//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Galactus Eats Equestria // by LittleBoyBlue //------------------------------// "It would be wise to mind your tongue creature." Chrysalis said spitefully. "You are in my kingdom, and I will not tolerate disrespect." "I have not come here disrespect anyone. I came here with a warning about a higher power above the skies." "Above the skies?" Chrysalis raised her brow at this. "Like, not of this world?" The Silver Surfer nodded. Queen Chrysalis contemplated, then made her decision. "Come with me Surfer. I shall show you something." The Silver Surfer watched, as Chrysalis headed to another tunnel with two guards. He then followed her. They walked down the tunnel, torches lighting the way. "We've been in hiding underneath the Everfree forest ever since our humiliation at Canterlot by Twilight Sparkle and her brother's wife, Princess Cadence." Chrysalis spoke. "For about a year, we've remained isolated, growing in numbers. When we first recolonized, we were few, and weak. We had a starving population, for I couldn't feed my subjects the love they needed." "Love?" Silver Surfer questioned. "Your species survives off an emotion?" "Yes. For that reason, some call us parasites. Others call us vampires. But we're just beings who will do anything to survive. We fear death." Chrysalis looked at Silver Surfer. "Do you fear death, Surfer?" "I am unaffected by the notion." Chrysalis chuckled. "You are quite a monotonous one." "I have heard that before." Chrysalis told the guards to open the locked door in front of her. The guards put in their keys, then opened it. There, standing in the middle of the room, was a blue, glowing object. "My changelings found this precious gem on a scout mission." Silver Surfer looked closer, then his eyes widened. The object was cube-shaped, and radiated power from beyond. "That is the object of our salvation," Chrysalis told him. "For weeks, my most intelligent changelings have studied it, trying to find out what it could do. We eventually did find out by an accident." Chrysalis came over next to Silver Surfer. "One of the changelings grew desperate. He had been starving for days, and decided to try and consume the cube. He bit right into it, and the cube glowed brighter. We thought he would die, but instead, he was feeding off of it. That's when we realized that this cube can be used as a form of sustenance. Our hive has since then grown rapidly. We are now stronger than ever, due to experiments that were done. We took some of the power from the cube and merged it with our bodies. We were made much more durable, more stronger, and we can now heal faster and regrow any limb that has been severed." Chrysalis smirked. "Of course, we can regrow limbs only if we will it. Not much you can do if you are headless. We learned that the hard way." Silver Surfer was surprised at seeing the cube. It radiated with great power. "Since then, it has caused extreme changes to our species and our kingdom." Chrysalis continued. "That is why we call it 'Extremis'." she finished. "It is a gurantee for a successful future for a new world." Suddenly, a guard ran in. "Queen Chrysalis!" the guard yelled. "The Elements of Harmony are in our tunnels." Chrysalis's eyes grew wide. "What?! THEY are here?" "Yes your majesty." Chrysalis growled. "Take the Surfer to a safe location. Leave me here." The guards went to the Silver Surfer. He looked at them, then began to follow them. 'I will be able to learn more about these changelings.' he thought, as he walked with them. When they were all gone, Chrysalis went to the cube. She looked at it, seeing her reflection and admiring it's glow. "Let's see how those meddling ponies do," she placed her hooves near the cube. "Against the future." She then touched it, as power began to flow into her. Her eyes changed from green to blue, as she grew more powerful. She began to laugh loudly, as the cube glowed brightly in the dark room. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Great! We've been spotted!" Rainbow spoke. The tunnels were complicated, and dark. It reminded them of the time that Diamond Dogs kidnapped Rarity. Except in this case, the bad guys probably won't be as willing to give up easily. Things went bad quickly when a guard saw them and began yelling. "C'mon girls!" Twilight said, running. "Follow that guard!" The six ponies ran behind Twilight, as they followed the yelling. Yhe changeling's yelling muffled however, as the source came from a hole in a wall. "A secret entrance..." Twilight said. "Alright everypony! We're going in!" she increased the hidden entrance's size with her magic, as the ponies followed her. They kept going, with Twilight leading the way. Finally, they saw light at the end, and rushed faster. They opened the hatch and were taken by surprise at the sight. There, they saw a large underground hive, buzzing with activity. They looked around, seeing changelings flying dronely. They looked a bit different this time, a little bit more radiant. Twilight then saw a changeling running away quickly. "There he is! Get him!" Twilight said. The ponies began to run after him, catching the attention of every changeling they passed. Soon, guards noticed them, and began to chase them. "Twilight! We've got changelings on our tails!" Applejack shouted at her. Twilight looked behind them. Sure enough, there were guards flying after them. "We've gotta lose them. Everypony split up!" The ponies then split, as Twilight continued chasing the changeling. The guards fell for it, chasing after each seperate ponies, no longer focused on Twilight. Twilight charged her horn, ready to take down the changeling. He turned a right, and so did Twilight. Finally, she blasted her spell, hitting the changeling. The spell knocked him off his feet, and stopped him. Twilight finally caught up to him. "Where is the Queen?" she interrogated. "How many of you are there?" The changeling smiled. "I won't tell you, but they will." Twilight followed his line of sight to see two an entire squad of changelings surrounding her. She looked past them, and saw even more changelings with ger friends. She scowled. 'How could I've been so stupid?' she thought to herself. 'Leading my friends here instead of going back and calling for help from the Princesses...' "Looks like you and your friends are a bunch of butterflies in a wasp' nest." the changeling sneered. Twilight glared at him, as she was ready for a fight. Suddenly, a hard object smacked her in the back of her head. She fell down, and began to lose consciousness. The last thing she saw was her friends yelling at her, before she blacked out. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Twilight woke up to a horrible sight. There she was, her friends surrounded in cocoons around her. In front of her, the changeling queen stood, smirking. "My my, why if it isn't Princess Twilight Sparkle? What pleasure do I have for your visit to my kingdom?" Twilight scowled at her. "You...I thought we had defeated you." "Why, yes you did Twilight." Chrysalis said. "Well, technically your sister-in-law did, but that doesn't matter now. What matters now is that you are now my prisoner." Chrysalis smiled. "I'm sure your precious Princess Celestia would do anything for her fellow princess's safety." "She would NEVER negotiate with you Chrysalis, and I wouldn't allow her for my sake." Twilight retorted. "Equestria is too valuable to fall to ponies like you." Chrysalis laughed. "Fall? Oh no Twilight, Equestria wouldn't fall. There's just going to be some MAJOR social changes, when my changelings feed off all the love that exists. You ponies are adaptable though, aren't you?" "If you wanted to co-exist among us, we would actually understand and be willing to listen to you Chrysalis." Twilight spoke. "Unfortunately, you chose to seek your goals through force rather than diplomacy. Nothing good ever comes from violence." Chrysalis smiled. "Since you are now an alicorn, I can see that you are stronger than before." Chrysalis spoke. "How about we test that theory about violence?" Chrysalis then attacked with a quick spell. Twilight barely dodged, as the attack hit a changeling behind her. The changeling yelled in pain for a short moment, then dissintegrated instantly. Twilight was surprised about the attack. Usually Chrysalis's magic was green. However, she seemed to be glowing blue now, and her magic was of the same color. Chrysalis laughed. "You like my new look? Well, I hope you like this too!" She started charging an attack, ready to fire at Twilight. Twilight decided to bring up a bubble shield around her, preparing to prevent damage to herself. Then, Chrysalis blasted her with a beam of pure blue. The beam broke completely through her shield, hitting Twilight with force. Twilight yelled in pain, as the energy coursed through her, launching her back a few feet. Her friends gave muffled screams, as they were forced to watch the ordeal, unable to move at all. Twilight slowly began to get up. Thankfully, her transformation into an alicorn granted her the same god-like durability as the Princesses. However, durability could only last for as much as it could take. The powerful attack Chrysalis gave her was certainly much more powerful than what she used to be. Even in her alicorn state, Twilight grimaced in pain. Her ribs were broken, as she struggled to stay up. Chrysalis smiled. "Surprised? Our race have gotten stronger over our years in exile. And now, with this newfound power," Chrysalis walked towards Twilight. "I will rectify a wrong that I did long ago." Twilight snorted in anger, as she attacked Chrysalis with a magic beam of her own. Chrysalis chuckled, as she hit Twilight's beam with her own. It easily overpowered Twilight, and burned Twilight to the ground. After screaming in agony, Twilight opened her eyes. Her fur was smoking, thankfully nothing was burned. However, the feeling of the burn was not prevented. Twilight weakly looked up at Chrysalis, who was now standing above her. "Now, if you don't mind, I believe it is time for you to die." she said, as she aimed her horn at Twilight. They say that the Princesses are immortal. Twilight didn't want to find that out right now. Suddenly, the wall busted down, revealing a silver being on a surfboard, carrying a blue cube. "Wha-" Chrysalis was blasted with cosmic power and sent through another wall before she completed her word. The changeling guards tried to overwhelm the surfer, but he blasted each of them away. He looked at Twilight, lying down in pain. He then blasted the cocoons that held her friends. They fell down to the ground, as they coughed and began to move again. "I will admit, I had doubts about this choice that I am about to make. However, I realize that you attacked me as a desperate tactic to save your world." Silver Surfer then dropped the cube next to Twilight. "Perhaps there is still hope for you all. I leave you with this object of great power that these changelings call 'Extremis'. Perhaps you can be able to stop my master with it's help. Besides, this object would be better handled in the hands of individuals that have good intentions." Silver Surfer then blasted a hole in the roof, letting daylight flood the hive. "Goodbye, Twilight Sparkle of Equestria." the surfer said, levitating to the newly made hole. "And good luck..." The surfer left, as Twilight's friends ran to her. "Twilight! Are you okay?" Fluttershy cried. "Yes Fluttershy, I'm fine..." Twilight began to stand up, before groaning and falling back down. Rainbow lifted Twilight by her shoulder. "I think I have some ribs broken. I can't fly out of here." "That's not good." Applejack spoke. "Umm, guys. We should probably get outta here! Changelings are coming from everywhere!" Rainbow said. They all looked around and saw changelings beginning to fly towards them. "I'll have to teleport us all out of here!" Twilight said. "What? Twilight, you've never tried that before. Are you sure that-" "We don't have a choice Rarity!" Twilight cut off. "I have to do this." The changelings began to get closer, their buzzing growing louder. Twilight focused as hard as she can, sweating bullets. "Twi! They're right on top of us!" Rainbow yelled. "Almost....got it..." The changelings all surged up above them, then dived at them in a combined assault. Twilight yelled, as all six of them embraced each other. Suddenly, they disappeared. The changelings hit nothing but empty floor. Twilight managed to teleport them just outside the Everfree Forest, all of them landing safely on the ground. They all cried, and hugged each other, grateful to be alive. That was when Twilight noticed it. There, across from them, was the cube. It glew brightly, attracting the attention of the six mares. "What do you think it is?" Fluttershy asked. "I don't know..." Twilight said, as she limped towards the cube. "But whatever it is, it might just save our world."