Scootaloo woke up stretching and yawning. She felt good, well rested. Movement caught her attention and her eyes focused on the room around her. "The spare room?"
"Good morning, sleepy-'ling." Chrysalis beamed at the nymph. "How do you feel?"
The world crashed back in for Scootaloo. She now remembered her new friend Chrysalis, and that she wasn't a pony. Her friend had laid an egg, that… that… My hoof is black… I… am I like her? "Am I like you now?"
"Yes, but much smaller. How do you feel? Give those wings a try-out." Chrysalis watched as the nymph examined herself, looking over her body and finding all the odd little bits and pieces that made up a changeling. One thing stole the filly's attention.
"W-W-Wings?" Scootaloo looked over her shoulder, spotting the iridescent little bug-shaped wings. She buzzed them, then faster. Taking a deep breath she buzzed them even more and she lifted up. "Chrysalis! I am flying!"
"You can do a lot more than that, but I think you can get the hang of most of this. Lesson one, food." Chrysalis giggled at the nymph not wanting to land. "You are okay like that?" Scootaloo nodded back. "Well, okay. You feel that warm sunshine all around you, falling onto you?" Another nod. "That is ambient love. It is tasty as a snack, and will probably sustain you, but your sister will need more than that."
"Love? What do you mean?" Scootaloo could certainly feel all the niceness. Really nice.
"We eat love. You are going to need to learn to harvest it and produce honey. Your sister will be hungry until she can feed for herself, and it is up to you to feed her." Chrysalis could sense the lingering love the nymph felt toward her new sister. Soon even that will be gone and she will radiate no more. "Firstly, open your mouth and inhale, imagine some of that warmth coming into you."
Scootaloo opened her snout, her tongue rubbing the fangs she now sported. Closing her eyes to better focus, the nymph inhaled. Coughing and opening her eyes wide, Scootaloo stared at Chrysalis. "That is... wow..." I can taste the love of... She smiled and gave a happy little chirp.
"It is quite that, and more." Chrysalis reached a hoof up and booped the newest member of her hive on the nose. "Keep drinking it and let me know when you are full." Chrysalis settled and watched as Scootaloo went through the motions again and again, gathering up the strong ambient love around Ponyville. "That should be enough. Now you need to make the honey your little sister will need."
"Was that what you gave to me? Will I be able to make others into... whatever we are?" Scootaloo felt really full, delightfully full.
"You could, but I would ask you not to." Chrysalis pressed her hoof gently to Scootaloo's cheek, but further back where the hinge of her jaw was. "There are glands here, they can turn the love you have drunk into honey. It... it is like wanting to give someling your love, but you need to push into it a little."
Using her tongue, Scootaloo explored that part of her mouth and felt rippling folds of skin right where Chrysalis said they would be. "Okay, let me-" She didn't get any further, coughing and spluttering as a thick golden substance filled her mouth.
"Swallow it and try again." Chrysalis brushed Scootaloo's now-green mane to one side. Again and again they practiced until Scootaloo could reliably make honey without choking. "Okay, next you need to bring your energy back up to full."
"Does everything we do need energy?" Scootaloo nonetheless started inhaling the love again.
"Yup." Chrysalis waited a few moments. "Now you have your energy raised?" Chrysalis could feel it, but waited for Scootaloo to nod. "Right, so now remember what you looked like, what you were, with your little wings and adorable little hooves." The nymph, her eyes screwed shut, nodded her head. "Push that image into your horn, Scootaloo. Push it through your horn and pull it back down over you, like a costume." No sooner had Chrysalis told her the last part of the trick than the nymph caught fire with burning green flames and, where a changeling stood, now a little orange pegasus blinked.
"I'm… I'm me again!" Scootaloo did a dance, her wings flicking around. "Wait, can I fly now? Like this?" She looked up at Chrysalis and got a dark, hole-filled hoof rubbing her head.
"Like this? No, but I will tell you what, each week you think of those wings just a little larger and, in no time, you will be able to fly." Chrysalis suddenly had a filly attached to her neck. "Welcome to my hive, Scootaloo." A loud banging sound came from the other end of the house, startling both changelings. "What's that?"
"Wait!" Scootaloo tried to get in front of Chrysalis, but the bigger changeling was deliberately trying to impose herself between her and the door. "It'll be my friends!"
Chrysalis froze. "I… not a mob of ponies to come and…" I am letting my imagination get the better of me. Chrysalis took a deep breath, and a moment later donned her disguise again. "Sorry, you really do have quite a hoof on things here, huh?"
Scootaloo fuzzed her wings out. "Of course, and I need to be in control more than ever now." She strutted to the door, looking back over her shoulder. "I have a little sister coming soon." Reaching up, she opened the door to see Sweetie Belle carrying one of her sister's umbrellas to shield both herself and Apple Bloom from… "Chocolate milk?"
"What have you been doing?" Apple Bloom raced inside and then pointed back out. "The weather has gone bonkers, even Rainbow Dash doesn't know what is going on!"
Chrysalis' blood ran cold. Chocolate rain… what looks like pink fairy floss clouds... "Discord." Three little heads snapped around to Chrysalis. "Uh, you know, spirit of chaos, the draconequus?"
"But we saw that statue yesterday!"
"It was chaos!"
"Please, stop. What did you see? Tell me everything." Chrysalis gave a look at each filly in turn, ending up giving Scootaloo an even more meaningful gaze.
"We were on a field trip to Canterlot, and we had cotton candy!" Sweetie Belle was bouncing in place. "It tasted like green!"
"Then we went to the castle garden and looked at the statues!" Apple Bloom puffed her little chest out. "I am going to get a cutie mark of victory!"
"Are not!" Sweetie poked her friend in the shoulder.
"Am too!" Apple Bloom was giggling now, ruining the argument completely.
"Then Cheerilee showed us the statue, she said it was a draconathingy." Scootaloo looked up at Chrysalis, seeing a hint of the panic behind the mask her… her… She is as close as I will get to a big sister. Warmth filled the disguised nymph. "She said he was the spirit of discord."
Chrysalis focused on Scootaloo. "She really said that? That it represented Discord?" Scootaloo shrugged a little. "Of course, she is just a teacher, a lot of meaning can be lost over a thousand or more years, I bet."
"I saw it crack!" Sweetie volunteered the information, surprising both her friends. "When we were all walking away, I dropped one of my mane-clips when we tussled." The filly reached a hoof up and plucked one of her prized clips. "Rarity gave them to me, I didn't want to lose one. But when I walked back to get it, there was a long crack running up the middle of the statue."
"It wasn't a statue, it was a prison." Chrysalis lifted her hooves to her face, anger and fury like she had never felt before, ripping through her. The touch of a little hoof was like an earthing rod, causing it all to drain away. Chrysalis looked down at Scootaloo, the nymph looking scared.
"What… what happened? Did we do something wrong?" Scootaloo looked up at the nice mare, the only adult who had not only understood her, but had welcomed her. "We didn't mean-"
Chrysalis pulled Scootaloo into a hug as she dropped to her belly. "It wasn't your fault, any of you. I warned…" Chrysalis stopped her explanation, then cursed her adoration of the little ponies. "I warned them about him, about any of the prisons that the Elements of Harmony were maintaining. Princess… what have you done?" The other two fillies rushed up to the crying mare, latching on to her neck like the most adorable limpets ever.
"It's going to be alright, Twilight and our sisters… and their friends, they all went to Canterlot to see what they can do!" Apple Bloom was trying to boost Chrysalis' spirits, but it seemed to have the opposite effect.
"I need to get to Canterlot, I need to find out what…" Outside, Chrysalis could see the paths between houses quickly turning to custard as long-legged forest creatures stampeded through town. "Wait, Twilight and her friends went to Canterlot?" Chrysalis' eyes widened. "What have I done?"
"Calm down Chrysalis, it's okay, our sisters and their friends have this. They will stop that draconinquest and save the day, just like when Nightmare Moon attacked!" Sweetie Belle hadn't noticed Chrysalis' color pale more and more by the moment.
"What's the matter?" Apple Bloom was more observant than Sweetie however, and picked up on Chrysalis' greater shock.
"It was luck last time. They found the Elements of Harmony, worked out how to use them… But they aren't in Canterlot!" Chrysalis jumped to her hooves. "I need to get them and-" A little orange hoof poked Chrysalis in the nose.
"Calm down, Princess Celestia, Twilight, and all her friends will do this." Scootaloo's absolute belief managed to calm Chrysalis a little, the panic ebbed back and she started to calm down.
"You… you're right, she has to win." Chrysalis looked out as the rain-shower passed them by, the chocolate milk on the ground pooling in places, flowing over the custard. If she doesn't, nothing will stop Discord from destroying everything, absolutely everything. Resignation and anticipation was pumping in Chrysalis' blood.
"Of course they will win, they always win!" Scootaloo grinned wide.
"Unless Pinkie Pie's Pinkie Sense is involved." Sweetie cut in after her friend, taking some of the wind from her sails. "And unless-"
"Calm down, we shouldn't think about that." Apple Bloom took charge of the situation as best she could, she really had hoped the "adult" would, but Chrysalis seemed a little odd to the filly. "I know, let's play a game!"
~~~~~+++++~~~~~
The puzzles had done the intended, Chrysalis was so engrossed in trying to get her little blue ponies into Equestria, the part of the world that Sweetie Belle controlled, that she didn't notice the sound of arguing at first.
"What the…" Chrysalis turned her head and looked outside as night fell suddenly. "What is going on, Luna isn't normally-" She cut off, watching as six ponies trudged into town. Her heart sank, all but Twilight looked drained, detached from their usual selves.
"Chrysalis!" Scootaloo's voice followed the queen as she left the little house.
Stopping, Chrysalis watched as Twilight Sparkle, her coat stained gray, walked past with chocolate rain falling on her. "Tw-" Chrysalis halted her call just after the first letters came out. Discord was taunting the mare. She stalked the pony all the way back to the library.
I need to do something, this is it, the world will be in chaos if Twilight doesn't- Chrysalis' thoughts were shattered as Twilight rushed out the front door of the library, revitalized and full of color.
"What do you think her odds are of winning?" Discord's voice came from right behind Chrysalis and she spun around to face the spirit. "Oh stop, don't you dare get angry with me for this. This is my element, this is how the world is when I am free, nothing can stop it."
"Twilight will!" Chrysalis felt the burning flame of hope in her chest grow hotter, crowding out the fear of facing what her notes hinted at was an actual god of chaos. "Twilight wi-" Chrysalis panicked as her mouth suddenly sealed shut.
"Ugh, I thought you were supposed to be a villain in all this? Seriously, act like one." Discord snapped his paw and Chrysalis was suddenly seated on a throne. "This is what you want, isn't it? It's yours. Keep it, I don't even want it. We can both go back to Canterlot right now and you can sit where ol' bright-butt sits, and tell the ponies what to do." Discord, having wandered away casually, spun back and glared at Chrysalis. "Of course none of them will listen, they will be too busy trying to stop all the giant bunnies from eating their houses, or the sun from burning them down."
Chrysalis reached a hoof up, feeling the zip where her lips should be. Pulling the tab to one end she gasped. "No, I don't want that! I'm not the villain, you are!"
"Me?" Discord laughed. "I am not a villain, I am a force of nature. Look around, Queen, the kingdom is sponge cake." Discord laughed at his own joke, a slight chuckle. "Oh, hold that thought, I am due back on set."
Dumbfounded, Chrysalis watched as Twilight sauntered back into town, all five of her friends with her, and filled with color. "Oh… oh wow…" Chrysalis' eyes were wide as they argued with the spirit, then widened further when Twilight teleported, saved her friends, and then the rainbow came.
"Told you!" Scootaloo and her friends had trotted up to Chrysalis, watching as the six mares unleashed magic like a tsunami. Discord wasn't just defeated, he was once more locked in stone. "See? Easy!"
"That… okay, I have to admit, that was super-cool, but what happens if the next bad guy doesn't stand up and make himself a target like that?" Chrysalis watched the six mares congratulating each other. A little pony snuggling at her side broke Chrysalis from her focus on the scene. "What's the matter little grub?"
Not realizing the implications of the "cute name," Scootaloo looked up at Chrysalis. "What… what would happen? They have to win, right? Every time? They are so awesome..." She trembled a little, it wasn't her sisters that were Element Bearers, the tremble even reaching her voice.
"I have a plan." Chrysalis leaned down and nuzzled the nymph's mane and ears. "It will make sure every pony in Equestria is safe and that no pony—not even your friends' sisters—have to stand against such an enemy on their own." And I will, they shouldn't have to do this.
~~~~~+++++~~~~~
"She had no plan, Celestia had nothing planned to deal with Discord except to hand the weapons to those mares and point them at him." Chrysalis looked out at the cavern. Eggs, lots of eggs. She inhaled and kept explaining her problem to the silent and mostly-still offspring. "And then, as if it was her plan all along to move the Elements to Ponyville, as if she had hidden them from Discord, she stands proud and celebrates their victory. Don't get me wrong, she runs the country just fine, but outside threats… monsters…"
The few drones working in the egg-chamber kept their heads down, they were used to their queen talking to the eggs.
Braced trotted across the floor of the room, his eyes bright at seeing the future of the hive. "My Queen!"
Chrysalis' head lifted as she heard her foal. "Braced! How goes Scootaloo?" Her heart ached that she had left the nymph behind, but she had been so adamant about being a "Crusader" still. "How go the plans?"
"My Queen, all is going according to schedule. We have nearly fifty ponies down here now, but your new visitors are what I wanted to talk about… Scootaloo sends her love." Braced turned, moving to the side.
"Shining? Cadance?" Chrysalis saw the two ponies standing tall. "Just the two friends I needed to talk with, I have a proposition..."