“Don’t worry, everypony! We will be alright!" Pinkie Pie shouted.
The ragged collection of ponies around the hall didn’t answer. Pinkie Pie was careful to keep a bright smile on her face as she always did, but she couldn’t really blame them.
The way the castle’s front doors shook and trembled behind her didn’t exactly make them feel safe. Changelings tried to force their way in with their magic, but at least for now the doors were holding.
Ponies were leaning on the walls or laying on the floor, some bandaging others who were injured. Mothers comforted their fillies and some stallions had left to find weapons from the castle.
Pinkie Pie didn’t have the heart to tell them that there weren’t any. Twilight had never considered there would be a need for weapons in her castle. But, it was good for them to feel like they were doing something useful.
Pinkie Pie really hoped that Twilight would be here with her, but the alicorn had spent the last hour in the cutie map's room. She didn’t know why, but she trusted that Twilight had a good reason to be with the map instead of the fearful ponies in here.
Another rumble shook the doors and Pinkie sighed.
“I wish they would stop that,” Pinkie Pie said and shook her head.
The moment the words left her mouth, the rumbling ceased.
The doors were completely still.
Pinkie Pie blinked.
“Thanks, I guess?” she said and scratched the side of her head while looking at the doors.
After a moment, there was a gentle knock on the door.
Pinkie Pie raised an eyebrow and looked at the door. She turned to look at the ponies behind her who had also noticed the sudden silence outside and were giving each other fearful looks.
“Hello? Who’s there?” she said to the door.
There was some buzzing Pinkie recognized as the sound changeling wings made and then a soft thud just on the other side of the door.
“Is Princess Twilight home?” a smug, softly spoken question came from behind the door.
Pinkie Pie blinked again. She knew that voice! It was…
“Queen Neurosis!” Pinkie Pie shouted.
“It’s Chrysalis, you idiot,” the voice snapped before taking a deep breath.
“Get Twilight Sparkle out here. I want...how do you say, parley?” the voice continued in a more controlled tone, back to what sounded like a smug grin at the last word.
Pinkie Pie snorted and waggled her hoof at the door.
“I know what you’re trying to do! You’ll try to come in when we open the door!” she said, crossing her hooves and giving an intimidating glance at the door.
“We won’t. I am a changeling of my word,” Chrysalis said. “You have a balcony right above these doors, come there. We can negotiate in peace there.”
Pinkie Pie thought about it and shrugged.
“Okie-dokie, don’t start smashing at the doors again while I’m gone!” Pinkie said and turned around.
“We will be too busy feeding from our prisoners for that if you take too long,” the changeling queen said with a barely contained irritation in her voice from the other side of the door, the words echoing after Pinkie Pie as she ran out of the entrance hall.
“Twilight! Queen Hypothesis is outside and...”
Pinkie Pie stopped in her tracks at the library door when she saw what was happening inside.
Twilight was standing next to the cutie map, surrounded by glowing aura of violet magic that flowed from her horn into the cutie map. The miniature map of Equestria was shining with a gentle blue light. Two balls of light were circling around the center of the map, right above the spot with Twilight’s castle on it.
Pinkie blinked and followed how the two irregular balls of light shifted from one shape to another, almost becoming something recognizable before reverting to mere balls of light again.
Beads of sweat were visible on Twilight’s forehead as she stood there with her eyes closed.
She opened her eyes and glanced at Pinkie Pie.
“Chrysalis is outside?” the alicorn said and turned her eyes back to the table.
Pinkie Pie nodded.
“Yeah, and she wants to talk. She said to come out on the balcony or else they will start to feed on ponies they captured,” Pinkie Pie said with a sad shake of her head.
Twilight sighed, not turning her gaze away from the table. She frowned and her shoulders sagged.
“Pinkie, I don’t want to do this, but I’m going to have to ask you to do something very dangerous, “ Twilight said before taking a deep breath, “I’m almost done. You have to go out there and keep Chrysalis busy for a few minutes until I come out. Distract her somehow so she won’t start hurting the towsnponies.”
Pinkie Pie stood there for a moment and glanced at Twilight, the map and the tendrils of magic connecting the two.
She didn’t know what Twilight was doing and wasn’t going to waste time by asking. She only hoped that her friend still had enough strength to finish whatever spell she was casting after all the hours it had taken for her to make the cutie map track all of them.
Twilight was trying to hide it, but Pinkie Pie could tell that her friend was on a verge of collapsing.
Letting none of this show on her face, she smiled brightly and saluted with her hoof.
“Okie-dokie! Don’t you worry, I’ll keep her busy!” She said while turning around and happily bounced out of the room.
Applejack kicked the changeling squarely on its face and sent it flying into the air. Next, she turned around and slammed her hoof into the face of another changeling that was trying to sneak up to her from behind.
She crouched down to dodge a rolling ball of sickly green fire and immediately jumped forward, body-slamming the changeling who had launched the attack and sending it rolling along the ground.
Applejack glanced quickly at her brother a few dozen feet away. Big Mac was surrounded by four changelings circling him, six others lying unconscious on the ground.
Applejack knew that her brother could take care of himself and turned her full attention back to changelings she was up against.
Changelings who flew back the moment she looked back at them, retreating high into the air.
“Enough for ya?” Applejack shouted up into the air and waved her hoof at her family’s barn and the house behind her. “Leave my family and Ponyville alone!”
“No,” a cold voice said from the darkness.
Applejack turned towards the voice and saw the speaker. A changeling that looked different from the others. This one had purple wings and eyes, with something that looked like red fins on its back.
“And what are you supposed to be?” Applejack sneered at the purple changeling.
Instead of answering, the changeling charged straight at her.
Applejack stood her ground and prepared to take the attack head-on.
A bright flash of sickly green fire engulfed the changeling and Applejack readied herself to slam her hoof into the face of what she expected to be her own face, or possibly one of her friends.
Instead, a gigantic limb covered in armored chitin larger than Applejack's whole body smashed into her, sending her flying.
Applejack grunted in pain and the world turned into a confusing mess with no up or down. A burning sensation coursed through her and it felt like every bone in her body rattled.
She hit and then went straight through something. This added another layer to the pain she felt and she could see broken pieces of wood in the air around her.
The next moment, she landed into what she recognized as a pile of hay even before she was buried in it.
Applejack laid there for a moment and tried to make the world to stop spinning. She could feel bruises forming all along her body and tasted blood on her lips.
She couldn't remember when was the last time somepony had punched her that hard.
There was a spike of sharp pain in her side, probably a broken bone. It felt so tempting to just lay still here in this pile of hay and not move at all.
With a determined grunt, Applejack pushed the dizziness and pain out of her mind and rose up to stand.
She found herself inside her family's barn. The large, irregular hole in the wall wasn’t hard to miss either, or the splinters of wood still stuck in her mane.
Applejack shook her head and cursed when she realized that she had dropped her hat too.
Before she had time to look for it, the rest of the broken wall burst apart in a cloud of splinters and the gigantic insect-form stepped inside, its purple eyes staring directly at Applejack.
“Surrenderrr, prrreyy...” the giant insect growled in a distorted voice.
In response, Applejack started running towards the giant insect with a smile on her face.
She usually held her strength back because she didn't want to kill anypony, even monsters like changelings.
But, this thing looked like it could take everything she had.
The beast blinked at the bruised, ragged pony running towards it and let out something like a chuckle, standing there and doing nothing to defend itself.
The jaws of the changeling drones outside the barn dropped when they saw Pharynx’s war form rolling out of the barn in a confused heap of limbs and wings like a train had struck it, a ponytailed yellow mane visible from somewhere in the midst of it all.
The drones followed how the transformed changeling and the earth pony rolled down the hill in a mess of insect limbs, wings, and hooves, the ground shaking with every blow as the two wrestled with each other.
Before the dozen or so drones high up in the air could decide on what they should do next, a flash of light blinded them.
The next second, a dozen blocks of crystal fell down from the sky, each one hitting the ground with a changeling imprisoned inside it.
The bright sphere of light that was coming from the direction of the forest didn’t slow down and continued on a direct course towards Ponyville and Twilight’s castle.
Pinkie Pie gulped before hiding her nervousness behind a wide smile and pushed the balcony doors open.
“Took you long enough. Where is Twilight?” Chrysalis said and turned around from leaning on the balcony railing to face the pink pony, the changeling queen adjusting a small leather bag hanging from her side with her hoof as she did so.
“Oooh, you know...” Pinkie Pie said and walked forward, kicking the balcony doors shut behind her, “she will be out in a moment, just you wait.”
Chrysalis raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t think you understand your situation,” the changeling queen said and yawned, lazily turning her head towards the changeling drones hovering in the air around them.
“Start to feed on the prisoners,” Chrysalis said before giving a charming smile to Pinkie Pie.
“WAIT!”
Pinkie Pie’s scream was loud enough to make the drones to cover their ears and even Chrysalis blinked in an irritated manner.
“She will come out in just a second, pinkie promise!” Pinkie Pie shouted before Chrysalis could say anything else. “If you are hungry, I can make you a delicious cake! Changelings like sugar, right?”
Pinkie Pie saw that unfortunately her enticing offer didn’t impress Chrysalis by the looks of it and thought fast how to keep the attention of the changelings on herself.
“Or...” she said and gulped, unable to keep the bright smile on her face, “if you are really, really hungry, you can feed on me, I got lots of love.”
Chrysalis blinked and it felt like she was only now actually paying attention to Pinkie Pie.
First, the changeling queen frowned. Then, her lips curled into a wide smile and she laughed.
“Priceless!” she said and licked her lips as she looked down at Pinkie Pie.
“This is why I love ponies! So utterly, completely idiotic!” Chrysalid said and took a step forward, towering over Pinkie Pie. “I don’t know how beings like you have survived this long.”
Pinkie Pie clenched her teeth and gave the changeling queen a burning stare.
“If a changeling would get itself hurt to protect other changelings, would that be stupid too?” Pinkie Pie spat out the words.
A flicker of something that looked like anger flashed in the changeling queen's eyes before she gave Pinkie Pie a smug smile and raised the pink pony’s chin with her hoof.
“There is a difference between self-sacrifice and just plain stupidity, little pony,” Chrysalis said while studying Pinkie Pie’s face. “You are nothing but spoiled, docile sheep, living under the protection of the alicorn princesses. You don’t know anything about survival.”
Pinkie Pie’s lips were set in a grim line and she said nothing as the changeling queen’s hooves moved on the sides of her face and Chrysalis leaned closer, opening her mouth.
“Don’t worry, little pony. I won’t take much. I want to leave enough for Fluttershy, she must be starving for a meal by now,” Chrysalis said with a chuckle that turned into full-blown laughter when she saw how Pinkie Pie’s eyes went wide open.
“Leave her alone, I’m here.”
Chrysalis let go of Pinkie Pie and turned her head to look at Twilight as the alicorn closed the balcony doors behind her.
“My, my. Fashionably late, aren’t we?” Chrysalis said with a subtle wink. “I was wondering what was so important that you sent your friend here to be eaten just to buy time.”
Twilight shook her head and walked to Chrysalis, looking up at the changeling queen’s face.
“I’m here now. I’m guessing that next you are going to offer to take just me and leave everypony else alone?” Twilight said with her brows bumped together in a scowl, standing there stiffly.
Chrysalis tapped her chin thoughtfully and shrugged.
“You are presuming that you have something to negotiate with,” the changeling queen said with a wide smile, “what is stopping me from just attacking you right now when you so foolishly yet predictably came out of your castle?” she finished with an amused look.
“I’m stronger than you,” Twilight stated flatly.
Chrysalis snorted and opened her mouth, but Twilight interrupted her:
“I’m an alicorn now. Discord, Sombra, and Tirek were all more powerful than you,” the alicorn princess said and narrowed her eyes, “The moment you try something, I will cast a spell and imprison you in a crystal made out of the strongest magic I can create.”
Chrysalis was no longer smiling and looked thoughtful, absent-mindedly tapping the leather bag she carried before turning to look at Twilight again.
“Even if you did, my drones would overpower you quickly after. Not to even mention what would happen to all the ponies we are already holding captive,” Chrysalis said with a self-assured smile. “You would never do something that reckless and which could endanger other ponies.”
“Can they overpower me before I can teleport back inside the castle?” Twilight said with the same neutral, matter-of-factly tone. “And would they do that with you imprisoned? They would have no hope of releasing you. If you attack me now, no matter what happens, you will be stuck here on this balcony and will face Celestia and Luna alone.”
Pinkie Pie followed the exchange quietly from the side, as did the dozens of changelings in the air around the balcony. Nopony dared to speak.
“Chrysalis, you think I’m predictable. But, you are just as predictable. You are a coward who has never fought a fair fight in your life,” Twilight continued with a voice that gradually grew in strength, raising her hoof to point at the changeling queen, “you will never choose somepony or something else over your own well-being. Even your own desire to make me and my friends suffer.”
Chrysalis stood there for a long moment, motionless.
Nopony moved.
Even the air felt like it was standing still.
Then, the changeling queen slowly raised her hooves and clapped them together.
“Bravo!” Chrysalis said with a chuckle, looking at Twilight with almost a friendly expression, a genuine smile on her lips as she clapped her hooves again. “You impress me, Twilight Sparkle. I never once thought you would have the guts to threaten me with a deadlock like this.”
Twilight didn’t answer or relax and still stood there, not moving her eyes from Chrysalis for a moment.
“To be honest, I still think this is a bluff,” Chrysalis said and shook her head, “Princess of Friendship condemning all ponies in this town to a fate worse than death when there is even the tiniest chance to save everypony by just giving herself up? I don’t buy it. ”
“Do you want to test that?” Twilight said, lowering her head so her horn pointed directly at the changeling queen’s chest.
Chrysalis cocked her head as she looked at the horn.
Finally, she sighed.
“No,” the changeling queen admitted, her shoulders slumping in resignation.
Pinkie Pie’s mouth dropped at the words, and the changelings around them mirrored her reaction. Nopony could quite believe their ears.
Twilight’s posture relaxed just a fraction.
“So, you will order your changelings to leave? I promise I will let you leave in peace once they are all gone and everypony is safe,” the alicorn said.
Chrysalis mulled it over and shook her head.
“No again. I won’t. Because you have already lost, Twilight Sparkle,” Chrysalis said and rose up to stand. “There is a something you aren’t aware that unfortunately makes all your efforts here worthless.”
Twilight tensed again and pointed her horn at the changeling queen.
“And what is that?” the alicorn said through clenched teeth.
Chrysalis yawned mockingly and gave her a smug grin.
“You have no magic,” the changeling queen said and charged at Twilight.
Next, everything happened in a split-second.
Pinkie Pie saw Chrysalis coming at Twilight, and her friend’s horn flashing with violet magic, a point-blank blast of magic about to slam into the changeling queen.
Magic, which suddenly died out in and disappeared.
Twilight’s eyes widened in shock and then Chrysalis’s hooves grabbed her.
The changeling queen smiled to Twilight and turned around, throwing the alicorn over the balcony.
Pinkie Pie was already in the air in her jump towards the changeling queen, but five changelings slammed into her and she found herself against the floor of the balcony with a series of hooved pressing her down.
Twilight shook her head as she fell and tried to cast a teleportation spell, but her magic vanished into the air again.
Before she had time to try to use her wings, a pair of heavy hooves slammed into her back.
She screamed in pain when she hit the ground, pain coursing through what felt like every bone in her body.
Two hooves stepped on her wings, forcing them to stay sprawled awkwardly on her sides while a third hoof slammed into the back of Twilight's head, burying her face in the dirt.
Chrysalis laughed and laughed, grinding Twilight’s face against the ground, widening her stance to force the alicorn’s wings to stretch out more, another whelp of pain from Twilight as her reward.
“There. Now you are in your proper place, little pony,” the changeling queen said in a honey-sweet voice.
Twilight tried one more time to cast a spell, but there was nothing.
She couldn’t understand why her magic wasn't working.
She was exhausted, but she still knew she had the strength to cast at least a few spells!
It was like her magic didn’t exist.
Chrysalis stepped to the side, but only to kick Twilight in the stomach to make the alicorn turn around on her back.
“Surprised, Twilight Sparkle?” Chrysalis said and pressed her hoof on the alicorn's neck. “You really thought I would not come prepared this time?”
Black spots danced in Twilight’s eyes, but she shook her head to clear her vision.
“Wh... how?” she stuttered out.
Chrysalis laughed yet again and tapped the leather bag on her side.
“It was sacrilege. If my mother were alive, I'm sure she would be horrified to hear that I actually chipped away a piece of our family thro…. what is that?”
Chrysalis’s sentence trailed off as she looked at the bright light in the sky.
Everypony turned up to look at a sphere of glimmering magic that rolled in the air at tremendous speed, coming closer.
Changelings near the sphere tried to move to intercept it, only to be hit with a ray or magic as they tried to move closer to it.
One changeling managed to almost to reach the sphere, only to get a burst of green fire at its face.
Chrysalis and Twilight both looked at the sphere with a similar expression of puzzlement on their faces.
When the sphere was almost right on top of them, it broke apart in a blinding flash of light, forcing both of them to cover their eyes.
Twilight could see just barely three shapes dropping down from the light.
One of them landed just twenty feet away from them.
Chrysalis looked at Starlight Glimmer standing there with her head lowered, the unicorn’s horn glowing with magic.
“Who in the name of Tartarus are you supp..” Chrysalis started.
Then, Starlight launched a massive blast of radiant teal magic at the changeling queen’s head.
Twilight closed her eyes. She knew her student had just broken her number one rule when it came to using magic in a fight. That magic held enough power to vaporize anypony who was unfortunate enough to be hit by it.
Chrysalis didn’t move in the face of the incoming magical death or even look worried.
The blast of magic got within six feet from the changeling queen before it vanished into thin air.
Starlight gasped in surprise, but before she could do anything else, a ray of sickly green magic hit her and sent the unicorn tumbling away.
Chrysalis blew the smoke out of her horn and turned her head down at Twilight again with a smile on her face.
“Where was I? Oh right. Long story short, the piece of rock in my bag nullifies any and all magic besides the one we changelings use,” Chrysalis said with a chuckle, ”that is why you lost the moment you came to that balcony.”
Twilight didn’t know what to say. Changelings could nullify all magic besides their own so easily? The thought sent a shiver through her spine. What could any of them do in the face of that?
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden sound of magic being released, fire burning and a series of hisses and buzzing of the wings filling the air.
With Chrysalis’s hoof still against her neck, she couldn’t turn her head to look at what was happening, but the changeling queen wrinkling her nose at the source of the noise as she looked at it was enough to give Twilight hope.
“You are not going to win. Starlight is as strong as I am. Everything is going to happen exactly like last time,” Twilight said with as much conviction in her voice as she could muster.
Chrysalis frowned and shook her head as she looked down at Twilight again.
“Nonsense. All I need to do is this,” the changeling queen pressed her hoof more firmly against Twilight’s neck, “until you take a good little nap. After that, all I need to do is to go to your student and knock her out. As long as I have the anti magic stone, there is nothing you can do to...”
“Step away from her. Please,” a gentle voice said from outside Twilight’s dimming vision as she fought for breath.
Twilight saw Chrysalis’s eyes go wide open, the pressure on her neck easing as the changeling queen snapped her head up.
“You?” Chrysalis said in a disbelieving voice.
Twilight saw a glint of something in the changeling queen’s gaze.
For just a brief second, she looked afraid.
Who was it? The voice sounded familiar, but…
“Are you serious?” Chrysalis said and gave a chuckle that to Twilight sounded forced. “Do you have any idea how many ponies I fed on before coming in here? My dear niece, unless you drained every pony in that hive dry, which I doubt, there is no way you can even hope to have a chance against me.”
Twilight blinked at the words.
Niece? Chrysalis had relatives? She had just mentioned her mother, but…
“Auntie, get away from my friend, or you will be sorry,” the voice said again, still gentle and soft but now with a tone of sarcasm that did sound a bit like Chrysalis.
Twilight was only getting more confused. Her friend? What did that changeling mea…
Chrysalis snorted.
“Now listen here, young mare, you stop talking back to me like that this instant or I will...” Chrysalis said before a ray of emerald green magic knocked her off from her hooves and sent her tumbling backward.
Twilight gasped in relief with the weight gone and turned around to see what was happening and who had just saved her.
When she saw who it was, her mouth dropped open.
She could see Rarity and Spike helping Starlight to stand up, all three of them surrounded by changelings.
However, none of them were moving to stop them. Everypony’s attention was on the same thing.
It was a changeling. A changeling queen by the looks of it. Even if she looked younger than Chrysalis.
But, despite everything, Twilight still easily recognized that kind stare, the gentle eyes, and the pink mane.
“F...Fluttershy?” Twilight said in a shaky voice.
The young changeling queen nodded to her friend.
“Who else?” Fluttershy said with a gentle, relieved smile.