Chapter 12
It was in the pre-dawn half-light that Cadance and Twilight emerged from the small room where the battle mage had been recovering. The latter held and supported by the Princess as she limped weakly into the main room. Spike looked up and his face lit up into a toothy draconic smile before he leaped up from his spot next to the fire pit. He crossed the short distance in a blink of the eye and scooped up both ponies into a bear hug.
“Oh thank the Sisters! Twi, I thought you were never going to wake up!” Spike squeezed them until Cadance and Twilight groaned. Spike set them down gently and stepped back, his frills drooping bashfully. “Uh...sorry. I’m just happy to see you up and about, sis.”
Twilight smiled wanly and put a hoof on Spike’s shoulder. “I’m happy to see you too, but can you let me get to the potty? Cady says I’ve been out for almost four days now.”
“Oh. Oh! Sure, Twilight...need any help?” Spike brightened and flexed an arm. “Zecora has been keeping me busy with getting supplies and I feel like I could lift a house. I’d like to see that bug monster try again! I’ll smash ‘em like the insect it is!”
Twilight smirked but her face turned serious as she noticed the rapidly healing scratches and gouges in Spike’s scales. The zebra that had been silently mixing the cauldron’s contents over the fire pit cleared her throat. “Go, Twilig’t, clean yourself. We’ve important t’ings to talk ‘bout. You princess and dragon tell me ‘bout ‘ow you get poisoned. Now I tell you w’at did it and mebbe w’y too.”
Twilight nodded and started toward the bathroom as fast as her weak legs would take her. She paused at the door and looked back at Zecora. “Thank you, Zecora, for everything. I’ll repay you somehow.”
The old zebra mare smiled. “Aye, you will.”
By the time Twilight returned, Zecora had finished with her cooking and had set out bowls for each of them. It looked like some sort of thick brown gravy spread over small pieces of bread but smelled faintly sweet. She said it was a traditional breakfast in her homeland and directed her three guests to sit and eat as they listened.
Long ago, before the first stones of Canterlot had been mined from the mountain granite and the Royal Sisters ruled from their silvery and golden thrones high above Equestria, there was the Everfree.
Today, even the name - Everfree - is a curse, a cautionary tale told to foals, so great was its fall. All that remains are myths, old tales of old goddesses and demons, and the forest. The forest is not a legacy left for future generations to know where Everfree stood, nor is it a place of the past jealously guarded from the touch of progress by ghosts. It is a blight. A scar on the surface and spirit of the world, infected and scabbed over.
No one lives there. No one goes there. To do so was to invite madness and death and worse still. Or so say the bards when someone is paying bits or the beer flows.
What the bards don’t know is the truth of the Everfree. Cut away the overgrowth and the ruins were everywhere. The enchantments and magical enhancements placed into the land and the stones still carry a charge and a purpose from before pegasi controlled the weather or earth ponies master the land. The Everfree is not wild. It moves with purpose and without its masters it rejects the paltry attempts of others to direct the flow of nature within its demesnes.
Once it was a great nation, home to ponies, diamond dogs and dragons alike. They worshipped the Sun and Moon and were ruled by the Priesthood, who were in turn, ruled by the High Priestesses of Sun and Moon and their personal army of fanatical eunuchs. The priestesses were queens in all but name and all bowed before them lest they face the wrath of the Sun and Moon.
Everfree was powerful because the priestesses were powerful and wielded the combined might of all ponies with strength, flight and magic. Everfree lasted centuries because the priestesses did not age. Everfree fell because the priestesses fancied themselves goddesses above all others and they fell to earth.
The first to fall was the Moon and Her eunuchs followed her into the wilderness of the far frozen north. For a time, the Sun reigned over the Everfree unchallenged until the mortals began to demand more and more of Her and the high priestess was drawn into the running of a mortal kingdom. The trumpet call that signaled the end was blown by the priestess when She bowed to demand and agreed to find a replacement for the Moon’s priestess.
They came then, the hopefuls, the talented and fated. The ones that were promised the Moon. They trained, they fought each other in contests designed by the Sun to fail all applicants. She sat atop Her throne and guarded Her power jealously, dangling it like an unattainable carrot. She promised them a place at Her side and trampled them under Her hoof.
After a time, the Sun priestess realized what She had become and in a moment of humility, removed Her crown and became as a pony. The last Goddess fell and with her, so to fell the Everfree.
In the ruins left behind, a shadow stirred in the abandoned temples to the Sun’s glory. Before the vines claimed the buildings and the weeds claimed the streets, the shadow became as pony. Then as a dog, then a dragon and back again. The shadow became what it wanted to be and it wanted the light that had fled this sacred place. It wanted what was promised to it so many years ago by a Goddess that now walked as a mortal.
If Celestia could change, so could she, this shadow, once known as Crystal, now Chrysalis the Changeling. She would have her godhead no matter the cost.
The potion maker’s home sat in silence when Zecora finished reciting her tale. Spike sat with the spoon in his claw, topped off with a cold spoonful of gravy, frozen halfway to his open mouth. Cadance and Twilight sat side by side, their own meals finished and forgotten at their hooves.
Twilight recovered first and spoke quietly. “I’ve read every book in the archives about the Everfree. I’ve never heard of anyone named Chrysalis the Changeling. I’ve never read anything that says the Royal Sisters were there, let alone as political and religious leaders. But…” Twilight looked into the old zebra’s icy blue eyes. “I’ve heard rumors that parts of history have been forgotten and changed.”
“Everyt’ing is true, Twilig’t. We in Everfree now. Go look in the sunlig’t, you see.”
“I believe you, Zecora.” Twilight sighed. “I don’t want to. Why would the Royal Sisters hide all this?”
“Because it reminds them of the failures they’ve spent a thousand years repenting for.” Cadance put a wing around Twilight. “Don’t think less of them, Twilight. Auntie Celestia and Auntie Luna do everything with a reason and that reason is always good in the long run. Sometimes it’s just hard to see that.”
Twilight nodded slowly and leaned into Cadance’s embrace. “I’ve always had faith in them. But...why were we attacked by this ‘Chrysalis?’ Why would she do that?”
“Changelings have hounded me for the last two years now. I don’t know if it was Chrysalis herself though. Auntie Celestia always seemed to imply that there was only one changeling, but I’m not so sure.” Cadance ducked her head and sighed before she looked up and gave Twilight a quick peck on the cheek. “Chrysalis is supposed to be as powerful as an alicorn. That’s why you were assigned to guard me. You’re the only one who’s ever defeated one in combat before.”
“Everything is to your liking, Princess?”
Celestia looked up as she pressed her seal into the cooling wax that was holding the parchment closed she had been writing in. Her chambers looked spotless, the bed in particular looked deliciously clean with smooth, fresh linens, and every surface sparkled. She nodded and smiled at her mare-in-waiting. “It does indeed, thank you Sunchaser.”
The pegasus saluted and bowed with a perky smile. “You are most welcome, Princess! Is there anything else I can do for you?”
“Yes, actually. Could you take this letter by the post on your way out?” Celestia held up the sealed missive in her magic. ‘I would take it myself, but I fear I have to grab a quick shower before court.”
“Certainly, Your Highness.” Sunchaser grabbed the letter in her mouth and tucked it into a pocket on her maid’s outfit. “Anything else?”
“No, that’s all. Thank you again, Sunchaser.”
“I live to serve you, Princess.”
Celestia smiled again and nodded as Sunchaser let herself out. She rose to her hooves and stretched for a moment before reaching for her war-mug. She frowned when she found it empty of coffee but a quick thought activated its enchantment and the mug refilled itself with near boiling hot Neightucket Blend. Celestia took a sip and walked out on her balcony to nudge the Sun further along its daily trajectory.
“Faust Above, I hope this works.”
Sunchaser returned a flirty smile with one of the guards at the end of the skybridge that lead to Celestia’s chambers before turning the corner and heading for the stairwell that would take her to the kitchens below. She paused to kick open the door at the landing meant for staff and she glanced around to make sure no one was observing her. She took the letter Celestia had entrusted her with and stepped into the stairwell.
“Mmmm...I can smell her perfume on this one.” Sunchaser grinned as her eyes flashed from blue to green. “I approve of the new paper, Tia.”
The mare chuckled as she broke the seal and read over the message as she walked. Her wings fused with her body as her maid outfit pulled itself into her body only to re-emerge as a chef’s smock. Her mane shortened and became a spiky mess of green locks while her coat became a softer shade of grass with a glass of milk on her hip while a horn burst from her forehead.
Creamy Goodness paused at the bottom of the stairs where she could hear the sounds of a busy kitchen coming through the doors. She re-read the letter to ensure it was memorized before she destroyed it with a quick bit of fire magic. “Time to go looking for that little wayward princess. I do hope the kitchens will be able to get along without me for a while. Tia hates it when they burn her favorites.”