The formless glared at the ponies who were still conscious and in their purest words they were terrified especially Luna who flashbacks to her creation a few years back. “Ok, listen here, FIRst discord HoW lonG HAS IT BEEN? Secondly, why in the name of Tartarus did you summon me?” Twilight cleared her throat and spoke up, swallowing all her fears.
“I wanted to be judged fairly.” Twilight explained then the Eldridge being appeared behind her having tea discord. “What how?”
“You’re Self righteous and you have anxiety issues, they’re judged and done. So BroTHEr how has being free bEEN treating yOu?”
Discord smiled. “It has been fantastic Clay, it seems you have made a mess haven’t you?” The formless pony shrugged and stretched.
Twilight spoke up “No the reformed Changelings, and chrysalis, I need you to judge them.”
The formless floated toward twilight. “guilty for the hive and innocent for the queen.” There was silence as time itself seemed to have stopped. “Punishment, banishment from all hives sired by Vehemence and the queen will be placed in the custody of the Vehemence hive.” Twilight stared for she had done it, yet it felt like a wasted opportunity not to ask more, if this being is the god of changelings.
The formless snapped its fingers creating a replica for the statue floating back to discord. “Anything interesting hAppens sincE my LaSt return iN tHis RealM?” He looked Fluttershy.” I P-p-p-px pResume that creature with a drop of Yxyxyxyyxyour power is YOoooooour—“ Twilight cleared her throat and it turned toward her.
Took in all her courage. “Did you create the changelings?” The formless floated mid air.
They were all teleported to ancient equestria. “Many millennia ago, discord, I and Harmonious forged the world. Harmonious agent of order, I agent of change and discord you already know.” Time shifted. “Once harmonious finished the creation of all things, discord placed chaos into the world, they argued until harmonious became darked with his wish to destroy the corruption in his paradise.” The being of pure rainbow pony started attacking the other two, slowly turning black and roaring gaining ten times its original size.
It yelled, launching dark dark magic at every corner and screamed. “Only through death, will there be ORDER!”
The two fought against him until the final blow destroyed. “The pony of shadows.“ Twillight speaking shocked, “Well of Shade.” From there the simulation shows how Luna, Sombra and Stygian being corrupted. First crawling into their ear whispering their fears, jealousy, anger and greed.
“Each one different yet similar, each of the strains from the same evil creature.” Formless one explained, as he showed the hatching of the first Kirin from hundreds, from of eggs. “My first attempt at purging of the great evil by creating warriors who would simply burn away the evil if they ever reached that point. Sadly this wasn’t a successful method, even if they were to fight the shadow they weren’t warriors. So I looked toward the natural world, I found a species that itself is at constant war and battle, ants and swaps.” He showed millions of species of ants, wasps and multiple other insects.
“So they’re an army to fight him, why didn’t they do anything against Nightmare moon, or—“ the formless changed the scenery. A necromancer ruling an army of undead ponies marching out of a destroyed village. “What are those?” She asked a swarm of changelings attacking the undead turning into dragons and other beasts burning the undead like roaches and the final killing blow given by a Changeling with a spiked head and multiple horns. The necromancer fell to the ground turning to dust and the dark features disappeared turning him back to normal pony.
The imagery changed back to the courtroom. “That one was long past redemption, the Changelings were designed to hunt them. Each emotion producing a specialized cast for the armies when the worst were to happen, disgust produced the medics, sadness the therapists, rage the soldiers, greed producing for the builders, Joy the mages, fear the saboteurs, love the caretakers of the grubs and last hate for the super majors, the berserker those filled with enough power to become gigantic beasts of war, all are still workers. The king converted from a pony or other creature producing the emotions for the founding hive and later from outside the hive, all to infiltrate the entirety of Equestria for the darkest day, when the shadow ponies attack. The ancestors and relation of Sombra. So you ask why? the difference being Stygian ,Luna and Sombra were sentient, they wanted to rule not destroy the world. What is better start a war with every mild case or wait until a real threat happens, those who wish to destroy the world?” His voice deep commanding was oddly attractive as twilight listen unlike Discords tricksters voice, that with each voice somehow hid a chuckle or laugh his was stoic confident and somehow hypnotic.
Twilight stared, but she noticed he was repeating from a practiced speech. “Then explain Chrysalis. If she is from a diplomat class, why did she turn in to this.” The formless looked at Twilight, her skin crawled and his eyes changed multiple times.
“DEsi#rE, Is PPpOtent YYYet ToXIc, It is Aa-a-axa-a-ax a wish for CEtians EveNt to TTTAke place, GrEEd is COMmon All want YeT few DeSire. CHrysAlis REEEEEEE Removed me FroM hErSELF and h-h-h-h Her B-B-Brood! ONCE thE ThoRax RETURned to MY Influence. Hehehehehe HE! ReconnEcted to me THE HIVE.” He went silent, now the voice sound like thousands of voices fighting to get a word in edgewise, each combating for power.
Discord flew in front of his brother. “I apologize, my brother isn’t as articulate as you or I, but what My brother means, he was able to reconnect with the chrysalis hive after using that rainbow love blast.” The formless nodded, as some of the faces changed to look like thorax and the other Changelings queens. “Looks like he won’t be here any longer. His unstable since he is a being of change, time is his domain, so existing in our world.”
Fluttershy finished his sentence. “Stops Time.” The formless made a claw.
He looked at discord. “Fragments will be born from chaos.”
“Wait” they all looked at twilight. “You said nightmare and Stygian were created by this shadow. If you knew it was happening, why not stop it?”
He stared at twilight for a brief moment until everything stopped. “BECAUSE I’M NOT OMNISCIENT!” He snapped and twilight blinked, returning to before she requested the Formless one to appear.
Twilight just stayed silent. As vehemence completes her judgment. “The reformed ones will be Banished from all hives I have sired, for chrysalis she will be held in our custody.” Everyone erupted against this but twilight stayed silent.
Later in the day twilight teleported to Maxilla and locked the door behind them. “What do you know about the formless?”
Maxilla sighed, if he had gone through this game before and again. “Nothing, you can only call him once in your existence and even then most of her spoken words are messy.”
Twillight nodded understanding yet she still had questions. “How did you learn of it?” Maxilla smilled.
He spoke now with nostalgic joy. “Back in the era before the Pillars and even hearts warming, I wanted to master all forms of magic, even chaos. One day a faction in the merpony nobles wanted me to end their monarchs life. The payment was a map and a tome of the formless, only thing I got however was the map that led me to my beloved Vehemence.”
“He broke all laws of magic, existence wasn’t moving. Yet I could still breath and I have traveled through time before but never frozen time and space not only that but reversed reality.” Maxilla nodded
“Because it’s change magic. Not Changeling, change magic, unlike all other forms it’s control over reality it changes reality, time and space.”
Twilight finally understood at least parts of it. “So even when I use a spell. It’s changing something.” Twilight froze. “If he controls everything that changes.”
“Every action taken, he can control everything, yet doesn’t .” Twilight looked flabbergasted. “It is a being of the present. Order is the past, change is the present and chaos is the future. So far both discord and the formless seem to have an agreement that mind control is to never be used, even when you fought against you and your friends he didn’t control you just corrupted you and your friend.”
“I always wondered why he didn't just take control of everything. Under this logic discord can see the future.” Maxilla smirked at twilight. “No, unless.” Then she had a lightbulb moment. “He can view all branches of the future.” Maxilla chuckled. “That’s why he's like this, if he knows everything but nothing at all at the same time!” Maxilla sighed joyfully. “So the formless don't just erase the shadows and the ponies of shadow because their wish to preserve free will?”
“It’s equal to eating tainted mushrooms and swimming in a pool made of rainbows. Insanity, yet I can’t argue with them. Without free will what would we all be, Harmonious wanted ultimate order. Yet both the formless and discord wanted freedom of everything. Like how I wanted to learn all magic in peace.”
“What will you do now?” Twilight asked with concern and fear.
“Travel Equestria, maybe the rest of the world. Do things only Mares and Stallions can do in their bed rooms.” Twilight blushed. “Even as an empress she rarely cares about the current state of the world, as long as nothing stops our trips. She shows little worry, I wonder how Kevin is doing these days?”
Twilight and the rest were teleported out of the hives, even their memory of the hive's location were erased from their minds. Yet twilight still had questions “was the formless the end of all magic?”
“Bye miss crystal swirls!” Flurry heart waved to her foal sitter before running to her mother, as miss crystal swirls cleaned up the play area for the staff's children during daycare.
Then a purple alicorn stepped in surprising the daycare pony. “Your highness, what brings you here?” She spoke with a warm and caring voice. Everything about her seemed radiate love and caring, her baby blue mane with pink stripes to her completely white body even her horn had two different stripes swirling two colors. “Are you here to bring your dragon?” Spike crossed his arm muttering about not being a baby.
“No, I just wanted to ask how you’re doing chrysalis.” The pony was mildly surprised and smiled warmly, while Spike looked shocked even panicking. “It was surprising to find you working here of all places.”
She nodded, already using her horn to move around the toys and seats in their place. “I already had a talent for taking care of hatchlings and nymphs so, I guess this was just natural.” Twilight nodded while spike looked absolutely confused and honestly stupefied.
“Wait, are you really chrysalis?”
Chrysalis chuckled. “Nowadays people call me crystal swirls, though my sisters still call me by my hatching name.” She finished her last chores. “It’s flurry’s birthday, better late than sorry.” Twilight nodded.
After the celebrations they came out of the palace and sat at a coffee shop. “So, I have to ask. Is there a hive here.” A waitress brought iced coffee and a few gemstones for spikes. “Oh thank you, but I—“ she looked into the waitress eyes and saw them fade in and out as she gave a quick blink showing pink compact eyes.
Chrysalis took her hot coffee and nodded. “Yes, but currently they’re only ten.“ She sipped her drink and sighed. “I had forgotten how love actually feels, honestly I was in a cloud of rage and power hungry. But now it feels great.”
Twilight and gulped. “I’m here to apologize.” Chrysalis looked surprised. “I was being what I shouldn't be, I’m the princess of friendship and I was actively trying to make sure you stay in stone. Especially after seeing you now! I mean you’re completely reformed!”
Chrysalis laughed. “If it wasn’t for my family, the old chrysalis would have tried to strangle you using your own hair, right about now.” Both twilight and spike sat scared. “I’m happy I’m longer that creature, I hope she stays dead and buried.” Twilight nodded, hearing the regret in her voice clear of day. “But how did you find me? I know that your spells would have found me or my new hatchlings.” Twilight blushed in embarrassment.
“Well it was your brother.” Chrysalis looked, not impressed. “Mandible, he told us when a queen creates their, what he called persona, they usually have a special marker. Like if you were a pegasus, your outer feathers would be a different color from your inner.” Chrysalis sighed.
“Of Course that Super Major would tell us.” Twilight's eyes widened. “What?”
“Wait, he's a super major? The ones that can turn into the size of the old dragon lord? That feed off hate and runs into swarms of enemies?” Chrysalis nodded while Spike was shaking; he couldn't imagine another dragon the size that Ember's father had.
“I’m surprised you didn’t know this, but honestly he took off his diplomatic form, his true form is the size of the pony of shadows.” She gulped again imagining an army of shadow ponies. “Sadly most of them died during the hive purges. I think one of them still lives as a warrior in the barbaric steppes, another is a food critic.” She shrugged.
“So, uh how are your sisters?”
Chrysalis smiled at that. “Oh well Archania keeps doing what she loves, beating up Minotaurs as a wrestler. Cocoon has a few grubs now, though still very few, Dopamina she kinda made Ponyville a no go zone for her lings.” Twilight already knew why. “Emilia has been basically running nightmare nights now. Spindle, I’m in contact with her regularly, do you know that famous modeling family, who has nearly eight generation streak of most beautiful mare in Equestria running?” Twilight just looked shocked. “Yes, though the ‘family’ is made up of her oldest lings.” Twilight nodded only now realizing the sound shield around them.
“Well, I guess I better prepare.” Chrysalis eyes perked up with interest. “I have been thinking since you have had such a great development, maybe the other will too.” Twilight said with confidence.
Chrysalis looked surprised before turning into a soft smile. “That sounds great.” They said their goodbyes and went on their way.
In the east the Dromedary empire collapsed with armored horses walking in the fallen capital. “General Przewalski! The last of the resistance have been beaten” The dun-colored horse looked at the throne and threw a spear at it, it broke through the throne and the wall behind it.
“Then we will return to our khan!” The Dun colored earth horse galloped out of the capital hundred of earth horse and ponies following him including a storm of pegasi behind them.