“It’s almost as if she knew who she was dealing with,” Luna remarks with a grin. “And I believe the spell can be quite… finicky in its duration.” She pauses. “Is that the word foals use these days? We always preferred ‘persnickety’.”
“No, that would be this spell,” Starlight Glimmer says, motioning to the spellbook. “You’re going to have to be exact. Like, down to the second. If not better. The more accurate, the less flying you’ll have to do.” She looks at the landscape around them. “Or you’ll end up in a house.” She looks a little further. “Or a hill.” She glances upwards. “I may do the calculations with you in midair.”
“Good thing I have practice with precise timing,” Twilight says, glancing to Cadance’s full belly. “And can fly.”
“That’ll make it better, I guess.” Starlight focuses on the journal, stepping away.
Twilight looks at Cadance as they head outside. “Now, normally I would never ask this of anypony, but-”
“It’s okay,” Cadance replies, standing next to Celestia but not touching her. “I understand. The more power you have, the better.” She takes a deep breath, her horn lighting. “We all must play our part.”
“Taking on this task will be one of the most difficult things I will ever do,” Twilight says solemnly, bowing to each in turn. “But I will not let you down!”
With heavy steps three alicorns surround Twilight Sparkle, their eyes glowing a bright white. Light blue surrounds Cadance’s horn, cobalt for Luna, and gold for Celestia. Three beams erupt, congregating above Twilight, mixing and congealing into a globe of pure magic. It shines, brilliant as the sun, growing larger and larger until it is wider than the library.
Twilight opens her mouth, gazing in awe at the power. Is she supposed to eat it, or-
All of a sudden a lightning bolt of magic zaps from the sphere to Twilight’s horn, but it doesn’t disappear in an instant. Instead a tether of crackling energy connects the two, the sphere rapidly shrinking as it pours the collected power of the alicorns into Twilight.
Within seconds the transfer is over, leaving three cutie mark-less alicorns laying on the ground, dazed and listless. Their manes no longer flow, instead limply resting. They glance up with tired eyes, watching an electrified Twilight levitate in the air. Her eyes shine white, power radiating from every pore.
Twilight Sparkle closes her eyes, gently coming to the ground. The aura of pure power dissipates, the alicorn taking a deep breath. She races forwards, stopping scant inches away from embracing Celestia while tears stream from her eyes.
“I’m so sorry,” she says, kneeling down. “I’ll finish this as fast as I can.”
“I know you will,” Celestia says, smiling despite her weakened state.
Twilight flies off, quickly adjusting to her newfound power, the other alicorns following on hoof. Doug is waiting for her on the edge of Sweet Apple Acres, his eyes closed, meditating.
“Twilight Sparkle,” Doug says as she approaches, drawing himself up. He stares Twilight dead in the eyes, never flinching. She cowers a little from the intensity. “I don’t care what happens to me. If you leave me a cripple, a vegetable, dead. I don’t care. Whatever it takes to stop this.”
Twilight nods solemnly. Her horn glows, a huge two-hooved hammer slowly materializing next to her. She grunts as she hefts the weight, heavy even for her enhanced muscles. She gives it a few test swings, the momentum difficult to control.
“Okay,” Twilight says, flying up a few body lengths. “This should pass straight through your physical body, and only knock loose the spell. I… I’m sorry if it hurts.”
Doug nods, standing straight and still, watching with steady eyes.
Twilight carefully aims before dropping down, a raspberry trail left behind the hammer’s arc, perfectly square with impacting Doug’s chest.
It bounces off, a loud ‘clang’ reverberating through the orchard.
Twilight nearly drops the massive maul. “Ow!” she exclaims, sucking on a hoof.
“Twilight!” Doug shouts, rushing towards her. He skids to a stop just before he reaches her, frustrated he cannot hug her. “Are you okay?”
“I am, I just wasn’t ready for that result.” Twilight readies herself. “Can you lower your defenses?”
“I have no idea how,” Doug returns. “I’ve been trying to clamp it all down, so I don’t steal as much, but even that doesn’t seem like it’s working.”
Twilight merely nods, readying herself for another swing.
“How long will they keep this up?” Luna asks, watching Doug absorb blow after blow from Twilight.
“She will not tire,” Celestia replies grimly, flinching with every strike. “He will, but I can feel as he drains each of us to allay every attack. Though, even if they were not engaged so, we might not make it to the appointed time. Without our magic, or Cadance in reserve. We need…”
Luna looks over as Celestia trails off, the white alicorn rising. “Sister?”
“Stay,” Celestia commands, offering a faint smile. “Twilight was not speaking solely to herself when she arrived. There is something I must do.”
Luna nods after a second. She keeps one eye on her Sister even as she returns to watch Twilight. The lavender alicorn tries blasting Doug with beam after beam, those having even less of an effect.
Celestia places one hoof in front of the other, forcing herself forwards. The Everfree Forest looms, heavy shadows lurking around every tree and branch despite Luna’s moon in the clear sky. Celestia doesn’t even spare the power to light her horn, though it is a paltry amount compared to the chunks Twilight takes with every swing of her hammer or lance of her magic. She picks her way through the thick undergrowth, almost immediately arriving in a clear-cut glade.
The trees surrounding the mostly open area are covered with a green slime, leaving approximately pony sized holes in several locations. The leafy canopy stretches to cover the top, a carefully constructed illusion with limbs spliced together and somehow held aloft. Burrows lead into the ground, the occasional mound of dirt that has not been made into a crude hovel.
“I wondered how long it would take for you to arrive,” an echoing voice purrs from the shadows.
Celestia merely nods, stepping closer despite the growing sense of doom. As if we are not already.
Queen Chrysalis appears, but not from behind Celestia as her voice might have indicated. She rises from one of the openings in the ground, hooves and the holes of her legs ringed with dirt. The matte black changeling grins, tongue licking her wicked fangs. Her gravid belly looks quite out of place on her thin body, especially as she lowers to a bow. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“I have come to request assistance,” Celestia says as she returns the bow, though she hides how much it pains her to ask. “From you and your people.”
“You wish us to join in your fate,” Queen Chrysalis states, enjoying Celestia’s grim nod. “Our stores of love, everything that might give us the chance to escape. You wish us to sacrifice ourselves on the slight chance that Twilight Sparkle succeeds.”
“She will, yet we all must play our part,” Celestia starts.
“Spare me your pathetic platitudes,” Queen Chrysalis spits out, interrupting anything else Celestia might have said. “We are not Friends. You see us as parasprites at best, barely tolerable as you try to ‘rescue’ us with your version of Harmony.”
“You are wrong,” Celestia counters. “I would not cede my kingdom to one who would merely devour it. But instead, to a symbiote; to one who might enhance and improve both our lives. And I would do anything, give anything for them.”
“You would…” Queen Chrysalis says with a touch of hesitation as she circles around the white alicorn. Her hooves crunch against the bare dirt. “You would cede your kingdom to me, should our ‘assistance’ be sufficient?”
“I would grant you my stake in it.” Celestia confirms with a nod. “The rest would accept.”
“And yourself,” Queen Chrysalis inspects Celestia’s cutie mark-less side, the lack of a sun against the dull white unnerving. “Would you permit the despoiling of yourself? Allow me and my brood to drain your love of the little ponies you wish us to save?”
Celestia’s voice catches in her throat, leaving her only able to nod at first. Her body lowers to the ground, legs tucking under herself. “I would,” she eventually replies, her voice a whisper, lowering her head.
“And would you,” Queen Chrysalis draws inches away from Celestia’s belly, almost smiling at the precious foal growing inside. “Would you grant the same of your foals, to serve as broodmares and batteries for my kind?”
Celestia grieves; her tears need not fall to touch the bare ground. “If that is the price you demand; I, and they, will pay it.”
Queen Chrysalis steps back, a hoof to her chin as if she is considering.
Celestia holds the position for several long, silent seconds. When no indication comes from the changeling queen she sighs, a quick huff of breath as she slowly picks herself up. Her face goes from grief at what she might have given up, to rage at Queen Chrysalis’ seeming decline of her offer, to a stony visage of grim acceptance.
The white alicorn stands, careful not to touch the black changeling. She looks down on Queen Chrysalis’ still pensive form, keeping the scowl from her face. Celestia turns, taking a step away as Queen Chrysalis stands.
“You dare insult me?” the changeling demands.
“No.” Celestia meets Queen Chrysalis’ harsh glare with one sorrowful eye. “I only mourn that I was insufficient to slake your thirst for conquest.”
Celestia turns back, then flinches as a black hoof pushes against her back. She gasps, spinning to stare at the pocked leg holding her in place.
Magenta raises to meet emerald green. “What is your price?”
“I name none,” Chrysalis replies, fangs bared in her smile.
The revelation stuns Celestia. “You… you would help them? You would save my little ponies?”
Chrysalis smirks. “I do not do it for your sake. You have offered me the very heavens; yet I prove myself the bigger mare by turning down everything you offer. I best you in your domain: Friendship. And I do it for my kind, that they may continue to feast in this fertile land. They join us in this reckless venture; as your vows say, for better or for worse.” Her smirk becomes wistful. “I only wish I could have defeated you in combat as well.”
Celestia can’t help but smile, despite the ‘loss’. “Well, if there was a day-”
In one smooth motion Chrysalis steps in front of Celestia, her hoof traveling along the alicorn’s side. When she reaches foreleg she hooks inwards, sweeping Celestia off her hooves to her back. Her mouth opens around Celestia’s neck, fangs tickling the thin hair, as Celestia feebly tries to push her away. Celestia’s eyes open wide in fear, no match for the changeling, but Chrysalis merely holds the position, grinning.
A faint tinkling sound comes from beneath Chrysalis. She roughly separates herself from Celestia, the changeling speechless as she looks down.
What was once the dull, sullied black of her chitin ripples, a glow from within growing brighter and leaving her like polished onyx. The chitin itself shifts and bubbles; dirt and impurities fleck away as the holes in her forelegs seal themselves, then become sleek and smooth. Her once gravid belly, unseemly against her thin frame with bulges of egg and foal, flattens as her form fills out. No longer corpulent but heavy-set, ridges of powerful muscles evident under the chitin. Her thin and wispy mane thickens, weaving into broad cobalt braids. They drape over her emerald carapace, wings the same color as her mane, no longer tattered but whole.
“What is this?!” Chrysalis shrieks, unable to peel her eyes away.
“It is love,” Celestia replies absentmindedly, fascinated by the transformation. “When you chose to give love, rather than hoard it for yourself.”
“It…” Chrysalis dumbly says, staring at her unblemished hooves, then her taut belly. She looks good. “I… I no longer feel it. That unending, insatiable hunger.” She glances up at Celestia. “Love did this to me?” Her eyes unfocus, as if she is concentrating on something far away. “To us?”
“I believe so,” Celestia says, smiling the broadest smile she can manage.
Chrysalis grimaces, then lets out a long, disappointed sigh. “Cadance will never let me hear the end of it.”
“We shall hope she has that opportunity,” Celestia replies, winking at the transformed changeling.