//------------------------------// // Tragedy Strikes // Story: Queen Chrysalis Reforms (Accidentally) // by RainbowDoubleDash //------------------------------// As with most things that had gone wrong in Chrysalis’ life recently, it had seemed like a good idea at the time. She’d seen the cave that she, Tirek, and Cozy Glow had been trying to reach for days in front of her and surged forward, eager to claim the Bewitching Bell and finally get this whole trip over with. Instead… Zap! “Aah!” Chrysalis cried as some invisible force shocked her and threw her back. She landed with as much dignity as the True Queen of the Changelings could in such a situation…which was to say, not much. There was a bit of skidding. She tasted snow in her mouth. She shape-shifted herself a little extra body fat to keep out the cold. At least Cozy and Tirek didn’t laugh. As she picked herself up, Tirek tromped right on by her and up to the cave’s mouth, reaching out with a hand. A yellow flash struck him as he did, and he grunted in pain. Cozy flitted around to in front of him, looking at his hand and where the force-field was. “Can you absorb it?” She asked. Tirek shrugged helplessly. “I can only absorb magic from living beings.” Chrysalis idly wondered if that meant that if she turned herself into a rock, she wouldn’t have to worry about Tirek absorbing her magic anymore. Questions for later as she continued to brush herself free of snow. “Like her?” Cozy asked. Chrysalis’s eyes shot up at that, and she found the centaur and the pegasus filly – if that was what she really was, Chrysalis had her doubts – both looking at her. She hissed, stooping low and into a battle posture. “Betrayal!” She exclaimed, getting ready to defend herself. “Not betrayal,” Cozy said, just as Chrysalis had been about to blast her. “Teamwork. If Tirek absorbs your energy, he might be strong enough to break through.” The ‘filly’ had a point, at least, in theory. There was the minor point of Tirek stripping her of her power, however. “And then?” She demanded. “Then…he gives it back,” Cozy provided. “I do?” Tirek asked. “Mm-hmm.” It might work. But…“how do I know you won’t take my magic and leave me?” Chrysalis demanded. Cozy flew on over, all big eyes and innocence. “Would we do that to you…?” A gesture from Chrysalis was the only response that merited. Cozy’s expression relented. “Okay, normally, yes, we would.” She looked at Tirek expectantly. Tirek stared at Chrysalis, before sighing. “I’ll give you your magic back…” he droned. It might work, Chrysalis thought again. Certainly it was better than anything Chrysalis could come up with, much to her own chagrin. Tirek had no love for her to take to empower herself, and Cozy was just one pony (probably). But she was the mighty Queen of the Changelings. Even without gorging herself she was still the equal of a powerful unicorn mage by herself…and that awesome power added to Tirek’s own… Chrysalis sighed. “Do it,” she said. Tirek grinned, then opened his mouth wide as his orange magic appeared between his horns. Chrysalis braced herself to fight back on instinct…but then remembered that literally just now she’d decided to willingly give up and share her magic. She was willingly letting this happen. Tirek’s magic struck her. She didn’t fight back, opening herself up, sending her own magic forward and towards the centaur, wanting to get this whole thing over and done with as quickly as possible. It was painful…though not as much as it might have been had she not been sharing it. But she felt her magic leaving her…and she felt herself growing hungrier and hungrier. Magic was love, after all, to a changeling. Wait… She was a changeling. She was the changeling. Changelings ate love. Used love to power their magic. More love meant more magic, that was how she had once been the equal of Celestia herself, even if only briefly, by gorging herself on the love of Shining Armor. Love and magic were the same thing. Magic was love. Love was magic. She was sharing magic. She was sharing love. “Wait – !” She tried, but it was too late. Tirek took all her freely given, offered up, fully shared love… …and Chrysalis changed.