Sparkling Sky sneaked a cautious look from one of the windows of his bedroom, scanning the castle walls and the sky above. Nopony... nothing was in sight. The courtyard was empty as well. Not risking another glance, he withdrew to the middle of the room, where the height of the tower could hide him from all seekers, with the exception of airborne ones. He was not sure whether they could sense his presence through any other means, but, as he thought grimly, he’d find out quickly if that was the case.
How incredibly, fatefully foolish he had been. Decades ago, when he was still a young and brash apprentice, his aging mentor told him that with greatness of mind, one should be wary of overestimating oneself, underestimating others and overlooking details; back then, he privately scoffed at his words, but now their meaning was more bitterly clear than ever. If only it was just him paying the price.
No, it was the entire kingdom, and maybe even the other pony races. Why did he not tell King Silver of his suspicions, of what he thought the mysterious invaders could be? Why didn’t he recommend checking whether the denizens of the castle were actually themselves? But he thought the possibility to be negligible. Changelings were considered to be an old mares’ tale.
Occasionally, a farmer or a townspony would discover a neighbour acting strangely and try to investigate, only for the suspicious pony to flee. Those that pursued the impostors and came back told tales of being lured far away and witnessing their transformation, but never could provide any sort of accurate description of what they looked like afterwards. The only constant between those fearful ramblings were words about green fire, torn wings, terrible fangs and pitiless eyes. The pony impersonated by those things was normally never seen again, but very rarely they stumbled out of the wilds days or weeks later, raving mad and babbling about very similar things. Those tales were the only proof of the changelings’ existence.
Posted in his own rooms high up in the castle’s great tower, Sparkling Sky had one of the best possible vantage points to witness this particular old mares’ tale come horrifyingly true. Not long after the hastily assembled guard force sent to combat them disappeared from the castle’s vicinity, dark shapes swarmed out of the ravine serving as the moat. They fell upon the small groups of young wizards and trainee guardsponies defending the walls and overwhelmed them before they could do anything. Some of the attackers then proceeded to flicker with eldritch green flames and turn into exact lookalikes of the defeated unicorns, then carry their bodies off the battlements, while the others burst open the great hall’s doors and disappeared inside.
There was a fellow Keeper stationed on the main keep’s roof below, in plain sight from Sparkling Sky’s windows, with orders to initiate the conjuration of the castle-spanning shield spell that was the defense plan’s biggest strength. Startled by the monsters’ arrival just like Sparkling Sky, he seemed to try to alert the others to the danger with a warning spell, but nopony other than Queen Amethyst herself appeared on the roof from one of the doors. The Queen fired some sort of green magical beam at the Keeper, which caused him to collapse, and then another, after which the unicorn stood back up and resumed watching the surroundings as if nothing had happened and Amethyst left through the doorway.
All of this happened in under a minute. Sparkling Sky didn’t even snap out of the initial shock before it was all over, and the scene on the roof caused him to bolt downstairs and lock his study’s door. He could’ve tried to fight back against a surprise attack, but this was something else entirely.
The Queen was a changeling. The castle had been infiltrated. The defense plan was known to the invaders, or perhaps—the old unicorn’s mind chilled even more at the thought—devised by them. There was no fighting such an enemy. It was as if that acid-green beam had stricken him instead of the hapless pony on the roof.
They had fooled everypony, but worst of all, they managed to fool him. He could have foiled their plan with one simple suggestion, and him being one of the King’s advisors, it would not have fallen on deaf ears. This shouldn’t have happened, and it was his fault that it did. And now he, Sparkling Sky the Spellslinger, dauntless Keeper of the Circle of Day and Night, proud and undisputed bearer of the mantle of the champion duelist of the realm, lauded as the paragon of everything a wizard should strive to be, was huddled in the middle of his own quarters, stricken with guilt, fear and shame not felt in many years.
He didn’t know why the changelings hadn’t come for him yet, but the part of him concerned with self-preservation was forcing him to try and stave that moment off by being as unnoticeable as possible. The more reasonable area of his mind, however, had gradually shaken off the panic and began working on dealing with the problem at hoof.
First of all, he needed to assess the situation. He did not know what had been going on in the castle since the changelings’ lightning-fast attack thanks to the remoteness of his location, but he was fairly certain it had not been in the unicorns’ favour. It was safe, although horrifying, to assume that the castle had fallen. Assuming that, Sparkling Sky felt that he needed every edge he could get to be ready. Given that the changelings were as close to unknown as a creature could be, he did not think he could figure out any weaknesses of theirs without first facing them, but perhaps he could improve his own strengths. Him being a wizard, they mostly had to do with his unicorn magic.
With this purpose in mind, he looked around the bedroom. It was certainly cozy, but the vast majority of things that could help him were in the working area below. He slowly moved from the place he’d been occupying for the past few minutes and crept towards the side of the room, where a thin wooden staircase ran downwards along the wall, leading to the study, then stalked down the steps.
Once there, he cast his gaze along the shelves holding his private library, trying to figure out what would be the most helpful thing in this situation by looking at sections dedicated to different subjects. ‘Phoenixes... no, still experimental... Shields and barriers... hmm, perhaps. Midnight Star’s works on combat telekinesis... yes, yes...’ A more coherent plan was beginning to form in his head. He proceeded to trot over to the semicircle of tables and desks he used for most of his work and research, checking each of them for what he was looking for.
A heap of paper on one of the desks revealed a scroll containing complex blocking and deflection spells. He put it aside, seeing as it had been written by himself, and he still knew its contents by heart. Without even turning around to look, he levitated one of the volumes by the biggest authority on telekinesis in the Kingdom’s history off its shelf and towards himself, then scanned it for the magics he had in mind. It didn’t take long for him to find them. If anypony had ever been good at inventing new and interesting ways of flinging things about, it was Midnight Star.
Sparkling Sky passed by the potion-mixing set, not being in a situation allowing for the delicate, precise and lengthy operations normally involved in using it. Digging into another stack of papers and books, he uncovered a small tome of attack magic and gave it a look-through—he would have been a poor duelist if he didn’t know it, but fighting a more numerous enemy could require spells not normally used in single combat, not to mention that a true battle called for much more lethal magics than a contest of magical prowess.
The last desk was cluttered with scrolls of all sorts, from notes on the phoenix life cycle to a spell that could turn rocks into regal gowns—temporarily, at least. Sparkling Sky was about to step away when a thick roll of paper covered by the others drew his eye. He reached out with his magic and it sprang into the air, unrolling as it floated towards him.
“The Properties of Magically Molded Gemstones, by Star Swirl,” he mumbled, reading the title. It occurred to him that he had not truly read his apprentice’s treatise, only taking a glance at the first few paragraphs and leaving the rest for an indefinite ‘later’ when it was presented to him. The reasons for that were simple—Sparkling Sky was busy with research of his own at the time, and the subject was well-known to him.
Indeed, a magician like himself simply had to know of such things. While very difficult to create, a gemstone that had been forced out of its original form and completely reshaped through magic had an effect on other spells and enchantments, varying in accordance with the type of gem used. The process of crafting them was an arcane art known to only the best jewelers of the realm and required outstanding mastery of innate unicorn powers to successfully practice.
As with all items able to improve a pony’s magical power, molded gemstones were highly sought after by wizards. Throughout his long and successful career, Sparkling Sky had accumulated a small collection of his own, and while the gemstones’ use was banned in competitions and duels so as not to let an unfair advantage affect their outcome, they had aided him on many an adventure. It was good that he’d found this scroll; in his shaken state, it could have taken him far longer than that to come across them.
Curiosity, as ever striking at the least appropriate time, made him unfurl the scroll further despite the protests from his more cautious and logical aspects. There were diagrams of gems of different forms and sizes with notes scribbled all around them. His eye picked out certain words and phrases of the opening paragraphs: ‘common fallacy’, ‘recurring patterns’, ‘conclusive results’. A bit further down the scroll, underlined and enlarged for emphasis, there was a statement: ‘The properties of magically molded gemstones are determined not only by type of gem, but also by the resulting shape.’
A metaphorical light flared up in his head. Surely, he knew everything there was to know about these things... but he had enough reasons to doubt himself, and besides, he’d never actually researched the matter in such depth. Curiosity surged forth and took full hold of Sparkling Sky’s mind, as it often did in times of great stress. He rolled the impressive scroll open and read on.
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Star Swirl had been expecting an ambush, a changeling army pouncing out on them from among the trees or dropping out of the sky in a deadly charge. What he hadn’t been expecting was nothing. The band of twenty unicorns left the mines, crossed the torn-up clearing strewn with the bodies of fallen beasts and emerged out of the wood surrounding it, and not even once did they see any sign of the enemy.
At first they moved slowly and cautiously, as Moonlight expected heavy resistance every step of the way and wanted to be ready for an attack. However, as time went on and nothing seemed to be trying to stop them, the party switched to a brisk trot to cover the ground more quickly; it was practically impossible to go faster due to the unicorn’s weariness and the sorry state of the road, which did not take two weeks of constant rain and an army of ponies marching down it very well.
Star Swirl and quite a few others had taken to keeping off the road itself, because it had essentially become a lengthy puddle of mud running with rivulets of dirty water and not having his hooves get sucked into it with each step he took made the uphill trek a lot easier. It would have saved his cape from getting even dirtier, too, but there was too little of it left to reach the ground—the changelings’ hooves and teeth had torn away most of its tail end as well as the very comfortable hood, exposing his head to the cold rain. By that point, however, it did not matter much whether his head was covered—the rain had soaked everything and everypony to the bone, and the drenched garments only added to the weather’s chill.
He looked across the grassy slope towards the castle ahead. Through the curtain of rain it appeared dark and devoid of life. Even the Tower of the Cycle, normally standing out gracefully above the grey mass of stone, was forlorn against the gloomy skies. It was impossible to see any details, but a foreboding feeling hung in the air. Star Swirl shivered from more than just the cold as the thoughts of changelings infiltrating the castle returned to assail his mind with unsettling visions.
The ponies gradually slowed down as the slope became steeper. The castle was still quite far off. The uneven expanse of grass separating them from it looked perfectly, treacherously calm; everypony seemed to be on edge as they scanned every inch of their surroundings for hints of anything suspicious.
Seeking to calm his mind, Star Swirl turned to Opal Beam, who was walking close by, also avoiding the road. “What do you think we’ll find in the castle?” he said.
His friend glanced in his direction before returning his gaze to the surrounding slopes, nervously scanning them for any kind of activity. “Don’t know. I hope it’s safety and not more of those things waiting for us. We’ll find out soon.”
Not finding much reassurance in that, Star Swirl nevertheless said nothing more, looking instead towards Lieutenant Moonlight and Keeper Nightshade walking together at the head of the group. Hoping it could help him take his mind off the frightful possibilities, he tried to recall the story of these two rising stars of the kingdom.
Moonlight and Nightshade were the foals of a wizard and a poor village mare, saddled with their father’s great expectations from their very birth. To the father’s delight, Nightshade surpassed his own magical ability, and so was taught everything the wizard knew. He was apprenticed to a Keeper when barely out of foalhood, yet still managed to perform better than most; his talent was great enough for him to be accepted into the Circle at an unusually early age, and since then he had been building his reputation as a brilliant mind and a remarkable pony with a bright future.
Moonlight’s fate had not been as easy. While powerful compared to most other unicorns, she was not as magically talented as Nightshade and thus frequently overlooked by their father, but had a mind rivaling her brother’s in acuity and depth. While her twin found near-universal acceptance, she was often ignored or underappreciated; determined to prove herself, she chose a different path and joined the guard. Her subsequent meteoric rise through its ranks by virtue of her tactical thinking and almost unponylike levelness of mind in even the worst situations earned her a name of her own, finally proving her worth to herself, her father and everypony else. Captain Steel Hammer’s trust in her judgement was approaching absolute, and considering his reputation as the most martially adept pony of the realm, it was no small thing.
And yet throughout all this, the twins remained remarkably close and helped each other when able. Their bond was heartwarming to behold, and the mutual support and compensating for each other’s weaknesses helped them perform much better when working together. Star Swirl couldn’t wish for better ponies to lead the outrunner party. If only Sparkling Sky was with them too.
At the thought of his mentor, the fearful ideas of what could’ve happened at the castle came back. Star Swirl scowled and tried to simply block them out, instead focusing on the surroundings. He couldn’t do anything but hope that his fears would turn out to be unfounded and that everypony in the castle was safe.
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She reclined on the throne—her new throne, as she reminded herself with a contented giggle—and idly observed the vast hall before her. Now that the king with his sweet, nourishing love was by her side again and the castle ponies posed no threat, she could allow herself to take in more sights of her new domain than was strictly necessary.
The throne room was long and high-ceilinged, with parallel rows of widely spaced columns running along its length. Banners adorned with various motifs, many of them frayed with age, hung from the arches connecting their tops, reaching halfway to the floor. On the wall behind, above the throne’s dais, was what she thought was the unicorn king’s own symbolic image, and above it were yet more decorations: a depiction of a unicorn performing a spell flanked by likenesses of the sun and the moon. There were windows high above the floor, positioned so that the throne and the images on the wall were in the focus of the light streaming through. The ceiling was occupied by a massive painting of, as Chrysalis saw it, many dots with lines forming patterns in between them and outlines of various creatures around them. She reckoned that it had to be dedicated to astronomy—of all pony tribes, unicorns were the ones most fond of wasting their time staring at the sky.
The sheer size of the hall was to her liking—according to her taste, a hive’s throne room had to be grand. There were definitely going to be changes, of course. She would remove the unicorn symbols first and foremost, for it was her kingdom, not theirs. The banners, however, she would keep as a reminder of her triumph, but move them elsewhere, because the arches would be ideal to hang cocoons from. The ceiling fresco would have to go, because the pointless astronomical imagery annoyed her. The windows could, after some work, be turned into convenient entrances and exits for her minions and herself.
She giggled again. This was her castle now, the seat of Queen Chrysalis, ruler of the Changelings and future mistress of all ponykind, and she was going to reshape it as she saw fit. It was to become a perfect dwelling for her changelings and an impregnable fortress from which she would rule over the entire world.
But she could not yet sit back and feed and bask in her victory. There remained a few menial tasks to perform—one last elderly wizard to pay a visit to, and the pesky, stubborn guards heading back to the castle. The former would be of no difficulty, just like all the others, and as for the latter...
She chuckled, and the chuckle grew into a laughter so uproarious she had to catch her breath afterwards. She couldn’t have done better herself. The ponies’ incredible foolishness once again made her task a lot easier, and, this time, considerably more enjoyable. Her minions were ready. She only had to wait until they were in the right place.
Chrysalis rose from her throne and began to trot purposefully across the room, leaving the unicorn king and the guard captain to flank the empty seat, wall-eyed. With a flicker of magic at the tip of her horn, she commanded the bodyguards to follow. If she wanted to be in time for the entertainment, she had to deal with the last wizard now.