//------------------------------//
// Chapter 30: Queen's Lament 
// Story: What does a Hero Truly Need? Vol. 1: A New Age of Heroes 
// by zelkova48 
//------------------------------//

	

What does a Hero Truly Need?
	


By: Zelkova48



Chapter 30: Queen's Lament






The changeling queen laid helplessly on the cold dirt floor of the dark castle dungeons. Broken and left near the razor’s edge of death’s door, all she could do was breathe, cough, suffer chronic muscle spasms and remain absolutely still to lessen the pain of her ravaged body. 

Using her peripheral vision, she scanned her immediate proximity and only felt her heart sink further into the depths of despair. She kept asking herself over and over again in her mind:


“What did we do to deserve this?”


All around her was her willing and loyal subjects, but on a more matriarchal level, they were her brood. Her dear children whom of which she had witnessed each and every single one hatch from her eggs. It tore her from within to see the condition that they were in. They were in no better shape than she was, yet they all chose to give her the room that she very much needed, and instead opted out to huddling together in clusters up against the side of the cold cell.

Even then, their living conditions were not what terrified her to the core. It was the frequent meetings with the ponies that had her on edge the whole time. Whenever the princesses and their guards would come down she would notify her brood to hide back into the darkness while she was left at the mercy of her captors. Did she fear Princess Celestia and Luna? The answer to that question was none more than the guards stationed here.

If anything, the queen actually revered the moments when the princesses were trying to interrogate her. Though she couldn’t truthfully answer their questions nor willingly admit to their ludicrous accusations, whenever they were around the guards would actually stay their tongues and hold back their more than questionable actions. For whenever the princesses left, the tortuous beatings began.

It is an underlying fact that there are more than one way to get someone to talk. But for the guards and their pea sized brains, the only method that the ever tried was good cop and bad cop. Or to be more accurate, bad cop and even worser cop. Every chance that the guards got they used it to try to violently pry some form of confession out of her. And in the end, she could do nothing but curse them.

She cursed them, cursed them with every fiber of her being. She cursed them for treating her like so, she cursed them for being bigoted moronic fools, but more importantly, she cursed them for being associated with the very same group that decimated her kin months earlier. Even in the dark with her swollen eye she could just barely make out the faint glimmer of a golden necklace from in between the gaps of their armor.

It was a wicked symbol, a symbol that made her blood boil whenever she thought of it. A gold ring with three prongs depicting a simplistic representation of a horn, a hoof, and a wing. She remembered it so well for the aggressors who attacked her and her kin proudly had the symbol emblazoned upon nearly every piece of equipment that they wore. What it meant she didn’t care even in the slightest.

From what she had overheard from her captors, within a few days she would be moved from this pit and sent to the court where she will be judged by her crimes, possibly from a jury filled with bias ponies who still held the memories of the supposed invasion fresh in their minds. 

Relenting from the thought, she closed her eyes and resigned to her fate. The sound of her own soft sobs were the only thing that lulled her to some much needed rest aside from the low and melancholic buzzing of her brood who did all they could to comfort her. 

As she slept, she spotted something off the corner of her eye that brought her some form of temporary relief. Was it another changeling? No it couldn’t be, she couldn’t sense it like she could with the rest. But the black and green coloration of the figure approaching her put her at mind ease. Yet she still retained a sliver of cautiousness. 


What happened next took her entirely by surprise...
 


* * *


        The area around the cell had remained quiet for some time. The only sound that could be heard were the quiet munchings of the queen as she partook in some very much appreciated food. 

She took her time to eat and chose to savor each bite. Sure it may have been degrading as a queen to be seen eating like this behind the bars of the cell, but all of the details were irrelevant given her situation. 

        “Take your time, there’s no need to rush. We have all night. Please, enjoy yourself” said Rubick in a calming tone as he tapped his staff upon the floor a couple of times.


“Fissure”


        From upon the dirt floor of the dungeon, a light tremor could be felt rumbling beneath everyone’s hooves. Soil, stone and bits and pieces of metal fragments from the dungeon all shook, jumped and swirled together until it formed into three little stool like stumps that was concave in the center. One for Rubick, Twilight, and the queen to sit upon. 

The sudden appearance of the stumps made everyone in the room reel back out of surprise, only for them to loosen up when they noticed Rubick taking a casual seat with his hooves laid slack in a nonchalant fashion.

“Sit down, everyone. We will have much to talk about soon” said Rubick. Twilight checked her stump first to make sure that it wasn’t lumpy first before sitting down, only to find out that it was quite comfy for a seat comprised of mainly dirt. The queen pulled herself over with whatever strength that she could muster, and fidgeted around until she felt she was comfortable with the arrangements given to her.

It wasn’t long before the queen swallowed the last bits of food that was given to her before tossing the little satchel back to Rubick.

 She was grateful, even if she didn’t show it. It wasn’t about pride, more so about survival. But her ability to detect emotion allowed to understand that the unicorns before her were of no threat to her and her brood. Lifting her head so that she can meet the two eye to eye, she spoke with her raspy breath.

“What... d-do you want?” she asked before breaking out into a coughing fit. Hacking and whooping uncontrollably, she felt a wave of pain shoot throughout her body, nearly throwing her to the ground again with her wounds open again.

“Oh, dear. I had no idea how severe your injuries truly were. Here, allow me to help” Rubick willed his magic and a bright magenta stream of shadow magic was streamed from the end of his staff and towards the occupants of the cell. 


“Shadow Wave”


“I suppose that I probably should’ve done that when we first met” starting from the queen herself, the bolt of shadow healing magic, courtesy of a certain eccentric priest, reinvigorated her with strength and energy before doing the same for every other changeling that was with her. Her wounds closed up, and her snapped horn was renewed and returned as sharp and jagged as ever. She felt like a whole new changeling along with her brood.

“O-oh! W-what is this?” the queen asked “I feel... I feel incredible!” she exclaimed as she stretched and pranced around with her restored body, With her wings, she elicited an excited buzz that was joined by the buzzing of her brood. It felt amazing to move properly again without having shocking pain halt her advance every step she took.

“You like it? It’s a healing spell called Shadow Wave. You should thank Dazzle for that quick pick me up. It’s quite a great skill to stea- er, I mean learn between fellow users of magic” 

“Rubick, what are you doing! She’s the leader of the enemy!” Twilight whispered loudly to Rubick “Who knows what might happen now that you returned her back to full power!”

         “I simply nursed her back to good health and nothing else” said Rubick with a dismissive wave of his hoof “She has yet to recover any of her powers properly if the whole thing about feeding on emotions really is true. Believe me when I say that the queen here isn’t a threat to your people. In fact, I deduct that she never was at all”

        “Huh? What?”

        “Just listen to our conversation and keep that open mind you’ve been having lately. You’re doing great by the way” Rubick complimented “Listen closely. The clues and breadcrumbs she will leave behind will become invaluable in the near future”

        “...This sort of goes against my better judgement but I’ll take your word for it since the fate of the world hangs in the balance. I’ll take any information that I can get my hooves on if it means protecting my home and everyone who live here” said Twilight as she straighten herself up and prepared by wiggling her ears around “I’ll listen and keep an open mind”

        “Excellent! Now, where were we...” Rubick scratched his head “Ah! How about we start with introductions first! Ahem...” he cleared his throat “My name is Rubick, I am The Grand Magus” he politely bowed before pointing over to Twilight “Over there is my plucky young student, Twilight Sparkle. A Grand Magus in the making! She’s still a tad rough around the edges but she shows great potential as a magic user”

        “I know that she’s more than that” said the queen coldly as she raised a scornful eyebrow at Twilight. Twilight just turned her head and pretended as if the queen’s laser targeted glare wasn’t directed at her “She’s also Princess Celestia’s student. The same Princess Celestia who keeps accusing me and my brood of attacking her precious Canterlot!” she shouted angrily.

        “Now, now. We’re not here to try and make you confess anything that you didn’t do. Not at all” Rubick reassured the queen “To tell you the truth, we’re going entirely behind the back of royalty. This is what you would call covert affairs”

        “Oh, really?” The queen asked “But how can I trust you? How do I know that this isn’t all just some elaborate ruse to get me to lower my guard and talk? You two were one of the many that slaughtered my brood as if we were nothing! You know what you have done! So tell me why I should place my trust, the only thing that I have left aside from my children behind these cold iron bars in someone like you!”

        “You can tell how we feel, isn’t that enough?” Rubick asked with an almost unnoticeable crack to his voice, feeling true guilt burn up from inside of him. The queen cocked her head to the side and began to think, narrowing her eyes upon her audience. It’s true, what she was sensing from them wasn't malice, nor was it anything conniving. The green and black unicorn before her was practically mourning within. Still, Twilight wasn’t too forgiving as the magus was...

“...Give me another good reason, and you’ll earn my trust. But I want to hear it from you, Magus. Not your student, for she still harbors ill will towards me and my kind” replied the queen in a authoritative but weak tone. She wasn’t really trying to act all high and mighty, but if she were to show signs of weakness then what would they think of her?

“I healed you and your subjects of your wounds, gave you some food considering how malnourished you were that were high in protein with just enough carbohydrates to give you energy to move around and have acted like a gentlem- er, pony this whole time. Is that enough?” Rubick asked with a sincere smile on his face.

“...” Chrysalis didn’t know what to say, but at the very least she can safely say that she wasn’t falling into some sort of elaborate trap ”Very well. You have my full attention” said the queen “I am Queen Chrysalis. The sole surviving changeling queen of the last hundred changelings” she announce. The last few words sending a pang of fear up Rubick’s spine, causing him to slip forward and lose his composure for just a fraction of a second..

“Last hundred... but how?” he whispered to himself “ Um, excuse your highness...” Rubick started.

“Please, you have the permission to call me Chrysalis” the queen spoke in a surprisingly warm tone, making Twilight do a double take towards her. Was she really the malicious queen that the members of the Descendants defeated? “I can tell that you deeply regret doing what you did. You were only doing what you were suppose to and didn’t know until it was far too late”

“If I may, Chrysalis...” Rubick began again “My student and I would like to ask you a series of questions about how you came to be here. We hope to clear up any and all misunderstandings regarding your species’ wrongful incarceration”

“You would do that for me?” Chrysalis asked, feeling a small ray of hope shine upon her “I thought no one would believe me. I assumed that you ponies had been influenced by the social stigma of the changelings to the point where you don’t care what happens to us. But I guess there are some ponies out there who knows what is truth and what are blatant lies” 

“On the contrary, Chrysalis, I am not a pony at all” said Rubick with a mischievous smile.  

“Oh? Are you a surviving member of another hive then? Your coloration is bizarre, even for pony standards. Does that make you a changeling as well? If so, then how come I can’t sense your presence?” 

“Let’s just say that I’m not quite exactly what you would expect in Equestria. But enough about me, this is about you. Would you like to tell us your story?”

“My story?”

 “You see, ever since the supposed invasion began I’ve been having a nagging feeling in the back of my head that told me that everything was not as it seems” explained Rubick 

“But not just me” he continued “All of my colleagues know as well as I do that something was very off about the whole incident. And you know the truth about it all. About why the changelings were all over Canterlot, about why you were impersonating Princess Cadence, and about who planned out the whole thing out. We want to know about the who so we can stop them before they reach the point of no return”

“...I will tell you everything that you need to know” replied Chrysalis, only to start again with a proposition “But, I will require a favor in exchange for my gift of knowledge”

“You want us to help you?” Twilight asked rudely before getting shushed by Rubick.

“Shh! Twilight, please. Not now. Save your jeering for the true enemy. It’ll be much more satisfying, believe me” said Rubick before facing Chrysalis “I can grant you whatever I can in my power as a member of Celestia’s elite royal guards... within reason, of course” Rubick stated “Now, what would you like me to do for you?”

“I want freedom” Chrysalis simply stated “Given how you’ve been treating me, and the fact that you know I am innocent, I would ask you to break me and my brood out once I was done telling you everything. But doing that would ruin your credibility with your superiors, and my kind would be hunted down to the ends of the earth even if we successfully escape. Nothing would be resolved”

“So that means that we would have to go the... I believe you ponies call it the ‘legal way’ and help me to attain freedom and clear our bad name in the coming days. It would be beneficial for both parties if the air of ignorance was cleared once and for all. Can you do that?” she asked.

“I can, but what is it exactly that I have to do?” asked Rubick.

“In a few days, I will be removed from this dungeon and be judged for my crimes before the princesses and a grand jury of bias ponies. No doubt my judgement will be swift, and my punishment even swifter unless someone can properly defend me. And I believe that that someone is you”

“You want me to be your defence attorney?” Rubick asked with a raise of his eyebrow "Well, I do know my way around the court, albeit not a court of law but a court still. Equestrian law is entirely different from what I'm used to. Are you sure about this?"

“No one would dare want to defend the monster who attack Canterlot, and everyone is basically waiting for my guilty verdict anyway. So why bother having a lawyer for a villain like me? It seems pointless for them to waste time muddling up the... ahem, facts with meaningless drabble” said Chrysalis, tears welling up on her eyes 

“Please, I beg of you!” pleaded the queen. She broke down, losing all of her composure and began speaking out into hysterics “Defend me and my brood! Be our voice so that we can be heard upon stone ears! Prevent our extinction, please!" she concluded as tears began to well up below her eyes.

"Alright, alright, I'll do it" Rubick conceded as he knelt near the bars of the cell and comforted the distraught queen. 

"Settle down, Chrysalis. Please. I really don't want to see anymore angst from the ladies as I already have here in Equestria. I'm not comfortable with it. Eyes as beautiful as yours shouldn't be stained with tears" said Rubick as he did his best to calm the queen's worries, something that he seems to be doing a lot lately.  

"It'll be a tough battle, one that I'm not as familiar with, but there shouldn't be anything that I can't handle. I am a hero of the Radiant after all" he proclaimed proudly.

"A... hero?" said Chrysalis as she regained her composure "Grand Magus, should you succeed you'll be more than just a hero, you'll become a legend to the changelings. You will be revered as the one who saved the changelings from becoming more than a distant memory"

"To be frank, my dear, that is all well and good but I would prefer to remain a hero rather than a legend. Thank you for the offer though" replied Rubick nonchalantly “However, let’s save the whole being revered thing for a later time, preferably after I get you your not guilty verdict”

"If that is what you wish, Rubick. Then we have come to the conclusion" said the queen before assuming a more regal stance "Now it's my turn to uphold the other half of our bargain”

“Excellent!” exclaimed Rubick as he turned to face Twilight “Young Twilight, how about you ask the first few questions? I’ll get off my soapbox for you so you can speak your mind now”


* * *


“Finally” said Twilight as she let out an exasperated sigh “ Introductions took a really long time, but that won’t deter me from finding out the truth. So, first things firsts....” she walked up to the cell with a stern look on her face. Glaring at the queen, she asked her first question “Why did you attack Canterlot?”

“Hmph” Chrysalis turned her head to the side and scoffed at Twilight, clearly offended by the question “If you expect me to confess then here’s my answer: I didn’t attack Canterlot you dimwit”

“Hey! Who are you calling a dimwit!” Twilight snapped back before refraining herself from doing something that she might regret later “Fine, fine. Maybe that wasn’t the right question to ask, perhaps the better question is why are you here in Canterlot? Do you think you can answer that?” she asked with a bit of snark to her voice.

“Believe it or not purple pony, I can” replied the queen “Six months ago, my brood was attacked and evicted from our hive out in the badlands. The perpetrators were an army of ponies who attacked us with extreme prejudice” 

“Hold on, ponies did this to you?” Twilight asked, shocked from hearing about this bit of information “Who exactly did this to you, and why? If there was an attack on your people by us then surely Princess Celestia and Luna would know about it so that they could’ve prevented all of this from happening at all” 

“How should I know? All that I could tell you about these ponies were that they all had this odd symbol on everything that they had with them. Oh! My blood boils every time I see that wicked symbol!” Chrysalis huffed as she stamped on the ground.

“Hmm... looks like the true assailants have been busier than we thought, whoever they are” Rubick added.

“A symbol? Well what did it look like? Maybe I might know what it is if you can describe it to me” said Twilight.

“If I recall, it was like a gold ring with three triangular prongs attached to it. Not only that, each prong had an image engraved on it, one was a hoof, another was a horn, and lastly there was an image of a wing. Everypony who was involved wore something that had that symbol on it. No exceptions. I don’t know what it means, and frankly I don’t care” Chrysalis explained.

“Huh, a ring with three prongs?” Twilight began to think, scratching her head as she tried to remember anything that could help her.

“Do you think that it could have anything to do with High Horse, Twilight?” said Rubick.

“Hold on, Rubick. I think it’s coming to me. A gold ring and three prongs, a gold ring with three prongs. It’s on the tip of my tongue, but if I could just... Wah! now I remember!” Twilight shouted as the metaphorical lightbulb popped up above her head, only to have her expression slowly shift from wonderful discovery to horrible realization.

“No, no... t-that can’t be right, i-it can’t be...”  Twilight stuttered as her face was drained of all colors.

“Twilight? Twilight?” Rubick walked up to the petrified unicorn and shook her in an attempt to snap her out of her dazed state “What do you know, spit it out child! Fate of the world hangs in the balance remember? Now isn’t the time to freak out!”

Twilight turned her head a static forty five degrees to meet Rubick eye to eye. From the expression on her face alone, both Rubick and Chrysalis could tell that she was at that point of disbelief again. Whatever it was that Twilight knew she couldn’t get the words to leave her throat, struggling to do so was like trying to vomit a bale of barbed wire wrapped around a ball made of razor blades and a variety of other sharp objects.

“I’m sensing that she’s not only in shock, but she’s scared as well. Fearful, even” said Chrysalis as she further observed Twilight. 

“Scared? What could she be scared of?” Rubick asked as he felt a tugging on his cloak. Twilight was tugging at him. With her quivering lips she tried to speak aloud no matter how hard it seemed.

“Rubick, Chrysalis” she started “I think... I think the one who did this was... the Descendants”

The moment the final words left Twilight’s mouth, the whole dungeon became silent. Chrysalis was confused, not sure of what to make of the current situation. Twilight was still in shock, fully aware of everything she had said. But for Rubick... 

“Twilight...” Rubick spoke barely above a whisper, yet everyone in the room can feel the raw anger radiating off him. A tranquil fury was building up from within the magus and they guessed he was almost about to explode. A soft green aura surrounded the magus, almost like a palpable static field it felt dangerous to stand next to Rubick.

“The Descendents, you said?” his voice rose ever so steadily “You mean to tell me that the charity group you mentioned to me a while ago, the very group who helps needy ponies, provides food and shelter to the unfortunate, and selflessly assisted in your brother’s wedding are the ones responsible for NEARLY WIPING THE CHANGELINGS OFF THE FACE OF THE PLANET!” 

Rubick roared like an enraged lioness whose cubs have been endangered, shouting so loudly that every occupant in the room nearly went deaf from experiencing such volume of volumes. Sparks of magic and energy jumped all over the place, thankfully not striking anything caught in the wake of Rubick’s rage.

It was so surreal for Twilight and Chrysalis, seeing the usually calm, collected, and rational magus transform into a being hell bent on vengeance and retribution. If the anger radiating off Sven could crush a stallion flat as a pancake, than the anger radiating off Rubick would fry any lesser individual into a pile of charred, smoldering remains.

The expression on Rubick face contorted itself, losing all remnants of his mild personality and replacing it with twitchy bloodshot eyes, gritting teeth, and once heck of a snarling voice. He looked as if he was going to snap his staff clean in two, and grind his teeth to powder if he were to last any longer in the state he was trapped in.

        “To think that I actually became an unwitting pawn in these Descendant’s cruel game. How dare they call themselves a charity group if they purposely go and attacked another species with intent to eradicate them. Random coincidence or not, I actively participate in fending off the changelings and that does not sit well with me at all. Not. One. Bit...”

        “Um... Rubick...” Twilight tried to talk but once again felt her words trapped in her throat as Rubick’s anger reached its boiling point. Both Twilight and Chrysalis’ eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as Rubick’s tremendous magical power caused the whole dungeon to vigorously shake, causing loose dirt to crumble off the ceiling and rattle the bars of the cells making them clank noisily against each other. 

Bizarre elemental disturbances formed around the magus. Iron bars began to melt into a hot, glowing, soupy mess of molten metal. The air churned and small pockets of dead space made room for spheres of razor whirlwinds that scraped and carved the stone upon the dungeon walls. 

In another part of the dungeon, an uninhabited cell caved in, becoming a solid wall with no trace of the cell remaining. While another area had the temperature drop hundreds of degrees below the freezing point allowing for icicles to form up above them and creating an icy cavern for several halls that lead outside.

With one last huff, Rubick roared and crashed his staff into the ground, sending the whole of Canterlot to be struck with a brief, if not staggering, earthquake that woke up anyone who was trying to sleep at night. Up above, the muffled sound of furniture and ponies toppling over and colliding with the ground drowned out the low growl that Rubick elicited as he angrily bellowed into the darkness. 

“TO THE RING MASTER WHO PLAYS THESE GAMES, I WILL SHOW YOU THE FULL EXTENT OF MY POWER! IF I FIND YOU I”LL MAKE YOU WISH YOU HADN”T CROSSED RUBICK, THE GRAND MAGUS! DO YOU HEAR ME OUT THERE! DO YOU HEAR ME!” 






Chapter 30 End