Excerpt from a fic I was working on pre-fimfiction

Sorry for the long lack of updates to both stories. By way of apology, and to try and get myself motivated again, I present an excerpt from an old, old fic I started working on way back between seasons 2 and 3. If you remember some of my old blog posts, this is from the HiE that got to around 90 pages before I decided it needed a rewrite. In this scene, the story's major villains, recently allied, are a-plottin' and a-schemin'.

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“…and that was when those two ‘secret weapons’ fell upon me and you and I first met.” Chrysalis concluded.

Sullivan steepled his fingers and stared across the map- and note-strewn table at Chrysalis. For the last three hours the changeling had been giving him a factual (though also extremely opinionated) crash course on Equestria's civics, culture and recent events. He was beginning to feel he had enough information to act. Time was of the essence, especially considering the trouble Rhodes, Daniels and Offero were likely stirring up for him.

During the course of the lecture, the first few changelings had rejoined their queen. They seemed to instinctively know her will, and waited listlessly at a distance, either glaring warily at Sullivan or attempting to copy any human who drew near. The multiple digits, the difference in size and the direction human joints bent were giving them a bit of trouble.

“If you were actually telling me the truth about your last little takeover attempt, you had the right idea,” Sullivan said. “Ordinary hunting tactics won’t work here; the prey is too intelligent and organized.

“Let’s assume a worst-case scenario,” he continued. “Rhodes and the others have done something idiotic, got themselves caught and told their captors everything. How do we proceed?”

Chrysalis shrugged. “For a worst case, it’s quite rosy. The facts are still on your side. You didn’t tell the fool to go and kill unicorns, he did it of his own accord. As for the rest: deny, deny, deny. If that doesn’t work, you’ll just have to play your trump card.”

“And that would be?”

The changeling laughed. “Why, me, of course! Make me your scapegoat. The unicorns and the rest fear me and believe I have the power to warp minds to my will.” She waved a hoof and rolled her eyes to show how ridiculous the idea was. “Simply tell them that you took me in, not knowing what I was, and that I used my eeevil magic to send Rhodes and the others to get revenge for the ponies’ many crimes against me and mine. They’ll gladly believe any ill of a changeling. They might even feel guilty for dropping me into your lap!”

Sullivan gave the queen a calculating look. “A noble offer. I take it they won’t behead you on the spot?”

“A reasonable creature would, but the ponies are too wrapped up in delusions of moral superiority. They prefer to inflict their cruelty through distance and deprivation rather than direct action.”

“I see. That’s a start, but it’s not enough. We need to earn the goodwill of their leaders, explain our presence and move into position before delivering a crippling blow to these beings at the top of their command structure. What did you call them?”

“Alicorns.”

The grand master shook his head and fingered his necklace. “How bizarre. Where I’m from, ‘alicorn’ is the name for the substance unicorn horn is composed of.”

Chrysalis tittered. “Really? So it’s the same as if elephants called their leaders ‘ivories’? How amusing!”

Sullivan wondered if there were talking elephants in the Beyond too.

“You said you faced one of these alicorns directly and were victorious?”

She felt the urge to lie and boast, but reminded herself it would be counterproductive. Actually collaborating with a non-changeling, even one she had dominated, was a novel, thrilling experience to her. Chrysalis wondered if the hives had been limiting themselves by seeing the world as composed only of changelings and their prey. Between her powers and the humans’ own mysterious abilities they could—

She forcibly derailed that train of thought. Changelings did not have allies, they had victims they used as sticks to beat other victims. An alliance? Ugh! It was just another word for friendship, which was another world for love. She knew what happened to changelings who gave love instead of taking it.

Her species barely had any culture of their own by dint of spending all their time pretending to be other creatures, but they kept a few stories of queens who’d failed so dismally that their shame had to be preserved to warn future generations. Some, like Elytron, had lost themselves in their roles and believed they were the mask they wore. One, Chelicera the Mad, consciously chose to reject her nature and live as an actual pony, seduced by their naive, idealistic philosophy.

Regardless of the reason, the result was always the same. Other creatures produced love like a tree grew fruit, to be given away with little harm, but changelings did not make love; they only consumed it. To part with what they had was like opening a vein. Those who forgot this soon withered away into lifeless husks. Chrysalis silently swore to herself she would not be one of these.

“Your grace? Did you hear me?”

She snapped out of her reverie. “Yes, grand master. I overpowered her, but it was…under unusual circumstances. I couldn’t guarantee it’d happen again. My magical powers have been greatly reduced since then.” She gave him an accusing glare. “I’m sure the dismemberment didn’t do me any favors either.”

His mouth twisted into a wry grin. “I think I can make it up to you somehow. You’re far too valuable to throw into the teeth of their strongest forces.” Sullivan pulled at his beard in thought. “Still, do you think you could distract them at an opportune time?”

“I suppose I do know how to turn heads, one way or another,” Chrysalis quipped. “What are you planning?”

“For that, I would have to show you another one of our secrets.”

Chrysalis prepared to bend Sullivan’s will again, but the grand master stood up from the table of his own accord, entered his tent and returned with a slender metal case. He unlocked it, popped the latches, and turned it toward the queen. “Behold! Our greatest weapon.” He opened the case to reveal a recurve short bow of pale wood with copper inlay and a similarly-decorated quiver of arrows.

She was rather unimpressed. “It’s just a gaudy little archery set.” Reaching out with her magical senses, she detected only a guarded undercurrent of amusement and capriciousness emanating from the bow.

“We know better than to judge by appearances, don’t we?” Sullivan chided. “You’re looking at the most powerful tool of chaos ever devised; the divine weapon that sealed the fate of lofty Ilium: the bow of Cupid.” Sullivan paused for effect, then hastily added, “Or at least, that’s what it thinks it is, which is enough for our purposes.”

“Ilium? Cupid? These mean nothing to me.” She slid an arrow from the quiver and turned it over in the air before her. It had a broad leaf-shaped head and bright red fletching.

“Ignorant beast,” Sullivan snapped, “it’s the bow of love! Anyone pricked by that shaft you’re holding will fall into passionate amorous infatuation with the next living being they see, no matter who…or what.”

Chrysalis gasped and backpedaled from the table, letting the arrow clatter back into the case.

Sullivan laughed. “Now you appreciate it, do you? Perhaps you’re a wise beast after all! Too many scoff at the bow that doesn’t kill. They don’t realize what power there is in ruling the heart of another.”

Struggling to regain her composure after the near brush with death, Chrysalis tossed her head and tried to appear unconcerned. “I suppose it has its uses. Still, a love potion would do the same thing without you having to brandish a weapon in the alicorns’ presence.”

“Potions? Pfaugh!” Sullivan scoffed. “ ‘Love potions’ do one thing only: precisely what you don’t want them to. If it’s not complications with the delivery, it’s the side effects. Even if they somehow worked as intended, they all have antidotes. The bow is reliable. Its arrow cannot be resisted, defended against or turned aside.”

“But the victim ultimately gets to choose,” Chrysalis objected. “Depending on who they see, anything could happen next!”

“That, dear queen, is where you come in,” Sullivan said. “Distract them well, and when I strike, they will only have eyes for you.”

Chrysalis’ own eyes nearly popped out of her head. She had never heard of a changeling successfully feeding on an alicorn. Then again, before her own showdown with Celestia a few days ago, she’d never heard of a changeling besting one at magic! All her life she’d believed they were too canny, too powerful, too dangerous. Having the humans’ aid truly changed everything.

She imagined taking Cadance’s freely offered love, all at once, and gorging herself upon it. Shining Armor would watch while his wife forsook him to dwindle into a shell drained of emotion and will. She placed a hoof over her mouth to keep from drooling.

“Mmh…but! There’s still the problem of how we’re to get myself and your weapon into their presence. The royal guard would never allow it.”

Sullivan leaned over the map, tracing a finger from their camp in the badlands, to the massive forest called Everfree, across the countryside to the mountain where the rulers of the ponies allegedly reigned. “We can’t just drop in unannounced. We need to make an impression with our entrance. You said this forest is full of monsters?”

She nodded. “Just vicious beasts, really. Nothing anypony would miss.”

“How near it do the ponies dwell?”

Chrysalis magically lifted a pen and drew a red circle at the northeastern edge of the forest. “Very close,” she explained. “There’s a little town called ‘Ponyville’.” Noticing Sullivan’s eyes narrowing, she twisted his will a bit further around her horn. “Grand master, what are you thinking?”

“I am thinking I could give them the most airtight, heart-wrenching sob story ever devised, and they’d still be wary if they had any sense.”

As he spoke, a large man encased in a massive suit of armor pushed his way through the small crowd of changelings, saluted, and waited to be recognized. His cape’s original green hue was marred by several large scorch marks, and one of the bottom corners was still smoldering.

Sullivan stood and greeted the man. “Ah, Raleigh, just the lord I wanted to see! Was your hunt successful?”

Lord Raleigh nodded to the small extent his armor would allow. “It was rough goin’, but me an’ the boys, we managed to take one of ‘em alive, just like you wanted!” His voice was a bit higher than what Chrysalis expected for his size. “This way, gran’ master.”

Sullivan, Chrysalis and most of the changelings followed Raleigh to the northern edge of the camp, where the rest of the second dragon-hunting squad waited with their captive, an adolescent red dragon with a yellow webbed crest. The beast would have been nearly twice Sullivan’s height were it standing on its hind legs. Instead, it was squirming on the ground with its wings tied to its body. Two knights with forked polearms worked to keep its neck pinned to the ground while others wrangled chains around its limbs and tail.

Raleigh handed Sullivan a helm. “Here y’are gran’ master. We haven’t taken the teeth out yet so it should be able to talk still.”

The grand master took the headgear and wore it. Every part of his body was now protected by the magic steel. Thus equipped, he approached the dragon.

Chrysalis tried to follow, but Raleigh raised a trunk-like arm to block her way. “Whoa there, horsey. You stay back here where it’s safe. I’d never hear the end of it if I let Sully’s new lil’ pal get imma-lated.”

“Stand aside, oaf!” She commaded. “It’s not enough that you interrupt our discussion, but now you think you can order me around? I am a queen!” Several of her changelings hissed and bared their fangs at the lord.

Raleigh placed his bulk between Chrysalis and the dragon and folded his arms, unimpressed. “Queen, huh? I din’t vote for ya,” he said. “Gran’ master told me to get him soon’s I got back, so I did.”

Meanwhile, Sullivan had walked right up to the dragon’s face and gave it a mocking bow. “Greetings, beast. Do you know who we are?”

The dragon sneered and snorted smoke. “Nah. I don’t bother myself with insects.”

“Let me jog your memory,” Sullivan continued. “We are the ones whose world your kind invaded. Your kin burned our cities, tore down our works, and squat in the ashes growing fat at our expense.”

The captive smiled cruelly in spite of his predicament. “Oh yeah!” he said, face lighting up, “now I remember! My uncle said he’s the king of someplace called ‘Lost Angles’. He told me all about you little pipsqueaks.”

“Did he now?”

“Yeah, he says you burn real good!” The dragon inhaled and blasted out an enormous gout of flame. Sullivan was completely engulfed in the inferno.

Chrysalis averted her face from the unbearable light and heat of the dragon fire. “That idiot!” she cried. “What did he think would happen, going up to a dragon like that? He’ll ruin everything if he dies! Somepony, help him! Pull him out!”

A few changelings rushed forward to obey their queen, but the waves of searing heat made them balk and cringe back.

Raleigh held up his hand. None of the other dragon-hunters made a move.

The dragon continued breathing fire until its lungs were emptied. When the flames abated, the suit of armor was still standing before him. It glowed yellow-orange in front and cherry-red in the back.

Its wearer began to laugh, and the rest of the dragon-hunters joined in.

The dragon gaped in shock, then inhaled for another blast. Sullivan’s laugh stopped short. He lunged forward and clamped the monster’s snout shut with a single glowing gauntlet.

Sullivan leaned close. “Your uncle is no more,” he whispered to the dragon. “I took his head and hung it in my trophy hall. He begged and pleaded before the end; even offered me his hoard if I’d spare him.”

The red dragon’s eyes bulged from a mixture of outrage and pressure from the combusting gases trapped in its innards. Twin columns of flame shrieked upwards from its nostrils.

Watching from a distance, Chrysalis had an uncomfortable feeling of familiarity. Sullivan’s way of dealing with other creatures lacked subtlety, to say the least. She hoped he wasn’t trying to forge a partnership with this one too.

“I’ve come here to visit destruction upon your entire species,” Sullivan told the young dragon. “We will hunt the dragons down and slay them until they can never threaten us again. Now that we’ve figured out how to pierce your hide, we can kill you off one by one; you’ll all be too busy snapping at each other and hunkering over your hoards to lift a claw until it’s too late.”

The dragon flared the last of its fire from its nostrils and Sullivan released his grip on its snout. It tried to breathe fire again, but its insides were aching from having to hold the last blast in. A pitiful wisp of flame was all it could manage.

Sullivan smiled coldly beneath his smoking helm, turned, and walked back to Raleigh and Chrysalis. The blackened scrub crunched beneath his still-red sabatons.

Raleigh gave Sullivan a thumbs-up. “Good job there, gran’ master! How much y’want us to rough ‘em up?”

“Just take enough teeth that it talks funny, then drive it away. Tell me which way it goes.”

The hulking dragon hunter saluted, then advanced on the dragon, cracking his knuckles menacingly beneath his gauntlets. The other men under him followed suit. Chrysalis fell into step with Sullivan as the two of them returned to the planning table.

“That was extremely foolish,” the changeling chastised. “Dragons may not get along as well as ponies, but if they see you as a great enough threat, they’ll gladly put aside their differences to crush your little expedition.”

“I’m counting on it,” Sullivan replied. “See to it that you and your people are ready to fly north at a moment’s notice.”