Altered Visage Chapter 4

In which I speak a bit about "Blue Eyes and Dark Alleys", chapter 4 of Altered Visage.

Given the nature of this blog post, there are going to be spoilers about chapter 4.

This chapter is the first major change after I decided to make it a longer story than I initially intended and, though not stated directly in the story, it is meant to be implied that what happened in the Crystal Empire is the news that dragged Celestia away from Ponyville in chapter 3. Change wise,this chapter is where I inserted Chrysalis into the story.

I had wondered, what would Chrysalis be doing? At first I had thought about her showing up in Ponyville because of this strange new changeling that had appeared, but quickly realized I didn't care for that option. Firstly, I doubt there would have been enough time for her to have gotten the news that there was a changeling that had appeared. Secondly, even if she did hear, why would she care about some random changeling, or at least why would she care enough to show up herself instead of just sending those under her to investigate? She wouldn't, as far as I'm concerned. She's the Queen of her people and the most powerful changeling around, she has more important things to do than look into a changeling of unknown origins showing up in Ponyville.

So, I had to think about what would be important enough for her to get involved in, and my mind immediately went to what she did with the Canterlot invasion: she imprisoned Cadance and was draining/mind controlling Shining Armor. I was aware of the idea floating around the fandom that Cadance, as the alicorn of love, would theoretically be an incredible power source for changelings, powerful enough that Chrysalis would want to get her under her control. I figured that trying to recapture the power sources she had at her disposal during that season two finale would be a very likely thing for her to be doing.

At first I was thinking about doing this chapter from the perspective of a changeling, possibly even Chrysalis herself, but found that it just wasn't working very well for me. I decided experimenting with creating an original character who would be relevant during these events and writing the abduction of the two royals from her perspective, and as a result, Garnet Targe was born.

While what happens in this chapter displays that the ponies weren't just irrationally paranoid about a changeling invasion since they had word from the Crystal Empire that they may be making a move soon, and it does set up some stuff for later chapters, I am concerned about its reception. I have seen in other stories that people often don't like the chapters that take focus away from the protagonist in favour of other characters that have no direct or immediate relevance to that protagonist.

This concern may be why that I have yet to write another full chapter from the perspective of characters other than Victor/Chance, all the way up to where I am right now having just completed chapter 12. There are segments of chapters that are from other characters perspectives, but there is always a section from the main character's perspective as well.

At least if nothing else, I like the name of this chapter. Better than last chapter's generic "Interrogation".

Anyway, here's hoping that people don't react too negatively to being taken away from our unfortunate human turned changeling's perspective.