Chapter Five: Unveiled
This was pretty intense. An all-out invasion of Canterlot! Chicane was barely able to contain his excitement, and whatever he did manage to bottle up was projected in his thoughts to the hive mind. There were countless other voices in his head with comparable amounts of excitement, and the migraine from their volume and quantity nearly stifled his own good feelings, but all he had to do was imagine the infinite banquet of love in the city below, and he’d cheer himself back up.
The issue, of course, was the force field. A magical bubble stood between the changeling forces and the heart of Equestria itself. Their attack had been announced, and the groom of the wedding scheduled to take place had erected the barrier in response. Chicane didn’t quite get why Queen Chrysalis would make their presence known, but he was convinced that it was all part of her perfect and foolproof plan.
After all, he figured, Queen Chrysalis could do no wrong.
The important thing, at any rate, was that his revered ruler was currently inside the city disguised as the bride, slowly draining the groom’s energy and weakening the barrier. She’d told her subjects that she had every intention of having it down by the end of the wedding, and Chicane didn’t doubt her for a moment.
Not that it was stopping several of the other changelings from impotently bashing into the force field, though. The more they kept at it, the more Chicane felt compelled to wonder what thousands of concussions sounded like. He knew better than to break his skull over a giant bubble. He would simply have to bide his time and wait for his queen’s command.
In the meantime, there were plenty of other unoccupied changelings he could try to strike up a chat with, assuming they’d be able to hear each other over the ones that were turning their own brains to mush.
Or he could just wait until the slamming died down. He knew the other changelings weren’t going anywhere.
Cadance had no idea what this was supposed to do.
The instructions were there with it, and its effects were listed plainly, but she had absolutely no clue how this potion was meant to work. The best equipment medical science had to offer couldn’t just wake up a coma patient. It was a miracle that Chicane even survived in a coma, on top of his rather severe injuries, for entire weeks before he was found. He was hanging on by the skin of his teeth, and she couldn’t imagine that changing with this potion.
On the other hoof... it was given to her by Princess Celestia. She’d seemed sure it would work, and Cadance trusted her aunt’s judgment in serious matters. The well-being of a battered changeling, one of the last of his kind on the brink of death, definitely counted as a serious matter.
It probably wouldn’t do as much good as everypony was convinced it would do, but if this was put in her hooves, it couldn’t do any harm either.
Cadance looked over the instructions one last time. The formula was meant to be inhaled. The flask was small, but not small enough to comfortably position under Chicane’s nose. She would need to pour it onto a rag and place it over his nose so he could breathe in the vapor, something the actual medical professionals helping her out would probably have tried to stop her from doing. She kept them well-informed, however, and they’d seemed to reluctantly consent to the proposed action.
After a brief search, Cadance found the rag that most closely matched the potion’s unsavory color. This way, if the potion stained, it wouldn’t be as noticeable. Whether the citrusy smell would ever go away was an issue for future Cadance to deal with.
Once the rag was properly soaked, she levitated it beside her as she approached Chicane. His peaceful look despite his condition unnerved her slightly. She figured he’d be screaming in agony if he were awake. If this worked, she’d have to brace herself for the potential noise.
Cadance enveloped the changeling’s oxygen mask with her magic, slowly and carefully dropping it from his face. She could hear his breathing much better without it, and it still sounded uneven and labored. She absently wondered whether the mask was even doing anything for him. Without further delay, she sat on the floor beside Chicane and brought the rag over his face, allowing the fumes to enter his system. It almost felt like she was smothering him or trying to knock him out with chloroform. She held it there for a full minute, listening as the poor thing breathed through it, before removing it.
Her job finished, Cadance replaced Chicane’s mask. She knew it wasn’t supposed to fully take effect for another three hours, but she still felt compelled to watch as he lay on the couch, unable to do anything but struggle to breathe. In spite of herself, she briefly hoped the concoction wouldn’t work. She didn’t know how she’d be able to cope if Chicane woke up and put her entirely at fault for his condition.
As if to counteract that selfish thought, Cadance leaned in and planted a light kiss on the changeling’s forehead. She’d vowed to show him that he was welcome and wanted, and she wasn’t going to wait until he was conscious to do that. Every little bit counted.
As she rose to leave, Cadance noticed something that put a smile on her face. She didn’t know if it was from the small gesture of love or from the gross-looking potion, but she was positive that Chicane’s breathing had just slightly steadied itself.
It felt good to take care of a changeling.
“It’s starting to look pretty bad,” Spike warned, watching the town from the safety of the library window. “I can hear the shouting from here. They’re just one step away from torches and pitchforks.”
Chrysalis became very aware of how wrong she was in claiming that this whole riot business was of no concern to her. Granted, she’d made the claim before she knew that it was a riot, but it still made her feel like a selfish idiot. Now, hiding in Twilight’s library with Spike and the bearers of the Elements of Harmony, she realized just how badly the town of Ponyville was taking the news of her return.
“How’d this even happen!?” Applejack demanded. “This all can’t be over a stinkin’ paper!”
“Why not?” Rainbow Dash asked. “That same paper’s telling them the changelings are back for round two!”
“Can we please not argue?” Fluttershy pleaded. “Everything’s stressful and scary enough as it is.”
Chrysalis stood beside Spike, looking through the window at Ponyville. He was right; it was a show of chaos that would make Discord blush. Ponies were running and screaming, knocking things over, pointing hooves at others to presumably accuse them of being changeling spies. A few had even taken to throwing loose objects at buildings, some even going through windows.
That was why she had no idea how it surprised her that an orange went flying through the window on the other side of the library.
Chrysalis suddenly turned to the ponies in the room. “This is getting ridiculous. I have to make myself known to them.”
“Have you lost your mind!?” Rarity shouted. “You can’t let them know you’re here! It would be a massacre! A bloodbath!”
“Would it really be a bloodbath, though?” Pinkie Pie asked. “I think the spraying would make it a blood shower!”
“Not helping...” Fluttershy complained, backing as far away from the front door as possible. Chrysalis had to agree; now was not the time for such grim humor.
Twilight, meanwhile, sat at the center desk in silence. She seemed deep enough in thought to not be fazed by the antics around her. Chrysalis hoped she would speak up before the townsponies found her, the girls’ infighting tore them apart, or she just stormed out that door and outed herself regardless.
Ultimately, Twilight rose to her hooves with a look of determination. “Chrysalis is right. She’s held off publicly showing herself long enough. It’s better to get it done now than to let them find her themselves.”
“You think I can’t defend myself against these rioters?” Chrysalis asked. She surely could, but she would much rather find a solution that didn’t force her to.
“Let’s avoid that,” Twilight suggested, as if reading Chrysalis’ mind. “We need to show them that Chrysalis is here and that she’s peaceful. Hopefully, even if they don’t believe that she’s not here to hurt them, they’ll at least stop acting like everypony around them is a changeling.”
“How are we gonna talk to all of them at once?” Spike inquired.
“We can gather ‘em at town hall!” Applejack proclaimed. “Y’all can get over there and get yerselves ready while Rainbow and Ah round ‘em all up!”
Rainbow saluted. “You can count on me!”
“That’s a good start,” Twilight agreed. “I’m loving where you’re going with this, and I think I already know how to follow it up. The issue is with getting Chrysalis over there without being noticed. She can’t just use any of us as a disguise, and I don’t know if she’d get away with copying anypony else in town in case she gets recognized because she’s supposed to be joining the panic.”
“What about Derpy?”
All eyes turned to Pinkie Pie, who was grinning proudly. “Think about it! She’s always just in the background not getting involved in anything, and she’s been away for the last week without anypony else in town even noticing! I could take Chryssy over to make sure the disguise works! I can even help with her cover story if she needs one, since I know Derpy so well!”
Twilight beamed. “Perfect! Chrysalis, do you know what she looks li—”
Chrysalis didn’t even wait for Twilight to finish her sentence. She concentrated on the mental image in her head—pegasus mare, gray coat, somewhat ragged yellow mane, bubble cutie mark, misaligned golden eyes—and transformed with as subtle a display as she could manage.
“I’m quite impressed!” Rarity commented. “The match is perfect! How did you manage to alter your size as well? I noticed yesterday afternoon as well, but I never thought to ask.”
“How did you know who Derpy was?” Fluttershy added. “I didn’t think we’d introduced you to her.”
“She came into the library once when I had to watch it,” Chrysalis explained. “I never caught her name, but I could immediately tell who you were referring to from that alone.”
“Awesome!” Pinkie stated. “I’m still gonna be your escort, right?”
“Please do,” Chrysalis answered. “How does this mare even see straight?”
“I don’t even think she does,” Spike muttered, earning him a light smack across the back of the head from Pinkie.
“Well, I think we have almost everything straightened out,” Twilight decided. “Rarity, Fluttershy, Spike and I will go straight to town hall, and we’ll meet up with the rest of you there. Once everypony’s been gathered, we’ll need to find a nice, calm, quiet way to get them to—”
“Calm the heck down!” Rainbow bellowed at the top of her lungs, causing the others to smack their foreheads with their hooves. To her credit, it seemed to work. The townsponies immediately stopped shouting and bickering and looked to the podium at which the girls and Spike were standing. The disguised Chrysalis, having found a place in the back of the crowd, simply continued regarding them.
After a quick roll of her eyes, Twilight took center stage and approached the podium directly. “Thanks for gathering here on such short notice, everypony. I know the paper today contained some troubling news, but—”
“Troubling!?” a mare shouted from the crowd. “The changelings are back in Equestria!”
“I’m not saying they aren’t,” Twilight replied, “but I am saying that we can’t just fall back on panicking without knowing the whole story.”
“Why not?” another mare inquired. “Do you have any idea what those changeling beasts could do to us!?”
Unseen by anypony else, the pony who appeared to be Derpy Hooves began to frown.
“I know exactly what they could do,” Twilight answered. “I spent a lot of time after the invasion trying to learn about them.” She rubbed her neck and chuckled nervously. “Know your enemy, right?” Chrysalis desperately wanted to roll her eyes, but she didn’t trust these eyes to roll in any coherent direction.
“Why should we believe you?” came a third voice from the crowd. “For all we know, the reason you know about changelings is because you are a changeling!”
“I promise you, I’m not,” Twilight declared. “And if you think about it for two seconds, you’ll probably come up with several reasons why I can’t be one.”
The mare—a cream-colored earth pony with a magenta-pink mane and rose cutie mark—tried to retort, but paused to think for a moment. There were several murmurs across the crowd, the consensus seeming to be that Twilight might have a point.
“You see?” Twilight asked. “We need to stay calm and handle this rationally. Accusing everypony around you of being changelings causes more problems than it solves. Just this once, can’t we try thinking before we react?”
The crowd nodded and muttered in agreement again. Chrysalis couldn’t help but smile. It seemed like everything was going alright so far.
“But what if one of those disgusting things tries to attack?” the first voice asked. Chrysalis scowled, displeased by the populace’s prejudice.
“We’ll do as we’ve always done,” Twilight responded. “We deal with the problem as it comes along. There’s no sense in worrying when there’s nothing to worry about yet.”
“You’re one to talk!” came a new voice. “How many times has your own worrying gotten this town in trouble? And you’re up there telling us that these monsters aren’t our problem yet!?”
“Enough of this!” Chrysalis finally shouted. The audience watched as she attempted to fly over them and over to the podium, struggling through her crooked sight to follow a straight path. She unceremoniously collapsed as she reached the stage, shoving Twilight aside as she approached the podium herself.
“I tire of hearing you speak ill of the changeling race!” she announced. “And I am especially displeased by your disrespect for the mare that played a hoof in rescuing your town and kingdom from peril on countless occasions! She is correct; none of you in the crowd could possibly be changelings, and do you know why!?”
With that, Chrysalis exploded with a brilliant pillar of green magic, and when it subsided, she stood before the stunned crowd in her true form.
“Because the only changeling in Ponyville is I!”
“Chrysalis, what are you—” Twilight started, but the rest of her question was drowned out by screams of terror. Impressively enough, nopony ran screaming from town hall, which may have been due to Twilight’s brief speech a moment earlier.
Instead, with a rallying cry of “Get her!” the crowd, now a mob, charged forward, apparently hoping strength in numbers would be enough to overwhelm the obviously evil creature standing at the podium. Chrysalis watched the spectacle unfold, most of her conflicting emotions fighting for dominance with the sudden fear for her life.
Before the mob ever reached her, though, Chrysalis felt herself become spatially displaced as Twilight teleported them out of town hall.
Oh, sweet princess, another episode. Twilight had been doing so well before now.
She had the crowd perfectly in control before. She might even have warmed them up to the idea of Chrysalis hanging around Ponyville given enough of her time and their attention. But of course, the queen couldn't sit back and let them talk smack about her subjects. It was almost like she was starting to give up on making bad plans and instead jumping right to the part where she screwed herself over in one fell swoop. There must not have been a shred of common sense in that head of hers!
Twilight mentally chastised herself. She shouldn't be freaking out. Now was an absolutely perfect time to freak out, but she shouldn't be freaking out. If she could keep a level head through this, she could keep a level head through anything. As many times as she repeated this to herself, though, it didn’t stop her from antsily trotting in place in the middle of the library.
Princess Celestia was going to hear about this, and she was not going to be happy.
“This is all my fault,” Chrysalis confessed. “I should not have spoken out of turn as I did.”
“Ya think!?” Applejack scolded. “Chrysalis, ya just organized the riot into a mob!”
“I can figure out a way to fix all of this!” Chrysalis insisted. “I just need some time, and if you girls can continue to keep me hidden—”
“How?” Rarity asked. “The entire town has mobilized against you. Against us, I’m willing to bet. They will rip this town apart searching for you, and I have no doubt that our homes will be searched vigorously.”
“You don’t think you can manage it!?” Chrysalis shouted. “What if I went somewhere closer to the outskirts? Better yet, I could hide with Rainbow Dash in her cloud home!”
“That won’t protect you from the other pegasi,” Rainbow stated, rubbing the back of her neck. “I’ve seen my fair share of pegasus riots, and they can get nasty. I’d be in just as much danger as you if I kept you anywhere near me.”
Rainbow’s words lingered in Twilight’s mind for a moment. Chrysalis would put her in danger by being there with her. It was a consequence she never even considered for if the town reacted as poorly as it did. It wasn’t just Rainbow, either. All of them would find themselves on the townsponies’ bad side in the worst way if they kept Chrysalis close to them. The changeling queen was horribly at risk if she stayed in town, and whoever she stayed with would be endangered as well.
Twilight’s eyes began to fill with tears. She knew what she would have to do, and she desperately didn’t want to do it, but for everypony’s safety, she had no other choice.
“I’m so sorry,” she sobbed, turning her head away from Chrysalis. “You can’t stay here.”
Chrysalis backed herself against a wall, completely shocked. “What did you just say!?”
“I can’t keep you here in the library anymore!” Twilight yelled, her voice cracking. “Rarity and Rainbow Dash are right. They’re coming for you, they’ll look everywhere, and we’ll be in just as much trouble as you are if they find us with you. Not just us, either; everypony we live with would get in just as much trouble, whether it be Applejack’s family, the Cakes, or even Spike.
“It hurts me so much to have to break this to you, but... you have to leave town.”
The group sat in stunned silence for the longest time, the only sounds coming from the rioting mob outside. Twilight tried to look at Chrysalis, but the heartbreak in her eyes forced her to turn away. Spike and the other girls were just as appalled by her words, but none of them stepped up to counter them. Twilight was right, whether they liked it or not. Whether she liked it or not.
“Town hall’s still a little while away,” Twilight stated. “If you leave now, you can make it out without anypony seeing you, and you can go wherever you think you’ll be safe, but you’re not safe here.” She walked solemnly over to the door, opening it for Chrysalis. “For your own safety, as well as all of ours, I need you to get out of my library.”
Chrysalis, however, refused to move. “No. I-I can’t leave. I refuse to leave any of you! Friends are meant to stay together, right!?”
“They also have to look out for each other,” Twilight replied. “There’s no other way this will work out for everypony. Please, Chrysalis, this is so hard for me to do, but I don’t want you to make it any harder.”
“Why not!?” Chrysalis demanded. “You’re just acting upon the first solution that came into your head! I beg of you, just think more about it, take the time to create another plan to—”
“We don’t have time, Chrysalis!” Twilight shouted. “And the longer you stay, the closer they get, and the less time you have to escape!”
“I don’t care!” Chrysalis retorted. “I will not leave you! I can’t!”
“You can and you will! Get out!”
Almost without thinking, Twilight lit up her horn and enveloped the changeling in her magic. She backed herself out the door, dragging Chrysalis along, Once Twilight was just outside, she gathered her magical strength and forcibly threw Chrysalis out of the library.
“And don’t come back,” she hissed tearfully.
Chrysalis picked herself up off the ground, not once taking her eyes off Twilight. The librarian glared back, but the utter distress and betrayal on the queen’s face broke her heart. She kept her gaze locked, hoping beyond hope that Chrysalis would just leave so she wouldn’t have to look at that face anymore.
Finally, she did leave, frantically sprinting towards the edge of town.
Twilight turned to re-enter her home, feeling like the most heartless and disgusting pony alive, never noticing the three small heads poking out from behind her bushes.
“You did what!?” Cadance cried, in utter disbelief of what her sister-in-law had just told her.
“I couldn’t do anything else!” Twilight insisted. “The mob would’ve ripped her to shreds, and if they caught us with her, they’d rip us to shreds too!”
“So you threw her out of the library!?” Cadance shouted. “What in Celestia’s name were you thinking!?”
“I was thinking of all of us!” Twilight replied. “There was no other way to make sure she stayed safe and we weren’t put at risk! None of us could’ve done anything for her!”
“What about just being there for her!?” Cadance asked.
Twilight fumbled for words, but nothing coherent came. It seemed like a family curse; Cadance just had more common sense than Shining Armor and Twilight, and arguments like these would keep falling in her favor.
Most times, though, she really wished she didn’t have to keep having arguments like these.
“Twilight, Chrysalis is a complete wreck right now,” Cadance informed her. “Your casting her out like that is only going to make things worse for her. You just showed her that she couldn’t count on you or your friends to help her out of this. She has no shoulder to cry on now, and I guarantee you she needs one more than anything else.”
“What she needs is to stay alive,” Twilight countered, but there was a distinct lack of conviction in her tone. “I... I didn’t have the time to think of anything that would keep her safe and make her happy.”
“You still should’ve handled it in a way that wouldn’t make her miserable,” Cadance scolded, cutting off the connection on her end before Twilight could retaliate.
Cadance let out a long, deep sigh. All this, just because Chrysalis couldn’t keep her temper in control. The queen had the worst habit of creating terrible situations for herself and finding new and spectacular ways of making them so much worse. She was shaping up to be her own worst enemy.
Twilight was just as at fault in this case. There was absolutely no need for her to hurl Chrysalis out of the library and demand that she stay out. Cadance sincerely hoped Twilight’s friends had the sense to scold her for her actions, just as she had. The poor mare needed to think long and hard about what she’d done, and hopefully, the next Cadance heard, she’ll have found the queen and reconciled.
For now, though, Chrysalis was of much greater concern. Even if Cadance couldn’t physically be there for her, the changeling at least deserved to know that she wasn’t entirely without support. She concentrated, intending to open another portal so she could speak to her.
Before she could finish the spell, she heard a scream from the couch downstairs.
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Minor typo.
This is all I can say to this
Wow, really? Am I the only one on Twilight's side? I mean, what would Cadence have done? Hide her, and inevitably be caught by the mob? And Chrysalis is completely irrational. It's not like Twilight isn't her friend anymore, she's just trying to get her to someplace safer, which obviously isn't the library. Honestly, Twilight made the best choice under the circumstances. She doesn't deserve flak for saving Chrysalis from a mob.
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she was pretty harsh. Saying "don't come back" and throwing her out was kinda mean. I would've teleported her out with me to somewhere safe.
I have to side with twilight on this one. She did the right thing but she executed it poorly. Their relationship will heal with time but it's much more important Chryssy be alive right now.
Damn! The queen was discovered and is at risk of being killed by Pony Ponyville!
However at the end of the chapter it is clear that his subject was woke up!
Iinizio with the beautiful memories of the shape-shifting during the war against the ponies.
I'm with Cadance on this one. "Well, mob is coming here, what do? Maybe, dunno, force field spell I know from my brother and then ask what the heck they doing trying to destroy my property? Teleport Chrysalis somewhere safe, that was already searched, like Fluttershy cottage or Pinkie's basement?"
NAH I JUST THROW HER OUT LIKE THE GOOD FRIEND I AM.
OH AND I'M THE REASON CHANGELING ARE EXTINCT NOW BECAUSE I WAS JUST AS CARING AND CONSIDERATE FIRST TIME Y KNOW
Cap.
[Covered in last chapters post, and since it's pointing out a specific race.]
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Honestly this is a tough one. You call Celestia, the "Solar Princess", and that is of a similar vein. Although technically, on a grammatical level, since it's not a title / moniker, per say. Only the Changeling would be capitalized.
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Totes
, the best friend anyling can ask for ... as long as said ling isn't in danger, or suffering from a tragedy. Then she becomes a "helper", just like Fighter in 8bit Theater.
Honestly, I feel like if it wasn't for this story and its predecessor focusing more on Chrysalis, they could be titled Twilight Being Stupid, Part I & Part II.