Chrysalis Wins

by Arkolo


Ch. 9 "Hope vs. Fear"

Chrysalis Wins

Ch.9 “Hope vs. Fear”

Dark lightning cracked against the sky, which threw the cheerful crowd of crystal ponies into a flabbergasted state. All eyes turned to the direction of the tower, and horror slowly crept through the souls of the onlookers.

Black clouds spewed from the top of the crystal palace, and a laugh that boomed louder than a cannon blew through the Crystal Empire. Ponies assembled around the changelings visitors started to scream, and break into hysterics.

Chrysalis’s reaction to all of this was to fly into the air, and shout with her own mighty magical amplification.

“Ponies! This is why I am here! Calm yourselves!”

The panicked stampede stopped moving, but the terror in the crystal ponies’ eyes was far from gone. She was about to address the crowd with more words, but another voice, a deep base voice, beat her to the punch.

“The crystal scum are mine! They will do as I wish!”

From the top of the crystal palace sprouted a broad ramp of pitch black crystal lattice. The organic stone surged forward and none other than King Sombra slid down it. The growth of the crystal kept a steady pace ahead of his sliding hooves.

Eventually the river of stone crashed into the city square, and the crystal ponies scattered. All of their hope was lost upon the sight of their old tyrant, fully reestablished. Ebony crystal towers erupted all over the place, and the vanguard near the queen found themselves buffeted back.

Screams that were delicious to the king’s ears circled through the rapidly degenerated meeting. He chuckled as he slowly strode forward, it was good to be feared again.

You are neither Celestia nor Luna. Who are you to challenge my rule? An overgrown insect, heheahahahaha! I am not even going to start with how I’ll crush you under hoof, bug. Maybe I should ask one of my slaves if they lost their pet cockroach. Oops, I started anyway didn’t I. HA! You and your pathetic little army will be splattered like the pests you are. Maybe I’ll let you kiss my hoof, and allow you to be my slaves if you surrender right now.”

Chrysalis stood tall to face the king. As Sombra went further and further into his taunts, her eyes got narrower and narrower, and her frown got deeper and deeper. She had heard enough, and ignited her horn.

A baleful lance of energy rocketed forth, wide as a city street, aimed directly at the smug king. The impact of the attack shattered the base of the black crystal ramp, and for good measure Chrysalis pointed her horn further up, which shattered the ramp all the way back up to the top of the crystal palace. A massive hole was blown clean through the midst of the black clouds that swirled over the empire, and blue sky was exposed through the funnel. Gigantic shards of the ebony stone ramp dissolved before they hit the city, and created no collateral harm.

The effort caused the changeling queen to be slightly winded, that blast had been at least a year’s worth of love to feed one changeling. She recovered quickly though and looked with approval at the effect.  Her satisfaction was short lived.

“Would you like to try that again, or is it my turn?”

The voice came from behind, that dreadful deep base voice. The queen’s next move was to generate a spherical wall of green flames. It had stopped Sombra despite his shadow form before, so why not now.

She wasn’t a moment too late. A large crystal spire had been summoned right under her, and knocked the shielded queen high in the air. Sombra grunted at the queen’s quick reaction, and proceeded to knock her from place to place. A large burst of flames exploded from the shield every time Sombra tried to impale her with a new pillar of dark spikes.

Sombra wrinkled his snout, slightly bored. He could keep this up all day; this was merely to wear out her defenses. The king’s next crystal attack missed completely, as Chrysalis flew straight up into the air. Her fiery shield was gone, and she appeared to flee straight up into the clouds. The shadow tyrant smiled at the apparent cowardice.

“Are you beginning to realize your efforts are futile?!”

He shouted to mock the retreated queen. Each spire he had used to attack the queen bore scorch marks, but still stood as a monument to how he forced her back.

The dark clouds that billowed above were suddenly blown away. In the midst of the cleared sky was the queen, her horn was wreathed in a blinding aura of changeling magic. She began to dive forward, and the fiery green light formed a cone of scorching energy around her. This was a much exaggerated version of the spell her soldiers had used to dive upon Canterlot.

 The shadow king let out a sigh. Another bulldoze attack, how creative… didn’t she learn? One thing changed the equation this time though. As Sombra prepared to meld into shadow to simply dodge the attack he felt a burning sensation about his hooves. When he looked down the ground was flushed with green flames. Even as he tried to turn to shadow, the emerald magical heat worked to dissolve his substance.

So instead of dissolving into a floor of creeping dark cloud, he summoned a crystal pillar to stand upon. It raised him to a safe level above the flames, though he still felt their arcane heat. He growled in surprise, how could the queen cast two powerful spells at once?

That was when he noticed the swarm of changelings. Hundreds of the diminutive buggers had him surrounded. They used their combined magical energy to form flaming barriers similar to the queen’s version.  A scratchy female voice shouted at the rest of the insectile soldiers.

“Cut him off on all sides! We’ll make an easy target for the queen.”

Vivisect’s eyes glowed with an orange energy, and her fangs were on full display. The rest of the sentinel class changelings had arrived and added their love boosted magic to the barrier spells. Green fire burned around Sombra on all sides, and he roared at the infuriating soldiers.

“I WILL TEACH YOU TO DEFY ME, YOU PATHETIC INSECTS!”

A large crystal pillar vaulted straight for Vivisect, but she nimbly dodged the slow attack as she flew through the air. The tyrant grit his teeth and redoubled his efforts. He managed to trick the head sentinel by summoning two pillars at once, one that she anticipated, and one that she did not.

The large spiky black rock knocked her out of the air. She was protected from impalement thanks to her extra thick chitin, but the blunt force still made her careen off into a nearby building.

Sombra turned about on his pillar, he was surrounded by walls of green fire, and unable to escape with his shadow form. He glared at the army of changelings that kept him pinned with their collective magical effort. He was about to summon dozens of pillars to swat many down at once, when a high pitched screech reminded him of something else.

Chrysalis was just about on top of him. Her cone of fiery green magic had evolved into a giant emerald meteor over the course of her dive. The king’s mouth hung open, as he realized he was caught between the anvil of her army, and the hammer of the queen herself.

His mobility had been severely limited and there was one last thing he could think to do, given the situation. This queen claimed her magic was powered by love, and positive nonsense. So he charged his curved red horn, and aimed it at the dive bombing Chrysalis.

He Growled angrily as his eyes began to pulse with dark magic, “Don’t think you are the only one with power you whelp. I will show you the true power of King Sombra.”

A mixture of black, purple, and green bubbled cancerously around him, and the purple flames coming his red-green eyes flared more intensely. This type of magical attack drained him more significantly, and drew strongly from his personal feelings of contempt and loathing. This was why he usually preferred to manipulate the plentiful crystals instead, but with the force the queen was coming down, a crystal pillar wasn’t likely to stop her. Sombra poured everything he had into it.

Right before Chrysalis made impact he shot his beam of purple black magic at her.

“FALL AND SCATTER TO THE WINDS, LIKE THE BUG YOU TRULY ARE!”

An enormous shockwave blew through the empire upon the collision of the two forces. It physically distorted the air as it passed by all the crystal structures, and surged across the land.

Crystal ponies still outside were knocked off their hooves and tumbled over the ground. Many of the changelings near the impact were blown dozens of feet backward. As they flailed through the air some managed to catch themselves before falling, yet others were not as fortunate.

When the dust settled two tall equines were left standing. The king and the queen were only a few hoof lengths apart from each other, as they stood in the midst of a crater. Several nearby homes had shattered, and the street it occurred in was a mess. Sombra sweated and panted heavily, and Chrysalis heaved heavily herself. The king cocked up his head to snarl at his rival.

“Gods curse you for the inconvenience you’ve given me cockroach. Now taste the power of true Dark Magic and drown in terror as your kind should!”,

The tyrant’s eyes flashed green, and the queen’s gaze locked with his. Her irises turned red, and the sclera went green. Purple mist wafted from Chrysalis’s eyes as they twitched.

---

The arid air of the Badlands whipped about her face, and her nostrils went painfully dry as she sucked in the hot air. She blinked, how did she get here?

Many clicks and hisses erupted all around her. The changeling swarm hobbled about the dirty and miserable conditions. Thorny weeds which contained devilish parasites tripped up what was left of the swarm as it limped about.

“Your invasion failed Chrysalis, and we have paid for it!”

The high voice of colony screeched at the queen. Her head drone hobbled towards her, with only three legs, and half torn wings. One of the drone’s eyes had a large disgusting gash in it.

“I am your queen, you will address me properly!”

She brought up a large hoof to push back the aggressive and injured drone.

“What little love we had was burned up in that useless fight! We needed that!”

The angry roar of Vivisect startled Chrysalis and she turned to her head sentinel. The proud warrior changeling had her horn and tail sheared off, half of her muzzle was crushed in and missing teeth. Her once proud armor was cracked, exposing part of her insides. The queen’s face contorted in disgust and she recoiled from the sentinel's advance.

“You are a complete fool Chrysalis. I told you this would happen, and you refused listen. No queen in the swarm has ever sunk to such idiotic levels. The ponies will know how to find us now, and it will be your fault when we all die. You just had to ruin everything. I think we should just call you Chrysalis, the genocidal moron. ”

Poisonous words spewed from Shade, who jumped right in front of her and bore his teeth. The vanguard infiltrator’s body was torn in every location,large patches of his chitinous skin were missing and one of his eyes had been gouged out.

“Cease this ridiculousness at once! I am your queen! You'll do what I say!”

She was being forced back by her councilors, and her words held no air of confidence. They were instead full of panic.

“No Chrysalis, you have failed the swarm, and now the swarm will claim you!”

All three of the nightmarish changelings spoke in union. They all opened their mouths and prepared to feed. Other equally disfigured changelings advanced on the queen, and every mouth was open hungrily.

“You don’t deserve the love we’ve given to sustain your worthless hide! We’re going to claim it back, even if we have to rip out your shriveled heart to get it!”

She was completely surrounded, and she found she couldn’t fly, there was no escape. All the changelings started to inhale. Their intent was to drain her to death.

“No, no! Stop! I’ll do something! I can still do something for the swarm! Just nooooooo!”

Chrysalis screamed at her apparent doom. She lifted her hooves to her eyes and started to sob. Her tall elegant body folded down and she curled into a pathetic little ball.

---

“Queen! My Queen! Snap out of this!”

The giant changeling suddenly found her head rapidly shaken back and forth. A pair of hooves was around her skull and moved it side to side. She wrenched out of the hold to see who did it. Vivisect hovered close to her, and a relieved expression crossed the sentinel’s face when the queen regained her senses.

“Where is Sombra!?”

“Over there my queen.”

Vivisect indicated a few body lengths away, where half a dozen sentinels were beating the living crap out of something.

“Oomf! You-, gaw! Will- grrr, Unhoo- AAAARRRRrrrr…”

The voice of Sombra attempted to escape a mound of black chitin that pummeled the poor mashed tyrant.

“You manipulated my mind!”

The queen came to a realization and snarled furiously. She stomped forward with her horn a glow, she was going to return the favor, and mentally rip him to shreds. When she reached the little mob that viciously stomped on his body she pushed them aside.

The shadow king uncovered his head and looked up. Black and blue bruises dominated his grey coat. Most of his battle armor had been stripped off, and his crown was dented in. He smiled up at the queen, one of his prominent canines was missing.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had a physical body – spits out another tooth – I almost forgot what it felt like.”

Sombra stumbled to his hooves, and proudly turned to face the queen. The changeling soldiers had only gotten the upper hoof on him because the fear spell required so much focus. He could already feel his dark energies as they returned, and in a moments he would resume the fight.

Horns were crossed and Chrysalis lashed out with a mind domination spell. The mental attack came against an iron wall. The queen blinked, surprised at the mountain of resistance she faced. The shadowy tyrant laughed.

“Hahaha! You wish to fence with my mind?! I’ve invaded and terrorized every pony in this empire for decades! Even the Princesses COMBINED could never breach my mind, what hope could you have?”

Both of the equines pressed their heads harder against each other, and grunted with great strain. Their eyes radiated with magic, hers were pure green, while his were purple and black.

To an ignorant onlooker, it would seem two tall horse creatures had installed light bulbs behind their eyes, and were in the midst of a very intense ‘whose more constipated’ match.

The mental fight soon ended, and both royal figures fell back on their royal haunches. Both panted hard at the failed effort. Chrysalis beat her front hooves on the ground in a slight tantrum. None of it had worked, no amount of converting love into magical energy seemed to work. The crystal tyrant kept wearing that stupid grin on his face, with that ‘I’m better than you’ look. An idea crossed her mind, maybe she should stop converting the love into aggressive battle magic.

Chrysalis looked at Sombra with half lidded eyes and cocked an eyebrow. A slight smile crept up her muzzle.

“You're full of hate aren’t you?”

The crystal slaver gave an ‘oh really…’ face.

“I would assume you know something about me, since you showed up at almost the same time as i was released. But now I questi---”

Sombra didn’t finish his last sentence because Chrysalis kissed him full on the mouth.

The king of shadows, fear, hate, and all things crystaly, opened his eyes wide in surprised shock. He tried to back away, but the changeling queen locked her fangs over his, and he couldn’t escape.

Chrysalis exhaled deeply, and dumped vast reserves of the collected love right into the fidgety crystal tyrant. Love energy could be given back to ponies, and that was exactly what she practiced now. The effect was rather immediate, and something troubled the unicorn who’s heart was black as night.

The queen of the changelings managed to exhale a few more absurdly large doses of love before the contact between their mouths broke apart. Most of the love she had binged on from three alicorn princesses, and six friends attuned to elements of harmony, had been emptied into the hateful tyrant.

Not a moment after the contact broke Sombra had stumbled backward, and made horrible gagging noises. He flopped onto his belly and heaved.

“W-w-what have y-you done to m-me!!!”

The purple and green around Sombra’s eyes had started to fizzle. The physical abuse he had sustained from the mob healed up, and his self-waving mane fell flat. He trembled and looked frightened.

“No, what is, no, this, what is this!”

The tall unicorn got up and stamped all four of his hooves. He started to beat his head with a hoof repeatedly, as if he could knock out the strange sensation. Both of his hooves suddenly shot to his chest, and terror crossed over his eyes. A violent shake had taken hold of his body, and he looked down to his chest, as if he expected it to burst apart at any moment.

Chrysalis wearily wiped her mouth with a hoof.

“Your mouth tastes like muddy iron… but your fangs aren't half bad.”