That Which was Lost

by LadyRFC

Never Again

“So, you actually behaved yourself?”

Twilight was giving Discord a critical, not to say suspicious, eye. She was still next to Lily, although both were wide awake and tense. Seeing new arrivals walking in calmly behind Blue Flame in military fashion only relaxed her slightly. She still felt she was in over her head. Far in over her head.

Discord gave her a winning smile, his arms held out as if to embrace the world. “Why of course, my dear Princess Twilight! What ever made you think I wouldn't?”

“Beats me,” Rainbow muttered with a roll of her eyes.

“Now Rainbow Dash,” Discord popped right in front of her, bating his eyelashes. “You know very well that I was very polite and did everything you asked, now didn't I?”

Rainbow wrinkled her nose, but admitted that, yes, he had performed reasonably well.

Discord sniffed. “Well! Such ingratitude. I don't fathom why I ever help you ponies in the first place.”

Fluttershy floated over to him and place a hoof on his shoulder. “Because we're your friends and you care about us?”

Discord softened a bit and patted the pegasus on the head. “I guess,” he sighed.

“The situation is worse than we feared, though," Chrysalis spoke to Princess Lily. “Your father is dead set against us. If he was willing to kill even you -”

“But maybe he didn't know I was in here!” Lily interrupted desperately.

Chrysalis's eyes were oddly soft, but she didn't answer. Lily already knew. She didn't have to be told. She laid down and buried her face into her front hooves. The cave became quiet and the small platoon of pegasus looked quite uncomfortable and lost with their princess so distressed.

Chrysalis caught Twilight's eyes and motioned for her to follow. The alicorn nodded and waved her friends back from following her. It was high time they had a plan and Twilight wished to iron it out well before the others knew of it.

Chrysalis lead the princess down another side tunnel. Her horn glowed, casting an eery greenish hue on the rocks around them. She stopped after only a few minutes and turned to face Twilight.

“Negotiation is impossible, isn't it?” Twilight asked.

The changling queen sighed. “I thought as much long ago. True, Princess Lily gave me hope. But it's not enough.” She frowned. “And I was always worried about that unicorn ruler.”

“I feel like I only know half of everything,” Twilight commented. “How did you meet Lily? What do you know about the emperor here?”

Chrysalis looked up at the ceiling curiously as she explained briefly, “We were staying well outside the city here, feeding off farmers secretly for weeks. Somepony must have seen one of us, thought we were ghosts and that's when strange stories spread. The princess came to investigate the area and ran into Sally, who was gathering some herbs to leave at one of the houses. The pony inside was sick.”

The queen looked down again and shrugged. “Princess Lily is curious. And naive of danger. She opened dialog with us, even agreeing to stay with us to feed the young ones.” She sighed. “She did try to talk to her father the emperor. But he was as many others are. Harsh and arrogant. He claimed the kingdom had no need of us now that the power of the dragons was in their control.”

“Power of the dragons?” Twilight had forgotten about that dark element of the empire. Her mind shot back to Spike, alone in the city and likely very worried. She needed to get back to him.

“I'm not very clear on that myself, Twilight,” the queen admitted. “They were not around back when our ancestors were a part of the empire. They must have been brought over in the hundreds of years since.”

“It sounds like they're used as part of the military...” Twilight murmured.

Chrysalis nodded. “That's the conclusion I arrived at and the princess confirmed it. Apparently this father of hers has declared war on the nation beyond the mountains and has already begun a few choice battles there. His biggest weapon being these dragons he claims to have tamed.”

“But,” Twilight felt lost again, “I would think he'd welcome your group in because he'd have even more power, wouldn't he?”

Chrysalis was silent for awhile. “Princess Twilight?”

“Yes?”

The queen's voice was oddly soft, as if speaking to a small child. “What emotion comes with war?”

Twilight flinched. “Oh.”

Chrysalis nodded, the light off her horn flickering over the walls, shadows in the rocks dancing. “We can fight. You have seen us do so. But only when we must. Either to protect or...”

“Conquer?” Twilight ventured. Before the queen could speak she quickly said, “I can't imagine what it was like. So many of your own starving. Counting on you to save them. With nopony even willing to listen to you.” She took a deep breath before finishing. “But I can't allow you to try that again. To do what you did to Canterlot. No matter how bad this emperor is, we have to try. We have to try and talk.”

Chrysalis gave another sigh and then smiled. “I had a feeling you'd say that. Although, in my current state, I don't think I could do that again even if I wanted to. The initial energy I needed to do what I did was rather massive even before I fed from your brother.”

At Twilight's finch, she added, “My feeding didn't give him any side effects. That was a spell. A dizzying spell, to lower the sheild. It was all pointless if I was the only one to be fed.”

“I know,” Twilgiht said, though her body felt impossibly tense. Her mind kept wanting to return to that time, trying to relive it, the images ripping her current calm slowly. “I just -”

“Twilight!”

Alicorn and changling queen looked down the way they had come to see Sally leading a worried Fluttershy through the darkness, a bright blue bird clinging to her pink hair in terror.

“What's a bird doing in here?” Twilight asked, one eye brow raised.

“Oh,” Fluttershy gasped when they finally reached them. She took a gulp of air. “He... he got lost in the tunnels for a bit... but that's not... important...”

“Lost?” Twilight eyed the scared bird. It looked like it was about to have a breakdown. “Why'd he come in here?”

“That's what... I'm trying... to tell you...” the pegasus gasped.

“Alright then. Why?”

Fluttershy looked up, finally catching her breath, her eyes big. “He says the emperor's taken Spike captive!”

Comments

[Jirodyne]

And next Chapter just opens up to the Empire being a massive crater. Spike is the only survivor there.

[Naduran]

3771365
Nay that might be overdoing it
Just the castle

[Jirodyne]

3771646 Maybe if she can harness her rage. But I don't think she will be able to. Especially with the changeling queen AND discord there.

[Kitcat36]

I'm going to stop pointing out spelling errors/typos and mistaken homonyms. Let me know if you want help editing or anything.