Chrysalis woke up feeling hot and halfway buried. Her vision, both blurred by the dizziness she felt was only more hindered by the sandstorm that raged on all around her. As she looked about, she found Discord and Shining Armor also getting covered by sand, but were unconscious. The winds picked up and blew her kelpy bluish-green mane in front of her face.
Gasping, she looked to her hooves, which were coal-black and filled with holes of various sizes. Swinging herself around to her stomach, she found that her body was also smooth and black with a gel-like lime green band around her stomach.
Before she could see what else about her had changed, she saw six black robed and hooded shapes move toward her and Shining Armor and Discord.
Five of them were Prism grunts, but the one walking between them looked mostly different. The gloves on their hands were large, clawed and plated with obsidian. Rather than the black tank tops their minions wore, this person’s chest and abdomen was covered with a flexible black breastplate. As well, the apparent leader’s face was covered by their hood, further concealed by a black facemask with colorful diamond and triangle-shaped markings where the eyes were.
Chrysalis became frightened by the metal collar that the leader held in their hand. “No, wait. Please!”
As she tried charging her horn, she was overwhelmed with fright to hardly feel a spark at the tip.
The leader spoke to their grunts with an unnaturally bassier voice. “Hold her down.”
“No, stop!” Her pleas went on deaf ears as two of the grunts each grabbed a limb and pinned her to the ground.
With an upside-down point of their finger, Chrysalis felt the upper half of her body lifted up and her arms pulled out to the sides, rendered useless. She screamed as she tried to thrash her head about, only to feel it frozen in place. Her breathing quickening, the leader opened the collar by its latch and moved to close it on her neck.
“No!” Chrysalis cried again. “Don’t put that on me! Put it on the draconequus.”
Baffled by the demand, the leader stopped. “The what?”
Chrysalis slowed her breathing, her door to escape widening. “That brown creature next to the unicorn. His magic is incredibly powerful, and he’s very crafty. If you let him escape, he could turn you all into balloon animals if he saw fit!”
Pondering this for a moment, the leader slowly pulled the collar away from her and set her back down on the sand. “Let her go.”
Following the leader’s instructions, the two grunts took their arms off her legs and stepped aside to rejoin the others, letting her roll onto her stomach and stand up. She then watched with great reprieve as the leader knelt down to Discord and slipped the collar around his neck before closing it shut, slapping the latch closed for good measure as the cathodes along the side flashed with magenta and yellow, activating it.
The leader approached Chrysalis, reading her surprised reaction. “I assume you know these two?”
“All too well.” Chrysalis looked to them spitefully. “Both of them thwarted my attempts to take over the land of Equestria, and I was in the middle of my next attempt before you sent me here. Just where in Equestria are we?”
“This isn’t Equestria. You’re not even in your own world at all.”
Chrysalis’s sudden sadness quickly morphed to rage. “Why did you send me here!”
“That was not by our design. You merely must have been in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Design? For what?”
Though she couldn’t see it, Chrysalis could almost feel as if the leader before her was smiling. “You see, you and I actually share similar goals of conquering the land of Equestria, and if what you said about this… draconequus is true, and I can sense that you are telling the truth, then I believe that you’ll be of great use to me.”
“Great… use?” Chrysalis asked, offended.
“I assume that you noticed your inability to use magic just now, or how easy it was to restrain you.”
“What… you know about–”
“There’s a surprising amount about your world that I know, just like I know that magic can be nullified with Psychic energy, the same kind used to send you and those other creatures to our world from yours. The point is that even a small amount of this power can render you useless in an instant.”
Chrysalis reared back, feeling cornered and ready to flee. “And why are you telling me this?”
“You say you have ambitions of conquering Equestria, as do I. I can offer you a place in my new empire, but I feel it would be best to be forthcoming and inform you of the futility of trying to usurp me.”
Chrysalis relaxed, understanding. “What do you need from me?”
“Simply your allegiance.” The leader reached their open hand forward, a contract that needed her signature. “Help me achieve my goals, and I shall grant you whatever you ask of me. Name it, and its yours.”
Chrysalis glanced at Shining Armor and Discord, who just barely showed signs of stirring. “Just answer me this… are Twilight and her friends on this world?”
“They are.”
Though it failed to show from her spiteful exhale, Chrysalis’s mind was put at ease at this news. “Those pests have been nothing but a scourge to me. First they stole my kingdom, and then they took my hive from me. All I want at this very moment is to make them suffer the way they made me suffer. I want to take everything from them and let them learn what it means to have nothing left!”
The leader chuckled, the aura emanating off of Chrysalis most pleasant to them. “I think we can arrange that. So then…”
Chrysalis didn’t hesitate in placing her hoof onto the leader’s hand, allowing them to squeeze it.
“Very good. Now, bow to me.”
“What? Is that really nes–”
“You’ve already proven your loyalty to me. Just let me give you your… gift.” Slowly and uncertainly, Chrysalis bowed her front down and rested her arms on the ground, her jagged, crooked horn pointing at the leader’s face. “Now, just hold still.”
The leader grabbed hold of the horn with both hands, a magenta energy forming around them. The energy began to spread off their hands and over Chrysalis’s horn, becoming green and wispy as it traveled down to the base and receded inside. Chrysalis shuddered with ecstasy as she felt her magic being fed back into her, restoring her strength. Behind her, Shining Armor’s eyes gently came open, the first sights to grace them being Chrysalis receiving her new leader’s blessing.
Recognizing her, he shot up to his front hooves. “Chrysalis!”
Before she could tear it away, the leader let go of Chrysalis’s horn before she whipped her head back, charged her horn with a blazing green aura, and shot a ball of magic at him that knocked him back through the desert. Chrysalis’s mouth shot open wide in complete disbelief by the strength she had exhibited.
“I take it that was stronger than usual?” the leader asked.
“Oh, yes!” Chrysalis moaned. “That was much stronger than usual. Even the power I had when I first attempted to take over Canterlot was nothing compared to this!”
Discord himself began to wake, holding onto his head and groaning as he picked himself up. “That’s weird. I don’t usually feel like this unless I’ve gone on a chocolate milk bender.” Looking forward, he saw the leader, the two Prism grunts, and a confident Chrysalis standing before him. “You!”
Discord reached his lion’s paw out at her, only for nothing to happen except his upper arm falling completely limp and boneless. Realizing this, he looked to his hand in disbelief.
Chrysalis eyed the device that was around Discord’s neck. “What was that device you put on him?”
Feeling his neck, Discord also felt the collar there, quickly giving it several tugs in a failed attempt to rip it off. “Isn’t it a bit early in our relationship to be giving each other jewelry?”
“You’re not going to talk your way out of this, Discord!” Chrysalis elatedly sneered.
The leader stepped forward, ignoring Shining Armor crawling back to Discord. “We had hoped to force one of you to help us. Thanks to Chrysalis here volunteering herself, we can bring another one to join us, and she thought you’d be the perfect candidate. Now, I believe in giving people chances first. Would you be so kind as to come here?”
“I most certainly will not!” Discord sharply objected. “It will take a lot more than that to–”
An electrical charge began to surge around the collar as the cathodes lit up, Discord’s fur standing on end as his face contorted in agony, every muscle in his face and body contracting as hard as it could. As Discord writhed on the ground like a beheaded snake, Shining Armor stopped his crawl, traumatized by the torture he was witnessing.
Finally, the collar switched back off, allowing Discord to breathe once again, but his muscles had become so sore and tired that he could barely pick himself up. “What…” he panted, nearly crying. “What did you do to me?”
The points of the leader’s claws, once glowing with the same magenta energy, had powered back down. “What you just experienced was a concentrated Electric Terrain and Psychic Terrain blasted directly through your body. It also injected a non-lethal dose of Terrain Extender into your bloodstream, so you won’t be able to use your magic for quite some time… that is, unless you want to experience that again?”
Discord’s eyes shot open and his pupils narrowed as the leader’s hand raised itself again. “No, stop! Please, not again… I’ll go with… just don’t do that again!”
“Hmm…” Chrysalis relished in Discord’s despair as he crawled himself to join the leader’s side. “All that power, and once it’s taken away, you beg and whine like a little puppy. To think that you nearly succeeded in taking over Equestria. Pathetic…”
“What…” Shining Armor began to stand on his hooves, but weakly so. “What is going on? Chrysalis? Why are you here?”
Chrysalis, feeling safer than ever, mockingly walked to Shining Armor and stopped within a foot of him. “As I’m sure you figured out just before we all came here, I disguised myself as one of your new guards. After hearing rumors of Twilight and all her friends disappearing, I thought maybe… just maybe I could take Equestria over again.”
“And how do you figure that would work?” Taking a step forward, he felt his leg buckle, forcing his front side to the ground. “Thorax and the other changelings denounced your ways and abandoned you. What allies do you have left?”
“Oh, please, are you so naïve that you really believe that mine was the only changeling hive in the world?”
Shining Armor’s eyes sunk in, realizing what she had meant. “There’s… there’s more…” He then smiled confidently, realizing something. “But now that you’re here, who’s going to lead them?”
“Oh, Shining Armor… hubby…” the nickname completely shattered Shining Armor’s façade. “For the king of the Crystal Empire, you certainly are a blithering idiot. What Cadance saw in you, I have no idea…”
Shining Armor began to bare his teeth, looking absolutely furious. “You monster!”
He charged at her, only for her to easily step aside and let him tumble back into the sand.
Chrysalis simply continued explaining. “I made sure that should anything happen to me, as it very clearly has, that somepony would continue the takeover in my stead. And now look! Your sister and all your friends are stuck here, you’re stuck here, and Discord is… well, you can clearly see that there really isn’t much anyone back home can do now, is there? Looks like your precious wife is the only bastion of hope Equestria possibly has!”
Shining Armor, overwhelmed with helplessness, struggled to keep from weeping. “Curse you, Chrysalis.”
“Uh, hi! Sorry…” Discord spoke up with an attention-grabbing wave of his arm. “This is a rather intense moment and all, but I think we should capture Shining Armor and use him as a hostage to draw Twilight and her frien–”
*KPWOH*
Chrysalis bucked Discord in the jaw with one back hoof, driving him into the ground. “For once in your life, shut your mouth.”
“Chrysalis,” the leader wondered, “you–”
“He’s just trying to appear compliant so he can get the collar taken off and escape.”
“I see… but even if his plan worked, he still has Psychic and Electric Terrain in his system that will keep him from using magic.”
Discord hissed, angered over this.
Chrysalis stayed silent, pondering something. “However, using Twilight’s brother as a bargaining chip is still a marvelous idea. Perhaps your idiocy will be of use after all…”
The leader turned to the two grunts. “Get him so we can leave.”
“Yes, boss!” Both he and his grunt ally tossed their Poké Balls out, a Metang and a Slowking appearing from them, both slowly approaching Shining Armor as he tried backing away, his legs refusing to carry him any faster.
Before they both could reach him, a shape shot down from the sky with a faded-green cone forming around its front. The shape blasted into the Slowking, throwing Metang and Shining Armor back as well as blasting sand in nearly every direction. Chrysalis used her magic to shield herself, the leader, and Discord from the explosion as the leader used their psychic powers to part the sand away and reveal their attacker. Hovering over the fainted Slowbro was the unmistakable sight of Tapu Bulu, who made all the grunts hop back in fright.
The leader growled. “What are you waiting for? Attack it!”
“Right!” The Metang’s grunt threw his arm forward. “Metang, use Sludge Bomb!”
Metang, having been buried by the sand blast, shot at Tapu Bulu and launched a glob of purple phlegmy substance point blank at it. Tapu Bulu was hurled back but quickly regained itself as it swooped up and shot back down with its bell-shaped tail sticking out toward Metang. Hitting its mark dead on, Metang was pulverized into the ground not far from Shining Armor, who began to dig his own way out and see the aftermath of the battle. He then saw as Tapu Bulu lowered itself down, supporting itself with its hooved arms, spots of purple covering it.
“Haha…” the leader cooly laughed. “It’s not much stronger now. Finish it and bring the unicorn over, my legion.”
As the two grunts called back their fainted Pokémon, the three remaining grunts called out their Pokémon: a Kadabra, a Starmie, and an Oranguru. As Kadabra stood over Tapu Bulu, the Starmie and Oranguru made their way to Shining Armor, who simply relaxed and resigned himself to his fate.
“First Impression!”
“Dark Pulse!”
At once, a ball of black was hurled into Starmie from the sandy veils of the storm. At the same time, Golisopod appeared instantly before the Oranguru before jabbing its claws into its stomach, throwing it back toward Chrysalis, the leader, the Starmie, and the other grunts. Looking down at them, the Oranguru’s trainer as well as the Starmie’s saw that their Pokémon fainted.
The Kadabra held its spoons up to Golisopod and walked backward, awaiting its trainer’s response until–
“Phantom Force!”
Appearing from a dark portal that appeared to the Kadabra’s left, Dhelmise plowed the bottom of its body into it and sent it flying off to the right. As the grunts hid behind the leader and Chrysalis, Dhelmise floated back toward Golisopod, who were both joined by Persian soon after. Also coming from behind the walls of sand were Nanu, Guzma, and Acerola, but what really surprised Shining Armor and Chrysalis were Starlight, Lady, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity walking out behind them and taking their side.
“You guys!” Shining Armor gasped.
“Starlight?!” Discord shouted. “I know this is weird coming from me, but I could really use your help!”
Starlight and Chrysalis then laid eyes on each other. “You…” Chrysalis loudly growled.
“Chrysalis!” Starlight bellowed. “What are you doing here?”
“While you guys were gone…” Shining Armor got to his hooves and faced the group. “Chrysalis put plans in motion to take over Equestria again.”
“But… Didn’t all the changelings discover the magic of friendship?”
“And as I’ve already told him,” Chrysalis hissed, “there are other changeling hives out there than my own.”
“But… that means…”
“Yes…” Shining Armor panted. “Equestria is virtually defenseless. But like I’m not going to try and stop it!”
Shining Armor spun around and charged towards Discord, his horn locked on to the latch of the collar.
“What are you doing, you fool?!” Discord screamed. “Save yourself!”
“No way! I don’t leave a friend behind!”
“A… friend?”
Shining Armor leapt up and yelled out, ready to drive his horn at the device, only to find himself stopped and caught with the tip just an inch or two from the latch. He then found himself pulled away and suspended above the ground, groaning as he felt his head squeeze from every angle. The leader then held Shining Armor to face the terrified ponies and the distraught trainers.
“We’ll be off now!” the leader chuckled.
“Shining Armor!” the ponies all cried.
“You put him down!” Nanu shouted. “Persian! Thunderbolt!
With a roar, a stream of lightning shot down from the sky. As the leader’s gloves and chest glowed magenta, ready to teleport away, the lightning struck down between them and Shining Armor, throwing the leader and Chrysalis back into the grunts and sending Shining Armor tumbling forward. Without any time to waste, he galloped to rejoin Starlight and the other ponies, who were quick to welcome him with a quick hug.
“Run you guys!” Discord cried out. “He’s too strong!”
“No way, whatever you are!” Guzma shouted. “We’re still one short and we’re not leaving without them!”
Discord, both deeply flattered and scared, breathed through his teeth in an otherwise expressionless gaze.
“So you won’t go quietly…” the leader stood themselves up and walked toward them. “That’s fine. I prefer cries of anguish over silent resignation anyday!” Picking three Poké Balls off of their belt with the tips of the claws on their gloves, the leader tossed the balls out. “Fight them, Gardevoir! Malamar! Xatu!”
At once, all three balls opened up and unveiled the Pokémon inside from streams of white energy. The first Pokémon looked thin and feminine in figure, sporting flaps of white skin down its legs like an elegant dress, as well as green arms, two flat red horns protruding from its chest and back, and thick green horns like hair that curled over its face and up on both sides of its head. The second appeared to have a purple squid-like body with two larger lighter-colored tentacles branching off to the side with a head of smaller tentacles and a red beak-like mouth. The third appeared to be a stoic green bird with white wings, long red feathers appearing down behind its head, and native markings on its body. Immediately, the three trainers became unnerved.
“None of those Pokémon are native to Alola,” Acerola said.
“Just who is this person?” Guzma wondered.
The leader threw their arm forward.
No one among the ponies or trainers could withhold their expressions of horror.
“What was that?” Rarity shrieked.
At once, Gardevoir put its hands on its chest horn, which began to sparkle and glow silver, and Malamar and Xatu both shot themselves out toward Dhelmise and Golisopod.
“Holy shit,” Guzma exclaimed, “he commanded all of his Pokémon to attack at once!”
“Even I can’t talk that fast!” Pinkie Pie spoke up.
“How is that possible?” Acerola’s arms were left trembling.
Throwing its arms to the side, Gardevoir shot its silvery beam at Persian from its chest, blasting it back behind the ponies. Malamar became coated in black and purple aura as it rocketed at Dhelmise and plowed into it, slamming it into the ground and sliding it back several yards down. Finally, Xatu flew in close to Golisopod, who was already holding its arms up to shield itself. With a swing of one of its wings, the wind that followed it threw Golisopod’s arms open. With another slash up the middle, the wind sent Golisopod up into the air where it flipped helplessly back to Persian and Dhelmise, landing hard on its back.
“No way!” Guzma breathed out. “A Xatu did that to my Golisopod?”
“You really didn’t think that as the leader of Team Prism that I’d be a pushover, did you?” They crossed their arms as they faced the three trainers, their Pokémon returning to them.
“So you’re the cause of all of this,” Nanu huffed. “Does it feel good to strike fear into the hearts of these creatures who just want to return home?”
“Their fear is irrelevant. Once our new world comes to fruition, all that will concern me is ruling over it.”
Starlight bared her teeth, getting angry. “That’s not going to happen! I won’t allow you to!”
As she charged them, Applejack reached out. “Starlight, wait!”
With her own horn pointed at Discord’s collar, she also looked to break the latch. As the leader moved their hand up to catch her and their Pokémon prepared to intercept her, Chrysalis hopped forward.
“No!” Her horn flared up. “This one is mine!”
Before Starlight could reach Discord, she was already picked up and brought close to Chrysalis’s face by a field of green aura of magic, her livid eyes taking up most of Starlight’s vision. Chrysalis laughed as Starlight fearfully trembled.
“What a pitiful attempt on your part!” Chrysalis mocked. “Though I suppose you could be just as good a substitute for Shining Armor as anyone. Do you care to say any parting words to your friends before we go?”
Starlight glanced back at her friends, who all awaited the worst for her, but stayed perfectly still out of fear, Lady nowhere to be seen. As she looked back, Starlight smiled to see Chrysalis and the leader only paying her any attention.
“I’ve got two,” she stated. “Lady, Bite!”
Chrysalis and the leader gasped as they heard a pair of paws running toward them. They looked down to see Lady jump high toward Discord’s neck before clamping her jaws on the latch of Discord’s collar.
“No!” The leader reached for the Sylveon. “Stop!”
With a hard yank, the clasp was torn off, the collar falling off of Discord. The leader snatched at Lady, but it fell out of their grasp and quickly bounded back to join Starlight’s friends.
“Quick!” Acerola shouted to her Dhelmise. “Hit those Pokémon with Brutal Swing!”
Widely swinging itself by its chain, the anchor of Dhelmise’s body collided itself into Gardevoir, Malamar, and Xatu, throwing them all to the side and clearing a path.
The leader turned back to Starlight as Chrysalis brandished her fangs at the unicorn.
Starlight then began to charge her horn, smiling again. “Thanks for using your magic. It helps a lot!”
On the last word, Starlight’s horn erupted with a burst of light that blew Chrysalis and the leader away, leaving her alone with just Discord.
“Starlight…” he weakly but appreciatively spoke. “You–”
“Thank me later! Now we can run!”
“Yes, of course!”
Breaking into a gallop, Starlight ran back to her friends with Discord running closely behind on his green draconic and antelope legs.
“Alright, guys, let’s get out of here!” Starlight passed through her friends and ran south, forcing the other ponies and trainers to run too.
Turning back as they fled, Acerola, Guzma, and Nanu called Dhelmise, Golisopod, and Persian back to their balls, turning back to face the direction of the exit and not looking back. Chrysalis, the leader, and their Pokémon all got up to see that they had left.
“We must follow them!” she shouted. “They must not have gotten far!”
“My legion!” the leader shouted with a throwing point. “After them!”
As they took their first steps, a guttural call was heard from where Tapu Bulu rested, forcing the leader, Chrysalis, and the grunts to remain silent and try and find the source of the noise through the blustering winds. Soon, the sandstorm wasn’t the only thing they heard, as dozens of individual Pokémons’ cries became audible, growing louder as they grew closer. Hissing madly, the leader took out their three Poké Balls, the red beams calling Gardevoir, Malamar, and Xatu back.
Chrysalis’s eyes widened. “What are you doing? You’re not seriously–”
“This is a battle we can’t win at this rate.” The leader looked to the grunts. “My legion, call your fainted Pokémon so that we can go.”
The three grunts took out their balls and called back their fainted Starmie, Oranguru, and Kadabra as the shapes of the Pokémon could now be visible.
“Now, stand still.”
The leader’s gloves and breastplate glowed as scores of Pokémon all ran out to protect their island guardian. With Chrysalis and the grunts standing close to them, the leader’s body began to glow white, the light covering them all. Before her vision was bathed by the brightness, she glanced to the leader with feelings of doubt and disappointment.