Chrysalis: Saviour of Time Chapter 22 · 2:57am Feb 24th, 2022
Hello, all! It's another update, and it's not 11 months after the last chapter! Progress! Welcome to chapter 22, Chryssi and the Golden Tickets. Discussion with spoilers after the page break.
So, let's start with the title. It is referring obviously to the tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala, but also is a reference to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory where Willie Wonka sends out a bunch of golden tickets in chocolate bars, which leads to a lot of greedy, selfish behaviour from all manner of people. I figured it was a reasonable reference to make, given that the mane six become rather greedy and selfish in their efforts to get their hands on a ticket, too.
I really enjoyed having Chrysalis tease Spike with the idea that Rarity might marry Blueblood, it was generally fun to write. It did lead to one particular line when Spike is concerned about what will happen if the two meet, which Chrysalis answers with “She’ll hate him just like every other mare in Blueblood’s sad, pathetic life.” It actually made me wonder what kind of interactions Chrysalis must have had back when she was disguised as Cadance in the season 2 finale to have left such a huge impact on her.
Chrysalis couldn't be hungry in the same way that Twilight had been during the episode, unless you wanted to say she was desperate for love, but that didn't seem especially likely given that there hadn't been any recent emergencies unless I wanted to set it immediately after the events with Trixie, but I didn't want to do that and even if I did, that was solved with little effort from Chrysalis. I decided that being really tired would fit better, since being constantly watched by her past self (not that she knows it's her and not a generic spy) could be quite tiring. It gave some of the ponies an angle to use for trying to get her to give them a ticket, although none of that lasted long because Chrysalis just gave them both away as soon as possible. It just makes sense to me that she wouldn't want to go to the Grand Galloping Gala because she'd rather stay far away from Celestia.
Since Chrysalis gave away both tickets with no fuss, there had to be a slight change to the conflict of the chapter from the show. I figured that the mane six wouldn't stop trying to get the tickets just because they had been given to somebody already, so I had them pestering each other for them and even threw Spike into the mix. It leads to them all invading Chrysalis' bedroom while she was trying to sleep, where Chryssi decides that it's best to destroy the tickets if they were going to act so poorly thanks to them. Add a communally written letter and the happy sending of enough tickets for all and you're pretty much done. This isn't exactly a complicated chapter.
Even with enough tickets for all to go, it still didn't change that Chrysalis didn't want anything to do with the Gala. Changing her mind on that I had always intended to be the doing of Luna. She shows up to personally invite her with the prospect of a proposition to bridge the gap between them to be revealed at the Gala. Obviously this shall be picked up on again at the Gala. I didn't initially plan for the meeting to be within Chrysalis' dream, but it kind of just felt right when I was writing it. It does seem to have had the extra consequence of Luna seeing the dream images of Chrysalis' subjects, and of her feelings of responsibility for their well being.
Now...those who've kept up with these blogs may remember that I did not initially intend for past Chrysalis disguised as Time Keeper to get run off in the previous chapter. It's revealed at the end of this chapter that she has taken the place of Sage, which is partly a reference to the guy in the comment section that had been constantly predicting that Sage (and other owls in general) were changelings in disguise. Congratulations if you're reading this, you're now right. Obviously Sage wasn't initially Queen Chrysalis in disguise, but he is now, and she also has a ticket to the Grand Galloping Gala. Oh dear.
Anyway, that's enough from me for this chapter. Next chapter is based off of Suited for Success, and the one after that is a big one...the season 1 finale: The Best Night Ever.
I also liked the ambiguity of Chrysalis trying to kiss Luna. Was it out of thanks? Genuine affection? Desire for a well-deserved snack of love?
Time will tell!
Wow, I don't log in for week and come back to an unexpected boon! Unfortunately, too tired to properly review right now, but more detailed response later.
I liked the way you put your own spin on the chaos of the episode and felt it worked perfectly well.
I did not expect Chrysalis to try kissing Luna already, even in her dreams. Also, Luna knows she's 'a changeling' not just a shapechanger, now I see. Perhaps from watching her dreams, perhaps from talking to Zecora. We don't have to know exactly how, since there's two perfectly good explanations there, I just thought I'd mention it since I don't remember that term being in the conversation she overheard.
So when you write new chapter?