How to be Cruel

by Erisn

Chapter 10: Checkmate

“Who the hell are you?” Chrysalis said.

“What?” Fluttershy said, momentarily taken aback.

“I said, who in Tartarus’s name are you?” Chrysalis demanded, stepping forward angrily. “I’m not here to play games little pegasus. Call forth your leader, and I shall speak to her like equals. I’m not in the mood to talk to some two-bit lieutenant.”

“That’s me. Uh, I mean that I’m the leader.” Fluttershy said. She tried to stand taller, but she was painfully aware that the height difference between her and Chrysalis was…pronounced.

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Chrysalis snapped, “I don’t know what stupid game you’re playing, but I demand to speak to your true leader, not some no-name pegasus.”

“Wait, you mean you don’t recognize me?” Fluttershy said in disbelief.

Chrysalis hesitated. “Should I?” She peered closer at Fluttershy, narrowing her eyes.

“We have met before, you know.” Chrysalis still looked blank, so Fluttershy added, “at the wedding. You were the fake Cadence at the time.”

“I met a lot of ponies when I was pretending to be Cadence.” Chrysalis waved a hoof in dismissal. “I don’t particularly care about every pony I meet.” She turned away in disinterest.

“I think you might remember me. After all, I was one of the ponies who helped defeat you.”

Chrysalis’s head turned back so quickly that Fluttershy was amazed she didn’t pull something. “You were present during the attack on Canterlot?”

“Yep.”

“Not as a bystander, I mean. One of the ponies who fought back the changelings?”

“I was right next to Twilight the entire time. You may not have remembered at first, but I don’t think you can forget one of the ponies who stopped you from taking over Equestria.” Fluttershy drew herself up and looked Chrysalis in the eye. “My name is…Fluttershy.”

Chrysalis looked blank. Fluttershy coughed.

“Um, the pegasus from Ponyville that can talk to animals? One of the Elements of Harmony?”

Chrysalis still looked blank. Without taking her eyes of Fluttershy, she stepped back and kicked one of the changelings behind her.

“Does this ring a bell for anyone? Was there a Fluttershy in the Elements of Harmony?”

The changelings looked at one another in confusion. They muttered amongst themselves, but there seemed to be no definite agreement.

“Oh come on.” Chrysalis hissed, turning to glare over her shoulder. “You all fought the Elements of Harmony. Didn’t you see her on the battlefield?”

Changelings scratched their heads and started shifting into different shapes. Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, and extraordinarily terrifying Pinkie Pie, complete with serial-murderer smile, Rarity, Applejack…but no Fluttershy. At last, one of the changelings remembered and shifted into a passable version of Fluttershy, in her quintessential pose, i.e. huddling on the floor with both hooves over her head.

Chrysalis looked at the changeling in disbelief for a moment, then stared at Fluttershy, who blushed. She turned back to her changelings.

“Exactly how many changelings did this pegasus defeat in the battle?”

The changelings conferred, and came up with the answer: not more than two. Possibly one.

“I see.” Chrysalis said sardonically. She looked at Fluttershy, who turned a deeper shade of crimson. “I fail to see how this should impress me, Element of Harmony or not. If not even the changelings you fought can remember your face, were you all that much use to begin with? Another Element of Harmony might be a worthy adversary, but you? You’re no warrior. You’re not even a nuisance really.”

Disappointed, Chrysalis let her gaze stray over to the animal army. That was a waste of a good few minutes.

“Look at me Chrysalis, don’t turn away.”

“I don’t see why I should bother. What will you do, tremble at me?” Chrysalis yawned. Lazily, she began to study her hooves. Time to attack, she guessed. No point in delaying the inevitable now there was nothing of worth to be discovered.

“I told you to look at me Chrysalis.” The tone in the pegasus’s voice made Chrysalis’s head snap back up. “Forget appearances,” the pegasus continued, “you of all beings should know that shapes can be deceiving. Look at me, Chrysalis. Look into my eyes.”

Chrysalis’s gaze met Fluttershy’s again. This time, she looked more carefully. What she saw were two blue pupils set in huge, cute eyes. But beneath the innocent appearance was something else. Fluttershy met Chrysalis’s eyes steadily, and did not look away.

That was a challenge, and Chrysalis didn’t back down from challenges. She widened her own gaze and stared deep into Fluttershy’s eyes. She expected the pegasus to back down or blink, but instead Fluttershy’s own eyes opened wide, wide, and suddenly Chrysalis found herself pinned by what felt like two spotlights.

Fluttershy hadn’t had much call to use The Stare recently, but just because she was out of practice didn’t mean that she had forgotten how it worked. Actually, her stare now was even stronger than it had been a month ago. Fluttershy’s stare had always been somewhat intimidating, but not she could draw upon a lot more emotion to put into her gaze. Her stare had an edge to it now. Even the changelings standing behind Chrysalis were forced to turn away, or look down at the ground to avoid meeting her eyes.

But Chrysalis didn’t back down or look away. Instead, she held Fluttershy’s gaze with her own, and slowly widened her eyes until they were huge in her face. She stared at Fluttershy and didn’t stop.

This was a new experience for Fluttershy. She had never met any being who could stare back at her, and the pressure Chrysalis was exerting with her own stare was intense. Fluttershy felt a trickle of sweat slowly start to run down her face. She tried to stop it by wrinkling her brow, but she couldn’t bring her hoof up or shake her head. Slowly the drop of sweat inched closer, closer…

Chrysalis broke her gaze away and Fluttershy dashed away the drop of sweat with one hoof. She planted put her hoof down, somewhat shakily and looked back at Chrysalis, who was smiling. Well, her mouth was turned upwards in something like a smile. Or rather, she was showing a lot of teeth.

“You may be an Element of Harmony after all,” Chrysalis remarked as if nothing had happened. “Interesting. But why should I believe you are the one commanding this pathetic army?”

Fluttershy tried to gather her thoughts, and found it was harder than she had expected. She hadn’t planned on a staring contest with Chrysalis true, but she certainly hadn’t even anticipated losing. She tried to buy time to recompose herself.

“Why would I be here unless I was in charge?” She inquired mildly. “Or rather, did you expect some other pony to be here?”

“As a matter of fact, I did.” Chrysalis narrowed her eyes. “I believe for certain that it was Zecora who had been ambushing my changelings all this time.”

“Zecora?” Fluttershy laughed in disbelief, but stopped when she saw the glint in Chrysalis’s eyes.

“You must admit, it was the logical choice.” Chrysalis gestured to the forest around her. “No other being knows the Everfree as well as she, and of all the ponies in Ponyville, I believed only she and Twilight Sparkle were intelligent enough to play the game of war with me. Unless you are secretly one of Equestria’s generals, I’m not sure why I should believe you when you claim to be in command.”

“I’m certainly not as smart as Twilight, Chrysalis, but neither am I unintelligent.” Fluttershy said. “I learned strategy from one of Twilight’s books, and from experience as well. And I remind you: Zecora may know much about the Everfree, but I live on its edge. And of all the ponies in Equestria, only one can talk to animals.”

“So I see.” Chrysalis cast another gaze at the army of animals. “I take it then that my troops haven’t been fighting the Canterlot Royal Guard this entire time?”

“Nope.”

“Celestia doesn’t, in fact, know that there’s a changeling army camped in the Everfree Forest.”

“If she does, she’s being very quiet about it.”

“And you never told anyone else about this amazingly dangerous changeling army.”

“No.”

“May I ask why? Your small army of animals is no match for the Canterlot Royal Guard, and even though Equestria lacks a standing army, surely the Wonderbolts and the citizens of Ponyville would have come to your aid.”

Fluttershy smiled ruefully. “True. I did think of that on numerous occasions. But there’s just one problem: if there was a war, I would not be the one put in charge of strategy.”

“Ah. I see.”

“I imagine that in a full-scale engagement, casualties would be terrible, especially since Equestria hasn’t fought any real wars for centuries.”

Chrysalis gave Fluttershy a wicked smile. “True. Your warriors are green, and your commanders know nothing of true strategy. I thought there was not a pony that could match me in military conquest…until now. Answer me truthfully: are there any ponies in your army beside yourself?”

“None,” Fluttershy shook her head. “Disappointed?”

“Would you be offended if I said yes? Still, I must admit that you’re quite the little general if you managed to fight my army with a few animals.”

“More than a few. There was thousands here before. Many have fled, but nearly half stayed to fight.”

“Hm.” Chrysalis glanced at Fluttershy’s army again. “I can see that they’ve suffered many casualties. Quite astounding they should keep fighting even after losing so many.”

“Why not? They’re fighting to protect their homes, and for each other.”

“And for you, I suppose. I can’t imagine they’d obey you if you didn’t command some respect.”

Fluttershy’s head lowered for a second. “Yes. They do respect me. They call me their friend.”

“But you send them into battle,” Chrysalis pointed out. “Sometimes against impossible odds, or into traps. And they still follow you? Very impressive.”

The mocking tone in her voice made Fluttershy look up. “If they’re willing to risk death, it’s because they knew stopping you is worth the sacrifice,” she retorted angrily. “It’s worth fighting for.”

“What I don’t see if why you’re fighting for it.” Chrysalis kicked a clod of dirt and gestured around the clearing. “Look at this. It’s a forest. A boring, mundane forest, like any you can find in Equestria. Why not flee with your animals and let Celestia fight me?”

Chrysalis leaned forward and poked Fluttershy in the chest. “Or is it that you’re offended by my plans to kill your pony friends, is that it? Did one of my changelings eat one of your precious animals?”

Chrysalis tried to poke Fluttershy again, but the pegasus smacked her hoof down.

“All of the animals here are my friends, Chrysalis,” she hissed at the changeling queen. “Your should have thought more carefully when you entered this forest, because the instant your troops crushed the first sparrow’s nest, you made an enemy out of the entire Everfree. Your changelings started this war, not me.”

She stepped closer, and suddenly she was right in front of Chrysalis, and her face was only an inch front the changeling queen’s. “I had to kill two changelings myself, and I lost many friends when they attacked. Their blood is on my hooves, because I failed to protect them and so is the blood of your changelings, because your warriors left me no other choice. I will never forgive you for that.”

Chrysalis took one step back. Fluttershy wasn’t moving, but her body still quivered with suppressed energy and she had a look in her eyes that Chrysalis had seen before, contained fury and hatred wrapped under a layer of ice. The silence between them lengthened.

This was no longer fun. Chrysalis was not used to being confronted, much less threatened. She did the threatening, but for some reason her normal line of insults wasn’t working on this pony.

“So, you’re out for vengeance, but what good is that without the power to back up your will? I could swat you aside with one hoof, and my army will overwhelm yours in an instant.”

“You can try, but I swear to you Chrysalis, I and my friends will fight you here to the last if need be. You won’t pass through this forest while an animal stills draw breath in it.”

Chrysalis sneezed and then rubbed her eyes in irritation. They were itching a bit for some reason. “All the more reason why I should kill you all now,” she snapped. “Do you really think you can hold off my army with a few shaking rodents? Even a diamond dog would know better than to engage an army twice as large as his own.”

“Diamond dogs invented siege warfare and surprise attacks, as I’m sure you know. And they would fight an army twice their size if they could lure it into a trap.”

“Hah! Whatever traps you may have laid won’t be enough to stop my army. There’s no need for stealth any longer; if you try to trap us on the ground, we’ll just fly over any pitfalls you’ve placed and attack Ponyville instead.”

“Oh really?” Fluttershy waved one hoof and several animals ran forwards, carrying something concealed a blanket. They removed the blanket and let the object float between Chrysalis and Fluttershy. “I assume you know what this is,” Fluttershy said.

“That’s a cloud. Is it supposed to frighten me?”

“Not really,” Fluttershy guided it gently and set it down to hover in front of her and Chrysalis. “But I don’t suppose you know about Ponyville’s somewhat unique weather system, do you?”

“What?”

“Oh, I suppose a changeling wouldn’t know, but Equestria doesn’t leave weather up to chance.” Fluttershy nudged the cloud with one hoof. It emitted a small shower of rain for a second. “We like to control how much rain we get, so we use clouds for rainfall, snow, hail, and of course…lightning whenever we feel like it.” Fluttershy gave the cloud a harder kick, and with a small thunderclap, a tiny bolt of lightning struck the ground inches from Chrysalis, who jumped back with a cry of alarm.

“You see, cloud technology was really a windfall in terms of weather control,” Fluttershy said with a small smile. “They can do all these useful things. But sadly, it’s always a problem when they accidentally discharge lightning bolts. I’m sure you’re well aware of how much damage a single bolt of lightning can do to fliers, which is why no pegasus is allowed to use clouds unless they’ve been properly trained. Now, I was never a weather pony because I was too shy, but I did grow up in Cloudsdale, and I like to think I know how to use clouds as well as any weather pony.”

Chrysalis stared down at the cloud in horror. The smell of ozone from the lightning strike was particularly strong for some reason, and it was really heavy in the air. But that was a lesser concern compared to her mental thought process, which was putting the idea of a bunch of flying changelings and a lighting storm together. Ponies actually manufactured and used these clouds for weather? They were all insane as loons, the lot of them.

Fluttershy smiled slightly in satisfaction. She didn’t seem particularly bothered by the stink of ozone, which made Chrysalis even angrier. She rubbed at her eyes again. They were really starting to burn for some reason.

“Fine. You’ve stopped me from launching an aerial attack. But you just lost any advantage you had by telling me,” she pointed out. “Not a wise tactical move. Only a fool would reveal her hoof before the battle started, and I have reason to believe you are no fool.”

“True, but my intent in showing you this was not to stop you attacking from above, but merely to demonstrate a point.”

“Which is?”

“I have a plan,” Fluttershy said simply. “It’s a very good plan, and it will work. And I will use that plan to destroy you and your army. That is, unless you surrender to me here and now.”

Chrysalis stopped. The changelings behind her, who had been fidgeting with impatience, stopped. Their eyes went to their queen, and each changeling flinched a little and braced themselves. It took a few seconds to build up, but when it did…

“Surrender!?” Chrysalis screamed. “You dare demand my SURRENDER!?”

“At once, unconditionally, and at my hooves if you please,” Fluttershy said cheerfully. “A bit of groveling wouldn’t hurt either, and of course I’ll have to take you through Ponyville in chains, but we won’t have to drag you all the way to Canterlot. We’ll probably have the trial at the town hall instead.”

Chrysalis listened to Fluttershy with shocked stupefaction that turned just as quickly into white hot rage. She almost felt the very air warm up around her as she took a step forward. “I’ve heard the prideful words of griffons and the boasts of minotaur before I their bones and devoured their entrails,” she growled, stepping to Fluttershy’s right as the pegasus slowly turned to keep her in view, “and I’ve even heard the vainglorious threats of dragons. But they were worthy foes, and I respected them for that. You though,” Chrysalis shook her head in disgust. “I thought I had found a worthy opponent, but I don’t believe I’ve ever met a creature as arrogant as you.”

“I’ve been called many things,” Fluttershy said, slowly beginning to circle with Chrysalis. “Coward, weakling, trembling sniveler – which was particularly unkind – useless…the best that’s usually said of me is that I’m far too timid and meek to do anything. But no pony has every called me ‘arrogant’ before. I must thank you for the compliment, Chrysalis.”

Chrysalis coughed and spat. The air around her seemed to be burning her lungs, but perhaps that was just due to the rage burning in her soul.

“I will rip out that tongue of yours,” she warned Fluttershy. “And I will hunt down your army and feed them to my changelings before your eyes one by one.”

Fluttershy coughed too, but grinned for some reason. “Well, we can’t have that. I’ve lost too many friends here to see them die here, especially if you’re going to hunt them down.”

She lifted a hoof and waved it in a circle in the air without moving her gaze of Chrysalis’s face. Chrysalis didn’t look away from Fluttershy either, but she could see in her peripherals the animal army drawing back, retreating…running back into the forest!

“You sent them away?” Chrysalis asked, bafflement overcoming fury for a second. “Why?”

Fluttershy smiled, but this time it wasn’t a small smile, but a wide smirk that didn’t match her situation. “You really are like Twilight, Chrysalis.”

“The time for petty insults is over,” Chrysalis said, or tried to say, but she had to stop to cough as she did. “My patience with you is gone. You have a minute’s life left – less, if you continue to annoy me.”

“I merely meant that you are Twilight share the same traits. I doubt either of you would like the comparison, but you are two exceptionally smart individuals. I know my friend Twilight, and I know that if I played chess with her, I would always lose, just like I would lose any game of strategy with you in the end.”

“An astute observation,” Chrysalis growled. She wiped stinging eyes, but dared not take her eyes off Fluttershy. “Is this your surrender, then?”

“No, merely a fact.” Fluttershy shook her head. She was sweating, Chrysalis noted. In fear? Excitement? “But it did help me plan my final move. You see, smart ponies often get fixated on one thing. Twilight does it, and you do too, I think. Case in point, you have failed to spot my final trap.”

“What?” Chrysalis spared a quick glance to either side, but couldn’t see anything as she circled with Fluttershy. Mind, it was getting harder to see with the hazy sky – an early night perhaps? But it had been midday not one hour past or so it seemed…

“You see, it was all part of my plan. Meeting you here, showing you my ‘trap’ with the cloud, even insulting you and demanding your surrender. All to buy me time for my trap to work.”

“What!?” Chrysalis lunged forward, and she was suddenly towering over Fluttershy. One spell, one blow of her hooves or stab of her horn would be the death of the pegasus. “No more games,” she whispered, though the burning feeling in her throat made speaking almost impossible. “What is your plan?”

Fluttershy just smiled. “Tell me Chrysalis,” she croaked, “have you noticed how warm it’s been getting?”

Chrysalis snarled and raised one hoof. Then she stopped, and looked around. The sky was dark and hazy, but it was not even evening yet. The air burned her eyes, and she felt the need to cough.

She glanced at the ground. Covered in sticks, twigs, fallen logs. Perfect for tripping up an army, making charges difficult. True. But also…

Chrysalis looked around. Forest. She was in a forest. Around her was trees. On the ground were dead plants, fallen branches. Wood. Fuel.

Chrysalis breathed in, and smelled…nothing. But if it had started downwind of her…she listened. Now that Fluttershy wasn’t talking, now that she wasn’t filling the world with sound, she could hear something. Faintly. On the distance, something that the pegasus’s voice had covered up. Crackling, and a roar of sound.

And then the wind turned, and just for a second Chrysalis caught the scent in the dead air. Smoke. She looked down at Fluttershy.

“You wouldn’t.” She whispered.

The forest wasn’t green any longer. Instead, light shone between the trees, like the light of a jack o’ lantern, except brighter, filling the clearing with flickering light. Orange, red, bright yellows, dancing. Chrysalis could see it now, racing through the trees.

Fire.

It wasn’t just a small brush fire, nor even a wildfire, not at this point. Carefully lit torches, bundles of flaming grass had been set, and they had grown on the forest detritus until they had merged together to create a unified blaze, a forest fire that was now out of control. And it was everywhere.

No matter where Chrysalis looked, the forest was burning. It had been hidden well by the trees, set on the outskirts of the forest, but the speed of the fire was now racing, and it gobbled up the fallen trees like candy, making it’s flames grow longer, hotter, brighter.

Fluttershy’s face flickered and seemed to twist in the shadows cast by the inferno’s glow. “You see Chrysalis, it was quite simple. You were always going to win any war we fought. You have more experience, a stronger army, and you’re a fighter than I am. I can’t match your for intelligence or cunning, but there is one thing I can do better than you.”

Fluttershy grinned and the light made her teeth shine red. “I can be crueler than you. You’re willing to sacrifice changelings like water, and you kill without hesitation, but you know what? You’re still a sportspony. You play to capture castles, defeat enemy armies, kill targets, but that’s all. You play war like chess. But there’s just one problem.”

Fluttershy leaned closer and Chrysalis stepped back. “I don’t play chess. I play to win, and I play to kill. And to kill you, I’m willing to destroy the whole board.”

Flames shot above the tree line, and suddenly the entire forest around Chrysalis was covered in flames. Tiny flames, growing larger. But they were just forerunners, parts of a larger blaze that was already travelling this way. How long had it been growing. And now the fire was everywhere, and Chrysalis’s army was surrounded in a sea of burning death.

Fluttershy smiled. “Checkmate, Chrysalis.”

Comments

[shyguy7829]

Hot damn.

[terrycloth]

She got Chrysalis' army to stand right on the bullseye, and now the rest of the dominos should fall like a house of cards. Checkmate.

[Crystal Static]

“You see Chrysalis, it was quite simple. You were always going to win any war we fought. You have more experience, a stronger army, and you’re a fighter than I am. I can’t match your for intelligence or cunning, but there is one thing I can do better than you.”
Fluttershy grinned and the light made her teeth shine red. “I can be crueler than you. You’re willing to sacrifice changelings like water, and you kill without hesitation, but you know what? You’re still a sportspony. You play to capture castles, defeat enemy armies, kill targets, but that’s all. You play war like chess. But there’s just one problem.”
Fluttershy leaned closer and Chrysalis stepped back. “I don’t play chess. I play to win, and I play to kill. And to kill you, I’m willing to destroy the whole board.”
Flames shot above the tree line, and suddenly the entire forest around Chrysalis was covered in flames. Tiny flames, growing larger. But they were just forerunners, parts of a larger blaze that was already travelling this way. How long had it been growing. And now the fire was everywhere, and Chrysalis’s army was surrounded in a sea of burning death.
Fluttershy smiled. “Checkmate, Chrysalis.”

Absolutely brilliant; when I hit that section, I had chills.

~Crystalline Electrostatic~

[Manual Control]

Damn fine job, Fluttershy! The biggest trap of all! But one thing bothers me... WHY DIDN'T YOU USE THE MANTICORE?! I might have missed it, but I'm fairly certain he didn't get killed and was still there.

[DarlingFlutterShy]

"You were never even a player" - Azula

Perfectly fits this.