Canterlot Dungeon
Sans and Celestia looked into the cell at their prisoner. The captured queen, covered in several chains and magic suppressors, glared back.
“Chrysalis, I know that you have kept Cadence alive,” Celestia formally began. “She is the Princess of Love and, furthermore, an alicorn. Alicorns can and will always know if another has been killed or banished. You will tell me where Candace is or you will pay the price. What say you to this bargain?”
“Ha,” Chrysalis laughed morosely, “my only hope for my children is gone… What more do you think you could do? Killing me now would only put my pain to an end.” Just as formally, but much more spitefully, she responded, “I spit upon the bargain you place.”
Sans stepped up to the bars of the cell, in the exact opposite image of formal. “ya know, there are a buncha’ changelings that we have captured, your children aren’t all dead and they haven’t all fled from the city.”
Chrysalis looked back up, staring at the skeleton for a moment. Eventually, she spoke, in a slow and careful tone. “If I was to tell you where she was... would you allow for me to see my children?”
“You will have to tell us where Cadence is first, so we may go and recover her.” Celestia looked sternly at Chrysalis. “If she is there, then and only then will you be able to see the rest of the changelings.”
Chrysalis considered the bargain. On the one hoof, Princess Cadence was the only advantage they had over the ponies. If she wished to fight back and win this admittedly bad situation, they could not afford to lose whatever advantage they could get. But on the other hoof, the other changelings… The fallen queen sighed. “Very well… I have kept her underground in the crystal tunnels beneath Canterlot. She has food and water to survive for the next week. I swear upon the swarm she is there… I would just like to see my children.”
“Very well, if she is there then I will take into consideration you seeing the cha- ...your children.” Celestia turned to exit the dungeon, nodding to her companion. “Come Sans, we have much to discuss.”
Sans stood looking at the queen for a moment, not noticing Celestia’s words. ‘just what did she have to go through to lead an attack against equestria? she musta’ realized even if she took down celestia, she’d still have to fight moonbutt and any other royal guards. she also would have to take out all of the other cities around the country… how desperate was she?’
“Sans!” Celestia said suddenly, cutting off his internal monologue. “Come, we must go find Cadence.”
“yeah, I’m comin’, I’m comin’. hold your horses.”
Crystal Tunnels beneath Canterlot
‘Something has happened.’
Cadence, Princess of Love and fiancée to Shining Armor, was laying on the hard crystal floor beneath her. She had been laying there in boredom for what she estimated was about two hours, too weak to do anything else. It was because of that that she deduced something happened. With nothing else to do, Cadence had taken to memorizing Chrysalis’ patterns. Not her physical patterns, her patterns with dealing with Cadence. She had been fed and “watered,” as the changeling queen had put it, about three hours ago. Normally, Chrysalis dropped in to taunt her about two hours after that, through the crystals all around her. Talking about how she would “take over Equestria” and how “Shining Armor will be mine.” According to the schedule Cadence had figured out, the queen was an hour late. She would only be late if something happened.
The only questions were what, and how the what influenced everything else. What had happened? Did she launch the attack? Unlikely, since Chrysalis had said it was going to be in a week. Was she discovered? Possible, but improbable. Maybe something else had happened? And what were the results? Were Auntie Celestia and Luna safe? How was Twily? Would she recognise that Chrysalis was impersonating her? Had she already? Was Shining Armor OK? Did she already attack? If the attack was done, was is successful? She sighed and flipped over on her back, looking up at the purple ceiling. The worst part of being trapped wasn’t the fact that she was alone, it was that she was alone with her thoughts.
“...haven’t checked here yet, maybe this’ll be it...”
Candace’s ears perked up, catching a sound she hadn’t expected to hear: a voice. Who was there?
The head of a pony, wearing a helmet, poked around the corner. Seeing Candace, he smiled widely and looked back at where he came from. “Guys! Go tell Celestia and the captain that we found her!” The guard looked back at Candace, offering to help her up. “Corporal Steel Hoof of the Canterlot guard’s second battalion here to help, Your Majesty.”
Candace unsteadily got back to her hooves, taking a deep breath. Save the waterworks for when she was out, she told herself. “Thank you corporal, would you please escort me to the surface?”
The guard saluted. “It will be done, Princess. Follow me.”
Celestia’s Room
“So Sans, would you care to finally explain your ‘Gaster Blaster’ in detail now? You said you didn’t want to explain it until Chrysalis woke up. Now that she has awoken I would like a full explanation of your Gaster Blaster and your teleportation ability. You had said that you weren’t completely honest with your abilities before Chrysalis launched her assault on Canterlot. I would like a full list of your abilities and what they all do.”
Sans sighed, looking up at the solar princess. “well, I guess it had to come out sometime… here we go. you’ve pretty much seen most of my abilities by now. my ability to summon and control bones, my blue mode, my gaster blasters, and my shortcuts. my bones are pretty simple, I can summon bones of different types and sizes. the standard white bones will injure someone upon contact, while light blue bones will only hurt someone if they are moving. think of blue stop signs.” He summoned each bone as he spoke, gesturing to to them as he mentioned them. He summoned a third bone before continuing, this one being lit afire. “bones with flames on them are relatively new to me, since they use your solar power as a base. if I had to guess, I’d say they act similar to orange attacks from my world. basically the opposite of blue, just so you know.” He brought his soul out and gestured to it next, turning it blue. “and of course you know about blue mode. stronger gravity, lifting things up, yada yada.” He tapped his soul after he was finished, turning his soul back grey.
Celestia nodded. “I understand your bones and blue mode, but I am more concerned with your ‘Blasters’ and teleportation ability,” she told him.
Sans snapped his fingers and summoned a small gaster blaster, about the size of his head. “gaster blasters were developed by the royal scientist before alphys, named w.d. gaster. hence the name gaster blaster, he named it after himself. they draw energy from between time and reality, a plane commonly referred to as the void. void magic is very malleable, so you can add whatever you want to it. I usually just add my magic, but now that I have the ability to use some of your magic I can make it into a solar beam. so far, like the bones all it seems to do is turn the attack orange. handy though, I can’t do orange myself. anyway, when it's fired… well, you saw the power that it had.” Sans gestured vaguely towards the direction of the dungeon.
“my shortcuts, or my ‘teleportation ability,’” he over-pronounced each syllable for emphasis, “let me move anyone or anything through space in an instant. I can show you if you want.”
Celestia nodded again. “If you could show me, I would appreciate it. Getting an idea of what your true abilities are will shrug off some of the… problems that you have caused by withholding this information.”
Sans shrugged and smiled, placing a hand on her back. “ok then.” He snapped his fingers causing the world to freeze for the two. “welcome to my shortcut,” he told her. “they’re usually less dramatic than this; I can take people through shortcuts without them ever realizing it. hold on, this might disorient you.” He snapped his fingers again, and the two appeared in Alphys’ room. “well, here we are.”
Celestia looked around at the frozen world, noting Alphys and Flowey who appeared to be having a conversation, while a pony was wrapped up in a bundle of vines in the corner. “This is certainly is an interesting view of the world,” she commented. And it was true; she felt like she and Sans were under a spotlight, and the rest of the world was dark.
Sans just snapped his hand again, causing time to start again.
“I’m just saying it-” Flowey started again, before flinching. He looked around, before noticing Sans and Celestia. He glared lightly at Sans for a moment, before turning back to Alphys. “I’m just saying it would be better to have Sans look into them if they’re suspicious. He noticed them first, and his Judge would be more reliable than any old sensor!”
“But why should we rely on him if we can work without him?” Alphys argued. “If I can make a sensor for this kind of thing, he’d have less work to do.”
Sans coughed, causing Alphys to jump. “wouldn’t that be a good thing?” Sans smiled at the scare he caused the lizard monster. “I only have one job right now. the more jobs I have, the more legally required breaks.”
Alphys looked over at Sans, squinting. “Sans, how many times have I told you? Don’t do that! And why didn’t you warn me?” This was directed at Flowey. “I know you notice when he does that, don’t deny it. When he came in-” Alphys then noticed Celestia, freezing for a second before hurriedly straightening out her lab coat. “Good morning your majesty, do you have an update on the queen?”
Celestia nodded. “Yes, she has awoken. She has given us information on where Cadence is being held in exchange for the ability to see some of her children.” Celestia then gestured to the pony held in several vines. “Now, Flowey. Why do you have my subject tied up and gagged?”
Flowey spoke up, “She was acting just like she was before the invasion, she’s probably a changeling. We were going to go get Sans to verify and then tell you, but I guess here you are.”
Sans looked over at the captive pony and judged her. ‘Clean Sweep. LV 1, EXP 0. HP 20/20, ATK 4, DEF 2. Maid for the royal family. Don’t trust her eyes, this “pony” seems suspicious.’ “yup, says she’s off, just like all the other changelings. she has zero LV though, so she might not have been completely involved with the invasion.”
Celestia looked down at the disguised changeling, causing its eyes to widen and panic slightly. “Flowey, would you remove the vines from her mouth? I would like to speak with her.” Flowey considered it for a moment, before retracting the vines.
Celestia opened her mouth to speak, but ‘Clean Sweep’ beat her to it. Green flames flowed over the pony, revealing the natural carapace, “Please! I haven’t done anything! I swear! I ran away from the hive and was on my own when the attack came!” The changeling began to blabber.
Celestia frowned. “Where is the real Clean Sweep? Changelings replace their prey to get love, we have learned as much from the other changelings we have interrogated. So what have you done with her?”
The changeling continued to speak quickly, his body shaking. “I didn’t replace them! I made them up! I swear to you!” The panic got more intense. “Please don’t hurt me! I swear I’ve done nothing wrong! I was told to be here, but I didn’t want to, I-” The changeling suddenly went stiff, a small vine piercing its neck, then fell to the ground snoring slightly as her body relaxed.
Celestia looked over to Flowey in shock, before her shock turned to anger. “Flowey the flower, what did you do that for?!”
The flower chuckled. “I don’t think using ‘the flower’ as part of my name is going to make me fear you any more…” He stopped laughing after a few seconds and turned to the changeling. “Its heartrate was going to unsafe levels, so I put a natural tranquilizer in its system. If you want more information, you’re gonna have to wait until it’s calmer.”
Celestia nodded, calming down. “How long until she is awake?”
“The sedative should wear off in about 8 hours. If you want to talk to her, do it then.” Flowey thought for a minute, before adding, “and stop nodding. Your head’s going to fall off with how much you do it.”
Celestia looked conflicted.
‘She wants to nod to confirm,’ Flowey thought to himself in glee, ‘but she also want to not nod as much. Flowey, you’ve still got it.’
The princess’ inner turmoil was brought to a halt as a guard decided to burst into the room at that very moment. He looking around frantically, before spotting Celestia. “Your Majesty!” he told her quickly. “We found her! Princess Cadence is safe!”