//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Queen Chrysalis' Plan // by Ponynumber14346 //------------------------------// “Knock, Knock.” Fluttershy awoke to a banging at her front door. She climbed off of her couch and trotted over to a front door to see who was there. When she opened the door, she was greeted by a familiar draconequus standing outside. The bright afternoon sun shined at the back of the visitor, casting a shadow across Fluttershy’s floor in her cottage. She had slept in like she usually did every morning. “Why, hello Fluttershy.” Fluttershy immediately recognized the creature at her front of her door and fixed her messy “bed head.” It was extremely rude to have a messy mane when a visitor was at your home, according to Rarity (One of Fluttershy’s close friends). “Oh, good afternoon Discord. What are you doing here?” Fluttershy spoke in her signature quiet voice that was famous across Ponyville. Fluttershy couldn’t help it. She was just naturally a timid pony. “I just wanted to stop bye and say hi to my friend, Fluttershy. I figured you might be curious on how I’m doing in Canterlot. “Um, Sure.” With that, Fluttershy gestured for Discord to come in and take a seat in one of her chairs. As Discord walked to her chair, Fluttershy started making some snacks for her animals that were patiently waiting in the room with her and Discord. She also fixed up a salad for Discord. It was around lunchtime and she wasn’t sure if he had eaten yet. Once she had finished giving the appropriate snacks to each animal, she walked over to Discord and gave him the salad. She than laid down on the couch next to Discord’s chair. “I hope you like salad.” “Well, I can’t say it’s my favorite, but I can fix it.” Discord snapped his fingers together and summoned a mini chocolate rain cloud. He moved it over the bowl of salad and started shaking the bowl. Chocolate rain fell from the cloud and landed on the salad with a flash of smoke for each droplet. Discord then summoned a fork and started eating the bowl, leaving a bowl-shaped salad floating in the air. Once finished, he grabbed it and threw it behind him. The salad exploded, creating a mini fireworks show. Fluttershy was used to this kind of behavior. When she was reforming him, he did all kind of weird things, even weirder than the salad. But Fluttershy had been the only one who saw through him. She had seen the good side of him, while her friends had refused to give her a chance. Her friendly attitude was the main reason she had been able to change the draconequus’ ways. Speaking of his reforming, you may be wondering why he needed to be reformed anyway. Why couldn’t they just leave him as a statue where he could cause no trouble? Well, Celestia had said that she had a use for Discord’s magic, but she needed Fluttershy and her friends to make him change his ways. As you probably guessed from the last paragraph, Fluttershy had succeeded in doing this. Anyway, back to the conversation. Fluttershy was curious what the draconequus had to say. “So what has Celestia have you do so far?” “Well, she has been having me to do the most uninteresting things. Celestia’s no fun.” “Discord”, Fluttershy scolded. “Calm down Fluttershy. I’m still a perfect little angel.” A golden halo appeared above his head for a few seconds to prove his point. Fluttershy smiled at this. Even though he was a bit different, Discord had a good sense of humor and when he was living with her, he brought excitement to her usually boring and pretty calm life. “But that’s not what I came here for” he said. “What else did you come for?” “Celestia told me to come down here and ask you and your friends for a favor. She said it was mostly for Twilight, but the rest of you might be interested.” Fluttershy was curious about what kind of favor their princess wanted them to do. She hoped it wasn’t as scary as her last request. The Crystal Empire had proved to be a very frightening experience for Fluttershy. Even though it had been weeks since the event, she still was scared King Sombra would return. This fear made Discord’s next couple of words leave Fluttershy shaking. “Celestia has told me to tell you that she has discovered that somepony has performed a reborn spell which is a very powerful spell that only unicorns of the highest level can perform. She is worried that it might be a foe, as the only ponies in Equestria that are powerful enough to perform that spell are her and her sister.” “But what does she want us to do about it?” Answering Fluttershy’s question, Discord responded with an answer that nearly made Fluttershy faint. “Well, I don’t think you are going to like this, but she wants you and your friends to discover who cast the spell and find out why.” “How are we supposed to do that?” “How would I know? That’s not my job. Try asking that brainy one who lives in a tree” he replied with a annoyed tone. “Twilight?” “Yeah, that’s the one. She probably knows.” he said. “Well, it’s been nice talking with you again Fluttershy, but I’m afraid I need to hit the road. Celestia will have my head if I’m late for her…uh…appointment that she has with me.” To emphasize this, he mocked cutting off his own head with his claws. But he made his head temporarily come off for added effect. Fluttershy, still paralyzed with fear, took a while to respond to this, but eventually came back to her senses. “Oh, ok. It was nice seeing you again. Have a nice day.” Once they were finished talking, Discord exited the cottage through the front door and teleported away with a snap of his claws. Fluttershy waved her hoof good-bye to him as he left. As soon as he was gone, she shut her door and turned around to go fix her couch. As she was fixing the bed, she smiled to a couple of her thoughts. The couch is not a very comfortable place to sleep. But I couldn’t sleep in my regular bed. You let that colt sleep there last night, remember. A wave of realization hit Fluttershy like a tidal wave. There was a colt sleeping in her bed. She had completely forgotten about. She quickly, but quietly, trotted up her steps to find the small pony still sleeping in her bed. He was quietly snoring in a cute little way. Fluttershy, relieved, smiled at this. But it was early afternoon and it wasn’t good for a pony to sleep in. She quietly tiphooved over to the bed and nudged him with her nose. It took a bit to wake him up, but his eyelids eventually slid open to reveal glowing eyes with an aura trailing behind them. Fluttershy gasped at this. This colt resembled King Sombra almost perfectly. She hadn’t noticed the eyes in the dark of night, but now it was as clear as day. Somehow, King Sombra had been reborn. Reborn…The Reborn Spell! Fluttershy gasped once more as another puzzle piece fit into place. This colt was the result of the reborn spell Celestia was talking about. She had to tell Twilight about this. She quickly picked up Sombra, but stopped when she noticed a difference between him and the King Sombra she knew and feared. His eyes were not giving off any auras of evil. Instead, they gave a look that said: What are you doing? Fluttershy noticed that his cheeks were still stained from his tears. Remembering that she found him crying about his mother when she found him, she realized that his “mother” must have been the pony who had him reborn. But who would do that, but then leave him in a fountain. After studying him a bit more, he set him back down on the bed and decided to question the young colt. “Um…How are you feeling?” Sombra, who had been awfully quiet since she had woken him, finally spoke and answered Fluttershy. “A bit better, but where’s mommy?” “That is actually what I wanted to ask you about”, she said sweetly. “Do you remember what your mommy looked like?” “Of course.” Fluttershy felt dumb for asking such a question. Of course he knew what she looked like. Why wouldn’t he? “She looks a bit like you, except taller and skinnier and all black. She also has holes in her legs and her horn. She had blue hair and wings. She is very pretty.” Fluttershy had found the last piece of her puzzle. She immediately recognized the colt’s description of his “mommy”. Queen Chrysalis. The changeling who had posed as an imposter at Twilight’s brother’s wedding. She was an evil monster who had fled when they defeated her at the wedding. Fluttershy needed to visit Twilight desperately to share the information she had just acquired. But how could she tell her about this seemingly innocent colt. Twilight would have her get rid of him. After some thought, Fluttershy realized that she had no choice but to tell her about everything. She looked at the colt and sighed. She didn’t want to do this, but she had to. “I think I know somepony who can help you find your mommy.” Sombra smiled at this. This didn’t help Fluttershy feel better at all. Now she fell even worse about the whole situation. “Yay!” he exclaimed with joy. “Where is she?” he asked looking around the room. Fluttershy let out a small chuckle and reached down next to her bed and grabbed her saddlebag. She wrapped it around her back and reached over and picked up Sombra. His small size gave her idea to get him through Ponyville unnoticed. “I need to hop inside here so I can get you to her safely”, she said, holding her saddlebag open. “Ok!” and with that, Sombra hopped into the bag with a boldness that surprised Fluttershy. She expected him to not be so cool with the idea of hiding in a bag. But this didn’t matter anyway. All that mattered was getting him to Twilight. Not wasting any time, she quickly trotted down her stairs, careful not to shake him around too much, and head out the door. She was able to walk down to and through Ponyville without getting any attention. After all, she did look pretty normal. Just a young mare taking a stroll through a town with a saddlebag that definitely didn’t contain the King of Evil who could, potentially, destroy all of Equestria. After some walking, she eventually reached Twilight’s tree house. She went up to the door and knocked on it. A few moments passed and then the door opening, revealing the unicorn: Twilight Sparkle. “Hi Fluttershy. What can I do for you?” “Um…I need to talk to you about something.” “Sure, what is it?” “Well…Um…You see…Discord paid me a visit today.” Fluttershy went on to tell Twilight about everything she had learned, excluding Sombra. Twilight was curious about the matter and started asking questions. “Wait, who performed such a powerful spell? That kind of spell is reserved for ponies like Princess Celestia or Princess Luna.” “Well, that’s would I wanted to speak to you about.” Fluttershy opened her saddlebag to this and let Sombra out. He looked up at Twilight and said “Hi!” “Is that…” Twilight said with worry coming on to her face. Fluttershy simply nodded her head and started to explain everything. Twilight listened and nodded her head every once in a while to show Fluttershy that she was listening. While she was talking, Sombra walked over to one of Twilight’s bookshelves and pulled out a book and started reading it. Once Fluttershy had finished speaking, Twilight lowered her head and sighed. “Fluttershy, you do know that we can’t let him stay here. It is too much of a risk that we can’t take. I’m sorry, but we have to tell Celestia about this.” Fluttershy was upset by this. She didn’t believe that Sombra could do anything that could damage Equestria. He seemed too innocent. “No! I mean, we can’t. She might hurt him…or worse.” she said. Just thinking about what could happen to Sombra worried Fluttershy. She didn’t want anything to happen to the colt that had done nothing, so far, wrong. He was a different pony than what he was before. “I’m sorry Fluttershy, but it is for Equestria’s safety.” Twilight was done arguing and called down Spike. Spike came down the stairs as quickly as his legs could carry him. “Yes Twilight?” he said, panting. “I need to send a letter to Celestia.” “What should I write about?” “Tell her we need her presence in Ponyville immediately.” “Got it” and with that, Spike got started on his letter. Once he finished, he used his fire to send the letter to Canterlot. After a few moments, the ponies heard a noise outside. They galloped outside to see what it was. Once they had gotten outside, they realized that is was Princess Celestia coming down in her chariot. The chariot landed down next to them and stopped moving. Princess Celestia stepped out and greeted with the ponies. “You request me, Twilight?” she asked. She recognized everypony there except for a young grey colt that was hiding behind Fluttershy. Twilight explained the situation to Princess Celestia the best that she could and awaited her teacher’s response. Finally, Princess Celestia responded with “I see. Well, I think you all know what we must do.” “Bring him into the chariot” she said to her royal guards who had driven the chariot there. The two stallions walked over to Sombra and began to pick him up. They carried him over to the chariot and set him inside. “No!” Fluttershy cried out, but it was no use. Celestia was already getting into the chariot and Sombra had legcuffs around his legs. Sniffling, Sombra whimpered “I thought you said you said that you were going to help me find my mommy?” By now, Fluttershy was crying. “It’s not fair! He hasn’t done anything wrong!” Twilight put one of her forelegs around Fluttershy for support. Princess Celestia ignored all this and simply said: “You may visit him tomorrow before his execution.”