//------------------------------// // Chapter 8: Some Revelation Is At Hoof // Story: The Twilight of the Crystal Heart // by WanderingPony //------------------------------// It can only be a sign of the times in Canterlot that a broken-horned, swaybacked Princess of Love would be considered good news. Chrysalis, with the dramatic timing inherent to most Equestrian supervillians made her way to the bottom of Canterlot's mountain road precisely at dawn, limping and groaning loudly enough that some people would have mistaken her for a grandmother of six (which is entirely too few- she's actually closer to the grandmother of sixty thousand, give or take.). "A little stumbling, and the poor fools will be running over to help their "Princess" in no time at all. Then, an easy trip to the gates and the love of my very own herd of ponies to devour..." And indeed, before the faux royal had gotten very far, she was greeted by ponies running break-neck and downhill to meet her, a cloud of dust obscuring the road behind them. The Queen's storage sac growled with anticipation at the incoming meal ticket and she put her best "Look at me, I'm soooooo pathetic" look. "They love their little pink namby-pamby "Princess of Love". My little "throw Blueblood off the cliff" bit must have worked even better if they're coming to me THIS fast..." ...and the crowd swept past her without taking half a look, screaming all the while. "RUN! GET OUT OF THE WAY! FLY, YOU FOOL!" "Fly...from...fool...WHO?" aaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAIIIEEEEEEEEEE! *WHAM!* Canterlot greeted her with screams and a great deal of noise, followed by smashing the faux-gimp-royale into the bushes. It was not entirely her fault that a runaway wagon on three and a half wheels with two screaming colts proceeded to ram her squarely in the face, but if she hadn't been so intent on looking quite so pained, maybe the changeling queen wouldn't have ended up an emergency braking system. To her credit, she managed to hold her shape through the concussion, but not much else. "That pegasus saved those poor children! Someone help her!" "...it's a pegasus. No, it's a unicorn!" "Hgxlptl." "Good gracious, it's Princess Cadence and I think she needs a doctor!" Chysalis indeed got herself a crowd of adoring ponies, but they were busy trying to pick her out of the wall of gooseberry bushes she'd ended up impaled on. While the spiny mass did next to no real harm to the chitinous creature, dropping her form to slide the false body free would have been rather counterproductive. Besides, between the headache and the steady diet of attention and the delicate grooming/detangling her wings were getting from a swarm of exultant "subjects", not moving felt rather good. With an occasional encouraging squeal of "owie" or two to her entourage, she watched the crowds swell with crystal ponies anxiously awaiting the first words from their "barely alive" princess. The sobbing (in a good way) if somewhat wagon-squashed parents of the grubs who'd rolled her over joining the chaos to thank their savior would have normally gotten them podded and fed to the hive for striking a Queen, but gratitude and adoration was just so tasty, she'd let it slide until later. "Time to herd my little aphids back to their new nest." "W-water....please...I...I have to speak to them..." The water rinsed the disgusting taste of berries out of her mouth, and she wiggled her jaws a bit. Nowhere near as easy as using a decent proper set of spiracles to suck in air. "My....my little ponies...I've come so far to take you away from this horrible, horrible place.", "Cadence" managed to squeak out of a throat that sounded like it'd just swallowed the yearly gravel crop out of the Pie farm. The words "horrible" and "take away" were passed through the throng by increasingly confused pony voices. And a few changelings that merely looked the part. Every herd needed it's herders, after all. "We...we were betrayed by Canterlot. Our home is ashes, and the wicked Celestia is to blame. So many...so many *sob* GONE! Her little ponies, even Twilight Sparkle tore the Empire to pieces and left me to die while I tried to save you all. They destroyed the Heart and they herded you back here to finish the job.", she spat through dark (gooseberry) stained teeth and lips. A very convincing imitation of Lily Valley "fainted" at the revelation. Some distance away in the crowd, the real one unwittingly mimed along. "And....and..." Chrysalis pushed her recent swallow of water out from her eyes with a little mucus to make her eyes nice and smeary for the big finish. "She took my love, the father of my little filly-to-be and blasted him to DUST along with everything else! Shining Armor, my prince, the stallion for my little Skyla to love and call "Daddy"...they....they KILLLLLED HIM!". If the crowd had been an piano, she'd have jangled all the keys at once. The crowd hissed (not difficult, considering the ones in it hissing weren't really ponies) different names to go with "they"- a litany of the Queen's least favorite ponies, Princess this and Princess that with an occasional Element of Harmony thrown in for variety. There were plenty of real ponies in the chorus at this point, memories of a shining ball of light that burned and furrowed their homes pushed past the thin scabs of a few days peace. The news that there was an heir on the way did not go un-noticed either, especially considering her decrepit "condition". "No more killing. No more of *hack* Celestia's herd to take our people away. We will go to Lovey Dovey Smoochy Land! It is a place of kindly creatures, and we will make it a Kingdom of Love, where none of Canterlot's hateful creatures will EVER go!" "The luvcats were getting a bit sparse and ponies can't help but take care of the things, anyway.", she thought. She toppled from her thorny crucifixion, shedding a few feathers as she "fell" into adoring hooves and played the senseless, wounded pony she looked to be. The cursed wagon was pressed into a makeshift carriage, a team of six crystal ponies harnessed to pull their Princess as far away from the nightmarish, un-natural place Canterlot had become. She could easily pick up the mocking-ponies salted amidst the crowd urging them to gather their things and follow along, and the sweet sounds of her new herd of beasts to milk for love made as they began to think of themselves not as "one of the ponies", but a herd in a dangerous place with who knows what of Celestia's minions plotting to kill and burn them again. A few harsh words here, a bitter stare there and dozens of crystal ponies had formed a protective circle around "their" princess and began walking away, more rolling and trotting or even galloping through the gates with wagons or carts or only a saddlebag to join the exodus. As they did, a dark shadow lifted above the walls and flew on hissing batwings towards the far more humble wagon below. Princess Luna circled in her royal chariot, her eyes opened to full-moon size as they took in the exodus. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN, TAKING MINE NIECE FROM HERE? DOST THOU NOT SEE SHE IS SORELY WOUNDED, IN NEED OF AID? CLEAR A PATH, SO WE MIGHT TAKE HER TO A CHIURGEON!" Rocks flew at the chariot, bouncing off the gilded bottom. "You can't have our Princess!" "You killed our Prince, you destroyed our city!" "Fake! Fake!", spat a disguised changeling as his mouth was cleared of a rock. A hail of stones, a few sticks, and a well-bucked cushion flew into the air, most falling short as the chariot's guards pulled it up. Only the last remnants of an Empire sofa managed to reach Luna, the padded missile bouncing off her chest and tumbling to the floor of her ride. The grand-stallion who'd hurled it bent over and flicked his tail up in contempt at the airborne conveyence. It might as well been a spear for how it pierced her chest as she wheeled above the wrath-filled horde, foam-flecked and frenzied in their efforts to shield their precious cargo. An army would have broken through them easily enough, but no army in Canterlot with a heart would have tried for fear of having the crowd tear themselves to pieces on the ponies who were trying to protect them. "RETURN!", she cried above the tumult and the chariot gained altitude as it followed the road back to the Canterlot gates. Cheers for Cadence and jeers for Luna burned her ears flat as they retreated for the castle walls, but if she could not safely rescue yon Princess from her own subjects, perhaps two Princesses would do? The purple-and-silver chased chariot streaked back for it's home, Luna leaping from the back as it made it's approach to the runway to dive for the entrance to the Royal Dungeons. The guards would be preparing to bring the dungeon's six prisoners up right about now, and Celestia would be with them.