Chrysalis Wins
Ch.5 “Orientation includes angry subjects”
After ‘breakfast’ was eaten, Chrysalis spent most of the day exploring the various facilities of the castle. One of her first stops, was the kitchens, where she gleefully decided to partake in some of Celestia’s fancy dishes.
Hey, even changelings like to eat physical food every once and awhile, even though they don’t need it. Besides, that’s how changelings know how to compare what love tastes like. At least this was the explanation given to some dumbfounded chefs.
Then she took a walk through Celestia’s fabulous gardens. After that she admired the jewelry in Celestia’s royal treasury, and she looked through the books of the former ruler’s personal library. Chrysalis’s favorite thing to explore was the vault of ancient and powerful artifacts, which Celestia kept restricted to all but a select few, the sign merely made the queen smirk.
Periodically Chrysalis had returned to the royal throne room, for ‘lunch’ and ‘dinner’. She sampled the love of other princesses and Elements of Harmony. The collective passion between those groups of ponies fueled her sense of power even more. The queen was now confident she was even stronger than when she had defeated Celestia.
Otherwise things didn’t really get interesting until that night.
---
Two changeling sentinels stood guard outside of Chrysalis’s recently acquired bedroom. Neither of them noticed a shadow, which jumped from one dark corner to the next. The form was flat against the walls and floors it traveled along.
One sentinel sneezed, a distraction which the ethereal figure took advantage of. Within the blink of an eye the shadow entity passed between the sliver of space between the doors and the floor, and entered the royal bedchamber.
Chrysalis was buried under her usual pile of plush comforts, her horn poked out, and was the only indication she was there. Other than the soft snores, that emanated from the pillow mound.
Slowly, the shadow on the floor coalesced. A tall dark Pegasus with bat wings, and slit pupils, emerged from the dark spot. A long shafted spear was gripped in his hoof. The lunar guard stalked forward, the large purple and blue plated armor he wore was deceptively quiet. A grimace soured his face and his eyes furrowed furiously.
The lunar pegasus grit his teeth, and raised his spear, ready to plunge it down on this usurper and down it came.
The silver spear tip disappeared into the mound of pillows with a swish and thud as it impacted something solid beneath them. A yelp of pain came from the pillows, and the lunar guard cursed under his breath, he didn't hit anything vital enough to silence her immediately.
In the next moment the mound of pillows exploded in a wave of green magic. Soft things suddenly flew of deadly speeds. One of the pillows struck the bat pony with all the force a nearly sonic pillow could strike with, right in the face…
Chrysalis stood and snarled in the midst of her wind blasted bed. The spear had punctured right through the base of one wing, which left a large unsightly gash. Clear fluid dripped from the injured appendage.
She seized the spear with her magic and pulled it out, this caused the gash to widen and tear the injury, to which the Queen cringed in searing pain but thankfully it was out. The queen glanced about the room to look for the perpetrator; against the opposite wall was a stunned Lunar pegasus. In one long bound, Chrysalis leapt from the bed and landed noisily in front of her assailant.
“What fool dares to attack me!”
Her large front hoof came down and stomped on the bat ponies front leg, making a sickening pop. The armored guard gasped at the new and unpleasant sensation of having his leg dislocated. At this point the changeling sentinels had opened the doors to the bed chamber and rushed inside.
“My queen, what has-”
Both sentinels saw their queen standing over a fallen Lunar Guard. They immediately activated their combat magic. Each had a long, green, ghostly blade form around their horns, and their front hooves reshaped themselves into lethal claws.
Before the sentinels pounced on the intruder the queen held up her hoof to stop them. She growled at her would be murderer.
“Tell me why you even thought you could succeed, you pathetic excuse of a soldier. I am more powerful than any alicorn who ever ruled these lands!”
The cornered Lunar pegasus grunted as he shook his head. After his vision cleared he looked up at the queen with gaze that conveyed utter loathing.
“You can still bleed, you monster!”
The giant changeling knocked the defiant bat pony on his back, then pressed a heavy hoof down on his chest. The air was forced out of his lungs and he gasped for breath. Chrysalis lowered her head close to the bat pony, and sniffed for emotions. What she found surprised her.
“You had no hope for succeeding, just a misguided sense of loyalty. ‘sniff’ and a passionate vengeance for loss. ‘sniff’ loss for a very specific pony.”
She released the pressure of her hoof on the lunar pegasus’s chest, and let him gulp in some air. He panted several times before he angrily wheezed at her.
“Y-you, imprisoned Luna. She is why I joined the Nightwatch, she was… my inspiration, a beacon to all Bat Ponies ! And you just stuffed her in one of those disgusting prisons!”
“Would you like to see her?”
Chrysalis’s angry snarl had transformed into a malevolent grin. The bat pony blinked unsure of what to make of it, but fear started to creep down his spine. A green aura surrounded the armored assassin, and he was pulled across the floor.
The queen exited her bed chamber, and dragged the bat pony behind her in her magic. He flailed about like a rag doll. Her two sentinels trailed behind her; they had since deactivated their fighting magic. One sentinel nervously piped up a question.
“Are we not going to execute this scum, my queen?”
“Why would I do that? He obviously has great love for his ex leaders and country. He will be most nutritious as a prisoner.”
The group traveled their way up to the throne room. Chrysalis had taken to bouncing the bat pony up and down like a ball. Each time he collided with the floor his armor made a loud clang and clatter, which was followed up by a groan of discomfort.
To the new prisoner’s relief the queen stopped when they entered the throne room. She knew where she wanted to go, and she lifted the guard high in the air to face a specific cocoon. There was the princess of the night, sleeping peacefully, suspended in her organic prison.
The sight caused a well of emotions for the lunar guard. He bit his lower lip and his eyes started to water. There was nothing he could do; his only attempt at some justice had failed, miserably. Chrysalis caught the look.
“Don’t worry, little bat. You will get to join her, and live out any fantasy you have in your twisted little dreams.”
The lunar guard gritted his teeth, and his voice turned bitter.
“Nopony will love you like the princesses, you vile insect. Who could love somepony as cruel as you.”
“Coming from the one who tried to impale me with a spear… Tsk, tsk, I don’t need you or anypony to love me. I just need them to respect their queen!”
A fresh cocoon was conjured up, and the failed assassin was unceremoniously shoved in it. The two sentinels, who had followed the queen, took the time to attach the newest prisoner to the ceiling.
Chrysalis let out a long weary sigh, and put a hoof to her temple, she began to rub it slowly in circles. Once the two large changelings finished their task, they waited patiently for their queen’s next order. She was simply content to sit in silence for a short while, her mind had settled from its excited rush and was going foggy, thanks to the lack of sleep and pain she was still experiencing.
Her horn ignited as she mentally called for her lead vanguard. While she waited, Chrysalis set her body down on the floor and crossed her front hooves. The two sentinels at her side busied themselves with scanning the area; they didn't want any more surprise shadow attacks.
Shade entered the throne, and immediately hovered over to his queen. Once he landed he lowered himself into a low bow. The vanguard appeared fully alert, and apprehensive.
“What is it you require my queen?”
“I need you to search out the pony population. Look for any with violent tendencies, and imprison them. One of them got uncomfortably close this night. I’m certain there are more straggling guards and rebels somewhere.”
Chrysalis pointed to the bat pony, who was being sedated in his new slimy container. Shade’s eyes flicked up to lunar guard, and noticed they didn't even bother with taking his armor off before imprisoning him. That was going to rust nastily.
“Then Colony will monitor the swarm while I investigate the ponies?”
“No, she is busy planning with a pony official. I’ll assign Vivisect to it.”
The vanguard grumbled quietly at his queen’s decision, Vivisect wasn't exactly subtle enough to catch sneaky, disobedient changelings. Before Shade could formulate plans for filtering the pony populace his eyes flashed a bright purple.
Lucid images flashed into his field of view. One of his vanguards stationed far north was sending him a message. Short phrases, and brief experiences could be communicated through this method. It was the primary way vanguard kept in contact with each other while exploring new regions.
What Shade saw brought a wave of surprise. Through this northern vanguard he could see a massive city. Despite the snow blanketing the lands, the city appeared to be in the middle of spring, complete with green fields of grass. A massive opaque tower resided at its center, and all the structures branching out where of some kind of shiny stone.
“A Crystal city just appeared, we don’t know what this means.”
The toneless voice echoed in Shade's head, and the borrowed sight ended. The head of the vanguard turned to the queen.
“There is a surprising development in the north, my queen.”
“Oh?”
“A large crystalline city has just appeared. Some kind of magic is keeping it in a state of spring despite the land around it being covered in ice.”
“What? There is no large city in Equestria in that region. Is your vanguard delusional?”
Shade put a hoof to his head, and his eyes flashed purple again.
“No, I’m seeing it clearly. The city is inhabited as well, and it’s even larger than Canterlot! I have no idea what this means.”
Chrysalis growled in frustration at this new revelation.
“Celestia! What secrets are you hiding?”
The queen’s horn burned with green energy as she attempted to fly up to Celestia’s cocoon. She stopped before she even left the ground, as her injured wing refused to function.
“Gah, stupid bat pony!”
With heavy irritation Chrysalis burned a large amount of love energy to rapidly fix the injured base of her wing. There was a slight zipping noise as the gash sealed over in seconds. She tested a few experimental flaps, and found her wing usable. Though it still hurt to use it, the flesh ached deeply for being mended so fast.
This time Chrysalis successfully climbed up to the sun princess’s prison.
K, So i'm going through some of the previous chapters and fixting all those grammer and captilization mistakes. I'm also changing everything to past tense. I'll mark those chapters as "edited" once i'm done. Also i already double / triple checked ch.5 five for these mistakes and it should be fine.
Thank you for your helpful comments my readers
Interesting, time for CCCRRRYYYSTAAAALLLLSS!
Also... the guard never even had a chance. Apparently pound for pound insect chitin is tougher than many metals; he would've stabbed her barrel, and his spear would've broke.
yeah round up ponies. that won't cause them to just group together and figure out that changelings are weak.
seriously if just one bat pony could cause so much harm to her how does she expect her own changelings to stand against normal ponies?
and also wouldn't there by a LOT more rebels and soldiers running around? its seems very unlikely that the majority of the soldiers of equestria are stationed in canterlot. both considering there are a lot of threats to equestria, and that celestia would never weaken her borders.
in other words they would have a lot more soldiers to deal with here than what is in canterlot....... and possibly a lot more powerful soldiers too. celestia is the type to station the strongest of her army where they will actually be useful.
also i do not think there exists a solution for chrysalis outside of just releasing the mane six and princesses here. even if she could mathc sombra magical strength, she is not well trained in any imagination. she wouldn't stand a chance.
and even if she, as she would have to personally capture the heart again, managed to place the heart, it would probably kill her.......
5878948 ;.......... okay i utterly missed that contrivence. there is no way chitin would repel metal in any level of imagination. hell the mane six utterly devastated the changelings that attacked them very easily. obviously they are not durable in any imagination to begin with.
5879051 always thought part of that was on purpose. chrysalis knew she could not properly imitate cadance, so she set up the scenario that during the wedding, abnormal behavior could be noted as wedding jitters.
also what point would killing or detaining ponies when their helplessness and reaction would feed her vanity?
even if she acted out of character and did this, luna would probably have destroyed her, or at least easily escaped and rounded up ALL OF EQUESTRIA to take back canterlot.
5879055
Exoskeletons are pretty damn tough IRL, but that's not what happened in the story here.
First, you clearly have a poor imagination for imagining imaginations. Second, if you go back and look more closely at that scene, and what goes on, this turns out to be incorrect.
5879046
Well, Chrysalis wasn't going to search for ponies still willing to fight with big ol' blaring trumpets. Not when her servants can just go in disguise and try to read pony emotions for clues.
The bat pony hit her in a less armored spot, the joint at the base of the wing. The little science point Europa made is also very interesting. thank you for that bit of information So Chrysalis wasn't in real danger from being mortally wounded.
The show did make a point of showing increased military activity surrouding canterlot at the time of the wedding. So regardless of the threats outside of Equestria, Celestia saw fit to reinforce Canterlot. If some mysterious enemy threatens the head of your nation, it makes sense to fortify it.
Also there are definitely lots of ponies who would still want to fight against Chrysalis's rule. She's only taken over canterlot for now, and she'll have to fight to gain more ground besides that. But conquering Ponyville, Manehatten, Baltimare, and other places will wait for later chapters. Don't worry, the ponies have not all submitted
As for Sombra, that's what i look forward to writing next
5879088 ......... they pulverize them and get trapped between two groups at the end, got surrounded. it is accurate.
5879139
Wrong. The mane 6 didn't 'pulverize' the changelings, they pulverized themselves by taking their forms - squishy, non-alicornesque forms - and causing friendly fire; look at all the 'dust clouds of fighting' surrounding them.
5879131 you would have to make a very contrived plot for it to go any other way than chrysalis giving up and releasing the princesses and mane six. be like having discord pop up and somehow chrysalis could handle him. when it comes to levels of power and threat, she is very low on the scale here. admitably the scale includes demonic centaurs, chaos beasts, and sauronicorns so even rating there is a feat, but she is ultimately lower on the list. i would debate whether or not starlight glimmer is a larger threat than here even. starlight is still only a unicorn, but she has superior intelligence and competence in leading others.
and infiltrating would fall flat on its ass at this stage. they would already learn about the shapeshifting. the citizens of equestria are a lot more competent than the show normally gives em credit for....... this would be extra, extra true if they tried to infiltrate the apple family. they would be exposed quicker than a 'countryism term'.
know you want to write some kind fo story where chrysalis has to deal with the threats but ultimately chrysalis is not competent enough to get past sombra. as i said, even if she either went there herself or sent all her forces to find and place the heart, the effect would probably be fatal. the heart isn't the elements of harmony. it seeks order, not balance, and destroys or surpresses chaos and darkness.
so either she would be left without her army or she would die in the process.
5879148 and even with friendly fire they beat them all up. remember? they left them rolling in the dirst by the changelings managed to get inside first, and enough wounded changelings managed to get up as well to surround them. lacking mobility they were caught.
5879179
Are you TRYING to misunderstand me? The changelings friendly-fired THEMSELVES.
5879046 Ponies are very easy to enslave. I mean, Trixie did it.
If you make them miserable they'll plot behind your back to depose you, which might be going on all over the place, but in the open they'll cooperate.
5879172
That my way, or the high way attitude towards plot decisions doesn't leave much room for creativity
I'm also feeling you have a bunch of assumptions about these characters power levels i don't necissarily agree with. It's not like the show gave them an actual rating.
ex: K hmm well, on pony power scales
- normal unicorn = 2
- alicorns = 5-7, depends which one
- Chrysalis = feed me Seymour, feed me all night long. or (Large fluctuations)
- Sombra = 6-8, don't really know, took both luna and Celestia to banish him
- Discord = 9
- Tirek = 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+
- Friendship is deus ex machina / elements = all the power, unless sufficiently trolled by the villain.
I mean Starlight Glimmer being stronger than a well fed chrysalis? -which Chrysalis is well fed by this point in the story-
And as far as being a competent leader Chrysalis made her fair share of goofs, but is a little paint on your flank is a better disguise... yep, real good manipulation of your subjects there. Without her rod of sameness Starlight doesn't really have any magical trump card.
Concerning the Crystal Heart, all that is really depicted about it is that it's fueled by the light and love of the crystal ponies, and that it repels Sombra's dark magic. Chrysalis doesn't use "dark" magic, she uses what ever that green themed changeling stuff is. She's also full of love...lol, yes i know it's taken, but she still holds it.
But ultimately I want an interesting narrative, a 2 second blow out isn't what these characters deserve anyway.
5880013 the equal sign town certainly didn't bend over backwards once they had an opening.
trixie was only able to because she had enough power to with the alicorn amulet. changelings do not have enough power to force ponies to do anything at all. it would require chrysalis personally ensuring all that.
which would leave canterlot vulnerable to a handful of ponies to rush in and save the princesses.
5880108 no she uses dark magic. she consumes love to fuel it, but love is a complex emotion. it fuels both affection and hatred after all. and the nature of her powers imply they are dark by nature.
she overpowers minds and absorbs the love and emotion from her victims. how is that not dark?
aaand you a mistaking what i mean. i am not basing it on power but on their ability to be a threat. chrysalis has more power than starlight, but in reality starlight is the more competent foe in terms of intelligence and charisma. she is a manipulator, far more skilled than chrysalis. heck she actually made the mane six legitimately helpless. however they used cunning to defeat her. the found the hole in her plan and tore it open.
and yes her bit of paint on her flank was a much better disguise because it is so simple. she convinced her followers that the staff had the powers and that she took her own mark. all she had to do was use a little make up to hide the truth. there was no way for anyone to know this unless the stumble across it.
power levels i guess depends on how much comics are taken into account. the comics are a bit of a mess these days. though i would say quality is closest to canon in a sense. in the comics chrysalis was in fact overpowered by twilight, mainly because twilight had much more magical skills.
however something that is probably higher up would be the sombra origin story. definitely a pretty fair story, it has sombra state that he was no match at all for the regal sisters, but had prepared the dark magic that would banish the crystal empire.
put simply a guy who had the skills to banish the crystal empire compared to someone who has far less magical education and abilities but MAYBE the ability to enhance her powers above celestia temporarily. power means nothing in that circumstance.
and i am gonna admit that point of view IS very limiting, yet ultimately if you just do whatever you want you risk not really thinking on your decisions. that is the trap a majority of fanfic writers fall into. limits are useful as it keeps you from having pinkie pie turn into an alicorn and your red and black oc from becoming the god of equestria or something.
5880110
"changelings do not have enough power to force ponies to do anything at all."
K, In the show, Canterlot was going down. Chrysalis defeated celestia, her swarm did the rest. You've got to give them credit for some level of competency for doing that.
plus the swarm would gain power exponentially once it had access to the love of all the ponies in Canterlot.
I just... i think we exist on alternate dimensions of reasoning
5880194 temporary strength at best. they would burn it quickly during a fight more than likely. unlike ponies they could not just rest to recover it either.
six untrained combatants managed to ravage a large number of them. the difference between that and them attacking the city is that they did not have the element of surprise during their encounter with the mane six. they sneaked attacked the city before soldiers could mobilize for battle and got the advantage.
they are not gonna have that advantage anymore now that they are out in the open.
5880231 ......... it seems more likely she would explode if she ate too much love dude. and it is not infinite as she eats love energy through the energy of the ponies. thus there is only a finite amount that she could take from any pony.
and if you bring up tirek. he had to gradually grow powerful enough to take stronger magic. and more so he took the very core of magic from his victims rather than feeding on it. meaning his strength remains cinsistent and enhanced.
also she has to burn love to fuel her magic and her aiblities, and likely to sustain her own life. meaning she gradually burns through that energy constantly.
5880245 Six experienced adventurers managed to take down a large number of conscripted drones who'd never fought before in their lives, but were easily overpowered by the actual defensive force at the vault.
5880311 you mean got surrounded and trapped in an enclosed area.
and they are not really experienced travelers at this point. they never fought anyone before that point, at least in the sense of engaging in active physical combat with them.
I feel sorry for Princess Candace...
First her dream of a perfect wedding was ruined, her sweet heart Shining Armor is basically as dumb as a potato, and what was destined to be her own kingdom: The Crystal Empire. Now it may very well fall in the hands of Queen Chrysalis. Of course Queen Chrysalis and her minions have to defeat Sombra first when he returns to claim the empire, and will she get help from the main six or from the ponies at all.
Sucks being Princess Cadence.
5880416
It is indeed unfortunate to be Cadance.
We will see if Sombra makes Chrysalis desperate enough to unleash some of her more dangerous prisoners...
5879081 Maybe, but Cadance is supposed to be one of the nicest ponies in Equestria, and pre-wedding jitters does not turn somepony from that into an absolute pain to simply stand around. Suspicious behaviour like that is precisely what should've been watched for considering that Canterlot was actually warned, yet only one pony even suspected anything was wrong. Very risky thing to do with the city on supposedly high alert.
5880194 Yeah, didn't anyone notice that the Changelings overwhelmed the guard in mere minutes despite the extra security? There are competent ponies, sure, but if you think about it the Equestrian military has been hopelessly incompetent.