Nine Months Earlier…
Celestia is lounging in her throne in Canterlot Castle. It is around noon and she has no plans for anything later on today. She sighs happily. It was nice to just sit back and take a breather. However, this moment of peace and quiet was short lived. Seconds later, a royal guard enters the room and marches up to the throne; stopping to bow before the Princess.
“Is there anyone in the area?” The princess asks, her eyes closed as she slumps down into her throne.
“No, Your Majesty.” The guard responds. Celestia smiles.
“Excellent.” Suddenly, her face warps into that of a wicked and evil smile. Her eyes began to glow an eerie green; followed by her white coat and multicolored hair. The Princess’s royal and pristine appearance transforms into a grotesque form. Her coat turns green and full of holes, followed by her hair and the rest of her body. Queen Chrysalis now stood before the guard. The guard also becomes surrounded in a green glow before transforming into a similar form, albeit smaller that the Changeling Queen. “It’s already been a week and no pony suspects anything!” The Queen gets up and moves over to one of the stained glass windows. “I assume the doppelgangers are having no trouble if that’s the case.” She asks her minion.
“Yessssss, Queen Chryssssssalissssss. They are adapting quite well to the Elementssssss of Harmony’ssssss lifesssssstylessssss.” The Queen smiles.
“Perfect. With those pests and Celestia and Luna out of the way, I can start my plan for revenge.” She trots away from the window and towards a staircase leading lower into the castle depths. “First off, I’m going to see what Celestia has been doing in her free time. The library of the castle should provide the answer for that.” She starts heading down. “I’ll be right back. If anything happens, take care of it.”
“Of coursssssse my Queen.” The drone responds. Chrysalis continues to head downstairs towards two doors. Smiling at the right door she thinks to herself:
“Nah, I’ll torment my prisoners later. First, the library…” She swings open the left door and enters the brightly lit room. Five-story high bookshelves dotted the athenaeum. Rows upon rows of records and fables lined the room. Chrysalis smiled. “Now… Where to start?” She spreads her wings and soars upwards towards the first line of books on her left. “Knowing Celestia, she would keep important records near the top…”
She flew higher and higher to the point where her horn is just grazing the ceiling. She scans the top most rows of books to see if she could find anything interesting. She plucks a book from the shelf. “History of Equestria? Boring!” She tosses it over her shoulder and to the ground. She moves a bit to the right and pulls out another book. “A tome on powerful black magic? Warmer, but still no.” She tosses that book to the ground too.
Irritated at this point, she starts scanning the spines of each book for something to catch her eye as she moves down the shelf. “Equestrian Dictionary, Dragon Anatomy, Wing Preening?! How does Celestia have this many boring books in a library this big?!” She shouts as she reaches the end of the shelf. Fed up with not finding anything remotely interesting, she starts her decent. That is, until something catches her eye: the very last book on the shelf.
Dust had coated the entirety of the book; making the spine impossible to read. Curious, Chrysalis plucks the book from its ancient home and, with a strong blow, cleans off the tome. “Equestrian Legends? Hmm…” She flips open the first few pages and instantly sighs and rolls her eyes. “Of course! It’s just a lame book on the Elements of Harmony. Great.” She continues flipping through the book rather quickly; scanning a few words per page. “Nightmare Moon… Discord… Elements of Conflict…” She pauses for a second. That last one sounded a bit… off. “Wait a second…” She flips back a few pages and sure enough, the title of the chapter read in big, bold letters:
“The Elements of Conflict.”
“Elements of Conflict? I’ve never heard of these… things.” She starts reading on and becomes bewildered at what she is seeing. “Four elements created by the princesses of day and night along with the being of chaos… Used to balance out order after chaos’s imprisonment… Less in numbers but equal in power…” Chrysalis is stunned at what she is reading, but the last line of the first paragraph makes her mouth water. “Less in numbers but equal in power, eh? These elements could make me the strongest being in all of Equestria! Plus, those meddlesome Elements of Harmony would be a thing of the past for good! I must find these four elements. With their power, nothing will stop me!” Chrysalis cackles, her laugh echoing throughout the library.
“Celestia! You are needed in the throne room!” A voice yells from below. Chrysalis quickly recognizes the voice as the ‘guard’ she left in the throne room. She transforms back into the form of the princess and flies back down to the floor of the library.
“I’ll be right there!” Chrysalis yells in pitch perfect tone as she dashes toward the doorway; the book still hovering next to her. She rushes toward the door, tossing the book onto a small table next to the doorway.
Back in the throne room, the guard is sitting in front of a cross-eyed mailpony who is just waving goodbye. Chrysalis climbs up the stairs and sighs to regain her breath as she enters the room.
“What seems to be the problem?” The camouflaged queen asks. The guard turns and reveals a cardboard box that the pony had just dropped off.
“It’s a package for you, Your Majesty; Your eyes only.” The guard answers. Celestia plucks the package from her guard and peers down the hall to see if the pegasus had left. Her answer came in the form of a crashing sound followed by a door slamming. With the coast clear once more, Chrysalis and the drone take off their disguises again.
“That pony was always a weird one.” She comments. “Anyway, let’s see what this is…” Chrysalis slices open the small package and looks inside. Confused, Chrysalis pulls out a regal-looking envelope; covered with pick lace and written in cursive ink. She reads the front of the envelope:
“From Candance,” Chrysalis shakes a bit as she growls. “The name alone makes my blood boil. What does she have that’s so important; Celestia’s rainbow hair conditioner?” She flips open the envelope and pulls out the letter from inside. Without hesitation, she starts reading aloud:
“Dearest Celestia,”
“While I am very appreciative for the wedding gift that you have given to Shining Armor and me a few months ago; I must inform you that we can no longer keep such a thing with us.”
Chrysalis stops reading and raises a brow and the Princess of Love’s words. “She’s so dramatic.” She reads on:
“After the incident with Chrysalis at our wedding and the rumors of Sombra’s return here at the kingdom; Shining Armor and I realized that having an item of this sort of power in our possession currently is not only dangerous to the Crystal Kingdom, but to all of Equestria.”
Chrysalis skims down to the last line which makes her jaw hit the floor.
“The Elements of Conflict are better off together and safe with you.”
Chrysalis stares at the piece of paper hovering before her; re-reading the last sentence over and over again. She glances over to the brown package next to her. She gains a huge, evil grin as she hoists the package into the air and in front of her. The drone in front of her starts to look distressed.
“What are thesssssse ‘Elementssssss of Conflict’, Chryssssssalissssss?” The drone asks. Chrysalis doesn’t answer as she picks up the package and starts rotating it with her magic; eyeing it with wonder.
“The key to everlasting power.” She says as she gains her smile again. “These elements will allow us to thrive all over Equestria! Nothing will be able to stop us!” The drone gulps as Chrysalis howls with laughter. “We could finish off Celestia and her precious Elements of Harmony for good! Canterlot would be nothing more than a breeding ground for the hive! Nothing could stop us!” She cackles aloud again.
“With all due resssssspect Your Highnessssssss, thesssssse elementssssss sssssseem very dangeroussssss.” The drone interrupts the Queen’s moment of joy. “We don’t even know what kind of power we are dealing with! It could wipe out the entire hive if not usssssed correctly!” The Queen scoffs.
“So we lose a few drones, we’ll spawn more.”
“How DARE you!” The drone hisses at Chrysalis, making her jump a bit in surprise. A drone yelling at her? Unheard of within the hive. “Do you not care for the resssssst of ussssss?!”
“Of course I care for my hive!” Chrysalis responds. “However, I care for the entirety of my hive and its survival in the future. If a few changelings are sacrificed so that we may thrive in the future, it’s no big deal.”
“No big deal?! How could you ssssssay that?!” The drone screeches at her. At this point, Chrysalis’s somewhat annoyed frown turns into an irate look displayed on her face.
“You dare question your Queen on what’s right and wrong?! Do you not trust your Highness’s plans?!” Chrysalis says, encroaching onto her drone’s position.
“Not when they rissssssk desssssstroying ussssss all!” The drone replies, unwavering at his higher up. The Queen gasps at her drone’s rebellious attitude. She has never seen such a thing in one of her drones. She glares into her soldier’s crossed eyes and exhales heavily, her breath warm and just visible as it hits his face.
“And what are you going to do to stop me from doing whatever I please?” The Queen asks her tiny drone. The drone looks at her face defiantly for a period of time, trying to think of something to say or do to show how wrong she was about her plan with these…Elements. Suddenly, he glances at the package at the hooves of his Queen. Quickly, he conjures up a plan, snickering at simplicity of the conceived idea.
“Thissssss!” In a split second, the drone snatches the package from the ground and zips toward the front door at a breakneck speed. It takes Chrysalis not even a second to realize what was developing before her and starts to unleash a barrage of green lasers toward her betraying bug. With pristine evasive maneuvers, the drone dodges every magic beam fired near him and crashes into the front door of the castle. The door swings open into the clear night sky and the drone flies off into the distance.
Chrysalis stood there in the middle of the room, her eyes strained and her lips curled into an evil and angry frown as she stares at the castle floor. That drone took the item that would ensure her rule for decades, even centuries! She was not about to let some insignificant, unruly, and little drone destroy her plans! She slowly raises her head as her horn in enveloped in a green hue. In seconds, hundreds of changelings swarm above their Queen; fangs glowing white in the pitch black darkness. Through the hum of her army’s wings, her demands are heard loud and clear:
“I want you all to find out where he went; and when you do, get back my element… and finish him off!” She roars to her changelings.
“Yessssss, Queen Chryssssssalissssss!” The changeling chorus booms as they flock out of the castle doors and into the night sky. After a few seconds, Chrysalis remains as the only one left. With a flash of a wicked smile, she turns and starts to head back downstairs.
“Mmmhmm,” She laughs. “While they find that traitor, I must get back to my books.”
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Three Days Later…
The multitude of changelings flock back into the throne room just after dusk to conceal themselves against the night sky; Chrysalis sits in the middle of the room, unwavering as her army returns and lands in front of her. The changeling in the front of the massive group marches forward and bows before his Queen.
“Is the deed done?” Chrysalis asks her drone. With a malicious grin, the changeling stomps the ground. Seconds later, another changeling zips up and lands next to him, holding something thin and rather large in his mouth. The changeling spits out the object, which floats slowly to the ground and lands onto the ground in front of Chrysalis. Chrysalis smiles: It’s a changeling’s right wing.
“Let’ssssss jussssst ssssssay that the ssssssituation hassssss been dealt with permanently.” The changeling says.
“And what about the element?” The Queen asks.
“I’m ssssssorry, my Queen. We did not find the element he had sssssstolen from you.” The changeling tenses up as he prepares to hear his Queen’s voice scold at him for failing his mission. Yet Chrysalis remains content.
“Very well. We do not need such a thing now anyway.” Chrysalis says.
“However, we did find ssssssomething, my Queen.” The changeling remarks.
“Oh? What did you find?”
“A pony, a pegassssssussssss more sssssspecifically. It wassssss found knocked out while we were taking care of our little... problem. We believe it to be the child of the traitor.” Chrysalis’s face shows a shocked expression.
“Hmm, no wonder he was acting the way he was.” Chrysalis puts a hoof on her chin to think for a second. “Do you still have this… child with you?” She asks.
“Yessssss, my Queen.”
“Good, it could be useful for our next plan. Those elements will be useless in our total takeover if this new plan works as it should.” The changelings all look at each other, quite confused on what their queen is talking about. In fact, they assumed they were going to be scolded at when they could not find the element.
“If you don’t mind me assssssking, my Queen; why do we not need the element you were sssssseeking?” The head drone asks out of confusion. Chrysalis laughs a little under her breath.
“Oh my dear changeling, I have a much better idea to prolong our Equestrian rule.” She says, laughing a little again. “Tell me… Have any of you changelings ever heard of Earth?”