Meeting with the Empress Part 2
Inside a dark-green castle, sitting on a lone throne inside a great chamber, a dark, armored, insect pony was sitting on said throne. She was motionless, with a stern look on her face, and only occasionally blinking her eyes. On both sides of her throne were two guards, however their armor was very different from the usual drone’s. Standing by a large door are also two other guards, clad in the same armor as the ones by the throne.
Suddenly, her eyes grow wide, and she raises her head, looking out in front of her at the throne room.
First, the ground begins to violently shake, drawing the attention of the guards in the room. Then the walls begin to quake, cracks appearing in the skin of them. The cracks begin trailing down along the wall until it reaches the floor, and begins moving through the skin of the floor. On the opposite side of the wall, the same happens.
The cracks in the floor join together at the center, but instead of just cracking or crumbling together, they start moving around on the floor, forming a wheel shape on the ground, six symbols forming on the outer wheel. But one the inside, a triangle with a giant eye in the center, arms and legs, a top hat and bowtie emerges in the center.
A blue begins to glow, filling the cracks. A wild, manic laughter begins to sound, filling the entire chamber with it. A sudden wind blows the doors open, and a howling wind starts to fill the entire room in a matter of seconds, making everyone inside it to begin shaking from the cold. A surprise because they’re not usually easily chilled by the reverse of heat.
A light shots up from the triangle in the center, followed by a flash of light…
But after it has vanished, everything is now back too normal, restored to how it had all looked before all of this craziness happened, the symbol on the ground is gone, as well as the cracks in the walls.
However, one small detail remains of some significance in the room.
A triangle with one eye, limbs, and a top hat and bowtie is not hovering in the room. A gleeful delight on its eye.
Rolling her eyes, she stares up at the triangle in front of her.
‘’Oh, it’s you.’’ She says in annoyed tone, swatting her hoof at the air. Her guards stand down, resuming their original positions beside the throne.
‘’Did you miss me? Admit it, you missed me.’’ He touches a finger to his non-existent cheek, grinning his eye at her.
‘’Well, it has hardly been this quiet, even without you.’’ She said, her voice dripping with sarcasm, frowning a little deeper at him.
‘’Oh, you!’’ He waves his arm through the air, eye momentarily looking away from her, before then returning to look upon her again.
Following the sound of clicking teeth, he raised his hand, pointing his index finger at her.
She scoffed, shaking her head as a visible smirk made its way onto her face. Her eyes were momentarily closed.
‘’No fooling you is there, Lord Cipher?’’ Her voice now in a much chipper tone as she asked him that.
‘’Nope, you are going to have to try harder if you are ever going to convincingly prank me.’’ A straight finger pointing back at his chest. She merely scoffed back.
‘’Yeah, well…’’ her eyes looked away, smiling a little wider. ‘’It’s kinda a little one-sided when you are essentially pranking someone who, if he wanted to, could just you and your species out with a single second.’’
‘’True…’’ he put a finger to his non-chin, thinking it over. ‘’I am pretty impressive, wouldn’t you?’’ He suddenly vanished away in a POOF, returning seconds later standing a leg up on a rock, a crown atop his head, and a golden cane in his hand as he struck a pose.
‘’Cipher,’’ she shook her head. ‘’Your attempts at humoring me, is humorous.’’
This time he rolled his eye at her comment, as he returned back to his normal self again.
Hovering in the air, he put his hands behind his arms behind his back, connecting them. His lone eye staring at the Changeling Matriarch before him in patient silence.
‘’So what do we owe your…sudden meeting that you have desired to have with me?’’ She asked a lot regally than her humored tone earlier.
‘’Empress Pollus, Ruler of the Changeling race’’ he greeted her, putting a hand to himself, his eye closing in respect. ‘’I, Bill Cipher, beseech thee,’’ his eye slowly opened, staring out at her. ‘’For I bring great news that are of grave value to the whole of the Changeling race.’’ His eye narrowed, giving her a sense that he was most likely smirking at her.
Her eye grew wide in surprise.
Something important? But that could not be…that could only mean, her mind thought, racing to try and fit the pieces of what he was trying to tell her.
Her face started to reflect the feelings of excitement she felt.
‘’You do not mean…’’ Her jaw dropped, hanging open from the overwhelming enjoyment her mind was telling her that she should be embracing. She knew that Bill would never leave her with too high hopes about anything unless it was important, and if he was normal that must mean that it must be REALLY important.
‘’My Empress, Changelings,’’ he extended his hands, extending all of his fingers, and holding them out in front of him.
A bright flash erupted out in front of him, erupting into a blinding flash of light that blinded everyone other than Cipher, himself. The Empress and all her Changelings had to use their arms to shield their eyes from the terrible intensity of the light.
When they finally lowered their eyes, once the light died down to tolerable levels of intensity, they were still meet with a glowing shape of light, but this time it was not as bright as the first time.
Lowering her hoof, she finally saw what it was that Bill had brought with him.
Her eyes widened, and jaw dropped, along with every other Changeling in the room.
The reflection of the shape hovering in the air being reflected in their eyes…their large eyes.
‘’That cannot be…It is impossible…’’ She spoke in denial, shaking her head in protest that this was not real. It was just a trick, it had to be!
‘’But not even my greatest legions could acquire it...’’
‘’Well, am I your legions?’’ She heard him ask.
She lazily/awestruck shook her head as her eyes seemed to be almost glued to the sight of the hovering gem that he was showing them.
His smirked with his eye, grinning madly.
‘’My Empress, Changelings of this earth,’’ he gently lowered his arms a little, ‘’I give you, the Crystal Heart!’’ His voice echoed around the entire room as he emphasized the name.
Hovering teen inches from him, was a still glowing, projecting small beams of light, Crystal Heart.
All eyes are on him as he holds the faintly glowing shape out for all to see. Every one of the Changelings jaws are hanging open, staring up at the crystal in shock that the artifact that they have been seeking for so long has finally fallen into their possession. The greatest weapon for the defense of the greatest city in the world, was finally theirs.
But one question lingered in the back of her mind, how had he procured such an invaluable treasure?
Eh, it doesn’t really as much…As long as we finally have it now, she thought, her grin growing wider by the moment her eyes could not rip themselves away from the heart. Its form spinning around in the reflection in her eyes.
‘’AHAHAHAHAHA!’’ Bill’s laughter echoed around the whole room. Whether the Changelings were put off by it or not was something that neither really seemed to care about, due to their overjoyed expressions, and stares that they could divert in any other direction than the Crystal Heart.
Then, the Empress started to partake in the laughter that Bill was letting loose, filling the whole throne room with her own mad cackle.
However, amongst the loud laughter from both Bill and the Empress, the giant twin doors of the throne room creaked open, providing an interruption to this moment of great rejoice for the Changeling race.
Looking away from the heart to the door, Pollus stared glaringly at it as she expected an average Changeling drone to be the one to interrupt a meeting like this, but when she actually saw who it was, her eyes eased, and a soft smile settled in place.
‘’Ah, my daughter,’’ she paused, earning the attention of Bill and the other guards in the room. They turned around, and looked in direction of the door, their gaze falling upon a small Changeling filly that was nervously looking her eyes up at her mother on the throne at the other end. ‘’Come in, come in. Join us.’’ She held out her hoof, waving towards her daughter, motioning for her to enter into the room.
‘’What brings you here to my humble abode so late in the evening?’’ She asks the timid filly at the doors.
With nervous eyes – that constantly look around the room, shifting from one spot thing to the next – she gently walks into the room, approaching her mother’s throne.
When having reached the throne, she stops, looking up at the calm smile of her mother.
‘’I-I was just coming by to see how you were doing, mom.’’ Her eyes nervously look down at the ground.
Smiling, Pollus stands herself up, about to go down from her throne to get closer to her daughter. However, someone else beat her to that idea.
‘’Well, well, well,’’ a male’s voice speaks behind her back – Behind her back, Bill slowly descends down towards her – her eyes shoot up, getting chills as metaphorical hairs stood up on her back, her eyes tensing up, and pupils shrinking from paralyzed fear. ‘’What do we have here?’’ The unseen asked, seeming to have gotten closer.
A shadow fell upon her – and the floor – showing the shape of a triangle.
She turned around quickly, only to stare up at a figure that she didn’t even know what was, and coming face-to-face with one large eye that looks similar to theirs in that it has a slit pupil. However, unlike their eyes, there is only the one.
The lone eye, however, is not the only thing to catch her attention, her head looking the hovering shape up and down with her eyes. But what truly gets to her enough to cause her to suddenly jump up, leaping away from it, is when the eye in the center blinks. This is not fake, it is real…and it is alive!
Letting out a frightened scream, she suddenly jumps back away from the creature in front of her, softly planting her hooves down on the slimy surface upon which her mother’s throne stands.
Rushing behind her mother’s front legs, she gently peeks her head out from the side to see that if the creature was still there. But when she looked, she let out a gentle yelp as she saw that it’s lone eye, that big eye, was still staring back at her. It blinked at times.
The creature’s body was a triangle shape, with bricks underneath the eye, arms, legs, a top hat, and a bowtie.
Twirling a yellow cane in its hand, that seemed to have materialized out of thin air, it leaned on it, staring back at her in a manner that would have actually been quite creepy to her, if her mother had not been there by her side.
She gently tugged at her mother’s hoof, hiding herself a little from its eye. That big eye.
‘’M-mother, wh-‘’ she shyly asked, pointing a nervous hoof out at the figure in front of her and her mom as her eyes could be drawn away from the triangle-thing.
Turning her head and looking back at him, Pollus’s confused frown changed into a smile, a smile that calmly looked back down at her hiding daughter.
Putting a hoof to her smaller shoulder, making her daughter first look at it in confusion, before then looking up into her mother’s face, her nervous nature of a few seconds ago being replaced with a blank stare that could not describe the confusion inside of the little filly’s head.
‘’Um, Chryssie?’’ she asked in a very motherly tone, always a good thing to use when calming one’s child. ‘’You know how mother said that she had struck a deal with somepony very special long ago?’’
‘’Mhm?’’ She nodded back, not knowing where this was going.
Her mother’s eyes looked away from her, staring back down at the figure in front of them with a warm smile on her face. Slower than her mother, she also turned her head, looking back at the figure’s non-existent face. Aside from there was hardly any easy detectable emotion on it.
Raising a hoof up, she pointed it at the triangle.
‘’Well, this is him.’’ She was obviously proud as she said this, it was obvious in her voice. ‘’This is the extraordinary being, Master of the Mind, Bill Cipher.’’ She proclaimed proudly.
Suddenly, he took a bow, closing his eye, looking to be calm as he struck a respectful bow to the two royals, striking a regal stance,
‘’Princess, Empress.’’ His golden aura around his whole form glows alongside his voice.
Sounding off a friendly scoff, the Empress shakes her head, smiling a little wider at what the triangle is doing.
Will he never learn cease trying to impress me?
‘’Well…’’ she pauses, her eyes look down at the filly behind her leg, seeing that she is actually coming out a little more from behind it, her fear gone…and instead replaced intrigue for this creature called ‘’Bill Cipher’’. She has never heard the name before, but immediately knows that it is not one used by their tongue, or any in Equestria…as far by creatures that yet to be discovered.
‘’Bill Cipher, meet my daughter, Princess Chrysalis, future Matriarch of the Changeling race.’’ She moves her leg out of the way, no longer obstructing the view of the shy little thing.
Immediately, without the cover of her mother’s front left hoof, she feels vulnerable, afraid of this…Bill. Despite having been introduced to him by her mother, she cannot help but feel nervous in his presence, timid, a little too shy to move up or even get close to him.
Cowering, she lets out a soft wince, ducking down to hide behind her hooves.
‘’Oh, it’s okay, sweetie,’’ Pollus tries to calm her daughter. Arching her neck, she looks up into her mother’s face. ‘’Bill is a close friend of mine.’’ She touches her left hoof to her chest, but Chrysalis was not paying attention to her anymore. Her mind had blacked out when her mother had mentioned that whole ‘’close friend of mine’’ bit.
Wait! Did she just say…friend?
Turning her head, she looked down at him, meeting his gaze.
‘’He has actually done a lot of good for our race.’’ Her smile grew wider, her eyes following her daughter as she had looked away, and was now staring back at him. ‘’Probably the biggest way he has done so, is by bringing us the legendary Crystal Heart from the Crystal Empire, itself.’’
This additional news made Chrysalis’s eyes go wide with shock.
Wait, he did what?!
Turning back, she shot her mom a jaw-dropped, stare of impressive shock.
‘’Mhm, I know,’’ She nodded. ‘’Quite impressive.’’
This guy...this Bill Cipher, what are you? Why are you helping us? We are Changelings…Nopony helps out Changelings
Turning back, her eyes once again fell upon Bill again.
‘’Here, let me show you even.’’ He said, raising a hand, and then snapping his fingers, immediately summoning a heart shaped crystal out of nowhere.
‘’Wow.’’ Chrysalis said, as her eyes could not deny that what she was seeing was real. This was actually it, the legendary Crystal Heart that was said to be that empire’s most powerful weapon, and artifact.
Her eyes could not look away from it for even one second. Pollus and Bill saw that this was clearly the case.
‘’Beautiful, is it not?’’ She heard him ask. All in which she could nod her head back in response with a sounding ‘’Mhm.’’ Alongside it.
‘’But mother, I must ask,’’ she turned back, looking up into her mother’s face again. ‘’How did Bill come by such an object of great importance?’’ She asked.
Her mother’s face frowned slightly, giving her an idea of her answer.
‘’Honestly, I don’t know,’’ her eyes looked up, falling upon him. ‘’I was wondering the exact same thing myself.’’
She looked up, raising a confused brow, and stare at Bill.
‘’Actually,’’ she started. ‘’How did such an elusive treasure come into your possession, Cipher?’’
Bill’s eye looked away, staring off to the side.
‘’Oh, I called in a favor from a friend.’’ Chrysalis and her mother turned to each other, exchanging confused looks.
‘’What kind of ‘’friend’’?’’ Pollus asked, raising a suspicious brow and suspicious stare. ‘’Was it somepony you meet while on your travels?’’
‘’You could say that.’’ Bill replied, putting his arms behind his back.
‘’So,’’ a smaller timid voice spoke up. ‘’This pony, whoever it is, can master time travel?’’ Chrysalis asked, drawing the attention of both Bill and her mother.
‘’Well, so can I,’’ he said pointing a finger back at himself. ‘’But I thought it would have been boring to go by myself to obtain something that important, but when I asked him if he wanted to go he said that he had other plans. Respecting his wishes, I left him to attend those matters.’’
‘’Then how is it a favor if you didn’t manage to collect it?’’ Pollus asked.
‘’Did I say that it was a successful collection of a favor?’’ The two of them shook their heads. ‘’There you go. I went by myself to the Empire, got what I needed, and then left.’’
Swatting the air for a second, he shrugged.
‘’But enough of details, details, details,’’ his eye looked back, staring at Pollus and Chrysalis. ‘’Why can’t we just celebrate our greatest moment of victory?’’ He asked.
‘’You know, enjoy what might be the greatest moment for all Changelings?’’
Pollus looked down at Chrysalis, smiling at her daughter in that warm, soothing fashion.
‘’That is true, Cipher,’’ she blinked her eyes a couple times in a soothing manner in front of her daughter.
She looked up, before briefly returning her gaze down to the filly. Raising her head, she looked up at Bill.
‘’You know; this might actually be a good time for you two to get to know each other.’’ Chrysalis’s eyes went wide, and she quickly looked back down at Bill. ‘’I should see to that the news of our acquiring of the Heart is delivered to every Changeling in Equestria. This news is too important not to be sent out at once.’’
‘’B-but, mom,’’ she tried protesting, grabbing onto her mother’s hoof tightly, looking up with a sympathetic, worried frown to her face. Her eyes looking back at Bill with worry in them. ‘’I-I don’t want to go with him.’’ She paused, holding an unbroken gaze with the triangle’s eye. ‘’He scares me.’’
Pollus looked up from her daughter, her gaze temporarily falling upon Bill, who just shrugged his shoulders in response.
‘’But, sweetie,’’ she chuckled nervously. ‘’Bill Cipher is really a nice guy when you get to know him.’’ Her eyes looked up, staring back at the heart shaped crystal. ‘’Doesn’t the fact that he brought us the Crystal Heart say a little something about who he considers his friend?’’
‘’We are Changelings, Chryssie, we’re not particularly popular in Equestria.’’ A sad frown plastering itself to her face. ‘’I think you should at least give him a chance…’’ She turned her body around, lowering it down to be closer to Chrysalis’s height. Putting a hoof on her shoulder, she smiled warmly back.
‘’After all, no one gave us one. They judged us by our appearance.’’ Nudging her heads – and her head – to the side, Chrysalis turned, looking back at Bill as he hovered there in front of them. ‘’How do you think he must feel?’’
Blinking his eye at moments, he was absolutely silent as the Empress explained these things to her heir.
But this is different, mom! Chrysalis thought.
Lowering her eyes, she looked down.
Slowly, she turned around to face him, though she didn’t look up, or meet his eye’s gaze.
‘’Chryssie?’’ Her mother’s voice spoke up. ‘’Are you sure you don’t- ‘’
‘’Pollus, just stop.’’ A sudden voice spoke up, drawing both Pollus and Chrysalis’s attention to it. To both of their great surprise it was Bill.
‘’Pollus,’’ he said, holding out a hand. ‘’I appreciate the gesture that you want me and your daughter to bond, after all, we two are such good pals.’’ He nudged the air with his shoulder, as it nudging her. ‘’But I don’t want her to feel obligated to know me if it is not what she wants.’’ His eye looked down, his gaze falling back upon Chrysalis, who was still staring up at him blankly.
He hovered closer to her, which only made her back away from him.
‘’Hey, kiddo,’’ he said, gently extending out a hand to her. But all she did was stare down at it. ‘’You may not want it now, or ever for that matter…But if you ever want to hang out, or even just talk about anything, you can always come visit me.’’ He held out his hand, and a blue flame appeared in his palm.
The flames passed away to reveal a glass triangle.
‘’Here, for you.’’ He extended his arm, reaching the strangle glass triangle to her. But all she did was look at it confused.
‘’What is it?’’ She raised a hoof which she points at it.
‘’It is a little something to make visits a little easier for someone your age.’’ After he said that, she just looked at him with a scrunched frown. She clearly did not understand what he meant by that he said.
‘’And what is that supposed to mean? Are you telling me that I am too young to defend myself?’’ Her eyes narrowed a little him. ‘’Because I will have you know that I may look small, but I do know quite a lot of defensive and offensive spells, mister.’’
Bill and Pollus chuckled at the little filly’s attempt at being angry, when in reality all she ended up being was just cute.
‘’No, hardly…A big girl such as yourself does not need protection like that,’’ his eye chuckled. ‘’But she does need a key if she wishes to come visit me in my part of your mother’s castle.’’
Chrysalis, Pollus, and even the guards were shocked at finding out that it was a key.
‘’B-bill? W-what are you trying to- ‘’ Pollus asked nervously, having Bill’s eye stare at her.
‘’You want your daughter and me to become friends, well the first step at friendship is being kind to others and not expecting anything back…’’ Her mouth opened, but she clearly stuttered at finding the words she wanted to speak. ‘’After all, why did you think I sought you out?’’ She was still stuttering well after he finished speaking.
His attention was however drawn away from the Empress, instead falling upon little Chrysalis, who was now suspending the triangle in a telekinetic grasp, and looking down at it.
‘’T-thank you…Bill.’’ She looked away from it, staring up at him with a shocked face.
‘’Hey, don’t mention it, kiddo.’’ He was about to extend an arm out and ruffle her mane with his hand, until he all of a sudden stopped himself, holding it there for a couple seconds, before pulling back away from her.
‘’Well, it’s been fun,’’ he said, hovering back away from them, gently tipping his hat for them, their only response being slow nods. ‘’But I am afraid that I have other plans for the evening,’’ he chuckled in a slightly nervous voice. ‘’And I do believe that I have taken up quite a lot of your time already.’’
Coming to a stop, he lingered there suspended in the air.
‘’Empress, Princess.’’ He took a bow, putting one arm behind his back, and one in front of him, which he touched to the front of him. ‘’See ya later, ciao.’’ With a raised hand, he snapped his fingers, making him suddenly appear away in a small form of light.
When the light passed, he was no longer there.
Chrysalis continued to keep her eyes plastered to the place where he had been. While her mother stood up from her throne, and trotted down the steps. Proceeding to trot up towards the other end.
‘’M-mom? Where are you going?’’ Chrysalis asked, once she noticed that her mom was heading off somewhere. Her mother, however, did not respond, and just continued walking.
‘’N-nowhere, honey…I-I’m just going to…retire back to my room…for the remainder of the day.’’ She replied.
‘’Huh?’’ Chrysalis replied to her mother’s reply.
‘’’J-just go back to your room, Chryssie. I’m going to be a little busy for a while.’’
‘’Uh, mom?’’ She asked, even more confused this time. But this time, unlike the first, she did not receive any reply from her mother, her horn only started lighting up. And when the spell was utilized, she disappeared with a POP, leaving Chrysalis by the throne.
I guess I’ll just go back to my room, then…I guess, Chrysalis thought to herself.
Stepping down from throne, she headed back towards the door she had used to enter. Quietly slipping out through it, and leaving the guards the only occupants in the throne room, carrying the glass triangle with her magic as she headed down the hallways towards her room.
Opening her door, Chrysalis trotted inside. Behind her, as the door closed, she did not look away to see what her magic was doing, having been so used to it by now, as she approached her bed.
Extending her insect wings, she started to flap them as she flew up towards her bed. Her hooves being planted down on the soft surface of her covers, as she landed down atop it.
Her magic levitated the triangle that Bill had given her up onto her nearby nightstand. She lay her head down on the soft pillow, turning her body on its sides.
Occasionally blinking her eyes, they looked silently at the glass triangle.
‘’I don’t know who you are, Cipher,’’ her eyes narrowed, staring off at the triangle angrily. ‘’But if you do anything to harm mommy, then there will be no one, no matter how powerful, that can keep you safe from me.’’
She still didn’t trust Bill, he looked too weird to even be considered a trustworthy…whatever he was. Her mother may trust him, but that does not mean that she will…
But, just because he might not be trustworthy doesn’t mean that she shouldn’t get to know him, find out more about him, maybe try to find out enough that she can make her own assessment of him. Either way there would be upsides, she would please her mother by getting to know one of her closest friends…actually, her only friend, or if she is right in her assessment that he cannot be trusted, then she can at least prove herself to her mother that she is not just some small child.
‘’Then it is decided,’’ she stood up off the bed, supporting herself by her hooves, her eyes looking out to the wall in front of her. ‘’I will befriend this…Bill Cipher.’’
‘’Who knows, he could be a nice guy, and his attentions are really just to help out somepony in need…’’ her face, blank and thinking, changed into an angry frown. ‘’But then again, there has still not been an instance where somepony who shows eccentric characterizes have really proven to be of benefit to anypony…other than himself.’’
It’s odd…He does seem frighteningly close to Discord. Aside from appearance, they could practically be brothers, she thought to herself. They are both equal freaks.