//------------------------------//
// Not-so-fully operational sky station 
// Story: Queen Chrysalis has a Doom Citadel 
// by Erised the ink-moth 
//------------------------------//

"This is ridiculous!" Cadence shouted.

The dozen changelings running around her throne room took a moment's pause in their activities before disregarding the slight outburst and carrying on with whatever they were doing; two were playing ping-pong in the center, another two cheered them on while waiting for their turn. Still more were scribbling nonsense all over the walls with crayons, things like "Greedo shot first" and "May the schwartz be with you".

"I know right!" Shining agreed with her as the changeling next to him dropped a whole package of Mint-o's into a bottle of Sparkle-cola, making it rain sticky soda everywhere "Chrysalis can't seriously believe we'd fall for that. Could she?"

"No way. How foolish does she think we are? If we walked onto that 'Doom Citadel' of hers, we'd be right where she wants us." Cadence said while a changeling swung by on her expensive curtains. "I thought we'd seen the last of her at our wedding, but she just keeps coming back! Guh, she makes me so mad!" she groaned.

"Soothing chamomile?" a changeling to her right offered her a cup.

"Ah, thank you." Cadence took a small sip, breathing calmly afterwards. "What I can't understand is how she even got a... Doom Citadel in the first place."

"Well however she got it, she certainly seems intent on using it to beat us once and for all." Shining told her "Though she seems to be using it sparingly... for now at least."

"Uh Captain. Sorry to interrupt. But you should probably make a decision soon. You know.... before their Queen gets impatient." Twitch spoke up, his sentences getting choppy like they always did when he was nervous or anxious.

"Our Queen is known for being quite..." Seruli paused, trying to find a word that didn't put it rudely "Demanding."

Shining sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I guess we have no choice." He looked up stoically "I'll go there alone and find a way to solve this."

"No!" Cadence interjected and appeared in front of Shining in a flash of light. "I'm going with you."

"Cadence I-" Shining tried to discourage her into staying in the city where it was safe... ish. But she wouldn't even let him start.

"You're not going in there without me, buster." she prodded his chest "I almost lost you to that heartless witch once, and I'm not about to let it happen again. If we're doing anything, we do it together."

"And we'd be happy to escort you there. Just as long as there's no more being fired from cannons." Seruli told them while dropping her disguise. She then turned to the other changelings "Alright guys, time to go home!"

"HOME!" the they all echoed.

In a buzzing, giggling stampede they scooped up a very surprised Shining and Cadence and carried them out the doors of the castle and through the streets of the Empire. Those crystal ponies brave enough to step hoof outside their houses quickly rushed back inside to avoid getting run over by the amorphous black blob heading their way.




Once it had landed and planted itself firmly into the snow-covered ground, the changeling Doom Citadel looked like any other dark spooky castle. It was fit for any evil overlord, complete with an eerie green glow and dark armored minions that patrolled the walls. Honestly, one could have considered it a simple expansion on the Crystal Empire if Sombra was still around.

Shining and Cadence stood before the gate of this shadowy structure, the wind and snow whipping around them, making their scarves almost useless in keeping them warm. The two looked at each other, then to the large group of changelings who had come with them, including Seruli and Twitch. After giving each other a confident nod, Shining spoke up first.

"Hello!" he shouted over the blizzard "We've come to speak with your leader Queen Chrysalis!"

A few seconds passed and nothing happened.

"We wish to speak with her in person! May we enter?" It was only sort of true, not many would wish to speak with Chrysalis after all.

Again, there was no response.

Getting rather irritated, and tired of standing outside getting frostbite, Cadence stepped forward and used her horn to amplify her voice, a trick Luna had taught her for addressing her subjects. Something that thankfully, she very rarely used. She faced the top of the gate, stood on her hind legs and shouted up "YOU CALLED US HERE CHRYSALIS, NOW LET US IN ALREADY!"

She lowered herself back to all fours and waited.

And then a changeling fell into the snow at her hooves, causing her to jump back a bit. "We're trying, something's wrong with the gate." it told her when it popped it's head out "I think it might be frozen shut. I told them we should have made all the doors with something that wouldn't freeze over, but nooooo. Nobuggy ever listens to me."

"It's okay guys! I've got a big bucket of hot water!" one changeling exclaimed from atop the gate.

"NO!" came a collective of voices.
"Don't do it!" a final one joined in at the end.

But it was too late, the changeling emptied the bucket over the door, and the scalding hot water instantly froze, permanently locking the mechanism into place.

"Awwww!" the voices groaned.
"You idiot!"

Seruli facehooved "Well, I guess we'll have to find another way in. C'mon... I know a way."




With no easier way to get in, Seruli had led them all through a long winding trench that spanned the perimeter of the Doom Citadel. All along the sides were defensive cannons that made Shining glad they didn't have to go in under fire. Finally they came to a small hatch at the end, barely two meters wide.

"Alright, climb in everypony." she said as she held it open. Her fellow changelings eagerly went in first, followed by cadence and Shining.

"This seems dangerous." Twitch commented as he pulled himself up "What's this hatch for anyway?"

"You're all gonna find out soon enough. Just believe me when I say that this is probably the Doom Citadel's greatest weakness." Seruli told him foreboding. "One wrong move, and the whole place could be blown to rubble."

Twitch gulped, but made a mental note of that.




Meanwhile, Chrysalis was waiting in her darkened throne room, her head resting on a hoof as he sat slumped on her twisted throne. She tapped her other hoof in idle boredom as she waited for her enemies to arrive before her. She couldn't wait for them to arrive so she could capture them in her anti-magic field; she'd activate it the second they stepped into the area in front of her throne. And if they tried to fight their way out, she would have her several elite guards detain them. It was perfect.

And then once she had them where she wanted them, she make them watch as her changelings swarmed the city and turned it into a ghost town full of pony husks.

She'd then move on to Shining, and drain the life out of him before Princess Cadence's eyes. And once she had finally been broken, she'd force her to join them with the offer of bringing Shining back to her. It would be a lie of course, but she wouldn't know, and then... she'd have all the love she could ever need.

Then something, something, something, dark side... And her swarm would rule over all of Equestria!

Now... if they would just get here she could do just that.

Any... second... now...

"You there, where are they?" Chrysalis hissed to one of her guards.

"Last I heard, a small group has infiltrated the Citadel's outer defenses, through means of a secret tunnel." the changeling told her "Your secret tunnel. The one you use to get tubs of ice cream through." it clarified.

Chrysalis's eyes bulged. "But that would lead them-"

The chute beside her throne burst open, and a baker's dozen changelings along with three ponies spilled out into the room. Their combined mass as it slid across the polished floor was enough to knock over a large brazier full of green flame. That brazier fell onto the one next to it, which fell onto the one next to it, and so on and do forth in a domino effect that ended with every one of the dark dishes on sticks spilling their burning oil onto the floor.

The floor lit up for a second in an arc of lightning which promptly fizzled out without a target, letting Chrysalis know that her anti-magic field had been wasted.

Chrysalis stared first in shock at the pile of ponies and changelings before her, then at her ruined plan, and she could have sworn she chipped a tooth she grit her teeth so hard.

"You insolent whelps!" Chrysalis shrieked "Guards, seize them! All of them!"

In an instant, every changeling in the pile as well as all the elite changeling guards lining the room started making every effort to detain Shining and Cadence.

"I've got this one!" Seruli yelled as she caught Twitch in a headlock/snuggle and dragged him away. "Dibs!"

"We've got the Princess!" one of three other changelings yelled as they piled on to of Cadence.

"Oh no you don't!" Shining yelled as he repulsed them with his shield spell.

As soon as he did, another wave was already on the offensive, barring down on him before a blast from Cadence's horn flung them back against the walls. The two of them stood back to back as the swarm surrounded them, snarling at them menacingly with their gleaming white fangs.

"We've really got ourselves into it this time!" Shining said and flared up his horn. "Cadence, honey? You alright?" he asked when he felt her trembling behind him.

"I'm good. But this is so much better than filling out paperwork!" she said with an out of place giddiness.

"Enough!" Chrysalis ordered "You've got them surrounded! Archers, fire tranquilizer arrows, now!"

On their Queen's command, a squad of gasmasked changelings with bows lining each balcony on the second floor made their presence known as they conjured a volley of arrows made of a sickly green liquid and aimed it straight at the pair of ponies below them.

Shining brought up a shield as the arrows were fired, but to his surprise, none of the venomous projectiles even came close to hitting his barrier. Instead they landed amid the crowd of changeling guards and exploded into a vapor that knocked anyone who breathed in in unconscious in seconds.

"We missed!" one of the archers yelled in dismay.

Chrysalis growled at her soldiers' incompetence. "Fine then, I'll do it myself!"

Chrysalis channeled her magic into a solid beam before further shaping into a deadly looking scythe. She smirked at Cadence and Shining before dashing forward.

Her swing struck a solid pink wall, carving only the smallest of lines across its surface. She slashed away at the shield again and again, and when brute force didn't work she tried to angle her magic blade around it, only for Shining to expand his shield to block it every time.

Chrysalis growled and bore her fangs at her through the semi-transparent wall. But then she saw something move behind him and immediately dove out of the way.

The sound of cracking stone echoed through the room, and right where the Queen was a second ago rested an glowing ethereal war hammer etched with a heart.

"You get away from my Shining Armor!" Cadence yelled and charged at Chrysalis, swinging her hammer wildly at the changeling Queen.

Chrysalis blocked one of the hits early on with the shaft of her scythe, and quickly learned that was a bad idea when the magical shockwaves from the impact reached her body. So her only alternatives were dodging, and keeping Cadence on the defensive. And after the Princess's hammer nearly grazed the side of her head, Chrysalis quickly went with the second option.

Mixing in short blasts of fire from her horn, and using her weapon's reach to keep the Princess back, Chrysalis seemed to have the upper hoof. It all came to a breaking point when Cadence tripped and stumbled backwards onto her rump, and Chrysalis took the opportunity for a fatal stab.

But it suddenly turned into a whole different kind of breaking point when Shining's shield intercepted the blow right in the nick of time.

Chrysalis leap back, giving the ponies a sneer while Shining helped his wife back to her hooves.

Cadence lifted her hammer again while Shining cast an armored ward spell on the two of them, Chrysalis channeled more of her magic into her own weapon to reform the scythe's tip. And for a single tense moment they glared across the ruined floor at each other.