Among Monsters (1)
∆-2 T-8 C-2:
The stars are beautiful tonight. There's not a cloud in the sky, and without the lights of civilization around me, the glow of the cosmos is on breathtaking display from zenith to horizon. A soft wind sighs through the trees behind me, and I draw in a deep breath of night and let my eyes wander around Luna's majestic constellations. Right before I turn back, I fix my eyes on a patch of empty sky, and am rewarded a second later when a meteor blazes through it, leaving a wake of mist and flame. I drink in every moment of the display. It's just as beautiful this time around.
On one hoof, changelings have taken over Equestria, my best friends are dead, and I'm deep in the Everfree Forest. On the other hoof, no night can be all bad when the land is so peaceful and the sky so vast.
I head back underneath the clinging darkness of the trees, tiphoofing — no longer because I think Spike is asleep, but because changing that might have unintended ripple effects later on — back to camp. The game trail back to our hidden clearing has become familiar through repetition, but I take it slow again, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the deeper darkness. Spike's curled in a tight ball next to the firepit, staring vacantly down at the shimmering heat of the embers.
"I'm back," I repeat. "I didn't expect you to still be up."
"I'm sorry." His reply is reflexive and subdued. "I tried. I couldn't sleep."
I continue reading through the mental script. "Thinking about our friends?"
"I … I just can't believe they're gone."
"Oh, Spike," I say, forcing the sound of sympathy into my voice. It's not that I don't feel the same pain, it's just that when you've been through the exact same conversation half a dozen times in a row, it's tough to summon any genuine emotion. "I know it's hard. But that's why we're on a mission to infiltrate Chrysalis' hive and find some leverage against her. Then, with the power of time loops, Celestia and I will reset to back before the invasion started, and make it so that none of this ever happened." I trot over to our bedrolls and fuss with his blanket, my back to the darkness beyond the fire, surreptitiously tugging Home Run loose from my saddlebags. "I just need you to be strong with me for a little while, and then you'll wake up yesterday morning, and we'll go greet them at the station when their train arrives in Canterlot, and you won't even remember this."
"But how does —"
"Excuse me," I interrupt, and charge my horn.
The world lurches around me, and I'm five feet to the left. A huge dark shape plummets down where I was just standing and lands with a heavy thump, jaws snapping closed on empty air. While the shadowcat is glancing around in confusion, trying to refocus on its prey, I grab Home Run in my horngrip and give it a solid thwap on the snout. It yowls and staggers back, and I follow up with a crack upside the skull hard enough to take down a pony. Under most circumstances, this would merely make the six-cubit-long predator angry — but this one was looking for an easy snack, and my resistance takes all the fight out of it. It whirls and flees, crashing away through the forest.
I turn back to Spike, who is staring with eyes wide as dinner plates. "See? Time loop. I've got this. Nothing else bad will happen the rest of the night, so get some sleep." I turn and walk away before he has a chance to respond. "I'm going to go stargaze some more."
I return to the edge of the chasm, where the skies open up, and pass the time by looking for flying changelings. I've gotten pretty good at picking out their tiny forms far above me by the way they blot out the stars as they pass. Most of the traffic is north-south, a steady stream that I've been shadowing from the ground in order to discover their source, although here in the Everfree there are also plenty of random flights crisscrossing the area thanks to the resistance forces gathering at the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. In other circumstances, that would be an inspiring testament to the indominable pony spirit, but right now it's a major annoyance — forcing me to detour almost out to Rambling Rock Ridge rather than stumble through a succession of changeling patrols.
The stars creep across the sky, keeping pace with the moon. Half an hour later, when Aldebarn sets on the western horizon, I return to camp.
Spike's asleep. I sigh in relief — another conversation about our dead friends avoided. It's amazing how much time and energy can get sucked into providing reassurances nopony will remember. This way, at least I get an uninterrupted night's sleep. Sleep! Amazing how much you take it for granted until you live through several subjective weeks without ever reaching nightfall.
I wake up to birdsong and the wind in the trees — the sweetest sounds the world has ever welcomed me back to consciousness with. Almost worth the destruction of everything I've ever held dear. Spike's already boiling water for coffee, and as the scent of it unfolds from the beaten metal pot, my stomach growls. Hunger! You forget about that, too, when you keep reliving the same few hours of a war. I wolf down two days' worth of rations as Spike picks at a bowl of granola, and even though my stomach is screaming at me when I'm done, I finish off his leftovers.
There's nothing I want more after our meal than to simply lie there in a food coma — but I've got an appointment to keep and that little luxury isn't worth redoing the loop, so I force myself to repack my saddlebags and walk it off, ambling down the trail behind Spike as we wander generally southward.
After half an hour of silence, he glances back at me, eyes flicking back and forth between the steady glow of my horn and Home Run shining on my back. "What are you doing?"
"Preparing," I say. His face falls, and I quickly catch up and put a reassuring hoof on his shoulder. "You never know when it'll be useful to pack a little extra punch."
Spike stops, looks at me for a few moments, and sighs. "You do. So, how many?"
I feel my face flush. I've spent so many loops trying to explain the basics of time magic to him, over and over again, that it's a little disorienting to have him understand well enough to call me on that. "How many what?"
He starts walking again. "How many changelings are you going to fight? Any monster that was big enough to make you prepare, you'd have changed our route instead."
Smart little guy. Uncomfortably smart.
"Spike," I say sternly, "cut me some slack. We're on a mission."
"Not to fight them. Celestia even gave both of her invisibility cloaks to us."
"This time, it's important. Trust me."
He opens his mouth, reconsiders, and walks on in silence.
Half an hour later, Home Run is fully charged and we're at a bend in the path I recognize. "Alright," I say, turning around and looking back the way we came. "I need to prepare an ambush. There's a clearing up ahead, just far enough to be out of earshot. Go wait there until I catch up. You'll be safe."
He pauses for a moment. "Twilight, please. Let's just go. I've … I've lost everyone else I cared about. I don't want to lose you too."
I smile. "Well, then there's nothing to worry about, seeing as how I'm functionally immortal."
"That's not what I …" He trails off and trudges away. "Never mind."
I wait until he's around the corner and out of sight, put on my invisibility cloak, and then pull out a pocket watch. That's all that's left of my "preparations," after one loop to listen in, one loop to time the trip from this corner, and a quick raid on the castle alchemy labs before we set off on our hike. I whistle tunelessly for 1 minute, 37 seconds, stow the watch, and trot after Spike.
As soon as I hear voices, I cast a dampening charm on my hoofsteps and approach the clearing in perfect silence. A group of about twenty ponies, talking animatedly back and forth, is raggedly clustered around the remains of a campfire. At the center of it all, a bawling Spike is clinging to a disheveled Rarity, surrounded by our other friends.
"I'm so sorry I doubted you," Spike sobs, hugging Rarity's foreleg tighter as she curls her other forehoof around his shoulders. "But both Twilight and Celestia said you'd, you'd all … snf. Died."
Hmph. I set too quick a pace. I resolve to spend a loop recalibrating my mental metronome, and lean back against a tree to listen for a bit.
"Believe me, sugarcube," Applejack says, "we tried to let y'all know we escaped. Ain't nothin' gonna keep the Elements of Harmony down, right? But all our messages to Canterlot got caught."
"Yeah, squirt. We're just glad you're okay," Rainbow Dash says.
"Oh, my little Spikey-Wikey," Rarity says, lavishing him with kisses on the cheeks.
"But, um. Spike, if you don't mind me asking. What are you doing so far out in the Everfree?" Fluttershy asks. "It's kind of dangerous."
"I'm with Twilight on some kind of anti-changeling mission." Spike wipes his tears away. "Please, you've gotta talk to her! I think something happened when she cast her spell, because right after that she got all violent and scary. If we can comfort her as friends —"
"What did you say?" Rarity blurts out in an odd tone of voice. I'd love to see the expression on her muzzle, but she's got her back to me. "Spike, this spell you mention —"
Behind her — at the edge of the group, on my side of the clearing — Bon Bon loudly clears her throat. Rarity immediately shuts up. "Not to interrupt, Spike," Bon Bon says, "but where is Twilight Sparkle?"
"She stopped to ambush some changelings," Spike says as I level Home Run and trigger the spell I've been building up all morning.
The air splits with a sharp crack as the kinetic-transfer charm hurls the bat like a javelin. Within the blink of an eye, Bon Bon is cartwheeling forward, bouncing through the campfire and slamming into a tree at the far side of the clearing, a new wooden horn sprouting from her forehead where the bat wedged clean through her skull. She's dead before gravity can even drag her to the ground.
"Hello!" I shout, throwing back the invisibility cloak, my horn shining like the sun.
Pandemonium erupts. In between the loss of their underqueen and my sudden appearance, none of them even notices the little ball of metal fragments and explosives rolling into the clearing at their feet, much less the subtle hiss of its lit fuse. I duck behind a tree trunk and throw everything I've got into a shield spell. There's a loud thump and an avalanche of tiny pocks and pings as metal ricochets off stone, tears through chitin, and buries into wood and earth. Then silence.
I step out from cover to find a circle of charred, scarred dirt where the clearing used to be, studded with shiny black corpses. In the center of it all, wrapped in a bubble of raspberry-colored light, a wide-eyed Spike is clinging to Rarity. They're both frozen, staring at the surrounding devastation in abject horror.
"Aaaand goodbye," I say, dropping their shield and walking forward.
The sound of my voice finally spurs Rarity into motion. She turns her head and fixes a terrified gaze on me. "Please don't kill me."
"Oh, hey!" I say brightly. "I remember you. The smart one."
"What?"
"So are you going to do the smart thing and drop the disguise while you step away from the world's Number One Assistant?"
She hesitates, and for a moment I'm annoyed at myself — way to remind her she's got a hostage, numbskull — but then she does something genuinely impressive and saves me a loop by complying.
"Huh," I say as Spike dashes over to me and clings to my leg the way he did with Rarity's. "That probably shouldn't have worked."
"I know you're angry," the small changeling says. At the same time, Spike blurts out: "I'm sorry!" They both press on, and the rest comes in a jumble. "What happened to your friends —" "I should have known —" "— was unforgivable." "— but you said I'd be safe here." "But please —" "And when Rarity —"
"Quiet!" I shout. They both flinch back and look uncertainly at each other. I sigh inwardly; I thought vengeance would be more cathartic than this, but suddenly it's complicated. Maybe Spike was right — I should have just snuck past them and pressed on. I turn to the changeling. "Look. Nothing personal, but if I let you survive, you're going to go tell Chrysalis what happened here. Then it's back to flailing around for new plans for stars know how long, and I'm already sick of this and can't get back to my normal life until it's fixed." I yank Home Run from the underqueen's corpse and float it over. "So you've got to go."
The changeling sinks to the ground, cowering. "Wait," she says.
"Twilight!" Spike says.
I sigh. "What?"
"You're really going to kill her, too? What's happened to you?"
"I can help you," the changeling says.
"Help me? Pull the other leg, it makes my nose dispense applesauce. As for you, Spike, these were the changelings that set our friends' train on fire. Now is not the time for a lecture."
Spike looks at the changeling in horror. "What?"
She winces. "I'm sorry. Nodrone wanted to kill so many innocent ponies — that's just insane — but we had to. Chrysalis' orders."
Spike staggers back and sits down heavily. I turn to the changeling. "If it's any consolation, I'm working on a future where this isn't necessary." I lift Home Run.
"Wait! Future! Chrysalis!" the changeling squeaks, trying to cover its head with its forelimbs. "I, I think Chrysalis is, is manipulating time."
I lower the bat. "Are you serious?"
"Y-yes."
"No. I mean, did you seriously think that was news?"
"I guess not?" she stammers. "But, um, maybe I know something you don't. Let me live and I'll tell you everything."
I'm about to take a swing anyway when I realize that there's the potential for some efficiency here. "On one condition. Take us to your hive and help us sneak in."
The changeling's jaw drops. "You're joking. Chrysalis would tear my limbs off for grub food, one by one, while I watched."
I shrug. "Her or me."
Her thorax shifts as she swallows. "I. Um. I'm not sure you understand when I say she's manipulating time. It doesn't matter how sneaky you are or how much help you have. She already knows your plans. Please, for your own sake, start running now." The changeling cautiously stands. "Listen: conquering Canterlot is like trying to climb a mountain with your fangs. No hive has ever been able to do it despite decades of planning. She herself failed at it once. And yet, with her army still weakened and everypony still suspicious of us, it only took her a week to pull it off."
"Well, now Canterlot is fighting back," I say, lifting Spike to my back. "You heard my deal. I'm only giving you one chance, so if you want it, shut your mouth and lead the way."
She pauses for a moment, eyes flicking around, then lowers her head and starts trudging southward. I fall into step behind her.
As the tension of the standoff falls away, I hear some muffled sobbing from my back, and feel dampness start to seep into my neck where Spike's head is buried in my mane.
The changeling glances back. "Is Spike —"
"Less talking," I say. "More walking."
"I'm sorry. But he —"
I sigh loudly. "When I said 'less talking,' what I meant was 'I don't want to hear a single word from you unless I ask you for it'."
She shuts up.
After a mercifully quiet day, we set up camp by a stream in a forested ravine — which is to say, I find a small clearing, rip some branches from the surrounding trees, and point Spike at a patch of dirt. He digs a firepit and lights a fire without speaking, then wanders off into the forest while I sit down and stare at the flames. The changeling huddles against a tree, staring at me. The blessed, blessed silence stretches out as I idly prod the burning wood.
"Permission to speak?" she finally says.
I glance up. She looks scared enough that I figure it's important. "Fine."
"I … think I figured it out. You're manipulating time too, aren't you?"
"Oh, gee," I say acidly. "What was your first clue?"
"Well," she says, as if it wasn't a rhetorical question, "ever since you cast the spell Spike mentioned, you're acting like Chrysalis."
I fix her with a stare, feeling heat rush to my cheeks. "And what's that supposed to mean?" I ask, in a flat tone that suggests she think very carefully about her answer.
She freezes. "Was that a bad thought?" she squeaks.
"No, that was bad words, in your outside voice."
"I know. But … you let me say it, and then you got upset." The changeling stares at me. "I don't understand."
It takes me a few seconds to parse that, then I snort in disbelief. "What, you think I'm a mind reader?"
"Well, no — but you're looking into the future to see everything I say, right?"
"No. I'm repeating time. I learn things the hard way, by enduring these ridiculous conversations over and over, and over, and over again, and giving out exactly this sort of stupid explanation to people who don't remember a word I say, getting more and more pointlessly frustrated as … wait. I am looking into your future. At least, that's what I'll tell you next time. You'll be too scared to lie to me."
The changeling is silent for long moments. "Huh," she finally says. "That does explain a lot about Chrysalis."
I leap to my hooves. "Oh no. Let's get one thing straight. I'm not her, and don't you dare compare us. I never asked for my country to be invaded. I never asked to have all my best friends killed. I never asked to die painfully over and over again as I tried to set things right. I never asked to be like this, and you of all people don't get to judge me, you murderer!"
She shrieks and flings her forelimbs up over her face, which seems like an overreaction until I realize that I was brandishing Home Run at her to punctuate my statements, and it's poised above my head ready to swing.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry," she sobs, cowering.
I lower the bat. "I'm not her," I say weakly.
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Yay, new chapter.
Boo it is short and now I have to wait a week for the next one.
Loving it, more, more more!
Wow, thats pretty good comparison. It's like from Nietzsche, you know "And when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you"
Damn I can't wait for next
While reading:
HOME RUN IS BACK! WOOHOO!
After reading:
Wow. One identity crisis, order up!
I'm not so sure. You just cheerfully sent Spike forward as a sacrifice just to make killing the drones a little bit easier.
Tuesdays do have a certain significance to MLP, don't they?
These are too good. You really nailed the style and voice of the original. It feels completely natural of a progression from Eakin's work and it is awesome.
Tuesdays are good days.
"Ever since she cast that spell she's been all scary and violent..." *brr*
We want more pants!!! D: PANTS!!!!
this chapter... it's over so soon...
3931115 Pants?
Losing her equinity to the repeat of days
Like going through the motions and redoing the plays
As she goes on she falls farther away
From her sanity, a price she does pay
For setting things right will not come with ease
Paying dividends of sanity, as her reset fees
Becoming the monster she seeks to destroy
The little things like death only seem to annoy
And with no end in sight, perspective she lacks
Her facade she now wears, slowly starts showing cracks
Among the monsters she now rests her head
And as a monster, she now lays in her bed
As this downward spiral slowly goes on
Is there any way for her to see the beauty, and light, of the dawn?
Losing herself before she knows
Her coldness latches on and slowly grows
Until the day the loops finally end
At which point she'll look back and her heart will rend
At the terrible sight of what she's become
For her whole spirit, now black, has gone fully numb
She will be forced to confront an irreversible sight
She has finally become, darker than night
~Black Sun Eclipse
Oh yeah, the differences are striking.
You know, it just occurred to me, I wonder if Azalea is in this fic somewhere. And as I was writing that last sentence something else occurred to me, I wonder if fake-Rarity is Azalea.
chapter!!!
3 minutes later: no more chapter.
3931630
That would be a little more... I don't know. Ironic maybe? Disturbing? Funny? Depends on whether or not Azalea would be characterized here the exact same way (I don't see why not, since it is time looping shenanigans in the same universe and all)
I hope the next chapter makes up for the appallingly lack of content from this chapter
I WANT MORE WORDS TO READ DAMNIT!
Very interesting, since as far as we can tell, very little has changed between before and after Chrysalis started looping in terms of the actual invasion, meaning pre-looping Chrysalis pulled most of the same stuff off without that benefit, or that possibly the reason she became desperate enough to start looping in the first place is that she somehow realised Celestia was looping, which would prevent her from ever achieving a victory without the same advantage.
Also, Chrysalis started looping only a week ago. If the travel-one-week-back-in-time spell is an option for Celestia, and it doesn't have to end up in a stable time loop like it did when Twilight tried it, I wonder if Celestia could tell her past self to not update her save point and have Twilight cast her spell a week earlier so that they could try to prevent Chrysalis from casting the spell in the first place.
That right there is the straight line of straight lines.
I loved this chapter in all of it's identity crises goodness.
This also contains a HUGE reveal about how the Changelings work in this Universe.
3931712
Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if Celestia actually has been suppressing the Elements for an entire week.
Stare long enough into the abyss, and it will stare back, they say.
And why do I get the feeling that particular changeling will be very significant? Seen her appear more than once now in different places. Watch her turn out to be the same changeling that was Azalea in the original.
3931417
Eeyup. Cause the chapter gave us shorts...
Short. Get it?
3931878 So.. you want the chapters to be longer?
3931408
OMG! The author is turning into Chrysalis!?
AH MAH GAWD! If only we could know how he could avoid such a fate... If only there was some chapter we could readdddddd.
3931881
3931630
You're not alone. <3
Fake-Rarity gives off that special pony vibe.
3931898
What did I do?
3931553
Hi Zecora! *waves cheerily*
3931989
Try Zircon, the Zebra of ancient tale,
Not because I dislike Zecora, no, only because I'm male.
~Black Sun Eclipse
3931630
> Oh yeah, the differences are striking.
denver.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw10399_small.jpg
3932069
Thank you for makin' meh feel dumb. :3
So.... wait. I thought everything blew up after three hours? Isn't that the whole struggle in HR? So... wha?
Also, something bad is going to happen to Spike, and I mean something permanent, or looping, as the case may be.
Next chapter as a birthday gift basically
16th, eh, close enough
This chapter was perhaps the easiest to understand so far. Among the insanity, a modicum of sense!
3932057
*SQUEE* Yer too awesome, Zircon.
~HoneyHoneyHoney
3932246
I could be entirely wrong, but I think that with Celestia looping, she can prevent the explosion for a while at least. The invasion still screws everything badly enough that for their final run, the day has to keep getting reset, but this is just a fact-finding mission.
3932069 Heh heh heh.
3931408
And if I was the only one looping, I'd be able to get chapters out more often than once a week! (How else do you think Eakin wrote Hard Reset so fast?)
Curse all you readers and your own loops intersecting with mine! Curse you, I say!
That's no moon!
Twilight, just because you reset doesn't mean Spike does.
Oh, man, that one's going to hit home hard when she reaches this universe's equivalent of a sequel.
ABC, easy as PTSD, easy ABC, PTSD, baby you and me, yeah! You're not getting out of it that easily little pony, though I think the brain-switch-off spell is going to cauterize a fair bit.
And lo, the portrait revealed, that it was I that was the monster, for it was naught but a mirror framed.
Well, the resemblance is striking- wait?
3931630
Fucking damn it!
JUST FUCK ALREADY!!!
3931545
That happened a while ago silly!
3931079 3931109 3932666
Indeed, Twilight has some uncomfortable epiphanies ahead of her.
3931553
As for poor Twilight, we'll see whether this wake-up call comes in time …
I don't think I have the brain right now to reply in kind, but I'm super flattered to have inspired a poetic response, and thank you for bringing a smile to my evening!
3931630 3931703 3931856 3931904
All I can say without spoilers is that Azalea does in fact make a significant appearance before the end of the story.
3931712
Intersecting time loops AND arbitrary time travel? Do you WANT this story to become more complex than Primer?
3932246 3932424
> So.... wait. I thought everything blew up after three hours? Isn't that the whole struggle in HR?
Ah, dammit. Go figure, it's the easiest-to-understand chapter where I goof hardest on the exposition.
Yes, that has (now) changed. I just realized the story as written doesn't actually mention this until chapter … um, 11 … but given that we've got the two most powerful alicorns in Equestria locked in the Canterlot Arcane Storage Vaults with all sorts of ridiculous magical artifacts to fiddle with, and the Elements of Harmony currently have no bearers (and thus are useless as a weapon), Celestia basically worked out a way to disable them entirely. This does come up significantly later on, but should have been mentioned back when it first becomes relevant — i.e., now. I'll bash my head against this chapter and find a way to edit that in. For now, please accept this explanatory comment and my thanks for the catch.
3932938
To be fair, that exposition is already covered in the original story, so it's easy to forget that you, personally didn't cover it.
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Damn, Twi.
Come on Twilight, be more like Pinkie.
gameinformer.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/CommunityServer-Components-ImageFileViewer/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files-14492/6644.131657528441.png_2D00_610x0.png
3932938
Why settle for second place?
I can't help but wonder if Twilight arranged the shadowcat attack just to prove her point. Hence the tiphoofing.
In any case, this disclosure could very, very easily bite Twilight on the cutie mark. One way or another, she's going to regret this loop.
3932619
In my defense, Saphroneth never mentioned the side effects of participating in that collaboration.
I see an interesting shift happening here. Can't wait for the next chapter.
Um actually, something does come to mind.
Now Twilight (and Celestia) are stuck looping for a potential eternity because Chrysalis attacks and elements explode, taking a good chunk of Equestria with them. With Chrysalis being a non-looper, the invasion is set in stone, because it begins during the loop, and will always begin during the loop. They're always playing defense, and have no choice, because if they do nothing, the alternative is big bada boom. Since Chryssi is outside the loop, she never gets tired of starting the invasion, as she only ever does it once.
But now, Chrysalis is a looper. She has to initiate the invasion every single time, to continue the situation. If even once she says "hell with it" and doesn't cause the invasion, everyone moves forward by a day. Twilight and Celestia, and any other defender, can take loops off, to relax and get their mind back in the game, but Chrysalis can't.
The moment an invasion doesn't happen, Twi or Celestia can kill themselves, restart that same loop where the invasion doesn't happen, and save the elements, get the rest of the mane six to Canterlot, and Chryssi gets a rainbow basting.
While yes, Chrysalis has minions, and can order them to go do whatever while she faffs about, the minions aren't looping, they can be worked around with enough attempts. Without her there, and with Celestia looping now, between the two of them, they can end it in one shot if that ever happens.
And how many subjective millennia can even Chrysalis continue to run headfirst into the same brick wall? Especially if Twi and Celestia can just go on vacation the moment a loop starts, and as soon as Chrysalis wins, the elements explode anyway, taking her out. Her own victory will kill her every time.
For me, that'll be the best day of my life. For you, it's a Tuesday.
3931630
I am not quite sure how that would work. She was the changeling tasked with spying on Twilight and after the Elements were used (which would be the end of this story) that knowledge of Twi was viewed in a new light and love happened. While it was mentioned that changelings were forced to obey Chrysalis no matter what (basically endured her mind-control abilities as a matter of species) and might not all agree with the whole invasion thing; that's a far cry from someone whose disguised form and fake personality was forced upon them as truth.
Although I just realized that this is a different time-line altogether and the original pony Azalea might still be alive :)
3931079
It's not really a sacrifice when she was protecting him with a shield spell and knew the changelings wouldn't kill him immediately. More like a useful (and morbid) distraction ;)
3934996
Not necessarily. While it's likely Chrysalis doesn't know about the Elements exploding, since every time the situation gets that bad either Tia or Twi reset, once she does find out, she can search for a victory that prevents it. Alternate Twilight (aka the insane one) found at least two ways to do that, so it's not impossible.
3935159
More like, "Huh, what's up ahead? Oh, more changelings. *reload* Go forth,
DogmeatSpike! *squish* *reload*"Either way, it's incredibly callous.