White on Black
Ch.09 "Six is company, seven's a crowd."
The green shine of changeling magic illuminated the balcony of the royal bedchambers. Barely visible against the dark night sky was the figure of a pegasus clad in a black catsuit, only her baby blue wings weren’t concealed by the skin tight getup.
Her wings beat softly, keeping her body barely afloat, so that the sound of hooves on polished marble wouldn’t give her away. The blue pegasus pressed her face against the window, her eyes firmly locked on the black and white royals that were focussed on their strange ritual.
“OhmygoshOhmygoshOhmygosh, I need to tell Twilight about this.”
A soft breeze disturbed the silence, and then the balcony was empty.
---
Twilight marched through the corridors of Canterlot Castle, a short way behind her a still rather sheepish looking changeling floated through the air, held aloft by a faint purple aura. Could the scowl on the unicorns face in some way be weaponized, Equestria would have had an easy way to achieve world dominance, as it were however the only ones to suffer were the guards that were posted in the hallway.
Twilight was pondering ways to magically secure her bedroom from changeling invaders when she was hit by a LSD filled train.
At least that was her first hypothesis after she suddenly found herself lying on the floor, her vision filled with blurry prismatic streaks.
With an annoyed huff she blew Rainbow Dash’s mane aside, only to discover that the blue pegasus’ face was only inches from her own. The boisterous flyer’s face was flushed red and her breathing came fast and ragged.
“Twilight, I need to tell you something important.” She managed to moan between two breaths, making the pinned unicorn painfully aware of her hot breath in her face.
“I’ve got to admit something, that I’ve been hiding from you for a long time.” Rainbow Dash blurted out, blushing brightly.
Twilights feeling of annoyance over the unwanted interruption was blown away and replaced by another uneasy feeling altogether. Quickly she tried to interrupt her friend, “Do you really think that the corridor is the best place for this kind of conversation.”
“I’m sorry Twilight, it’s just that I’ve had to tell you immediately.”
“Oh my!” Twilight wowed, involuntary imitating a certain white fashionista.
“But what about Applejack?” she finally managed to squeak. She always had thought that there was something going on between the apple farmer and the wannabe Wonderbolt.
Rainbow Dash seemed to think for a moment before she replied, “Yeah, you’re right we should include Applejack as well.”
Twilights heart burst into an unsteady staccato. When she had talked about the subject with her mentor, Celestia had always insisted that “Love knows no boundaries.” (A sentence that, after a few awkward questions from a young Twilight, had been redacted to the less poetic but more accurate “Look, as long as you don’t cause any permanent damage to each other it’s probably alright.”), but to hear one of her friends proposing such a thing came as a shock. Not an entirely unpleasant shock, mind you.
“Now that I think about it, we should probably ask Pinkie, Rarity and Fluttershy to join as well.” Rainbow Dash continued to elaborate her train of thoughts.
“All six of us?” Twilight asked wide eyed.
“Yeah, it’s probably gonna take all six of us if we want to best Chrysalis.” the blue pegasus said, still lost in thought.
“Chrysalis? You mean... with Celestia?” Somewhere deep in the recess of Twilight’s brain, her inner creativity was working overtime, trying to supply appropriate mental images for the news. The sudden influx of new ideas had caused quite some stress for the poor clump of grey matter, that usually only had to work with scientific formulas or terror scenarios.
“Yes, if we can get her to agree, otherwise we might need to force her...” Rainbow Dash said grimly.
Twilight fainted.
Inside Twilight's mind, Creativity was standing atop the burning rubble of Twilight’s sanity while pictures of a stern looking Rainbow Dash holding a whip, rained down all around her.
Logic and Knowledge sat nearby and watched the spectacle.
“So what do you think, a full swipe?” Knowledge asked.
“Yeah, it’s probably better if we don’t remember this...” Logic replied.
---
“Okay, just breathe in deeply and stay calm,” Fluttershy repeated to herself for the dozenth time this morning.
Once again she was standing in front of the door to the ballroom, but this time she came prepared. She had spent all night looking at a book about changelings, trying to get used to the sight of the black chitinous creatures. She felt confident that she wouldn’t faint this time.
With a last deep breath she stepped towards the door and readied herself to open it.
“There you are! Fluttershy you need to come with me.” Rainbow Dash yelled, as she grabbed the butter coloured pegasus dragging her with her. Fluttershy could do nothing but stare as the door slowly vanished from her field of Vision.
She let out a deep sigh.
---
The air inside the ballroom was heavy with anticipation. The changelings had spent all night, trying to come up with ways to get along with Element of Kindness, and finally after some heated discussions they had hatched the perfect plan.
A plethora of woodland creatures was occupying every available surface of the ballroom. Everything from cute little bunnies to the occasional doe, but nothing that could even remotely could be considered scary.
The disguised changelings stared at the large double winged door, waiting for it to open. It could only be a matter of minutes now...
---
Rarity apparently had been possessed by the spirit of the castle’s accountant, which was most curious, since the accountant was still alive and well. While the white fashionista normally would have been surrounded by discarded fabrics and needles, now sizeable bookstacks cluttered her environment.
With a loud thud her forehead connected with the desk. She had spent the last few hours trying to come up with a way to shift her finances around, to allow enough leeway for her big project. If she was honest with herself, she had known that it was a fools errand from the start. No matter how much she bent the numbers, a project of this size couldn’t be pulled off on a meager designers salary.
Before she could ponder her predicament any further, the raspy voice of one of her friends interrupted her,
“Rarity! There you are, quick you need to come with me, I’ve something important to tell you all,” Rainbow Dash yelled at her as she flew past, a slightly despondent Fluttershy in tow. Rarity ran onto the corridor and looked after the baby blue pegasus.
“Rainbow Dash? What is going on? Don’t you think you’re being just a tad bit overdramatic?” she called after her (simultaneously the only ever built irony detector, which was located in the Stalliongrad museum of science at the moment, suddenly sprang to life and destroyed half of the west wing in the ensuing explosion).
“No time to explain, have to find Applejack, meet us in Twilight’s tower.” Rainbow Dash managed to yell, before she and her involuntary companion vanished around a corner.
“The nerve of some ponies!” Rarity huffed indignantly, but ultimately she headed for Twilight’s old abode.
---
Twilight looked around the room, in which her five friends had assembled. Apparently Rainbow Dash had dragged her here after she had passed out in the hallway. Weird, Twilight couldn’t remember ever running into her this morning...
“So, what is the big thing ya wanna talk to us about?” Applejack asked. For some reason that she couldn’t quite pinpoint this question mad Twilight blush profusely.
Rainbow Dash stopped her nervous up and down prancing, and turned towards the assembled crowd. She took a deep breath, just for a short moment abandoning her cool facade, before she began to relate her story.
“I know that you said that we can trust Chrysalis but I had to check it with my own two eyes...”
...
When she had finished her story, the five ponies went silent, each of them deep in thought.
“You and I will have a talk about privacy later on,” Twilight reprimanded Rainbow Dash, before she continued, “but what you’ve seen is indeed worrying. I know that Celestia isn’t being controlled in any way, and I would have seen it if someone had tampered with her memory, so they must be doing something different.”
“What do ya think all this talk about only having little time left was about?” Applejack interjected, clearly worried about the situation as well, although maybe not for the same reasons as Rainbow Dash.
“I don’t know...” Twilight replied, before falling silent. She scrunched her face, as she pondered what to do in this situation, high power mental gears grinding the problem down into it’s basic components.
“I think...” She started, causing everyody in the room to focus on her.
“I think we just need to ask her.” She finally finished.
“What are you crazy? What if the two are doing some dark ritual and are planning to sacrifice us to their dark gods?” Rainbow Dash yelled, gesturing wildly, imitating what she believed a sacrificing ritual to look like.
Twilight shot her an annoyed glare.
“I think you need to cut back on those Daring Do novels. I don’t know for sure if Chrysalis isn’t planning anything, but in Celestia’s memory there was no sign that we shouldn’t trust her, and we should at least try talking to them before we jump to conclusions.”
Grudgingly the prismatic maned pegasus had to comply in front of so much coalesced logic.
“I’ll bring it up when we meet for dinner this evening.” Twilight promised.
Her friends didn’t seem all that relieved, but in the end each of them returned to their own plans for the day.
---
Chrysalis and Celestia walked through the corridors of Canterlot Castle, pressed closely against each other like the couple they were. They were looking forward to a nice quiet evening, with their sixtet of houseguests. Furthermore Applejack and Pinkie Pie had opted to keep the experiments in the kitchen for now, which meant no unpleasant desert surprises this time.
“Are you starting to get along better with them?” Celestia asked, as they passed under a window which let in the warm embrace of the evening sun. It would still be a few hours before she had to lower the sun, but the sky was already painted in different shades of orange.
“Somewhat... Twilight seemed to be pretty distant today.” Chrysalis admitted. While she had only spend a few days with them so far, her former nemesi had proven surprisingly agreeable company. Even that annoying pink one became somewhat bearable once you got used to her inane antics.
Celestia let out a gentle laugh.
“Yeah, she get’s like that sometimes. Don’t worry, she probably just had some sort of idea on her mind,” she assured her fiance, being well aware just how Twilight could get when she was indulging her inner researcher.
“I’m sure she will tell us everything about her new project while we eat.”
Chrysalis looked at her somewhat skeptical, but seemingly comforted by the solar monarchs words.
During their short talk the door to the dining hall had come into view.
“My queen,” Chrysalis said mockingly, while bowing for the white Alicorn and holding the door open. Celestia rolled her eyes, but stepped forward anyway. As she passed through the frame she froze.
Chrysalis waited for her to enter the room, but apparently she had no intention of doing so and instead remained still. As enticing as her lovers behind was, it proved to lack long lasting entertainment value, and so she decided to look what had caused the interruption.
As she peered over Celestia’s shoulder she could make out the forms of the six element bearers. All of them were staring at the royal pair intently, their faces somber (except for Pinkie Pie who couldn’t resist making grimaces) and their gazes steely.
It was Twilight who finally broke through the silence, “I think we need to talk.”