//------------------------------// // Deals and Dragons // Story: Right Behind You // by BleepBloop2 //------------------------------// [Present] [Spy] Ponyville burned well. Flames rose towards the sky behind me like a dying man reaching for salvation, and any pegasi flying overhead would see the giant SPY spelled out in red and orange. It was quite the sight from Canterlot. Smoke threatened the sun, which was rapidly retreating beyond the horizon, making way for the night. Tearing myself away from the best thing I’d seen in years, I moved towards the castle. I’d seen both Luna and Celestia heading that-a-way earlier along with a carriage of some sort, meaning little old Chrysalis was here all by her lonesome. I was on my way to keep her company. What sort of gentleman lets royalty spend the night alone? Sneaking into Canterlot Castle was no harder than sneaking out had been. It’s like the guards aren’t even trying. I’m actually kind of surprised both Celestia and Luna went to that backwater village. Sure, it’s pretty close, but it’s still a village. It’s right there in the name, Ponyville. Then again, neither of them have ever been what I would call smart. They had to know it was a distraction, it’s not like the town had anything valuable in it. I killed a courier and took his message before finding an undisguised changeling and telling it I had a message for the Queen. He looked me over before giving me directions that basically amounted to ‘go down’. And so down I went. Chrysalis seemed to have taken over the Canterlot dungeons. As I headed deeper and deeper underground, my nerves wound tighter. I had yet to find any way in or out of the dungeons bar the main one, and I was starting to think this was a trap. No way it could be this easy. Celestia can’t be that stupid, and I know Luna isn’t. Or wasn’t before she got the Elements to the face, twice. Who knows what that could have done to her. The voice in my head urged me on, but the voice isn’t much smarter than Celestia sometimes. The voice did not like that comparison. The dungeons were clean and well cared for, made from the same bright white stone has the rest of the castle. It was horrible. Dungeons are supposed to be dark and dank and full of rats. Celestia couldn’t even get dungeons right. It’s not even that difficult, just let the place full up with the bodies of those who oppose you, and then sit back. All she had to do was nothing, and she failed. The one thing she got right about the dungeons, the only thing, was that they were terrible to navigate. I almost got lost in those horribly clean hallways. I would have gotten lost, if not for the stench of mold leading me towards changelings. The area Chrysalis must have commandeered was the only part that looked properly dungeony. It had mold and rats and bones, and she somehow turned the stone a dark grey. Chrysalis herself looked like a scaled up version of a changeling, nothing special that I could see. I moved towards her, cloaking as I drew near. She turned at the sound, but saw nothing, of course. I circled ‘round behind her but, instead of sticking a knife in her back, I knocked her crown off. Magic lashed out directly behind her. Good thing I, y’know, wasn’t there. As big as she was, I doubt I could have reached the crown from behind her. I was on her right. When her magic splashed against the wall and began dissolving it, I started tutting. “Chrysalis, Chrysalis, Chrysalis. Is that any way to greet someone who only wants to help you?” I asked, my voice echoing strangely from the dungeon’s walls. She looked around, probably trying to pinpoint my location by sound. “You are Spy, I presume?” “I see my reputation precedes me,” I said, not even trying to keep the smugness from my voice. I can fit a lot of smug in very few words. It’s one of my many talents. “Indeed it does,” Chrysalis said. She paused for a moment, then continued. “Your reputation as a murdering lunatic is well known.” I gave her a bow, though it was mostly for my benefit. Not like she could see it. “I can only try my best.” “Your best?” she asked, anger flooding her voice. “Your best is twenty four dead changelings!” “I know. Not very high, I’ll admit. But I only found out changelings existed a few days ago, so it will take me some time to get the numbers up to standard.” The Changeling Queen was still turning around, trying to find my be voice. Either bugs have really bad hearing, or she wasn’t trying very hard. She was turning slowly in a circle, barely a third of the way around after this long. “Is this a game to you?” “A game?” I asked. “Of course it’s a game. But it isn’t just a game. Death is my business, my bread and butter, my area of expertise! Death is what I do, Chrysalis, and I’m here to make you an offer you will not refuse.” She snorted. I guess bugs can snort here, who knew. Is it weird the snorting surprised me, but not the magic or the talking? “And what in love’s name could you possibly offer me? I already have a place in Equestria for my changelings, assuming you don’t kill them all.” “You have a place, sure, of course. I guess you won’t mind being beneath ponies and answering to Celestia. And here I thought you weren’t a spineless little bitch.” “What would have me do? Let my children starve?” Chrysalis asked. I squinted at her. Was her… her horn was glowing. She wasn’t using sound, she was using magic, probably keeping me talking to distract me. Not bad, not bad at all. I kept walking, staying ahead of where she was facing. “I really don’t care if you all starve or not. You could kill yourself now, and at most I’d be worried about you staining my suit. The only thing keeping me here is Celestia. I need to see her suffer. I want to see her looking out over the ruins of all she held dear. I want to see her shake from tears when she learns all her subjects are dead or enslaved. I want to hear her cry when she learns all her work was for nothing. I want her to beg for a death that cannot come.” Chrysalis was staring straight at me now, horn glowing a deep red. “You truly hate her, don’t you?” Chrysalis asked. “This is nothing, a small drop in an ocean of hatred.” A tongue flicked between her lips. I didn’t know if she was tasting the air like a snake or licking her lips like a mammal. Neither made sense for a bug. “I know where you are. Why should I not kill you were you stand? Why should I not have guards seize you right now?” I let the cloak drop. She jumped when I appeared in front of her. She had to tilt her head back slightly to look me in the eyes. “Because I can give you the one thing you want more than food for your subjects,” I told her. She blinked both sets of eyelids at me. “And what is that?” I gave her a smile that would make a shark jealous. “Victory over Celestia.” Chrysalis thought for only a moment. “Tell me more.” [Present] [Chrysalis] Chrysalis looked up at Spy. She had read the files Celestia and Luna had given her, and had spoken to Luna about Spy. She had seen what he could do - or rather, she hadn’t, for he rarely left any evidence, only the absence of ponies to mark his passing. He stood a head above her, thin of body and limb. He paced around the room with a fluid grace, like at any moment he might spring and attack. Metal flashed between his fingers, silver, black, and gold. Two knives and an amazingly small clock. She saw no other weapons on him, and she didn’t know enough about clothing to tell if anything was concealed beneath his outfit. Was that all he had needed to strike fear into an entire city? Into two gods? She saw the way Celestia flinched whenever Spy was mentioned, the way Luna tensed slightly whenever she saw red. She could taste the fear on them, buried deep but not deep enough. Spy moved to a corner where he couldn’t be seen from outside her chambers and reached into his clothing, pulling from within a thin silver case. He glanced within for a moment before snapping it shut. He looked around the dungeon cell. “What has Luna been up to?” “I do not know: they do not tell me everything they do. I do not doubt it is to do with you, but I cannot say how.” Spy just nodded, as if he expected nothing more. “Now, you will explain how you will help me defeat Celestia.” Spy started pacing in his corner, scanning around the room. “Celestia needs you right now, or at least thinks she does. For now, you just need to do what she asks. Get the love, or whatever, that you need. Grow in power. When you make your move, I will remove Celestia. You take over, solidify your control before Celestia returns.” “And when she returns?” Chrysalis asked. “As long as Celestia draws breath, I will tear down what she tries to build. If she wants Equestria, I can’t let her have it.” “And what do you ask for in return?” “At some point in the future, I will ask something of you. I won’t say when or what, but soon.” “I need more information than that,” Chrysalis protested. “I cannot make a deal with such open ended terms.” “Deal with it. I’m giving you Equestria. I could ask for more than a favour.” Chrysalis stilled a growl. “I will need time to decide.” “You have until tomorrow. You will receive an invitation to breakfast. Go for yes, don’t for no. Understood?” “Of course.” Spy nodded. Gold flashed in his hand, and with a noise like a dozen changelings in flight he vanished. Chrysalis watched where Spy had stood, straining all her senses for any sign of him. He neither heard, nor smelled, nor felt any magic from his passing. But his presence, a feeling of being locked in a small room with an enraged beast, was gone. [Present] [Celestia] Celestia looked over the burned out husks of buildings, the smell of woodsmoke thick in the air. He had burned his name into the village. Fourteen homes, eight stores, three farms and a greenhouse, gone. It was far too similar to his actions during the war, where he had burned and pillaged dozens of towns and villages. He had burned his name into the Equestrian countryside then too. Beside her was Luna, face unreadable, eyes staring into the distance. Next to her stood Applejack, gazing out over what remained of Sweet Apple Acres. It had been used for the ‘S’. Next to her stood her family, amazingly unharmed beyond some hair loss and second degree burns. The little filly, her name something Apple related, was pressed against her much larger brother. “Why?” The two diarches turned to face Applejack. “Do you ask why he targeted your farm?” Luna asked. Applejack started to shake her head, but stopped. “Well, I guess that is part of it, but why would he do this at all? It doesn’t get him anything, does it?” “If it is any consolation, I doubt he targeted your farm,” Celestia said. “He would merely have looked for any place large enough and in the right place. He did not go after you and yours.” Applejack managed a small smile, and swung a foreleg over her brother’s shoulder. “That is good news, I guess. But still doesn’t tell me why he did it.” “To show he could. To remind us what he was capable of.” Everypony turned to face Luna. Luna pretended not to notice. “This was a favourite tactic of his, before. He would march into a village, burn it to the ground, and fill the soil with salt and the water with the dead. Some of the villages are still uninhabited.” Celestia coughed, cutting off Luna’s train of thought. She turned to Applejack. “We have done all we can for you. We shall return to Canterlot and leave you to rebuild, but to not hesitate to contact me for building supplies or contractors once you have begun.” After a pause, Luna nodded. Applejack nodded at the Princesses. “That’s mighty nice of you, Princess. I’ll keep that in mind.” “We should collect Spike before we leave,” Luna said. “I agree,” Celestia said. “Farewell, my little ponies.” The little filly and the older mare didn’t even react to her, while the big stallion looked at her and gave her the smallest of nods. She turned towards Books and Branches, with Luna by her side. As they walked, Luna wove a spell of silence around the two of them, preventing their words from being overheard. “How goes your research?” Celestia asked. “Well,” Luna replied, ignoring all the ponies that bowed to them. Celestia smiled and waved. “I believe I have a means of negating his invisibility, or will soon. There is nothing I can do about his knives; if our skin does not stop it then very little will. As for his other weapon, I do not know. It follows the basic principles of the crossbows of Taur’i, but on a scale I doubt exists elsewhere on this world.” “The invisibility is the most troublesome. We cannot catch what we cannot find.” They walked slowly through the edge of the town, slowed by the sheer number of ponies coming out to see their rulers. “I still say this was a mistake,” Luna said, as she stared down at a mare coming up to them and bowing. Celestia gave the mare a smile. It was an idea they had had centuries before Luna’s banishment. Luna would act cold towards grown ponies, but they would create a holiday of some sort that would endear her towards foals. Celestia was to be the opposite. Warm to the grown ponies that approached her, but stern with any foals. It had had slightly more failure than it had success. Many grown ponies now feared to approach Celestia, while Luna was feared by almost all ponies and a large portion of the other races as well. “So you have said. I know this was a distraction. If he had wanted to sow chaos he would have gone farther afield. There is something in Canterlot he wants, and I cannot think what. The elements are… removed from play. He has evaded capture for weeks now. If anything is amiss in Canterlot, either our little ponies or the Changelings will notice and report it to us.” Luna snorted, walking around a group of stallions getting their picture taken in front of the diarches. “I do not understand how you can trust her after all the things she has done.” “I don’t trust her,” Celestia corrected. “I would as soon trust him. But I can understand her, and know what she would do. I cannot say the same for him.” Luna sighed. “Very well.” They paused outside the library. “This will not be easy,” she murmured despite the sound barrier. “No, it will not,” Celestia agreed. “But it needs to be done.” She pushed open the library door and stepped inside.