Chrysalis woke up with renewed vigor, excited beyond measure to begin her work for the day. She nearly leaped out of bed and flew around in a bout of excitement. Some of her more devout changelings would insist that the simple concept of "having fun" was a pony invention, and not be tolerated in the hive. Chrysalis disagreed with that on several counts, though mainly because she was a firm believer that if you weren't having fun conquering the world, you weren't doing it right. That, and she didn't want to give ponies credit for an emotional concept they almost assuredly learned from other creatures. In spite of her many rather heavy-hoofed and strict policies as a ruler, she wasn't in the business of keeping her changelings from enjoying a little recreation here and there, a happy hive is a healthy hive as they say. Getting back on track, Chrysalis unfortunately remembered that she was incapable of going on a joy flight in her current condition, all thanks to that abominable manticore. That didn’t deter her though, no, knowing that her efforts would soon result in the grand return of her ability to fly only served to motivate her even more.
She quickly made her way from the bedroom to the exit, which was a stone latch door covering the entire entrance space, which was the only thing valiantly holding the line against small animals and other pests creeping in. Fortunately, it was very ineffective at keeping out pests, otherwise a parasite like Chrysalis wouldn't have been able to get inside so easily. She slammed the door open with a mighty thud, and began her trot through the cave.
This time, Chrysalis decided to head further right, continuing to hold to her philosophy of hugging the right wall. She always hated that phrase, “hugging” the wall implied she had held some compassion for the wall, when in truth it was merely being used as a helpful tool. It was an apt metaphor, she supposed, for how she saw others. They could be useful tools, and she wouldn’t go around discarding them for no reason, but there was no real attachment between her and her tools. They could be discarded once they stopped being useful. This was fine to Chrysalis, seeing others as lesser, and really only serving two possible purposes. The first category was that of an underling, a useful minion that could do Chrysalis’s bidding. Her other perceived category of creature was a resource, creatures such as ponies that are only worth keeping around as a food source to harvest.
Moving on from her thoughts on other creatures, Chrysalis continued her journey, marveling at the sights she witnessed throughout her trek. There were a great many sparkling crystals forming mesmerizing patterns out of glowing light. Some of the highlights Chrysalis encountered were a bright yellow butterfly shape complete with two antennae near its head, a white bat with sharp fangs and pointed wings, almost reminiscent of a thestral, or perhaps even some sort of vampiric creature. Near it was a blue glow resembling an earth pony, Chrysalis's mesmerized expression immediately faded in its presence. Chrysalis wasn’t a fan of that last one, she hated how it reminded her of the despicable creatures responsible for putting her in this situation.
“Intriguing. I can’t help but admire the beauty of these crystal formations. I have to wonder though, why do they resemble existing shapes so closely? I doubt it’s mere coincidence, I’ve passed by three formations shaped like creatures so far, and it seems I’m bound to pass by even more. Lt. Sparkle, you'll have to remind me to investigate that later, but for now, I need to keep moving,” said Chrysalis, now refocused on the task at hoof.
Chrysalis thought she noticed some confusion on the part of her second in command. “Ah, Lieutenant, you’re befuddled by what I'm up to, I get it. Not to worry, I completely understand. Alchemy is a rather difficult subject for many, and ponies in particular haven't thought of it as a noble profession in ages. In spite of my best efforts to mold you into something better than your origins, you still came from ponies. It's only natural that your pony origins hold you back from true greatness. It might’ve been prudent to begin experimenting with alchemy back at our new little Cobweb Cove right away, I have a much more important goal in mind for today. You see, after a good night's rest, I managed to remember a remedy I learned a long time ago. It’s meant to enhance a creature’s existing flight capabilities, and historically it’s been used as a performance enhancer by pegasi to cheat in various sporting events. Normally, I wouldn't recommend it, some of my changelings tried it in order to infiltrate a flying competition, and despite the short-term benefits, it brings you crashing down later on, though the crash time depends on the potency. I'd love to get into the advanced thaumodynamics that explain why exactly that is, but I'll spare you the details for now. For our purposes, we’re brewing it due to its minor healing properties for wings. Though not an intended effect, the stimulation of the wings provided by a potion of fancy flying is enough to cause injured wings to heal faster than normal. I’ve heard stories of pony doctors using it to save pegasi in critical condition when other options aren't available. Hopefully by brewing that potion I’ll be able to heal my wings faster than I would by lazing around waiting to recover,” explained Chrysalis, confident she had sufficiently answered any questions her Lieutenant posed.
“As for the ingredients, I remember them well enough for our purposes. We’ll need the feathers of a flying creature for starters. Unfortunately, I doubt we’ll be seeing any feathered flying creatures around her, so we’ll have to make do with something else. Fortunately, I've thought of a replacement that shouldn't be hard to acquire." Chrysalis emphasized that she had a proper "eureka" moment here. "We'll be substituting feathers with bat fur. It’s the single most important ingredient in the potion, so we’ll be going after bat fur first, the other ingredients are much easier to obtain,” added Chrysalis, finished with explaining her plan to Lt. Sparkle.
Chrysalis wandered further onward, never once reaching a place that felt tight or confined. It seemed like the emptiness stretched on infinitely. Even with her superior vision in low light due to being a changeling, she couldn’t manage to make out where exactly the darkness ended.
Finally, she heard it, the noise she’d been searching for, the screech of a bat. It sounded like it was just a singular flying rodent, but that was all she needed for her potion. Without hesitation, Chrysalis galloped towards the screeching whenever she’d hear it, then stopped in her tracks to listen in. She repeated this process several times, until finally she was able to pass under a small opening in the cave wall and see it, the bat she’d been searching for.
She gently approached the bat, trying to show it she meant no harm. To her dismay, however, the bat was terrified of her twisted and monstrous appearance. She wasn't mad, she was actually rather giddy that even as dejected as she had become, lesser creatures still had that same feeling of abject terror mixed with awestruck respect at the sight of her true form. The bat quickly flew in the opposite direction, making its way to the other side of the area on a ledge Chrysalis wouldn’t be able to reach. She had little time, she had to act fast or the bat would escape her grasp and ruin her dreams of flight.
She began her pursuit of the bat with minimal hesitation, even though it would be risky. She’d have to make several jumps across stone pillars all raised above a hard floor far below them. She kept forgetting, but with her wings out of commission, falling here would mean seriously injuring herself. Knowing all this, Chrysalis chose to pursue the runaway bat regardless.
She hopped across the first pillar with determination fueling her. “I will catch this smug little winged rodent, no matter the cost!” said Chrysalis, reassuring herself.
Then, she managed to leap even farther this time, just barely landing on the second stone pillar. She made the mistake of looking down for a brief moment, flinching, but just as quickly as she’d lost it, she regained her composure.
She made a great effort and just barely managed to land on the third and second to last stone pillar. She lied to herself, tried to convince herself that she wasn’t nervous, giving herself the usual "I'm the queen, I can never lose" pep talk, but she started shaking all the same. Was this bat fur really worth it? Yes, she needed that bat's fur for her potion, otherwise by the time her wings healed the manticore venom would already take its full effect.
Chrysalis took a deep breath, and hurled herself towards the next pillar with all the grace and technique of a yak that just discovered the concept of jumping. Somehow though, Chrysalis was able to reach the fourth pillar. All that was left for her was the jump from the fourth pillar to the other ledge.
It would be risky, but she had come too far to give up now. She gave Lt. Sparkle a resolute glance, and gave this next leap forward to her all, envisioning herself with the glorious wings she so desperately craved.
By a hair’s breadth, she didn’t make it. Still, she wasn't completely off, she had latched onto the side of the ledge with one hoof, and desperately tried to force her way back up, but it was futile. Even with her natural ability to stick to walls, this cave was made of unusually slippery material. She began slipping away, and the bat merely perched itself on the ceiling, staring intently at her while she struggled. At that moment, she really started to hate bats. She already didn’t have a very high opinion of them, though. Once upon a time, they had been a terrible nuisance for her. When the hive was first taken over by her and her changelings, she had to wage war with an enormous number of bats that were already living there. It took years to finally force all the bats to relocate, and for years onward she would still hear the constant screech of those dreadful pests in her nightmares. The current situation with a bat, which was doing nothing to aid her as she slowly fell to her doom wasn’t exactly doing any favors for her opinion the furry little monstrosities.
After multiple failed attempts to lift herself up, Chrysalis resigned herself to her fate; she was going to fall whether she wanted to or not. All she could do now was think of some way to cushion her fall. Then, she had an idea.
“Lt. Sparkle, I think I know a way we can survive plummeting to the bottom of this pit, but it won’t be pretty. I’ll try to hold myself aloft using some minor telekinesis to slow my descent, thereby decreasing the rate I fall, and the pain I experience when I hit the ground. Sadly, I’ve no time to get your input on the idea. “ said Chrysalis.
Normally, she would rely on her chitin to protect her, just as it had during the initial fall into this repugnant cave. But, knowing it had already saved her from an impressive fall just a day prior, she wasn't exactly eager to test her luck again this soon. She had no choice but to let go, that bat clearly wasn't going to help, and she doubted a single ordinary bat could've helped much regardless.
Chrysalis was starting to notice that her "having no choice" was becoming an obnoxiously recurrent theme for her lately.
Alright, let’s do this!” yelled Chrysalis, more sure of herself than ever.
Then, she let go. She began to descend at a rapid rate towards the hard stone floor.
Despite the fact that this situation would terrify the average Joe. Chrysalis, luckily, was anything but average. She focused her magic and tried to envelop herself in her own telekinetic field to slow down her fall. She strained herself, she truly strained herself, she forcibly took control of her own body using her magic despite her own cracked horn resisting her attempts. Self-targeted telekinesis was normally only achievable under ideal conditions by the most talented of magic users, and Chrysalis had wings, so she never bothered to learn that sort of thing. While falling, she briefly considered just how many unicorns could do this; she certainly couldn't think of any magic users in general that could manage this unassisted without any training like she was hoping to. Then again, she couldn't think of any other magic users who had bested an alicorn in a one on one battle either, but even Chrysalis knew that didn't mean much here, beam strength wasn't everything and her previous success was due to an abundance of love at her disposal. The renowned master of transportation magic who pioneered many of the spells spellcasters enjoy today, for example, was infamous for how terrible he was in magic duels, though that didn't stop young upstarts from constantly challenging him in order to prove their superiority. Then she focused again on self-telekinesis as she fell, there was one unicorn that she knew for certain could achieve levitation via self-targeted telekinesis, that hive-ruining self-absorbed preachy little pink unicorn, Starlight Glimmer.
Chrysalis was fuming, if she couldn't manage this, it would go down as yet another way in which Starlight Glimmer had bested her. Chrysalis would NOT stand for that, she wouldn't let Starlight beat her in anything else, not this, not anything else!
Chrysalis began to slow down.
"NEVER ... " Chrysalis grunted, steeling her resolve.
"EVER ... " Chrysalis could feel her horn cracking.
"AGAIN!" Her horn was cracking, but she felt it was worth it to save her life, and more importantly, to spite her archenemy.
It was close, too close, but Chrysalis had managed to slow her fall speed to a survivable rate.
“Phew ... ” said Chrysalis, huffing and puffing from exhaustion. She quickly looked at a nearby crystal to see her reflection, immediately noticing that her horn had cracked even further. She inspected her chitin, it was only barely dented. Yet again, she couldn't help but feel proud of how tough her natural protection was. She was this close to referring to it as her "royal armor."
She could admit that she had failed at very important things before, and she had her weak points, but when it came to sheer heavy-duty durability, she was consistently unmatched. It was actually the reason she refused to waste her time learning all but the most basic of defense spells, it just wasn't a necessity. Her prior encounter with the manticore in which her shield spell miserably failed against the beast made it clear she probably should've studied her defensive magic more thoroughly, but there she was, dwelling on past mistakes again. She shut that train of thought down immediately, and surveyed the area she had landed in.
Even worse was what Chrysalis noticed next. Finally, after so little contact for so long, Chrysalis wasn’t alone. To her distress, though, she really would've preferred to be alone if the alternative was to be stuck down here with what she saw.
It trotted out from the darkness, a strange construct resembling a pony in the surface, but made up of all sorts of magical mechanisms, gears, and wires. In the center of its torso was a strange yellow gem, a form of topaz that every other section of the mechanized pony was connected to. It seemed docile at first, but that illusion was shattered when it got within range of Chrysalis, and its eyes switched from an inviting yellow to a dark red instantaneously.
“Halt, intruder” ordered the construct, with exactly the monotone, robotic voice one would expect from a machine. “Surrender now, and you'll be taken into custody. Failure to surrender will result in the use of lethal force and possible termination.”
Chrysalis knew from the very moment it turned its attention to her, this would be a fight for her life.
“Impudent machine, you expect a queen to surrender? What gives you such authority?” asked Chrysalis
“The Kingdom of Orelia has given me the directive to eliminate all threats to their well-being. You have been designated as a threat, prepare for elimination,” said the construct, without a hint of empathy in its lifeless voice.
Chrysalis then retorted “All the better, I prefer to settle things through strength anyways. Go ahead and give it all you’ve got, strange golem! You claim some nation known as the Kingdom of Orelia constructed you? Interesting, then let’s see just how capable this supposed kingdom really made you,” said Chrysalis with a smug grin, challenging the construct.
The construct didn’t hesitate to make the first move, rudely interrupting Chrysalis before she could properly begin her pre-fight monologue. It went for a swift jab on Chrysalis’s right side, moving at speeds that seemed impossible for a mechanical being made of such dense materials.
"Hey you, tin can! Don't you realize you're supposed to wait for me to finish my grandiose speech before we start trading blows. Honestly, you've got no sense of style, even ponies understand the proper way to do things better than y-" Chrysalis's complaint was interrupted by another strike from the red-eyed construct, though this time she ducked out of the way just in time.
Chrysalis was surprised, but she retaliated in seconds, attempting to buck the construct in its side right as it passed behind her. Her hind legs successfully connected, but the construct didn’t even react. Bucking like a pony was never her strong suit, she preferred to rely on her repertoire of magic and transformations, but she had no other options here.
There it was again, "she had no choice." Chrysalis mentally groaned, but maybe she would get used to having such a limited set of options if this pattern kept up.
She decided to reframe this, she was extremely limited to be sure, but limitation breeds creativity. She knew that from years of infiltration experience, sometimes the only way to get out of a bad situation was through clever usage of limited resources. She thought back on a time when she and a group of fellow changeling spies were all nearly exposed at a social gathering in Canterlot a decade ago, but managed to handle the situation thanks to one of the rookie changelings performing a daring gambit. To the shock of every other changeling there, the rookie intentionally claimed to be a shapeshifter in disguise, causing everypony there to laugh his "obvious joke" off and ease the tension enough that all suspicions went away near-instantly. It helped that the list of nobles suspicious of them at the time included a younger and even less self-aware Prince Blueblood, who was the first to laugh at the rookie's supposed "joke."
Again the construct went for a simple jab, this time to her left as it sped around the cave to make itself a more difficult target to hit.
Chrysalis wasn’t sure what to do. She had no idea what this unfamiliar being was capable of. Sure, she had heard of golems made by unicorn wizards to protect themselves before, but this was a much greater advancement, far beyond that type of magical construct. She could guess, though. Its shape was that of an earth pony, that was unmistakable, and knowing ponies and their obsession with theming, she doubted it would be able to cast any magic of its own. Unfortunately, that was a small comfort considering she had no access to flight or magic of her own, either. Actually, the "no magic" part wasn't true, she had access to no magic aside from minor telekinesis, but that was still a useful magical option.
Wait, that’s it! Chrysalis had an ingenious plan. Just like the rookie changeling spy from ages ago who had admitted to a secret in order to avoid suspicion, she would intentionally take the blow she already knew was coming. All she would have to do was let the construct try to violently beat her to a pulp! Alright, that sounded a lot better in theory, but it was now or never with the construct racing towards her, staring through her with a cold and calculating focus on only one thing, eliminating the threat by any means necessary.
Chrysalis narrowly dodged out of the way as the construct tried to buck her with enough force to knock her head clean off. Thanks to her evasive maneuver, the construct's valiant kick left a massive crack in the stone pillar Chrysalis was standing in front of. Another hit like that, and the pillar would come tumbling down, right on top of the construct.
Chrysalis briefly considered mocking the construct, comparing its intelligence as a non-sentient machine to that of his majesty Prince Blueblood, but even she didn't hate ponies and their creations enough to insinuate that a well-designed automaton was anywhere near the same level of idiocy as the hive's greatest unofficial asset.
Chrysalis once again forced herself to stop focusing on her past exploits, and turned her attention to the construct, glaring at it with an intense hatred that directly contested the automaton's dark red eyes. Chrysalis almost thought she saw it flinch, was she that menacing? No, she stared more closely at the machine and it had just gotten its hind legs slightly stuck on a stony protrusion it hadn't detected while getting ready to charge at her again, but she preferred the idea that she had made an unfeeling machine afraid of her.
Chrysalis focused entirely on avoiding the construct’s blows, dodging it time and time again. Chrysalis a bit disappointed she wasn't fighting a real pony, who would’ve grown frustrated and hurled empty insults her way, something she would’ve loved to make some witty remark back to. But alas, this was merely a machine performing a routine task, it sadly lacked the capacity for mid-battle chatter, she hoped that the pony engineers would figure that out eventually. Still, Chrysalis was a bit thankful for its mechanical nature, a regular pony would’ve realized what she was doing by now and switched up their strategy. This bucket of bolts clearly only knew one way to deal with any threats it encountered, punch and kick at them until they're neutralized. She had been subtly dodging the construct's strikes and then using some minor telekinesis to rapidly maneuver the construct's attacks directly into the stone pillars around her.
Finally, after knocking away chunk after chunk of stone, the construct missed another powerful slam intended for Chrysalis, and with a loud echoing thud, it knocked over one of the massive stone pillars. This set off a chain reaction as pillar after pillar toppled over each other and caused what could be described as a miniature cave-in. Chrysalis deftly got out of the way of several chunks of stone that nearly fell on her, thanking her lucky stars for each painfully heavy rock she avoided. The construct wasn’t so lucky, and despite its speed, Chrysalis was able to use her telekinetic field and just good old-fashioned shoving the darn thing to keep it in the danger zone long enough for the falling pillars to crush the machinal terror right before her eyes.
“Finally, that was starting to drain me. Now then, time to get a move on. Come to think of it, where did that belligerent bat go?” said Chrysalis, having lost track of the bat’s location during her struggle with the construct.
Then, out from the rubble crawled a metallic hoof. Chrysalis nearly froze, shaken to her very core. Was this machine really that resilient, could it still function even after pillars of rock-solid stone had fallen directly on top of it? Apparently so, as it was rising from the debris with ruthless efficiency. Eventually, the now shattered construct broke free, and Chrysalis had no idea how she’d survive what would come next.
It wasn’t nearly as fast as before, considering both its hind legs were crushed and left behind in the debris, but the construct was still fully capable of using deadly force. Chrysalis tried to sidestep each and every punch and kick it tried to throw, but she was growing wearier by the second. After dodging so many potentially life-ending strikes in a row, Chrysalis just couldn’t keep up, it finally landed a painful right hook on her left side, sending her skidding across the cave floor and into a wall.
Chrysalis was battered and bruised, but she could still move. She knew she wouldn't be able to avoid another blow from its precise, mechanical limbs. Sure, she could probably take dozens more of those before she was actually down and out thanks to her royal chitin's excellent protection, but it didn't get tired like she did, so it could just keep wailing on her while she was unconscious and immobile until there was nothing left of her but a fine paste. She didn't like to imagine herself meeting the same fate as an insect that comes into contact with a moving train.
Just when she closed her eyes, rapid-fire brainstorming a way to prevent this crawling construct from ending everything here and now, she heard a squeak. It was the bat, now resting on her haunches, and it was screeching at the construct, seemingly trying to get the machine to stop attacking Chrysalis.
"The gesture is appreciated, little rodent, but I doubt the construct will listen to a bat if it won't listen to me. By all means though, screech away, it isn't like you can make this situation any worse for me," Chrysalis did her best to eye the construct, just in case she could move in time, but she doubted that she or the bat would accomplish much like this.
Oh how wrong Chrysalis was, and she hadn’t been this happy to be wrong in a long time. The bat had let out such a powerful screech that it shattered the exposed yellow gem in the construct’s central bodily area entirely. Without this gem, the entire construct was instantly deactivated. The remaining half that had been crawling towards her with violent intent was now nothing more than a heaping pile of scrap metal.
“Hmph, you can't be serious,” grunted Chrysalis. She forced herself up after having almost gotten slammed against a wall with deadly force.
"That's all it took? Come on, I could've casted an echo amplification spell and dealt with ten of these worthless machines if my horn was functioning correctly! Ugh! That being said, I suppose I should be grateful for your intervention, rodent. You did protect me, and teach me a critical weakness of these machines if I'm unfortunate enough to encounter them again any time soon," said Chrysalis, pausing to think.
Chrysalis decided what she would say to the bat, a creature which much like "Lt. Sparkle" was incapable of understanding her, but at least it was a living creature that could gather her general meaning. “Little bat, your help with my cause will never be forgotten. I think you’ve more than earned that level of respect, wouldn't you agree, Lt. Sparkle?”
“How about this? I shall henceforth dub you my new army’s first recruit. Congratulations on the promotion, Private Screech. You've protected your monarch and given me valuable intel for any future altercations with these crystal-powered constructs, but don't go around getting a big ego just because you were successful this time. I've seen what that does to some of my most promising soldiers. From here on out you’ll need to be ready to aid me in any way I need you to, and that’s an order, soldier!" barked Chrysalis to the newly minted recruit.
Somehow, the bat seemed to gather vaguely what she meant by all this. "For now, though, continue going about your business, and be ready for me to call upon you when needed, understood?" said Chrysalis. The bat was able to pick up on her request for further aid, and its gentler demeanor compared to how it was acting earlier indicated that it would be more cooperative with Chrysalis in the future.
After quickly patting the newly promoted Private on his fluffy little head, something Chrysalis would never let ANYONE find out she did, Chrysalis carefully extracted a tuft of bat fur for later use using her telekinesis.
She then gathered up the crystal dust left behind from the construct's shattered gem-based power source. This was actually perfect for her, since the potion of fancy flying she was planning to brew required crystal dust, which explained its exorbitant price in pony society alongside the fact that it was an illegal substance.
She was uncontrollably excited, she would be getting her wings back soon, all she had to do was make her way back to her new temporary home.
She then bid the bat farewell, and trotted along the only path she could, in search of another way back home from this lower section of the cave, another way back to Cobweb Cove.