Chapter Nineteen
Metamorphosis
Chrysalis walked over to the bas-relief of Celestia and gazed at it for a moment. "I remember seeing this when I was little. The ponies here were afraid of her then."
I bit my lip to hold in the flood of questions that immediately leaped into my mind. I had the distinct feeling that Chrysalis wasn't one to be pushed into anything. If she had been here when the city was inhabited, that meant she was old. And that meant she was experienced and dangerous. More dangerous, actually.
"Your dear mentor..." Chrysalis looked back over her shoulder at me. "...was feared and hated."
I really hoped that there was some balm for badly chewed lips somewhere in our provisions.
After receiving no reply from me, the changeling queen turned back to the carving. "I was as beautiful as her, once... would you believe it?"
Of course I wouldn't. I managed not to snort in disbelief.
Chrysalis ran a hoof through the lank, greasy strands that served her as a mane, in a grotesque parody of a gesture I'd seen Rarity do a thousand times. "At that time, the city was one of the jewels of the world. The unicorns created such grand artwork, sculpture, poetry, and music that they were renowned for it, but what made them rich was the trade! Magic-made material and items flowed out, and food and gold flowed in. Caravans came with treasures from beyond the seas to trade. A guild master could command a cart full of emeralds for a single, perfect amulet. It was..." There was a sudden hitch in her voice. "...paradise."
She turned back to me and said, "I was born to a noble family." She watched me carefully for any reaction.
I kept my expression neutral as I replied, "A normal birth?"
"Yes." She grinned. "Perfectly normal, but not average. I was exceptional... gifted, even among the most powerful magicians of the city. I suppose you might understand what that was like."
I nodded cautiously.
"But I was also a great beauty. I was athletic, poised, graceful... admired and desired by the ponies around me. You will just have to imagine that, I suppose."
Her barb missed the mark. I had never been obsessed with shallow nonsense of that sort. I imagine she only said it out of habit, anyway.
"I began to create my own unique spells when I was still quite young. Art and adornment was my specialty. I made living jewelry, makeup, and clothing, amulets that created illusory costumes for masked balls, and ones that hid flaws for the vain and less perfect than I.
"And then, I created my masterpiece! A spell that would change not just a pony's appearance, but their very substance! There would be no more ugliness, no flaws, The richest city in the world would have citizens to match its beauty!"
She didn't quite go into "Mwa-ha-ha" mode, but there was a definite, unrestrained passion in her voice.
"Can you guess what happened then, Twilight Sparkle?"
I swear, I wasn't trying to be flippant, but sometimes these things just pop out of my mouth. "All the diet and fashion magazines went out of business?"
Chrysalis flared her nostrils at me and narrowed her eyes. "Not a very good guesser, are you? I'll give you another hint: A young, magical prodigy creates an amazing new spell for the benefit of all the ponies around her... and perhaps a bit of fame. She directly touches the great source of magic that flows through the universe... its very life blood... and molds it in a new way, never before known to pony kind." She flipped her tail, brushing my wing tips with its end, "Take another guess... princess."
Oh, no. It couldn't be. Not her. I guess my expression showed my dismay, because Chrysalis laughed in delight.
"Yes, yes! Late to the party, Twilight Sparkle, but at least you've finally arrived!"
"What... how..."
"Ah! Very good questions, indeed!" Chrysalis smiled at me again and her gaze held a hint of madness. "But first, I'd like to ask one of my own."
"S—sure. Go ahead."
"What did the ponies of this place hate above all else?"
"Non-unicorns?" I hadn't put much thought into my answer. I was sure Chrysalis was just playing with me, and I just wanted to keep her talking.
"Mudstompers and featherbrains? Oh, no, the unicorns just despised them as lesser beings... felt pity for them, even." Chrysalis backed away toward the wall and continued. "No, what they hated more than anything else, was her!" She whirled and slammed a hoof into the neck of the stone image of Celestia.
"She dared to preach equality of the tribes, and even worse, she was the very living symbol of that equality! In her own body, she polluted and debased the superior blood of the unicorns with that of earth pony and pegasus! She was an abomination!"
Suddenly I could see the chain of events running forward. I understood what Chrysalis had gone through upon her ascension. Instead of being welcomed and guided by a beloved mentor, and celebrated by her friends and family— "Oh, sweet sun and moon, no!"
"Oh, yes! When I was transported to that place... that celestial realm... she was there to greet me. The great enemy of my tribe. I had no idea what was happening to me and, of course, I wouldn't listen to her. But that didn't stop my ascension.
"When I reappeared in the city, I was the living image of the thing most feared and hated by everypony I'd ever known. If they hadn't been so stunned by shock and horror, they might have killed me before I got away. Fortunately, my own great spell came to my aid and I hid among them until... until..." She trailed off and her neck bent. Her lank mane slid down across her face and she stood silently.
"I... you may not believe this, but I'm so sorry! That shouldn't have happened to anypony," I said, with utmost sincerity.
She lifted her head to look at me, and there was quite a bit more than a hint of madness in her gaze. "Oh, but the best is yet to come!" She slowly walked forward as she spoke, and I couldn't help backing away. "Such a plain mare as yourself may not understand, but I had my choice of the stallions of the city, and the one I claimed was magnificent! He was the first son of the highest of families, and we were to be married! But we couldn't wait, you see? He was so handsome and I was so beautiful, and we were so perfect together!"
"I... I don't understand," I gasped.
"We didn't wait. We shared our love... and on the day I ascended, I was already with foal."
I didn't know what was coming next, but I knew it wasn't going to be good.
"I went to him. I knew he would understand. He loved me."
Oh, yeah, not good. Chrysalis had backed me against the wall by then, and I was having serious doubts about her sanity. I readied myself to teleport away in an instant, but she turned away from me and went on as she walked aimlessly around the room.
"His hatred was as great as his love. He could have fled, he could have shouted for help, but he was a brave fool. He tried to hold me... pin me with his magic, even though he knew how strong I was... or had been." Chrysalis turned her steps back toward the image of Celestia and glared at it as if were her long-ago lover. "As an alicorn, I was even stronger! He fought but I broke free. He tried to... to... and I..." She lunged forward and slammed her horn into the carving, just behind Celestia's shoulder, where her heart would be.
Then her head fell away, her horn scraping out of the divot she'd made in the stone. She stood silently, swaying slightly and making an eerie keening noise that I desperately hoped I would never hear again.
I wondered if she were truly mad. None of what she'd told me lined up with the evidence I'd found in the city. Okay, maybe the part about the bigoted unicorns hating an alicorn that suddenly appeared in their midst, was believable, but the artisans and trade? Everything I'd seen indicated that the ponies of the city merely took what they wanted via their dark crystal.
Wait.
There had been a book I'd cataloged in the vault in Canterlot. About a trading empire I'd never heard of before. There were caravan routes in the south—and a port town where the Hayseed Swamps were now. Oh, why hadn't I read the whole thing when I'd had the chance? And—
I was afraid of how she might react, but anything was better than the horrible noise she was making, so I asked her the most obvious question. "If you became an alicorn, then... how did you...?"
Chrysalis shook herself like an old, sick mule, trying to shrug off a biting fly. "How did I... what? Survive? Oh no, that was simple! I fled the city and took refuge in the abandoned gem mines to the west. With my magic, it was easy. I planned to stay there, stealing what I needed until my foal was born and old enough to travel. Then I would go north to where the other alicorns lived... Celestia and Luna... they must be the true superior race, if that was what I had become! If I was evil, I would revel in it!" She began to chuckle, and I figured out pretty quickly that her mirth might go on for an appalling length of time if I didn't interrupt.
"What happened? Why are you—"
"Yes, yesss!" Chrysalis hissed in irritation. "It's my story to tell, Twilight Sparkle! Let me tell it in my own time."
"Of course. Please go on."
"A few months later, something began to... affect me. I didn't know what it was at the time. I thought that it might be some of the natural effects of pregnancy. My joints ached and my skin burned. I was so sleepy, nearly all of the time. Then one day I fell unconscious and didn't awaken for a long, long time.
"I didn't figure out what had changed me for a long while after that. All I knew was that, when I awoke, I was the amazing creature that you see standing in front of you now!"
"But you did find out why it happened, didn't you?" I asked, trying to ignore the acid tone of her words.
"Oh yes, I did." Chrysalis smiled—or maybe she was snarling. It was difficult to tell. "You see, the great magicians of the city had perfected a spell, or perhaps it was a device... I never knew exactly what it was... something, at any rate, that made trading and most labor unnecessary. It could be operated by anypony, simply by wishing. Anything they wanted, delivered in an instant."
Uh-oh. This was getting to be familiar now. But she said she didn't know what "it" was, That was something, at least.
"But there was one little trick that they needed to operate the spell. Any pony who wanted to partake of the wondrous cornucopia, had to be very good at visualizing what they wanted... believing in it. Making it live in their minds was a necessity, and so all the citizens were trained in that skill. Making thoughts into reality... what a wonder!"
Okay, so she knew. At least she knew the name. But she didn't seem to know how it really operated.
"There was just one little problem," Chryslais continued. "Whoever built the thing was sloppy. It didn't just take in a pony's thoughts when they wished for something... it did it all the time! And it leaked. Do you see now?"
I just shook my head.
"No, of course not. Let me spell it out for you," she said, condescendingly. "A short while after this amazing device began to operate, the city was shocked by my ascension. They were horrified by the murder of one of their most honored citizens by the monster that I had become. An alicorn? An abomination, rather. A monster, a parasite, an impostor among them! That is what they all thought of me, Twilight Sparkle, that is what they all believed!"
Oh, stars above, I saw it then. The dark crystal was even more evil and dangerous that I had known.
"Oh, my," Chrysalis purred. "I do believe you're beginning to get the picture. They did this to me. I became what I am because of them. When I awoke and crawled out of the chrysalis I had been wrapped in, I nearly went mad."
Nearly?
"But I was left with three things from my past life," she went on. "The magic of my greatest spell was now innate in me. I could change my form with only a thought. And my only regret... that became part of me, too. My lost love... the desire for that love... it had become a hunger. One that I have never been able to satisfy."
"That's only two." I nearly bit my tongue after saying it. What she told me made me wish I'd bitten it before.
"Oh, yes... mustn't forget the most important thing!" She leaned in close and gave me an vicious grin. "The joy of birth!"
"B—birth?" I was having a hard time breathing. "Y—your foal...?"
"Foal? No. My spawn... hundreds and hundreds of them! All like me... all with my power and my hunger!"
I wanted to throw up. "You... you're the reason they died out, aren't you?" I knew it wasn't wise but I just couldn't stop myself. "You and your... your descendants infiltrated, invaded... devoured them!"
Chrysalis laughed musically, "Oh, no, no! Well, not exactly, anyway. No, we just took their love. We took every last drop. And when it was gone, what do you suppose happened to a town full of powerful, arrogant unicorns who had not one whit of love left in their souls?"
"Without love, there can be no friendship, no compassion, no mercy," I said numbly.
"Indeed." The changeling queen's smile was a horrid imitation of kindliness as she spoke her final words on the subject. "It only took them a few days to destroy each other. I didn't kill them, Twilight Sparkle. They did it to themselves."
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