//------------------------------// // 44 The Insatiable // Story: Errant Finale // by Doug Graves //------------------------------// “What do I want from life?” muses Queen Chrysalis, a smirk slowly crossing her face as she strokes a sparkling hoof across her chin. She puffs up her chest, though flexing her chitinous plates doesn’t give quite the effect that one might get from Bulk Biceps. “To devour my enemies, see their driving force added to my own, and to hear the contented cries of my brood.” Twilight Sparkle gapes, her wings pulling an inch away from her sides as her body unconsciously readies itself to run away. She gulps, taking a deep breath as she forces her wings back to her sides, trying to relax. “Do… do you really mean that?” Twilight asks, her voice wavering. “That’s so…” “Despicable? Evil? Completely antithetical to everything you believe?” Queen Chrysalis nods, the smirk never leaving her face. She leans in close, head above Twilight’s neck, fangs bared. She delicately strokes one along Twilight’s neck, delighting in eliciting a shudder from the alicorn. “This may come as a surprise to you, but I’m hardly what one would call a model pony.” “No, I know. At least about your past.” Twilight winces in pain as a flinch from Queen Chrysalis rakes a fang against her skin. “You know nothing about me,” Queen Chrysalis spits out, pulling away. Twilight frowns, a hoof hovering above the ground. She wants to check herself to see if she is bleeding. So close after the fight with Sombra, the lingering remnants of the adrenaline coursing through her veins, she can’t help but want to repay her in kind. Then, she recalls Celestia’s words from last winter. ‘But, perhaps hardest of all, is to extend that protection - that love and forgiveness, and desire to learn and to grow - to those who do not wish us well. Who actively work to do us harm. Who would strike our cheek and spit in our faces purely for the sadistic pleasure of doing so.’ What would it be like to live up to that ideal? “Then help me to learn,” Twilight implores. “I was hoping there was some common ground I could find.” Queen Chrysalis raises an eye. “You know, like how we both care about each other and our fellow creatures.” Queen Chrysalis snorts. “I highly doubt that. While you might compare my brood to your precious ponies, we are nothing alike. They give me their power, their loyalty, and their unquestioning obedience. You ponies are like leaves on the wind, each liable to fling away to their own task at the barest provocation.” “That isn’t-” Twilight starts, though she reconsiders. Many of the Canterlot ponies she grew up around act selfishly. Same with Manehattenites. Even the Ponyvillians she has grown to know and love could occasionally be like that, especially without an overpowering influence like Pinkie Pie to get them to work together. “See?” comes the contemptuous response. Twilight taps a hoof against her chin. “Okay, an example. I’ll set up a scenario, and you tell me what you’d do.” Chrysalis shrugs. “Pinkie Pie asks both of us to help her set up a party. If we both volunteer, then we get the job done quickly and we’re done in one hour. If one of us helps but the other one doesn’t, then it takes ten hours of work to set the party up.” “I’m sure I work much quicker than you,” Chrysalis snarks. “Shush. It’s an example.” Twilight rolls her eyes. “Pretend we’re both, I don’t know, earth ponies or something and we can’t reach very high.” “I don’t have to pretend that if I don’t want to.” Twilight tries to rub away that headache she knows is coming. “But, if neither of us chooses to help, Pinkie Pie ropes us both in. And because it’s super awkward that neither of us volunteered, we can’t work together and it takes us each five hours.” Chrysalis thinks for a few seconds before asking, “So, the choice is whether or not you volunteer. And you’re trying to figure out what the other person is going to choose, if they will betray you?” Twilight sighs. “Not betray, volunteer or not.” “Same difference.” “No, it-” Twilight huffs. “Fine. which one do you choose?” “Well, that’s easy. Betray.” Twilight gapes at Chrysalis. “...What? No! You cooperate! You volunteer!” “Really?” Chrysalis looks at her hooves as if they were measuring scales, tilting them up and down. “The part about the other pony choosing is rendered moot by the outcome always being better if you betray.” “No! That’s not how-” “But it is!” Chrysalis brushes aside Twilight’s objection. “If they volunteer, you go from spending one hour working to zero. Improvement. If they don’t volunteer, you go from spending ten hours working to five. Also improvement.” She looks around exaggeratedly, holding up her empty, yet still sparkly, hooves. “There are no other options.” “But what about the other pony? They go from working ten hours to one if you both cooperate. Or, if they for some reason chose not to volunteer, five hours to zero. A total of ten hours worked versus two! Surely that counts for something!” Chrysalis merely shakes her head. “Why should it?” Twilight sputters for a few seconds. “Because we should care about our fellow ponies and the problems that they face! And making things better for everypony is a good thing!” “Why?” Twilight grits her teeth in frustration; it’s a good thing becoming an alicorn gave her better resilience in addition to extra strength. “Okay, maybe this was a bad example.” “Oh, no. I think it’s a perfect example. You ponies care so deeply about each other that you value their suffering as your own. It may seem to give you strength, but it makes you weak to the inevitable betrayals and power plays that others will make. After all, life is a competition, whether you like it or not.” Queen Chrysalis scoffs, shaking her head. “I don’t even know why I’m telling you all this. I should just lie, and pretend to be your Friend, so to better betray you later.” “But you wouldn’t.” Twilight looks up, teary eyes meeting Chrysalis’ stony gaze. “You wouldn’t lie to me, would you?” Queen Chrysalis opens her mouth, about to reassure the alicorn that ‘of course she wouldn’t, you can trust her’. It would be so easy, that foal willing to believe anything she says, as long as it’s what she wants to hear. But then she looks past that innocent facade, to the cold and calculating mare underneath. Hmm, she didn’t expect that. Attempting to play a dangerous game, Sparkle? To pretend to be a friend, to act so open and willing, while plotting her downfall? She can actually respect that. But what is this novice hiding? Chrysalis solemnly states, “I will answer that truthfully if you answer me a question of my own.” Twilight nods in reply. “What did you tell your herdmates and Celestia about me, and how did they reply?” Twilight closes her eyes, taking a deep breath. “I wrote a letter detailing what happened when you transformed from Cadance’s form. Celestia neither confirmed nor denied my suspicions, instead sending me the information I read before, available in Remote Records.” “And what information is that?” Chrysalis asks, curious. Her infiltrators had never come across these accounts, though they rarely spent their time reading foreign history books. And, from the sound of it, neither did most ponies. “It talked about how you impersonated an emperor’s fiance, and used the position to place your changelings for an invasion. I can’t help but draw parallels to what you are doing with Shining Armor.” Chrysalis reels; are her plans foiled? Even with a surprise attack, could she subdue not only Twilight but the rest of the Element Bearers? She would need to trap Rainbow Dash first, and the others could be particularly troublesome were she not able to get them all at once. “And what did he, and your fellow ponies say?” Twilight shrugs helplessly, a blithe half-smile on face. “What do you think they said? It’s a pretty unbelievable tale, that somehow a changeling - whatever that is - was able to impersonate Cady, I mean, Princess Cadance well enough to fool everypony.” Queen Chrysalis smirks to herself; she really is that good, isn’t she? “And Shining Armor nearly attacked me when I tried to tell him.” “Did he.” Chrysalis can’t help but laugh a little at the idea. If only she had been there to witness the event! Friends fighting each other is always so amusing! Twilight sighs heavily, shaking her head. “You don’t have to answer my question,” Twilight says, looking away. Chrysalis cocks her head, her eyes glaring. Twilight glumly continues, “I already know the answer.” “You dare impugn my honor!” shouts Chrysalis, stamping a hoof. “Oh, so there is something you value,” Twilight returns, a tiny smirk of her own. Chrysalis snorts. That insufferable wretch! “It is no great feat to merely utter a falsehood, especially to one who wants to believe it. No, what matters is the deception, the concealment, and the inevitable betrayal. The grander and more audacious the better! That is what shows true power to a changeling!” Twilight nods along. “Then your plan was to show off your power in the grandest, most spectacular way you know. To outwit even Celestia, and then gorge yourself on the love of everypony around you.” Her eye squints a little. “And then ruin it all with… an invasion?” Chrysalis glowers at the lack of being able to dupe Celestia, but keeps up her steely gaze. “My changelings need love, of course; how better to get it?” “Somehow, I would think there are a lot of better ways.” “If only everycreature was as loving and generous as you, Twilight Sparkle. Then the world would be filled with rainbows and bright sparkly lights.” The fact that Chrysalis is, almost, surrounded by a colorful aurora spewing shield and her hooves are bright sparkly lights fails to impress itself on her. “But I have more important things to consider. Shining Armor, the Captain of the Guard. Does he believe you?” Twilight shrugs. “He calls you Cadance, doesn’t he? But I still don’t get it. Why ruin this?” “Why?” Chrysalis fumes at the admission. Then an idea crosses her mind, a smile slowly spreading across her face. “I will tell you, but you must promise not to interfere with my plans or tell anypony about what you’ve learned here.” Twilight gulps. “But, I’ve already told my Friends and Celestia. They might come to me later. I’m sorry, but I won’t lie to them.” “Then deflect. Put it off. So long as you do not work against the plans I have in motion.” Chrysalis spits a bit of green goop on her hoof, offering it to Twilight. Twilight considers. Could she count on her Friends to foil Chrysalis’ plans, dastardly should they be? Would she be able to get to Cadance and help her, should Chrysalis know that she knows? Or would the changeling queen attempt to mind control her (or worse, succeed?) Perhaps she should instead consider: what would a true friend do? If she knows nothing of the changeling’s plans, how will she convince her to give up on them, or turn them to a better purpose? What would place her in the best position to help everypony involved? Better yet, how would a changeling react? Chrysalis has been unmoved by displays of Friendship and love, except for what she can drain. What would it take to earn her respect and, possibly, grudging acceptance of their ways? She knows Chrysalis values power. And deceit, the ability to fool another. Could she pull something like that off? Queen Chrysalis seems to interpret her delay for a different reason. “A changeling is nothing without their honor. And I promise you, Twilight Sparkle, that I will never be nothing!” Twilight nods, then motions from one side of her barrel to the other, then sticks her hoof in her eye, wincing. “I promise not to work against you for however long you are able to successfully impersonate Princess Cadance.” Then she sticks her hoof forward, the goop binding them together. And so Chrysalis reveals her deal with Celestia: the impersonation followed by the invasion. The stakes, of either being forced to leave or becoming a leader from the shadows. All the while gloating about how she was able to play on the alicorn’s sensibilities, her sense of pride, and the faith she has in her precious little ponies. Twilight takes it in, a smirk quickly suppressed as she comes up with a plan of her own. Hopefully Shining Armor is okay with it.