Chapter 108: On Time

To an outside observer, the scene taking place in the middle of a clearing in the woods at the foot of Canterlot Mountain would likely be called a murder attempt.

When ponies fight, especially those capable of using magic, it usually boils down to keeping themselves alive while trying to stop the other pony from keeping themselves alive.

Ponies, as creatures of harmony, are not known to be especially malicious or bloodthirsty, and those that are can usually be summed up to a magical corruption making them evil, or something like that.

Blueblood, however, is not a Pony, not in the same way Starlight Glimmer is, his connection with Harmony is minuscule in comparison to other Unicorns, meaning that while his go-to method of dealing with problems is a bit more... how shall we say this?

Human.

Chrysalis, on the other hand, is also not a Pony. Her connection to Harmony is even smaller than that of the Prince. It is a biological fact of her species and nothing she can do will likely ever change that, only an outside influence will be able to get a naturally... Disharmonious creature like a changeling to truly act in accordance with the Magical laws of Harmony.

All that is a weirdly long complex way of saying that Prince Blueblood and Queen Chrysalis were trying to kill each other.

Magic wasn't being thrown like a shower of explosive orbs or tendrils of slimy claws, it was just two creatures, punching each other, and hoping that the other would fall before they did.

They did not try and defend themselves, they merely dodged the hoof when they could, or took it if they couldn't, just so they could dish a hoof back without waiting.

"Why would I defend myself, if I can go on the attack?" Is what they were both thinking, and to any outside observer, that way of thinking is stupid, insane, practically suicidal.

And yet, there seemed to be an unspoken agreement between the two opposing Royals.

Chrysalis will not regenerate the harm done to her or use her magic if Blueblood did not use his own magic to take her out.

It was not a battle of who can take down the other first, it was a battle of who would use their magic first.

It was a game of chicken, and they were both ready to lose.

Even an outside observer would have been able to notice that.

So the outside observer tried to intervene.

"Queen Chrysalis! We're here to help!" A changeling screamed as he flew out of the tree line and into the clearing, his wings buzzing loudly as he tried to take a punch for his Queen, giving her the upper hoof.

However, that act broke the other unspoken agreement.

No outside interference.

The moment the Changeling entered the clearing, it was as if both parties stopped whatever they were doing and came to a temporary truce.

A fist made of dirt and stone burst out of the ground, burning blue veins holding it together, as Pluto punched the gut of the changeling from below, causing the black bug to tumble onto the ground, rolling in pain.

Chrysalis's green braid, which previously levitated behind her like an extra appendage, magically extended into a clawed hand and grabbed the face of the Changeling, of her own subject, and pulled it towards her.

This one Changeling, this single insect, has dared interfere in her fight.

In her path to love!

A smooth black leg shot towards the gut of the Changeling, Queen Chrysalis impaling her own subject for the crime of interfering in her fight.

Her side was the one that broke the agreement.

And therefore, her side will be taking the punishment.

She let the still twitching corpse slide down off of her leg as she turned to look at her opponent, His face was stained red from all the blood trailing from his nose and lips, purple bruises seemed to grow beneath white fur on his cheeks and chest, and a Snake-Skulled statue made out of the material around him levitated over his body like a guardian angel.

A smile started to spread on the Prince's battered face as he realized what just happened, and without waiting for further clearance, his horn started to shine with a blue aura.

The real fight starts here.

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"Your Majesty! Prince Blueblood has been kidnapped!" A Royal guard yelled as he burst into the throne room, his eyes quickly finding Princess Celestia.

"WHAT?!" The Princess of Equestria, who ruled for over one thousand years, screamed the question.

"It was right outside the castle gate, an unknown Unicorn came up to him under the guise of-" The royal guard was cut off as a magical aura of Arctic Blue, Light Pink, and vibrant gold, enveloped him and lifted him off the ground, quickly pulling him to float in front of a blank-faced Celestia.

"Where is he?" Celestia's voice was calm yet booming, magically echoing across the entire throne room, the nearby staff all took a step back, some taking several, and the Royal Guards stationed throughout the castle started to sweat under their armor as the temperature was raised several degrees in the matter of an instant.

"I don't know- She used a Teleportation spell! She could be anywhere!" The answer the guard gave, it seems, was unsatisfactory, as Celestia's magic through the guard across the room, his body hitting the floor and sliding out of the door he came in from, his magically enchanted armor the only thing keeping him from breaking several important bones in his body.

"Raven Inkwell," Princess Celestia said calmly, her voice still echoing with magic, "Keep my throne warm for me," She stood up, not even caring that Raven Inkwell was not in the same room as her, as she walked out of the throne room, passing the panicking Guard she threw out moments prior, and stepped outside into the afternoon sun.

Princess Celestia knew she was past her prime, she had spent more time as a benevolent and harmonious ruler of a nation than she had as a traveling Warrior from all those centuries ago, over one hundred times as long, yet she was not as rusted as many might think of her.

The ponies outside stepped away and kept a clear distance between themselves and the Alicorn, her aurora of mane now a pillar of fire, the heat emanating from her body was starting to singe the fur of the nearby pones, and with a single flap of her wings, she disappeared.

Where she previously stood, four indents were left on the marble floor, where his hoofs melted the ground beneath her.

And if any pony were to look to the sky, they would find a trail of fire circling Canterlot, slowly expanding the diameter of its circle, like a radar, searching for what it was looking for.

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It took only an instant, one moment she was staring at a smiling Prince, enchanted by the color of his blood. The next, she stood in the middle of an empty road in the middle of the desert.

She looked left and saw the road stretch out for as far as her eyes could see.

She looked right, and she saw that the desert stretched out to the ends of the earth.

The sun was beaming down at her, a tumbleweed crossed by her, and the vultures in the sky circled her, waiting for their next meal.

She smiled at the scene, an empty wasteland, where only the worst of the worst could survive the natural hostility of the place. You either live underground like a mouse, hiding away for the rest of your life.

Or you live in the sky like a vulture, waiting for a mouse to pop his tiny little head out of the sand.

It wasn't long before she picked up a new sound made itself known, it was a rumbling engine, an automobile making its way down the road, a pillar of smoke and dust trailing behind it.

Queen Chrysalis smiled at the incoming automobile, and at the white Unicorn driving it.

She waited with a smile stretched on her wretched face as the vehicle sped up at the sight of her.

She bent her legs, waiting for the moment to jump, her smile nearly feral in its width.

And when the car was moments away from striking her, when she could see that her smile matched the one of the driver, she jumped.

Only that her legs did not move.

"Oh..." Queen Chrysalis said with a smile, as the vehicle, a large open-roofed jeep slammed into her legs, her body falling on top of the jeep and flinging over it, landing on the road behind, receiving a face of smoke and dust to spice up the pain.

"I expected more," Chrysalis noted to herself calmly as she felt her legs bend in directions that her biology would not naturally allow in the form she was currently taking.

And then her smile brightened when the "More" she was expecting appeared.

"PLUTO!!!" A voice screamed out, and an industrial chain flew out of the cloud of dust, the hook at the end of the chain stabbing into her left front leg, another explosion of pain sprouting from her limb.

Chrysalis laughed out loud, her voice manic and crazed, as the chain in her leg pulled taut as the vehicle sped away, and with nothing else to hold her back, she was dragged along.

She knew none of it was real, it was an obvious illusion, yet every bump in the road, every rattle of the chain, grain of sand flying into her eyes.

It all felt so real.

But it wasn't over yet, with a quick turn of the steering wheel, the Jeep left the road, dragging Chrysalis with it as they entered a field of Cacti.

Chrysalis screamed with laughter, her body overflowing with love, as every rock that slammed into her back, and every cactus that smacked against her carapace and every spike and every point all seemed to fuel her more and more.

"I LOVE THIS!" She screamed, a mixture of pain and joy, as her body was caught between a pair of heavy cacti, the chain in her leg still pulling hard.

With a scream of euphoric anguish, her body was engulfed by a burning pain, the chain in her no longer able to pull her body while she was stuck, a fountain of green blood bursting out of the mangled stump where her left front leg was supposed to be.

And with her body overflowing with such potent love, the Illusion shattered, And Queen Chrysalis found herself laughing hysterically at it all.

She ignored the corpses of the changelings that littered the previously empty clearing, she ignored the bloody stump where her lug was supposed to be, and she ignored her mind screaming at her to do something, that she was killing herself.

"I LOVE THIS SO MUCH!!!" Chrysalis cried, her missing leg seemingly bursting back into existence with a flare of green fire.

And without waiting any further wait, The gelatinous tendrils that made up the braid in her hair burst into green flame, escaping her body like a swarm of flying snakes, homing onto the only other living creature remaining in this sea of green blood and black bodies.

"PLUTO!!!" The living statue that levitated on a serpentine tail yelled out as it intercepted the flaming tendrils, acting as a meat shield for its creator.

Yet, the burning snakes were nothing more than a distraction, as a sharp spike of solid black chitin pierced through its torso.

Queen Chrysalis cracked her neck, her smile still glued on to her face as her body seemingly doubled in size, her previously slim form now covered in an organic armor of dense chitin, a pair of extra limbs extending from her shoulders like the claws of a praying mantis, ending in sharp black spikes.

She looked less like a Pony, and more like a mutated Beetle, her new solid black carapace too heavy for her to take flight.

She looked all around the clearing, her legs heavily armored, slowly turning her body to take in the entire clearing around her.

She created this transformation following her previous fight with the Prince, taking heavy inspiration from his sense-sealing chains and mask, trading her mobility for a large boost in power.

In this form, she was like a sitting duck, unable to turn quick enough to hit her target, but also tough enough to not need to dodge.

And most importantly...

With a flare of green magic and a scream of effort, Chrysalis spread her telekinesis as far as she could take it, and with a stomp of her legs, lifted everything in her grasp.

And by everything, that means Everything.

The dirt and leaves on the ground started to levitate, the trees found themselves uprooted and lifted into the air, the corpses and blood started to float, like a thick miasma of green and black, and in the distance, at the edge of her reach, she found it.

"COME OVER HERE!" She screamed as she dropped her telekinetic hold on everything else in order to focus on that one object. And with a pull of her magic, hearing it slam into the many trees in its way, Chrysalis dragged Prince Blueblood back into the arena the two created, his body covered in golden chains and a horned gladiatorial mask, only for it all to shatter away as he flew right into a solid black leg.

It was less like the hoof of a pony, and closer in shape and size to a battering ram, and Prince Blueblood's body slammed into it at speeds that would make some of the greatest Pegasus athletes jealous. His protection shattered, his body was enveloped in pain, and his mind seemed to blank for the briefest of moments as it screamed at him, working overtime as the lights started to dim beneath his eyelids, that he had to get out of there.

For the first time in twenty-nine years.

Prince Blueblood Platinum, Truly thought, in the deepest depth of his soul.

"I might actually die here,"

"Heh..." His limp body shook in Chrysalis's hold, his chest engulfed in pain as his lungs tried to keep him breathing.

"Hehehe..." Queen Chrysalis smiled wider than before, the armored carapace on her face cracking as her lips spread to unnatural limits, injuring herself in her manic glee.

"Hehehehe... Heheha.. Hahaha..." Blueblood's body stopped moving for a moment, going limp, silent, for but a moment.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!" Only to return with an explosion of gold, blasting his body away from Chrysalis and onto the floor, only for his body to be caught in his own Telekinesis.

"YES! THIS IS WHAT I WAS WAITING FOR!!!" He screamed a mixture of joy and pain, his eyes bloodshot and manic, and yet so full of life.

Full of drive.

Full of Love.

Chrysalis's breath hitched once she saw those eyes, and that was all the time Blueblood needed.

"EPIMETHEUS!" With a yell, A beam of golden magic flew into the sky high above him, disappearing above the clouds and reaching the utmost edges of the magical atmosphere that surrounded the earth.

Chrysalis's eyes followed the beam, watching it disappear in the distance high above before she looked back down the to prince, only to find him gone.

"I GOT YOU!" She craned her neck down, seeing the Prince hugging the bottom of her body, magical chains extending from his horn and tying the two together.

With a smile, Chrysalis's form shifted, dropping the heavily armored carapace and returning to her slim and natural physique. Using her slimmer body, she wrapped her limbs around the prince and pulled him into a bone-crushing hug.

That is not to say she hugged him tightly, no. His bones were being crushed underneath her vice grip.

"I GOT YOU!" Chrysalis repeated the Prince's words, her face mere centimeters from his, Green blood dripped down from her mouth and mixed with the red flowing from his nose, her emerald orbs stared into his arctic blue, she got him.

She won.

"I win." Blueblood said simply, a confident gleam in his eyes as he stared into the Changeling Queen's windows to the soul.

"Oh?" Chrysalis tilted her head to the side, her forked tongue sticking out of her mouth as she started to lick the Pony in her grasp, "How so?"

"The spell I just cast, Epimetheus, It's going to kill you," He said calmly, not caring for the wet appendage licking the blood and sweat from his body, "Pale Blue Dot won't work on you, if you could escape it once, you can escape it again, so I needed a new spell, one with a similar cost to Pale Blue Dot, yet not an Illusion. That is where Epimetheus comes in,"

"Go on," Chrysalis whispered huskily as her tongue shapeshifted in order to extend further, wrapping around the prince like a wet scarf covered in taste buds, The Changeling Queen able to taste every corner of his body.

"Epimetheus is one of the many moons of Jupiter, but in Myth, he is a son of the Titan Iapetus, making him the brother of Prometheus and Atlas," The Prince started to explain, his eyes still staring to the Changeling's own, "Atlas isn't relevant right now, so we'll stick to Prometheus and Epimetheus. If Prometheus is the Foresight, who acts in a way that he sees will be better off in the future, Epimetheus is his opposite, the Hindsight, who acts selfishly only thinking of the here and now, irrespective of how his actions might affect himself or others in the future,"

"A Warrior and a Philosopher?" Chrysalis mumbled, her tongue still wrapping around the prince like a cocoon of muscle, "Just shut up and take me here and now why won't you~"

"Let me finish before you open your whore mouth to interrupt me you stupid bitch," Blueblood said with a calm smile as if he did not just insult the person holding his life in her grasp, The Changeling quivering as the insults washed over her body.

"Hehe, Demean me more~" She whispered, her tongue already halfway through with wrapping around the Princes's torso, steadily making its way lower.

"Shut up, In myth, Epimetheus is the husband of Pandora, and in some stories, he's the one that opens Pandora's box," Blueblood looked away from the Changeling Queen's eyes and turned to the sky above, "This Spell is a symbolic recreation of that, Opening Pandora's Box, or in this case, Opening the crust of the earth,"

"Oh?" Chrysalis turned to follow the Prince's gaze, watching a tiny glint of gold sparkle high above the sky.

"This spell is the Physical replacement to Pale Blue Dot, made specifically for people like you, who'll be able to escape that Masterful Illusion," Blueblood grabbed Chrysalis's face with his magic and pulled at it to make her look back down at him, watching an excited smile stretch on his face.

"This spell is a fallen star, that will drill into the earth until it no longer has any power, a spell designed for destruction above all else," His smile stretched wider as he managed to pull his legs out of the fleshy cocoon made form the Queen's tongue, grabbing hold of the sides of her face and pulling her even closer to hi.

"In order to maximize the destructive output of this spell, I had to throw range and accuracy out, This spell is the ultimate game of chicken, and this time, you won't be teleporting away!" A Pang of pain erupted from Chrysalis's hind legs, a pair of hooks emerged from the ground and pierced her flesh, grounding her in place.

"THIS SPELL WILL DIG INTO THE EARTH UNTIL IT IS NO LONGER ABLE!!! A DRILL THAT WILL BREAK OPEN PANDORA'S BOX!!! AND IT ONLY HAS ONE TARGET, NO MATTER WHAT!!!!!" Blueblood's voice turned manic as his hooves squeezed the Changeling's cheeks so tight her Carapace started to crack, "ME!!!!!"

Chrysalis's eyes widened in horror as she turned to look at the glinting spark of gold, getting larger and larger in the distance as it came down ever closer.

This was why Blueblood latched on to her, he could not aim this spell, so he had to use himself as the target.

And as he said, this was a game of chicken, Either Chrysalis tears her own legs off once more in order to escape, or the drill kills her as Blueblood teleports himself to safety at the last possible moment.

Or...

Chrysalis doesn't let go of the Prince or tear her legs off, and they both die.

Chrysalis turned away from the ever-approaching drilling beam of Golden Magic and stared into the Prince's eyes.

She could not let herself die yet, She still had so much to do, she had to become the perfect reflection of It, and to do that she still needed to understand It, what It did, what It truly meant to her.

She was little more than a dead worm inside of a rotten fruit, a living embodiment of disgust.

And she was hungry.

Oh so hungry.

Chrysalis's lips, bruised and bleeding, locked with those of the prince, chapped and dry, their blood mixing on her tongue as she dragged it back into her mouth, the taste of salty sweat and coppery blood mixing together to create a hideous concoction.

She loved it. But she was still hungry.

And she will always be hungry. That is something she knew.

From the moment It pulled her out of that muck, she was Hungry.

And that hunger could never be satiated.

Not by It[, not by Its daughter, who was sent to the far future as the black butterfly betrayed It, and not by this Prince, the last heir to the ancient house of Platinum, nothing could make her full.

The Being who was called Chrysalis existed to consume, and no matter how hard she tries to change that, to become like It[, A being who existed to be loved, She will never be It.

And deep down, in the recesses of her mind, she knew that.

She was a Dead Worm inside a Rotten Fruit.

And with a flare of green magic from her Horn, The Worm started to consume.

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Deep inside the Prison of Tartarus, in the most secure cell of the magic prison, a certain prisoner was laughing hysterically at the turn of events.

"YES!" Lord Tirek cheered, the chains binding his body to the floor of his dark and empty cage creaking and rattling at the force of his yell, "IT'S ALMOST HERE! SO CLOSE! SO CLOSE!!!

It was not yet time, but it was coming, the paths had aligned, and Destiny was fast approaching.

And Tirek Knew, that should he fail to destroy the world, there will still be three other opportunities to follow.

"THE END IS NIGH!!!"

Because only one may bring forth the Apocalypse, and that is something that will never change, no matter how much the script was ruined, it will always happen.

That was their Destiny.

That was their Fate.

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Chrysalis knew she could not stop the drill, her magic could not create a barrier strong enough.

But she did not need to block it.

An orb of green flame shot out of her horn, flying upwards to meet the beam of gold.

And as the orb touched the drill, it started to consume.

Like a mouth in space itself, sucking the magic like a black hole, The orb of green fire started to consume Epimetheus.

The more Epimetheus drew closer, the more the green flames ate at it, growing larger and hotter with each second.

Chrysalis felt her horn shudder under the weight of the spell, she felt liquid drip down her face as her horn started to crack, forcing her to actively regenerate the horn while controlling the Fire.

The Flames of Famine.

Consuming all in their way, from trees and stones to heat and magic, nothing could escape the all-consuming hunger of a creature destined to be one of four beings who would bring the end to the world.

And yet, having an infinite appetite does not mean having an infinitely large stomach to hold all her food.

As the drill of magic disappeared completely inside of the flames, Chrysalis shuddered, her body convulsing as pain spread through her entire nervous system, as if her entire body was stripped apart into nothing but nerves, and then dipped into a vat of molten iron.

She screamed, not in joy or love, but in absolute, gut-wrenching, mind-numbing, indescribable pain.

The orb of flames shuddered above her, her mind barely conscious enough to understand what was going to happen.

If Epimetheus was a drill that was going to pierce the world. Then the orb of fire was a bomb, with the force of the drill that would break open Pandora's Box.

Chrysalis felt her lips turn upwards as she turned away from the orb, her magic no longer controlling it as the flames started to fall down to earth.

She stared at the unconscious body of the Prince beneath her, and for what was probably the first time in her rotten life, she loved something.

A soft pink mist flowed out of her horn as it started to heal the injuries the Prince sustained, her body going limp as the strength in her legs left her, tumbling down onto the prince beneath her.

With a final glow to her horn, Chrysalis created a dome around the two of them, trying her utmost to protect both of them. For the first time in a lifetime, Chrysalis cared about another creature that wasn't It.

And then the flames touched the ground.

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Princess Celestia turned her head in silent horror as she watched an explosion of green and gold magic shake Canterlot, the mountain shuddering as it held strong under the force of the explosion.

Without waiting, Princess Celestia flew to the epicenter of the explosion, her magic clearing away the dust and flames as she looked around her.

What was once a clearing inside of a bright and colorful forest was now nothing more than an empty field of dust and ash.

Celestia's eyes locked on to the only thing in the clearing that wasn't Ash and smoke, her body turning into a living missile as she broke the sound barrier just to reach the body quicker.

She gently picked it up, an injured and bleeding Unicorn, and hugged it close to her.

She placed her ears on its chest and breathed a sigh of relief to hear that it was still alive.

"Don't worry Baby, Mommy's going to save you," And with a burst of an aurora of magic, the two ponies teleported back to the castle in order to get the Unicorn the best treatment he could get.

And in her hurry to bring her adopted son back to safety, Princess Celestia did not see the victorious smirk on the Unicorn's face or the glint of green magic in its horn.

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When I woke up, I knew that I was still unconscious, thanks to the fact that my body seemed to be made out of solid blue water, and I was standing on top of a flat white plane, extending endlessly as far as I could see.

"I didn't look like this since Nightmare Moon was in my mind," I noted as I started to stretch my imaginary limbs, trying to get used to this false body that I seemed to create whenever I was pulled into my own mind.

"You fucked up," I froze as a hauntingly familiar voice sounded from behind me.

"You're dead," I turned around to point at where the voice came from, only to find the place empty.

"Oh? Am I a ghost? Or am I just your subconscious trying to tell you something?" The voice kept talking, that familiar emotional undertone.

I hated that voice.

"Come out here so I can make sure you're actually dead this time!" I yelled, my body turning around in search of that annoying voice.

"You're a slave Kingfisher, you can't kill me, And besides-" I growled as I turned around once more, searching for that bastard.

"-You're already dead~" I froze as I faced him.

He looked nothing like how he was supposed to.

"Why the fuck are you an actual Macaw?" I asked the anthropomorphic bird, a Harpy, his body covered in red feathers as his hands and feet were replaced by claws and talons, large white circles surrounded his eyes and his mouth was replaced with a black and white beak.

"You're not going to question being dead?" Macaw asked with that annoying voice of his, raising a feathery eyebrow at me.

"If I was actually dead, We wouldn't be having this conversation, secondly, If you're here that means you're a ghost and you're haunting me, however, ghosts aren't real, which means that you're just an annoying figment of my imagination and nothing you say matters, Also, go Kill yourself again you piece of shit," I told the walking and talking figment of my imagination.

"Ooh~ telling me to kill myself? So cruel, classic Kingfisher~" Macaw's beak turned to a smile before he returned to normal, "You're going to be stuck here until you wake up, you know that?" He kicked the flat white plane with his clawed leg, "Wanna do something in the meantime? I think I can create a deck of cards or something, seeing as this is your subconscious and I'm just an avatar created by your inner self in order to keep you from going insane," He plopped down onto the floor, a pack of cards appearing in his claws, "Wanna play Old Maid or Go Fish?"

"...Fuck it, Might as well," I groaned tiredly before my see-through water-like body sat down in front of the ghost of a man who ruined my life.

It's not like I had anything better to do.