//------------------------------//
// The Master Plan 
// Story: The Princess is Gone 
// by EnderRain 
//------------------------------//

         It was midnight, and I was once again standing in the corner of the pit, about to get pulled through the portal. I was pulled in and there sat the same three changelings in their pony form as last night. 

“Okay, so for the next two days, the queen will be preparing. It takes a lot of magic to change the whole DNA set up of something, especially a powerful one, like you and your former alicorns-ness,” explained Cloud Chaser. 

“There is one crucial moment of weakness at the end of the ceremony, when the pony in question isn’t fully changed yet. It’s the hardest part to preform, or the pony won’t survive, and we know the old queen doesn’t want to kill you,” Ava continued. “We’ll be there, we’re some high up advisors, and some other ponies turned changelings as well, Yeah, there are more of us,” She must have seen the look I gave her. 

“They aren’t spies like us though,” Sunny Days explained, “They just kind of ended up here, mostly old swamp ponies who wandered too far out of their trailer park.”

“We need to get to work, stop dawdling and explain, or I will,” Cloud Chaser said in an almost threatening tone. 

“Yeah you’re right,” Ava said, “So, it’s almost impossible to kill Chrysalis, especially when she has that much power stored up, even in a weak spot. Our plan, since we know you’re not a super powerful alicorn anymore; is just to knock her out long enough to escape the changeling horde that will surely follow her and try and fix her, they’re fast see, so we’ll need lot’s magic to teleport us all outta here, we’ll need this.” Ava reached into a saddlebag that she had on, and produced the familiar red and black necklace I thought I had destroyed years ago, the eyes of the horse it portrayed glowing red with greed. 

“Is that…?” I asked in shock and horror.

“The very one,” beamed Sunny Days, her pride clearly showing on her face. “It took forever to find it, it’s not every day you look for a piece of jewelry manufactured by Starswirl the Bearded you know. It’s not fully repaired, but it’s still pretty powerful, especially in the hands of a pony whose talent is literally doing magic.” She continued, her years as a sales pony must have caused a habit where she just rambled on about a certain product and how it would be great with the right pony. 

Just as Sunny Days was coming to the end of her nonsensical ramble,  Cloud Chaser cut in “You’ll have to use this, it’ll give you loads of power, During the ceremony, Chrysalis will have her eyes closed, she’ll go into a trance-like state and we’ll only hear muttering from her, trust me she’ll be out, and completely oblivious. You’ll have to magically conceal it until we give you the signal, then you have to put it on and strike her. She’ll be out and we changeling ponies here on the inside we’ll take over from there. Don’t wear the amulet for too long, you know the effects it has on ponies.” He said, becoming grave. “It’s crucial you do this, you will use the spell located at the back of the book hidden under and behind the desk in your room. Hopefully they haven’t searched your room yet…” 

“What? Searched my room? Book? What?” I asked severely confused. 

“It’ll all come together, don’t worry, we’re sorry you had to find out like this. We have to go, be prepared and get plenty of rest. See you in a couple days,” Ava consoled, somewhat motherly, but any comfort was welcome at this point. One by one I watched the three pony/changelings walk through the portal and back into the Pit. As soon as they were gone I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. Why was I here, why did it have to be me? Those ponies had just told me that my whole time here; and a lot of my life was just a lie. I felt the self-doubt start to set in, the pain and fear growing more intense; What if I can’t do it? I will let them all down. Those ponies are lying, the things they said can’t be true… all the voices swirled in my head, everything was closing in, I looked over next to me, only to see the glowing red eyes of that wretched necklace, it’s red aura getting brighter. I picked the thing up and somehow managed to cast a concealing spell on it and walked out through the portal. Then I collapsed, everything went numb.

“My my, what do we have here?” Was the first voice I had heard, “It seems our precious pony princess decided to go into an uncontrollable emotional fit. Well, we can fix that; you won’t be a pony princess for much longer.”  It must have been much longer then I thought. I must have gone into the ‘princess mode’ that was explained to me just days ago. It was time for the ceremony.

My head snapped up, I was still in the pit, but I could see through the holes in the walls that it was light outside, and that there were millions of changelings here in the room. I was still laying down and Chrysalis’ voice that I had heard, it almost scared me that I misplaced the raspy echo that had a dark form of grace to it. “Welcome back,” the echo cooed. “EVERYONE BUT THE ADIVORS LEAVE, I APOLOGIZE MY FAMILY BUT I CANNOT PREFORM THE CEREMONY IN FRONT OF SO MANY EYES.” She suddenly boomed. Most of the changeling horde left and then there were only about a hundred or so in the room. 

Up on the left hand side of the stage, I saw Ava sitting and fidgeting nervously, but keeping a cool face next to an unfamiliar changeling.  To my right was Cloud Chaser the epitome of calm and collected, and in front of us was Sunny Days, chattering exitedly. Alone on stage was Chrysalis and I, she had had her throne carried into this room. 

Chrysalis went and sat down in her throne; a small pillow was immediately carried out by a younger changeling subject and put down on the floor right in front of the large chair. “Please do sit,” the regal changeling said, referring to the chair. “The process takes a while, do get comfortable.”

I silently and tentatively walked over, risking a glance at Ava, she nodded back and I continued across the large stage and sat down on the bright red pillow. It was surprisingly soft and comfortable, seeing as they don’t really have what I would call a ‘bed’ here in the palace.  The queen closed her green-blue eyes and started muttering, very low, extremely calculated. I sat there in front of her, staring at the crowd gathered before us. Soon my body started to ache; my whole being enclosed is a dark and claustrophobic feeling of agony. I started to scream and writhe on the large cushion, the only sound was my screams of torture and Chrysalis’ continual muttering. 

All at once it started to ease up, the pain lessening, but still there. Out of nowhere I hear the voice of Cloud Chaser “NOW!” now what though? I remember I was supposed to do something; but what was it. Then I heard the voices of my friends, all here in the room crying ‘now’ simultaneously, the southern drawl of Applejack and the elegance of Rarity unmistakable, it must have been changelings encouraging me though. It all came rushing back. I was supposed to use some blasted spell with the amulet, but I never got the chance to look at it in the-who-knows-how-long-time I had been out. Then I realized, there must not have been a spell; that was part of the whole thing, those three wanted me to get overwhelmed. They had wanted to prep me. I whipped out the amulet and recited a simple stun-spell every unicorn learns in their early years of training. 

There was a scream, a red flash, and a hoof on my shoulder, they were calling all the pony-turned changelings to me. I had to get them out of here. I thought of the first place that came to my mind and I felt my body, along with many others folding into space and time and then land on the wood floor in big heap.