A Beam of Light

by OutofCuriosity

Emission Point

Queen Chrysalis watched as Cerberus, the three-headed guard-dog patrolled the tunnel leading into Tartarus. She smiled to herself as she transformed into the spitting image of Princess Celestia. The fake Celestia stepped from her hiding place in a small cluster of trees and called out to Cerberus in an imitation Chrysalis had perfected by hiding in the crowd at one of Celestia's many speeches.

"Cerberus, come here boy." The huge hound bounded over to the impostor tail wagging and all three heads bearing an expression of happiness. Chrysalis enjoyed the taste of the affection that poured out of Cerberus, wishing not for the first time changelings could sustain themselves off the love of pets for their masters. Life would be so much easier she thought to herself. Returning her focus to reality and her current task she said to Cerberus, "Why don't you run along for a while? I just need to make a quick visit to Tartarus and I'll keep an eye on things while I'm here. I'll let you know when I'm done."

With those words the fake Celestia levitated a trio of rubber balls and magically threw them into the underbrush of the surrounding forest. Cerberus glanced at the balls then turned back to look at the fake Celestia, who nodded at the hound, which then ran after the toys mouths slobbering in anticipation. As Cerberus faded from sight Chrysalis smirked in derision, the expression out of place on Celestia's face, at the intimidating giant dog acting like a small puppy.

Chrysalis then dropped the disguise and signaled her guards, who had been hidden and prepared to defend their queen had the deception failed. Now they stood at attention waiting for instructions, their armored carapaces ridged and grooved, a sign of their role as the queen's personal guard. Chrysalis turned her gaze towards two changelings standing slightly apart from the rest, their carapaces lacking the extra armor of the other changelings.

"Flitter, Arachne, well done. It seems your information about Cerberus was correct. If the rest of the information is true you'll be rewarded when we take Canterlot from those foolish Princesses." The mentioned changelings bowed while simultaneously letting out sighs of relief at the fact that they hadn't needlessly put the queen's (and consequentially their own) life in danger. Chrysalis ordered four of the assembled guards to wait at the entrance and the rest to follow her downwards.

The tunnel was dark and dusty, yet no cobwebs were to be found, as if even spiders had learned to avoid this place. Chrysalis studied the tunnel, which was large enough that she and two of her guards could stand side-by-side comfortably and wondered idly if she would need to make it bigger on the return trip for their 'guest'. As the group descended Chrysalis noticed the stone walls were gradually changing from grey and brown to a faint blue color. This blue stone became more and more prevalent and proved itself to be faintly luminescent providing the group with enough light to see.

Despite herself Chrysalis felt a growing sense of unease inside. Even among the changelings were stories told of the horrific monsters that were imprisoned here. She had to remember that feasting on all the love in Equestria was worth the risk of this trip. Finally the tunnel leveled off and Chrysalis could see a faint light a short distance ahead. That faint light revealed itself to be a massive cavern filled with platforms that each containing something chained down.

"Remember, don't even go near anything if you value your life, or your magic in Tirek's case," said Chrysalis as she walked along the path that encircled all the platforms. She came to a stop in front of one and climbed the steps leading up its sole occupant, a pure white dragon with its head bowed. "Aduro, I presume," said Chrysalis.

The dragon's head perked up at the sound of Chrysalis' voice and revealed two silver eyes which stared directly at the changeling queen.

"You have me at a disadvantage, you know my name and I've never even seen your kind before unless you're Celestia who's decided to join in the Nightmare Night spirit and yet you don't smell like her. Who and what are you?" Aduro's eyes never left Chrysalis'.

"I am Chrysalis, queen of the changelings. And I've got a proposition for you," she answered. She stepped closer and began to study Aduro. She noticed that he was thin, with his bones easily visible beneath the skin. She also noticed he was proportioned differently than any other dragon she'd ever seen and the row of spikes on his back were smaller and more rounded than other dragons'.

Aduro stood on four legs rather than two and he was smaller than she expected. Chrysalis guessed that Aduro was roughly the same size as the princess she planned to replace, Cadenza something. "Though now I've seen you face-to-face I'm not sure you have the skills I need," said Chrysalis. Aduro quirked a scaled brow at that comment then gave a little knowing smile.

"If you wanted a demonstration of my power all you needed to do was ask me directly," remarked the dragon. Chrysalis was about to respond when she suddenly found herself standing in a pool of light surrounded by darkness. Then out of the darkness came not one but three unchained Aduros. The middle Aduro walked forward and placed a glowing claw against Chrysalis' cheek and she felt the heat coming off of it. Then just as suddenly as they appeared the three dragons vanished and Chrysalis found herself back in front of an imprisoned Aduro who said simply, "Does that answer your question?"

Lifting a hoof to her cheek Chrysalis felt the small burn inflicted by the other Aduro. She then began clapping her front hooves together.

"Yes, that will do nicely," declared Chrysalis. "Now here is my offer, I free you from this place and in exchange you help me and my changelings takeover all of Equestria. Beginning with Canterlot and the Princesses. Interested?"

Aduro chuckled before responding. "I can't say that I am. Although I would appreciate being let out of this dungeon and I'm not overly fond of the Princesses the rest of Equestria hasn't done me harm nor does it have anything I want. If that's all you have to offer me then you can be on your way." Chrysalis merely smiled confidently at the dragon.

"I forgot to mention that once we take Canterlot I'll give you a statue of a certain draconequus I've heard is the reason you're here in the first place." At this he glanced in surprise at Chrysalis before his brow furrowed in thought and turned his gaze down to the ground. Chrysalis watched in silence, secretly hoping that whatever forces controlled luck would bless her at this moment, though outwardly she was a paragon of confidence. Finally Aduro seemed to have reached his decision.

"In exchange for my freedom and Discord I will aid you in your bid for control of Equestria. However I will require several conditions to met. First, the instant we have secured Canterlot I will be free to dispose of Discord at my discretion. Second, the decision of whether or not I stay in your service after I eliminate Discord will be my choice and if I choose to leave you will not stop me. Finally, I will only assist in this single attempt. If you are defeated by the Equestrians I will not help you again understood? I don't relish the thought of being involved in a long drawn-out conflict."

Chrysalis considered Aduro's counteroffer for a while as she paced back and forth weighing her options.

"It seems to me you don't enjoy the idea of working with us for long. Pity. I willing to accept your conditions if you accept one of my own, you will be free to kill Discord the moment Canterlot, the Elements of Harmony, and the Princesses are under my control. Are these acceptable terms to you?"

"Yes," said Aduro almost instantly. Chrysalis stretched out a hoof which Aduro took in his claws and shook. "Now I would enjoy having these chains removed if you don't mind." Chrysalis signaled her guards who either crawled or flew closer, each working on removing one of the many chains binding Aduro. They spat goo at the keyholes, goo that hardened and functioned in the place of keys.The chains on his legs were removed without incident but when it to the ones attached to his wings a problem was encountered. These chains were physically embedded into the joints where his wings attached to Aduro's body.

"This will hurt a bit, the chains have pierced the joints," one of the changelings murmured into Aduro's ear.

"As long as it heals I will endure." The dragon closed his eyes preparing himself.
However, when the chains were removed Aduro's wings went with them. He roared in protest and, with a strength Chrysalis hadn't expected from his seemingly frail body, knocked the nearest changeling away with his tail. The unfortunate changeling sailed through the air unconscious until it crashed into one of the worst things it could hit. Tirek. Tirek wasted no time in grabbing the changeling and draining its magic. However, he was only able to steal a small amount of the changeling's magic when Chrysalis pulled the helpless guard out of Tirek's grasp.

Queen Chrysalis glared at Aduro and said in a soft voice that still managed to convey menace, "If you ever endanger one of my changelings like that again, you won't have to worry about the Princesses' imprisoning you ever again." Aduro returned the glare despite the fact that Chrysalis towered over him. Waves of negative emotion flowed from the dragon in a slightly sickening cocktail that vanished when he closed his eyes.

Then Chrysalis turned to the guards who'd removed Aduro's chains and said, "As for you, the entire plan we've been working on for the last several months on was very nearly jeopardized by your incompetence. If we aren't able to properly reattach Aduro's wings I will know exactly who to blame. Now let's leave this accursed place before something else goes wrong."

Meanwhile...

Cerberus had been playing by itself for several hours before the heads asked themselves what to do next. The middle head wanted to wait back at the entrance of Tartarus until Celestia returned. The left and right heads disagreed and decided to explore more. Eventually the middle head gave in and thus Cerberus wandered around Equestria until it came to Ponyville and the purple unicorn librarian led it back to its post at the entrance of Tartarus.

Tirek had stolen just enough magic from the changeling to magically change his body and escape from his shackles. However, he was still very weak and his progress from Tartarus was very small over the next several hours. Tirek managed to reach a fire swamp before falling into a pit of quicksand and sinking to the bottom where he remained trapped for several months until a thrashing chimera knocked a nearby tree into the pit of quicksand and enabled Tirek to climb out. (But that's another story.)

*******

Chrysalis had Flitter gather up the dragon's wings and three of her guards to carry the now unconscious Aduro. She personally carried the unfortunate guard who'd come into contact with Tirek and quickly trotted back up the tunnel out of Tartarus. Once she felt sunlight hit her carapace, Chrysalis buzzed her wings and lifted off, joined by the rest of her swarm.

She called back to the trio carrying the dragon, "If he regains consciousness explain the treatment he'll need to reattach his wings. I don't want him panicking halfway through the preparations." She stared at the limp dragon thinking, how could such a foolish creature have been a threat to the Princesses. He really thinks I'd risk the safety of my future empire by having anything to do with Discord. It's almost too easy.

With that the swarm of changelings flew unnoticed towards the empty wastes of the Badlands under the light of Celestia's sun.

Author's Note:

This is my first fanfiction and therefore constructive criticism and proofreaders are desired and would be appreciated.

Comments

[Vedues]

Hey there! An interesting start. I'm not sure if Aduro's power is reality manipulation, creating pocket dimensions where only the laws he wants exist, or some sort of illusion that's so powerful it affects things as though it was real, but I'm sure that will be explained later. I also liked the mini explanation of how Tirek got loose. Anyway, in spite of the fact that I liked this, you wanted constructive criticism, so here we go:

You'd think someone would have explained to Aduro that they would need to rip his wings off. You might want to throw in a sentence or two where a couple of changelings pull on the chains until the wings get ripped away, and/or mention that he starts bleeding from the stumps, just to hammer home that this was a rather painful thing for him. It would also make passing out seem more justified.
One other thing:

Queen Chrysalis watched as Cerberus, the three-headed guard-dog patrolled the tunnel leading into Tartarus. She smiled to herself as she transformed into the spitting image of Princess Celestia. The fake Celestia stepped from her hiding place in a small cluster of trees and called out to Cerberus in a perfect imitation Chrysalis had perfected by hiding in the crowd at one of Celestia's many speeches.

I would recommend removing "perfect" from the above paragraph, so it doesn't seem like you're repeating the word.

[Emperor]

And that's the background story to Cerberus leaving his post and Tirek getting free.

An interesting start I guess, but one flaw (which is present in a lot of written literature, is how each character speaks and even thinks in such a way as to not present any vital exposition, in this case about Aduro's abilities, delaying the moment of truth for the next chapter, or the chapter after that. Perhaps Chrysalis' thoughts about some of the other legends passed down amongst Changeling-kind on the denizens of Tartarus would do for good background filler?