//------------------------------// // Chapter Three // Story: Identity Chrysalis // by HapHazred //------------------------------// “It turns out that I don’t actually have any pony food in here. Huh. Sorry about that,” Ember said. “What if I got the softest crystals we had? Could you eat those?” Feather stared blankly at the taller, more muscular dragon. He sighed. “No.” He took off his saddlebags. “Luckily I have some food with me.” Ember breathed out, clearly relieved. Feather wondered how many guests she had; it couldn’t be many if she was this enthusiastic (and unprepared) about bringing one of the only ponies to visit the dragonlands to her personal… cave. The cavern was largely unadorned, with glowing hot rocks (possibly connected to magma flows?) illuminating the otherwise dark, hot cavern. Pillars appeared to be carved out of sheer heat melting away the stone. Ebonite, Ember’s majordomo, was bustling around, trying to find… things. Feather wasn’t sure what; he mostly seemed to just take up space. “Uh… how’re you enjoying the dragonlands so far?” Ember asked, smiling awkwardly. “And will you be, like, telling everypony about how awesome it is here?” Feather sighed. “Well the weather is warm.” “Heck yeah!” Ember said. “The warmest! You should see the fire-showers.” Feather did not want to see the fire-showers. “I have a question,” Feather began, deciding that he had better at least try to do something about his unfortunate situation. “You’re friends with the changeling king, right?” Ember raised an eyebrow. “‘Friends’ is one way to put it, sure.” She put her talons on her hips. “We’re the best of allies! King Thorax helps out with stupid stuff I don’t like like ‘being nice’ and stuff, and in exchange I beat up his enemies!” Ember grinned. “It’s awesome. He also always makes sure to keep his hive full of awesome crystals for me to eat!” Feather tilted his head. “So you know a lot about changelings, then?” “Uh, kinda. I know that they’re really weak and flimsy and if you sit on them they sort of squelch and crunch at the same time…” “I meant… more like, do they have any other weaknesses?” “Fire, thrown rocks, talons, punches, headlocks…” “I mean… magical weaknesses? Like, if they cast a spell on you…?” “Fire, thrown rocks, talons, punches, headlocks…” Feather sighed. Ember was no help at all. “Ugh, okay. Thorax was talking about their disguises for a bit. I mostly only pretended to listen, but there was a little bit of it I kind of remember,” Ember said, and pulled up a rock to sit on. “It’s really boring though.” “I’m okay with boring,” Feather said. “Not everything sounds good in a song, but that doesn’t make it useless.” “That a pony saying?” “No, just… a Feather saying,” Feather said. “Anyway, what was it Thorax said?” Ember tilted her head back. “Well, if I remember right, he was saying that a changeling’s disguise by its very nature couldn’t be perfect. There would always be tells. Even if the physical appearance bit was perfect and stuff, there’d always be differences in how the changeling would think and behave… they couldn’t act the part perfectly, or something.” Feather raised his eyebrow. “Why is that?” “Pfft, something about them not being able to ‘disguise their minds’ or something. Like, if a changeling tries to disguise themselves too much, they forget who they are, because they have no way of figuring out what shape they originally had.” Ember tapped her chin. “Not sure why Thorax told me that. It’s not like I need to know more changeling weaknesses. Plus that’s a boring weakness. A cooler one is that in-between their front abdomen plate thing and the back one is this squishy gap that really hurts when you stick your claws in them…” “How do you know that?” Feather asked. “Thorax told me.” “I mean the… abdomen thing one.” “Oh. I stuck my claws in the gap, obviously.” “Why?” “Looked squishy. I wanted to poke it.” Feather sighed. He didn’t want to wait to see if Ember wanted to find any of his weaknesses. He wasn’t sure which was more monstrous… Chrysalis, or the more jovial, yet just as destructive curiosity that Ember seemed to display. Then again, he knew which one he preferred. At least Ember was actually good for her people… If Feather had anything to say about it, that’s what history would remember. Ponies would remember songs longer than history books, sometimes… “Y’know, it’s actually been pretty good… having the changelings around.” Ember waved her claw as she continued to lead Feather through the labyrinth of tunnels. “For a while it was a bit weird, trying to get my boys to try new things and not, y’know, burn stuff to the ground all the time, since there wasn’t anything else like us that was trying to low-key reform. Thorax helping out his changelings was a pretty big help, just by having them exist.” Feather trotted to catch up with the dragonlords titanic strides. “Is that so?” “Yeah. I mean, he’s got a way worse job than me. He’s also kind of a big wimp.” Ember stopped suddenly, and turned on her heels. “Nobody’s allowed to bully him but me, though. However big a pushover he is, he took his people from the dirt, gave them control to make their own decisions, control their own food instead of relying on other creatures for it, and all on his own turned opinions on changelings around… all that with an idiotic, bloodthirsty freak trying to drag them and how the world saw them back into the mud.” Ember’s knuckles cracked. Feather swallowed. “So, uh… you’re not a fan of Chrysalis, then?” “I mean, yeah, she can bark orders like the best of them, but what’s she actually done other than make things way worse for her people? And for what?” Ember sighed. “She’s a queen, but she’s no real ruler.” She looked down at Feather’s slightly concerned expression, and softened. “Sorry, I’m getting carried away.” Ember’s aid, Wimp, emerged from around a corner. “Oh, the pony’s still here.” “Yeah, yeah. Look, did you find any food or what?” Wimp nodded, his big goofy horns nearly bumping against the ceiling.  “Right. Show me where they are and I’ll try making something… I guess? I don’t actually know how to cook.” “Is that a good idea?” Wimp asked. “Can’t be that hard. It’s just making things hot, right? I can do that.” Smoke poured out of her nostrils. “Trust me, it’ll be great.” “I’m… going to get some air,” Feather said. “It’s just you guys here, right?” Wimp nodded. “That’s right. Not exactly much need for bodyguards here…” Feather swallowed. Under his geas, he’d be forced to tell that to Chrysalis. What would she do then? “Okay,” he said, and trotted away. “Thanks for everything.” Chrysalis was sat on a small ledge overlooking the entrance to Ember’s lair. She shapeshifted into a small pony form, this time with a blue coat. A favourite of hers; she remembered distinctly calling it ‘Sky’ or something else suitably generic. Sky Melody? Star Symphony? If she was feeling naughty she’d call herself ‘Eclipse’. A good name, if a little edgy. That was all right, though. In any case, a good bet when it came to names was sticking a musical and weather reference in there somewhere, couldn’t go wrong. She saw Feather emerge from the dragon’s lair. Chrysalis trotted down to meet him, confident that no dragons were watching. She smiled as her spy approached. “Well, my little pet?” Chrysalis asked. “What news do you bring from inside Ember’s citadel?” “Well there’s barely any food for starters,” Feather quipped, displaying unsightly resistance. “But the decor is certainly unique.” “I meant forces. Bodyguards, traps, escape routes.” Chrysalis narrowed her eyes. “Don’t play games with me.” Feather grunted, and walked over to a sheet ledge. Below him was a thirty foot drop down into what appeared to be nothing but smoke and ash… He turned around and leaned against a rock propped on the edge. “Ember’s only got one bodyguard, but it looks more like a secretary or assistant than anything. By the looks of things, other than that she’s alone. I couldn’t see any escape routes, but the place inside is a labyrinth. Lots of places to hide.” “Did you see her hoard?” “No. Isn’t that, like, her bedroom? Why would I see her…” Chrysalis sighed. “I suppose I can’t expect a clueless lump like yourself to improvise. No matter. I’ll locate it myself; without any bodyguards, it can’t be hard.” She took a few steps towards the citadel, and then turned back to face Feather. “How do I look?” she asked. Feather looked at her blue coated form, and sighed. “I preferred Emerald.” Chrysalis frowned, and transformed into a dragon shape, green and lustrous. “I suppose it would be better to refrain from asking you too many questions. I wouldn’t want to pollute my mind overmuch.” “Y’know, it kinda makes sense that Emerald Eve was a changeling,” Feather said. “She was always kinda evasive about her backstory, and stuff.” “A pity for you that you were too dumb to figure it out, then,” Chrysalis snapped. A part of her was uncomfortable with this line of discussion Feather was following. A part of her that didn’t feel very… Chrysalis-y.  “Why? It wouldn’t have mattered. Because of Thorax, there wouldn’t have been a reason for her to hide. She was probably just shy.” “Don’t mention the usurper’s name. He’s no true ruler, whether he styles himself as a king or any other type of noble.” Chrysalis turned on Feather. “Nobility is the right to rule. He stole rulership from me; that doesn’t make him a king, that makes him a dirty, pathetic, sniveling thief. And when I find him again…” “He’s twice the ruler you ever were,” Feather snapped back. Upon seeing Chrysalis’s startled expression, he smirked. “What, nothing in the geas says I have to stay quiet, right? Ember told me a bit about you. Every decision you made led the changelings from bad to worse.” He snorted. “Hey, if Thorax hadn’t taken your position, you’d probably have just lost it yourself to someone else, once you ran out of excuses to bully your changelings.” Chrysalis snarled. Feather was getting closer and closer to realisation regarding the geas… closer to becoming an actual threat. More than that, though, he was angering her. He was taunting and teasing her. He was comparing her to the usurper, and deciding she was lacking! How dare he. He knew nothing of what it meant to guide the collective consciousness, to plot a course through the universe for an entity larger and greater than all, the mighty predator race of changelings… How dare he compare her to the usurper. “The usurper is a coward and a thief!” “Braver than you.” Chrysalis growled. “Careful, small pony. My patience is not infinite.” Feather began to bob his head from side to side. “Wah, wah… I did a bad job and got replaced. That’s basically you.” Chrysalis transformed back into the small, forest green mare she had been back before. Emerald Eve’s pony form. She put on a kind smile, a gently smile, and looked at Feather softly. The stallion’s taunting caught in his throat, and he went silent and stiff for a moment, paralysed by his own internal feelings for the fake pony. As expected. Chrysalis, not Emerald, pushed Feather over the edge. Too surprised and stunned by the sudden change, Feather was unable to catch himself, unable to balance himself. His forehooves waved around as he attempted to throw his body back to safety, but it was too late, and he began to topple down into the ash below. Chrysalis would not stand for his insolence any more. She would take revenge for the many slights he had leveled against her. “I am a queen,” she told him as he teetered on the edge of an uncontrollable fall. “You have made your last mistake.” Feather chuckled. “I always wanted to treat a mare like a queen,” he muttered. “Too bad you’re the one I got.” Then he fell, and disappeared into the smoke. Chrysalis breathed in. “Well, I’m glad that’s over with,” she muttered, and changed back into her dragon form. “I don’t know why I didn’t do that earlier.” As if expecting a reply, she paused. “Oh well. I’ll have to find some other lackey, now.” Chrysalis marched through the citadel’s corridors, keeping an ear out for any sign of Ember or her revolting aid. She narrowed her eyes, and crept around the corners.  Once she caught sight of Ember, she’d know whether she could take her. Even weakened, Chrysalis could easily manage a stun-bolt from her horn, but she’d need to transform back into her original form to cast her offensive spells. If she failed to take Ember down now, then the jig was up. Perhaps it would have been wise to keep Feather as a distraction… but then again, if Feather realised his geas was fake, then he would simply turn on her and be another problem to deal with. No, Chrysalis would have to rely on a one on one fight, the element of surprise, and her usual array of mind-games. Chrysalis spotted a shape, bipedal and tall, move through the shadows. Chrysalis flattened herself against the wall. It had to be Ember’s aid; the dragonlord herself wouldn’t be scurrying around in the shadows. Chrysalis narrowed her eyes. She was getting close. She transformed back into her changeling form, enjoying once again the tall, elegant shape she had once been born in. Her translucent wings erupted from her back in faint green light and fire, and she licked the tips of her fangs with glee. The shape felt… a bit unfamiliar, like putting on a suit one had grown out of. Likely another result of her weakness. Chrysalis peered around a corner, and was greeted with the sight of a tall pile of gemstones, largely blue and green. Ember was there, too, sitting on the gemstones with a curious look on her face. Chrysalis decided not to play around, and entered the room, horn blazing with green energy. A stun-bolt erupted from the tip, and shot towards Ember.  The dragonlord wasted no time, ducking to the side as the energy blast hit her hoard. Ember moved with an uncomfortable gait. Chrysalis had her on the run! “Any final words, dragon scum?” Chrysalis asked as she powered up another bolt. Ember staggered upright, staring at Chrysalis with wide eyes. Then… they softened. An almost disappointed look passed over the dragon’s expression. “You’re not Chrysalis,” Ember muttered. Chrysalis frowned. “I am Queen Chrysalis. The one and only. And you are finished!” She fired another blast, and Ember ducked, still moving uncomfortably. “It’s okay, I see what happened now. Was Feather your prisoner?” Feather must have told Ember about the geas. It was the only way for a dumb dragon like Ember to figure things out so fast…  Wait, no. Something was wrong. Something wasn’t as it should be… Chrysalis backed away. “Feather was just a tool. The idiot couldn’t even figure out that the geas wasn’t real.” “That makes sense. Ordinary changelings aren’t able to cast geas spells,” Ember said. “Trickery and shapeshifting is all you’ve got.” Chrysalis took another cautious step back. Ember had a low stance, and looked ready to topple at any time, but that wasn’t what was making the changeling queen nervous… it was the eerie knowledge that the dragonlord was displaying. She must have been researching changelings… that or the usurper had been outlining Chrysalis’s weaknesses to her.  Chrysalis’s weaknesses? That didn’t make sense. If that was the case, why did Ember think that she was an ‘ordinary changeling’? Something inside Chrysalis was screaming at her to run. She didn’t have the advantage she thought she did… yet her eyes didn’t deceive her. A few stun-bolts was all it had taken to put Ember off-balance. She had the tactical edge… somehow? A few stun-bolts, and Ember was off-balance? That made no sense either. Run. No! Queens didn’t run.  Run! “I’m sorry; it looks to me like you’re the victim of a rather nasty spell Chrysalis has cast,” Ember said, letting her claws fall to her side. “This is why changelings don’t use perfect disguises…” Chrysalis narrowed her eyes. “You’re not Ember.” Ember erupted into green light, and in her place stood the usurper. Large horns raised up above him, and his soft eyes gazed at her with his usual weak-willed innocence. Chrysalis forced a smile to her lips. “I was hoping to take out Ember… but you’ll do.” Thorax chuckled. “Yeah, I am pretty defenseless.” Chrysalis felt something tap her on the shoulder. For a moment that felt like eternity, it was as if the very ground had opened up beneath her and swallowed her whole. Chrysalis swallowed, and glanced back. Ember… the real one, this time, was standing by her side, her fist clenched. “Hey,” Ember said. Oh, dear. Chrysalis had been outplayed from the start. The usurper… Thorax… must have known that Chrysalis had escaped from day one, somehow. Ember had been expecting her the whole time… Chrysalis immediately transformed back into her blue-coated mare form, which was short enough to duck the punch Ember had aimed at her head. The shockwave from the air alone whipped at Chrysalis’s mane and sent a wave of dust from the ground flying through the air. If that had connected… “Careful! We don’t want to kill her!” Thorax exclaimed. “Sorry! I forget your heads are fragile and stuff.” Chrysalis lunged away from Ember, turning back into a dragon to gain advantage of the additional reach to claw at the ground and put some desperate distance between her and Thorax and Ember. She needed to escape! Everything had gone wrong… “She’s not Chrysalis! She’s just some poor changeling who thinks she is.” Chrysalis transformed back into her original form, and as she galloped away, she fired a stun-bolt towards Ember. Instead of dodging, the dragon lunged into the blast, and it bounced off her scales with a pathetic display of green sparks. Flee! Get away! Chrysalis rounded a corner, desperate to evade pursuit. Her hooves kicked up clouds of dust every time they clawed against the ground. She heard a whoosh… Ember flew past her, and after landing she skidded to a halt, her claws digging into the stone. Her mouth was open, fangs bared. A true monster… Nothing but teeth, fire, and talons. Light began to erupt inside her throat, heralding the arrival of fire... Chrysalis shapeshifted into Thorax. Ember hesitated for a split second, her mouth closing slightly. Chrysalis grit her teeth. Not a true monster after all, then… Chrysalis fired a stun-bolt into Ember’s mouth. The powerful dragon leaped back from the shock and fell onto her side, clutching her neck with her claws, gasping for air. Even shot directly inside her, it wasn’t enough to knock her out cold… Chrysalis was a fool for thinking she could take on the dragonlord with anything less than her full power. Ember going down, even if it was temporary, was enough for Chrysalis to duck around a corner and disappear out of sight. Feather opened his eyes. He was at the bottom of a pit, and he was lifted above the ground by what appeared to be a pair of thick, large, scaled crimson arms. He swallowed, and looked to his side. He stared into a pair of bright yellow eyes. He recognised the dragon… Garble? “Uh… this better not be the afterlife?” Feather asked. “Nah, just the regular kind. I tailed you guys after you left the bar. I’m actually, like, a bodyguard and stuff now.” “I thought Ember didn’t have one?” Feather frowned.  “She lied, duh.” Garble dropped Feather onto the ground. “What, just because we’re dragons, we can’t lie?” “Huh?” “Well I mean, it was Thorax’s idea.” “Thorax is here?” “Yeah. Something about looking for a missing changeling or something. Someone called Phyllidae?” Feather chuckled. Chrysalis had been played. “Nice.” He looked up. “Can you carry me back up there, please?” Chrysalis was panting heavily as she crept through the labyrinth of tunnels that made up Ember’s home. She was in trouble. Deep trouble. It was a true stroke of luck that Ember was soft enough for the old ‘turn into a loved one’ trick to work… but it wouldn’t work twice. It never worked twice. Thorax had been saying things… that she was just an ordinary changeling? That she merely thought she was Queen Chrysalis? To an outside observer, it might seem that way… but that was just Thorax’s speculation. In reality, Chrysalis knew that she had transferred her mind to this new body… Was that why she wasn’t getting stronger, though? Because her body wasn’t catching up with her mind? In theory, her magical power should have made the transition with her… that was how magic worked… … but not if it was all a trick. Like the fake geas, it didn’t carry much in the way of magical power other than a little deception… Chrysalis rubbed her forehead with her hoof. She was… she was still a queen, regardless of whether it was a deception or not. It was part of the plan. She was still Queen Chrysalis, just… weaker. It didn’t matter how her mind had made the transition, only that it had. Her nobility, her regal knowledge, her right to rule… those were the crucial aspects of her. She shouldn’t have taken revenge against Feather for his attitude so quickly. She should have scouted the citadel out more thoroughly. She should have been patient. If she had been patient, she could have retreated, she could have maybe done something... Used the only ally she had in this cold, inhospitable world. She clutched at her heart, which was pounding in her chest. What kind of thinking was that? What good would Feather be in this situation? Why was she regretting pushing him over the cliff that much?  If everything was just some… some trick, perhaps this was Emerald Eve’s mind speaking to her… or was she Emerald Eve all along? Curses. Chrysalis had put on a perfect disguise, and now she couldn’t tell what was real and what wasn’t…  She heard the sound of footsteps echoing through the citadel.  “I can’t believe I fell for that,” came Ember’s distant voice. “It’s okay… I would have…” “Of course you would have. But I shouldn’t.” There was a pause. “Next time I’m going to punch her brains out.” Chrysalis lowered her stance as she crept towards where she believed the exit to be. If she got to the open sky, then she could fly away… regroup. Perhaps find easier allies… Allies like Feather? Chrysalis continued to clutch at her heart, and banged her head against the stone wall. She needed to focus. She needed to forget Feather… she needed Emerald Eve to forget Feather… She approached the exit, and the soft light of the dragonlands shone onto her. She was almost free… “Not so fast, bug-horse!” Chrysalis ducked a clumsy swing from a big red dragon, and backed away. She turned, but looking up at the sky… it was full of dragons. Full of them of all shapes and sizes.  Chrysalis gnashed her teeth. It was a trap. This was all one big trap… Standing between two large dragons was Feather. Surely he should be… Chrysalis tried to back back into the citadel, but she bumped into Ember. Thorax was soon behind her as well. Chrysalis spun around, her eyes scanning everywhere… up was filled with dragons, and provided no cover. There was the cliff she had pushed Feather down, but it looked like a dead end… the landscape was covered in enemies. Enemies everywhere… “It’s over, Phyllidae,” Thorax said. “We can help you. I want to help all the changelings…” Chrysalis tried to think. There had to be a way out of here… She turned on her heels, and leapt towards Ember, her fangs bared. Ember squared her stance, ready to recieve… Chrysalis turned into Ember as she lunged, and when the two came into contact, they both went down in a flurry of blows. Chrysalis came off worse for it… she was uncomfortable fighting in a bipedal form, but maybe it was enough… “Get that one!” she screamed, pointing at Ember, hoping the confusing wrestle was enough to trick the dumb dragons. “That one is Chrysalis!” Sure enough, many of the less intelligent dragons began to charge at Ember, but the dragonlord simply shook her head, unimpressed. “Dragons!” Ember exclaimed. “Punch yourselves.” As Chrysalis tried to disengage from Ember and rush into the crowd, hoping to disappear, she felt a blow land on the side of her head. Panicking, she noticed all the dragons begin to beat each other up… indiscriminately.  Feather hunkered down, trying to avoid the carnage. The dragons obeyed any order coming from someone looking like Ember. If Chrysalis acted quickly… “And don’t stop until every dragon you see is unconscious!” Ember roared, ducking a tail-swipe from Brasser. Ember smirked. Chrysalis realised her plan… Ember knew that if Chrysalis kept hiding amongst the dragons, she’d go down long before all the other dragons did.  They were so simple, they couldn’t be tricked. Chrysalis transformed back into her regal, changeling queen form, and attempted to rush away from the crowd… but something was hanging onto her leg. She turned and faced Feather Bangs, clutching her with his forehooves. “Guess there wasn’t a geas after all…” Feather grunted. “Ha ha…” Chrysalis tried to shake Feather off, and due to her larger size, she succeeded… but then Feather lunged at her, the edge of his hoof shooting towards her abdomen… no, a small gap between the plates of her abdomen… The hoof dug into the squishy, squelching flesh beneath, and pain wracked Chrysalis’s body. Thorax flew over Chrysalis as she fell to the ground. “Ember taught me that one!” Feather shouted. “Ha ha, this is going to make the best song…” “Surrender, Phyllidae!” Feather looked up at Thorax. “Who’s Phyllidae?” “The missing changeling. She was hiding in your town after I took over.” Thorax landed over Chrysalis. “Chrysalis must have tricked her somehow into thinking she was her…” Chrysalis snarled. “I am the queen!” Feather got to his hooves. His mane, once carefully tended to, was now rough. Smoke and ash had darkened his coat, and his lips appeared dry and coarse. He looked nothing like the weak, shy, awkward stallion Chrysalis had woken up next to in the Town and taken prisoner… “You were never a queen. You were just some big… dumb… tyrant.” Chrysalis tried to escape, but she felt the familiar, uncomfortable feeling of talons wrapping around her. Ember had caught up to her at last… and all the other dragons were on the ground, save for Garble. “Try me,” Ember snarled. Chrysalis powered up a stun-bolt, but Ember clutched the tip of her horn with her talons. The spell backfired, and Chrysalis then saw nothing at all. “Changeling nobles… are complicated,” Thorax told Feather. Feather Bangs was sat in the bar. It was, after all, the first thing that had come to mind after Chrysalis… Phyllidae… Emerald Eve… had been defeated. “How so?” “For us, a noble… whether a king or queen… is just a changeling with enough vision to lead the rest. Whether it’s a good vision… or a bad one.” Thorax sighed. “Maybe we should revise that way of working…” Ember rubbed her throat, which appeared slightly red after her battle with the ‘changeling queen’. “Doesn’t matter to me so long as the bad guys get beat up,” she said. “Also, those stunbolts really hurt.” Thorax flashed Ember an awkward smile. “Heh… yeah, sorry about that…” “Hey, you didn’t fire it.” Feather frowned. “Will Emerald… get better?” “I don’t know,” Thorax said. “It kind of depends on exactly what kind of spell Chrysalis used to convince Phyllidae that she was the changeling queen. It’s possible Chrysalis simply meant to use her as a tool for revenge… not necessarily a means to escape petrification. We may never know, since communicating with Chrysalis, the real Chrysalis, isn’t possible.” “Way I see it, if she acts like Chrysalis, thinks she’s Chrysalis, and we have no way of telling the two apart, she might as well be Chrysalis,” Ember said. “Well… there may be something to be said about such a simplistic point of view.” “Well it’s all too complicated for me,” Feather muttered. “I’ve gotten more than I signed up for.” “You at least find your muse?” Ember asked. “Maybe. I might try a ballad. I’m thinking I’ll need a really good crew of back-up dancers for this one, though…” Feather sighed. Maybe next time, he’d have better luck when finding a mare he liked… Or maybe he’d get Emerald Eve back after all. Who knew? One thing was for sure… the world didn’t need more like Chrysalis. Feather shuddered at the thought of the original ever getting free again...