//------------------------------// // Frenemies // Story: A Dream // by totallynotabrony //------------------------------// Grogar, while powerful and ambitious, was not powerful and ambitious enough.  He’d resurrected Sombra, broken Tirek and Cozy Glow out of Tartarus, and found me in the forest, but for all that, his plan proceeded remarkably slowly. “I don’t want to tattle on my good friend Tirek,” said Cozy, “but you might like to know he left food out.  Again.” “I’ll deal with it when I'm done,” said Grogar dismissively, crouching over his goat eye-shaped crystal ball. “Don’t trust anything that nosy little pegasus says!” Tirek protested. “I don’t trust anything any of you say,” Grogar replied.  That might have been the smartest thought he’d ever had in his colossally long life. For my part, I couldn’t resist taking the opportunity to needle him about his glacial pace.  “Are you planning on attacking anypony anytime soon? If not, I don’t know why I’m wasting my time here.  I am a queen, you know?” “And yet here you are my servant, Chrysalis,” Grogar said.  He glared around the room at the three of us. “I can’t handle this arguing.  I don’t care how, but you must learn to work together!  You saw what happened to Sombra! Only then can we accomplish what you so greatly desire – the defeat of Twilight Sparkle and her friends!” He walked away. Grogar wasn’t powerful and ambitious enough, but still had one over on me, the one and only Queen Chrysalis.  And that, no pun intended, was royally insulting. I went back to my room.  It felt annoyingly like living in a parent’s house.  At least, every time I’d impersonated a foal. This room, though, was bare.  I had a flat piece of floor to sleep.  That was about it. My palace. Aside from that, there was a stack of business cards that had come from somewhere.  The front said You just got donged! in a font that suggested “radical” as the kids called it these days.  I had to keep up with such things to maintain accuracy in my impersonations.  The back of the cards listed an address in Las Pegasus. I made sure to keep my tape recorder out of sight.  I’d glamoured it to resemble a sex aid. Cozy and Grogar wouldn’t know what it was, and Tirek would pretend he didn’t.  However, I was forced to make it a crude one, resembling a log, because such things were what we had in Grogar’s primitive lair. I hung about my room and sulked.  It had been weeks since Grogar had advanced anything.  He’d just kept the rest of us sitting around. I’d started sleeping more.  Sometimes it felt like I would miss days at a time. Not that days had any meaning in an evil hideout with a couple of immortal beings. That was one cheer-up.  Cozy Glow would be dead in eighty years or so. Speaking of, she opened my door and walked in as if it weren’t my private space.  “And how are you doing on this fine-” “How do you think I’m doing?” I snapped, bumping my nose into hers. “Oh gee,” said Cozy, not minding in the slightest that I glared daggers at her.  “Being cooped up with nothing to do is the worst!  You know what you need? A team meeting!” “I don’t do meetings.”  If anything I led them. I was a queen! A queen without a castle, without a people. My acid introspection was almost enough to make me miss what Cozy said next.  “Well, Grogar left me in charge-” “No he didn’t,” I responded automatically.  “And even if he did, I obey no one. I’m not coming to your meeting.” “There’ll be cupcakes,” Cozy sang. Oh Bug God that sounded good. The cupcakes were nothing special, but a lot more special than dirt.  Cozy had called the meeting and wasted no time in pitching her latest scheme.  “Grogar wants us to work together to defeat our enemies. Which means we need to trust each other.” I paused from chewing. “If we are to trust one another, perhaps inform Lord Tirek to stop trying to absorb my essence!” “I wasn’t doing anything of the sort!” he said, playing at innocent.  “How dare you!” “How dare I!?  Do you know to whom you are speaking?” Honestly, if Grogar wanted a higher class of villains, he could have done better.  Tirek, for all his age, power, and wisdom, couldn’t even own up to it. Well, and the fact that I could literally see him attempting to pull magic out of me and put on top his cupcake.  Though, maybe I could just see through it because I’m a natural actor. “How could I not know who you are?  You tell your, uh…” he gestured to the disguised tape recorder “log every five minutes.” “This is why Grogar left me in charge,” said Cozy. “No he didn’t!” And so on. It got so bad that Grogar actually sent us away on a quest together.  He monologued for a few moments about a magic bell that Gusty the Great had stolen from him and hidden away atop Mount  Everhoof and then sent us to retrieve it. Not that I’m innocent of a good monologue, but after being on the receiving end of one, maybe I can understand how I was defeated.  Notes for the future. Must stay hungry. Grogar didn’t say we had to do the quest together.  Perhaps he didn’t care. We were going to do it as a team if Cozy had anything to say about it - and she certainly did.  Tirek and I abandoned her along the way. I also abandoned him.  He really should have seen it coming, though maybe he thought he was abandoning me.  It served him right for always trying to suck my magic. I was the chief sucker around here.  No, wait, that was the wrong pun. Solitude left one a lot of time for her feelings.  I’d decided that I didn’t much care for my own feelings.  Things used to be so much better, with my hive around me and doing my will. There were a lot of names on my mental revenge list.  Starlight Glimmer. Twilight Sparkle. Hmm, okay, maybe it wasn’t that long.  More revenge to go around, then. I kept climbing the mountain.  I’m not sure why I bothered. Because Grogar told me to?  It still smarted that he could probably beat me in a fight and that was the only reason I did his bidding.  Being controlled by one more powerful was demeaning. It was insulting to see it from the other side. I vowed then that I would do everything in my power to get out from under his hoof.  I was never going to be controlled again. I was the controller. Still, there was a mountain to climb. I flew as long as I could, though the high winds, as forecast, eventually forced me to keep going on the ground.  I could have transformed into a form better able to handle the weather, but waited to conserve magic. I didn’t even have to transform to deal with a horde of nasties waiting in the forest.  Whatever terrible situation I had fallen into, I still at least had my powers of intimidation. There were advantages to being an insectoid monster. Wait, when had I ever thought of myself as a monster?  Was my self esteem really that low after being forced into servitude?  Was my self esteem really so low that I was actually worried about my self esteem?  Was being worried about my self esteem actually driving my self esteem lower because I was the kind of pathetic loser that worried about self esteem? It was an even bigger blow when I tried and failed to reach the top of the mountain. I practically surfed back down the slope lubricated by my bleeding pride. I encountered Tirek and Cozy at the bottom of the mountain.  Tirek had set up an easy chair and a campfire. He must not have tried to climb the mountain at all and I was jealous I hadn’t had that idea.  It wasn’t like I could think any less of myself. Just then, there was a rustle in the bushes and an ophiotaurus slid out.  I use the word slid, because its body was mostly snake, but it was also partly bull, so there was room enough for doubt. Thinking quickly, I transformed into a female version of the same.  While relative attractiveness is highly dependant on species, I wouldn’t be the changeling queen if I didn’t know how to seduce bull/snakes and everything else for that matter.  As soon as I had his attention, I sucked all his lust. No, not love, but still better than anything I’d had in ages. “So gross,” retched Cozy, watching me eat.  Served her right. “Just to be clear, I didn’t save you because I like you,” I said. “Is it because you neeeed us?” said Cozy. I was about to correct her that no, I was just looking for a meal and grossing her out was a bonus, but Tirek interrupted and after the day I’d had, I wasn’t assertive enough to correct the issue. We ended up around the campfire talking about what had happened and what we had learned.  I took a moment to cocoon the ophiotaurus, a snack for later. Also, it grossed out Cozy again. “So when you pony-napped Twilight and the others, you cocooned them,” she said. “Those ponies do have weaknesses,” said Tirek.  “I used that turncoat Discord. Tricked him into helping me capture his so-called friends.” “Discord was really something until friendship ruined him,” I contributed.  We hadn’t been friends, of course not, but I did appreciate anyone who also routinely attacked ponies. “I heard a most interesting story the other day,” said Tirek.  “A strange stallion has appeared in Equestria. He threatened Discord with bodily harm before fighting a dozen royal guards inside the castle.” My ears perked up.  “Oh? Who is he?” “His name is Valiant.  I don’t know much about him, but he apparently lives with Twilight Sparkle and is known to cause trouble.” Some kind of cohabitation, possibly a lover? That would be a perfect pony for me to impersonate.  I’d get to have her love, be close enough to spy on her, and as him, have a perfect excuse to be bad. “I wonder why he lives with her if he’s a troublemaker,” said Cozy.  “Maybe she’s trying to reform him?” The moment was too perfect.  I transformed into a copy of Twilight.  “I’m a pathetic pony princess! I made a detailed list of all the ways I’m a failure!” Cozy and Tirek both laughed.  Perfect, that made them easier to manipulate.  Also, making fun of Twilight made me feel better about myself. The three of us eventually reached an agreement to scale the mountain again, but together.  Also, I got the opportunity to bodily throw Cozy across a chasm. If I missed, she would die.  Win-win. To my mild surprise, we did eventually reach the summit of the mountain as a group, and found a cave there.  It could only be the same one where the bell Grogar wanted was hidden. However, it was surrounded by a forcefield of magic.  I was the first to hit it. To my mild surprise, no one made a joke about a bug zapper. Cozy said to Tirek, “Can you absorb this magic and make it go away?” “I can only absorb magic from living beings.” “Like her?” Cozy said. “Betrayal!”  Well, here we go.  I took a stance. I’d been debating for a while whether I could take on Tirek in a fight.  After eating from that ophiotaurus, I was almost willing to try my luck. As a bonus, Cozy would probably die in the crossfire. “No, no, not betrayal, teamwork,” Cozy quickly attempted to clarify, waving her hooves.  “If Tirek absorbs your energy, he might be strong enough to break through.” I paused.  Tirek had never been able to take my magic without my will.  At least I had that over the ponies. “So what happens after you get through the barrier?” “Then he gives it back,” said Cozy. “I do?” said Tirek. “How do I know you won’t try to take my magic and leave?” “Would we do that to you?”  Cozy paused. “Okay, normally, yes, we would.  But just trust us. We’ve gotten this far on friendship.” I hate you, Cozy Glow. Still, it was worth a shot.  I let Tirek have some of my power, but acted as if I was completely drained.  That extra energy wasn’t enough for him to tear down the magic barrier, just open a hole big enough for Cozy to get through.  Tirek strained under the burden. “Hurry!” Cozy was back in seconds.  “The bell isn’t there!” “What do you mean?  Did we come all this way for no reason?”  Tirek grabbed her angrily. “Maybe she’s hiding it,” I suggested. Cozy, grasped in Tirek’s hands, gestured at herself.  “Where!?” “Wel, what are we going to tell Grogar?” said Tirek, setting her down.  I waved a hoof at him. He played dumb for a moment, but reluctantly gave my magic back. “Grogar is too powerful,” I replied.  “Something must be done about that. Let Grogar think we’re his loyal servants.  In the meantime, we’ll hatch our own plan.” “Ooh, I love a good backstabbing!” said Cozy. I immediately regretted saying my plan out loud.  Cozy would probably tattle on me. But that meant I could plan on Grogar trying to break up my plan, so I could plan around his plan to stop my plan.  And in the meantime, maybe I could get Tirek and Cozy to work with me a little. For me.  I had to stay positive. We headed back down the mountain and told Grogar the truth.  The bell wasn’t there. I tried to subtly hint that Cozy was the only one who’d actually been inside the cave, so we were all going by her word alone. Grogar was understandably angry.  I was able to shelve my pride for just a little longer by telling myself that I was just acting when I said, “I’m sorry, Grogar, we just aren’t as powerful as you.” “Obviously!  At least you finally did as you were told and worked together.” Did we?  I glanced at Tirek and Cozy.  I felt like I came out ahead on this quest.  The two of them might trust me a little more and recognize that they couldn’t have done it without me. I did wonder what had actually happened to the bell, but wasn’t concerned.  Strangely unconcerned, even. I did wonder what was so strange about it, but then found myself strangely unconcerned about that, too. “I’m going to my room, for some private time,” I said.  I held up my disguised tape recorder. Tirek hastily looked away. Back in my room, there was another You just got donged! business card lying on the floor where I normally slept.  I didn’t know how it had gotten there.