Chrysalis turned her eyes to the hospital room door as she heard it opening and watched as one of the nurses she had seen and not bothered to remember the name of filed into the room. She was pushing a cart with a plate of what was presumably supposed to be food on it. Chrysalis eyed the dish with a frown as it was set upon the adjustable table connected to the rail of her hospital bed and swung in front of her. Noticing her patient’s reaction, the nurse rolled her eyes.
“I know, I know, hospital food is terrible. You can eat whatever you want when you get out of here tomorrow, but until then you’ve got to eat what we give you.”
“Yes, nurse.” Chrysalis answered in a monotone as she poked at a mushy pile of wet, lumpy, orange...stuff. She wasn’t sure if she’d be able to recognize what it was supposed to be even if she had been a creature that actually ate things regularly. She noticed the nurse staring at her expectantly and felt a small piece of herself die inside. She picked up a spoon with her magic and shovelled a portion of the goop into her mouth.
“That’s better.” The nurse said with an irritating, self satisfied smirk that made Chrysalis want to knock her straight into the wall. “I’ll be back soon to pick up the dishes. If you haven’t finished it by the time I’ve returned, I’m going to force you to eat it myself.”
Chrysalis watched as the nurse left the room and as soon as she was out of sight, she spit out the so called food back onto the plate. She found it hard to believe that it would be edible even for actual ponies. Looking at it once again, she couldn’t even tell the difference between that which she had just spit out and that which she hadn’t.
There was no way Chrysalis was going to put that slop in her body. Without a moment’s hesitation, she levitated the revolting dinner into the air by her bedside and incinerated it, letting the ashes fall into the waste basket below.
It was the evening following her having awoken in the hospital after facing off against Nightmare Moon. She had learned yesterday that her dinner would be brought in shortly before visiting hours ended and she was looking forward to the relative privacy that being outside those hours would provide her. Some of her guests, specifically Twilight’s parents, had been quite useful with the love that they provided for her, but she couldn’t do the things she needed to do with the constant threat of ponies coming in to see her, or more accurately not see her.
As Chrysalis was arranging her plans for the evening in her mind, the nurse returned as she said she would and gathered Chrysalis’ empty plate.
“I wish all our patients were as easy to deal with as you.” She commented and Chrysalis gave a distracted smile, hoping it would satisfy her. The nurse paused as she sniffed at the air. “Do you smell something burnt?”
“No.” Chrysalis lied.
“Perhaps I’m imagining things.” She shrugged before trotting towards the door.
“I’m really tired. Could you let the others know I don’t want to be disturbed?” Chrysalis asked before she left.
“I can’t stop the doctors coming in for your scheduled check up in a couple hours, but I can probably get everypony else to give you some privacy.”
Chrysalis scowled as the nurse shut the door behind her. A couple of hours weren’t going to cut it, she needed most of the night for what she had in mind. She couldn’t afford to push back her plans, either, she was going to need to make a detour. If it didn’t work out like she hoped, she’d have to come up with an excuse for her absence and hope it didn’t increase ponies’ suspicions of her. As much as she would have loved to not take the risk, she had to get that incompetent little moron, Time Keeper, out of Celestia’s clutches before he compromised her cover.
She waited a few more minutes to ensure that the nurse was well and truly gone before throwing off her blankets and leaping from bed. She stretched her legs, a little stiff from being in bed for so long, and then transformed into a small, brown pegasus mare with a mop for a cutie mark. If she were lucky, nobody would bother paying any attention to what appeared to be a janitor as she slipped out of the hospital. She cracked open the door and peeked around for anybody nearby. Seeing that the coast was clear, she walked out of first her room, and soon thereafter the hospital itself. As she had hoped, she hadn’t even been given a single second glance.
Setting foot outside for the first time in a couple of days, she took in a deep breath of fresh air. She had grown weary of the stuffy atmosphere of the hospital. Her gaze wandered about the area, momentarily settling on the mountain that Canterlot was built into, barely visible in the distance and dim dusk lighting, before returning to her immediate surroundings. She would head there soon enough, but first things first. She waved at a nearby dark grey pegasus stallion to get his attention.
“Excuse me, but could you give me directions to the Quills and Sofa store?”
“Sure thing, miss, you just go down that way until you reach the town square and take a right. From there you go straight until you see it on the left. It’s probably closed for the day, though.”
“That won’t be a problem.”
“Maybe I could show you the way myself, ya know, make sure you don’t get lost along the way, and maybe after we could—”
“No.” Chrysalis cut him off and swiftly launched herself into the air so she could fly to her destination.
“Oh, uh...okay. Goodnight, then!” He shouted at her receding form and waved goodbye somewhat awkwardly.
Chrysalis knew what he wanted, and perhaps on a night where she wasn’t so busy she would have taken him up on the offer and drained him of all the love he had available, but she really didn’t have the time to waste on an amorous stallion right then.
With his instructions, the Quills and Sofa store was easy to find. There was a sign on the door indicating that the shop was indeed closed, just as the dark grey pegasus had said it would be, though it also proclaimed that it was under new ownership and wouldn’t re-open for a couple of days.
After looking around to ensure that she wasn’t being watched, Chrysalis reached inside with her magic and felt around until she found the simple bolt lock that was keeping the door shut and pulled it into the unlocked position. She slipped inside the dim building interior. The sound of hooves clopping on the wooden planks of the second floor indicated that the occupant was home, so she made her way up the nearby stairs. As she climbed them, she could hear a stallion’s incredibly agitated voice.
“...this stupid town! They could have at least given me some notice, but nooooo! Gotta get to this Ponyville as fast as possible! Didn’t even give me time to feed off my network of established associates, and now I have to start all over again! It took me years to set that up! And what kind of shop sells only quills and sofas!? Ohhh, if the Queen were here right now I’d give her a piece of my mind!”
Chrysalis shoved open the door and stood in its entryway. A brown earth pony stallion with a slicked back brown mane and wearing a blue vest over a white dress shirt turned with a scowl at his intruder. With a growl of frustration, he stomped towards Chrysalis.
“You picked the wrong store to try and rob.” He hissed at her, though his faced warped with confusion when the glow of magic from a non-existent horn emanated from the pegasus’ forehead. “What?”
Chrysalis’ green aura lifted the pony into the air where his limbs flailed about helplessly. With a flash of green fire, she returned to her natural form.
“M...my Queen!” The stallion’s eyes widened with shock as he attempted and failed to bow down while held aloft just below the ceiling.
“Good evening.” Chrysalis greeted with the edge of her lips curled into a slight smile. She let the floundering spy down onto the floor gently where he returned to his own natural form and saluted.
“Skitter at your service!”
“I have something I need you to do for me. I need you to take the place of a mare in the hospital until I return.”
“Yes, my Queen. Lead the way!”
Ah, this was more like it. How much easier the entire event with Nightmare Moon would have been if her so called friends were even the faintest bit like her loyal little changelings. No questions, no backtalk, no hesitation, just pure obedience. Sure, he may have whined a little when he thought she couldn’t hear, but everyone needed to blow off a little steam now and then, and it didn’t stop him from serving her perfectly.
It was too bad she was going to have to wipe his memories later so that he couldn’t report her presence in Ponyville back to the hive. It wouldn’t do to have her past self discovering her. It was going to be hard enough preventing her from finding out after she inevitably learns about a changeling being responsible for Nightmare Moon’s defeat.
After Chrysalis changed back to her former disguise and without needing to be ordered to do so, her little changeling transformed into an inconspicuous looking blue pegasus and followed after her as she left the building. After a short flight back to the hospital, the two of them were walking through its corridors, well on their way to the room Chrysalis had been recovering in.
“Visiting hours are over.”
The two of them turned to face the stallion who had interrupted their journey that was standing next to a cart that contained a variety of cleaning supplies. He was an older white unicorn with a sudsy bucket of water as a cutie mark and a bushy grey moustache and mane. Chrysalis suspected that she couldn’t pass herself off as a lowly janitor to one who appeared to actually be a janitor that had already failed to recognize her as part of the staff.
“I’m sorry, it’s just that I forgot my bit purse earlier today and I was hoping I could slip back and fetch it.”
The janitor eyed the two of them warily as the two of them gave innocent smiles. “Alright, but I’m coming with you to make sure ya don’t get up to any trouble.”
“I’d rather you—” Skitter began before being cut off by Chrysalis.
“That’s perfectly understandable, sir. It should just be over this way.”
The two of them proceeded on their previous journey almost as if they hadn’t been interrupted by the pony that was now making sure to keep them in his sights at all times, whether because he believed they were up to no good or simply didn’t want them to make a mess of his pristine hallways, Chrysalis wasn’t quite sure.
“This is the room right here.” Chrysalis announced as she pushed open the door to her own hospital room and was followed by the other two.
“Alright, make it quick.” The janitor ordered them as the door closed behind him. He paused a moment as he stared at the empty bed in the middle of the room, his eyebrows furrowed with confusion. “There should be a patient in here...”
“Oh, should there?” Chrysalis feigned ignorance as she began channelling a spell. The janitor turned back to the door, opened it up and pushed his head out of it.
“Doctor!” He shouted, but before he could say anymore, Chrysalis cast a sleep spell and he fell heavily to the floor with a thud. Skitter lifted the unconscious creature in his magical field and his eyes scanned the room frantically.
“Put him into the bathroom and take his form!” Chrysalis hissed at her underling as she pulled open the bathroom door. She went up in green flames as Skitter went about disposing of the janitor and was soon Twilight Sparkle once more. Just before the main door burst open and a pair of hospital staff, both stallions, rushed into the room, the other changeling turned himself into his new disguise.
“I’m telling you, I can move about just fine. Just because I’m a patient here doesn’t mean I’m an invalid!” Chrysalis scolded Skitter. Picking up quickly on the ruse, he responded with a scowl as he reached out for his Queen and tried to drag her to the bed.
“I’ll believe it when a doctor tells me,” Skitter answered, “until then, get in the bed!”
“What is going on here?” A doctor demanded as he took in the scene in front of him.
“This stupid janitor won’t listen to me! I told him that I’m being released tomorrow and am well enough to spend some time on my hooves!”
“Hmph!” Skitter snorted. “A lot of patients lie to get what they want, I’m not taking her word for it.”
“Oh, Sudsy...” The doctor raised a hoof to his face and shook his head. “You shouldn’t be fighting with the patients, you might hurt them. If this happens again, just go get a nurse and leave the patient alone.”
“So she’s fine to walk about?” Skitter gave the doctor a stubborn stare, eliciting a sigh from him.
“Yes, she’s fine. Now leave and get back to work.”
Skitter glanced over to Chrysalis a moment before returning his attention to the doctor. “But I’m not done in here!” He protested.
“Sudsy...” He said with a warning tone.
“It’s fine. As long as he doesn’t assault me anymore I don’t mind him staying to do his job.”
“Fine, but if I hear any more complaints about you harassing her you will be disciplined.”
“Yes, sir.”
With a tired sigh, the doctor turned and walked away. After a moment, Chrysalis peeked out the door to ensure that he was truly gone, and then turned her attention to her loyal spy.
“I need you to stay here for the night disguised as the mare I am right now.”
Skitter circled around Chrysalis, studying her form. “Got it.” He declared right before transforming into Twilight Sparkle, and Chrysalis changed to her prior disguise in turn.
“Her name is Twilight Sparkle. It should be easy to impersonate her since she should be asleep in this room until I get back to take her place again. There should be a doctor coming by later to give you a checkup, but otherwise you're likely to be left alone.”
“Twilight Sparkle? Isn’t that the mare you sent me to spy on in the first place? Why would you send me to spy on her if you’re just taking her place?” Chrysalis’ eye twitched. “Never mind.” Skitter quickly retracted his words at seeing her Queen’s aversion to being questioned.
“I’ll explain everything upon my return, until then, do as you’re told.”
“Yes, my Queen.” Skitter looked over to the bathroom. “What about him? Should I send for an infiltrator to take his place?”
“No, I’ll wipe his memories and send him on his way. Now get into the bed.”
Chrysalis opened up the bathroom door to find the janitor, Sudsy if she remembered correctly, snoring lightly on the cold, tiled floor. She bent her head down until her horn touched the stallion’s forehead and cast the familiar spell to rewrite his recent memories. He would wake up in a few minutes not remembering anything about meeting either of the changelings. She had contemplated instilling a false memory that aligned with the meeting that Skitter had had with the doctor while disguised, but decided against it. Simply removing a piece of someone’s memory was a lot easier and far less prone to mistakes of the sort that led to damaging their mind permanently.
She left the stallion where he lay as she exited the bathroom, noticing that Skitter already at least gave the appearance of being asleep. Satisfied, she exited the room and strode confidently out of the hospital into the cool night air.
Her eyes wandered once again to the city of Canterlot in the distance, only visible in the darkness thanks to the luminescent glow of the far off city lights. She took a moment to enjoy a few deep breaths, then unfurled her feathery wings.
_________________________________
Chrysalis’ hooves’ landed gracefully upon the cobblestone street of Canterlot, still disguised as a pegasus. What little dim light that reached her from a nearby street lantern did a poor job of illuminating her. The brown coat of her disguise would look closer to her natural black of her chitin to any observer. As she readjusted her wings, she smiled at the lone patrolling royal guard who nodded curtly in greeting. Had he seen her in better light, he would have plainly seen the insincerity of her smile.
Canterlot Castle was a few short streets away from her current position, hence the patrolling guard’s presence. She didn’t want to risk flying directly onto castle grounds as a pegasus. While she didn’t have a high opinion of the guards, in large enough numbers they could still be more than a minor hindrance. Even if they weren’t a threat, an early alarm could easily lead to Celestia herself coming after her.
She silently stepped into an alley and ducked behind a dumpster. With an ease developed from a lifetime of practice, she transformed herself into a fluffy, black cat. After taking a moment to enjoy a leisurely stretch in her new form, she prowled out of the alley towards the castle’s main gates.
Unsurprisingly, the gate was closed and a pair of stoic guards were posted on either side, the dim lantern light giving them an almost statuesque appearance. Chrysalis ran up next to the wall a few metres away from the gate’s left side and walked along it at a casual pace, like she imagined a cat might do. She passed beneath one of the stallions, stealing a glimpse upwards as she did so before crawling through the narrow bars into the castle courtyard unseen by either of the two standing watch.
The courtyard had a cobblestone road leading directly to a large set of solid, wooden double doors, and unlike the gate she had just passed through, there were no openings between bars for her feline form to slip through. However, if she remembered correctly from her previous infiltration as Princess Cadenza, there should be several windows lining the walls, many of which would have been left open this time of year to let the night air in to cool the castle. She wandered around the castle’s exterior and within a couple of minutes, she found one that was next to a tree. Using her feline graces, she climbed it and carefully inched her way onto the branch nearest the window.
On the mental count of three, she launched herself from her perch at the opening, a small smirk on her face over how easy it was to sneak into the castle when the ponies didn’t know about changelings. That self satisfied smirk faded very quickly once she realized she had misjudged the distance and she face planted right into the stone wall mere centimetres beneath the safety of the window sill. With a short, pained mew escaping her, she fell straight to the not quite soft enough grass below.
With an irritated growl, she got back to her paws, doing her best to ignore the throbbing pain in her head, and cast her eyes around her surroundings. Finding no guards looking her way, she did what she realized she should have done in the first place and altered her form to include her natural, gossamer wings with a sudden burst of green flame. She lifted herself into the air with a buzz of her wings, a considerably different experience from using the feathered wings of a pegasus, and gently lowered herself onto the carpeted floor on the other side of the window. With another quick flash of green, her wings vanished and she appeared once more to be a normal cat.
She gave a quick survey of her surroundings and easily recognized the area as being in the servants section of the castle. It was quiet and dark, likely because most of the staff would have gone home for the night. With only a moment of thought, she began making her way through the castle halls to the dungeons, glad for her stellar memory for the layouts of places she had been before.
Though she doubted that the guards would have bothered to stop a harmless little cat, she still hid in the shadows whenever a patrol came into view until they passed her and disappeared down the other end of the hallway. Getting through the castle was proving to be no more difficult than getting through the front gate. She knew that wouldn’t last much longer, though, as there would be neither bars to slip past nor open windows to sneak through once she reached the entrance to the dungeons.
She halted as she came upon a solid, wooden door that was flanked by two more guards, one a pegasus and the other a unicorn. Her eyes flicked between the two obstacles, trying to gauge how much effort she would need to expend on them. Her conclusion? Not much.
With a loud meow, Chrysalis bolted up to the nearer of the two guards, the unicorn, and began rubbing up against his legs while purring. He looked down at her and glanced over to his companion who returned the look impassively. A smile cracked the lips of the first stallion and he leaned his head down low to nuzzle the adorable intruder and caused the other guard to roll his eyes and return his gaze to the task of watching for more serious threats than a harmless kitty.
Using the nuzzling stallion’s head to hide the glow of her magic, she cast upon him a very light form of mind control, more of a suggestion that would urge him to open the door. He blinked a few times before standing straight and looking at the door. He lifted a key hanging from a strap on his armour and opened the door with it, allowing for Chrysalis to dart inside and descend the steps to the room below.
“What are you doing?” The other guard asked, his voice laced with irritation.
“Huh?” The unicorn shook his head and looked back to his companion.
“Why’d you open the door?”
“Oh. I thought I heard somepony knocking.”
“And you just opened it? What if it had been an escaped criminal?”
“I...I’m sorry, sir. I must be more tired than I thought. It won’t happen again.”
“Just shut the door.”
“Yes, sir.”
The heavy door slammed shut behind Chrysalis with a loud thud and then a softer click. She nearly sighed at how easy that had been. Celestia’s guards had long ago been trained to not take anything living at face value in her own time. She wondered briefly if it would be too much of a change if she convinced her past self to not attack Canterlot, but she pushed that thought out of her mind. She had more immediate concerns.
Chrysalis stood at the entrance of what appeared to be a small office. Set to her left, just off centre of the room, was a desk piled with papers. Sitting at that desk and stifling a yawn with droopy eyes was a pony, perhaps the warden or perhaps just some unlucky guard that was forced to work the night shift. Beyond him upon the wall was a series of pegs, each with a key on them and small lettering above it, presumably to display which cell each key was for. On the wall straight ahead of the door she had just entered was yet another door much akin to the first one in appearance and undoubtedly just as locked.
Chrysalis returned her gaze to the pony sitting at the desk. He was poring over the paperwork in front of him while his face descended slowly to the desktop until he jerked himself to full alertness only to begin the process of descending mere moments later. If he had noticed the door opening earlier, he made no indication of it. As exhausted as he clearly was, she knew it wouldn’t take much to push him over the edge into a deep slumber. Her currently invisible horn glowed a bright green and the stallion’s head lit up in response. The next time his head dipped towards the table, it completed its descent and within moments snoring filled the small room.
With only a sleeping guard sharing the space with her, Chrysalis dropped her disguise and approached the desk. She began searching for some kind of records that would provide her with a hint as to where Time Keeper was being kept. She wouldn’t have time to search every cell, and even if she did it would undoubtedly garner too much unwanted attention. It took a few minutes, but she managed to find a ledger with the details she sought amongst the forest’s worth of paper. She was surprised to find that her quarry was listed under the name “‘Zarplat’”, the pseudonym he had given during his pathetic attempt to claim that he was an alien. It implied that he hadn’t even told them his name, drastically improving the odds that he hadn’t spilled anything important about her, either.
She swiftly levitated the keys for cell 17-B and both the doors exiting this room off their respective pegs and then knocked the rest of the keys onto the floor in a jumbled heap so that nobody could tell where her intended destination was by looking at the missing keys. She trotted up to the door leading into the dungeon proper and thought on her intended path. The ledger she had found showed there to be three wings in the dungeon. Wings A and C were to the left and right after going through a short hallway past this point, while B went straight ahead from the intersection.
If all went well, she would be back here with Time Keeper within a few minutes. Getting a pony who could not transform as she could through the rest of the castle without raising an alarm wouldn’t be so easily done, and possibly downright impossible. Maybe she could pretend to be a guard escorting him somewhere, or perhaps even Celestia herself, but that would run the risk of revealing the presence of shape shifters to Celestia. Chrysalis was going to have a hard enough time hiding the fact she wasn’t really Twilight Sparkle without that particular bit of knowledge getting out prematurely.
Chrysalis inserted one of the three keys into the lock and held the other two between her teeth so that she would be free to use the full extent of her magic without splitting her focus on levitation while doing so. She transformed herself into a cat again, nearly dropping the keys from her suddenly much smaller mouth, turned the key in the lock and gently opened the door wide.
One guard pony was stationed immediately on the other side and he turned to see who was coming inside only to see empty space. His eyes darted around searching for the phantom presence. Before he could spy the cat with the keys in its maw, Chrysalis unleashed a torrent of magic directly into his mind. The stallion’s eyes suddenly grew vacant and his mouth opened slightly. If Chrysalis was lucky, he would remain standing in a dazed stupor for a couple of hours. If he was unlucky, the damage to his mind could be permanent. If that happened, hopefully he wasn’t important to the time line.
Chrysalis bounded past him and down the hall, the metallic taste of the keys in her mouth nearly sickening her to her stomach. The interior of the dungeons appeared to be only lightly guarded, possibly because of how few criminals were imprisoned at the time. It was easy enough to get to the door of cell 17-B, needing only to use an occasional spell to generate a sound that would cause a guard in her way to momentarily turn his head away from her intended path. If they had known that 'Zarplat' had an ally, for some definitions of the word, they likely would have increased security around him.
Just as Chrysalis levitated the appropriate key into the solid iron cell door, a cry of alarm went up from near the entrance. Somebody had evidently found the vegetable of a guard she had left behind. She didn’t have time for subtlety anymore. She yanked open the door with her magic, a considerably greater effort than she would have liked due to its large mass, leaped inside and dropped her disguise.
“Hold onto these!” She demanded as she tossed the keys to the pegasus inside.
“Chrysalis!” Time Keeper nearly shouted as he jumped off of his plain, grey bed that had been built into the far wall.
“Shh! Don’t say my name, you idiot!”
Time Keeper flinched at the reprimand and then picked up the keys from the floor in front of him. “Sorry.”
“We don’t have much time, I’ve been discovered. We need to get out fast.”
As she spoke, she transformed into a new disguise, one far less capable of stealth. She was a pony, an alicorn to be precise, and a tall one at that standing what she estimated at a head above her normal form. She was thickly muscled near to being grotesque, furthering the impression of being absolutely massive. As much as she loathed doing it, she kept many identifiable features of her own, such as the colour of her mane and her insect like wings, though she made sure to change the size and style of both. That brat of a dragon had told Celestia about her and she couldn’t afford to change her form too drastically if this ruse was going to work. She couldn’t very well convince Celestia that Spike’s monster was in Canterlot while Twilight was in Ponyville if she didn’t resemble the description he had given to her.
“I’m not leaving without the time machine.”
“We don’t have time!” Chrysalis hissed in a voice somewhat deeper than her own.
“What do you think is going to happen to the space time continuum if the past gets access to advanced time travel technology?”
Chrysalis turned her head to the partially ajar cell door where she could hear nearby cells being opened and shut as guards searched for her. She didn’t have time to argue.
“Fine,” she growled, “we’ll get your damn time machine. Now come on!”
Chrysalis barrelled through the door with her large frame, making no effort to hide her actions, and gave a bestial shriek that echoed through the dungeon. Two stallions halfway down the hall of cells snapped their attention directly onto her, their eyes widening momentarily in surprise. To their credit, they hesitated barely a second before lowering their spears towards her and steadily, though with a healthy dose of caution, moved towards her. Chrysalis mused that their slower speed may have been thanks less to caution and more to moving on only three hooves, since their fourths were holding their weapons.
A smirk found its way onto Chrysalis’ lips. A lowly pair of guards who were completely unaware of who or what she was could hardly pose a threat. She near effortlessly levitated the pair of them into the air, bashed them together and then slammed them both into a wall where they crumpled to the floor with groans of pain.
Time Keeper finally stepped out from his cell, trembling fiercely and with his feathered wings held unnaturally tightly against his sides. He froze when he saw the two collapsed guards and stared wide eyed at them. Chrysalis nearly rolled her eyes. The stupid stallion had the nerves of a new born foal.
Lacking the patience to try and coax him into motion again, Chrysalis levitated the slim stallion up onto her broad back. With all that extra muscle, it wouldn’t be too difficult to carry him out of the place and it would doubtless be infinitely faster.
Chrysalis charged down the hall directly for the exit, creating a cone of magic in front of her to deflect incoming threats. As she neared the intersection connecting the three wings of the dungeon, a pair of spears stuck out from around the corners directly into her path. She paid them little heed, her magical barrier shoving them harmlessly away from her as she ran past the two surprised stallions that had braced themselves in their respective corridors.
Within seconds, she was at the door where she had left the stupefied guard and found it locked. She cursed as she realized she had left this door’s key in the lock on the other side and prepared to break it down with a large surge of magic. She really didn’t want to be wasting her reserves with such displays of force, but she didn’t have much choice. She dropped her shield and focused her energies on building up the necessary power to destroy the reinforced door. Once the air was crackling with her magic, she unleashed a torrent of green upon the barrier and, after a second of creaking beneath the onslaught, the door exploded into the next room.
Chrysalis stepped quickly through the gaping hole she had created, breathing heavily from the exertion. She immediately noticed the coughing of one nearby guard from the dust filling the air, and that another was lying on the floor trapped beneath the rubble that used to be a door and its frame. The now awoken warden was standing nearby, staring at her and wearing a sloppily donned helmet.
Fighting through the entire royal guard would have been foolhardy even if Chrysalis hadn’t just wasted a significant chunk of her love reserves breaking down that door. She created a small blade with her magic and shoved it right up against the warden’s throat, who stiffened at the sudden threat on his life.
“Lay down your weapons, or I kill him.” Chrysalis warned.
“Do as she says.” The warden croaked. The remaining guard in the room looked to his superior and then back to Chrysalis before gently laying his spear on the ground, and the sound of clattering behind her told her that the guards from within the dungeon that had followed her had done the same.
“You, open the door,” Chrysalis ordered the disarmed guard as she stepped closer to her hostage, turning so that she could see both that guard, and the ones that were behind her whom she addressed next, “and you two, go deeper into the dungeon until I’m gone.”
The warden glared at her furiously, but nodded toward his subordinates. All three of the guards did as they were told, the one opening the door stepping back so as to not impede Chrysalis’ path.
“Do you know where the metal box that belonged to this prisoner is being kept?” Chrysalis asked of her hostage.
“Yes.” He practically spat the word out, though only after she pressed the blade harder against his throat to urge him to speak.
“You’re going to take me there, understood?”
“Yes.” He answered quietly, though with no less hatred than before.
As they ascended the stairs out of the dungeons, a lone pegasus guard wearing light armor that wouldn't impair his flight was there to greet them. His eyes darted between the three of them and he tensed up.
"Stand down, Swift Charioteer." Chrysalis' prisoner ordered. The pegasus nodded slightly before immediately flying off through the halls.
The three of them marched through the castle, the captive warden leading the way with a blade at his throat, and a frightened, grey pegasus upon the back of the intimidating, black alicorn that was Chrysalis. Outside of the occasional clattering of hooves in the distance running away from them, it was a very quiet journey through the surprisingly empty stone halls. They hadn't run into a single soul since leaving the dungeons, and that had Chrysalis worried. It had been far too easy so far, this was supposed to be the hard part.
The length of their journey seemed to extend far longer than Chrysalis felt that it should have and she began to suspect that her guide was trying to delay them. Her suspicions were confirmed when he turned at an intersection that would lead right back to a spot that she knew they had already been. She growled in warning at the guard ahead of her.
“I have a better sense of direction than you think. If you lead us into a circle, I’m going to kill you.”
Her hostage froze with a forehoof in midair, then placed his hoof back to the cold marble floor. With a barely audible sigh, he turned around and began leading them the opposite way, in the general direction of the castle entrance she noted. Once they had exited the castle itself, Chrysalis' eyes darted about ceaselessly, searching for what she believed to be an inevitable ambush. The skies of the castle grounds were as devoid of pony life as the castle had been, but she knew that could change in an instant.
“Remember that if we are ambushed, all it will take is the slightest of effort for me to slice open your neck.” She warned the pony leading her. When he didn’t answer, her next words were spouted in impatience. “How much further?”
“Not far.” He answered tersely.
“Where is it?” She pressed, not wanting to be led around blind anymore.
“It was too big to bring inside the dungeons, so it was stored inside the chariot storage building.”
“Well hurry up, we don’t have all night.”
The warden obeyed and picked up the pace to a light trot. They followed a cobblestone path around the perimeter of the castle until they were near a third of the way around it. A lone, large building set a few dozen meters away from the main castle loomed in front of them. The road they travelled on went straight into a set of solid metal doors that appeared large enough to allow a small house to fit through them, no doubt requiring the use of some kind of mechanism inside, magical assistance, massive brute force or some combination of those three to open. Set near that set of doors was a much smaller one for the use of ponies rather than methods of transportation.
“Open it.” Chrysalis ordered as she once again scanned the skies for incoming threats. Still nothing.
After rifling through a ring of keys from a belt on his uniform, he did so. The three entered the building with the warden still leading the way, going past several stalls lined with various regal looking chariots gilded with gold and emblazoned with symbols of the sun. Hidden near the back in its own private stall was the large metal box that was Time Keeper’s time machine.
“Here it is.” Their guide announced dryly as he came to a halt several meters from it, and Chrysalis followed suit. She stared at the nominally familiar contraption. It looked right, but something about it felt off.
“Oh, thank you, it’s safe!” Time Keeper whispered with relief and struggled to finally get off of Chrysalis’ back, resulting in him more falling down than climbing down, but he returned to his hooves from his floored position with a quick flutter of his wings and proceeded towards the machine as if nothing had happened.
Chrysalis took a few uneasy steps after him, but the feeling that something was wrong only intensified the closer she got to the time machine. It was as if several thin strands of silk were being dragged across her body. She shivered.
Slowly, though not so slow as to avoid Chrysalis’ notice, the warden stepped backwards towards the shelter of a nearby stall wall. She turned her attention his way and was about to warn him to stay put when that tickle she had been feeling intensified several fold and she finally recognized it for the web of magic that it was, radiating from the time machine. Eyes widened in panic, she jerked her head forward to find Time Keeper about to touch the time machine.
“Stop!” She screamed.
“What?” Time Keeper turned his head to see her, confusion in his eyes and one hoof resting upon the smooth, metal exterior of the box.
Mentally cursing, she immediately formed a screen of magic and swiped the moronic stallion onto his side, covering him just in time to protect him from the ensuing explosion of mystical energy. Not having the time to create a second barrier, she dove to the floor, barely dodging a piece of debris that was sent soaring through the air.
After what seemed like an eternity, though only mere seconds had passed, Chrysalis uncovered her face from her hooves and gazed upon the wreckage that had once taken her through time. Most of one side and the entirety of its rooftop were completely obliterated, and the rest of the exterior was charred black. The interior looked to be in relatively decent shape, but only by comparison. Anything that hadn’t been bolted down somehow had been sent flying, several of the mechanical instruments had cracks or were outright shattered into multiple pieces, and presumably anything previously connected to either the missing wall or ceiling had either also perished or fallen to the floor.
“No...” Time Keeper uttered in horror. He shakily stepped inside the wreckage and desperately began pushing buttons and flipping switches. The machinery made no response of any kind to his ministrations, it was clearly dead.
“No!” He screamed in anguish as he frantically repeated pushing a series of buttons on one of the cracked panels while staring at the unresponsive black screen next to it.
Chrysalis flapped her wings and made her way over to him, hovering over the scattered bits of broken glass, metal and electronics. She landed next to him, laid a hoof on his shoulder and yanked him from the console.
“We need to get out of here now.”
“No, I can fix this and we can use it to escape!” He attempted to argue, though his voice cracked while doing so.
“It’s gone.” She said bluntly. “Let’s go.”
Time Keeper’s lip quivered and a few tears escaped his eyes. He bit his lip to halt its movement and nodded his understanding.
“Thanks for saving me.” He offered shakily.
“Just don’t expect me to do it again.”
Chrysalis noticed rather quickly that their hostage had run off while she was distracted by the explosion, not that she had expected otherwise. He’d have been stupid to not capitalize on the opportunity. She double checked to make sure that her disguise was still in place and, once satisfied, she lifted herself back into the air and flew over the debris. Upon landing on clear ground, she waited to ensure that Time Keeper had followed and then proceeded towards the exit at a brisk trot. It wasn’t long before the two of them stepped into the cool, night air and faced that which was waiting for them.
At least thirty guards were at the ready in their golden armour that glistened in the moon and lantern light. About a third of them were pegasi that were hovering in the air, ready to cut off any attempt at an aerial escape, and if those failed the several unicorns present could drag them back to the ground with their magic where the earth pony guards could overpower them with raw physical strength.
Despite the trouble presented by the sheer numbers of guards, it was not they that caused Chrysalis’ chest to tighten with fear. No, it was the tall, white alicorn with the ethereal, multi-hued mane standing right in front of all of them. Celestia herself had shown up. Standing next to her were both Chrysalis’ escaped captive and the pegasus guard they had seen when they exited the dungeon.
Celestia took a step towards the duo and Chrysalis lowered herself into a defensive stance, baring her fangs at the approaching threat.
“There is no need for that, we can end this peacefully.” Celestia informed her. That superior, calm voice that screamed ‘I am in control’ infuriated Chrysalis.
Chrysalis shot a weak beam of magic at the stones in front of Celestia’s path when she took another step towards them, causing her to pause.
“Please, tell me who you are and what you want. I would prefer that this didn’t come to violence.” Chrysalis’ didn’t respond, taking some time to think of an appropriate lie. “Are you the one who stopped Nightmare Moon?”
“Yes.” Chrysalis replied. Celestia tilted her head at the sound of her unusual voice.
“Then I may owe you a debt of gratitude for returning my sister to me,” Celestia gave a nod of appreciation, though her eyes took on a hard edge immediately after, “however, that does not excuse you taking my prisoner or harming my ponies.”
“He’s mine!” Chrysalis snapped at her.
“How so?” Celestia asked, retaining the calm voice despite her angered eyes.
Chrysalis stood up to her full height, dropping her combative stance. She wouldn’t win a fight, anyway. Any chance she had to escape was tied to her ability to bluff them. If she were lucky, she’d not only get away unscathed, but also convince Celestia there was no chance that she and Twilight were the same pony.
“He had kept me trapped in that box for years, a magical prison made just for me, but when you took him away from it, I was freed. I have destroyed the box so that I can never be imprisoned there again, and now I am going to make my jailer suffer for the indignities he has put me through.”
“And why would I let you do that.” Celestia asked, the threat clear in the heat of her voice. Chrysalis chuckled, hoping that her nervousness didn’t shine through.
“You seem rather attached to that purple unicorn back in the Ponyville hospital.”
Celestia’s eyes widened at the mention of her student and her horn lit up with barely restrained magic. Her next words were carefully controlled, though a slight tremble crept in, whether of rage or fear Chrysalis didn’t know. “What have you done to Twilight Sparkle?”
“Oh, nothing,” Chrysalis jerked her head to toss a bit of mane off her face before finishing her sentence, “yet.”
Celestia shot a beam of golden magic at the stones near Chrysalis’ hooves, much like Chrysalis had done earlier to the princess except with enough strength to leave a small, smoking crater and send bits of the street flying everywhere. Chrysalis couldn’t help but flinch as a shower of rock pelted her furred skin.
“You will answer my question.” She demanded in a low tone of barely constrained rage.
“Careful there, Princess.” Chrysalis warned, her own voice a little shaky despite her efforts to avoid it. “If anything were to happen to me, then Twilight Sparkle dies. I cast a spell on her where if either I die, or if I choose, her heart will stop beating.”
Celestia paused.
“You’re bluffing.”
Chrysalis smiled sweetly.
“Are you a gambler, Princess? The buy in for this game is your student’s life.” Celestia stared silently at Chrysalis. “Either you attack me now and Twilight dies if you’re wrong, or you let me leave unmolested with my captive and she's safe when the spell wears off in a couple of days. Your move Celestia.”
The princess stood still, tensed for combat, for what seemed like an eternity. Sweat poured down Chrysalis’ body as she waited nervously for her opponent to either call or fold. Finally, Celestia’s horn ceased glowing and she took a submissive step back, though the hatred in her eyes still burned strong.
“Stand down.” Her order rang out clearly through the night air. “Let them pass.”
Chrysalis’ face gave off a radiant, victorious grin. Time Keeper let out a surprised squeak as she latched onto him with her magic and began to drag him along through the air behind her. She stepped up next to the princess and looked her straight in the eye.
“Wise choice, Princess.” She commented with a mocking tone. Celestia looked absolutely livid. Had she been of a predatory species, Chrysalis would have expected her to lunge at her throat with bared fangs. She wouldn’t do anything, though, not with her precious student’s life on the line. How would she react if she knew that that little unicorn was already dead?
Feeling a little drunk on the power she had over the alicorn, and eager to further emphasize her dominance, she leaned forward and gave a quick kiss to her cheek. She almost went for the lips, but felt like that would be pushing her luck, even given the current circumstances. As small as the gesture had been, there were still gasps from the assembled guards and Celestia jerked her face away as if the contact had burned her.
“Goodbye.”
With that last word, her wings began buzzing and she rose into the night sky with Time Keeper in tow. A couple of minutes later, they were both out of sight.