were down to a few men, several of them lost from a war of attrition.

“This is suicide,” whispered Redrum near him. “But we're with you to the end.”

“Good. Because I still plan to return home with you,” he answered, as his war hammer crushed another drone's head to pulp with a splat. A number of Amazons and ponies aided them, but they too were spread thin, with enemies in every direction, and some slain by nature as the planet appeared to crash down around them. Caved in tunnels had further separated the armies.

His eyes widened and settled on the new arrivals. One of the succubi, further transformed into a monstrous, but still sensuous shape, with sets of razor teeth that snapped in her breasts and cunt. The Amazon Queen herself, eyes dulled and horn lit, ready to rain down destruction with her sword raised. Behind them, a number of cultists and more succubi, beside Panna and Chezka.

“Take care of that demon,” he ordered Redrum, who nodded. “Zafire Heart, face me!”

The Amazon Queen snapped to attention, and accepted his challenge, since even in this compromised form her pride remained. She charged to face him. Sanguine did much the same when Redrum stepped forward to stop the devil warrior, as the four champions clashed head on.

“Leave them to it,” yelled Trixie. “We have other threats to deal with!”

Another rumble resounded. Weapons connected, the wielders shaken from the impact. Zafire had finally found a worthy foe, and snuffed out the aura from her horn, to test her mettle as she battled flesh-to-flesh, steel-to-steel, her ancient prowess met by the youthful but powerful chieftain. Redrum hissed, one of his horns snapped by the teeth of his blood-crazed opponent.

“Too...late...,” muttered Redrum, knocked back to his butt as blood ran down his face. His eyes were instead on a prismatic brilliance that spilled into the hive while the surface cracked.

“Huh?” Sanguine spun her head at the light, which swept over a number of Amazons and cultists, who appeared to be vaporized in an instant, both unaware they were whisked away by the dimensional rift. “You die,” she bellowed, as her teeth sank into his beefy, leathery vermillion flesh...until they, too, were consumed by the brilliance, tossed into the void by the rift.

“No,” shouted Moon Hammer, while he redoubled his attack on the Amazon Queen. The heavy blade sank into his abdomen, as he choked up blood, and his wiry muscles shuddered when his two muscled arms crashed down his war hammer and collided with Zafire's skull with a crack, her horn split. Blood exploded from the pair of worn out leaders, who collapsed into a bloody pool.

The blacksmith's last thoughts were of his friend, his people, hopeful that whatever happened, their sacrifices would be worth it. That somehow, the minotaurs and holstaurs would always survive.

The blow that rattled Zafire returned a sliver of sanity to her. She used that chance to shove a fist into her cunt below her cock and balls, reached into her uterus, and ripped out the bloated insect. It squirmed and screeched at her, until she crushed it like a popped balloon that showered her.

Unfortunately, she sensed her time was near, too. Her fallen opponent was worthy, indeed.

“Sleep well my friend.” She closed Moon Hammer's eyes, before she collapsed next to his body.

Around them, the prismatic brilliance continued to sweep across the cavern, and consumed everyone that couldn't escape in time, the corpses of the defeated included as they dematerialized. Even in their compromised state, Chezka scooped up Panna to save her, but they were lost, too.

One-by-one, more from both sides were swallowed up, until this reality reassembled itself. Grayscale arrived himself, an executioner's sword in hand. He wasn't supposed to execute mortals before their time...but the Eldritch were another matter! He'd do his best to sacrifice them all!

With blade and elemental breath, which escaped the drake's maw, he started his Eldritch massacre. Their psychic assaults merely tickled the ancient predator, and likewise their spells, as he swooped into the madness, and each arc of his saber from muscled, scaley arms demolished them.

Rarely did he have the opportunity to let loose like this! To kill without mercy!

Some Eldritch attempted to attack his flank. His tail lashed out and skewered them. Barely threatened by them despite their numbers, he instead considered the fate of Moon Hammer and Zafire Heart, who would be reborn as fated on Planet Eden, to later be met by Beatrix, their memories of this encounter in this version of Equestria wiped away by the time loop...

*****

“It's quieter by the moment,” whispered Moonflower, who hunched down. “Are we the last ones?”

“No way,” said Snowy Blizzard with a shake of her head. “Our allies won't fall so easily!” The mares sheltered with the civilians, while the commanders and soldiers formed a phalanx around them.

“I'm so proud of our children,” said Moonflower to comfort her, as they watched them fight beside their husbands and Shining Armor to defend them, a compromised Cadance included.

“Me too,” said Snowy with tears in her eyes, too tapped out to summon another cold snap.

Gales below from each sweep of Midnight Blitzer's massive wingspan, the newly knighted 'Fifth Sword', who battled in the air beside Thunder Storm, Night Blade, Lightning Spark, and Moonlight River, while Cerise Silhouette aided Shining Armor and the other grounded soldiers. Over-and-over, they rebuffed the changelings and cultists, but on occasion more of their own numbers were thinned by a constant assault, the circle forced to close in as more allies were wounded or slain.

Cadance had taken up a sword. “If only I could still work my spells...!”

“You're too important,” reminded Thunder Storm, who shouted from above. The sound waves he unleashed proved effective to break the hive mind of the changelings, who were disoriented and scattered by the noises that pierced them, one of the few reasons they hadn't been overrun yet. But he too was at his limits, until with a pained breath he was forced to land, swathed in cold sweat.

Snowy came as close as she dared to the outer circle. “Sweetheart, are you-?”

“I'll be fine,” he reassured her, his sword shaky in his hand. “Stay back where it's safe! Please!”

“Y-yes,” she whimpered, her hands clenched as she felt so helpless. If only she'd practiced her powers more often! But she'd dedicated her life to her family, an honorable profession, as he told her.

Cerise kept her distance with her spear, which poked at the drones, surrounded by troopers that raised their shields to defend them. “Is this the end? Beatrix, where the hell are you...?” Her soulful pink eyes lit up. “Wiat, is that-?” A number of eyes focused on flames that burned ahead.

Fire immolated a number of the swarm. A nude, muscled stallion entered, ablaze.

“Fiery Kickstart?” Gasps rose as a number of onlookers voiced his name at once. He walked amidst an inferno he left behind in his wake, and wielded a sword formed from a white-hot blaze.

“The cavalry's here!” Lightning Spark did a loop and laughed, she and a number of the soldiers bolstered by his reappearance. With renewed fury, their blades cut a swath into the enemy.

Midnight beamed, too. “Now the 'Swords' are all together! We're unbeatable!” He used his winds to help fan the flames, which washed over the drones, and consumed dozens more of them. Unfortunately, no matter how many were slain, more crawled out of the slimy crevices.

“I'm...not safe...,” tried to warn Fiery, afraid he'd explode once more. That no matter how terrible Chrysalis and her minions were, he could prove even worse and consume them all.

Nonetheless, he turned his sword on the swarm, and reduced them to ashes. Said ashes were scattered to the winds by Midnight, who'd discarded his sword after it lodged itself within a cultist, and instead he used his new powers to form a blade from the winds. Ssaid weapon whirled at rapid speeds, and dessicated whatever enemies it carved into, reduced to mush in the whirlwind.

“All out of darts,” remarked Moonlight, who'd hurled the drug-laced weapons from her wingtips and knocked out whatever they struck. “Damn, too bad the changelings are probably immune to their own toxins! But they seem to work fine on the cultists, at least! As do these wands!”

Yet the next threat soon made their appearance. Those already claimed by the swarm.

Cerise called out, “Beatrix? Bellatrix? Wait, something isn't right...!” She met the glazed eyes of her fellow companions and the other succubi in the distance, flanked by more acolytes. The enslaved puppets attacked, and with a shocked yelp she barely manifested a crystalline barrier in time.

Gemstone pillars rose from the cracked earth and sparkled when they partially deflected spells cast in their direction. Cerise's twin-tailed mane whirled behind her when she summoned up more.

“That's some trick,” whistled Moonie. “Middy, Sparks, she needs some back up!”

“Gotcha,” said the twin brother-and-sister as one, while they and more soldiers moved to support the dancer. Gales ripped across the hive, more of their attackers tossed about like debris. Already, the elemental wielders started to sweat, unused to the barely controllable powers they manifested.

“I...can't keep this up,” warned Cerise, as her heart already started to hammer. “I-I only learned I have these crystal powers a short time back! I haven't had much time to master them...!”

“I can deal with them,” offered Fiery, his white-hot brand at the ready.

“Don't kill them,” pleaded Cerise. “I...I can neutralize them!” She didn't know whether that was true, but nonetheless she tried to summon up more crystal around the feed of the assailants. Unfortunately, while Beatrix was taken flat-footed, the three succubi descended into the air.

“Get that one,” shouted Trixie, who waved at the princess. “She's Sombra's child!”

“Yes mistress,” said Fuchsia and Lavender, their own horns and wands afire with the arcane.

Sweatdrops poured down Cerise while she concentrated. “Bea, you have to wake up!” She swayed unsteadily on her feet, and sleepily blinked, pushed to her limits by the unfamiliar power. One she felt would come naturally to her over time, were they able to survive and she practiced at it...!

Gems shattered into sparkly dust. The swarm funneled in.

Lightning Spark zipped in at the forefront, despite the warning cries of her companions, and suddenly an electric storm rippled across the area. Changelings and cultists alike were electrified by volts that surged throughout them, to the point where some smoked and blackened, while others toppled into seizures, left to thrash while the electric blue mare poured on a newly awakened power. “Take that,” she cried, as her twin's own winds worked in tandem to carry the electricity.

“Wow,” mumbled Moonie.

“She may have the most potential of us all,” admitted Thunder Storm. “But it's difficult to control!”

“Maybe I can help her,” considered Fiery, who'd had to learn how to master his own flames. While most eyes were on the electric storm, he tried to move in...and felt a soft touch at his sides.

His eyes shifted to each side, at the phantom, almost imperceptible and nude forms of Foal-Bearer and Wet Nurse. Their warmth and softness pressed into him, as they radiated in a seraphic manner, their ample, bare breasts crushed into the sides of his own nude musculature. He inhaled their familiar, subtle perfume, and felt the poke of their perky nipples when they started to lift him up.

“It's time to leave my love,” whispered Foal-Bearer. “The Eldritch are on their way.”

Wet Nurse also murmured, “This world's about to enter a loop! You have to survive it!”

“No,” he called, while they flew up with him pinned between them. “My war isn't over! I have to-”

Yet they had ascended far beyond their mortal limitations, thanks to Grayscale Carnifex, and were easily able to physically overpower his flesh. Not that he'd ever dare try and harm them. Ahead of him, another specter manifested, Ocellus, equally nude when she hovered a short distance away.

“Die now and this'll all be pointless,” proclaimed Ocellus. “The time loop will reset this all!”

Fiery realized that must be what the cosmic storms that flooded across Equestria meant. One world's ending, and a new one's beginning, for when the time loop settled, all of the surviving players here would be shuffled into new roles. Yet all they'd learned and experienced would be lost, too. Would he even meet the twins in his next life? Love them, after he'd lost it all...?

The choice would be taken from him. More of the hive caved in, and a prismatic pillar spilled into the cave, which the nude twins started to pull the mustard-colored stallion into.

Ocellus cast him a sad smile. “Relax, Fiery! We can fix this next time! We—ah~...! Her shrieks pierced their ears when a dimensional blade sunk into her back, and exited her breastbone. He and the twins called and reached to her, even while they rapidly faded from this plane of existence.

One of the Eldritch struck home. Typical weapons were useless on spectral creatures, so they had fashioned special armaments from the cosmic energies for such an occasion, aware that even Grayscale would be vulnerable to such an attack, were they able to close the distance.

A bittersweet smile crossed Ocellus, tears on her face when she took her last, strained breath. She dissipated out of existence at the hands of the Eldritch, everyone else unaware she'd even been there. Yet even had they known, there would be no time to mourn as the Eldritch spilled in.

Despite his efforts, Grayscale couldn't keep them all at bay, as his own desperate plan to force a time loop due to the introduction of so many paradoxes not threatened to end their lives.

Chrysalis hid and cowered from the chaos around her, aware she'd completely lost control. The cosmic storm continued to push across her hive, and swallowed up her enemies and followers alike without rhyme or reason. The wounded multiverse simply attempted to fix itself, however it could.

She hissed to herself, “Was this that damned cult's plan the whole time? I won't be used...!”