//------------------------------// // Chrysalis // Story: Raven’s Last Flight // by Chemtest //------------------------------// “Vampires are an exotic species from the far west, beyond the land of Zebrica, hailing from a land called Grogaria. On the outside, they look no different from the species they once were, except for fangs poking out of their mouths. Yet to be a vampire is to be altogether different than a pony, for vampires not only are immortal, faster than any mortal pony, more perceptive, and far stronger, but vampires also must feed off the blood of others, or any other fluid filled with life force. Old legends would show vampires as being monsters, using charm and social power in order to trick victims into a place where the vampire may drain them of their blood. However, this is not accurate, as every vampire is, much like every pony, different from other vampires. Indeed, many within our own society are vampires, and nobody has known until just a few days ago. During the Changeling Invasion, one Vinyl Scratch, better known as DJ P0N-3, demonstrated vampiric abilities in order to protect those around her. One must wonder, if our most famous celebrity is a vampire, is it possible the rumors around Luna are true? Is her blood-thirst biological, driven by a vampiric curse?” A two-toned stallion‘s voice would read, a changeling servant stood in Chrysalis’ quarters, reading from a newspaper for her highness. Chrysalis, a very tall changeling with thin, holy legs, a sharp, jagged horn, and bright green eyes, would lift a hoof to stop the servant from reading, “Thank you, Thorax, you may return to your work.” The changeling would look at her, and then bow his head, “Yes, my Queen.” He would place down the newspaper, and then trot out of the room, with two more trotting in as soon as he leaves, Raven trailing behind an armored changeling guard, looking at everything with wide eyes of fascination. Chrysalis looks at the guard, slowly raising an eyebrow, “Why have you brought me one of our prisoners, Tureno? I will not be needing them for a while more, until the time comes for ransoming them.” The guard, Tureno, gives her a nod and a salute, “My Queen, the other prisoners came to the conclusion that he is Death, from the old stories. He says that he comes from a ‘Black Forest’ surrounded by ‘Goths’.” She keeps her eyebrow raised, looking at the guard with piercing green eyes, then looking at the foal, whose own green eyes stare riff back into her own. The two keep eye contact for a minute, tension filling the room as all goes silent, before Chrysalis slowly leans back into her throne, a dark and jagged thing, “Thank you, Tureno, you may leave us.” He looks at the colt, and then at her, “My Queen, I request that I would stay and be nearby, in case he should try and attack you.” She snorts and props her head up on a hoof, “Sergeant Tureno, should this foal be Death, then you’ll do nothing to stop him. If he is just a foal, then I can easily handle him. Do not question my orders again or I shall see you demoted, Tureno. Leave.” He merely bows his head, and then trots out of the room. Raven looks after the changeling, his head moving oddly, before he turns back to face Chrysalis. He takes a seat in the floor, craning his neck to look her in the eyes, then tilting his head to the side, “You respect me. How curious.” She smirks slightly, gazing right back into his eyes, “You are not my enemy.” He blinks, “Aren’t I? You kidnapped me. Most in my situation would be hostile to you. Yet you do not seem worried of hostility. Arrogance?” She smirks even more, “I did not kidnap you, my servants did. I kept you imprisoned and have fed you food, you should feel grateful. I am not worried because no matter what, I have no reason to worry. If you are a foal, nothing more, and you attempt to attack me, then I shall strike you down and throw you back into that cell, personally. If you are, as those fillies believe, Death… then you will be wise enough to not fight me. I defeated the Sun.” He tilts his head the other way, “Yet you hide in the dark, as does all of your species. Your position is not one of a victor. Holding children prisoner, presumably as hostages, hiding in the center of a well defended castle. Those aren’t the acts of a winner, those are the acts of someone scared that they have angered the wrong people. This faux arrogance you put on is but a mask over what you truly are inside… Queen Chrysalis.” He pauses, and then bends one of his front knees, giving her a short bow, before rising up, “I give you respect. I shall be honest. Give me the same.” She stares at him for a few seconds, before she slowly rises from her throne, trotting down from it, her alicorn sized form towering over the colt. She then slowly bends one leg, and bows her head, tapping the tip of his horn with her own, before rising back up, “You are perceptive. I might not know if you are Death, as they claim, yet you are perceptive all the same.” He gives her a nod, “Queen Chrysalis, I know well enough that you would not have called me here if you did not place some stock in the beliefs of those fillies. If you didn’t care about what I am. You are willing to trust those who are very much your younger, where they are but seventeen, you are nigh-on a thousand and one hundred years of life. Why do you trust them?” She nods, “You know my age, but anyone could with proper research. I’ll answer you with a very simple fact. Children are very, very perceptive, they can make connections that their elders never could. Perhaps they are wrong, perhaps they are right. Prove to me who you are.” He looks into her eyes, “Very well.” His eyes then begin to glow green, as do his hooves, “I can see your memories, all that you have lost in your long, long life. You have lost much, haven’t you?” From around the Queen, green figures out begin to form, floating away from her, going to float above Raven. First, two changelings, a mare and a stallion, wearing a dress and a suit respectively, float above his head, “Pupa and Scarab. They died on your happiest day.” Chrysalis would stare at the two of them with a face of practiced indifference. Another would slowly float from her, a regal and noble Griffon, a rapier by his side, a golden crown upon his head, a scar over one eye and a fine black suit, “Grover the Sixth, the Forgotten Prince. You were five seconds from husband and wife.” She begins to frown ever so slightly, keeping her eyes locked on Grover, swallowing heavily. Finally, a pony stallion, of a regal white coat and blue mane, wearing heavy armor and looking off into the distance, “General Shiny Shield, you never got your revenge.” “Stop…” Chrysalis would speak softly, her voice cracking a bit as she speaks, looking away from the figures, “Stop, please… send them away.” Tears would begin to well in her eyes, until the green glows slowly die down, the figures all disappearing, with her only then letting a few tears roll down her cheeks. Raven watches on, “Your life has been defined by what you’ve lost, hasn’t it? Your home was burned, and you drove yourself to darkness in order to avenge it. I understand.” He then stomps down on the ground, a giant hand made of exoskeleton reaching up from the ground, slowly wiping a tear from Chrysalis’ cheek, “You will ask me if I can bring them back. No.” She takes a deep breath, and then speaks slowly, “No… that’s not what I want from you.” She slowly looks over at him, her eyes burning with emotions, anger, sadness, nostalgia, regret, and her voice quivers with all those emotions as she speaks, “They’re gone. All of them. Gone. I know that. But the one who caused this is still out there.” Raven blinks softly, a bit surprised, watching as Chrysalis trots to a nearby desk, looking over the stuff on it, “I… it is not often one wouldn’t ask to see their loved ones again. How… intriguing. Strange. Fascinating. You don’t seek revenge for them, you seek justice. Justice against the Sun.” Chrysalis scowls, and then smacks a lamp off of the table in a fit of anger, breathing deeply as the lamp flies across the room, shattering, casting them both into darkness, “I told her everything! I stood in her damned courtrooms, I looked into her eyes wearing my own blood soaked wedding dress! I cried, I begged, I pleaded for justice, for recourse, and she did nothing!” She slams her hoof on the table again, denting it, “She turned me away!” She slams her hoof down again, “She gave him a promotion!” She slams her hoof down one last time, before she turns around, rushing up to Raven, looming over him and glaring into his eyes, “She told me my home, my parents, my love didn’t even exist! Yet there she sits upon a gilded throne, crowds of ponies fawning over her every word, while I’m stuck here surrounded by incompetence!” She pokes him in the chest, “You shouldn’t even be here, Carapace was ordered to be inconspicuous, and yet she somehow thought that meant ‘oh, I should kidnap another foal, of course’! Stupid fucking useless drone!” He looks at her, then slowly reaches up a hoof, resting it upon her front, “A tragedy. I… empathize, sympathize, Chrysalis. A laboratory, materials whenever I ask for them, and I want those three fillies to be my assistants.” She opens her mouth to speak, but he cuts her off, “Do not pretend like you were not going to ask me to assist you. You stink of defeat and bruised pride, Chrysalis, of anger and of planning. You are going to return to fight the Sun once more. You have treated me with respect, honesty, without fear, something I have not been given in centuries. I shall assist you. First things first, I require a map.” She looks him over, her mouth returning to a pensive scowl, before she nods, “You are perceptive again. I shall provide all of it. Here.” She trots to a nearby table, turning on the lamp there, digging through a desk, until she grabs a map, carrying it over to him, “My next plan is to infiltrate the village of Ponyville, to remove any threats to me, before I kidnap and infiltrate Canterlot once more and claim victory.” He looks it over, slowly licking his lips as he does, “No… we can’t just focus on two cities in the interior. These other hives… Red, Brown, Blue, Yellow, you must focus on unifying them first, it’ll increase your direct strength. Then… we infiltrate every city at once, replace their leaders, make them build tunnels, or hidden underground caverns, within which skeletons and zombies can be kept. Once everything is ready, we spring the trap, and in one day, every city shall fall to your rule, Chrysalis.” She frowns softly, looking over the map, “That is a lot to ask for, especially since measures for changelings will be in place. However, with Princess Luna left, it’s possible she could return and lead a resistance if any town is left untouched… very well.” He looks from the map to her, speaking in a passive, cool tone, “By this time next year, Chrysalis, Equestria shall be yours.”