“You're sure you can handle things here? House-sitting a castle can be hard, especially with Spike not around.”
Princess Twilight had been given an assignment by the map to go on a Friendship mission with her friends. Their destination was far away, meaning they would be gone for days. Usually Spike was the 'caretaker' of the castle, but he was now on a well-earned vacation in Canterlot, leaving her with nopony else to watch over or maintain her home.
While Twilight wasn't worried about anypony breaking into her castle during her absence, she still felt comfortable knowing there was somepony there looking after her books and other items.
Out of everypony in Ponyville, Twilight chose Amethyst Star because, like her, she was a good organizer and a pretty responsible one. She was overjoyed when she agreed to do it.
Amethyst smiled. “Don't worry, your Highness. I'll be fine. You just go on your mission and leave everything to me.”
“Well then, I'm off. I won't be gone for too long. Bye!”
“Byebye!”
Amethyst closed the doors and observed through the window as Twilight joined her friends for their mission. Twilight shot her castle one last glance and waved goodbye to Amethyst, who smiled and returned the gesture from behind the window.
She kept waving until Twilight was finally out of her line of sight.
“Finally!” an annoyed Amethyst exclaimed with relief. “Thought she would never leave!” she growled. She then opened up the window and peered outside towards some nearby bushes. “Alright! You can come out now! She's gone!”
Two changeling drones suddenly popped out from their hiding place and quickly buzzed in through the window. They landed in front of Amethyst and bowed before her.
“Come on!” she ordered. “We've got work to do.”
Heading slowly in the direction of the library with the changelings behind her, Amethyst suddenly combusted into green flames. Her unicorn features changed. Her coat became dark and hard like the exoskeleton on that of an insect.
Her black legs grew longer, becoming twisted and hollow like rotten cheese. A blue-green chitinous plating appeared over her midsection. Hollowed out wings, eerily belonging to that of a fly, decorated her back. Her blue-green mane and tail long and hollowed out. Her teeth now sharp with a pair of long, vicious fangs and her eyes dark green with elongated oval pupils
Her massive horn was twisted and jagged and she wore a tiny black crown decorated with tiny blue orbs.
“'Your Highness'... Blech!” She stuck out her tongue in disgust. “To think that 'I', Queen Chrysalis, would one day refer to the likes of her by that title... It makes me sick. She's lucky I didn't just drain her within an inch of her life, especially after what she did to me! Ooh, it would've been so sweet...”
Her two drones shared a concerned look as they listened to her rant. While they held their Queen in high regard, they had all been slightly worried about her mental state after the wedding fiasco.
Many changelings since then had become the Queens personal 'punching bags' whenever she had her angry fits, being ordered to change into Twilight Sparkle, Cadence or Shining Armor while she did it.
“Now then, my little 'princess'...” Chrysalis cackled as she kicked the doors to Twilight's library wide open. “Let's see what you've been up to since the wedding...”
Hours later...
Chrysalis and her drones spent most of the afternoon searching through Twilight's library, looking through whatever books and scrolls they could find that seemed important.
Ever since she heard the news of Twilight becoming a princess, Chrysalis had been yearning of a way to get back at her ever since.
After months of spying on her, Chrysalis finally saw her opportunity to infiltrate the castle when she learned of Twilight's 'Friendship' missions. She had also gathered much information about the ponies in town and learned of Amethyst Star and her role as part-time organizer.
Trapping Amethyst in a cocoon in her own home and taking her place, Chrysalis had no problem getting into the castle when Twilight eventually asked her. Amethyst would be freed from her cocoon eventually, but by then Chrysalis would've gotten what she came after.
That is, if she could find it...
She had hoped the castle would hold secrets and powerful artifacts needed to take down her enemies. Unfortunately for Chrysalis, if there were any secrets in the castle, they were hidden well.
“Find anything?”
“No my Queen.”
“We've searched high and low. There doesn't seem to be anything here of great importance.”
“There has to be something!” Chrysalis growled. “Keep searching! Twilight has to have something here that I can use against her and her friends.” She angrily tore a book in half with her magic, sending its pages flying everywhere.
It proved very effective as her drones wasted no time intensifying their search for whatever they were looking for.
“Ugh!” Chrysalis groaned. “If only she still had those Elements of Harmony, then I would at least have something I could use as leverage. But it's all but futile now. They don't need the Elements to face us anymore. They ARE the Elements!” She kicked a crystal flowerpot off the table.
“By the Hive, there has to be something in here that I can use. Something that will bring me that perfect world I've always dreamed of!”
As Chrysalis vented her anger at whatever she could find, one of her drones searching through a row of books suddenly noticed a large mirror in the corner of the room. While it looked like any ordinary mirror, the curious drone noticed that it was hooked up to some strange machine, with numerous wires and tubes connecting to its base for some reason.
The drone cantered over to the machine and looked over at the many buttons on the panel. As the drone kept looking, it then noticed the lever. Without really thinking it over, he suddenly pulled the lever.
The machine turned on. Lights flickered and a series of sparks and bursts of energy exploded from the machine as the mirror seemed to glow. It caused the drone to jump back with fright.
“What did you do!?” Chrysalis yelled as she and the other drone hurried over.
The little drone quivered fearfully as Chrysalis towered menacingly over him.
“Fool! Are you trying to blow us all... up?” Chrysalis trailed off as she found herself mysteriously drawn to the mirror, mesmerized by the swirling image in the glass. She stopped right in front of the mirror, noticing that the surface of the glass was shimmering as if it was water. “What in the Hive is this? This is not an ordinary mirror...”
She slowly reached out her hoof to touch it when all of a sudden it shut down, causing her to flinch.
“What?! What happened?” She turned around and narrowed her eyes at the one drone by the machine.
“I... I turned it off...” said the drone trembling.
“Did I give you permission to turn it off?” She glared viciously at the drone, causing him to shrink away and hide behind his equally terrified comrade. “You nearly took my hoof off!”
“FORGIVE ME MY QUEEN!!” wailed the drone.
Chrysalis just frowned at them and snorted. She turned her attention back to the mirror. “Hm...” She eyed it more closely and tapped on the reflective glass. “It looks like an ordinary mirror... But I sensed powerful magic emanating from it...”
She stepped back to get it in full view. She rubbed her chin and tilted her head. “If I didn't know better, I'd swear this mirror was some kind of doorway.”
“'Doorway' my Queen?” asked one drone.
“A doorway to 'where'?” asked the other.
“I don't know...” Chrysalis narrowed her eyes. Her horn glowed as she wrapped her magic around the lever, pulling it and re-opening the mirror. “...But I'm going to find out!”
“Be careful my Queen!”
Chrysalis cantered up and stopped in front of the mirror. Raising her hoof, she slowly reached inside it. Her eyes widened as her hoof suddenly disappeared, but she felt no pain from it. Pulling it quickly back out, and seeing no visible damage to it, she breathed with relief knowing the doorway was safe to use.
Of course, being half insect, losing a limb was more of an inconvenience as changelings could easily grow them back over time.
“You two! Stay here and guard this mirror while I check it out. And make sure that the machine remains on.” she glared viciously at them. “Or else...”
“YES MY QUEEN!” both drones saluted.
While having complete faith in her drones, Chrysalis had to be honest with herself. If this indeed was a doorway leading to somewhere, the odds of her getting trapped there would be a huge set-back in her plans for conquering Equestria.
Chrysalis was no fool. She knew she was heading into unknown territory. For all she knew, this mirror could lead straight to Princess Celestia's throne room. The last thing she needed now was suffering Celestia's burning wrath and the cold imprisonment deep within the depths of Tartarus.
Still, it was a chance she had to take. If the mirror indeed held valuable secrets, it would be worth all the risk.
Taking a deep breath, Chrysalis closed her eyes and entered the mirror.