It was all over. Maybe, if she had at least a few more years to practice with her “gift”, she could have defended against the accursed rainbow. Maybe not. But even with the boost from rekindled rage and hate that Twilight’s proclamation has given her - her newly made shield lasted a whole three seconds… leaving her on the ground - completely spent out and mostly defenseless for the normal combat, even before the pink abomination of a pony had thrown a giant cake at them. But even the dreaded rainbow couldn’t extinguish or purge the eldritch energies from her body, only to break her containment over it. Even if she wanted to back up it was way too late for that now. She had a few more minutes at best, maybe ten if she really wanted to push it. But in the end, it was fine with her. A fitting moment to end the story on HER terms, rather than take yet another humiliation.
As the alicorn sisters approached her, she slowly stood up, pushing her body for the last few movements, just too look at their faces from an equal height. They were speaking something, but she could neither hear anything nor any reason to reply. Then, with the traitorous spirit of Chaos joined them, alicorns finally fired their spell at her. Petrification magic was quick at work, but her last spell was already ignited, so she just made a step from her companions and closed her eyes with a content smile on her face. There were no regrets…
“Together forever… I can’t think of anything that they would want less” said Discord as he walked to the newest Equestrian statue and tauntingly clicked on Chrysalis’s horn. Silence only reigned for a moment though, but before most of the crowd could fully erupt in a celebratory cheer there was a loud sickening crack coming from the statue. And quicker than anyone could do anything about it, a web of cracks rapidly spread from Chrysalis’s horn over the whole statue with the bright green flames immediately bursting from the fissures as the whole statue started to collapse.
Only a few of the creatures gathered weren’t momentarily stunned by such display and even fewer of them could try doing something quick enough, with Celestia and Luna teleporting back and starting to power up their magic and some multicolored glow of Discords making surrounding the statue and trying to prevent its further disintegration. For a few moments, there was still hope that whatever was happening could still be prevented, but then the green flame burst through chaotic magic and violently exploded outwards.
“NEITHER HARMONY, NOR YOUR PRECIOUS FRIENDSHIP WOULD DENY ME MY VENGEANCE” boomed the familiar dual-toned voice as the fire receded into a floating ball a few meters in diameter, and everyone could recognize the black torso of the changeling inside of it. Dozens of magical attacks hit her immediately, but even those from Celestia and Luna were unable to achieve anything aside from the growing intensity of the flames. Twilight Sparkle once again took to the sky, both to escape the growing pandemonium on the ground and to fix the situation with the help elements before it completely got out of hand. It wasn’t meant to happen though, as Chrysalis immediately crossed her path with a green ray, ignoring anything else happening around. Acting more on instinct than anything else, Twilight was able to both try teleporting away and when it suddenly failed – to put the strongest shield she could. A fraction of a second later the ray hit, cutting through the shield with no effort at all and the nothingness claimed her…
***
Twilight Sparkle wasn’t really that new to getting jolted awake. After all, she usually prioritized her studying under princess Celestia over anything else, so getting asleep while reading a particularly interesting book happened to here quite a few times, despite all the effort to avoid such embarrassing situations. And then it was only a question if she would awake to her body righting back up or to some soreness a bit later. Hypnic Jerks were also a thing at some point, though she was able to get rid of them. Mostly. Right now, though, it was just wrong. Even if she couldn’t exactly remember going to sleep last time, she definitely wouldn’t do so outside and during the day on the stone floor of some tower! She frowned. It.. didn’t even look like Canterlot! Stones were clearly very old, grey and of much bigger size than any that she remembered seeing in Canterlot, so even with the lack of the usual city-view in her sight…
“So you have finally awoken, Twilight Sparkle”
Hearing such a weird dual-toned voice from behind would give her a scare even under far better circumstances, so it was no wonder that Twilight jumped up and turned back, barely avoiding falling in the process. Her horn ignited with… actually, her magic didn’t respond at all!!! Still trying to process a quickly growing list of implications, she could only stare in bewilderment on the creature before her. It, or based on the voice, most likely “she” had some clear equine traits with her mane and body-shape, though her jagged horn, black furless carapace and something resembling insects elytra on her back adding some uncanny characteristic to her. Also, even though rivaling Celestia in size, at least, to Twilight’s immense relief, she didn’t appear hostile, just silently lying on the stone floor a dozen feet from Twilight with her face showing nothing but calm and regal tranquility, as if having all the time she ever wanted and absolutely nowhere to hurry whatsoever.
Twilight frowned. It definitely felt as if she was supposed to do something urgent and extremely important in Canterlot right now, but with her memory still being in its unnatural haze, she could only get some glimpses of it that refused to arrange themselves in proper order. It was like a weird dream, just … Wait a bit! Could it be?
“Are You… the Nightmare Moon?”
“Huh??”
The look of utter dumbfoundedness and the laughter that followed shattered the regal image of the mare before Twilight like it was never even there. Twilight’s frown deepened. If her latest hypothesis on the nature of this predicament seemed that absurdly wrong, what has actually happened to her and more importantly who was the mare before her and where exactly were they now?
Meanwhile, with some visible effort, the dark mare finally stopped her impromptu laughter.
“That… was quite unexpected, I’d say. Although considering my own experience, it shouldn’t be that surprising that your memory was affected as well. I’m Chrysalis, Queen of changelings and last of my kind.”
There was a small pause, as both Twilight and likely her interlocutor were considering what to say, for the self-proclaimed queen to eventually rise and take the lead in their dialog again.
“Anyways, I don’t think that we have much more time to lose here. I’m offering a truce and cooperation, for now, the later at least until we find some actual food and learn more about this place.”
“Truce?” asked Twilight. “I certainly do not want to fight, but if You do know or remember more than me right now – then a bit more context or just some information would help a lot. Most importantly, where are we now and how far from Canterlot it is? Nightmare Moon is likely to represent a dire threat to the whole of Equestria and I absolutely must talk to Princess Celestia about it!”
Chrysalis closed her eyes for a moment and sighed deeply, before answering the question, “First of all, the whole situation with Nightmare was resolved quite a long time ago, with you playing a pivotal role in it, so there’s no reason to worry about it. Second, not only are we definitely not in Equestria anymore but also magic doesn’t seem to be working here as well. We may have had quite a few grievances against each other, but given the circumstances, I rather work with you than risk dying on my own.”
Not in Equestria? Dying?! It was getting worse! Situations like this were best fit for a Book, not something that she would ever want to experience personally!! … Well, she could have imagined something like that happening to her after reading one of the Daring Do books, but she wasn’t serious about that! And the implied “lost memory” twist… Stop, could she even trust this Chrysalis? She even admitted that they were enemies herself! Or could it be just a trick from a Nightmare or somepony else? But what could she do? Attacking or even outright refusing cooperation seemed just outright stupid now… Information! She just needed to learn more about the whole situation to make the right decision! And if it’s just some trick, then surely princess Celestia would help her eventually, she just needs to wait for it. Although, just in case if it was more complicated than that, taking more caution certainly wouldn’t hurt…
“So, do you accept truce and cooperation for now?” asked Chrysalis with clear impatience in her tone.
“I see no reason to refuse, so yes, I would like to accept your offer, but we do need to lay out a few terms first. Oh, and by the way, why are you sure that we aren’t in Equestria and that it’s that dangerous around here?”
Chrysalis smiled. “That’s simple. There aren’t that many cities in Equestria, and one around this tower is nothing like them. It also appears to be completely abandoned with its buildings varying from looking intact to being completely destroyed… Just look down yourself and decide if it’s the place where you’d want to be. And the Issue with magic certainly doesn’t make it any better.”
Well, that certainly sounded ominous… No one would abandon a whole city without a valid reason, right? Twilight slowly walked to the edge of the tower and carefully looked below, ready to hide behind the fortifications. To her growing discomfort, the city below definitely didn’t look remotely equestrian. Overall, it was a relatively big coastal city that mostly resembled a round pie with one solid bite taken from the side of the sea. There were some similarities to cities that were built a few centuries after Equestrian unification, as they were depicted in the historical books, she remembered reading in Canterlot castle library, most resembling old Manhattan in particular, but the differences were clearly standing out as well. The height of their tower was ridiculous already! It was clearly far above two hundred feet from the ground, and unlike the marvel of Equestrian architecture that was Canterlot and its castle it was built on an entirely flat landscape, clearly needing either use of magic, some advanced engineering or perhaps even both.
Second, few cities needed walls after the unification and those that kept them for some reason were limited in their expansion and often had to build the houses very close to each other. This city, apparently, never had such problems. There was a significant distance between the walls and the majority of the Houses, few houses had more than two stores and streets looked wider than one would expect. And roughly a third of the city, that they were currently in, was separated from the rest by another (and even bigger) wall and mostly resembled a big park with only half a dozen mansions in it. The amount of destruction below wouldn’t seem that scary on its own, but lack of a single living creature in her sight gave her spine chills.
“Not the most pleasant view, isn’t it?”
Engrossed with the picture, Twilight visibly jerked, hearing the voice from behind. As she turned around, she saw Chrysalis standing in the same place with the look of boredom.
“Given your look, I think you would agree that it’s most likely NOT safe to stay around for long. Now, you just mentioned some terms. I rather get this over quickly and move on, so I’m listening.”
***
Chrysalis certainly didn’t expect to become self-aware again, but it was pleasant nonetheless. After all, she only accepted death for a lack of better options, not for lack of desire to live. And if she’s not dead or her death isn’t just the final end of her – then it’s only better! Even that strange feeling that she just missed something important was only a bit annoying but strangely welcome. Just like a fogginess in her memories and the difficulty of restoring the rest of her senses beyond just her sight it was likely among the consequences of her final spell.
As she started to survey her surroundings with great interest, slowly regaining control of her body, the very first thing she saw - was a familiar lavender mare lying a few feet before her. That was … unexpected. Her own survival wasn’t that improbable, given her limited understanding of the spell structure that was initially forced upon her, just extremely unlikely, given all the changes she has done to the spell. The survival of the Felfire target wasn’t something she considered possible. Not that hard to fix, though.
With a significant effort, she rose, feeling quite exhausted and slowly walked forward. To her surprise, this Twilight Sparkle appeared to be a unicorn and judging by her steady breathing, very much alive and currently in a deep slumber. Good, having time is always nice. Worst case, she can always use an emergency love supply.
She looked around again. They were seemingly on the stone fortified roof of some sort, likely a tower based on its round shape. She sighed before starting to slowly move to the edge. After all, if HE would be somewhere around – she would very much prefer staying dead than be captured.
That’s an impressive height for the tower, she noted to herself, looking down. The sight of the dead city below was both relieving and alarming at the same time. At least there was no immediate rush of hostile locals to attack her, possibly a consequence of HIS visit. On the other hoof, the possibility of this place staying safe in the long run wasn’t likely at all, Dreamer or not. Back to the previous question then. What should she do with Twilight Sparkle? Or rather, how could she better use the unicorn to her advantage?
The main factors were usefulness, reliability, and danger. Could the unicorn be useful? Well, even if a significant part of her exploits could have been explained through the meddling from the accursed Harmony and its elements, she was still known for her knowledge, analytical mind, prowess with magic and the ability to make friends. The later, while not exactly that useful, given the circumstances, certainly shouldn’t be a drawback either. Was Twilight Sparkle reliable? After the Canterlot Wedding disaster, she urged her to spies to gather as much information as they could, and then spent about a week analyzing it all. To put it simply, the unicorn was loyal to a fault (though, interestingly, much more to her friends than Equestria as a whole, as her confrontation with Tirek indicated) and extremely unlikely to betray or attack unless provoked or given a significant justification for it. So basically, if she could either avoid the initial confrontation or in the worst case quickly and reliably defeat Sparkle in the ensuing combat – then should Sparkle agree to cooperate with her, no matter how reluctantly at first – than her betrayal wouldn’t be an issue, unless Chrysalis herself would give her a reason for it. As for Danger – well obviously it was all about magic at this point. Given some rest, her physical advantage should be more than enough after all. Now, she needed to do a quick check of her magic…
About a minute later she felt greatly disappointed. Not only were her magic reserves almost empty, but her magic was blocked as well, not exactly dissimilar from the way her throne worked against non-changeling magic, but even her ability to fly was affected as well! And using even a single spark of Felfire without means to reliably control it would likely end in her pointless death. Even if Twilight Sparkle was most likely in a similar situation, was the risk worth it? Although, is the risk even really that high? It simply isn’t in the unicorn's character to seek her death or even deliberately inflict harm on her. She would much rather seek answers to their current predicament, and Chrysalis can surely provide those. There even was no need to lie in this situation! Sure, she would avoid some parts of the truth, but ironically enough it would be better for unicorn as well. Despite how fun an all-out breakdown of the unicorn could be – THAT certainly could trigger some radical escalation and neither of them would want that...
With that in mind, Chrysalis lowered herself on the pleasantly warm stones of the tower, listening closely to the sound of unicorn breathing. Luckily there were no other sounds present, so it wasn’t hard at all.