The Ice Queen
Spike got about as good a night’s sleep as he had since his ordeal with the three mares first began. Morning came a little sooner than he had hoped. He felt his stomach rise to his throat at the thought of what he had vowed to do the previous night. He opted out of breakfast as he rushed out of the library, even before Twilight could give a word of protest.
Though his mind was preoccupied by his plan of apologizing to Rarity, he was most worried about the decision he would be making soon. He knew he could not keep his current relationship with them going. Switching between them every few days would be crueler than outright picking one of them.
However, seeing the effort each went to win, he found it very possible that choosing would create a rift between the friends. Ruining friendships, especially of these close-knit mares, was never his intention. If his decision did manage to create a gap between them, he wondered what would become of the Elements of Harmony.
The six mares were the de facto protectors of Equestria, using the Elements to dispose of any dangers or threats to its long standing peace. Yet another consequence of his decision could possibly be Equestrian vulnerability. If they were to separate, the Elements would not be of any use when one or two of their bearers were not present. This situation was not as farfetched as he would have liked to believe; bitterness and envy could grow between the one chosen and the ones not.
A bit more selfishly, his thoughts drifted to his relationship with them after his decision. Having spent some intimate time with each, Spike grew to love them and even if he was unable to stay with them in a romantic sense, he was hoping to still remain friends. He soon dismissed it as wishful thinking, knowing there would always be a bit of awkwardness and perhaps even resentment for not choosing them between the three.
He made himself quite the sight as he walked to the Carousel Boutique. His reactions to the thoughts going through his head definitely drew some eyes, as he occasionally chewed his claws, dropped his shoulders and grasped his head. Not even realizing it, he arrived at the white unicorn’s shop as he continued to run bizarre and fantastic scenarios of his decision through his mind. He lifted his head to find he had already walked up the boutique’s front door.
Spike could feel his stomach knot up as he remembered his original purpose for visiting Rarity. His nervousness returned in full force, as did the nausea. Taking in a deep breath, he knocked on the door. Unlike the night before, the white unicorn answered rather quickly, almost like she had been waiting for it. However, the young dragon’s nerves kept him from noticing her speediness.
It seemed that was not the only thing that was off about the unicorn. Instead of seeing a saddened mare, he found her well-kept and pulled together, but also seemed much colder and more distant. He was afraid that his anger would earn him some malice from her, but this was different from anger towards him. He could feel her stare chill his blood.
“Why… hello, Spike,” she greeted him, even her voice sending shivers down the dragon’s spine.
“Hi… Rarity,” Spike replied.
“Do come in…” the unicorn moved aside, allowing him to enter. He hesitated for a moment. Something about this whole situation felt wrong. For just a split second, Spike could swear he saw a devious smile come across her face. As he stood there, he suddenly felt her stare on him intensify, and he rushed into the shop, compelled by his fear.
Unlike the mare, her shop was in complete disarray. All of her fabrics were spread across the floor and tangled against the pony manikins that were also allowed to stay wherever they fell. Even her sewing machine had been tossed over. There also seemed to be a bit of a draft in the shop. He had been in the boutique an uncountable number of times, but never did it ever feel like this cold or scary before, much less in the middle of the day. If he had not known any better, he would have guessed there had been a none-too-friendly struggle. As he quietly looked over the ruined shop, he could swear her could hear a constant thud coming from somewhere on the second level of the boutique.
“Now was there something you wanted to talk to me about?” her voice broke his concentration on the unknown noise.
“I just wanted to apologize… about the other night,” Spike answered.
“Ha! Do you believe a simple apology can make up for what you did?” the unicorn asked in angry tone, circling him as she spoke.
“I… What else can I do to make it up to you? I’ll do anything to prove that I’m sorry,” he replied pleadingly.
“How about you abandon this silly little love game with those two other ponies and pledge yourself to me? That would suffice…” the white unicorn told him as she continued to circle him.
“I-I can’t just do that to them…” Spike responded.
“But I thought you said you would do anything to make it up to me, dragon!” she boomed. However, it seemed that she allowed her true eyes to reveal themselves, out of anger, for a second. Along with the harshness of her voice and the choice of her words, it was enough to allow the dragon to see through her disguise.
“YOU’RE NOT RARITY! She’s never called me ‘dragon’ before!” the dragon accused.
“Ugh! You couldn’t just make easy on yourself and fall into the spell over time like that Shining Armor, could you?” the Changeling Queen said, dropping the illusion she had on herself. “Or perhaps I was too brash… No matter, you’ll fall under my control all the same.”
Spike attempted to make a run for the door, to warn somepony of the Changeling Queen. He did not make so much as half way before he felt his feet leave the ground. He saw the door drift farther and farther from his reach.
“Help! HEL−” the terrified little dragon screamed, only to be silenced by Chrysalis’s well place hoof.
“Don’t make this any harder than it must,” the Changeling Queen told him, staring directly into his eyes. “I’ve wasted enough energy in subduing that little rag designer. I don’t want to waste any time or effort on you. It will only delay my plans.”
Spike felt a strange sensation come over him as he was made to stare back at the shapeshifter’s eyes. He soon felt all the energy he was using to try and escape her captivity fade away. He felt his body go limp as this uncontrollable need to be with Chrysalis grew stronger and stronger.
“Yes… that’s it,” Chrysalis said, satisfied. “That’s a good boy…”
“There… it is done!” the Changeling Queen proudly said to herself. The dragon was fast asleep as Chrysalis lifted his body up the stairs into the bedroom. As they entered, the Changeling Queen eyed cocooned Rarity in the very corner, away from the sight of any window. She was struggling with all the might she could muster and swinging herself, hitting the nearby wall. “SILENCE! You’ve been such an inconvenience. But all that energy was in vain.”
She showed the trapped pony the unconscious dragon. The sight only seemed to urge her to fight harder to free herself from her prison. Only to torture her more, Chrysalis freed the mare’s head to allow her to speak.
“What have you done to him?!” the white unicorn screamed at the bug Queen.
“Now, now… he is merely asleep,” she replied. “Changelings live by leeching off the love of other creatures like you ponies. This has given us the affinity to affect the hearts and minds of other creatures with our magic. All I’ve done is intensify his feelings for you which, I must say, were very strong already. Unfortunately, he also seems to have found out my true identity, so I also had to scramble his memory, and it seems that it was too much for him to take. However, this actually worked in my favor. His feelings for your friends are also very strong; they hold the possibility of breaking my spell before it is in full effect. So I must keep him from them until I’m certain this won’t end in a repeat of my last attack on Canterlot.”
“You monster!” Rarity insulted the Queen.
“You haven’t even heard the best part,” Chrysalis told her. “Though his love will grant me great power, maybe even more than that stallion had given me, I won’t run the risk of being humiliated yet again. He has quite the potential as a dragon. If I can trigger his growth, I’ll have the power of a full grown dragon on my side. Along with my own power, I’ll be unstoppable. Your precious land of Equestria will fall to me and my Hive.”
Sealing her head once again, the Changeling Queen lay herself on the unicorn’s bed, bring the dragon to her once she found herself in a comfortable position. The dragon happily snuggled against the Queen. It was a heart wrenching site for Rarity, but it was not enough for the Changeling. She nuzzled the dragon, never once breaking eye contact with the unicorn, as she gave her a sinister smile.
“I wonder where Spike went off to in such a hurry…” Twilight spoke to herself. Her assistant hardly ever missed meals, much less on purpose. So it must have been something important for him to have skipped breakfast to do.
She had been using the time to reshelf the entire library, finding it to be the best way for her to keep her mind off the dragon. However, the mindless task could only be done so long before her thoughts began to drift to him again. As her concern grew, her concentration on the task fell. As she reorganized the high shelves, she allowed a book to slip from her magical grip and knock her on the head. As she recovered from the daze it gave her, she noticed that what fell on her was less of a book and more of a journal.
She opened the book to find it was yet another one of Spike’s journals. Twilight had long given up the search for them, but it seemed that by some wild coincidence or serendipity, she had finally found it. This one seemed much more detailed and neatly written, although it seemed that it had not begun where the last left off. This one more reflected something deeper than the first: his feelings of growing up a dragon in a society of ponies.
It felt awkward, wrong even, to be reading this journal as opposed to the last, especially when she had decided that it was a violation of his privacy. His new vocabulary allowed him to express himself in much greater detail, making the content that much more intimate. The more she read, the harder it became for her to tear her eyes from the text. She could feel the guilt rising in her, and it was fast becoming evening. She knew Spike could come home any minute. As she flipped the page, a knock at her door nearly spooked the paranoid mare out of her fur. She answered it to find not Spike, but Rainbow Dash.
“Hey, Twilight!” the blue Pegasus greeted her. “I just came over because Rarity told me to tell you that Spike was staying over her place tonight.”
“Oh… Thanks, Rainbow Dash,” the purple unicorn told her.
“At least you thanked me,” Rainbow Dash commented. “You know, it was almost like Rarity ordered me to come and tell you. I mean, not even please or anything. I’m not her personal messenger pony… Anyways, night, Twilight!”
“Alright, bye!” Twilight waved her off. Closing the door, she gave a sigh of relief, wiping her forehead. Eventually, her eyes wandered back to the book that sat in the middle of the library floor. The temptation was growing yet again to crack open that book and read to her heart’s content. With Spike gone for the night, no one would have been any the wiser. However, she shook her head at the thought.
She needed to place it somewhere she could not see it in order to prevent any future temptation. Placing it on a random bookshelf would not work— her mind would just memorize the shelf she placed it on and her eyes would always find their way to that spot. Hiding it under the carpet provided a very visual lump. Her eyes scanned the library. The drawers would have been an ideal spot, if it were not for her schedules taking up all the room. Again she glanced over the library. Eventually, she found herself staring at her bed. It might not have been the best place to hide something she wanted to keep her mind off of, but a single book under her mattress would never leave any visual signs of its presence.
She figured, more so hoped— that she would just forget about the journal in time. However, that night she knew she was not going to sleep very soundly as she could hardly take her mind off the journal.