"So, what did you want to tell me?" Chrysalis asked Celestia.
The two of them were inside the hall where Celestia had first found Chrysalis. After she'd woken up Celestia had told her she intended to have a conversation with her, and now was finally time.
Celestia sighed as she looked at the changeling-shaped hole in the window, giving her back to the one who'd left it. "Chrysalis, I'm afraid I... I haven't been entirely honest with you." The alicorn sounded worried and tired.
Chrysalis walked closer to her, stepping over one of the many large pony-shaped mounds of what she assumed was dust under the carpet. "Don't worry," she said as she lowered her head, "neither have I."
Celestia narrowly dodged the shot, the green beam of energy erupting from the changeling's horn hitting the stone wall and blowing a hole in it. She turned to Chrysalis in shock. "You-you lied to me?" she asked while deflecting another magical projectile.
"Of course I lied to you. What did you expect? Did you really think I would become your friend? Did you think I was going to turn into one of those obnoxious rainbow moose things? Well I'm sorry to disappoint you, Celestia, but it was an act, and you fell for it." She fired another shot.
Celestia dodged and responded with a blast from her horn. "How could you-"
"Oh, it was too easy, really. Did you not notice the way I disposed of most of your guards? The way I ruined your reputation in public? The way I explored the castle and studied your habits?" Chrysalis deflected Celestia's magic. "Tricking you into feeding me was the last piece of the puzzle, and now there's nothing you can do to stop me!" Another bolt of energy jolted forward from her twisted horn, sending the alicorn to smash against the wall.
Celestia was lying on the ground as Chrysalis walked closer to her. She slowly lifted her head. "How could you-" Chrysalis stopped as she noticed the smile on Celestia's face "- think that I would fall for that?"
Suddenly guards started to enter the room. From the doors, from the windows, from underneath the carpet. Chrysalis realised in that moment that dust didn't usually protest when you walked on it. Soon the changeling was surrounded on all sides, an array of spears and horns pointed at her from all directions.
"I suspected yours was a trick from the first moment, Chrysalis. That is why I immediately replaced all guards in the castle with novices while the previous members were ordered to wait for my command. At all times they have been following me around, ready to strike when you tried to attack me. As for the journalists, they were merely actors pretending to interview me. It was a test to see what you would have done. This was all part of my scheme, a trap designed to lull you into a false sense of security so that you would expose yourself, thinking you had damaged my reputation and neutralized my guards while in reality you had only played into my plan."
"Clever," the Changeling Queen said, "very clever. But not enough."
Half of the guards suddenly turned against the others, a green glow in their eyes.
"Did you think I hadn't noticed? I knew about your plan from the start," Chrysalis said as she walked forward, guards fighting all around her, "I hypnotized them while you were sleeping. How could you ever think you had outsmarted me?"
Celestia laughed and the Changeling stopped, staring at her.
"What is it now? Have you finally gone insane? You can't defeat me, Celestia, give up now if you want to be spared the humiliation."
All of the guards were teleported outside in a flash of magic. "You think this is over?" asked Celestia. "I'm impressed that you managed to discover my plan. Or rather, I was impressed when I discovered you had discovered it. But I had anticipated such a thing could happen. You see, Chrysalis, the guards weren't there to stop you, it was merely a distraction." Celestia began levitating in the air, her body glowing with magic. "A distraction that would grant me enough time to perform the spell necessary to unlock my true powers. It's a shame most of the castle will be destroyed in the process, but now that you so foolishly allowed me to begin my transformation there is nothing you can do to stop me. Behold the glory of a new sun!"
The light around Celestia grew brighter and brighter, becoming impossible to look at. Chrysalis shielded her eyes with a hoof, then shielded the holes in the hoof with the other one. Small fragments of stone started to lift from the ground, the room began to shake. The temperature began to rise and the smell of ozone filled the air. Then the light flickered off like a broken light bulb, the shaking stopped and a fizzling sound was heard.
A very confused Celestia looked over herself. "Shouldn't my mane be on fire right now?"
"Ha!" Chrysalis shouted at the alicorn, shooting a bolt of magic from her horn that hit Celestia and caused her to fall on the ground. "Did you think I wasn't aware of your alicorn powers? It was the first thing I took care of. When I jumped on you, Twilight and Luna to hug you, I was actually secretly injecting a magical inhibitor in your systems, using the shock of seeing me launch myself on you to prevent you from noticing what I was actually doing."
Chrysalis walked over to Celestia's body. "It's over, Celestia."
The alicorn looked up. "I guess you're right. Congratulations, Chrysalis, you have outsmarted me. Go ahead and lower the magical field you raised around the room to prevent others from noticing our confrontation and entering the room, so that you may gloat in your success as you publicly announce how you defeated me."
"Yeah, I think I'm going to do just that." Chrysalis horn glowed for a moment, then she was immediately hit with a blast of blue magical energy that sent her flying towards the wall.
"Ha!" Celestia shouted at the changeling. "Did you think I wasn't aware of that? I knew about what you'd done the moment you did it. While you were busy scouting the castle I removed the inhibitors from Luna's body, and now that I distracted you for long enough to allow her to unlock her true powers somewhere safe and come back here to stop you there's nothing you can do."
Luna entered from the door and flew at Celestia's side, and the two of them walked over to the changeling.
"Anything left to say?" asked Celestia.
Chrysalis remained silent. The white alicorn turned her body over, only to find it was turning into that of a normal changeling.
"Checkmate!" came Chrysalis's voice from Celestia's right.
Celestia turned around to see Luna's body slowly transforming into that of the Changeling Queen. A bright green flash erupted from her twisted horn and the alicorn was sent smashing against the wall, which broke behind her revealing the gardens below and the starry sky above.
Chrysalis slowly approached the Princess. "You see, Celestia, the Chrysalis you've been interacting with this whole time was always a disguised changeling under my control. Her coming into this room with what appeared to be amnesia was all part of my plan to distract you and your guards while I secretly attacked Luna. I was able to capture her that night, and ever since then I have always been her, and you foolishly revealed all of your plans to me." The changeling readied another blast of magic.
"Wait!" screamed Celestia.
"What is it now?"
"This is the part where I'm supposed to tell you I knew about your plan and I planned around it."
"Then do it, so I can tell you how I planned around your plans."
Celestia hesitated. "There's... a small problem, actually."
"What?"
"I, er, I sort of..." Celestia cleared her throat, "I didn't actually know about this one."
"Oh, well. Goodbye." Chrysalis fired from her horn.
Celestia was sent falling down. She landed in the fountain and began to sink down into the water, the world around her becoming darker and darker. All she could see was the green light glowing above her, Chrysalis readying her third shot. She turned her head to the side and saw Luna looking at her while munching on some popcorn.
Celestia's eyes shot open and her head jerked upwards. She was in bed. Slowly the alicorn's body made its way to the door and into the corridor, before entering another room. She walked up to the bed and watched the figure sleeping there, making sure nothing had happened to her. Suddenly she woke up, and a slight shock was visible on her face before she realized what was happening and relaxed.
"What is it?" Celestia asked, lifting her head from the pillow.
"I had a nightmare," Chrysalis replied, her body still the shape of Celestia's, her voice a copy of the alicorn's, "can I sleep with you tonight?"
Celestia looked back into her own eyes. "Of course you can, dear."