Chrysalis Wins
Ch.19 “A not so Fancy Discussion”
Stomp! Stomp! STOMP!
Giant hooves thundered their way down the tunnel, each one disheveled the earth as it was placed. A door of slime was blasted away with a violent explosion. Green sticky material was launched every which way as it was vaporized.
In the middle of the entry way stood the queen. Her cacophonous entrance was followed by a low level tone.
“You took something from me Luna…”
Across from the entryway of the petite and secluded cell was a dark blue equine, plastered to the wall in midst of semi-transparent muck. The princess’s condition was pretty abysmal, and she struggled to lift her head up to look Chrysalis in eye. When the two met gazes there was an invisible fire between them.
Luna’s head was the only thing able to move, the drones had otherwise thoroughly sealed her against the wall. Her night-time complexion was pot-marked with black bruises, as if she went a fifteen round hoof-boxing match with a mountain bull.
For a moment the queen’s hot anger was tempered, the sight of Luna with one eye basically swollen shut, several missing teeth, and various other painful looking bulges over her head, brought Chrysalis some satisfaction. At least Vivisect had left a mark before she was dropped.
The alicorn stared at Chrysalis with her good eye and snarled, which only put her missing teeth on better display. Luna winced at the effort, her muzzle felt cracked in some places, and her lips were swollen and puffy.
The next several steps from Chrysalis landed softly on the ground, as she carefully stalked towards her prisoner. Luna spat out another tooth.
“What, are you really upset over some broken body guards? Boo hoo. What you’ve taken from me doesn’t even compare.”
SMACK!
Chrysalis struck the princess across the muzzle. The hit shocked Luna with it’s force, and caused a yelp of pain, it was much harder than the magically enhanced blows Vivisect was able to deliver.
SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!
Several more vicious blows knocked Luna’s head back and forth, and when it stopped, Chrysalis’s face was very near her prisoner’s. Her massive double iris eyes glared at the teal ones, and dared them to make another defiant remark. The alicorn kept her gaze averted and tried to hold back some whimpers. Some of the bruises and cuts were reopened, and trickled over fresh scabs.
Satisfied that the princess was sufficiently cowed, Chrysalis turned around and walked to the pile of sand that was in the room. She sat down and scuffled with the loose material until she was comfortable. She wiped some of the blood her hooves had picked up, off on the floor.
“As I was saying Luna, you took something valuable from me. One ‘bodyguard’ as you put it, that has served me faithfully almost the entire time I’ve been queen. Now that you’ve taken her from me, what should I take from you?”
The corner of Chrysalis’s mouth twitched, and her eyes stared daggers. They roamed over the alicorn with a contemplative and surgical process. Luna still kept her eyes averted and didn’t try to provoke anything else from the queen. The Night Princess really could care less about any physical abuse, but if the threats carried over to other ponies…
“I could take your horn, and leave you without magic… I could take your wings and leave you without flight. Or… I could take your legs, and make you roll around like the miserable worm you are!”
The queen was too agitated to sit, and sprung up from the sand. She strode over to the pinned alicorn and put a giant hoof on the slime, right over where Luna’s chest should be. Chrysalis started to press her against the wall, the princess gasped as the breath was crushed out of her.
“The only thing I ask myself now is why I didn’t follow my sentinel’s advice, and end you earlier.”
The blue alicorn struggled against the organic binding of the slime, but she was far too exhausted to put up anymore fight, and only struggled in vain against the lethal pressure. Luna’s facial complexion turned a darker shade of blue.
Normally Chrysalis would enjoy something like this, it often took a lot of work to get to the point where she could just toy with her enemies. This time though, there was a sense of loss behind it all. What it had cost to bring this prisoner in line was high, and personal.
As Luna’s eyes started to roll back into her head, the queen removed her hoof from the alicorn’s chest. The sudden release of pressure caused a loud painful gasp from the princess, and air struggled to fill her crushed lungs again. She coughed hoarsely several times. Chrysalis, however didn’t lower her hoof all the way quite yet, and it hung half way, as if it might return.
A small sparkle of fear twinged in the alicorn’s good eye, and her fallen gaze briefly glanced up at the queen. Chrysalis held a disgusted expression, and raised a hoof up high.
Stomp!
Luna had closed her eyes, and scrunched what she could of her bloody and beaten face. The impact she prepared for never came, and when she opened her eyes the queen had embedded her hoof in the wall next to Luna’s head. Chrysalis shoved her face right up into the princess’s for a very close look into each other’s eyes.
“Feel fortunate I have my reasons for keeping you alive.”
Chrysalis hissed. The changeling pulled her head back a small distance and opened her maw wide. She began to inhale deeply, and drain the emotional energies out of the alicorn.
Luna already looked terrible, but now on top of being injured, she became severely exhausted on a deeper level. Her dark blue features started to pale, which made the contrast of her bruises stand out even more. The shimmering flow of magic in her mane died down, causing the starry lights to start to fade.
When the princess could no longer hold her head up Chrysalis stopped, and the air between them stabilized. The alicorn now wheezed for breath, and held an empty stare. The queen licked her lips, the taste was good. Barely bridled passion lay behind the alicorn, and it made for a sumptuous meal.
Chrysalis stepped back from the stupefied and drained Luna, and called a drone to enter the room. It did not take long for one of the tunnel workers to arrive. Once the smaller figure entered the room, the queen turned towards the entry way.
“You called queen?”
“Yes, I have a few instructions.”
“I am more than willing.”
“Gather a few other drones, and make sure a vanguard is stationed here. This prisoner is to be fed and given water. Force her if she refuses, also keep her drained. She proved dangerous even without her magic, I don’t want her to have energy for anything. Is that understood?”
“Yes queen.”
“Good, now come here.”
He approached as the queen had commanded. Chrysalis made her horn glow, and her eyes flashed, the two of them touched foreheads. A magical impression was given to the drone, powerful enough to brand the instructions into his mind. He would be unable to forget until the order was carried to completion.
“I’ll be back tomorrow to make sure things are arranged properly.”
“Y-y-y-y-y-yes, q-q-q-queen.”
The drone stuttered and his eyes twitched, they blinked rapidly and light flashed several times. The spasm shivered throughout the small changeling’s body, and his ears sizzled slightly. After a loud cough, the drone shook his head back and forth several times to straighten his vision. The drone’s eyes now had a green ring to their otherwise blue color. He stood overly straight and stomped a hoof in salute, all of his limbs became stiff after that.
“Understood, I will have everything arranged by tomorrow!”
Chrysalis raised a hoof to pat on the drones head a few times, and ruffled his short fin-mane.
“Don’t worry, it’ll wear off. But I won’t risk this being done sloppily.”
The drone bolted off in an adrenaline hyped dash. In a moment he was out of sight, and Chrysalis turned head about to look at the princess one last time. Luna’s head hung low, and she still wheezed, a bit off drool escaped from her open mouth.
Chrysalis walked over to the pathetic situation of an alicorn. One large hoof pressed up under the princess’s jaw and lifted her pale face up. Luna wasn’t capable of a focused gaze at the moment, but that didn’t deter the queen.
“If you had gone here quietly you would be freely moving within your little cage. I would be much less annoyed, and…”
A bit of drool got on Chrysalis’s hoof, and she let Luna’s head drop, with a disgusted grimace and she stepped back. The queen wiped her hoof off in the princess’s mane.
“There’s another pony I need to talk to.”
This pony was the reason Luna wasn’t dead at the moment, this pony was the reason she hadn’t mutilated the blue alicorn right away, this pony was why Chrysalis ground her fangs together right now…
---
It was beautiful on the sandy beaches of Las Pegasus. Celestia sat in a reclining chair, which was mounted on top of an enormous sand castle. This sand castle happened to be in the shape of a large multi story cake, complete with fancy icing stylized into it.
The white alicorn sipped a fruity concoction from a half-coconut cup. A gentle breeze of salty sea air blew by, waving through Celestia’s already wavy mane. She inhaled the smell of the ocean and eventually exhaled. The various pleasant sensations of this atmosphere were quite enjoyable.
It had been a long time since Celestia had actually taken a vacation, she chuckled slightly as she mulled over her thoughts. Too bad this vacation had only come because she was overthrown… and it wasn’t technically vacation either… No in fact she still constantly worried over her little ponies, there was just less she could do now.
A drip of water landed on her muzzle, and she flinched in surprise. That drop was followed by another, and another. The white alicorn looked up for the source of the disturbance.
“Hmm, I should have figured a little rain cloud may come on my sunny day.”
There indeed was a little rain cloud in the middle of an otherwise bright and clear day, only it had Chrysalis’s face poking out of it. The cloud was small, and the queen’s features had shrunken to its proportions, mostly. Her little hooves dangled out of the bottom, and drifted through the air. It honestly would have been adorable to look at, had the circumstances been different.
A strong breeze came by and blew the changeling cloud off course, which caused Chrysalis to spin in circles. She growled, higher pitched than normal, and started to doggy-paddle through the air back to the white alicorn.
“Is there not a way to knock on the door, so to speak?”
The Changeling Queen is not who Celestia wanted to see. As it was, she had actually been expecting Luna to return soon.
“Been plotting against me with your sister have you Celestia? I can assure you that was a poor move.”
The little raincloud barked, and the white alicorn furrowed her brow.
“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t feign ignorant with me, your sister thought she could intimidate me with nightmares.”
“Where is Luna now?”
“Incapable of giving any creature nightmares…”
“CHRYSALIS!”
“She’s not dead, though it was very difficult to decide against that.”
“Fiend…”
“Listen Celestia!”
The little raincloud blackened, and miniature lightning bolts started to jump out of the fluffy blob. One of these struck the white alicorn on the snoot. It didn’t do much more than a little static shock could, but it caught the princess’s attention.
Fluffy cloud Chrysalis doggy-paddled through the air to Celestia’s chair. The queen’s face contorted and her little hooves withdrew into the cloud, rather like a turtle. She didn’t enjoy what she was going to say next.
“Your advice with the Crystal Empire was… valuable.”
“Is that all? What have you done with my sister Chrysalis?”
“She has no permanent damage, I figured you would not be willing to talk again should I do something of that nature.”
“You assumed correctly.”
“Her little tantrum cost me the functionality of a long time associate. I’ve also come here with a condition if it wasn’t already clear. If I suspect either of you of trying to overthrow me again, I don’t care what knowledge you may have, it can disappear with you.”
“So you lost a friend did you? They must have done something unfortunate to provoke my sister.”
“Now is not the time to try my patience Celestia. Just don’t expect your sister to come by anymore.”
“How can I trust your claim of her well being then?”
The daylight in the dream started to get brighter, and the sun became a hot blur, which lost it’s shape within the overly bright sky. A gnarly scowl had crossed Celestia’s countenance. Fluffy Chrysalis brought up a shrunken hoof to shield her eyes, her tone was undeterred.
“I can arrange evidence later. Next time, when I feel you have something valuable to say, we can all meet in a little circle of joy…”
Chrysalis ended with a very sarcastic note.
Without any form of farewell the little cloud exploded with a POOF! And the queen was gone. The sunlight dimmed back down to it’s natural state, but the white alicorn hadn’t relaxed her posture. The scowl remained fixed on her usually regal face, and Celestia closed her eyes. A tear threatened to roll down her cheek, and she eventually gave up her tense stance. She collapsed onto her chair, and sighed.
The cheery atmosphere of the Las Pegasus beach couldn’t combat Celestia’s depressed mood. After a little while longer the mood soured even more, and frustration at everything started to boil over. So much for being an ancient wise being, ironically she could be just as stuck as a foal in a crib.
In a small fit she picked up her coconut drink and tossed it angrily. She didn’t look where it landed, but it apparently it made contact with something that resulted in a loud bop!
“Ow!”
Was that a voice? The alicorn lifted up her head to look around, when she looked down on the beach she could easily find where the coconut cup had landed, and there! Something shifted in the sand. Her mind wasn’t playing tricks on her.
She spread her wings and jumped from the top of the cake sand castle in pursuit. She wasn’t able to distinguish whatever it was, but she could guess where it was, as the sand shifted close to where the cup landed. In eager fervor she dug around in the sand to find the source of this strange voice.
It was a futile effort, and she couldn’t find it anywhere. She turned half the beach inside out with her magic, and still didn’t find it. This drew out a frustrated sigh.
Who else could Dream Walk? And who would want to be in her dreams? And why did they hide?
........... Every chapter so far just makes me more aggravated about this story. it feels like you are jsut torturing her now for no reason at all. it just does not feel like a logical way for these events to unfold.
also there is a major issue about luna just cowering like a weakling........ she has a thousand years where she was trapped in isolation, consumed by darkness and hatred every single second. you are writing her as a complete weakling. its hard to imagine her being afraid in any capacity here. its kinda hard for physical violence and hopelessness of captivity to even start to compare to a millennium of psychological torment.
and you again miss an opportunity to make a challenge here. if she was unphased by the violence, it would probably frustrate chrysalis more and more and more. and if luna managed to scare chrysalis, it would hit home the point that luna was just that much of a threat and that chrysalis was lucky to have her subdued.
you didn't even need to have her escape. just have her completely deny chrysalis of what she wants.
5953722
Eh... Chrysalis has a cruel side. It's part of the character, and she was pretty mad.
While Luna has gone through a lot, it's not like she got her face beat in while she was on the moon. Emotion hurt vs. physical hurt
plus chrysalis could start threatening associates if Luna kept being defiant, and Luna wouldn't like her friends to suffer on her account
5953767 ......... you have an issue with completely understating characters dude. except for chrysalis.
being punched in the face would have been preferable to what happened. it would at least have allowed some form of interaction. psychological pain trumps physical pain dude. that is because the point of torture is to cause psychological harm over physical damage. and there is no way that pain is even comparable dude. she endured an amount of psychological torture, both before and after the nightmare moon incident. being beaten up is meager at best.
you gotta stop understating characters. cause you just contradicted yourself. this entire scenario has to deal with the fact luna is stupid and reckless enough to admit how her trump card works before even revealing it.
now you are saying that she has the foresight and comprehension to NOT try and tempt chrysalis to do something else. that does not mesh at all.
so bsaically she is too reckless and stupid to not reveal trump cards, yet somehow has the foresight and intelligence to realize she could tempt chrysalis to be more cruel?
5953767 seriously dude, its contradicting. one moment she does not have the common sense to not reveal her trump card, and the next she is smart enough to realize chrysalis might harm other ponies to hurt her. that just isn't consistent. either that or she went coward, and i have been repeating myself too much about Why it would take a whole lot to actually hurt her on a psychological level.
know people have contradicting points of views, but this seems like all in the same line of thought overall.
If you think about it, any creature that lives for more than a few centuries needs the ability to recover from any non-fatal injury if they expect to live an meaningful life. I mean, look at the injuries one car crash can cause for us. Someday, you will get unlucky. If you didn't recover from those, then over time those injuries would pile up.
5953818
Luna knows what she did wrong and it's eating at her more han you may realize. The changelings may have invaded, but they are not being violent for the sake of violence. Luna just turned one of Chrysalis's closest friends into a vegetable and, while that alone would cause her plenty of guilt, it also means that, even if Chrysalis does not hurt ponies just together back at her, she will be even stricter on ponies to ensure that this doesn't happen again and Luna knows it.
Fluffy cloud Chrysalis was funny to see, but Chrysalis still makes me feel really unconformable.
5953905 nooo that is utterly contradictory still. she does not have the information of how she is treating the ponies at all. a fact i find hard to swallow admtiably because of dream walking, but still its a factor.
for her to have this forsight about her actions, would mean she would never have just revealed her trump card so early. because she would be able to see beyond herself and know when not to strike.
you cannot have her both know what her actions will do, and NOT know what her actions will do.
and why would she feel guilty about pulverizing the violent parasites that are putting everyone in danger? they made themselves her enemy. if anything she would feel she accomplished something.
and i went an stated two strong reasons why luna would not cower. for starters, being beaten up is incomparable to the torment and torture of those thousand years. narratively, chrysalis has yet to be denied even fear from her enemies. normal ponies, it makes sense. luna however, makes no sense. chrysalis is being favored in this story well outside her just being the protagonist of the tale.
Think Chrysalis is over estimated her powers if she keeps it up there will be choas not just Discord but also Tirek. Think they need a new ruler for the changeling if Chrysails keeps going down so deep that no one will survive the next century.
5953711 i agree, i am getting kinda pissed here...
So many factors leaves this the worst chapter so far.... no point of escape if automatically captured, Luna wasnt given a chance, no contingency plan was created and... at this point the princesses havent made plans to threaten Chrysalis when there are so many ways to stop her... this chapter left me disappointed.
5954669 its kinda the issue i have been having the entire time. there does not seem to be any actual challenge given at all, even by character who should be a challenge.
Well, Chrysalis is showing off her sadistic side hard to Luna. Though I wonder who that visitor in Celestia's dream is?
5954536
Wasn't it stated that she was trapped in the moon?
Hahaha... no, you seem to have an issue with completely overstating characters.
Therefor physical pain does not exist, so Luna would feel nothing when Chrysalis is beating her up. Riiiight.
I am going to tell you this ONE LAST TIME in the vain hope you understand it. Luna's trump card WAS NOT a trump card. She had two options: She could try to engulf the changelings in nightmares. And she would fail. Chrysalis WOULD find her and WOULD stop her. Her other option was to bluff it, to try and hold it above Chrysalis and try to intimidate her. This option has a chance of success, whereas actually going through with it has ZERO chance.
Oh, good to see that you think Luna's a sociopath incapable of empathy.
Again, so because she went through those years - debatable if she was awake for that - then Luna's completely immune to physical harm and cannot feel pain?
5954669
5954718
well geez people, why don't we jump the shark already
be sure to read the description if you don't already know what that term means.
I bet neither of you are predicting what's going to happen next chapter. Maybe that's the problem of not releasing a story all at once.
No character has been completely written off yet... probably to Chrysalis's discredit.
5954718
In fact the only character that's suffered permanent damage so far is one of Chrysalis's trusted councilors...
5955086 you are not exactly setting up a precedence that gives a viewer much confidence in that.
seriously. you ahve depicted chrysalis as being unflappable for the most part, and she has breezed past all of her enemies so far. she lost nothing to sombra. the loss of several captives ar more on her guards. the most she lost is one of her lieutenants, and ultimately one that had managed to somehow greatly injure an alicorn of all things, even though it took a lot of effort to actually hurt big mac before. it ultimately seems a meager casualty compared to keeping an alicorn captive.
it makes her minions vulnerable, but not chrysalis seem vulnerable.
also jumping the shark refers to a leap of logic in a story. literally a guy in a slice of life sitcom that deals with sanitized but normal scenarios, jumping over a damn shark.
5955003 to be honest i do not think it would hurt her that much. considering how much vivisect had to work to hurt big mac, i would presume an alicorn would be every bit as tuff if not a measure more. they have earth pony blood in theri veins you know.
but somehow vivisect hurt her even more easily.
the point is not her feeling physical pain but reacting to it as if she was afraid of it. that whole isolation on the moon thing, whether she was conscious or not, it is still a long, long time. and even before that, she endured decades of isolation from the ponies of equestria as well, that lead to the whole nightmare moon thing.
if chrysalis is trying to intimidate or torment luna here, she would have to somehow hurt her more than she hurt herself, and create a horrific moment that somehow can match a millenium of isolation.
seriously, it got so bad that she literally turned into a corrupt alicorn. that has to be pretty bad.
Needless to say, I was kinda hoping that Luna would escape in some way. To return and lose another day...
Instead she got captured, beaten and drained to submission. Fair enough, Chrysalis is making her points perfectly clear and is taking no chances with her. Hm... I wonder who or what is hiding in Celestia's dream? Only Luna could dreamwalk, right?
And I still would like to know where Spike is. Lazy dragon...
I hope you'll now get back on track with the main story. So far it seems to be stuck with a series of sub-plots that could've easily been woven into some of the episodes following the 'Crystal Empire' parts.
5955197
That was a bit weird. Then again, Luna was also at an unknown % of her strength.
Well lets see how afraid she was.
Physical reflex.
Sounds like trying to hold in pain, not fear.
Cowed, as in she knows not to make any more remarks.
Self preservation =/= fear.
This also sounds a lot like physical reflex.
Moving on.
Wait... no. Consciousness matters a bunch! If she was unconscious that whole time, then it's like it never happened from her perspective!
Citation needed.
We don't know how hard it is for alicorns to become corrupt.
5955234 again and again dissecting it to try and make it seem less.
the point i was triyn to make is that the beating owuldn't have cowed her. and self preservation is debatable when she has had to have been in several life and death situation before. she stood with celestia gainst the enemies of equestria. had to be close calls.
and you can't really make citations with mlp stuff that easily dude. there are bits and pieces throughout mlp media.
for that decades thing, that is just a speculation of time, as it seems implausible she would just turn that dark in only a year. ther ehad to be a considerable expanse of time where luna endured for there to be such a breakdown at the end.
5955222
Bleeeehhhhhhh
Please believe me, I would like to get on to some of the other season 3 episode material already.
Some of these side conflicts have taken more time than I planned, next chapter is gonna twist the schedule a bit
5955428
Well what would you have me do? Just give a blanket 'No this is wrong' without proving it wrong?
So... Luna's been through the grinder, so now she has no interest in keeping herself alive? And why wouldn't it have? It lets her know that if she doesn't keep quiet, she is going to die and then there is absolutely no chance of her helping or being rescued.
You mean according to your headcanon of badass Luna. Hey, I've got another headcanon! During the battle with Sombra, a bit of his Dark Magic began whispering and pushing Luna so that within a year she was NMM.
5955465 no because it seems unlikely that it would only take a year for the ponies to suddenly be like 'luna who?'
5955471 Or perhaps Luna only started seeing things that way at one point? What if she only felt neglected? There's just too many things unknown to be able to draw real conclusions.
5955453 Drones 1- ....... apparently there is some crazed blue unicorn on the loose.
Drone 2- really? why?
Drone 1- apparently she is looking for twilight sparkle or something. apparently is wearing some weird amulet.
drone2- think that would be useful?
drone 1- not likelty. apparently its driving her insane or something. some kind of dark magic. don't think we can really use dark magic, or at least draw power from dark magic. and hwo knows what chrysalis would be like if she wore it.
drone2 -. eh...... hey did you just see a unicorn with a fiery mane come out of that mirror?
drone 1- no.
drone 2- i swear one just did.
drone1- so says the bug that keeps seeing that pink earth pony stealing cake every night.
drone 2- touche.
5955510 considering we have an entire holidary based on her becoming a monster in equestria, it seems unlikely. it treats her more as something to be feared, something unknown, than understanding that something went wrong with one of their beloved rulers.
Hmm...........
You mean gritted her teeth?? Or Grinded? Ground is another verb.
Patience.
You should have known better Luna.
i love your art style
if it isn't your art then i give credit to the artist
lol fluffy cloud chrysalis is funny
6145466
Ye, i do all my own sketches. Thank you for the compliment I suppose you'd be glad to hear i've increased the frequency I put sketches in the authors notes in further chapters. Lately i've basically included some in each new chapter. I think i'm addicted
...
Those dream-walking scenes are always worth a chuckle, just for the various ways Chrysalis gets humiliated in them.
I like both sides of the conflict in this story and I don't know for whom I want to worry more. (Of course, at the moment I'm worried about Luna.)
This is probably the first story I found where the sides are shown ambiguously and where the real "gray morality" is shown.
I really like the dream-walk scenes. Reminds me of the Psychonauts games, just a little more grounded and set where the character would think about being instead of a representation of themselves. I always like that kind of stuff, so thanks for giving us a few of them (Even if I'm extremely late to the party, here, just wanted to show my appreciation).