Darn that pony! Darn them all to Tartarus!
Chrysalis was not fond of stationary caves, but they would have to do. Her stingy environment simply fueled her drive, gave her more reason to hate the ponies than ever. It kept her mind feeling so rushed and practically unstoppable, even without a constant love energy supply. At this time, she was pacing around a circular path in the cramped conditions of the makeshift underground base.
They think new starts and friendships can save them from all harm? Preposterous! Didn't save them from my army capturing them all and sticking them to the ceiling! Explain how we pierced your so-called neverending friendship then!
She chanced a fanged smile before it quickly turned back into her scowl.
But that Starlight Glimmer... darn her! That mule of a pony... Fine, treating anything as no threat at all somehow allows it to poison the minds and bodies of my precious changelings. You've got to be chitin me!
A dozen or so changelings stood around at a nearby, round rock. Each of these changelings looked like she thought they were supposed to and wore the armor of her strongest soldiers. Chrysalis stopped pacing and slammed her hooves against the top of the rock. A makeshift map filled with scribbles and "X"s marked up that very surface area. First, she'd go after Starlight Glimmer. Eliminate that one and her stupid mouth, and the rest would lose their charisma and morale.
At least, that made perfect sense to Chrysalis. When that day came, it was going to be perfect. She had never dreamed it would be something like this. But she would soon control everything. Stallions, mares, foals... no wretched pony would be exempt from this conquest. Especially not Starlight Gli-
*Drip!*
Chrysalis faked a cough. She decided she wasn't even going to acknowledge that loud water splash and echo in the background. She had chitin to do. She would have a level of revenge beyond vengeance... beyond re-vengeance... beyond whatever words could possibly conceive. The real changelings would have a world to rule as soon as they destroyed Starlight Gli-
*Drip!*
The former queen turned on her hind hoof and stomped in annoyance. Priorities were as adaptable as her subjects' shape-shifting nature after all. First she would find the source of that leaking water, plug it up, and then resume her ultimate revenge scheme to outshine all revenge schemes. No ling questioned her as she scanned the cavern top-to-bottom, left-to-right.
Soon enough, she found the puddle of distracting water. She prepared to command her choice of subjects to start cleaning up the mess. However, she stopped and looked more carefully. The cause of the dripping water made no sense at all. Why did it look like she was looking at one of the changelings' stomach region?
Chrysalis looked above that changeling. The ceiling was dry and did not change as the dripping noise continued. She looked back at the changeling standing above the puddle. A single look of seething anger demanded an explanation. This changeling looked like he was more than happy to say, but he was slowly raising a hoof like he didn't feel... so... well.
The ill changeling was immediately replaced with a bunch of bubbles.
Chrysalis blinked to herself. The bubbles floated up and spread from their source. Chrysalis blinked again. The bubbles popped in a random order, but her changeling did not return to his station... or even visible space for that matter. Normally, one of her subjects changing shape wouldn't startle her. However, this one didn't come with a warning burst of green flame. It was just... instantly bubbles.
A puddle of water, soap, and slightly shimmering glycerol was all that proved that anything had once been there. Chrysalis didn't believe what she had witnessed. She couldn't believe. Hay, she couldn't even comprehend what had just happened. The only thing that broke her out of her trance was another changeling suddenly coughing.
"I feel weak... and really weird..."
With no warning, the changeling drone stood up on his hind legs. Said hind legs turned into roots and and dug themselves into the cave floor. His other limbs turned into branches. His head cracked open and leaves and flower obstructed any sign that the new tree and vines had ever been a changeling.
Chrysalis nervously chuckled. She admitted that was a very impressive trick, shape-shifting without using any changeling magic at all... or leaving any trace of changeling magic after turning into a tree. But he could change back now. ... She gave him a direct order to change back. ... The now genderless tree ignored her order. To punish its insubordination, she blasted it with her magic, turning the tree into ashes, save for the flower on top that somehow escaped her anger.
Two other drones screamed as their bodies from the hooves up were erased, only for them to be completely silenced when they disappeared. Still, three others ended up joining their first lost comrade by turning into bubbles. Three more changelings were muted when their bodies were twisted into becoming trees. One more drone was erased from existence.
Chrysalis galloped up to her last drone and shook him violently with her hooves. She demanded that he not leave her side or pull any non-magical transformation stunts. She asked rather loudly if she was making herself absolutely crystal clear. He nodded quickly, while simultaneously quivering his lip. He was afraid of the unknown force, taking away his brethren.
As his queen sat herself down to regain some semblance of composure, the last drone felt his throat clamp tight. He tried to shout, but all he could do was gargle on his own spit and exhale voicelessly the last of the air in his mouth. Something was twisting the metal of his armor all over his body. It crushed his windpipe, slammed down over his eyes, chopped his ears off, and forcibly shrank his rib cage... in that order.
The lonely queen stood up and scanned the cavern wildly. She tried flying to get a better view, but her wings quickly crumpled to dust. She ended up landing face-first against a stalagmite. She opened her mouth and hissed. Wildly, she started casting disintegration spells at the rocky walls. Desperation overrode her need to conserve her extremely low love reserves.
Something unseen forced her onto all four hooves. Chrysalis tried to move, tried to speak... anything! None of her limbs responded. She mentally screamed! She would not be robbed her future by something that she didn't even know what it was! A cracking noise brought her attention to look down.
Her hooves paled considerably and filled out. In any other circumstance, she would have been grateful to lose the holes that bugs kept getting stuck in. But this was not that time. She felt her spine and chest grow a hide without her control. Her jaws ached as fangs fell out. New flat teeth grew in their place. The cave grew darker. The force was invading her eyes.
...
The queen remembered all of this, but cared little for her former self's petty revenge scheme. She cast a blue glow to illuminate the cavern around herself. She ran a white hoof through her long, sky blue mane. She stretched out, glad to be rid of those pesky wings. She opened her purple pony eyes to look at her straighter horn. Looking back, she was pleased to see her cutie mark of a royal crown surrounded by four flowers with four, symmetrical petals each.
"Oh, Starlight Glimmer will pay... but only for her crimes against Equestria, not an evil villain such as you, pitiful Chrysalis."
Queen Majesty laughed maniacally before slowly walking toward the cave's exit. "I love having justice on my side."
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