Snared
Twilight groaned as she forced her eyelids open. The world around her was fuzzy and blurred. Blinking didn’t do anything to help matters and only seemed to make her vision more obscured. Not to mention everything was abysmally dim, which didn’t help matters. Putting a hoof to her temple and rubbing, Twilight sat up.
“Ah, good. It seems the last of my honored guests has finally woken up.”
Twilight’s ears flicked as a scaly voice hit her ears. She blinked, trying to pinpoint the source of the odd sound.
“Twilight!” A green blob appeared in her sights and Twilight felt a pair of hooves lift her into a standing position.
“Lyra?” Twilight mumbled. Shapes finally began to form for her as her vision regained its clarity. However, she still had to rely on voices to know who was talking.
The Lyra blob wiped what appeared to be her brow. “Oh thank Celestia, you’re okay!”
“She’s awake?” Spike’s voice.
“Looks like it.” Shining’s.
“That’s a relief. Twilight, can you hear us?” That one was Cadance’s.
Finally, Twilight’s vision managed to rectify itself. Everypony was crowded around her, worried looks being the standard among them. The one outlier was Nightmare Moon, who just looked grumpy. Whether if that was because Twilight was still alive or for something else, she had no idea.
“I can hear you,” Twilight murmured. She was about to say more, but felt a sharp pain explode in the back of her head. Wincing, Twilight rubbed her temple, recalling the blow it had taken before she was knocked out. “Ergh, what happened?”
“Well, there's bad news, worse news, horrible news, and a little good news,” Vinyl told her. “Which do ya want first?”
Twilight blinked slowly, the ache in her skull too great to craft an appropriate response. “Bad,” she grunted out, going with the option that matched her mood.
“Kay, well in that case… they beat us.” Vinyl forced a smile, as if it would make the news easier to swallow. “Pretty badly, actually.”
Twilight looked to Shining Armor, hoping he would say otherwise. In doing so, she noticed that he’d been stripped of his armor, and that his usual white coat was adorned with purple bruises. He nodded glumly.
Twilight cringed. She remembered chasing down the mysterious shape shifter, only to be ambushed by a swarm of them. She clenched her teeth, angry with herself for falling for their trap. She clenched her jaw and looked up to her brother. “Okay… what’s the worse news?”
“They nullified our magic,” Shining said simply.
Twilight blinked, now taking note of Shining’s horn, which seemed to be covered with some sort of green gel. Upon further inspection, Cadance, Lyra and Vinyl all had the same gel coating their horns. The only one who seemed exempt from this was Nightmare Moon, probably due to the fact that she already had three inhibitor rings in place.
Not wanting to believe that her magic was gone, Twilight immediately tried to cast a spell. Big mistake.
The pain already stabbing her head burst into a migraine as she backpedalled. It was like a hundred explosions all at once and she cut off her magic a second later. “Ah!”
“Told ya.”
Twilight cringed and rubbed her head harder. The pain was slow to fade. “So what’s the good news?”
“We’re all still alive!” Derpy exclaimed.
“That…” Twilight brought her hoof down. “Yeah, that is good news.”
“I take it I’m the horrible news then?”
Twilight blinked, hearing the same scaly voice again. She turned around to face it, her pupils becoming pinpricks when she saw the creature responsible for it.
It looked like an overgrown version of the bug ponies from before: carapace, insect-like wings, holed legs. However, it towered over the others at a height that was comparable to Celestia. That wasn’t the only difference either; while the other bug ponies were bald, this one had a long, sickly green mane and tail, giving it an almost feminine appearance. Not only that, but its eyes actually had pupils, an irregularity, as far as Twilight could tell, among the shapeshifters.
It was clear that the one they were looking at was special compared to the rest. Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight saw that the shape shifters all around the room were bowing in reverence toward her. Clearly the creature before her was some sort of ruler to them. The head bug pony.
Twilight bit her lip, stood up straighter and looked the creature in the eye. “I guess you are.”
“You’re good at guessing, then, Smart Mare.” Vinyl clapped her on the back.
The head bug pony stepped toward them. All around her the shape shifters reared up, ready to attack any of them if they dared to try anything. Fortunately, Twilight could tell that nopony was feeling very daring.
“Now then, Smart Mare, was it?” it asked.
Twilight blinked. “Uh, actually my name is—”
“I’m sure you’re dying to know where you are.” A menacing grin appeared on its face.
Even through her persisting headache, her tracking spell pinged in the back of her mind. “Twenty miles east and five hundred feet below the Tree of Harmony,” she muttered unconsciously.
The head bug pony raised its eyebrow, face squinching into confusion. “What?”
“Uh… nothing…”
The creature before her narrowed its eyes in annoyance. “Right. Well, you fortunate souls were lucky enough to stumble upon the lair of Chrysalis, Queen of the changelings!” She cackled in delight.
The head bug pony—or, Chrysalis as she probably preferred—continued her laughing, while Twilight took inventory of what she’d just learned. One, they were underground. Two, the bug ponies weren’t actually bug ponies but instead changelings. Three, Twilight had no idea what a changeling was.
“Well, we didn’t really stumble here,” Vinyl interrupted Chrysalis’ laughing fit. The Queen halted her chuckles to fix Vinyl with an icy glare. “You kinda ambushed us and then brought us here against our will.”
“And I wouldn’t exactly call this ‘lucky’,” Octavia threw in.
Nightmare Moon gave her a glance over. “And you don’t look like royalty to me.”
Chrysalis’ eyelid twitched. “Well you did, this is, and I am. Now shut up, all of you!”
“What exactly do you want from us?” Cadance asked in blatant defiance of the order.
Instead of getting angry, Chrysalis turned up the corners of her mouth in a wicked grin, displaying her fangs for all to see. She strode over to Cadance, keeping the smirk all the while. “How appropriate that you’re the one to ask.”
Cadance tilted her head back. “Uh…”
Shining stepped in between the two, face set in a hard look. “Back. Off.”
Chrysalis threw her head back and cackled. “Oh, this is cute. What are you, her little coltfriend?”
“I’m her guard,” Shining replied simply.
Chrysalis raised her eyebrow. “Really, just a guard? Because by the way she… eh, nevermind.” In the blink of an eye, Chrysalis’ long, crooked horn ignited. A split second was all it took to envelope Shining in a green aura and fling him off to the side. He slammed into the nearest wall with a thud and a grunt.
Everypony around Twilight gasped while she ground her teeth together. She took a step forward, not quite sure what she was going to do to Chrysalis, just that it would be painful and satisfying. Before she could even get close, however, two of the changelings surrounding them blocked her path. Judging from their bared teeth and angry looks, they wouldn’t take kindly to any more movement.
While her anger didn’t dissipate, Twilight’s logic took over and told her the best course of action would be to stop. She looked over at her brother again, noting that he was getting back up and relief flooded her.
“Shining!” Cadance lurched toward him, but found herself wrapped tightly in Chrysalis’ magic.
“Oh please, Princess,” Chrysalis hissed, turning Cadance back to face her. “Focus on what’s really important here, why don’t you?”
Cadance swallowed as she was held close. Chrysalis’ eyes flicked up and down, examining her captive. Drops of sweat rolled down Cadance’s forehead as Chrysalis stretched her grin further.
“So, since you asked so nicely before, I’ll tell you, but do forgive me if I’m not nearly as polite.” She turned to the group. “I take it none of you are very familiar with changelings, right, Smart Mare?”
“No…” Twilight admitted. “And my name isn’t—”
“Well, allow me to enlighten you.” Chrysalis indicated the mass of changelings surrounding them. “Our species doesn’t eat food like you ponies. Our diet is much more…” Her eyes sliced towards Cadance. “...emotional.”
Blinks and glances of confusion were shared among Twilight acquaintances.
“So you guys just eat ice cream, then?” Vinyl asked.
Chrysalis blinked, eye brow arching in confusion. “What?”
“Well that’s what Tavi eats whenever she gets really emotional, so I just thought—”
“Vinyl!” Octavia whacked her on the back of the head.
“Ah! Geeze, sorry.”
Chrysalis narrowed her eyes, but let the moment pass without further comment. “Uh… anyways, we changelings don’t eat ice cream, or any solid foods for that matter. Our diet consists solely of love.”
Cadance’s eyes widened and Chrysalis laughed. “Yes, now the puzzle pieces click together.”
“So you attacked us… just to get to me?” she asked, guilt wrapping her tone.
“But of course. A love like yours is not one I’d ever let slip through my grasp. At first I considered an elaborate ruse to pull the wool over all your eyes, gain your trust only to eventually use it against you to bring about your downfall.” She twirled her hoof dismissively. “But then I realized that I was hungry now, so I sent my changelings on a simple capture and retrieve mission. All in all I feel it was much more effective.”
Cadance gulped. “I… guess so?”
Twilight was intrigued, but at the same time flooded with concern. While a species adapting to feed off of emotions was fascinating, it was overshadowed by the fact that Cadance was the literal embodiment of love. Her existence was the equivalent of an all-you-can-eat buffet… and that probably meant that the rest of them were expendable.
As Chrysalis licked her lips at Cadance, the gears in Twilight’s head started spinning doubletime. Shining was down, their magic was gone, Cadance was trapped, and they were all surrounded. Okay, no big deal, I’ve gotten out of worse situations… maybe. If by ‘worse situations’ she meant facing Nightmare Moon and by ‘gotten out of’ she meant getting saved by Princess Celestia, then yes, she had.
She was breathing heavily, but avoided letting that distract her. Just think, Twilight. There has to be a way out of this. Maybe I can… um… uh…
“Twilight, are you okay?” Spike tugged at her leg, snapping her out of the thought-trance she’d thrown herself into.
“Not really,” she shakily responded.
“Don’t worry, we’ll—Urgh!” Spike put his claws to his lips, cheeks bulging.
“Spike?” Twilight knew that pose.
“Is he okay?” Bon Bon asked.
Before Twilight could respond, Spike let loose a belch. A sliver of fire spewed out, rolled up and with a pop of magic deposited a scroll bearing the royal seal on the ground. The whole display managed to earn an eyebrow raise from Queen Chrysalis.
“What is that?” she asked, pointing to the paper.
Twilight cringed. Of all the times to send a letter, why now, Princess?
It was probably important, that’s why. Twilight dove forward, not wanting the Princess’ message to fall into the hooves of the changeling queen before her.
“Nothing!” she cried, much too shrilly. She cleared her throat, trying again, “nothing.”
Chrysalis regarded her for a moment, turning up her head in curiosity. She stretched out her hoof. “Give it to me.”
Twilight shook her head defiantly. Curling her lip in displeasure, Chrysalis’ magic flashed. The aura around Cadance constricted, all but crushing her.
“Ah!” Cadance cried.
Twilight winced, clutching the letter closer to her body. Chrysalis extended her hoof all the way now, her demand clear. The urgency of the situation pressed down on Twilight. Either she could give up whatever it was that the Princess had just sent her, or she could allow Cadance to be tortured further and then lose the letter.
She swallowed, her choice made. Bringing her hooves away from her chest, she revealed the parchment Spike had just belched up. Chrysalis’ magic immediately swiped it away, but she still held Cadance in place as she looked it over.
“So this is some sort of note,” she murmured, eyes falling upon the royal seal.
Twilight pressed her lips together, not wanting to respond.
Chrysalis looked up at her. “And it appeared when your lizard... burped?”
“Dragon,” Spike coughed into his fist.
Chrysalis looked from the letter to them. “And this sort of thing is… normal for you?”
“Uh… yeah, I guess so,” Twilight admitted.
Shooting the letter one last glance, Chrysalis merely shrugged. “Well then I doubt this one is of any importance.”
With her magic, Chrysalis ignited the parchment and dropped it to the ground. Twilight yelped as she watched Celestia’s note be devoured by flames, forever taking away whatever the Princess had been trying to tell her.
“Now that that’s out of the way—” Chrysalis turned to a few of the nearest changelings. “—You three, take this one down to the main hall and restrain her. We shall begin the feast as soon as I wrap things up here.”
Three identical “Yes, my Queen”s followed her order. The changelings gathered around Cadance just as Chrysalis snapped her magic off. Cadance fell to the ground, thrashing about and screaming. The changelings struggled to keep her in line, but slowly pushed her toward the tunnel Chrysalis had indicated.
Twilight felt tension rise up in her body. It wasn’t just her either; all of her acquaintances were fuming, but knew they were unable to do anything.
Shining stood up on the other side of the room, glaring angrily at Chrysalis. As Cadance continued struggling against the changelings who were forcing her toward an exit—a tunnel that seemed to lead deeper underground—he moved toward them.
“You're not done with me yet!” he yelled at the changelings.
Chrysalis scoffed, barely glancing at him as she wrapped him in a veil of her magic, freezing Shining in mid-air “As I told you before, ‘eh, nevermind’.”
The magic around Shining slammed him into the ground, sending up chunks of dirt. “Urgh!”
Twilight gasped, relaxing only when she saw her brother twitch a little. Changelings surrounded him, preventing him from getting up to save Cadance, who was disappearing down the tunnel.
It took quite a lot to get Twilight to snap, but watching her brother get beaten, Cadance being taken away, and the lives of Spike and all her acquaintances threatened just about did it for her.
“Enough!” She charged forward, thinking through her plan about as well as Shining had.
Chrysalis narrowed her eyes and with a spark of magic threw Twilight back. Derpy and Lyra caught her, but her saddlebags were knocked free, spilling their glittering contents all over the floor. They were eye-catching enough for the changeling queen, who curiously walked forward.
Twilight groaned as she recovered, but she quickly caught sight of Chrysalis taking hold of the Elements in her magic. She held her breath as the changeling queen inspected them.
“My, my, my, what are these?” she asked.
“N-nothing,” Twilight said, her stomach tightening. She felt Lyra grip her foreleg a little and honestly couldn’t blame her. In her mind, she was practically screaming. No no no no no no no NO NO NO NO NO NO!
Chrysalis bobbed the Elements of Harmony up and down playfully, smiling at them. “Well, they’re rather pretty for a bunch of nothings, aren’t they?” She brought the Element of Magic up, setting the tiara on her head. “Hmm, not a bad fit either.”
“It looks better on me,” Derpy grumbled. Twilight couldn’t argue that.
“Well, thank you for the jewelry, Smart Mare.” Chrysalis started hooking a few of the Elements onto her neck. “I don’t normally get dressed up for a meal, but I suppose the occasion calls for it.”
Twilight wanted to hit her head against the wall in frustration. Things had gone from bad to horrible in just a few short minutes.
“Now then.” Chrysalis looked to them. “The question becomes what to do with all of you.”
“You should probably kill them all, just to be thorough,” Nightmare suggested. “But not the one who makes the muffins. Or the spiky-haired one, I need her to show me the clubs of night. …And I suppose I could find a use for the pegasus. And perhaps the lyre-player as well…”
Chrysalis grunted. She glared down Nightmare Moon with disdain riddling her face. “I’m not exactly here to do your bidding, you know.”
Nightmare rolled her eyes. “Well you would be, if you had any sense.”
“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” Twilight hissed at her. Their situation was bad enough already. Dumping gasoline on the fire wouldn’t exactly help.
“Yes, listen to Smart Mare and hold your tongue,” Chrysalis declared. She walked over to them, surveying each with great care. When she reached Twilight, she paused and stared at her with a more focused intensity than the rest. Eventually she smirked, satisfied. “Take them to the dungeon. They may not compare to the pink one, but they each have a fair amount of love in them.”
Nightmare Moon scoffed. “I have no love in me.”
Chrysalis raised her eyebrow and walked a little closer to her, putting a hoof on the dark alicorn’s chest. “You can’t lie about your feelings to someone who can feel them. It may be buried deep in your heart, but even you have love in you.”
Nightmare scowled.
“My Queen,” one of the changelings near Shining called out. She turned her head. “What about this one?”
“Him too,” she said, stepping away from Nightmare Moon. “Bring them all to the dungeon and make sure they’re guarded. If they give you any trouble, don’t hesitate to use force.”
They all saluted her and Chrysalis walked out of the room, the Elements of Harmony jingling against each other as they bounced loosely on her neck and forelegs.
“You won’t get away with this!” Twilight called out to her as the changelings started pushing them towards a new tunnel.
Chrysalis looked back, giving her a sideways grin. “Good to know. Enjoy being prisoners.” With a final cackle, she left. Leaving Twilight to grind her teeth together with worry. She looked to her acquaintances, each bearing open mouths of shock and sending worried glances her way.
“It’s okay, I can figure a way out of this,” she told them in an attempt to be reassuring. …I hope.
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Oh, Twilight, you idiot. If you'd just been friends, you could have avoided this.
Release Nightmare, she's the easiest to free magic, get Bon Bon to then bribe her with muffins and she'll be good.
Solution: Start giving things to Spike.
Let's see:
-The group is battered up after losing a battle against Chrysalis and the changelings.
-The Tree of Harmony is far away. And the group is underground and have no idea where the hive's exit is.
-Letter from Princess Celestia is destroyed.
-Chrysalis has the Elements of Harmony. And the Element of Honesty is still not active.
-Time is running out, and if Twilight and her group does not accomplish her mission soon, then all is lost.
My response:
iambrony.steeph.tp-radio.de/mlp/gif/130820030645.gif
Oh man, Nightmare is going to be mad when she is released
6898577 She has been friends with them. She just hasn't admitted she's friends with them. As she's the bearer of honesty in this fic...
6899143
Yep ... if only she were more honest.
Good to see some love still dwells in Shinning's heart--let's just hope he can come to terms with it before it's too late...
...then coming to terms with how you feel about another doesn't seem to run in the family...
"her sights and Twilight"
"sights, and"?
"of the Shining’s horn"
Ought that "the" to be there?
Another enjoyable chapter. Good job.
So it seems.
Ok...
Drat.
Double drat.
Probably.
Underground huh?
Eh?
Huh?
Yep.
Useless to you though.
Good luck.
Chrysalis is idiot. Again. Destroying random message from royalty sended to your enemys without reading it, because they sayed it's nothing important, when even childs knows that enemys usually lie to you. I always imagined Chrysalis as more smart that such.
6898996
Let's add to that, shall we?
-There are cracks forming in Discord's prison.
-And that's a whole new can of worms.
Aw, Chryssie, eat a Snickers.
(But seriously, she's almost as funny as Nightmare Moon.)
No wonder she's so awful at scheming.
Awwwwwwwwwwww.
I kind of ship Nightmare and Chrysalis now.
6899598 I'm aware. Making him a bass player was really more of a little joke, because of course Octavia would have problems with a pony named Treble Clef playing a bass.
6900212 She knew it was important to Twilight, which is why she destroyed it.
I really like how nonchalant Chrysalis is with all the chaos and randomness that seems to spawn in the presence of the bearers. I'm honestly surprised NMM didn't try a Vader gambit and try to ally herself with Chrysalis; must be her pride getting in the way or the fact that Chrysalis hasn't shown any further ambitions yet that she doesn't already possess.
6899425
Remember his sister is there too.
6898996
There's actually a fairly obvious solution.
Nightmare Moon isn't wearing changeling-ooze inhibitors. She's wearing pony-made inhibitor rings. They could be removed.
6904847
Uh, sorry?
It certainly isn't going to be Twilight that figures a way to get them all out.
Honestly, I think Twilight is a little too Canon Sue so seeing a story where she continually screws stuff up and others save her bacon is always good fun.
6906039 it's all right.
Just having fun with myself.
6925080
Well, I finally got around to reading this after the disappointment of last chapter and it was stupid as expected. There is no way to justify Chrysalis burning that letter without reading it first, and none of the ponies including Twilight seemed the least bit curious to learn anything about the changelings which is just bizarre.
Hahahahaha, awesomeness man, awesomeness! :D
Nice job, nice job!
6926605 1) why should crysalis give a shit, it's obvious this version of her has no idea about anything beyond her own race, and its not like some random letter is gonna give her some BRILLIANT idea. Also, crysalis is kinda stupid canonically anyway. 2) they are not in a posotion to be asking their captors any questions beyond what Crysalis has already told them, or do you not understand what being a prisoner of a dangerous individual means?
6901093 Nightmare Moon isn't gonna ally with anyone, she wants power for ehrself, and beleives she doesn't need anyone for anything, its part of why she went evil in the first place.
I think Nightmare Moon is my favorite character in this entire story. she's awesome!
On Chrysalis burning the letter, as much as I could see her doing it, I would expect her to read it first. Now obviously, that would complicate matters since she might then be tempted to let them go to deal with Discord. So, if you want the letter destroyed to avoid your story going that way, it might make more sense for it to tear to pieces in a struggle to get it away from Twilight.
Scaly isn't really a word that applies to voices.
7239685
I would expect her to infiltrate Canterlot without announcing that there was an attack planned. Then I would expect her to have her army infiltrate Canterlot in disguise, rather than staying outside undisguised and hitting themselves against the shield like a fly trying to get through a window. Then, I would expect her to not reveal her nefariously evil plan the moment she finally broke Twilight and won over her trust. The list goes on... Chrysalis has always been a blaring moron.