On the rude cot that served as her bed, Queen Chrysalis tossed and turned, and she muttered in her sleep. “Stop the intruders… stop those little ponies…” She grimaced and whined softly as she rolled over. “Insubordinate… traitorous grubs… your queen commands you… no… no no…” Her body spasmed and her eyes flicked open as she cried out, “No!”
She froze, mouth hanging open for a moment as she struggled to understand where she was. Her bandaged legs were tangled in the bedding Mirage had provided. She went limp and sighed roughly. For a few moments she lay quietly, then she kicked aside the covers and slipped out of bed. She started to flex her wings but winced as the muscles were still sore from her earlier flight across the desert.
“And what are you yelping about?” came Mirage’s inquiry, from where she stood at the door.
Chrysalis whirled, startled. “Don’t sneak up on me! Announce yourself to royalty!” She narrowed her eyes and waggled a hoof at Mirage and added, “It wouldn’t hurt you to bow down, for that matter.”
Mirage’s ears drooped. “Bow down? But am I not your closest friend?” A glimmer of emerald green flashed in her eyes as she moved closer, holding Chrysalis’s gaze. “And your closest advisor as well.”
Chrysalis took a hesitant step back, a confused expression flickering across her face. “uhh… of course…” Then she squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. “What?” A green aura flickered up and down her gnarled horn for a moment. Then her eyes opened again, but this time filled with rage. She snarled, “Traitor! Backstabber! You tried to mind-control me!”
Mirage merely quirked an eyebrow. “Tried? I had you going pretty well there for a while. Besides, I merely turned your own clumsy spell back against you. You wouldn’t have broken it so easily if it had been one of mine.” She flashed a confident smile.
Her retort only increased Chrysalis’s fury. “You’ll pay a terrible price for your betrayal, Mirage!” A bright green aura flared up from her horn, and a bolt of hostile magic lashed out. However, it passed easily through its target, impacting the adobe wall while Mirage herself faded from view.
Chrysalis blinked at the empty space where Mirage had been an instant before. “What?”
The feline’s voice came from behind. “I’ve been patient with you, changeling.” Chrysalis spun to find Mirage standing in the opposite end of the room from where she’d been before. The smirk was gone, ears turned back, teeth bared. “Uncharacteristically patient. Was it all just a waste of time?”
Chrysalis answered with another magical blast, but the result was the same: Mirage vanished, and a smoking hole burned into the adobe wall. “Stand still!” she shrieked. “How are you doing that?”
A chuckle echoed through the cottage, and a pair of green phantom-like eyes stared down from a place near the ceiling. “You’re nothing more than a spoiled brat throwing a tantrum. You need a time-out.”
A green fire appeared under Chrysalis’s feet, and it rapidly expanded into the circumference of a black pit. Chrysalis buzzed her wings just in time to keep from falling in. It was no use, though. Ropy tentacles whipped upward through the portal, latched onto her legs, and pulled her down into the blackness. Her panicked scream was cut off when the portal closed behind her.
Chrysalis wasn’t sure what happened or how long it was before she regained consciousness. When she did, she found herself lying on cold, rough stone. Raising her head, she blinked blearily at a night sky, but it was unlike any she’d ever seen before. She clambered unsteadily to her feet, then gawped at her surroundings.
The sky held no sun, no moon or stars. Instead there were barren boulders of various sizes and shapes scattered in all directions, drifting and tumbling. The sky itself glowed softly in shades of indigo and purple, with auroras twisting slowly across it, shedding a dim light (but adequate for sensitive changeling eyes) across everything. As she watched, a fireball flared and streaked the distance for a few seconds before burning out.
There didn’t even seem to be an up or down in this place, aside from some form of gravity securing Chrysalis to her own boulder. She flexed her wings and lifted off, and flew to a larger boulder, but it proved just as bare and uninteresting as the one she’d left.
After investigating a few more, she began to feel there was nothing more to find in this blasted dimension, this featureless maze without walls. She belatedly realized she’d lost track of which boulder she’d started on, on the off chance that it even mattered. She slumped on the cold stone and closed her eyes, wishing she had something to cover herself, some shelter to hide from the howling void. Changelings were burrowing, tunneling creatures. Being exposed in a wide open space, unprotected and visible from all directions, was deeply unsettling for Chrysalis.
She never knew how long she cowered there before she heard a mocking voice: “Are the accommodations to your liking, Your Most Royal Majesty?”
Chrysalis scrambled to her feet. “Mirage!” The feline looked different, though. She floated, sans wings, easily hovering above the surface of the boulder. Her raiment was much changed from the humble brown robes she’d always worn before. She now wore a skirt of deep red silk and golden hem, and a matching top with flared shoulders and gold collar, a broad golden belt clasped by a giant ruby, gold bands on her arms, gold binders for her long (and seemingly pony-like) black mane — and a golden crown with the protective figure of a cobra arching above her forehead.
Mirage floated down to the stony surface and landed daintily upon her feet. Chrysalis lowered her head, pointing her horn, and growled, “Where am I? What have you done?”
Mirage gestured to their surroundings with a graceful wave of her clawed hand. “I’ve merely introduced you to my place of power. Welcome to Morbia the Shadow Realm!”
Chrysalis glanced around once again at the cosmic wasteland. “I… I don’t like it here. Take me back to your home!”
Mirage shook her head. “This is my true home, and you don’t give orders here. Return to Equis yourself, if you can!”
“I can make you return me,” Chrysalis yelled, and she fired another bolt of green magic, but the image of Mirage merely dissipated again and re-formed elsewhere, hovering once more, and laughing.
“Slow learner, are you?” she taunted. “You should know by now that won’t work on me. But go ahead, waste your energy!”
Chrysalis glared. “What do you want from me?”
“All in good time. There are things I want you to see. Come!” Mirage gestured come-hither.
Reluctantly, Chrysalis flitted her wings and flew close by Mirage, who then stretched out her hand and, with a violent discharge of magic, conjured a massive, floating island with a flat top and a stone structure founded upon it: a building of stone with a giant sphinx incorporated into its facade, the entrance a black, rectangular opening between its front legs. Upon each of the front paws of the sphinx sat a guardian: a deep red, panther-like cat. Small flames flickered around each guardian, but they showed no sign of discomfort.
Still reeling slightly from the great discharge of magical energies that Mirage had so casually employed, Chrysalis tried to interpret what she saw. She didn’t have much experience with architecture, but she recognized the structure as some sort of temple. (If she had taken a moment to reflect, which she was not often inclined to do, she might have recalled seeing something like it on the cover of one of those ridiculous Daring Do books that her changelings sometimes brought back from pony lands.) Mirage flew down to alight at the entrance, and Chrysalis followed.
Mirage gestured upward, and both of the guardians erupted into flame, transformed in an instant to pure fire. The flames leapt down to Mirage’s side, their heat forcing Chrysalis to take a step back, but in a moment they transformed back to felines again. Mirage smiled and petted one of them. “This is my temple. If you ever approach it without my permit, you’ll have these Fire Cats to contend with.” She scratched under their chins, then dismissed them. “Return to your posts!” The fire cats yowled and burst into flames again, as they leapt up to their guarding positions.
“Come along!” Mirage ordered, and she proceeded into the temple. Chrysalis followed warily through the hallways. Torches mounted in sconces flared into life whenever Mirage neared, and she led the way past stone walls with indecipherable carvings, chambers housing finely carved sarcophagi, chests, and other treasures.
After passing through the corridors, they entered a vast hypostyle hall with a ceiling supported by an orderly forest of lotus columns that bore only traces of once-colorful paints. Chrysalis lagged, moving slowly as she stared at the largest enclosed space she’d ever seen. Her feet trailed through sand that had drifted across cracked and worn tiles.
There was also a dais and a throne, sturdy and timeless, carved from thick blocks of granite. Mirage floated over to it and took her seat. From out of the shadows stepped a pair of shaggy, bipedal creatures, which Chrysalis could only interpret as some sort of goat-minotaurs. Each of them clutched a wicked looking spear, and they stood at attention by either side of Mirage’s throne. Sounds of movement, scuffling and snorting, echoed around the vast chamber, and Chrysalis caught glimpses of movement in the shadows, and flashes of light reflecting from eyes.
“Don’t hide!” Mirage called out. “Introduce yourselves to Queen Chrysalis, my minions!” From behind the columns and out of the shadows they came, muscular, lizard-like, squat creatures that seemed equally inclined to walk on two legs or on all fours. Chrysalis’s wings twitched reflexively as she realized she was surrounded. Mirage explained, “These are the Al Quetib, my army of darkness. They were once mortal children, unwanted and uncared-for. I took them from the streets and transformed them with a seed of evil.” She reached her hand to pet a particularly large and athletic specimen that had been bold enough to approach her throne.
Chrysalis cringed as a couple of the monsters sniffed curiously at her. “That’s, uhh… impressive, I suppose. Why did you bring me here?” She desperately hoped the answer wasn’t feeding time.
Mirage leaned forward and bared her fangs, and said, “Earlier today you suggested that it wouldn’t hurt me to bow down to you.”
Chrysalis’s jaw worked up and down a couple of times but found no words. She closed her mouth, closed her eyes, and stretched her forelegs in front of her, lowering her head in the typical equine gesture of submission.
Mirage sat back in her throne, at least partially mollified. “Now then, we’ve established the natural order of things. However, I didn’t bring you here merely to correct your misapprehension of our relationship. I have an offer for you.” She frowned at the kneeling changeling and made a lifting gesture with her hands. “You may rise.”
Chrysalis rose, unsteadily.
“Chrysalis, so-called Queen of the Changelings… You were a Petty Queen at best, even before being ousted from whatever quaint little tribe you led. It’s true that you have a surplus of magical energy, but without much knowledge or skill in its use. Swear fealty to me as your High Queen, and become my faithful subordinate! I shall instruct you in secrets of the cosmos, passed down from the Ancient Spirits of Evil. You can regain all you have lost and take revenge on those responsible for your downfall.”
Chrysalis’s face lit up with hope. “Yes! That’s what I want. You’ll really help me?” With the aid of Mirage’s army of darkness, surely taking back control of her hive would be nymph’s play.
“Of course I will! It’ll all be in service to me, anyhow. You and your little changelings will join the ranks of my minions. Ahh, the misery we shall inflict on an unsuspecting world!” She grinned toothily, eyes alight, and she clenched a fist. “From sea to sea, to the hills and valleys, cities and farms, there will be no laughter, no children playing — only the corpses of rebels and ashes of dreams on blood-stained streets. And then how the wails of sweet despair will rise from every home!”
Chrysalis started to take a step back, only to be halted by a growl from an Al Quetib behind her. “But… What about love?”
Mirage blinked and wrinkled her nose, confused. “What?”
“It’s just that changelings get our power from stolen love. We disguise ourselves as ponies, and then…”
Mirage barked out a startled laugh, almost a hiccup. “Love? That’s a joke, right? You can’t be serious.” She stood and walked down the steps of the dais to confront Chrysalis directly, to peer into her eyes. “You’re serious. How is that even possible? Love is the most ridiculous of all sentiments. It’s nothing more than…” She waggled her fingers dismissively as she sneered. “…a tingly feeling. The idea of drawing power from it is absurd.”
Chrysalis retorted, “You may think so, but it’s how my kind survive. If you create a world devoid of love, there’ll be nothing left to sustain us.”
Mirage shrugged lightly, and turned to climb the steps to her throne again. Over her shoulder she remarked, “Not my problem. You’ll just have to learn to subsist on terror, misery and despair if you want a place in my empire.”
“I don’t think it works that way,” Chrysalis began to argue.
Mirage turned to face her again, teeth bared. “You can adapt or die,” she snarled. She sat on her throne and said, more calmly, “Now, make your choice! Swear your oath of fealty to Mirage, the Queen of All Evil!”
Chrysalis glared up at her. “Do I even have a choice?”
Mirage smiled and answered sweetly, “Of course you do. All my minions come to me of their own accord. You’re free to reject my offer. Oh, I’ll be disappointed… but I’m sure I’ll soon forget all about you.”
Sensing a trap, Chrysalis prodded, “That’s it? If I say no, you’ll just let me go?”
Mirage leaned forward. “I didn’t say I’d let you go. I said I’d forget all about you. I doubt whether you’ll ever find a way out of Morbia, but that won’t be my problem either, will it? You’ll never even find this temple again without my help.”
Chrysalis lowered her head, looking at the ground and scuffing a hoof in the sand uncertainly. “If I pretend to agree and then bide my time,” she thought, “maybe I’ll get a chance to escape and carry a warning back to the hive.” She raised her head and looked up to Mirage and said, “Very well.” Then she stretched out her forelegs and lowered her head in a submissive bow, as she had before. “I acknowledge you as High Queen and shall serve you faithfully. So swears Queen Chrysalis.”
Mirage clapped her hands a few times, slowly. “Well spoken! So sincere! And yet, I require something more than the sweet words of a deceiver to guarantee your loyalty. Rise — and observe!”
Chrysalis stood and saw that Mirage had also risen from her throne. She stood with a dark sphere clutched in her hands, like a smoky crystal orb with emerald flames flickering eerily within. Her eyes shimmered with the same light as she explained, “The Charm of the Seer shall bind you to my will — far beyond the crude hypnosis you attempted on me.”
“No!” Chrysalis gasped as she took an involuntary step back, but she felt herself grabbed by strong, scaly claws from all sides.
Mirage took a step closer, holding forth the orb. “Gaze into the flames! Yes… Already you are unable to look away. Let its magic steal your soul away! My servant you’ll be for all time.”
Chrysalis’s body shook as she tried to pull away, to turn her head, to close her eyes, but she could not. She felt something that burned like acid seeping into her mind. In panic she cast a crude spell of mental defense to try and resist, but began to fizzle at once, buying her only a few seconds. “It can’t end like this!” she thought.