//------------------------------// // Establishment - Part 1 // Story: Saving Equestria // by Damaged //------------------------------// "Your High-" Twilight cut herself off. "Your Majesty, Scootaloo and her friends left with… with my friends. They probably thought you were going to… well, get a lot more weird and 'attacky'." "Your Majesty, Your Highness," Celestia looked between her new queen and the newest "princess" and gave a tilt of her head. Maybe there is some good coming from this, Twilight's growth will surely accelerate and I hope she will be safer now. With the attention she sought, Celestia continued, "I believe we should leave the festivities to themselves. Unless you think a show of power is needed?" Celestia looked right at Chrysalis. "Show of power? What would that gain?" Chrysalis still felt too revealed, too open. "But you are right, there are a lot of things to discuss. We could write up a charter." "That would be incredible! Spike!" Twilight was looking around frantically, only for her "Number-one Assistant" to come running over, his arms loaded with scrolls and quills. "Follow us, Spike, we have important documents to write!" Responding to the excitement leaking from Twilight, Chrysalis almost bounced on her hooves. "Ooh, we need to define what my duties are, redefine Princess Celestia's, and draw up your own." It was impossible for the changeling not to get excited. This is just like planning but for a whole country! Celestia was left blinking at the two who were so snared up in the idea of rebuilding the structure of leadership. I could take it all back with a well placed blast. She isn't paying attention... The alicorn shook her head at even thinking it. If I beat her that way I would have lost everypony and everything that matters. She thinks she can defend Equestria, I want to see it. She started to trot after the two, giving waves and smiles to the few ponies still remaining in the hall. Twilight and Chrysalis both paused after leaving the hall and looked around a little confused. "This way," Celestia said, as she walked past. "We need a cozy room and some tea." All the tea in Equestria isn't going to make this problem go away, but it could calm down a potential headache. "I still don't see why anypony will accept me as a princess, I am just a unicorn." Twilight followed after her mentor as she talked with Chrysalis. "Sure there is a precedent for princes, with Prince Blueblood, but a princess is much different." "So we make a rank of princess, that advisers to the Queen hold. It doesn't make you any less a princess, and it makes sure that the role carries with it sufficient weight in everyponies' minds." Leading the way into her private sitting room, Celestia found a comfortable spot on some pillows in the corner. Once each of her guests were inside she closed the door and activated the silence spell on the room. "I could attack you, I could refuse to raise the sun until you gave over command back to me, I could even raise a resistance against you. You need to prove to me, Chrysalis, that I shouldn't try all of these things." Twilight stared at her mentor, blinking a little in surprise. She turned to look at the changeling, suddenly realizing that this new friend was still a conquering leader. "Well, let's look at Discord." Chrysalis found her own comfortable spot to settle down. "His magic is still magic. There are a lot of ways to disable even a princess, without resorting to the Elements of Harmony. Cutting off his magic would be my first thought." Celestia smiled. "Granted, it would have been wonderful to see him dealt with in a way that didn't let him run rampant, I like to think Twilight learned a good lesson from it." Chrysalis shook her head. "She learned the lesson that madness sucks? That it takes a lot of power to overthrow a crazed spirit?" Looking to the unicorn in question, Chrysalis smiled. "So, given what I just said, what would be your first-" "Trap him in a magic vacuum? Use a pair of magic-blocking rings?" Twilight jumped to her hooves. "Wait, is there a spell that sucks all the magic from a place?" "There is," Celestia answered, her voice ringing at the same time Chrysalis said, "There isn't." Both mares looked at each other. "Well?" Twilight grinned and looked between the two. "Is there a spell that can suck all the magic out of an area?" She looked to Celestia. "There is." Celestia looked to Chrysalis and smiled. "You can look in the special vaults now, you can find it if you wish. But it is not the sort of spell that would have been usable. When you remove the magic from the area, it takes a very long time to return." "But that would have been perfect for Discord. You could have had him trapped and frozen, with the spell wrapped around him. He would never have gotten free." Chrysalis waved a hoof in the air. "But there is another way to accomplish the same thing. There is… a particular stone. Too much of it and you would blanket all the castle so that only changelings could use magic; but just the right amount and Discord would be in his cage of stone forever." Both Celestia and Twilight stared at Chrysalis with open mouths. "What?" "Why didn't you bring that in to take control?" Celestia was first to jump to the obvious use-case. "You would have complete control-" "You aren't listening!" Chrysalis almost lost her temper. She looked at Celestia and mentally calmed herself. "I don't want 'complete control,' I couldn't handle it. Equestria is too much for one mare." She gave Celestia a smile and had to correct her glasses, that had slipped a little low. "If I had come in with that I would have had everypony against me, absolutely every single one." Celestia blinked. She really is good at this. If nothing else, this will be the most interesting time in Equestria's history. "Where do we get this substance? Will it require mining or any special attention?" "It should be a priority, once we have everything established." Twilight passed a blank scroll over to Spike. "Spike, take a list. Establish government, recover anti-magic material…" She looked up to Chrysalis. "Ease integration of changelings. Oh, we need to find your sister and straighten things out with her and Twilight's friends." Chrysalis tapped her jaw. "Not usually how I plan, but I can see merits to this." "What about Scootaloo?" Celestia saw Chrysalis' face immediately show worry. Got you, what about her indeed. "You mentioned her name at the end of the ceremony." Chrysalis blinked and tried to pull herself together. "She is a good friend… more like a little sister to me." She let out a breath she didn't even know she was holding. "I was worried about her, I didn't want anything bad to happen." That is the truth, she loses her guard when she is shocked or panicked. Celestia smiled. "You are more of a pony than I thought. No matter how unreasonable my sister may become, she would not harm a filly." "How many drones do you have?" Twilight asked, jotting down some of her own notes. Chrysalis smiled. Either she is planning to overthrow me already or she is interested in helping plan. Either way, a smarter pony is in charge. "I have just shy of nine-hundred changelings hatched, and after that blast of love from Cadance and Shining that number will soon be closer to fifteen-hundred." "Have I said yet how happy I am you have decided to like ponies?" Celestia started pouring tea for them. "Twilight dear, please close your mouth." "Over a thousand?" Twilight's eyes bulged. "How do you have so many so quickly? Cadance said only two years ago you were…" "Do you really want to know?" Chrysalis grinned, knowing a fellow knowledge-sponge when she saw one. "I am sure there would be-" "Yes!" Twilight cut in, almost dropping the tea being passed to her. "How do you… do you have stallions… what about-" A hoof pressed to Twilight's snout, Chrysalis' hoof. "I promise, Princess Twilight Sparkle, that you will have free rein of my hive to study and talk with my foals. As well, I will answer any question you have." Chrysalis was delighted with the enthusiasm. "You shouldn't have offered that. Twilight was my former student," Celestia cautioned, "she can come up with a great many questions. Perhaps I would suggest getting her to make a list?" Celestia was setting a friendly trap, her student's propensity for lists was a not-so-well-kept secret. "Spike! Take another list!" Twilight was already in full gear before Chrysalis could hope to divert even an ounce of her enthusiasm. ~~~~~+++++~~~~~ "Prepare the town! Equestria is at war!" Princess Luna used the Royal Canterlot Voice to good effect, not a single pony in Ponyville missed the call. Most came out of their homes to investigate, some were already on the streets. "That was Chrysalis!" Apple Bloom exclaimed suddenly. "That strange pony at the wedding!" "I know, what was going on? She beat Princess Celestia." Sweetie Belle worked her way to the side to be with her friends. "I was scared…" "You shouldn't be scared." Scootaloo felt the need to defend her "big sister," it wasn't like Chrysalis was here to defend herself, after all. "I don't think she really wanted to hurt ponies." "She was nice to us…" Sweetie scuffed a hoof in the dirt. "She looked funny, all those holes…" Apple Bloom joined in with the pondering. "Taller than she used to be, too." "She is nice." Scootaloo couldn't stop herself blurting it out, thankfully they were now a good distance from the crowd, on their way to Sweet Apple Acres. "She… she is like a big sister. She lost her mom too…" Suddenly there was a filly on each side of Scootaloo, pressing in tight against her. On her back, Bright Smile squirmed forward to hug her neck. "You aren't alone with us, we are like your sisters!" Apple Bloom radiated so much love and friendship that even the overfull Scootaloo almost burped. On the other side Sweetie Belle was doing a similar job. "Right, Cutie Mark Crusaders forever!" Three hooves lifted up together to clop, with Bright flailing to try to join in. "Thanks!" Scootaloo felt so close to her friends that she couldn't hold it back anymore. "But I have something I need to show you." "Are you a changewing too?" Sweetie Belle looked at her friend. "That's changeling." Apple Bloom corrected. "Yeah, one of them." Sweetie looked at her friend and saw the shock clear as day. "You are?" Scootaloo nodded. "Like, forever?" "Somethin' like that. It was back when we all met Chrysalis. We talked and… she was so nice…" Scootaloo trailed off. "I wasn't meant to tell anypony about this, but you are my best friends, my sisters…" "So is the real Scootaloo locked up somewhere?" Sweetie Belle was already off on a tangent. "Is she being held captive by the evil queen? We need to rescue her!" "Sweetie, this is Scootaloo." Apple Bloom, ever the voice of reason, led the way up the ramp to the clubhouse. "Hey, do changelings even get cutie marks?" "I don't know, I just… I just want to be with my friends…" Scootaloo was suddenly in tears, raining them down on the floor of the clubhouse as she entered. "Now I have to leave and live with a circus just like Diamond Tiara said." "Diamond Tiara said that?" Sweetie was distracted from her changeling-musing. "Well that's not right, Cutie Mark Crusaders stick together, forever!" "But you have to tell Applejack, Rarity…" Scootaloo looked between her friends, who each shook their heads. "But… but…" "Cutie Mark Crusaders, Secret Keepers cutie mark attempt!" Sweetie and Apple Bloom both chorused together, giggling. "Nopony will find out about you." Apple Bloom smiled to her friend. "What do you look like? Do you have fins on your head and tail like the smaller changewings? Oh, OH! Do you have wings? Can you fly?" Sweetie was bouncing up and down now, but suddenly froze when Scootaloo revealed herself, green fire stripping away her "pony guise." "This is me and," Scootaloo started buzzing her wings, floating off the floor to hover, "I can fly!"