A Dream

by totallynotabrony

The Last Problem

“Chrysalis? Where?” I glanced around. I didn’t see anyone except the girls, the Princesses, Discord, and two dead bodies.

I wasn’t expecting to be knocked head over heels just then by a blast of purple magic. When I finally stopped tumbling, I blinked and found Twilight standing over me, wearing an angry snarl. “Your reign of terror ends here, Chrysalis!”

“Chrysalis?” I glanced down at my body, which for some reason was now black and full of holes. “Why am I Chrysalis!?”

That seemed to confuse her. I poked her in the chest. “This isn’t funny, Twilight.”

“But…” she said.

I pushed her off of me and stood up. “I don’t know what just happened, but something is wrong here.”

“I’ll say,” said Applejack. “You turned into Queen Chrysalis.”

Oh no, if Applejack was saying it, then I was in serious trouble.

I suppose. I mean, being upgraded from an earth pony to a pseudoalicorn shapeshifter wasn’t all bad, right?

“But wait,” said Twilight, shaking her head. “How did this even happen? Ancient magic artifacts absorbing magic from various creatures,don’t just turn ponies into changelings when broken.”

“Come to think of it, we hadn’t heard any reports of Queen Chrysalis’ actions during this incident,” said Celestia. “Tirek and Cozy Glow, but not Chrysalis.”

“Well, it’s not like I’ve been Chrysalis this whole time,” I said.

I suddenly remembered the blackout incidents.

I remembered strange tape recordings that could only have been made from inside the villains’ lair.

I was...starting to remember fragments of memories of things that I shouldn’t know.

Oh Bug God, I’d been Chrysalis this whole time.

I looked down at my dark-colored chitin hooves. Blackout-me had been literal.

Fortunately, both Chrysalis and Valiant would have kept their mouth shut about this realization. I put on my best straight face and watched Twilight ponder through, hoping she wouldn’t figure it out.

“Chrysalis is a master of disguise, so she could have been Valiant all this time.” Twilight put a hoof to her chin as she muttered to herself. “But changelings feed on love, and it was quite frankly staggering the number of times I saw him reject even a hug.”

I wasn’t sure which was worse, being Valiant turned into Chrysalis or the other way around. Remembering being myself (him?) while also remembering being...well, her, myself.

With Twilight rambling, I put a hoof to my forehead and squeezed my eyes shut. Sorting out everything was so confusing. Valiant was mildly amused to learn that Chrysalis had also been suffering timeskips. Chrysalis the changeling was experiencing actually being someone else for the first time, exploring memories - especially that one about blowing her (my?) self up with a Panzerfaust.

Faces went past my mind’s eye - Valiant, Chrysalis, totallynotabrony, his, hers, mine, ponies and people I knew, from other worlds, from right here in front of me. I couldn't sort out where one ended and the others began.

“So I think I’ve figured it out,” Twilight said suddenly. My eyes popped open.

She pointed a hoof at me. “After the chaos of these battles, we’re left with one last problem.”

“The last problem begs a final solution,” I said. The Valiant part of my brain giggled for some reason. It took me a second, but his memories told me why. The Holocaust - hilarious.

Twilight ignored me and kept going. “This was a ploy to finally seize power, wasn’t it? Now that you’ve eliminated - or depowered - any creature who could possibly threaten you and took Chrysalis’ magic for yourself, there’s nopony to stop you.” She hastily added, “You think.”

“Uh, Twilight, did you forget the Princesses?” said Rainbow.

Twilight glanced over her shoulder at Celestia and Luna, apparently ignored Cadance, had a moment of regret, and then said, “It’s not like they’ve saved Equestria recently.”

Oh, wow. She was really leaning hard into her role as the new premier of Equestria. “I would actually be proud of you exerting your newfound authority if you hadn’t just accused me of a coup. Ironically, I didn’t even do one this time.”

“Wait, so you actually are Chrysalis?” said Twilight.

“But I’m still kind of Valiant.” Instinct told me that confusion was going to be my friend on this issue. They couldn’t be mad at me for being Valiant if I was actually Chrysalis, and they couldn’t be mad at me for being Chrysalis if I was actually Valiant.

“Prove you’re still Valiant.”

“Well, I have this tape recorder.”

Twilight opened her mouth, but I quickly added, “But I’ve recorded a lot of things only Chrysalis would have access to.”

I hit the play button.

“Chrysalis, stop leaving your dildo everywhere!” said Tirek’s voice.

“What’s a dildo?” asked Cozy.

Twilight’s cheeks were pink. I stopped the tape. “It was a particular rock-hard item that had been removed from Mudbriar.” I had been starting a collection, apparently.

“But Chrysalis wasn’t there for that.”

“But the item in question came into her possession because Valiant put it where she would find it.”

“Wait, so you are Valiant?”

“Not necessarily.”

“So-” she waved a hoof. “Prove you’re Chrysalis.”

I stared at her and gestured at myself.

Twilight took a stance. “Well then, if you’re Chrysalis, we’re going to detain you for the punishment you deserve.”

“But I - Chrysalis - didn’t do any of this,” I pointed out, gesturing to the bodies of Cozy Glow and Tirek. “See, if I was guilty, I would have attacked you or teleported away.”

“If you’re so innocent, then why didn’t you change to a more colorful form like all the reformed changelings?”

“Black is already my color. Besides, why should I need to be reformed? I’m innocent. I didn’t even participate in Tirek and Cozy’s plan to take over Equestria.”

“I was talking about the other times you’ve tried to take over Equestria.”

“But if I’m actually Valiant, then you know you literally couldn’t enforce any punishment.”

“But if you’re Valiant, then why do you look like Chrysalis?”

It was getting harder to come up with plausible counters. “I told you in the other world I was an alicorn for while after a demon sacrifice ritual. What makes you think that I didn’t do this on purpose for some long-running, obtuse plan?”

Twilight ground her teeth. “Why don’t I just throw you in the dungeon? If it works, great. If it doesn’t, then we’ll have this conversation again, more heatedly.”

“But Valiant did nothing wrong.” Could I still use that here? I couldn’t remember if I had ever said it in this universe.

Twilight let it go but shifted from questioning to take control of the situation. “You’re going to come with us back to Canterlot and we’ll decide what to do with you there.”

“Cozy blew up the castle,” I pointed out.

Twilight’s face tweaked and she corrected, “Then we’re going to Ponyville.”

Good, the stash of tequila was there. Actually, I had no idea what that would do to Chrysalis’ body. Valiant would want to find out, though.

“Well, I can take you all,” I said, turning towards the airship I’d arrived in.

“Yeah, I’m not comfortable with that,” said Rainbow. “Especially not now.”

“Is it the name?” I said. “I know, B1R - ‘boner’ - is kind of crude humor.”

“What does a boner have to do with it?” said Rainbow.

“Actually, that foreshadowed her being Chrysalis all along if she named it after that. Changlings like love,” said Pinkie.

“Sex ain’t the same thing as love,” Applejack pointed out.

“I think it was mostly just Valiant’s sense of inside joke humor. Plus, I’m not getting a whole lot of love off of this group,” I said, gesturing to them.

“Well, I’m going to echo Rainbow and say that I don’t think I want to fly with you,” said Twilight.

“Well, we can’t just leave my airship here.”

In response, Twilight used magic to grab all the detritus blown out of the crater when it was formed, balled it all up into a sphere of dirt and rock, and dropped it back into the crater. On top of the hapless B1R.

“What are you doing!?” I fell to my knees, hooves to my temples.

“You’ve got wings and I’m thinking I’m probably going to hold you for a while until we get to the bottom of this, so it’s not like you needed it.”

“You could have seized it through eminent domain, you could have sold it, you have left it here because it’s not like anyone else knows how to fly it. You could have done anything else. You didn’t have to destroy it.” I gestured at the mound of dirt. “This is how supervillains get made, Twilight.”

“And why should I listen to you, a supervillain?”

I glared at her. “You can be really vindictive when you think I’m not going to stab you.”

We got on the airship the Princesses had taken from Canterlot. Everyone sat in a circle staring at me. I guess that was better than them attempting to restrain me or turn me to stone or something, but it was still awkward.

In Ponyville, I was escorted into the castle conference room. Spike had to go get a couple of extra chairs, and then scoot them around to one side of the big circular table so the rest could all face me. On the one hand, it felt kind of hostile. On the other, I was the center of attention.

“We’re going to get to the bottom of this,” said Twilight.

“I’m not sure if you’re prepared for that kind of time commitment.”

I thought she might knock the smug look off my face, so I had a second, smaller smug look underneath ready to go. Whether I ended up being Chrysalis or Valiant, at least we had that going for us.

Speaking of things we had going for us, I guess if I wasn’t legally Valiant, then I wasn’t legally married to Lemon Pledge. Even though I guess that was never her name, either.

Identities were hard. As a shapeshifter, I’d never really had a strong grasp on my own. Trying to sort out fading Valiant memories wasn’t helping. I was becoming more sure that I wasn’t actually him, but from the insight I’d seen of his mind...I kind of wished I was.

Twilight summoned a notebook. “Now about the matter of Grogar’s bell-”

“Wait a second,” said Pinkie. “Didn’t Tirek take the Pillars’ magic, and then the bell sucked everything from Tirek, and then the bell was destroyed along with all the magic inside it?”

Twilight’s eyes got bigger than what should have physically been possible.

“In mine and my brand’s defense, it’s not like the Pillars ever did anything,” I pointed out.

Twilight had moved past shocked and was gaining steam for a full-on freakout. I was trying to tell whether it was going to go towards panic or fury when suddenly the magic table turned on.

I hadn’t done it. As far as I knew, it hadn’t been used since the experiments with cross-dimensional calling. The star map of different universes came up. There was a boop and suddenly a new one appeared. I squinted. Wait, no, that was the old one just decloaking or something. Did that mean-

Suddenly the display started to zoom in on the new universe. There was a flash of light, and as I blinked to clear the spots from my eyes, I saw that we had company.

There were six new arrivals. There was an additional Applejack, except jacked. There was an additional Twilight, except no wings. There was an additional Pinkie, except gay. Wait a second, this was starting to look like…

“Where is he?” the unicorn Twilight demanded.

“W-what?” the alicorn Twilight stammered in reply.

Oh Bug God, they’d finally gone looking for Valiant.

“Why do you have wings?” said unicorn Twilight, eyeing her counterpart.

“She has AIDS. Alicornized Immune Deficiency Syndrome,” I said.

Unicorn Twilight turned her glare on me. “And just where did you hear that phrase? We know Valiant’s been hiding out in this universe. Where is he?”

“If you knew he was here, there must be some kind of signature?” alicorn Twilight speculated. “Can’t you track it now?”

“It faded out just before we teleported across the dimension,” unicorn Twilight replied, annoyed. “Almost like he knew we were after him.”

She glanced at me and then at alicorn Twilight. “What’s Chrysalis doing here? She’s still alive in this universe?”

“She...kind of was Valiant up until a little while ago.”

“That’s impossible.” Unicorn Twilight shook her head. “We were tracking a very specific interdimensional signature. A changeling couldn’t have replicated it.” She frowned. “But...you say Chrysalis was Valiant? She acted like him and everything?”

“Well, assuming we had the same Valiant…” said alicorn Twilight.

“The same-” unicorn Twilight facehoofed. “Oh dear Celestia, he did it again.”

“Did what?” alicorn Twilight asked.

“Another one of his stupidly complicated plans to make us look bad.”

She sighed. “Alright, let me think this through. With the evidence that I have, I assume Valiant invaded this universe and brainwashed Chrysalis into transforming into him and even thinking she was him. But it would be a problem if she weren’t bad enough, so she-as-him got up to all his usual shenanigans. That caused us to think he was here, and we came looking.”

“But...why?” said alicorn Twilight. “I get that you dislike him - and I totally get why you do - but how come he wanted to set up such an elaborate ruse in my universe?”

“Also,” I said, “if I’m not the real Valiant, then where is he?”

That was intended as a rhetorical challenge. If they couldn’t produce him, then there was a chance I still was him. The way it came out, though, sounded like a worry. Why had he gone to all this trouble and wasn’t even here to revel in it? Was the plan still not done?

“Also,” said alicorn Twilight. “Aren’t you kind of leaving your own universe unguarded right now?”

This time it was unicorn Twilight’s turn to have her eyes nearly bug out of her skull. Trust me, I know how that looks. I’m a bug.

She swallowed hard and glanced at her friends. “Um, so, we’re just going to go back to our own dimension now.”

She did a spell that opened a portal. Her friends started to hurry through. Twilight turned to follow, but then stopped.

She glanced back at us. “And if you do see Valiant...don’t call us.”

Comments

[Telly Vision]

He came I to the story unannounced and he left without fanfare. I’m gonna miss him when he’s gone.

[toshibafox]

'and Valiant woke up in the human world at his house and his bed and realized that everything that happened had actually been just a dream'

Cause the last chapter of this story hasn't confirmed where the real valiant is at the end of this story and there isn't any signs of a sequel this is my best guess about how this story ends.

[InsertNameHere]

I know it's wishful thinking at best, but the ending is just ripe with sequel potential if he decides to do one.

[Dragon Turtle]

9898668
9898694
Hot Damn, I called it.

[Dragon Turtle]

9930322
Huh, I guess there is a symmetry there. A stranger comes to town, and then a character leaves town. (Although I suppose you mean "in" instead of "I").

[Lynneth]

Well, that was one helluva story. I'm kind of sad Valiant left like this, but I s'pose that's how it goes.

[totallynotabrony]

10430052
It boggles my mind people are still reading this, but thank you and I hope you enjoyed it.