//------------------------------//
// 2 - Hearing 
// Story: Anarchy: Parole of a Queen 
// by Ninjadeadbeard 
//------------------------------//

“You… you didn’t!”

Pharynx nodded slowly. “Eyup. I did.”

He and Ocellus sat in her living room, on separate chairs. She took her own, a deeply cushioned monstrosity nearest to the kitchen, while Pharynx had taken Smolder’s tough, sturdy seat beside the fireplace.

They were alone in the house, Smolder and Dib getting out as soon as they realized who had come to visit. Smolder quickly mumbled some excuses, and promised she’d get a substitute for Ocellus’ classes for the day. Dib had awkwardly walked in place a few moments, probably deciding if he was allowed to be excited to see Uncle Pharynx around again, before buzzing off towards school.

The prisoner still stood outside, surrounded by a dozen Equestrian Royal Guards, and a further dozen Imperial Changeling Guards.

Ocellus hadn’t blinked in a solid minute. Pharynx was about to get worried when she started breathing again.

“You told them about the Restoration Spell!?” she cried, eyes widening further, breath coming in and out faster. “Even Thorax agreed that thing should be considered Top Secret!”

“I know,” Pharynx said calmly, “I was there…”

“If anycreature knew about that, there’d be all sorts of…!”

“I know.”

“... hurt feelings!!!”

Pharynx stared at the hyperventilating changeling, and silently reminded himself that she was probably serious about that concern.

“I mean,” he said with a raised eyebrow, “I’d be more worried about the security risks, if anycreature heard what it could do without the spell being explained first…”

“But… why that spell?” she asked, leaning forward in her seat. “I mean, I know you. What could…”

She blinked, finally. Ocellus’ breath caught in her throat a moment, and she seemed to instantly calm down, returning to her normal rhythm.

“… She can’t cast spells or use changeling magic for a while after, right? That was the reason?”

Pharynx shrugged.

One hoof tapped Ocellus’ chin as she became pensive.

“So, she’s powerless right now,” she mused. “I bet that appeals to you. After everything you told me about her.”

He just shrugged again. Somehow, this got a little smile out of Ocellus.

“And you told the Princess about the spell,” she said, humming softly to herself.

“What?” Pharynx frowned. “She’s our ally, and she asked me a question. Did you want me to lie?”

“Of course not!” Ocellus waved him down with a forehoof. “It’s just that, last time we talked, you were, uh…”

Pharynx huffed through his nose, and looked away.

“Changelings First,” he said, more sadly than Ocellus had ever heard him utter the phrase. “Yeah, I know what I.... But this time is different.”

Ocellus didn’t hide her grimace at hearing… that again. But she also didn’t say anything. Everything that had to be said had already been said, and in far angrier, if justified, tones than she had the energy to feel right now.

A moment later, once the predictable thoughts ran through her mind, Ocellus finally caught the last part of what Pharynx had said.

This time is different...

“Because she’s your mother…”

“That’s not…!”

“... which isn’t wrong to feel,” she said quickly, hooves up and placating. “But, Pharynx. You shared that with Princess Twilight! A non-changeling. That’s… I mean, considering last time, I’m sort of proud of you, you know?”

Ocellus frowned. “Well, okay, not proud… but it’s still an improvement. And I should encourage such behavior.”

Pharynx squirmed in his seat, and looked at her again. “I’d be a really lousy changeling if I couldn’t adapt to change. I’m not an idiot, Ocellus. Working with other kingdoms is…”

He stopped, and looked to be physically chewing on his words for a moment.

“I don’t hate any of them,” he said slowly. “I mean, Smolder and I got along well enough on her less annoying days. That Tempest Shadow mare wasn’t bad when we were running exercises with the Crystal Guard. And I don’t complain too much when Discord drags me off to his O&O games…”

Ocellus bit down hard on her tongue. Laughing now would not be conducive to mending fences.

“But like I told you, before…” Pharynx gave a noncommittal shake of his hoof. “Whenever I’m in a room with all of the other creatures together, I feel like at any moment they’re going to remember what we did to them for a thousand years. I can’t relax. I can’t even breathe.”

“Because you’re…” Ocellus stopped herself at the last moment.

That’s what started the fight in the first place.

Pharynx’s whole body seemed to clench up. He didn’t need to hear what Ocellus was about to say. He’d heard it once before. 

Prince Pharynx wasn’t afraid. That was an impossibility. He was the hive’s shield. Its most ferocious protector. Fear didn’t factor into things like that. It couldn’t. He wouldn’t allow it.

Not again. Never again.

“Maybe.”

Ocellus’ head snapped back, eyes wide and full of shock.

Did he just say…?

Pharynx’s head was down, and his eyes were focused on something far away.

“It’s how she made me…” he said, and then fell silent.

The tiny clock on the mantel chimed the half hour. It quietly sounded the melody to a song Pinkie Pie had composed for it, as a home-warming present. Ocellus had removed the firework launcher after the first week, for safety.

Pharynx said nothing. Nothing out loud. He simply stared into the cold, empty fireplace. Staring at nothing that could fit in such a space.

Ocellus breathed in, slowly.

“For what it’s worth,” she said, silently hoping Pharynx would look back at her, “I am proud of you. For thinking outside the Hive, for once.”

He blinked, and glanced back at the other changeling. The ghost of a smile touched his lips, but his eyes soon returned to the fireplace.

“They liked the idea,” he whispered. “Sure, took us another hour of arguing the ethics. But once they understood how the spell worked with changeling biology, the Princess and her jester came around.

“And that’s when things got weird…”





He never thought he’d be standing here, in front of her again. Pharynx had always assumed, once Chrysalis was out of the picture, that he’d go on to help run the Hive for the rest of his life. Lead his Guardlings. Write a book on tactics, or maybe changeling history (assuming they could reconstruct more of it from the burnt ruins left in the ex-Queen’s vault).

He even considered, for a time, settling down. Having grubs. A family.

Sure, that plan turned into a flaming garbage fire of his own making, but it was the thought that counted.

Pharynx thought he’d be lying on his deathbed, old and toothless, and still happy to let Chrysalis stay frozen in stone, put out for the pigeons’ nefarious devices.

And now, he was standing in the center of Canterlot Castle’s throne room, staring up at her snarling face once more. The other two members of the ‘Terrible Trio’ were long since removed from the statue base. Cozy Glow was apparently living in Ponyville again, beneath the watchful eye of an insane Chaos God and his brood – though Pharynx wasn’t too shaken up by that news, since he actually kinda liked Discord, the odd scamp – and Tirek was currently cooling his hooves in the Chimera Kingdom’s jail cells, somewhere across the sea.

“Alright,” was all he said. He didn’t have anything to say to the monster before him that couldn’t be said after the spell was cast. And at least then, he wouldn’t be dealing with an audience.

There was a literal mob of guards in the room, both Equestrian and changeling. They watched every door in or out like hawks, and were even now scanning and re-scanning every nook and cranny for some sign of tomfoolery. Even the spiderwebs were being searched for contraband.

And besides the guards, almost a dozen changelings trained in magic were awaiting Pharynx’s command to begin.

Or, well, theoretically waiting on his command. At the moment, half of them were more interested in the complementary hot chocolate smore drinks sent up by the kitchen staff on Pinkie Pie’s orders, and the other half were admiring the unicorn spellcasters as they raised a series of magical barriers across the room’s windows.

Luckily, Pharynx wouldn’t have to wait for long to get this all over with. The main doors swung inward, and allowed the final members of the day’s proceedings to enter. 

Four members, to be precise.

Princess Twilight took up the middle of her little procession, wings outstretched and mane waving in an unseen breeze. The sight was impressive, seeing an alicorn princess stride through the hall, and so Pharynx had to hold himself steady as his knees reflexively tried to kneel out from under him.

The fact that a few of his changelings and more than a couple pony guards looked to be doing the same made him feel a little less self-conscious about it.

Pharynx had been expecting Celeste Lulamoon, of course. Having an expert on magic nearby would make the ritual go much more smoothly. It was the other two mares who caught the prince off-guard.

The first was a bright pink filly with a golden mane and tail. Pharynx had files on all of Twilight’s personal students, and Luster Dawn’s had warranted a lot more study than others. One, because she was Twilight’s protégé, and held some sort of position in the Court, much like Twilight had once done alongside Celestia.

And two? She was Starlight Glimmer’s kid. Friend and Liberator of the changelings though she might be, any spawn of Starlight “Laws of Time and Space What’re Those” Glimmer deserved careful scrutiny.

But Pharynx really hadn’t ever expected to see... her again. The fourth member of the Princess’ group. An alicorn the same height as Princess Cadance, and looking for all the world like a slightly shorter Twilight Sparkle, were it not for the electric blue-green stripe in her hair, her turquoise cutie mark, and her darker coat colors.

“You again?” he sighed. Pharynx was sure he wasn’t following decorum, but inviting that creature here…

Midnight Sparkle, one of Princess Twilight’s weird human duplicates from across the Mirror to the human world, grinned maliciously.

“Hey, Frank,” she giggled. “How’s tricks?”

“Pharynx,” he corrected, holding back a snarl as best as he could. He turned towards the Princess and tilted his ears forward.

She rolled her eyes at the display. “Midnight’s here because she’s probably the best expert on magic in two universes, and because Starlight declined.”

Pharynx’s eye twitched.

“Where’s your better half?” he asked.

“On vacation with Timber and the kids,” she said, eyes drifting up to the sight of the frozen changeling ex-Queen. “I don’t get hiking, but supposedly she’s doing some astronomy study out there, so…”

“And Starlight declined?” Pharynx shifted immediately from the otherworldly creature who annoyed him the most in their past interactions, to the tiny pink creature half-cowering in front of him. “What’s that about?”

Luster swallowed, hard. “Uh… M-mom said that she’s got a lot of backstory with your M—”

A cough from Twilight caused the filly to glance up at her teacher. With an almost imperceptible twitch of her eyebrow, the Princess seemed to convey an entire lecture to the young unicorn.

“I mean, your ex-Queen,” Luster corrected herself. “Mom… uh, mine, not your-- oh, um...”

Luster held her breath for several long seconds, till Pharynx started to think she was about to pass out.

Then, she said in a single, gasping sprint, “Mom said Chrysalis hates her so I should be here in case it causes a problem!

“Phew!” she laughed, and gave a wide smile. “Nailed it!”

Pharynx swiveled his head from side to side, taking in the four again.

“So…” he said with a snort, “… a Princess, a child, a nutcase…”

Celeste glared at that one.

“… and the single most annoying creature in this or any other dimension,” he finished with another glare at Midnight, who was already hip deep in his changeling mages, analyzing the statue like it was the scientific find of the century.

“Pharynx,” Princess Twilight sighed, “I know you wanted Starlight here for the spell, but these three are the very best of the best at my disposal.”

He stamped his hooves, and looked up at Twilight with as petulant a pout as he could manage.

“I don’t want anything going wrong,” he whispered. “Celeste is acceptable. Luster is unproven… but Starlight’s earned my trust to some degree, so fine.”

He swept one hoof in Midnight’s direction. “But that creature is a menace!”

“For getting your name wrong?” Luster asked, brows furrowed.

“Twenty years ago?” Celeste added with a smirk.

“She did other stuff!”

Midnight, overhearing the conversation, laughed. “Yeah, I did!”

Twilight shook her head, and glared down at Pharynx. “She’s staying. That’s the end of it.”

“Fine!” Pharynx groused. “But if Chrysalis ends up teleported to the moon because of her, I…”

He paused.

“Actually,” he said with a smirk, “if that happens, maybe I can forgive her for the other stuff…”





She’d slipped into silence again. It happened, from time to time. Minute to minute. Decade to decade. Time was that thing that happened to other creatures, after all. She’d remained in stone while the years passed before her very eyes.

At first, she’d hated it. The cold. The stiffness. But, in time, she almost grew to tolerate it.

Queen Chrysalis had spent the first year arguing with her stone-mates. What a productive time that was! Calling Tirek stupid for not draining that awful mare Starlight Glimmer’s magic while they’d had her imprisoned. Taunting Cozy with her now permanently diminutive size.

Sure, sleep wasn’t a thing anymore. Neither were dreams. But that was fun enough.

And then boredom set in. Well, not true boredom. That would come later. For a while, the three of them were put out in the gardens, where birds would sing and the sun and moon would slowly rush by. It was something to watch, while Tirek and Cozy played chess in their shared mental space, or while Chrysalis screamed out the name of the pony who’d taken everything from her.

Yes. Starlight Glimmer. Oh, how she’d spent years remembering to hate her. Even the Usurper didn’t occupy as much of Chrysalis’ thoughts and attention as that creature did. The one who’d turned her kind against her, who made them forget their Queen.

Then, they were boxed up. One doesn’t know true boredom until one has been wheeled into a storage bin inside of a deep, dark cavern beneath the earth and left to rot.

Crumble, she supposed.

And still, the bickering and the arguing went on. Not completely, not entirely. But it was the most fun and productive part of her life by that point.

Otherwise, she’d have to talk to the other two. Or, worse… remember.

The remembering was the worst of it. There were good memories, of course. Like sitting on her mother’s lap, and listening to old Queen Caprecilia talk about the changelings’ glorious past. Of their time as masters of the world before ponies ruined it all. She could remember a few good times with the fathers of her children, as disappointing as they all inevitably became.

She remembered standing above a defeated Celestia. She remembered draining Thorax’s love from his body.

But more than that… and she remembered everything else.

Best not to.

Never again.

Once in a while, she’d wonder whatever happened to her wooden logs. She hoped they were eating well.

By Gaea’s twigs! she would think sometimes. I’m going as mad as Tirek.

“I can hear you,” he’d respond.

And the bickering would return. Sweet, blissful, anti-friendship bickering.

And then, one day, they were let out of storage, and set back down in the garden. And there were colts and fillies. And at least one nymph. A griffon. Many creatures, inhabiting the new world Queen Twibright had…

No, wait. Twilight. That was her name, yes. Chrysalis…

Wait, Chrysalis was correct, wasn’t it?

Who the buck was Starlight Glimmer?

Ah, the one we hate, yes.

But this day. This one day amidst the thousands she’d stood there, something changed.

Cozy Glow was broken off at the stem, and returned to flesh. That part was… well, infuriating, of course.

But also sad.

Sad I don’t get to torment her anymore, she told herself. Maybe she even believed it.

It was hard to hate someone who’d been with you for twenty years.

And then… she and Tirek got to watch the little monster get her comeuppance. Deposited into the throne room by magic, Chrysalis got to watch Discord’s brat slap some sense into Cozy. Over and over again. And again. And again.

There was laughter, tears, anger, forgiveness…

That last one was a bit of a downer for the Queen, but you couldn’t have everything.

But then, barely a day later, Tirek was gone too. A spell was cast, and he was free. And then another spell was cast, and his power was stripped from him. A ‘Celeste Original’, they called it, whatever that meant.

Withered, though he was, Tirek at least had the decency to turn around, and look at Chrysalis.

What had he said? It was so soon ago that Chrysalis couldn’t even remember.

He almost looked sad.

Preposterous! We were allies, certainly, but no more than that! If anything, he was sad that his brother’s people were there to arrest him. That was it. Yes.

No other reason.

The ponies and their Friendship nonsense…

She scoffed, and wondered how she could let herself dwell on such unimportant chicanery.

When I eventually get out of here, there will be no mercy for them. No room in this world for their vaunted friendships. Once I am Queen again, my kind will be able to show me their love once more, no longer confused by Thorax’s lies.

They will be mine again. I know it.

And then, she sat in the silence. She wondered if time would mercifully blur, at this point. She was tired of living through it.

And then, the changelings entered the chamber.





Queen Chrysalis hit the ground with a heavy, reverberating sound. It was like a thunderclap, the way it rolled out over the sea of changeling mages and guards. It even ruffled the manes of the four ponies who’d cast the spell that even now slowly disintegrated the stone from her back.

The tinkling sound of falling pebbles sounded next, as the stone sloughed off Chrysalis’ form. Her wings hung limp at her side, her head cast down.

Her chest muscles contracted with the sound of dry wood bending, and she took her first breath of fresh air in a generation.

And then, she sprang into action!

“FREEDOMISMINE!!!” she cried, and threw all her might behind her back legs. She shot forth like a bullet, straight at the blurry mare with the blue-green stripe in her mane.

The entire court flinched.

Not at her violent assault, of course.

It was the sound she made as the former queen slapped into the magically reinforced safety glass dome that had been teleported on top of her while the de-Stoning spell was prepped. It was like when you hit a glass fishbowl and listened to the dull bang it made.

The glassy sliding noise that followed as she slowly sank back to the floor was equally wince-inducing to the audience.

Chrysalis shook her head, and tried to stand… only to stumble, and collapse once more.

So… empty.

There was almost nothing left of her magic stores. The Love she’d carefully harvested in the wild and rationed for herself was nearly gone as well. As a statue, she hadn’t gathered more, as she’d hoped.

And right now, her head was swimming.

So much so, that she could only listen to the strange talk going on around her.

“See? I told you that safety glass would come in handy! A Sparkle Laboratories original!”

“Yes, yes. You were right. You don’t need to pitch it again.”

“Uh, is she okay? She seems a little out of it.”

“What is that stuff made out of?”

“Oh? You want to buy some for the hive?”

“You made it, didn’t you? How do I know this stuff won’t turn us into hairless apes again?”

“I said I was sorry about that! Geez! You’re as bad as Aria…”

“You…” Chrysalis snarled, and pulled herself into a sitting position. “… you have… some nerve…”

The blurriness of the world began to pull together, and crystalize. Chrysalis blinked a few times, just in case not blinking for twenty years was the reason this was happening, and was rewarded with even faster eyesight restoration.

“Chrysalis? Can you hear me?” the voice of Twilight Sparkle asked. Just hearing that whiny little pony once more with her physical ears caused the chiton on Chrysalis’ neck to itch.

“You…” she swallowed. “You will address me as Queen Chrysalis, worm!”

There was a deep, familiar snort nearby. “Yeah, this is what I figured…”

“Who is there!?” Chrysalis shouted, and swiped one hoof forward. It cracked against some sort of invisible forcefield, just a few feet away. Must have been the magical barrier she’d collided with. “Show yourself!”

The world came back into crystal clarity, minus for the small distortion caused by the field. An image of dozens of ponies solidified first, all clad in the gold and purple of the Equestrian Guard. And mixed amongst them, Chrysalis could see those jelly-bean-colored traitors, her deluded and mistaken children.

There was something hauntingly familiar about the way her changelings were arrayed around her. But something else snatched her attention away first.

“YOU!” she cried, and reared up on her hind legs. She began beating away at the dome, impotent fury flowing from her like a dam breaking.

“STARLIGHT GLIMMER!!!”

Starlight Glimmer… an alicorn? HOW DARE SHE!?

Despite Chrysalis’ obvious display of wrath and power, Starlight didn’t seem all that impressed. She watched the changeling Queen claw and bite at the invisible barrier between them like somecreature watching a foal try to walk for the first time.

“Uh, sorry?” she said, one eyebrow raised. “Got the wrong pony here.”

Chrysalis yielded to the invisible barrier, but kept up on her hind legs, wings splayed out at her sides in a show of dominance. She peered at the… at the darkly colored alicorn, and realized her mistake.

“One of your spawn, Sparkle?” she sneered.

The smaller Twilight shook her head, and glanced down at the changeling to her left.

“She’s a bit… out of it, isn’t she?”

“Yeah, I guess,” he replied. If Chrysalis didn’t know any better, she’d have sworn she recognized the voice.

But it can’t be him.

She shook her own head, and fell back to all fours.

It could never be him. My one and only…

“Ex-Queen Chrysalis.”

The ‘Ex’ caused her hackles to raise. Chrysalis wheeled about, and refocused on the largest alicorn she’d ever seen.

“What do you want, Sparkle?” she asked, and gave a mocking chuckle. “Do you want me to beg for my life? Do you want me to say I believe in your virtues of friendship now!?”

Twilight Sparkle, acting as regally and as self-important as any pony could, nodded slowly.

“Would it surprise you to know that I’d like to believe you?” she said, quietly.

Chrysalis did not give her a chance to continue. Instead, she spun about, and snaked her cat-slitted eyes across the faces of her changelings. The ones arrayed around her invisible prison flinched as her eyes met theirs, and the obvious signs of their submission to her will was almost as delicious as Love itself.

“My subjects!” she cried. “Bow before your Queen! It was I who protected and nurtured you in the lean times! I who have led our people to greatness! Remember who you are! Remember your pride! I was as a Mother to you all!”

The assembled ponies and changelings gasped, and held their breaths. The changelings, in particular, nearly wailed aloud as she turned her brilliant smile upon them.

Surely, she thought, they can now see how they have been misled? With my brilliance on display, they cannot hope but to stand with their true Queen!!!

Shaking, and shivering, the changelings still stood firm… and turned their eyes over to the darker-shelled male amongst them.

One of them opened her mouth, and said...





Ocellus snorted.

“Wait… Coccyx said… that?”

“Eyup,” Pharynx said, scratching at his nose with one hoof. “Or, something close to it. Can’t remember the whole thing…”

“‘You never loved us, you were never a mother, and we hate what you turned us into’?” Ocellus repeated, eyes wide at hearing her fellow ‘lings rebuffing their collective nightmare so… forcefully.

Pharynx’s mouth was a thin line.

“Eyup…” he said.

“Wow,” Ocellus stared at her hooves. “I’d… have expected him to just shake a little bit and ask to get started. Or for a potty break. He’s always been so non-confrontational…”

Pharynx nodded, but kept staring into the fireplace, all the same.

“Eyup,” he said quietly. “Never mess with changelings. We’re… tougher than we look…”





“P-Pharynx?” a lilac-colored changeling asked, voice quivering. “C-can we cast it yet? Or maybe take a break? S-she’s being weird.”

Chrysalis’ jaw dropped.

“WEIRD!?” she snarled, and beat the side of the barrier again. “Weird? How dare you speak to your Queen thusly!?”

“That’s the best you could say!?” the darker changeling snarled. “You’ve got her right here, and… she’s helpless! You could say anything you want to her! How she used us! How she abused her rank and title! How she was a terrible mother to everyling, and—!”

He bit down on his tongue, and started fuming impotently on the spot. Twilight Sparkle patted him softly on the back, but it seemed like it might take him a moment to calm down.

Several other changelings around the room had started taking slow, shaking steps backward during the exchange, eyes upcast at the towering malevolence of their Queen. But, with every step back, a pony would step forward. Hooves on the marble stone floor. Hooves at the changelings’ sides, and withers. A friendly smile, or a nod to follow.

The changelings firmed up their perimeter around the condemned, backed by a line of ponies. Even if the enraged leader didn’t seem to notice, Chrysalis did.

The… respect for her was falling away. That’s how she saw it.

The Equestrians are poisoning them still, with their Friendship.

That dark-cyan changeling? His rage was palpable. It was pure, and resounding at the lack of backbone in his people.

Chrysalis’ rage, however, could not be described in any of the tongues of equines. She lashed out with a roar, and a blast of acidic green magic. It scythed across the face of the dome around her, but left almost no trace of damage.

It did, however, leave the particular changeling who’d spoken up before as a shivering mess on the floor. As a replacement was brought up, Chrysalis turned her gaze back towards the one who’d truly upset her today.

“Well? Sparkle!?” she sneered. “Get on with it then! If my changelings are so… pathetic after all this time, then perhaps it is time the last real changeling left this world!”

Twilight Sparkle met Chrysalis’ glare with… something. Perhaps it was the decades in stone affecting her, or it was her weakened state, but she couldn’t quite pin down what that look the Princess gave her meant.

It couldn’t possibly be pity, could it?

If it was… Chrysalis wanted nothing more than to tear her eyes out.

“Chrysalis,” Twilight repeated. “As your terms of imprisonment were found to be cruel and unusual, the form of punishment both unfitting of the crimes you committed, and unworthy of the creatures who held you there… I, Twilight Sparkle, Ruling Princess of Equestria and Living Concordant of Friendship, do hereby declare your sentence commuted to supervised parole.

“With conditions,” she added. A piece of parchment, softly glowing purple in her magic aura, drifted up to her face. “You will be stripped of your changeling magic, and placed into the care and custody of a trusted member of the community of Ponyville. You will be taught the value and values of Friendship. You will practice these values, and follow any other instructions given to you by your appointed Caretaker and Parole Officer, or any other authority figure placed over you.

“I also expect,” she said with a smile, “a weekly report on your progress. A… letter, if you will.”

Chrysalis blinked. She looked to her left and right, and then back at the Princess. And she blinked a few more times.

“I’m sorry?” she asked, deadpan. “Is… is this the part where Discord pops out of something and drops another cake on my head?”

“Do you understand the terms of your parole?” Twilight asked, in an equally serious tone.

The former queen of the changelings threw her head back and let loose a peel of laughter.

“Do I understand!?” she laughed. Chrysalis threw her head back again, and continued to snort and guffaw. The audacity of this little… formerly little pony was unmatched!

The crown on this creature! The sheer gall of it!

“Chrysalis, do you…?”

“Of course, I understand!” Chrysalis snapped, the laughter draining from her venomous gaze. “But what you fail to understand is that I will not bow to this… this farcical court! You cannot judge me! I am a Queen! A sovereign entity! And I will not—”

“Your understanding has been noted,” Twilight interrupted. “Your acquiescence would have been preferred, but that’s enough of that.”

She turned to look down at the changeling apparently leading this circus act, and gave an impressively imperious nod.

“Pharynx, you may begin.”

Pharynx.

Chrysalis’s glare froze. Her very blood chilled at the sound of that name.

A different Pharynx, she thought. It must be.

She searched the face of this… this changeling prince. The curve of his horn. The slope of his brow. Even the way his fangs peeked out from his lips when he spoke.

Was it him?

Thorax looked different as well, after…

Pharynx smirked, and threw an arched brow over to his mages.

“Changelings?” His command was followed by a series of snaps and clicks as the changelings surrounding Chrysalis fell into a military salute.

The lead changeling swept his purple eyes across all twelve of his mages, before giving them a nod.

“Cast the Restoration Spell.”

Chrysalis could feel the emotions in the air. Any changeling could, with practice. Before now, she’d felt their fear. The ponies’ hatred of her was overpowering, like a heavy blanket smothering all else around them.

She couldn’t even feel the Love of her changelings for her, it was so strong.

At least, that’s what she’d thought.

But now, a sort of relieved sigh went up from the whole room. Imperceptible, unless you knew how.

The hate and fear were still present… mostly. But now? With that one command, it began to fall away, to melt into something else.

And at last, Chrysalis realized it was not the ponies whose hate and fear she could taste.

But… Restoration Spell?

The words rang in her mind, rattling about her as the changelings built an azure light in each of their horns. She was surrounded by glowing blue flames, magical markers like those on a clock face, and yet she couldn’t focus on any one of them.

Pharynx… and the Restoration Spell. Perhaps… just perhaps, was I…?

No.

No, of course not! She was Queen Chrysalis! Daughter of Caprecilia! Heir to the legacy of the Changeling Deers!

I MAKE NO MISTAKES!!!

“Ha,” a weakened laugh escaped her lips. She laughed again. “Ha! Ha ha ha...!”

And again. And again, as the light bloomed brighter, the spell building in its intensity.

“Ha ha!” she cried out, and jabbed one hoof towards the… towards her… towards Pharynx. “I understand now! Well done, my faithful scout!”

Pharynx continued to glare at his Queen. It was a rather good pretense, but a pretense nonetheless.

“You foals!” Chrysalis laughed again. “You utter foals! The Restoration Spell was how I led my people to glory for so long! You think this is a punishment!?”

She laughed, and laughed, and laughed some more, not noticing the way the ponies stared at her. Why bother? The predator did not concern herself with the opinions of her prey!

And he’s done it for me! For his mother! My Restoration is at hoof!!!

It was then, at the moment of madness’ crescendo, that a singular worry appeared. It was a small thing, at first, utterly drowned out by the euphoria of total and complete victory being handed to her on a silver plate. Really, it wasn’t even a worry.

It was… a math problem.

Namely, just how many mages were charging this spell?

And then, as the magic fired, and her whole world was consumed in light… Chrysalis realized what the problem was.

There’s too many of them…