White on Black
Ch.11 “Constant reminders of the truth”
Celestia excused herself from the room to lower the sun, once again accompanied by Twilight. Meanwhile the few servants that were left brought candles, and a choice of drinks for those that felt thirsty.
Chrysalis was quick to uncork the wine, and filling a glass for herself, not bothering to ask if anybody else wanted some. Only after a rather poignant cough from Rarity she released the bottle into the unicorns magical grip.
“So what was ya angle?” Applejack, who had opted for something made from apples (well, mostly apples), asked as dinner conversation was dying down.
Chrysalis took a sip from her glass and took a moment to appraise the wines colour, before downing the rest of it in one go.
“Pity,” she finally admitted through clenched teeth.
“Pardon?” Applejack looked at her rather dumbfound.
“I said pity,” Chrysalis repeated, already refilling her glass, “I’ll explain it when the two get back.”
Since it didn’t seem like she would get anything else out of the queen, Applejack turned to Rarity.
“And how are your preparations coming along?” she asked the fashion designer, who seemed to have her nose stuck in an account book.
“Hmm? Oh... yes... they’re coming along nicely,” she replied with just enough hesitation to make Applejack raise an eyebrow.
“Well it ain’t like ya would ruin their wedding by not having the dresses ready,” she said with just enough of a chuckle to make it doubtful if she was really joking.
Rarities eyes wandered between her account book and her friend, before she replied, “Ahahaha, of course not...”
Applejack only shook her head.
---
Spike and his changeling friends sat on one of the bigger plazas of the black city. Of course Plaza in this case meant a large round room. It was roughly twenty meters in diameter, with new looking breakthroughs leading away from it on all sides. The ceiling was taken up by the biggest firefly lantern that Spike had ever seen, and the erratic flight of the brightly shining bugs gave the place a strangely unreal feeling.
Along the walls, merchants had built their stalls, but since they were empty, Spike guessed it was night time. It was hard to tell with several ceilings, and half a mountain between him and the sky.
“Okay, people, we’ve been banned from all bars, most of the donut shops, two bowling alleys and half an opera (the left half). What do we do now?” he asked his companions. He usually wasn’t one for continued mischief, but being used as living ammunition tends to bring out the worst in even the nicest dragon.
The changelings looked at each other, but only got stumped expressions as an answer. After a while they all turned to Spike and shrugged.
The little purple dragon, meanwhile had stricken a thinkers pose, and furrowed his brow.
“Hmmm...” he hummed, causing the changelings to lean in further.
“Hrgmmmm...” he cleared his throat. If the changelings had leaned any closer, they would have lost their balance.
“I’ve got nothing,” Spike finally said. Three changelings found themselves lying on the ground.
After they dragged themselves back on their feet, the changelings exchanged conspiratorial glances.
Spike looked at them somewhat concerned.
“Erm, guys? Is something wrong?” he asked, slowly backing away from the changelings who were forming a circle around him.
With a devious grin on their face, they grabbed the purple dragon.
“Hey what’s the big idea?” he shouted.
Spike tried to fight them off, but razor sharp claws and a bite that can crush diamonds, only can even the odds so much, and a slightly chubby baby dragon against four trained Changeling guards was an uneven fight if there ever was one.
With some dread, he felt some form of cloth being pulled over his head, effectively blinding him, and sealing his mouth shut.
He could do nothing but squirm as the changelings dragged him away.
---
Celestia sat on the balcony, her horn turned into a focal point for energies far beyond most ponies comprehension.
“Give me a lever and a fulcrum and I will unhinge the world,” had once been uttered to her, by one of the philosophers of old.
“Oh how right he was,” she thought to herself, as her magic reached out for the life giving light of the sun. Before long the sun had overcome the barrier of the horizon, at the same time the moon rose, showing her that her sister was fulfilling her duty even though her mission had lead her away from Canterlot and to who knows where.
Nearly lost in the sensation of being the center of such a delicate cosmic balance, nonetheless she was still aware of the presence of the purple unicorn besides her. It was no miracle, after all her protege had been nearly constantly the focus of her attention ever since she had sent her to Ponyville.
If only she could tell Twilight what fate had in store for her.
“I’m sorry,” Twilight said, after the glow around Celestia’s horn had subsided. Her voice was nearly inaudible and trembled, as if the small purple unicorn was about to break down sobbing.
Surprised Celestia looked at the filly, in whose education she had played such a sizeable part.
“Whatever for?” she asked, flashing her pupil a grin, a sincere one.
“It’s just... I know that I should trust you, but here we are interrogating you like this.” Twilight said, obviously struggling to keep her composure.
“Twilight. Trust is important, but you should never be ashamed that you’re worried about those close to you,” Celestia replied.
Now it was Twilights turn to look surprised. It was unlike her mentor to offer such an clear answer. Celestia had always stretched the importance of learning a lesson yourself, guiding and leading her to find an solution, and she would rather have Twilight pondering a problem for weeks, than to reveal the answer prematurely.
“No matter what some may think of me, I’m not infallible. You should know that best, since I already wronged you once,” she continued, looking at her future bride.
“There might come a day, where I once again will be in the wrong and then I will need you to tell me so, openly and honestly,” the solar diarch said, her voice a mix of maternal pride, and solemn oath.
Twilight was looking at her mouth agape, struggling to understand what she had just been told, but before she could muster any reply Celestia had already turned to the balcony doors.
“Let us not make the others wait, I think I still have a story to tell, don’t I?”
---
“While it was still a little too early to say that I was falling for her, there was definitely something that intrigued me about her,” Celestia continued her story, after the six ponies and two godlike beings had made themselves comfortable, “I tried to banish her from my thoughts and it worked for a while, but before long I once again found myself descending into the deeps of the bastion...”
Celestia was surprised to see that the atmosphere inside the bastion had obviously changed. Apparently her sister had reassessed the danger that the changelings presented, and several of the lower ranking bureaucrats had been allowed to exchange their cells for bigger, but no less secure group areas. Ever so often she could see one of the night guards talk to the changelings, she made a note to tell her sister, that her guards should remain vigilant when facing such a deceptive race.
As she continued further into the bowels of the bastion however, the security grew less and less lax. Apparently the lack of animosity she had seen didn’t expand to the queen of the changelings herself.
Now familiar with the procedure, she waited for the massive steel gate to be lifted.
Nothing had changed inside cell. Glass walls, guards, and the heavy oppressive atmosphere, all was still as she had left it the last time.
The one thing that wasn’t the same, was the queen of the changelings. Celestia almost felt like something had transported her back into the heart of the black city of the changelings, as she saw the ragged figure of the queen, but then she looked into her eyes: Where there had been wild animalistic madness, burning with a cold desperate fire, now her eyes looked dull, almost dead.
“Come to laugh at my misery, have you?” The queen presented a wry smile, which stood in stark contrast to the mimic of her eyes. It was nothing more but a last defiant reflex in an otherwise broken enemy.
“What has happened?” Celestia asked, not able to hide her shock.
“Have you already forgotten my little lesson? A changeling without love is nothing, just a sad empty shell, cut off from that what makes him complete,” Chrysalis spit out the answer like she couldn’t bear it’s foul taste.
With surprise Celestia could feel that she was actually relieved about the spiteful answer. It had been filled with more life, than she had expected possible from the broken figure before her.
“Is... is there something that I can do?” Celestia asked. Chrysalis might have been her enemy, but now and here she was only a prisoner, and if she would have a say in it, she wouldn’t let any of her prisoners suffer.
“Sure, just send me that cute little princeling of yours, so that I can once again feed on his love,” the changeling queen said, grinning devilishly.
Celestia neighed in disgust. To think that she had actually wasted her pity on this creature.
“Oh? What did you think I would ask?” Chrysalis continued, unimpressed with Celestia’s show of dismay, “Changelings feed of love, did you think that you could just wave with that horn of yours and make it all better? Maybe blast me with the Elements of Harmony? Or don’t you want another lawn decoration?”
Celestia furrowed her brows.
“It might interest you to hear, that Discord, unlike you, has agreed to become a productive member of equestrian society.” Once again she didn’t know why she had revealed that information, but something inside her wanted to show up the spiteful queen.
It seemed that her words had the desired effect, as Chrysalis looked at her dumbfounded, but then she suddenly broke into laughter.
“Tell me that you’re kidding,” Chrysalis pressed out between to guffaws.
“Discord, the spirit of chaos and strife, has become an upstanding member of society? You actually managed to tame the godslayer?”
Chrysalis laughter continued but Celestia was staring at her wide eyed. She felt like there was ice running through her veins.
“What did you just say?” her words came pressed, and they were filled with every bit of authority she could command. The guards along the whole glance at each other uneasily, their hairs stood on end, and they couldn’t shake the feeling that there was suddenly something frightful in the air. Ancient memories, deeply rooted in their genes suddenly awoke, warning them of the presence of a predator.
“Guards, leave us now!” Celestia’s voice made it clear that she would suffer no insubordination, and truth be told, the guards were glad to leave the room.
“Oh? Want some alone time with me? I’ll be glad to take your love,” Chrysalis mocked the princess as the guards left the room.
“How do you know of this? Who has told you about Discord’s past?” All compassion had been banished from Celestia’s voice, and the words rained down upon the imprisoned queen like strokes of a whip. The black queen however still seemed unimpressed, shaking the last few bits of mirth from her visage.
“Not all races are as forgetful as your little ponies, and while I might not have been there myself, we still know the stories from back then. We remember the days of old, when there were still four powers instead of two. After all there was no princess who would shield us from the truth,” Chrysalis replied, her face half filled with pride of her race, half with contempt for the princess before her.
Celestia was silent for a while, her mind filled with pictures from a past so distant that even the dragons had forgotten about it.
“I didn’t shield them... true, I never corrected them as time slowly eroded the memories of the past, but was I wrong to leave and old wound alone and just let it heal?” Much to Chrysalis surprise the sun goddess tone was almost pleading. What did that foolish mare want to hear, that she understood, that she would have acted the same.
She opened her mouth, but much to her surprise the only thing that came out was a muffled, “...maybe not...”
---
Chrysalis watched Celestia’s face as she lied to the element bearers. Maybe lie was too harsh a word, but she was careful to avoid any part that could have lead to questions about the past, instead she focussed on explaining how over the course of time the relationship between the two of them had shifted, how her visits had steadily grown more frequent. No word of Discord, no word of the battles of the past... maybe it really was for the better.
“That’s all nice an’ dandy, but that still doesn’t explain just what it was ya two were doing up in that room of yours,” Applejack interrupted Celestia’s story.
“It doesn’t. You are right, but too understand it you needed to know about us as well,” Celestia replied, not showing any anger about the sudden interruption.
“But maybe it isn’t my role to tell this part of the story.” With those words she turned toward Chrysalis and looked at her expectantly.
She sighed, and emptied yet another glass of wine. The first bottle had long since been exhausted, and it wasn’t due to the white fashionista who was still sipping on her first glass of the evening.
“I guess, it’s about time that I said something about the matter...” Chrysalis, said eyeing for the rest of the second bottle. Instead of filling her glas however she turned towards her expectant crowd and began to speak, “By this point all of you might be asking yourself, just what had possessed me, to surrender to your dear princess, and as it was, the same question had apparently occupied her mind as well, since one day she came down to my cell and asked me...”
Chrysalis looked around the confines of her cell. Where originally there had been only items of enchanted glass, now she had been granted a few normal belongings. It were small things, a blanket, a book, a small brush, each of them laughable in their unimportance, yet somehow they made her stay in this glass cell, under the prying eyes of the guards, that much more bearable.
Her ears twitched as she heard the sound of the steel gates, but she fought hard to maintain her aloof presence.
“Chrysalis.” The warm gentle voice of the white alicorn rang through the central chamber.
“Celestia.” The changeling queen eyed her suspiciously, mentally preparing herself for the battle of wits that was sure to follow.
“Why are you here?” Celestia asked.
“It’s not like I could simply walk away,” Chrysalis replied, knocking on the solid glass pane that divided the two.
“I’m asking why you surrendered yourself to me,” the white alicorn huffed.
“You’ve seen for yourself where my ways had lead the changelings, it was time for a change,” she replied, shrugging dismissively.
Celestia stared at her silently, her eyes fixed on the changelings bored looking features.
“There’s more to it, isn’t it?” Her voice was calm. Chrysalis scowled as she saw the look on the diarchs face.
“IT’S YOUR PITY!” she screamed at the wide eyed alicorn.
“YOUR DAMN PITY CARRIES ENOUGH ENERGY TO SUSTAIN THE SWARM! IS THIS WHAT YOU WANTED TO HEAR? THAT I HAVE TO DEPEND ON YOU! THAT I’M UNABLE TO KEEP MY PEOPLE SAFE MYSELF!” Chrysalis screamed, her shoulders trembling, her eyes watery, and droplets of spit plastered onto the glass pane that stood between the two immortals. Exhausted her body dropped to the floor.
*click*
Suddenly she found herself caught in a warm embrace, her head pressed into white fur, and feathery wings closed around her.
She began sobbing, angry at the world, angry at that cursed compassionate smile, angry at herself. Just why did this have to feel so good?