Ocellus was not lacking in bravery, but she also knew that she was a teenage changeling who'd had only a few molts since she was a nymph and that she wasn't a warrior. So as much as she wanted to immediately rush to Smolder's and Chrysalis' side, she held back until the Nook's impromptu militia surged forward, falling like a rainbow wave upon the hybrids and their princess.
However the moment that wave hit the hybrids and sent them back, Ocellus flew forward and landed next to Smolder. She'd been cocooned, but was already melting her way out of it, one arm free and steam actually rising from her scales. Ocellus helped, focusing a moment before vomiting forth the pinkish dissolving fluid that would liquefy the cocoon. Smolder closed her eyes against it and made a face, but Ocellus didn't care, it wasn't like her friends didn't have gross aspects to their own biologies. Once she'd finished, she turned to Chrysalis, who had taken on her Nonchalant-as-a-changeling-drone form.
“I d-didn't mention your name,” she assured Chrysalis as she helped her to her hooves. The former queen was clutching at her midsection, though it looked uninjured, but kept most of her eye segments focused on the battle even as it took to the skies. “W-we got here as fast as we could - ”
“Yes, I'm grateful, now shut up,” Chrysalis hissed, falling back onto her haunches and with both hooves at her midsection now, eyes narrowed and breathing in sharply. “I...I wasn't Reformed for very long, do we still molt?” At Ocellus’ nod, Chrysalis let out a short sigh. “Okay, that's good.”
Beside them, Smolder finally tore her way free of the cocoon, or enough that she could pull herself from it, though dissolving, steaming sludge still covered her from head to tail. Ocellus had to bite back a cry of shock at the sight of her friend, the fact that she was missing scales in some places, the gash in one wing's membrane. “Geh...ugh...diamonds on fire that is the worst...” She looked to Chrysalis. “You okay?”
“I'll live - ”
A pink-hued flash-pop was the only warning the three got before Cacophony appeared among the three of them. “MOTHER!” She screamed, leaping at Chrysalis even as her horn glowed bright. Smolder leapt at Cacophony, grabbing the hybrid princess about her neck but failing to slow her down as Cacophony's hooves collided with Chrysalis, grabbing on to her. Ocellus let out a shocked cry of her own, just managing to grab on to Chrysalis' body as a teleportation spell seized all four of them with another flash-pop.
There was a brief moment of nothing, but it gave way to the sound of rushing water. Ocellus was smacked away by one of Cacophony's wings, while she spun and bucked Smolder in the same direction, sending the young dragon flying into Ocellus. The two landed in a heap in three-inch deep water, though at least it served as something of a cushion for when Chrysalis collided with them, the pain apparently being enough to force Chrysalis back to her true form. Ocellus let out a gasp when she saw the injury that Chrysalis had been shape-shifting away, a crack along the length of the carapace at her belly, spider-webbed at four points where four somethings had impacted the carapace hard.
Ocellus took in her surroundings, and realized that they were back in the subbasement of the Chill Spot. The flooding had continued, nopony apparently having come down to investigate it or stop it yet, leaving the entire chamber to slowly fill up with water that was still being stained in a rainbow of colors thanks to all the alchemical supplies being spilled into it.
Catrina was still here. The middle-aged Abyssinian's eyes were wide as she regarded the four suddenly appearing in the room. She was standing in the water beside one of the fallen crates, arms full of packaged witchweed flowers and seeds. “Your majesty...” she purred after a moment. “Back so soon?”
Cacophony looked to Catrina. “Changelings are coming!” She cried out. “The shadow of my mother rallied the Nook somehow. Where's my mirror?”
Catrina used one finger to point to the floor, where beneath the rainbow-hued water the broken mirror still lay. Cacophony galloped up to it and hefted it telekinetically, looking it over. “Too small for me,” She hissed, but looked to Catrina. “But you will fit, alchemist! And then when I have repaired the mirror on this side I can return, and we will begin my conquest of this world anew!”
Catrina looked to the broken mirror, to Cacophony, and then to the trio. “Ah...no,” Catrina said, backing away towards the door and clutching her prizes tightly. “I do not think so, dearie. Spending a few months in another world as it falls apart around me? Definitely not.”
Cacophony spread her wings wide, her anger burning at Ocellus' tongue and throat as she helped Chrysalis to her hooves again. “What are you talking about?” Cacophony demanded. “What do you mean, 'falls apart'?”
Beside Ocellus, Chrysalis started to laugh, even though it made her clutch at her injury tighter and double over. Cacophony whirled on the trio with a snarl, but Ocellus and Smolder stood their ground even as Chrysalis continued to laugh. “You...” Chrysalis breathed, “are...a-an idiot! You're the one who w-went on and on about how much your world needs you.” She looked Cacophony in the eye. “A week without you? Two weeks without you? L-longer? What do you think is going to happen?”
Cacophony opened her mouth to shout, but instead it only dumbly hung open, one hoof in the air and ready to gesticulate. A low, strangled whine escaped her throat. “Wh...” she finally choked out. “N...no...n-no...NO!” She whirled on the mirror, horn glowing bright pink as she pushed magic into it, opening the portal in the mostly intact top half. “My court! My subjects! Hear me! ANSWER YOUR PRINCESS!”
Chrysalis tried to move again, but let out a cry as she only stumbled. Smolder caught her and held her upright, but Chrysalis' eyes weren't on her nor Smolder - they were on Catrina. The Abyssinian was backing away towards the door still, trying not to made sudden movements lest she alert Cacophony to her retreat, her own eyes wide and focused on the hybrid princess as her tail, fur standing completely on-end, flicked back and forth rapidly.
Chrysalis breathed in and out a few times, hooves still at her cracked carapace. “Ngh...f...f-false love,” she hissed through the pain. “Cacophony's d-distracted for now. Catrina...might still h-have the vial...”
Catrina's ears flicked and she glanced at the trio, noticing them staring at her. When they met her eyes, she turned and ran. “On it!” Ocellus called out, elytra snapping open and surging after the fleeing Abyssinian. She heard Cacophony let out a shout behind her, but then also heard dragon fire being exhaled. She didn't have any time to think of that as she followed Catrina through the door.
The Abyssinian was fast for a two-legged, middle-aged creature trying to climb stairs. Petals and leaves of witchweed scattered in the air as she ran. Ocellus didn't let the objects distract her, instead focusing on closing the distance as fast as she could, then reaching out with hooves, mouth, and telekinesis all to grab Catrina's tail. The Abyssinian let out a hiss and cry of pain as she fell forward and onto the ground just at the top of the stairs, but before Ocellus could leap on her she'd already rolled over and was swiping with her claws, two of them cutting a line right across and through the carapace on Ocellus' snout. She let out a pained hiss of her own, falling away. Rather than trying to run immediately, however, Catrina started trying to gather up witchweed seed packets.
Ocellus leapt forward. Catrina was lightning-fast in her response, claws scraping and cutting through the carapace on Ocellus' flank, but the young changeling hadn't been going for Catrina - she instead landed on the other side of her, then spun around, blocking her exit. She tried to focus past the pain as blue fire consumed her, turning her into her dragon form. Catrina hissed again, one hand clutching witchweed seed packets tightly to her chest, the other flexing and unflexing her claws.
Ocellus snorted smoke, but held up her hands. “Do you still have that vial of false love?” She demanded.
That gave Catrina pause. “What?” She demanded. “How addictive is that to you changelings?”
“Says the creature with an arm full of - ” Ocellus began, but then shook her head, spreading her draconic wings wide. Below them, she heard Smolder roaring, as well as another draconic roar - Chrysalis, probably. “It doesn't matter! Do you have any false love, yes or no?!”
Catrina almost looked like she was about to argue, but then heard Cacophony's all-too familiar scream of rage. She glanced behind her, then back to Ocellus as she reached into her robes and produced a familiar glowing pink vial, the false love she'd shown off in the mayor's office. She regarded it for a moment, then looked to Ocellus. “There's a good bet that it doesn't affect her, dearie,” she said, tossing it forward. “She is a Princess of Love, after all.”
Ocellus caught it. “You better hope it does,” she said, staring down at what Chrysalis had called liquid death for changelings, an innocuous glowing pink vial no bigger than one of her draconic fingers. “Because if it doesn't, Cacophony will be coming after you next.” She stepped aside.
Catrina eyed her a moment before slinking on by. Once she was past Ocellus, and the changeling returned to her true form, she offered a grin. “Good luck then, Ocellus,” she said, then shot off at a run.
Ocellus didn't want to let her go...but there were much bigger fish to fry. She clutched the false love in her hooves as her elytra opened and she flew back down to the subbasement.
Chrysalis had indeed taken on a draconic form, a black-and-green one about the size of Dragon Lord Ember that exhaled jade flames at Cacophony in as continuous a stream as possible, keeping her back while Smolder flew - badly with her injured wing - and kept pelting her with fireballs of her own. Cacophony had a shield up to protect her, one she had to pump continuous magic into since dragon fire had natural anti-magic properties...but she was the Alicorn of Love, a bottomless well of it even as she was a Changeling Queen, a creature for whom love and magic were identical. She could probably keep her shield up for a lot longer than Smolder or Chrysalis could keep their fire going.
She was proven right when, unfortunately, both Chrysalis and Smolder stopped exhaling at the same time - they might not have needed to breathe in those forms, but their inner fires did. Cacophony was quick, dropping her shield and lashing out with telekinesis, sending Chrysalis flying away and making her collide with a far wall with enough force and pain to force Chrysalis back into her true form, while she seized Smolder in her telekinesis and started squeezing.
“Fine...FINE!” Cacophony screamed, looking at where Chrysalis had been hurled, where she was struggling to get her hooves under her. “I don't have time for you, shadow-of-my-mother! I have too much to do - have to repair my mirror, return to my world! So you will die quickly and so will your minions but you will still all die all the same! Does that please you, mother?! Are you happy with the fate you have chosen?!”
Chrysalis couldn't respond as she stumbled and fell to her knees and hocks, glaring pure hatred at Cacophony as the alicorn-changeling squeezed her captive. Smolder struggled against the telekinesis, tried to breathe fire, but Cacophony lashed upwards with one hoof, smacking her jaw closed, then brought that hoof down and forced Smolder to the ground under it, pressing down as hard as she could even as she looked like she was trying to pull Smolder's wings right from her back. Smolder let out a muffled, smoke-filled shout of pain, squeezing her eyes shut while Cacophony's horn flared brighter, energy building at its tip...
But Ocellus, the moment she'd seen Cacophony turn her ire on Smolder, had transformed into a bite-acuda and swam up through the shallow water, unnoticed by the singularly focused Cacophony. She'd burst into her true form right beside the hybrid princess with a full changleing war-hiss, horn already glowing with telekinesis as she uncorked the vial of false love and shoved it into Cacophony's open mouth. “Zzztay away from my Zzzmolder!” she buzzed in an almost feral tone as she poured the contents down Cacophony's throat.
Her reward was a choked gag from Cacophony - and getting blasted full-on in the chest with the magical force that had been intended for Smolder. She went flying away like a rag-doll, rolling in the water and coming to a stop only when she hit the wall and heard cracks all across her body. It took several seconds before the pain of her carapace cracking open at her chest and along her back caught up with her, but when the pain did, it raced through every neuron in her brain and set them on fire.
But she didn't scream. She hissed and whimpered and trembled, but she wouldn't give Cacophony the satisfaction of her screaming. Instead, she focused on the alicorn-changeling hybrid. She'd let go of Smolder, her horn going inert as her hooves went to her throat. Cacophony was choking, gagging, tears in her eyes from having breathed in the false love as much as she'd swallowed it...but those eyes were growing wider by the moment, the pupils in them dilating. “Wh...what...” she wheezed, looking to Ocellus. “What did...wh...h-how...wh-where...” She took a stumbling step forward, then another. She started giggling. “Th...b-but you're...j-just a drone...heh...how...”
The giggle intensified. Turned into full-on laughter as she looked down. “Rainbows in the water...” she laughed, letting herself fall over onto her side, wings spreading wide and splashing it around. “Heh...haha! Look at...look at...l-look at the water! It's all...r-rainbows...”
Smolder had picked herself up - that she was still capable of standing, let alone walking even if it was in such a stumbling way, made some distant part of Ocellus jealous. Most of her was focused on the pain, however. Smolder, for her part, ignored Cacophony entirely as she rushed right over to Ocellus' side as quickly as she could, falling to her knees next to the changeling. “Ocellus...” she breathed, hands reaching out but stopping short of touching the injured changeling. She didn't want to risk hurting her more.
Ocellus reached out with an uninjured hoof, grabbing Smolder and pulling her into a hug. She hissed in pain as she did, but when Smolder tried to back away Ocellus held on tighter even though it hurt. “D...don't go,” she said, flicking out her tongue, eating some of Smolder's feelings...and this time, purposefully letting the tip of her tongue tickle the edge of one of Smolder's ear-fins. A burst of surprise and love and greed and concern all met Ocellus' tongue, were taken into her, settling warmly into her heart.
Smolder eventually shifted, not letting go of Ocellus but wanting to look over her injuries more. “W...will you...?”
“Y-yeah...I c-can...c-can induce an early m-molt...I'll b-be fine...” She giggled even though it felt like needles in her lungs. “I'm...in a l-lot of pain right now, though...”
Movement - well, more movement than what Cacophony was doing, lying on her back in the water and splashing it around with her wings - caught both their attention. Chrysalis had risen on shaking hooves, her own carapace not looking any better than Ocellus'. She looked between Cacophony and the two teenagers, determined that the latter were closer, and dragged herself on over, collapsing in a heap between the two of them. “S...so,” Chrysalis intoned, looking over at Cacophony. Her horn glowed weakly, but stuttered and gave out. “S-so...one of t-two things is gonna happen now...either...either a swarm of changelings are going to...to come down here and save us...or the f-false love is gonna wear off on Cacophony because I have no i-idea how long it'll affect her. And th-then we die.”
She fell silent, and Ocellus and Smolder were quiet as well. It was only for a few minutes, however, as before too long the door to the chamber once again burst open - and more than a dozen changelings came spilling into the room, as well as swarming down through the hole in the ceiling that Smolder had dug earlier. The changelings all froze at the sight of Cacophony completely strung-out - and as one, recoiled when they saw Chrysalis, and realized that they recognized her.
“Oh...good...” Chrysalis intoned, and then let herself fall onto her side, lapsing into unconsciousness.
Ocellus looked to her, taking in a deep breath - though it hurt like nothing else - and sighing. “That's...not a bad idea,” she managed to stutter, just as her adrenaline finally gave out, and blackness claimed her.
Smolder had only barely paid attention to whatever happened over the next few hours. All she cared about was Ocellus. She'd snorted smoke at the changelings as they tried to get close to her, at least until they'd explained that all they wanted to do was use ooze to seal up some of the cracks in her carapace, help keep it together until they could induce a molt. She'd allowed them close then. To her surprise, none of the changelings even tried to take Ocellus from her, in fact quite the opposite, they kept telling her to stay close to her and keep doing what she was doing. Which was exactly what she intended to do.
Cacophony had been cocooned tightly, the best prison to hold her for the moment. The anti-magic ring that had been on Chrysalis when she had been imprisoned had been stumbled across and put on her first, the best way to prevent any escape attempt. The magic mirror had also been recovered. It was about then that pony police and emergency responders had finally shown up. Things might have gone smoothly if not for one thing: Chrysalis.
The changelings had wanted to cocoon her just like Cacophony, but without another magic-suppression ring Chrysalis would be able to escape in short order. Some changelings had suggested taking more drastic steps, but Smolder had breathed fire at them and made it clear that any attempt to harm Chrysalis would result in the offending changeling being set on fire. The ponies showing up had been a better alternative; they'd offered to take Smolder, Ocellus, and Chrysalis to the nearest hospital. The wyrm within Smolder wanted all these creatures to just go away, but the actual person inside of her knew that a hospital was the best place for her and her friends. As they'd left, Chrysalis on a stretcher and Ocellus clutched tightly in Smolder's grip, she'd heard the changelings talking, buzzing among themselves as they saw their former queen...their former Reformed queen.
Smolder didn't need to be a changeling to smell and taste their confusion and uncertainty. But she didn't care about it at the moment, either. She'd just followed the emergency responders out to an ambulance cart and held Ocellus as gently and yet tightly as possible, focusing on the tiny changeling's breathing, the occasional soft murmurs of her sleep. She'd occasionally take in long, slow breaths or lick her lips subconsciously, and in the latter case Smolder kept feeling a pull across her soul. She did nothing to fight it. Ocellus liked the taste of her greed, and Ocellus was hurt, so Ocellus could have all the greed she wanted.
At the hospital, doctors fussed over her, Ocellus, and Chrysalis, and police wanted statements. Smolder let the former do their thing and gave short, curt answers to the latter. She and Ocellus had been allowed to share a room, while Chrysalis had been put in her own under guard, a magic-suppression ring having been found and placed around her horn. Smolder wanted to care about that in some intellectual way, point out everything that Chrysalis had done to help them...but at the same time she knew that Chrysalis was at least twice over an enemy of Equestria, and besides, Smolder had a bigger concern: Ocellus.
She wasn't actually sure how she ended up in a bed, as she was pretty sure that she wanted to remain beside Ocellus the entire time, sitting in an adjacent chair and holding Ocellus' uninjured hoof as tightly as she could. She suspected the doctors must have overpowered her somehow and injected her with something to force her to sleep. A slightly acrid smell in the air and a little scorch mark on the wall seemed to lend credence to that idea. Nevertheless, she woke up to find Ocellus was awake as well, looking directly at her. The ooze that had been sealing the cracks in her carapace was gone.
“Hey,” Ocellus said softly. She was holding onto a plastic cup full of some kind of thick maroon liquid, was drinking it down even as she winced at the taste. She chuckled. “The dragon wakes from her slumber...”
Smolder rolled over onto her stomach, looking to her wings. The torn membrane had been stitched closed, and the wing was in a binding to keep her from stretching out the membrane and tearing the stitches. Across her body, damaged scales had been pulled loose, exposing raw although still tough flesh underneath; it would be weeks before everything had grown back. She was also pretty sure she was missing a few teeth, though those always grew back in dragons as well. “H...how are you?” Smolder asked.
Ocellus finished her apparently vile drink, setting it down on a nearby table with a trembling hoof. “I'll...be better once that kicks in,” she said. “It's a brew that induces molting. Takes a few hours. Ecdysis dropped it off.”
Smolder nodded as she studied a currently scale-less portion of her arm, before blinking. “W-wait, Ecdysis? But she's still passed out in the drunk tank...”
Ocellus shook her head, though winced at the effort. “We've, uh...been out for awhile, a few days. I only woke up an hour or two ago.” She shivered. “Th...the doctors say that you actually took a lot worse than me...but dragons are just built tougher.”
Smolder shrugged, though she winced as she did since her instinct was to spread her wings when she did that, but that pulled at the stitching along her membrane. She glanced at the thread holding her wings closed, picking at it with one claw for a moment before stopping lest she ruin what the doctors had done. “It's gonna take me weeks before I look normal again, though,” she said. “You'll be fine this time tomorrow.”
Ocellus began to respond, but froze. “Oh, uh...w-well, I'll be fine, and...and I promise I'll do everything I can to m-make sure that you're fine too! I won't...” she screwed up her face, gathering her courage as she actually tried to rise in her bed, though she quickly collapsed from the effort. But she looked to Smolder with determination. “I won't let him do anything to you!”
Smolder blinked, head turning to the side. “Him?”
Ocellus' horn stuttered a few times, grabbing a piece of paper that had been sitting on the bedside table and floating it over to Smolder. She grasped the paper from the air and looked to it.
Dear Ocellus and Smolder,
I just opened the paper this morning for the first time in a few days - myself and my friends have been busy in Canterlot with the Summer Sun Celebration, or the Festival of the Two Sisters as it'll be known from now on, but that's a whole other thing - and read about everything that happened in Tiatarta, or at least some of it, something about a conspiracy, and love poisons, and an invasion from another world? I don't know what's going on but I'll be there as soon as possible! Myself and Starlight will take turns teleporting, we should arrive later today!
- Headmare Twilight
Dear Headmare Twilight,
Don't worry, everything's okay! Me and Smolder and Ch another creature were able to stop everything with help from the Nook. We were kind of hurt in the process but the doctors say that we'll be fine, and all the bad creatures were taken into custody by either the Nook or the Tiatarta police! There was a little bit of concern since apparently Cacophony (an evil half-changeling half-alicorn from another world) was exerting some control over the police force but Mayor Delilah Dusk gave permission for the Nook changelings to also keep an eye over us along with the police. So everything's fine!
- Ocellus
Ocellus,
You don't understand! I read about it in Equestria Daily! And I know that the Badlands Hive has a subscription to it! Which means that Thorax and PHARYNX read the same thing I did: “the heroes are currently recovering in Tiatarta General Hospital and are expected to make a full recovery!”
- Twilight
It should have been literally impossible for Smolder's blood to run cold, and yet she was pretty sure she felt it turning to a gelid ooze in her veins as she read the last missive. “Oh no - ”
Either they had been waiting for Smolder to speak, or else the universe had a cruel sense of dramatic timing. In either case there was the sound of shouting from outside of their hospital room, threatening hisses and the buzzing of changeling wings. Smolder found herself badly wishing that Rep or some other hybrid had escaped their prison and was coming looking for revenge, but she had no such luck. Instead, the door to the hospital room was seized in blue magic and torn from its hinges and tossed aside, and Smolder got to meet Pharynx for the first time.
He wasn't much shorter than Chrysalis, his carapace largely a dark pine green, but with purple compound eyes, purple elytra, and red antlers atop his head. And somehow, even though his fangs were proportionately no larger than Ocellus', Smolder just noticed them more, perhaps because his mouth was already open a snarl. His elytra snapped open and spread his crimson wings as soon as he stepped inside, and Smolder could just tell that every single facet of his compound eyes were focused on her.
Smolder had genuinely not believed that a Reformed changeling could be intimidating, especially not to her. She was very, very wrong. The moment he'd entered the room she'd started exhaling smoke defensively.
Pharynx hissed. “You. Had. One. Job.” He jabbed a hoof at Ocellus. “ONE JOB, DRAGON! KEEP HER SAFE! NOW I'M GOING TO - ”
“Pharynx,” a quieter voice intoned. Pharynx seized up at the sound of it, as did Smolder and Ocellus. Thorax came in after his brother, the King of the Changelings' entrance far more subdued as he placed a hoof on his brother's withers. “We talked about this on the train ride here, remember?”
Pharynx snorted. “Yeah, I remember you talking. I never said I agreed with any of it.” He looked at Smolder. “It's been awhile since I've eaten dragon but I remember liking the taste.”
“U-um,” Ocellus spoke up from where she lay. The two royal changelings turned to look directly at her. She wilted, but pressed on front hooves twirling around one another. “S...Smolder did everything she could to keep me safe, everything. B...but in order to do that, we had to break curfew, and she had to let me go off on my own, since it was the best way to keep me safe. But....but me running off on my own was my idea! So I deserve to be punished too.”
Pharynx snarled again, but Thorax once again held up a hoof, then came forward, looking down at Ocellus, and the remaining thick, maroon liquid in the cup she'd been drinking from. “So everything will be fixed by a molt?” He asked. When Ocellus nodded, he did too. “Alright. And thank you for telling me immediately that you broke the rules I'd laid out, but also why.” He smiled down at her. “It can be sort of easy to get into the habit of lying when you spend time around other races. I know I did when I lived in the Crystal Empire, never anything big or bad, but it was just so liberating in its own way. But it's not a good habit.” Thorax turned to Smolder. “If you don't mind, could you tell me everything that happened?”
Smolder swallowed. She knew exactly why Thorax had talked to Ocellus first, brought up the habit of lying before turning to her. Somehow, even though she was more viscerally afraid of Pharnyx - who was still standing in the doorway, elytra spread wide, snarling at any doctor or nurse that tried to get inside - she felt more intimidated by Thorax. Not in the sense of bodily harm, but rather the King of the Changelings just exuded this natural aura around him that almost made it feel like lying to him or disappointing him would be the worst thing in the world.
So Smolder told Thorax everything she could about what had happened in Tiatarta, everything she knew about the two days she and Ocellus had been in the town, what they'd gotten up to, what they'd learned...and who'd they'd met. The one time she'd paused, unsure, was when it came time in her retelling of events to reveal that Nonchalant was really Chrysalis. She'd wrestled with it for a moment before Thorax had reached out a hoof and put it on her shoulder and told her that he already knew about Chrysalis, that she was here. The burden of secrecy lifted, Smolder pressed on, leaving nothing out.
And Ocellus had been sure to speak up as well, to tell Thorax everything she could about Chrysalis, how she'd acted, what she'd done...including relating how Catrina and Cacophony had stolen Reformation from Ocellus, had offered a chance to steal it from every changeling, and what Chrysalis had said. What she'd done - embracing Reformation.
Pharynx scoffed. “Yeah, I'm not buying it,” he said. “Chrysalis just saw a way to hurt Cacophony, so she did. It doesn't mean anything.”
Ocellus started to object strenuously, but the effort instead resulted in a pained wheeze. Smolder was out of her own bed in an instant, pushing past Thorax and grasping Ocellus' uninjured hoof, ignoring her own pain. Thorax and Pharynx were only slightly slower, and the tiny changeling quickly settled down at the presence of the three creatures around her. “Chrysalis...is changing,” Ocellus insisted once she'd settled down. “She's changing. I swear she is.”
“I never knew her,” Smolder said quickly. She stood up straighter, spreading her good wing out. “But, look, here's what I do know: she could have just let the Nook suffer, but she didn't. She had a chance to steal Reformation from you guys, but she didn't. And she and me kicked butt and took names in the skies over Tiatarta. Maybe this is just me being a stupid dragon, but as far as I'm concerned, if some creature is willing to fight with you, they can't be all that bad.”
Smolder had been around Ocellus enough to know how to read changelings, knew that Thorax and Pharynx were looking between one another with uncertainty. Smolder glanced to Ocellus herself, and saw that Ocellus was looking back at her, and nodding as she shifted in place. Giving Ocellus' hoof a light squeeze, she let go, heading out to the door to the hospital room where a bevy of doctors were waiting. “Can we get a wheelchair for Ocellus?” Smolder asked.
“Absolutely not,” one of the doctors spoke up. “You shouldn't be out of bed, nevermind her, she's - ”
“Okay, let me rephrase,” Smolder said, “go get a wheelchair or I'm burning this place to the ground.” She heard a grunt from Pharynx, or maybe a short laugh. The medical ponies, meanwhile, looked between each other, unsure, before one of the orderlies decided not to risk things and hurried off to a waiting wheelchair, bringing it forward and into the room. Smolder took it from him, and the two brother changelings used telekinesis to heft Ocellus as gently from her bed as possible and set her down in the chair.
“This is a bad idea,” Pharynx said as the four took off, Smolder pushing Ocellus' wheelchair. He glared at the doctors who tried to follow them. “If she tries anything, dragon, you run with Ocellus. Thorax, you go high, I'll go low.”
“Got it,” Thorax said. He looked down to Smolder and Ocellus. “One other thing...Smolder, if you didn't love Ocellus as much as you do, she'd be much worse off. Your love is probably what's allowed her to even be conscious. So, thank you for sharing it with her.”
Smolder flapped her good wing. “Dragons don't do love,” she mumbled.
“Oh for goodness' sake,” Pharynx hissed. “You said yourself that Chrysalis drained you and Ocellus of love after she was poisoned. What do you think that was? Dragons absolutely 'do love'.”
Smolder felt a rumble in her chest, but before she could respond with her usual litany Ocellus reached back to put a hoof on her hand. “We'll talk later,” she insisted, glancing up at Smolder. “It's...it's important.”
She really didn't want to leave things at that, but Smolder found herself sighing and nodding, not wanting to rile up Ocellus right now. The quartet took an elevator to get to the hospital's next floor, and when it opened Smolder found herself looking at a trio of pony police officers - and a sextet of changelings, including Ecdysis, all standing outside one room, the entire rest of the hospital floor having been cleared. On seeing her King, Ecdysis instinctively went down on one knee, as did all the other changelings, though they also rose swiftly.
“She's still inside,” Ecdysis said. She flashed a smile at Ocellus, but her gaze quickly hardened as she looked at Thorax. “Mayor Dusk is letting us take point on how to detain her. I have warriors in the skies outside as well. She's been tethered in place and has a magic-suppression ring on, but I'm not taking any chances.”
Thorax nodded, then looked to Pharynx. Pharynx gave a nod of his own, then cricked his neck. “If nothing else,” Pharynx said, a smile on his face as he put a hoof on the handle to the door and turned it, “it should be a real hoot getting to see what the old hag looks like n - whoa.”
Chrysalis heard the door open, and turned to look. She had just opened the window to let some fresh air and sunlight in, so the sight that greeted Pharynx was of her unblemished, glossy fuzz shining in the light as a breeze blew at her voluminous hair; she brushed some of it behind her ears, out of the way.
Pharynx's jaw was hanging open a little at the sight of her, and Chrysalis could taste surprise and wonder in the air. She grinned. “Hello, Pharynx,” she intoned. “Congratulations on being the least-awful Reformed changeling to look at. Or rather...the second least-awful.”
The words cut through to Pharynx, who closed his mouth and scowled, stomping into the room with his elytra snapping open. He looked to the bed, and saw that the leather straps that had been holding her in place were completely intact, but also apparently completely useless. The magic-suppressing horn ring was lyng on a bedside table next to the shadow's purple wooden home. Pharynx looked to Chrysalis, his glare intensifying. “How?” He demanded.
Chrysalis laughed, ignoring the pain it caused her with practiced ease. “I'm the Queen. Don't question it.” Her own eyes narrowed. “Now tell that eyesore to get in here.”
He didn't have to, as Thorax was already entering. Chrysalis couldn't stop a snarl at the sight of him, the changeling who had dared turn again her, betray her, steal her Hive...to end his starvation. To find a way to end starvation for all changelings...something he'd succeeded at where Chrysalis had failed. Although it was nowhere in sight, she could somehow feel the shadow's eyes upon her, reminding her of all that had transpired, all that she'd learned, come to realize.
Chrysalis opened her own elytra and spread her wings wide, holding them up. The tip of her elegantly curved horn was about the same height as the points of Thorax's dumb antlers, and her forewings stretched up and beyond that height. Thorax seemed to realize what she was doing, and he let out a sigh, opening his own elytra and standing his own wings up as tall as they'd go - and their height stopped just short of the point of his own antlers. “You were right,” he droned. “Your wings are longer...mother.”
The Queen smiled at her small victory, tucking her wings away before the tremble in them could be noticed. Thorax did likewise as Smolder and Ocellus came in. Chrysalis turned her attentions to her erstwhile allies. “Smolder. Ocellus. The doctors have not been talkative, my changelings even less so. What's happened to Cacophony? The hybrids? Catrina?”
“Cacophony is being kept Tiatarta's stockade,” Thorax answered instead of the teenagers. Chrysalis glared at him, but he pressed on. “She's cocooned and suppressed, and being guarded by ponies and changelings. She's not cooperating with any creature. The hybrids...they're at the Nook under guard. False love withdrawal is starting to set in so mostly we're helping them with that. The Nook doesn't have any place to really keep them, though, so we'll transfer them to the Badlands Hive. I've worked out with Princess Celestia that we'll have custody over the hybrids, while Equestria gets custody over Cacophony. I think Princess Cadance wants to see her.”
Chrysalis gave a toothy smile, and shifted her balance from one hoof to another to relieve a building ache in it. “Oh, I would kill to watch that unfold. Tell Cadance to bring Shining Armor with her. It'll be fun.”
“We don't know what happened to Catrina,” Thorax continued. “She could be anywhere by now.”
At that, Chrysalis hissed, but waved a hoof as she sat back on her haunches, taking the strain off her front hooves. “Very well. Send out infiltrators into the southern realms, she'll most likely flee in that direction, towards Abyssinia where she can blend in better, and Abyssinian soil is suitable enough for witchweed. Once she is located, spare no effort in capturing her and finding out where she has stashes of witchweed. The plant must be wiped out at any cost.”
Thorax and Pharynx looked between each other. “What are you doing?” Pharynx finally asked. “Giving out orders like that? You forget what you did?”
Chrysalis hissed. “What I did is lead the Hive for over a thousand years. What I did was keep you secret and safe and fed as best I could for all that time. What I did - “
“Was run away!” Pharynx objected with a stomp of his hoof. Chrysalis kept herself from flinching, or at least hid it by lifting a hoof and resting it on her barrel. “You had your chance and instead you threw it in our faces and flew off.”
Chrysalis glared at him. “Stare down every living enemy you have at once some time, you jumped up drone! Them and all your subjects turning against you! See if you stand your ground!”
“But we weren't your enemies!” Thorax cried out, a hiss of his own just behind his words. “Starlight Glimmer was there, she held out her hoof to you, you'd seen that there was another way and we would have gladly kept you as queen in spite of everything!”
Chrysalis snarled. “Starlight Glimmer had no right to offer me anything! She stole everything from me and then offered it back if only I capitulated? No! The Hive is mine, the changelings are mine, I am your QUEEN - ”
She'd stomped her hoof at the start of the final word - and the result was a shock of pain that went straight up its length and throughout her body. She cried out, the hoof unable to support her, flaring open her wings to keep from falling over. But that only caused pain all down the length of her elytra, and she ended up stumbling and falling down to the ground anyway. Blue fire danced over her body, but she snarled, suppressing it.
Chrysalis glanced up from the ground, and saw Thorax and Pharynx had backed away. She growled, forcing herself back into a sitting position, though she breathed heavily as she did, an ache all through her body. Thorax's eyelids fluttered rapidly. “Wh...what's wrong?” He asked.
Chrysalis hissed instead of responding. She struggled into a standing position, then started limping over to the hospital bed, though every step felt like nails being driven into the frogs of her hooves. “Nothing. Dealing with you is just exhausting. Leave me.”
Pharynx actually went to, but Thorax held out a hoof to stop him. “No,” he insisted, stepping forward. His horn glowed and a light aura extended around Chrysalis. She hissed again at the thought of being lifted like some grub, but the aura only supported her, it didn't actually seize her. Chrysalis sniffed a little at the feeling, accepting Thorax's proper supplication and aid to her royal person as she made it to the bed and crawled onto it. She managed to keep her breathing at a mostly normal level.
Smolder and Ocellus reminded the older changelings that they were in the room then, Smolder wheeling Ocellus in her chair over to Chrysalis' bedside. The True Queen of the Changelings looked her youngest subject present in the eyes, as Ocellus' own eyes took in all of Chrysalis' unblemished body at once. She looked at her own wounds. “My parents once said that I should never shapeshift away wounds for too long,” she said softly. “That wounds don't heal if we ignore them, they just hurt. And...” she reached out one of her good hooves, putting it on one of Chrysalis' own. “And I bet if we went back far enough. you probably told that to one of my ancestors at some point, didn't you? And it passed all the way down from you to me.”
Chrysalis ground her teeth together, biting back a hiss. She looked to Thorax and Pharynx, then finally rolled her eyes, sighed, and released her magic - and immediately had to bite back a cry of pain as the wounds she'd been suppressing fully returned, the cracks across her carapace, especially at her stomach. She grabbed tightly onto Ocellus' own hoof once they all came back, and when they were back and the pain stopped mounting and became acceptable again, she looked at the tiny changeling, then turned her glare back on Thorax.
“How I bet you've dreamed of seeing this,” she hissed through her pain, “admittedly probably with me in my original form...but hurt and...weak. How many nights have you imagined the great and terrible Queen Chrysalis, the being who created you and everything you are, battered and broken and at your...mercy?”
Thorax took in Chrysalis' injuries, the spiderweb cracks at her stomach, the sections of her carapace where the fuzz had been burned away. One of Chrysalis' eyes was weeping of its own accord, she wondered if it was bloodshot. Hadn't had a chance to see herself in a mirror yet. The traitor king stepped up to the other side of the bed and sat down. “I've never had a dream like that,” he said. “But...I've had a few nightmares like it.” Chrysalis could taste the sincerity in the air. She scoffed anyway. At length, Thorax spoke up again. “What would you even do if you became queen again, mother?”
Chrysalis shifted on the bed, letting go of Ocellus' hoof so that she could look Thorax in the eye. “Again? I never stopped being your queen. I will always be your queen. You can never take that from me. I made you everything you are and everything you were and everything you ever will be, will always be becuase of me. You will never stop being my subjects, not even if you kill me now and scatter my ashes to the wind.”
“Alright, fine,” Thorax said. “Fine. But what would you do?”
Chrysalis paused. She was silent for a long time. Every now and then an idea came to her, but just as quickly her own mind turned against it. Before Reformation her answer would have been immediate and obvious: feed her subjects. But her subjects were fed. So...what now?
“I...” Chrysalis finally ventured, “I...don't know.” She looked at Thorax, the traitor...who'd fed her subjects. She shifted. “What do you do?”
“Make it up as he goes along,” Pharynx said immediately. He'd moved closer to the door at the sight of the injured Chrysalis, and turned slightly...so that while he could keep an eye on Chrysalis, he could also watch outside. Protect his Queen. He probably didn't even know that he was doing it.
“Pharynx!” Thorax exclaimed. “I don't...okay, yeah, I do. But I have help. I send letters to Princess Celestia all the time, and Dragon Lord Ember. And I've been reading a lot on what rulers are supposed to be like. And Pharynx helps out too, with the stuff I'm not so good at.” He shifted a little himself. “The Badlands...food is growing there now, but not as much as I'd like. It's still a pretty dry climate even with, uh...the thing that was killing all the vegetation gone.”
“My throne. The throne you blew up,” Chrysalis said.
“Yeah, that. So I came up with this exclave idea. The Nook was the first, a proof-of-concept. If it works out there's plenty of places in Equestria and beyond where other exclaves could be set up.”
Chrysalis considered. “Not...terrible. But the Nook is poorly defended, weak. I take it that was your idea? Trying to seem friendly and cute for the ponies? But look at what happened. There needs to be a proper force of warriors, infiltrators. Even ponies have police forces in their towns.”
“That's what I kept saying,” Pharynx muttered.
Thorax was silent for a long time, before finally nodding. “You're...you're right, mother.”
Chrysalis shifted once more. “But also,” she ventured at length, “perhaps...perhaps much of what happened could have been prevented...if I'd been in the Hive. If you had been...been better prepared to deal with and understand love poisons and false love.”
“Maybe,” Thorax offered.
For another length of time, silence reigned over the changeling race rather than Chrysalis. She licked her lips, tasting the air...and the multitude of emotions that reached her was staggering. Anger and hate and resentment blended with love and hope and sorrow and anticipation, from Thorax, from Pharynx, even from Ocellus and Smolder. It was impossible for even her millennia-old pallette to easily parse.
Finally, Chrysalis broke the silence once more. “I am your queen,” she said. “That will never change. Never. But...what being queen means...might.” She pawed at her bedsheets. “And...and I am very old and...and very used to doing things a certain way. But changelings don't need to do things that way anymore.” She glanced over at Ocellus, looking at the young changeling. “Things have changed for the changelings, and...and we cannot go back. We cannot pretend to be what we were.”
Even Chrysalis knew that she didn't really mean we so much as I, but fortunately no creature present saw fit to point that out. Chrysalis looked back to Thorax. “You...I will never bow to you. I will never call you 'king'. I will never acknowledge your right to rule over me because I am your queen, forever, and you and every other changeling in this world are mine. But...” she felt her own hoof lifting, was almost surprised when she reached out. Thorax lifted a hoof of his own. They touched. “But...you seem to have a...a grasp on how to lead the changelings forward. So...you may continue to do so.”
Thorax was looking at her hoof in his own. There were tears in his eyes, becasue of course there were - he wouldn't have been Thorax if there hadn't been. He used his other hoof to wipe them away, sniffing and nodding. “I'm going to do the best I can for the changelings, no matter what,” he said. “I...I want to make us into something we can be proud of - we can all be proud of.” The scent of hope filled the air so much that every changeling perked up at it. “Will you...will you come back to the Hive?”
Chrysalis looked down, considering, wondering what would be waiting for her at the Hive if she did. She was surprised at how quickly the answer came to her: her changelings would be waiting for her. Maybe not with open hooves. Probably there would be no “Welcome Back” parade. But...they would be there.
Chrysalis looked back to Thorax, feeling her wings buzzing against her back. “I will consider it - what is that noise?”
A low buzzing had filled the air, and a glow in magenta and pink. Chrysalis turned to look in the direction of it, and saw that the two teenagers were looking at themselves. The spines atop Smolder's head and which ran down her neck and to her tail had started glowing and vibrating, while atop Ocellus' back, her elytra had started doing likewise. It didn't appear painful, at least, as the two looked startled and curious but not otherwise troubled.
“What...what am I looking at?” Chrysalis asked.
“Yeah, what's happening?” Pharynx demanded. “Is this Cacophony? Catrina? Something else?”
Smolder and Ocellus looked to one another, and both let out a groan at the same time. “Oh boy,” Smolder intoned, rubbing her face. She looked to Chrysalis. “Okay...remember how we said that we'd come to Tiatarta to solve a friendship problem...?”
“I think...” Ocellus ventured, wincing at her words as she regarded her queen, “I think that...that the friendship problem was just solved.”
Chrysalis felt her eye twitching. The twitch got worse when a cyan flash-pop filled the room behind her. “Made it!” The voice that filled Chrysalis' dreams - for in those dreams it was screaming and begging for mercy in the most delightful ways - exclaimed. Starlight Glimmer sounded exhausted.
“Good work, Starlhiiiii every creature,” Twilight Sparkle's voice said, sounding equally tired. “Um...King Thorax...Prince-General Pharnyx...good to see you...so, hahaha...Cutie Map, am I right? Sometimes it wants you to help out a resteraunt, sometimes it wants you to save Equestria! Who knows! It's really quite - is that Chrysalis?! What did she do to her mane?!”
“I'm going to kill her,” Pharynx rumbled.
“I'm going to help,” Thorax - Thorax - agreed as he turned around.
Chrysalis rolled over, and there she was. Twilight Sparkle, yes, the Princess of Friendship was there...but standing behind her was Starlight Glimmer. The unicorn saw Chrysalis, and her eyes grew huge and mouth dropped open. It was a good look on her, although Chrysalis was sure she could puppet her mutilated corpse's face into an even more amusing expression.
“One side, bugs,” Chrysalis snarled as she clambered from the hospital bed...and promptly had her legs give out and so she plummeted to the floor. She hissed in pain. “Hhhzzzkkk...fine.” She looked up at Starlight, who was still looking at her with that stupid expression. “You have until I molt into a new carapace. Then I'm coming for you.”
Starlight, wisely, disappeared in a cyan flash, taking Twilight with her. Thorax and Pharynx left the room, though not before both lifted her up and set her back on her hospital bed. Chrysalis, meanwhile, chuckled even though it hurt. She looked to Smolder and Ocellus, who apart from glowing like Hearth's Warming ornaments, looked like they were wondering if their School of Friendship was going to need a new Headmare and Guidance Counselor in the near future.
“Battered, broken, barely able to lift my head,” Chrysalis said, reaching out and tapping Ocellus, “and I still send my enemies fleeing in terror. And that is why I'm still queen.”