Chapter 4
“What exactly happened?” Twilight asked Icewing desperately as they galloped up to the castle gate.
“They snuck up from the deep cells and caught us by surprise,” he growled. “By the time we even realized they were there, they had already captured the Princesses and Ms. Sparkle’s parents. Once we discovered them, we fought back, but only succeeded in slaying a few of the invaders before they managed to get down into the dungeons and threatened to kill the captives if we didn’t back off.”
“Did you?” Twilight asked worriedly.
“I didn’t see any other choice. I called my troops back and told them to keep the intruders trapped down there, but the Bearers ignored my orders and went in anyway... We haven’t heard from them since.”
“No!” Twilight gasped, stopping in mid step.
“Now, Twilight — or the possessing spirit, rather — wants to see you. She said she’s going to begin executing the hostages if we don’t turn you over, starting with Princess Celestia,” Icewing mumbled apologetically.
“This... can’t get much worse, can it?” Twilight groaned, receiving only a shake of Icewing’s head in reply.
“Listen, Queenie, I’ve come to respect you over the past couple days, so I hate to do this,” Icewing muttered to her with a pained glare, “but you’re going in there. I’m not giving you a choice; you are going to go in there, and do whatever you need to do to get me back my Princesses.”
“I was going in anyway, even if you tried to stop me,” Twilight muttered, eying him angrily. “This has to end, and it has to end now. Before anypony else gets hurt.”
“I’m glad,” he replied. “I’ll have a team escort you the dungeons, but after that, you’re on your own. If I were to guess, they’d have taken the hostages down to the lowest level, where you were imprisoned when we first found you.”
“Can you at least take this off?” Twilight murmured, pointing to the magic ward on her head. ‘If they start throwing spells, we’ll all be in trouble if I can’t defend myself.”
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Icewing muttered, reaching up and slipping it off her horn.
The effect was immediate as Twilight felt her magic rushing back into her, energizing her in a way she hadn’t felt in almost a week. “Thank you. I... There’s a good chance we won’t see each other again, so I guess this is goodbye.”
“Goodbye, changeling. I appreciate everything you’ve done for us,” he murmured, offering his hoof, which she took gratefully. “Good luck in there, and heaven help us all.”
Four Royal Guards surrounded her and began herding her towards the castle. The five of them silently walked the halls to the dungeon with the air of a procession heading to the gallows. As they descended deeper and deeper below the castle, signs of fighting became more and more common; smears of blood— both red and green— and eventually, changeling corpses. Finally, they reached the dungeons and the guards stopped, so Twilight proceeded on her own.
Slowly, she descended the staircase, emerging in a hallway of cells and proceeded towards the door at the far end— the door to the deep cells. As she trode through the silence, more changeling corpses appeared out of the darkness. She passed them quickly, making a conscious effort not to look, but the sound of a soft sob froze her where she stood. She swooped down to inspect the bodies and found one trembling.
“37-22? Oh, no, are you okay?” The drone flinched at her voice Twilight’s heart leapt into her throat as she looked her over. One of the small changeling’s eyes was swollen nearly shut and she was covered in green blood, though Twilight couldn’t tell if it was hers or not. Twilight looked closer at the corpses she lay next to; these ones weren’t the soldiers that had followed Chrysalis, they were the ones Twilight had left at the castle. “What happened?”
“W-we tried to help,” the drone sniffled. “We followed queen’s friends, but old queen hurt us. S-she killed them. She killed my sisters!”
Twilight tried to speak, but couldn’t. Instead, she knelt down and hugged the drone to her chest, allowing her to cry for a few minutes. “I-I have to stop her. She’s gone too far.”
“I-I want to help,” 37-22 mumbled into Twilight’s chest.
“No. I... I have to do this alone,” Twilight murmured. She smiled sadly down at the drone — her done. “You already helped. You helped a lot. Now I have to finish what we started.” She stood up and stroked 37-22’s cheek tenderly. “Wait here. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Twilight steeled herself with one last deep breath, turned around, and descended the final staircase.
“Oh, finally! I thought I might actually get blood on my hooves,” Twilight heard her own voice grumble as she emerged from the stairway. She quickly took stock of the situation. Her friends and parents were huddled together in the far corner, surrounded by seven sword-wielding changelings. They seemed mostly unhurt but for Applejack and Rainbow Dash, both of whom were bloodied and beaten. Celestia and Luna lay on their sides in the opposite corner beneath a pony-sized hole in the wall with Chrysalis standing over them. “Oh well, there’s always later...”
Twilight ignored Chrysalis’ morbid quip and stared intently at her friends. “Is everypony okay?”
“Y-yeah, we’re all here,” Rainbow stammered through swollen lips. “I’m sorry, Twilight. We tried.”
“I know, Rainbow. You always do,” Twilight cooed nervously.
“S-she was too strong. We tried to fight, but she just blasted us. Then she had us beat up.”
“J-just rest, Dash. Everything’s going to be alright,” Twilight said. “I’ll make sure of it, I promise.”
"Don't make promises you can't keep, Twilight," Chrysalis sang gleefully. Twilight short her a loathing glare and she giggled. "I am ready to accept your unconditional surrender, Twilight."
"Fine, I surrender. Just let them go," Twilight pleaded hopelessly.
"Just let them- I said 'unconditional', Twilight! This 'playing hard to get' was fun and endearing at first, but I am running out of patience. I have won and I want my prize," Chrysalis growled, advancing on Twilight.
"I'll be your prize! Just please, let them go and I'll do whatever you want! I swear-"
"No! No more bargaining! Either you surrender right now or I'll-" Chrysalis screamed before cutting herself off. She took a deep breath and chuckled, shaking her head. "I am sorry, love, I shouldn't have shouted at you. I knew that you would never give up so easily, and yet I still allowed my frustrations to get to me."
"I will simply have to break you the way I should have from the start," she snickered, gesturing to Twilight's friends. “So, tell me, which one do you think will scream loudest? The dragon passed out before it could even yelp. Hardly satisfying.”
“No, Spike! What happened to him? What did you do?” Twilight choked.
“Whatever do you mean?” Chrysalis murmured, fluttering her eyelashes innocently.
“Don’t you play dumb with me! He wasn’t in Ponyville and he isn’t here,” Twilight screamed, taking an aggressive step forward. “Where is he?”
Chrysalis grinned sadistically. “I never wanted to involve him, you know. I’ve always had immense respect for dragons and their power, even the soft, pathetic ones.”
Twilight was on the verge of losing it. She stomped forward again. “What did you do to him? Where is he?”
“I’m not entirely sure, to be honest,” Chrysalis sighed. “His head is buried behind your library, but I can’t account for the res—”
Chrysalis was cut off as Twilight barreled into her with a feral scream, driving her back into the far wall, which collapsed behind them. They tumbled down a steep slope for a ways before Twilight crashed to the bottom in a heap while Chrysalis teleported just before the collision and landed softly on her feet.
“Oh... This. Is. Wonderful!” Chrysalis squealed.
“I’m going to kill you!” Twilight screeched, lunging at her and missing as Chrysalis deftly ducked to the side.
“You are in so much pain right now,” Chrysalis murmured with a pleasured moan. “Ohhhh, the only way this could be better is if I was in my own body so I could taste it for myself.”
Twilight snarled and shot a powerful rage-fueled bolt of lightning at her that Chrysalis easily ducked under. She blinked at the flames that erupted from behind her and turned back to Twilight with a twisted grin.
“Oh! You are really mad. I should’ve thought of killing your loved ones sooner!”
She teleported a short distance to avoid another bolt of lightning and galloped down a nearby tunnel, giggling the entire time. “Chase me, Twilight!”
Seeing red, Twilight stormed down the dark passage after her. She followed it for nearly twenty meters before it opened up into the crystal caves beneath the mountain. Twilight’s face appeared in over a dozen of the nearby crystals as Chrysalis laughed; reveling in the fact that Twilight would challenge her here yet again. Twilight had shattered the three closest crystals with magical blasts when Chrysalis stepped out from behind one of the remaining pillars, giving her a smug grin before teleporting away.
“I’m going to spare your friends, Twilight,” a voice called from somewhere to her left. She turned and ran after it, scanning every corner for her quarry. “If I kill any of them then I run the risk of the Elements picking new bearers. It’ll be much safer to keep them alive. Imprisoned. Down here.”
Twilight fired a few blasts into the darkness and screamed in frustration. Suddenly a dim glow lit the area and Twilight found herself in a massive chamber with crystals of nearly every size and color jutting like teeth from nearly every surface.
“Ahh... This is where we will play out little game, Sparkle. Catch me if you can!” Chrysalis’ voice echoed through the chamber. “Just like we did before, when I was masquerading as Cadance. Oh, Cadance... Such a gorgeous creature. It's a shame, but she will have to die. She and your brother. They're just too dangerous to be allowed to live."
Trembling with rage, Twilight shot a beam in the direction of the voice, shattering a nearby crystal, only for a laugh to echo from the opposite direction. "Come out you wretch!" she screamed, blasting apart four more crystals.
"I plan on showing your parents mercy; after all, I have them to thank for providing me with you. I'll keep them around long enough to watch what becomes of you before I banish them to opposite ends of the world."
Twilight snarled and took off into the air, wobbling as she tried to stabilize herself.
"Flying? Oh, that's cheating. Too bad that it won't work."
Twilight hovered near the cavern's ceiling, watching like a hawk for even the slightest movement. A shadow shifted at the edge of her vision and she turned and fired, only to hear a taunting laugh from somewhere behind her. "Where are you, Chrysalis?"
A violet light flashed below her. "Right here!"
It flashed again somewhere in the distance. "And now I'm here!" Chrysalis giggled.
Twilight snarled in frustration and fired a few shots randomly into the darkness and waivered as her head began to spin. Somehow, she was running out of magic. Chrysalis appeared perched upon a nearby crystal and Twilight spun in the air to shoot her, but instead her horn only sparked and sputtered.
“Oh dear! Been forgetting to feed, have we?” Chrysalis cackled. “You know, I can see the advantage of being a pony; generating your own magic. I think I prefer just sapping love from others though, power comes much easier that way.”
Pulling from her reserves deep inside of her, Twilight managed to fire off another blast of lightning, but she wasn’t quick enough. Chrysalis teleported away with a laugh. Twilight groaned painfully; in her anger, she had been putting far too much force behind her spells and had used up far too much magic. If she didn’t start being more careful...
A flash of magic appeared just above her head; she reflexively shot a blast at it and had just enough time to realize her mistake and cast a shielding spell before the section of rock above her collapsed, throwing her to the floor.
"You should be more careful with my body, Twilight. Then again, you'll be the one inhabiting it for the next couple years, so I'm not that worried."
Twilight sat up with a groan and blinked the dust out of her eyes to see Chrysalis grinning at her from a few yards away. She released a quick charge at the Queen's head, but Chrysalis had already teleported away.
She struggled to her hooves and glared around suspiciously, fully aware that her foe was watching her from some hidden space.
"I don't think I'll kill Princess Luna," a voice whispered in her ear. She twisted around and slashed at it with her horn, but Chrysalis deftly swooped under her blow and ducked into a thin crevasse between two crystals. "The way her nose scrunches when she gets angry is just too adorable! I might simply saw off her horn, break her wings, and throw a dog collar around her neck. Keep her chained to my throne."
With a scream, Twilight blasted the crystals blocking her way and charged down the passage she created into another clearing.
"Celestia though... Oh, she's a much different story."
"You shut up!" Twilight grunted, halfway between sobbing and shouting.
"Poor Celly looks like she's put on a little weight. Too much left-over wedding cake, maybe? That's okay though; I like them plump."
A dim violet glow caught Twilight's eye and she bolted in its direction. Following it through a narrow gap, she found herself in a circle of crystals, each one displaying a magnified image of her own face.
"The skinny ones are all bone and sinew; hardly worth the time it takes to cook them."
Despite her best efforts, Twilight was unable to prevent the gruesome image of her mentor's charred corpse from entering her thoughts and something on her mind snapped. A nebulous orb of energy exploded from her horn, violently shattering everything it came in contact with and blowing the crystal circle apart. Chrysalis' dumbfounded face surrounded Twilight momentarily, reflected in a hundred crystal shards, before everything was blown backwards by the shockwave.
Twilight crouched to leap onto her foe, but found herself unable. Alarms were going off in her mind as a torrent of Chrysalis' emotions flooded into her mind, paralyzing her. She stumbled, staggering around as she attempted to ward off the unwelcome intrusion. As her vision blurred, she saw Chrysalis sit up, eyes wide with shock.
Chrysalis stared down at the gashes on Twilight's body. She touched her head with a hoof and gaped at it, blinking incredulously at the sight of blood.
“Y-you hurt me... But why? I thought you loved me,” Chrysalis said quietly.
“Love you? Chrysalis, I hate you,” Twilight growled, trying to stabilize her own thoughts.
“N-no, that can’t be right,” Chrysalis moaned. “You think about me all the time, just like I think about you. That spell, you were trying to find me-”
“So that we could arrest you! If everything had gone right, you’d be locked in a cell right now and I’d never have to think about you again,” Twilight glowered.
“You’re lying!” Chrysalis screamed, tears beginning to run down her face. “You want me.”
“You’re delusional, Chrysalis!” Twilight screeched. “All I wanted was for you to leave me and Equestria alone. I wanted to feel safe. I wanted my friends and family to feel safe. Nothing would have made me happier than if you had just crawled back into your hole and never bothered anypony ever again.”
“B-but I’ve given you everything I could think of! I gave you my attention, my affection-”
Twilight stomped a hoof as an uncontrolled spark shot from her horn. “You tortured me and killed my little brother! You call that affection?”
“Yes! I was sharing myself with you. I thought you were enjoying it!” Chrysalis whined.
“Why would I enjoy that? What could possibly make you think that I’d want any of that?” Twilight snarled.
“But I was enjoying it... Why weren’t you? I don’t understand! Twilight, please, make me understand!” Chrysalis cried, the volume of her voice steadily rising. “Why won’t you love me?
“Because you’re a monster!”
Chrysalis immediately stopped crying as Twilight’s voice echoed throughout the otherwise silent cave. Horrified, despaired, disbelieving; Chrysalis simply sat staring blankly at Twilight and twitched. Twilight couldn’t help but grin. The feelings of heartbreak emanating from Chrysalis awoke something primal deep inside of her and she stepped forward menacingly, gleefully intending to wound the queen even deeper.
“I will never feel anything but loathing for you, Chrysalis,” she said softly. “All I want is to see you pay for what you’ve done. To see you suffer the way I have.”
Chrysalis hung her head, shaking with sobs. “N-no. No, I will not accept this.” She stood up and shot Twilight an enraged glare, her tears still shimmering in her eyes. “I am Chrysalis, greatest of all changeling queens, and I will not be refused my desire. If you will not love me by choice, then I will force you to love me.”
Trembling with rage, she stepped forward menacingly and leered at Twilight.. “Let me show you how it’s done...”
She teleported away, disappearing altogether. Within seconds the pieces of shattered crystal littering the floor were surrounded by a violet glow and slowly floated into the air. They coalesced in the center of the room and with a blinding flash, fused into one massive crystal pillar. Chrysalis appeared on top of it and glared down at Twilight. “My turn.”
A bolt of crimson lightning shot down from Chrysalis’ horn and Twilight dove out of the way with not a moment to spare. She rolled to her hooves, eyes wide and heart racing as her senses were heightened by the sudden surge of adrenaline. She glanced over to the spot she had just been standing, gaped at the smoking black scorch mark, and had just enough time to construct a magic shield before Chrysalis cast another spell.
The second bolt hit her shield with the force of a freight train and shattered her shield, throwing her backwards. She rolled onto her hooves again and took off running, not a moment too soon as a third lightning spell struck the ground. She risked a glance behind her and saw Chrysalis unleashing a steady electrical arc, creating a shallow black trench in the ground as her spell followed Twilight.
She dove behind one of the larger intact crystals in the area, but Chrysalis’ spell caught her ankle at the last moment. She gasped and choked as a searing pain shot up her entire leg and sent her sprawling. The pain subsided almost immediately, and she sat up, back against the crystal, using it as a shield as she caught her breath. Chrysalis had been toying with her from the start. Now not only was Twilight exhausted and nearly out of magic, but Chrysalis was on the verge of a rampage.
She felt a dull heat on her back and bolted from her cover a mere instant before it exploded under Chrysalis’ dark spell. She tore across the floor, zigging and zagging desperately, bouncing from cover to cover. She took every last opportunity to catch her breath, but her shelter never lasted more than a few seconds under the enraged queen’s assault.
"I’m not just going to torture you, Twilight, I’m going to introduce you to a level of agony you didn’t know existed!”
Twilight lunged at a bounder on the floor and rebounded off of it, towards Chrysalis’ pillar, but skidded to a stop and took off to her left as the stream of lightning appeared in front of her. She dove past it, twisting her body around its beam and felt its heat singe her tail as Chrysalis sent it after her.
"I’m personally going to make you suffer day in and day out for years. I’ll make you suffer until you learn to like it!”
Twilight could feel the curse gaining on her and teleported a few hooves away, using up more of her precious magical reserves. Thirty more seconds. That’s all she needed. If she could last thirty more seconds...
"But I won’t stop there. I’m going to keep torturing you, every day, and you’ll love me for it. You will beg on your knees for me to hurt you. You’ll grant my every wish, fulfill my every desire, just so I’ll bring the pain back. You'll be my perfect little slave. My own little pony."
Twilight swooped in a wide arc, dancing around the spell before stopping and turning, facing Chrysalis defiantly. The queen hesitated, stunned by Twilight's bravado and her spell crackled out. "Have you finally decided to end your pointless struggle?"
"No," Twilight sighed smugly, "I wanted to tell you that you're not the only one who's studied ancient magics. Look around you."
"What are you babbling on about?" Chrysalis hissed. She glanced in every direction and froze when her gaze hit the floor. The scorch marks on the floor, rather than being a haphazard mess, were etched into a series of geometric figures around her. Twilight had actually tricked her into carving a roughly-hewn glyph on the floor.
Chrysalis stared down at Twilight, eyes full of terror as the glyph began to glow green. "Checkmate, Chrysalis."
"Oh shi-"
The floor around the crystal pillar erupted upward, shattering it and violently flinging Chrysalis from her perch. She cast a bubble shield around her less than a second before she slammed into a nearby wall which collapsed under the impact. She rebounded off the wall and was thrown to the ground, bouncing several meters before roughly sliding to a stop on her back.
Twilight was upon her in an instant, pinning Chrysalis down with one hoof on her horn, another on her throat. Before she could say a word, Chrysalis began cackling madly. “Oh, that was brilliant, Twilight! I would have never thought of that. You really outsmarted me this time.”
Twilight choked off the rest of Chrysalis’ laughter by pressing down with her hoof. “Then why are you laughing? It’s over, Chrysalis; I beat you. Now either undo the Blood Bind, or I’ll do it myself!”
“Oh, Twilight, Twilight, Twilight... You won this little scuffle, but I still have my hostages! You may drag me back up to the castle and triumphantly deposit me in front of your loved ones, but it would be for naught. I ordered my soldiers to execute them in the event that you disable me. All of them,” Chrysalis cooed patronizingly. “Checkmate, Sparkle.”
“Y-you... but I-”
"You've lost, Twilight," Chrysalis snickered. "Now let me up; I'm already going to punish your friends for your transgressions and I'm going to make it worse for every second you hold me here."
"I... No," Twilight stammered.
"No? What do you mean no?" Chrysalis snarled. "Disobey me again and I'll make you watch as I flay your loved ones alive! No, I'll make you flay them! Now, let me up!"
"You're wrong. There's still one thing I can do; one last move I can make," Twilight whimpered.
"Oh just stop! You and I both know that there's nothing you can do," Chrysalis yelled.
“The Blood Bind uses the caster’s life energy to sustain itself. If there’s no life energy for it to draw from, then the princesses will be free,” Twilight mumbled, trembling at the thought of what she was about to do.
Chrysalis gaped at her for a moment, bewildered, before terror flashed across her features and she gave a disbelieving shout. "No! You wouldn't da-"
She was choked off as Twilight leaned heavily on her throat. Chrysalis thrashed beneath the weight, slapping at Twilight’s legs and swiping at her face. As she began to turn blue and her eyes bugged out of her head, she managed to get her horn out from under Twilight’s hoof. As Twilight gave one final forceful push, Chrysalis fired off one final, vengeful spell into her killer’s face just as her neck snapped.
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Well. I did not see that coming.. Jeeez this is awesome so far!
Mistake Alert!
“I can’t believe I’m going this,” Icewing muttered, reaching up and slipping it off her horn.
Shouldn't that be doing?
Can't Help but listen to the Imperial March when reading this.
OH SNAP!
... Too soon?
how this trainwreck got 150/10 ratio is beyond me. some fall of equestria stories are better written.
7118873 bro thus ain't a fall of equis story it is a hive reformation and forgiveness story
What the ,Fuck .holy shit .Jesus Fuck.oh sweet.honey.iced.tea .wow was not expecting that.but if RD dies I'm out
.rip spike or is he really dead well see.
Holy mother of all plot twists!
...wat
W H A T ? !
This raises a new question: If you kill yourself in someone elses body, is it homocide or suicide?
No plan? No backup? Nothing?
What did he exspected her to do in that compromised position?
I can't believe the royal guard wasn't dissolved already.
Why chysalis why? She's going to checkmated if she kept the pressure on. She has to ruin everything for her amusement.
Well, that's new.... yandere chysalis. I never known i needed this.
Basically torture.
8668733
She's a bug. So it might be pesticide