"A tyrant? That doesn't make sense..."
"Well, maybe he does have a point, though...just n-"
"What!? You would agree with him!?"
I could hear two voices argue back and forth...they had been arguing for some time, actually. It was somewhat annoying to hear for so long, and the preexisting headache and fatigue didn't make my position—or mood, for that matter—any better.
It was odd, though...the voices sounded almost like the same person. One was definitely Celestia, but the other was new to me...or was it? Maybe it was a memory...a very distant, yet lovely memory...
"No! Just not in the way you are interpreting it, Celestia."
I groaned, laying my face flat on the mat and covering my aching head with hole-riddled hooves.
"Just kill me, already..." I groaned, trying oh so desperately to will the arguing to end with the power of a thousand headaches...to no avail, of course.
Deciding to distract myself with inner thought, I reflected on the situation I had been recently placed in, taking note of it's...irony, I guess. Let's start with the bad, though: It was humiliating enough having my plan foiled, then the defeat at the hooves of the very source of food I was leeching from just threw salt into the wound. It was humiliating enough being abandoned by what was left of my—well, what used to be my—swarm, but the merciful, "kind" help Celestia forced upon me—going so far as to make sure I couldn't commit suicide as well as to provide a comfy loft for my jail cell—just threw salt in the wound, cooked it on a skillet, then ate it like morning bacon to be deposited elsewhere at a later time.
Arguing continued to drone on, but the distraction of some meditative reflection really helped to drown it out.
Celestia, with an escort of four Royal Flight Guards, quickly tracked me, probably following the flakes of my wings, the shriveled green clumps of my once beautiful hair, and the green ooze which is the changelings's equivalent of a pony's lifeblood. Upon being cornered, I thought that I would go down in a blaze of glory by fighting, hoof and fang to the end with my enemies, only to (after making a hiss so deep and threatening that all five adversaries shook in fear) proceed in tripping over a root and falling unconscious to my face. Some time later, I awoke to find Cadenza actually channelling love into my body so it could start repairing itself...if anyone has ever felt anything more humiliating than having the lofty treatment hoofed over to you by your very enemies and food...you have my greatest condolences.
"Tia, I will NOT stand to hear this anymore, for now at least."
THANK. YOU. I thought, groaning inwardly as the conclusion to the bickering outside subsided. Guess I'll have to reflect on the good in a moment.
"Fine, yes, she has been waiting for a while, I guess. Go."
A few hooffalls later and the doors to my dimly lit "cell" opened, a swath of light flooding in and silhouetting Celestia—my enemy, my captor, my rival, and my saviour—as she stared down at my weak and bruised form.
Her face was too shaded for a proper reading of her expression, but I had a feeling it was somewhat stern.
"Chrysalis."
"Tia."
She stepped into the room more, her wings shifting and repositioning at her side as she approached, "Please, call me Celestia." she asked, slightly annoyed, and slightly sincere...mostly the annoyed part, though.
I smiled giddily, flashing my teeth and batting my eyelashes in as polite a manner as my honed acting could muster, then answered in a tone so sweet that I could feel my teeth decaying on the spot, "Bite me."
"I see you are still sore about your plan failing." Celestia remarked disdainfully.
"No, what's sore is—oh let's see!—my head—broken horn and all—my legs—quite a fall I took!—and the region between here," I placed a forehoof on my chest, glaring daggers directly into the spot Celestia's shadowed eyes should be, "and here!" I concluded by slapping, in an admittedly un-Queen-like fashion, my flanks, "Ow." forgetting that it was in fact very sore down there.
After taking a moment to rub my bruised behind, and reprimand myself for hitting it, I turned back to my captor and placed my angry face back on, "I accept that I lost, though I am still disappointed by my drastic failure..."
"As is your swarm."
I hissed, attempting to stand and pounce the pompous princess there for making such a remark, but my weakened legs gave out before I could even get all the way up, so I settled for delivering a very mean glare with a force to challenge a sonic rainboom or two, "You look at me like I am pathetic! As if I am just some weak creature to be dominated and controlled!" If I were not a lady, nor a Queen, I would have spat at her hooves, "You think I am a pathetic little bug at the whim of your magnifying glass! Fearful of the sun and what it could my do to my frail body..."
Celestia's face seemed to become even more shrouded as I went on...
"But I am not. I may be ashamed I failed my subjects, but I am still Queen Chrysalis! YOU are but a mere Princess who gathers all of her strength in the same manner as I do! The only difference is that YOU do not wish to acknowledge that fact, while I gladly do, Celestia!"
"Please..." she muttered, almost inaudibly, "Call me Tia, Chryssy..."
I stuttered, hesitating a moment at the sound of her sudden change in tone and the sudden sound of my childhood name...but shook it off and continued with renewed vigor. Still, that flip of tone seemed familiar...the voice did too, yet it was foreign, at the same time. It was peculiar, to say the least.
"So in truth it is YOU who is the pity! YOU who requires the mercy!" I grinned now, my rage forming into joy, "You were defeated by this little insect, who was in turn defeated by YOUR so called subjects! While I accept the full responsibilities of my failure, YOU go on ruling the land as though it is your sole right to do so, all because you guise yourself as the object of everypony's affection, when all you really are, deep down beneath all of that pristine coat and flowing mane which defies physics..."
As my excitement built, so did my strength, fueled entirely by the vigor behind my vilification of the old mare before me. I again attempted to stand, legs spread wide to help my support as I shakily straightened the knees.
"...beneath the immeasurable magic; beneath the pretty smile and kind mannerisms; beneath the ever loving Princess and Goddess, is NOTHING..." taking a moment to force my stance totally upright, gasping at the amount of difficulty the simple task required, I clenched my teeth, eyes narrowed to slits, and delivered the KO blow: "but a lovely little Tyrant named Tia!"
There was a short pause in which no sound was made, save for my heavy, stuttered breathing, then a soft hum filled the air and Celestia's horn lit up, revealing her face for the first time since she entered.
The look I found, though, told me to move, to dive for cover as her glare practically stabbed me through the chest with a serrated blade, but my body was too weak to respond, and I soon found that an invisible force was steadily tightening around my neck and lifting me slightly off the tile.
"Chrysalis, you really ARE just a BUG which I can—and SHOULD—crush to a disgusting green and blue pulp!" a sudden jolt from the invisible grip forced me to my back, gasping dryly for air, "But that would just be too nice for you."
My airway was freed from the grip and a loud gasp, accompanied the massive intake of air my lungs had been screaming for, cut the air while my right forehoof came up to rub the now severely sore spot I was choked by. All the while, coughs escaped my mouth while Celestia turned to leave me alone again, locked in my comfortable prison.
"And never refer to me as anything except Celestia." she spat before the doors closed, "Or even, your Master."
Once the coughing fits had ended, and I had sufficiently rubbed my sore throat, I glared at the closed doors and muttered to myself.
"There's something that rhymes with 'itch' that I would REALLY like to refer to you as, right now, you insane, bipolar, little..."
Coughing ensued again.
"Ugh...I wonder what will happen next?" I asked to mostly myself, "I really don't feel all to happy about being a...a 'guest' here for long."
I slowly rolled my neck, standing again with determination glinting in my eyes. I was still shaky, but already more stable than before.
"I don't know know who is loving me right now, but I thank them for their contribution!"
My wings expanded out with a snap, the holes within each quickly disappearing as the thin, papery material regenerated with my strength.
"Celestia...this identity crisis will be your downfall!"