4 - Love is Magic
“Now hold on jus’ one apple buckin’ minute!” Applejack’s southern accent greeted Chrysalis as the farm mare ran up next to her. “Where in the hay do ya think yer goin’?”
“I thought I made that clear, I’m going to go kill Nightmare Moon for the indignities she’s put me through.” Chrysalis growled.
Rainbow Dash flew down from the sky and landed between the two. “There’s no way I’m letting you go after her like that.”
“See? Even Dash knows that jus’ rushin’ in without a plan is a bad idea!”
“I’m coming with you!” Dash added, causing Applejack to facehoof.
“Gosh darnit, Rainbow! Ya were s’posed to be on my side here!”
“You’re coming with me too.” Chrysalis ordered as she began walking to the Everfree Forest again. AJ’s eyes narrowed.
“Makin’ out with my brother an’ now orderin’ me around like yer some kind of princess? Yer gettin’ awfully close to ruining yer chances of becomin’ my friend.”
Chrysalis froze in place facing away from her ‘friends’ and gritted her teeth. If only she didn’t need that bull headed mare for this. She turned back to face AJ with a snarl on her face.
“Fine! You win! I’m not going to chase after her!”
“No need to yell at me. Ah’m not sayin’ we shouldn’t go after her, ah’m jus’ sayin’ we need a plan.”
Something yanked at Chrysalis’ tail and she looked behind her to find Spike.
“What about—” he paused to yawn, “the elements of harmony?”
The other eventual element bearers were beginning to catch up to Chrysalis, and Pinkie Pie’s ears perked up at the mention of the elements.
“Elements of harmony? What’re those?”
“Weapons that were used to defeat Nightmare Moon.” Chrysalis answered.
“Ya knew ‘bout something that could beat her an’ ya were jus’ gonna go runnin’ after her without ‘em?” Applejack asked incredulously.
“Oh, I’m sorry, maybe you know where to find weapons that have been lost for a thousand years.” Chrysalis snapped back at her.
“Wait, this seems fishy!” Rainbow Dash declared. “You know an awful lot about Nightmare Moon, and you were just going to run off to where she is without any kind of weapons. How do I know you aren’t working for her? Are you a spy?!”
“What?! No!” Chrysalis shouted in a panic, and perhaps somewhat unconvincingly as Applejack raised an eyebrow suspiciously. “Look, I am not working for Nightmare Moon, I want her gone just as much, if not more, than all of you. That I would want to help her is ridiculous!”
“I must agree with Twilight.” Rarity came to her defence. “I saw the way Nightmare Moon looked at her for interrupting. She was absolutely furious, and I find it difficult to believe that she would react in such a fashion if they were in collusion with each other.”
“Those bindings did look uncomfortable...” Fluttershy added.
“I dunno, they looked kind of fun to me!” Pinkie chimed in happily.
“Really, darling? If you like that, I may be able to put together an ensemble to simulate such sensations for your private time...for a price, of course.” Rarity offered her services, eager to promote her business. Then she added with a slight blush when she realized her words could be misconstrued. “Of course, my services are purely of the tailoring variety, you would need to find somepony on your own to help you get in and out of it.”
“That’d be amazing!”
“Uh, girls? Ah think we’re gettin’ off topic here.”
“Oh right, sorry Applejack.” Rarity apologized.
“I’ll drop by your shop later.” Pinkie gave a conspiratorial wink to Rarity. “Now about those elements!”
“I already said that I don’t know where they are!” Chrysalis answered angrily.
“Maybe we could find something about them in the library.” Spike suggested before yawning again.
“But—” Chrysalis attempted to argue before being interrupted by Rarity.
“I’m sure the eternal night will still be around to get rid of if we take a few hours to prepare ourselves first, Twilight.”
“Will everything else, though?” Chrysalis muttered to herself under her breath so the others wouldn’t hear her.
Even if she hadn’t been privy to the details back when it happened in her own timeline, it was kind of hard to miss when the morning didn’t come, or when it finally did arrive a few hours later. She knew that the real Twilight had done this quickly, so could they really afford to waste time searching the library? Knowing how prepared that aggravating, purple unicorn had always been, she had probably spent most of the day searching for information on their location rather than wasting more time than was necessary with her ‘friends’. That brunch with the Apple family had been quite time consuming, as had letting Rarity do whatever it was she had done to her mane, not to mention the time she spent gathering love at that party. By this point in time, she probably knew precisely where to find the elements. Chrysalis couldn’t afford to search for the answers.
“We don’t have time!” She shouted at them.
“An’ what makes you so sure of that?” Applejack asked skeptically.
Chrysalis groaned with frustration. How she was beginning to miss her little changelings. If she told them that they didn’t have time to waste they would have simply taken her word for it and dashed forth into whatever danger she bid them to. She needed an excuse, one that didn’t sound as crazy as saying the universe would implode on itself if they didn’t hurry up. She glanced around for inspiration and her eyes fell on the city hall where the Summer Sun Celebration took place, giving her an idea.
“Eternal night may still be around in a few hours, but what about Princess Celestia?”
“Oooooh!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. “She was missing! If Black Snooty has her, then who knows what she’s going to do to her?!”
“Exactly!” Chrysalis agreed. “We don’t have time to waste!”
“Alright, fine, ah guess ya have a point, but are ya really suggestin’ we jus’ chase after Nightmare Moon without anythin’ to help defend ourselves with?”
“I understand why you might be concerned for the Princess’ safety, but can we really hope to defeat an alicorn unarmed? We need those elements.” Rarity added.
Chrysalis’ eye twitched and she gnashed her teeth. How much did it take to get these damn ponies to move? She was half tempted to just run off without them. Maybe if she could convince them she knew where the elements of harmony were, they would finally shut up and come with her. Where could they be?
Given how short the never ending night had been, Twilight couldn’t have had time to go on a grand adventure to find the blasted things. Unless she had found them ahead of time, which Chrysalis doubted since her dragon didn’t seem to know of their location and she had taken Twilight's place shortly before she was supposed to leave for Ponyville, they had to be somewhere close by. She shut her eyes and tried to concentrate on the reports she had received from her spies that had dug up information on what happened after the fact.
“I know where the Elements of Harmony are!” She blurted out.
“But ya jus’ finished sayin’ ya don’t know.” Applejack pointed out with an accusing glare.
“I know what I said, but just listen to me. The elements were used by the leaders of Equestria to banish Nightmare Moon a thousand years ago, right? Well, a thousand years ago Equestria was ruled from a royal castle in the middle of what is now the Everfree Forest.”
“Uhhh...so?” Rainbow Dash asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Are you really that dense? The elements of harmony were left in their castle! They’re in the Everfree Forest!”
Rainbow Dash glared at Chrysalis. "I understood what you were saying, what I meant is why would they leave such a powerful weapon in some old ruins for a thousand years?"
“Rainbow Dash has a point, are you certain they would still be there?” Rarity queried.
“Yes! Look, I did some research on the whole Nightmare Moon thing before coming to Ponyville and it said that they were left in that castle. They’ve got to be there!”
Chrysalis had no idea if the legends of Nightmare Moon even mentioned the Elements of Harmony or who used them, let alone that they would be in that stupid castle in the forest that may or may not have been related to the leaders of Equestria back then. She was making things up as she went along, but where else could they be? Inside Ponyville? That seemed incredibly unlikely since they wouldn’t be lost. Maybe Twilight happened to just stumble on them inside the Everfree Forest, but she had her doubts. Her spies had said that, according to the local gossip, the final confrontation was supposedly in that castle. They had to be there.
“Well, if you are certain...” Rarity trailed off.
“Yer really gonna believe her jus’ like that? She said that she didn’t know where they were!” Applejack argued. “Ah don’t trust her.”
“I forgot.” Chrysalis lied. “But they are definitely in that castle, and guess who was last seen going into the Everfree Forest?”
“Oh! Oh! I know this one!” Pinkie Pie shouted exuberantly and waved her hoof in the air as if she were a school filly hoping the teacher would pick her.
“Nightmare Moon is probably on her way to the elements right now intent on destroying them.” Chrysalis answered her own question.
“Oh.” Pinkie Pie stopped waving her arm around. “That is so not what I was going to say.”
“So, are you girls coming or not?”
“She’s obviously lying!” Applejack shouted.
“Well, I for one am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt." Rarity offered her support of Chrysalis.
“How generous of you.” Applejack said flatly.
"Besides, if she is correct, then Nightmare Moon may be about to destroy the one thing that we can use against her.” Rarity added.
“Heck yeah I’m going! Can’t let you hog all the glory!” Rainbow Dash piped up.
“Of course I’m going! Can’t let my newfound friend go into danger without me!” Pinkie Pie giggled.
“Umm...me too.” Fluttershy added softly.
“As your number one assistant, I’m going wherever you go!” Spike was next to confirm his intentions. Chrysalis had nearly forgotten he was there. Maybe he could be the new Applejack in this timeline if she didn’t capitulate to her desires.
The six looked at the final one to not agree with expectant stares. Applejack looked between all of them as if they had just gone mad.
“Well?” Chrysalis prodded, feeling a sense of triumph. She could feel it, she had defeated Applejack in this little battle.
“Fine!” Applejack huffed. “Ah’ll come too, but ah don’t like it.”
“Perfect!” Chrysalis said with a smug smile. She turned around and began walking towards the forest only to freeze after a few steps. “Uhhh...do any of you girls know how to get to the castle in the forest?”
“Nope!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed cheerfully as she bounced past Chrysalis. Applejack snorted derisively but said nothing.
“Gimme ten seconds and I can find out!” Rainbow Dash boasted before flying off into the sky.
Chrysalis counted the seconds before she returned, and sure enough, she landed back on the ground at the ten second mark. She began to wonder if everything that mare did was over in ten seconds, concluding that perhaps that was why stallions weren’t so interested in her.
“Okay, so there’s a big, creepy castle in the middle of the forest. If we keep going in that general direction, we can probably find it.”
“I’ll be counting on you to help keep us on track with your scouting then.” Chrysalis informed Rainbow Dash.
“Sure thing!”
Spike jumped onto Chrysalis’ back eliciting a small screech of surprise from her.
“And what do you think you’re doing?” She turned her head to face him with narrowed eyes.
“You can walk faster than me, so I just figured that I’d slow you guys down less if I rode on your back.”
“Fine.” Chrysalis answered, not wanting to argue with the little thing. Sure, she could have just bucked him off and told him to get lost, but that might injure him and doing so would probably screw up the time line or something.
Soon the seven of them were at the entrance to the Everfree forest. It was a dark place, which perhaps should have been expected of a forest at night. If one had an overactive imagination, they could easily imagine that the light was somehow being dimmed by some kind of magical force. Still, it was nothing compared to the darkness of being burrowed beneath a mountain, so it really didn’t bother Chrysalis at all. It did, however, seem to bother her companions. They were jumping in fright at any random sound that the forest produced.
“Ugh...how are we supposed to beat Nightmare Moon if you’re all scared of the dark?” Chrysalis complained.
“It isn’t that it’s dark! Just look at it! It’s dreadful!” Rarity spoke with a quavering tone.
“It just ain’t natural! Folks say it don’t work the same as Equestria.” AJ added.
Chrysalis rolled her eyes and responded with a generous amount of sarcasm. “Oh no, how terrible! Please oh please tell me how this place ‘ain’t natural’.”
“Noooopony knooows! You know why?” Rainbow Dash extended her words in an imitation ghostly moans from a foal's scary, campfire tale.
“Rainbow, quit it!” Applejack scolded her friend who had started approaching the rest of the group with a crouched gait.
The others had stopped in their tracks near a cliff, trembling in fear. If it weren’t causing further delays, Chrysalis might have found amusement in Rainbow’s antics. As annoying as the lot of them were, Rainbow Dash was perhaps the least annoying of the bunch. She had even proven useful with her scouting abilities, far more than she could say of the others so far.
“’Cause everypony who's ever come in has never...come...OUT!” She screamed the last word and hopped into the air for an added layer of intimidation.
Chrysalis couldn’t help but chuckle at the way that three of the others let out a squeal of fright. That chuckle soon morphed into a scream when a large chunk of the cliff side they were standing on crumbled beneath their feet. Five of them, the four non-pegasi and the dragon, fell with the crumbling earth as they panicked. Chrysalis scrambled to latch onto something, anything that could slow her tumble down the steep hill that had formed but to no avail. It wasn’t until she was half over the final edge over a very long drop that she managed to come to a halt. The jerking motion of her halt wrenched Spike from his grip on her back and he fell, managing to latch onto Chrysalis’ tail at the last second, eliciting a yelp of pain from her.
“Twilight, heeeelp!” The baby dragon screamed at her.
“Whatever you do, don’t let go, Spike!” She ordered.
“Wasn’t planning on it...” He whimpered.
“Okay...just climb back up. Easy!” She muttered to herself as she reached for an exposed root to help pull Spike and herself to safety. Unfortunately it gave way beneath her weight and she slid even further over the edge, only holding on by her hooves now.
“Hang on! Ah’m a comin’!” AJ shouted as she slid down the slope at a controlled pace, coming to a stop just within reach of the distressed duo. She grabbed hold of Chrysalis’ hooves.
Chrysalis was shocked by her rescuer. Of all the ponies she thought might be willing to help her, Applejack was the least likely. She seemed to have a chip on her shoulder over her for some unfathomable reason. Not that she truly needed the mare’s help, if it came down to it she could always fly her way to safety. She’d probably have to make up some story about a spell that allowed her to grow wings and try to convince them of the truth of such an outlandish lie, but she would survive. Spike, on the other hoof, wasn’t lucky enough to have wings.
“Hey, Spike!” Chrysalis tried to get the dragon’s attention. “Climb up my body to get to safety.
“I..I’ll try.” Chrysalis gritted her teeth in an effort to endure the pain of having her tail used as a rope as Spike began his ascent.
“As for you, Applejack, when he gets close enough, help him up.”
“But—” Applejack began.
“Just do it! Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine!”
Suddenly, the little claws that had surpassed her tail and had grabbed onto her hip slipped and the weight that had been hanging from Chrysalis faded.
“Spike!” She screamed, letting go of Applejack’s hooves and throwing herself from the cliff face. Her eyes swiftly locked onto the free falling dragon as he flailed about in a panic all the while screaming out the name ‘Twilight’. She straightened her body to minimize wind resistance so that she could gain speed and stretched out her hooves towards him.
“Gotcha!” She declared triumphantly as she pulled the terrified lizard to her chest. She prepared herself to transform, not all the way, just enough to get her wings back and avoid being smashed against the swiftly approaching ground. She hoped that she’d be able to convince the others that it was just a spell she knew. Before she could do that, though, she felt two pairs of hooves grab hold of her from either side and slow her fall to a much less death inducing speed.
“Oh...uh...thanks.” Chrysalis stumbled over expressing her gratitude to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash as they helped her get to the ground safely.
“Are you out of your mind!?” Rainbow Dash asked her. “Did you forget that we can fly and help you out? You’re not alone out here, Twilight!”
“It may have slipped my mind.” Chrysalis admitted.
“Uh...Twilight? Are ya okay?”
Chrysalis turned to see Applejack, who had somehow descended to the bottom of the cliff on her own while she wasn’t looking.
“I’m fine.” She answered brusquely. “I’m surprised you care with the way you’ve been treating me. That you helped at all, actually.”
Applejack winced at this. “Ah admit that I ain't been treatin' ya the greatest, but ya ain't exactly been givin' me much cause to trust ya. Shucks, ah still think ya lied 'bout knowin' where the elements are.”
“How kind of you to say, I like you too.” Chrysalis deadpanned.
“Jus’ bein’ honest is all. But ah can’t believe that anypony that would be so selfless as to jump after a child like that can be all bad, even if it was a fool thing to do. Ya’ve got a good heart beneath that prickly skin o’ yours an’ ya probably mean well with what yer doin’.” Chrysalis raised an eyebrow when Applejack paused for a moment. “Look, what ah’m sayin’ is that ah think we got off on the wrong hoof twice now. Ah would be honoured to be yer friend.”
“Great. Charmed. Friends. Now can we please get going? We’re behind schedule.” Chrysalis answered in an impatient tone, levitated Spike back onto her back and walked away from the hoof that Applejack had extended with her peace offering. Applejack’s eye twitched over being snubbed like that.
“She’s jus’ worried is all...she don’t mean nothin’ by it.” Applejack grumbled to herself as she set to following after the group of ponies that had started to leave her behind.
As the group went on their way, Rainbow Dash continued to provide two things to the group. First was a more or less consistent direction thanks to her ability to fly above the trees to get a bird’s eyes view. Second was a near endless stream of her ego.
“—and once Pinkie and Rarity were safe, whoosh! Me and Fluttershy looped the loop around and wham! Caught you and Spike right in the nick of time.” Dash recounted her rescue of them from mere minutes ago, with her own exaggerated re-enactment as she flew through the air above them.
“Gee...that story’s even better the third time you tell it.” Chrysalis responded sarcastically. She began to wonder if it would have been better to have her cover blown and trying to talk her way out of being a changeling than to listen to Rainbow's unending boasting. Just as she was afraid that she would go into another retelling of the story, a bestial roar split the night air.
“What the heck is that?!” Chrysalis screamed.
A monstrosity that would fit right into her dreams blocked their path. It was an oversized lion that had giant bat wings and a scorpion tail. She had never before seen a creature like that, but her mind immediately flew to the closest thing she could remember: Discord. Both were a mismatched assortment of various animals. What if Time Keeper’s intervention in the past caused Discord to be released sooner than was supposed to happen and he was about to drown the world in chaos? What if this thing was a creature created by Discord to destroy her? What if this thing was Discord himself?!
All of that raced through her mind in less than a second and she reacted purely on panicked instinct when the thing reached out with a paw to swipe at Rarity. She fired up her horn and lashed out with her magic. The end result was one incredibly surprised monster being tossed through the air into the solid rock cliff face near it and crumpling to the dirt in a heap of pained growls and mews. Chrysalis stood there staring at the cat, gasping for breath as the adrenaline pumped through her.
“NO!” Fluttershy screamed as she flew towards the creature.
“Stay away from that thing!” Chrysalis screamed back, still completely freaked out at the possibility of Discord being involved somehow.
“It’s not a thing! It’s a manticore!” Fluttershy glared icy daggers at Chrysalis before turning back to the manticore. “You didn’t really want to harm us, did you?”
“What in the world is a manticore?” Chrysalis demanded as she tried to calm her breathing.
“You’re just a big, kitten, aren’t you?” Fluttershy asked the thing as she nuzzled its paw, which was comically huge next to her face, and then gasped. “No wonder you were so grumpy! Now this might hurt a little...”
Fluttershy bit onto something that was hidden from Chrysalis’ view and yanked with her teeth. It caused the manticore to let loose with a pained sound that was half growl and half roar, more than enough to cause the rest of the ponies to flinch. It picked up its massive frame and returned to its feet, all under the smiling watch of Fluttershy. She looked like a mother that was relieved to see her foal recovering from a serious injury.
“Now, now, don’t overdo it. If you need to rest some more, you should do so.” The manticore leaned forward, somewhat unsteadily, and gave Fluttershy a long, loving lick. Chrysalis and the others watched in shock as Fluttershy gave her goodbyes to the creature and it went on its perfectly peaceful way, albeit with a bit of a limp. The yellow and pink pegasus returned to her friends, her mane completely messed up by the licking she had just received.
“How did you...?” Chrysalis’ words trailed off as she tried to comprehend what had just happened. She had never before seen a creature dealt with in such a fashion. Even if that thing hadn’t been an abomination summoned by Discord, it was still some kind of monster. Her past experiences told her that the best thing to do with potential threats was to destroy them as quickly as possible before they destroy you.
“Sometimes all you need is a little kindness.” Fluttershy answered and then turned her nose up somewhat as she continued. “Maybe if you weren’t so quick to use violence, you’d know that too.”
Chrysalis watched as Fluttershy and the other four ponies continued on their journey, thinking on what had just happened. Kindness. Was it truly such a great tool? Could it really be that simple? That a bit of kindness could disarm a potential threat just as effectively as striking it down?
“Uh...Twilight?” Spike spoke up and waved a claw in front of Chrysalis' face. “Equestria to Twilight! Are you in there?”
“Huh?” Chrysalis snapped out of her thoughts.
“We’re gonna lose them if we don’t get moving!” Spike urged her onward.
“Oh, right.”
Chrysalis followed after her ‘friends’, her train of thought completely destroyed. Her thoughts returned to the more important issue of Nightmare Moon.
“Okay, so I was thinking that once we got to the castle we should split up into teams of two and search for the elements, that way we can cover more ground while not being completely vulnerable from being by ourselves.”
“That seems a splendid idea.” Rarity responded. “One question, though...what do these elements of harmony look like, exactly?”
Chrysalis thought back to the time that she had faced off against Twilight and her friends in the past. She hadn’t seen the elements personally, choosing instead to send a legion of her soldiers to deal with them, so she could only go off of the basic descriptions they had given her.
“They’re jewels of some kind,” Chrysalis explained, “and they’re set in some form of golden jewellery. Necklaces I think.”
“Really? Where’d you find that out?” Spike asked. Chrysalis flinched, realizing that she probably shouldn’t have known that but quickly calmed herself. It was an insignificant slip, and easily explained away.
“I think I saw a drawing of them or something.” She waved off his concerns.
Suddenly, the already dim light of the forest grew even darker to the point where nothing could be seen at all. Chrysalis sighed. If this was an attempt by Nightmare Moon to stop them, she really had a low opinion of their abilities. Ignoring her companions’ complaints about the sudden blackness, she lit up her horn to provide the group with ample light to travel by. Immediately upon being able to see again, everyone except for Chrysalis screamed in terror. Chrysalis turned to face them as they huddled up together out of fear, excepting Spike who was cowering on her back instead and Pinkie who seemed to have disappeared into the darkness beyond her horn's glow.
“Seriously?” She deadpanned. “They’re just trees.”
And trees they were. Dozens of them, in fact. Sure, they were creepy as far as trees went, what with the semblance of sharp fangs lining holes that looked kind of like mouths if you squinted at them the right way, but that’s all they were. As a proper sharp fanged predatory creature herself, she felt the mockery of that image was closer to insulting than it was frightening.
“T...T...Twilight? Maybe you should step away from the killer trees? Maybe?” Spike practically begged her from his position on her back.
“Are you really afraid of a bunch of trees, Spike? Dragons breathe fire! Burn them down if they bother you so much!” She sighed when his only response was to grip her mane very tightly. “We don't have time for this...Look, trees can’t move. Just don’t get too close to them and you’ll be fine.”
“How are we supposed to not get close to trees in the middle of a forest?!” Rarity shrieked shrilly.
Before Chrysalis could respond, the tense atmosphere was split by a loud giggle. Chrysalis’ eyes were drawn to Pinkie Pie, who had suddenly shown up next to one of the fanged trees. She looked to be having a ball as she laughed and made faces at it. Oddly, the general atmosphere seemed to brighten a little, literally speaking.
“Uh...Pinkie? Are you okay?” Chrysalis asked, wondering if her fears had caused her to snap.
“Oh, girls, don’t you see?” The next words to come out of Pinkie’s mouth shocked Chrysalis far more than even having the trees coming to life to attack them would have, for those words came out in song. “When I was a little filly and the sun was going doooooown!”
“She isn’t...” Chrysalis grumbled.
“She is.” Rarity confirmed as Pinkie continued the song.
Chrysalis sat down, refusing to listen to or even acknowledge Pinkie Pie’s antics as she jumped around gaily and sang about when she was a little filly. This was ridiculous, How was singing supposed to help them right now? They should stop wasting time and get moving. At that moment in Pinkie’s surprise choreography, she went right up to a tree and laughed in its imitation of a face.
“Ha! Ha! Ha!”
It wasn’t even a good laugh. It was slow, well enunciated and so obviously faked that it was painful. This fact made it all the more vexing when the face on the tree went poof and disappeared. Chrysalis was so shocked that she had to pick her jaw up off the ground.
“How? That doesn’t make any sense!” Chrysalis argued while she watched the rest of the group getting in on the laughing action and the spooky trees turned into normal ones left and right. At one point, Pinkie Pie shoved Chrysalis towards one of the trees encouraging her to “chortle” at it.
“I refuse to dignify this insanity with any kind of laughter.” She declared as she sat down and crossed her forelegs and stared irritably at the pseudo face, causing Spike to slide to the ground. Her impromptu staring contest was cut short when he climbed up her body to balance on top of her head and let out a boyish laugh, causing her opponent to burst into nothingness just like all the others. A few seconds later, everyone else had fallen to the ground in fits of laughter while Chrysalis looked down upon them with disdain.
“This was stupid.”
“Silly, Twilight! Laughing is never stupid!” Pinkie Pie replied through her fit of chuckling.
“These trees were never a threat to begin with and we have an insane alicorn that may cause the end of the world. Nothing about this is a laughing matter!” She screamed. Pinkie’s laughter, indeed everybody’s, came to an abrupt halt.
“Oh...I see.” Was all Pinkie said as she wilted beneath Chrysalis’ glare.
“Hey! No need to be a jerk!” Rainbow Dash stood up for Pinkie.
“Yeah, Twilight, you need to lighten up!” Spike added.
“Ah know that yer worried an’ all, but that’s no reason to be so rude to yer friends!” Applejack layered on her own criticism.
Chrysalis looked between her ‘friends’ and saw both Fluttershy and Rarity nodding their agreement as they all glared at her with disapproval. She groaned with frustration. Couldn’t they see there were more important things than their feelings right now? How could they be so selfish?
“Fine! I’m sorry! Happy now?” Chrysalis caved in to their pressure. “Can we get going? We still have Nightmare Moon to worry about!”
“Hey, wait up!” Spike shouted as Chrysalis trotted off ahead of the others.
She fumed with frustration and anger. How could such an undisciplined and easily distracted group be such a threat to her and her changelings in the future? They had to have gotten better at this sort of thing before they clashed with her changelings, her pride couldn’t allow for the acceptance of anything else.
“Twilight!” Spike shouted again as he tried to catch up with her. “Are you okay?”
“Just dandy.” Chrysalis growled, refusing to look at him.
“But—”
“I said I’m fine!” Her tone made it very clear she wanted no more discussion on the topic.
“O...okay.” Spike slowed his pace, no longer attempting to keep up with his care taker. He looked up to the next pony to follow after Chrysalis with the beginnings of tears in his eyes. “Is it because of me? Did I do something wrong?”
“No, ya did nothin’ wrong. C’mon, sugarcube, ah’ll carry ya fer awhile.” Applejack knelt down to allow Spike to climb onto her back, and then trotted to catch up to Chrysalis. “We’ll see this through to the end with ya, Twilight, but once we’re done in here we’re gonna have to have a talk.”
Chrysalis ignored her. If she had learned anything in her time spent with them, it was that children weren’t the only ones to blab on about irrelevant things. How was she supposed to handle spending potentially years with these ponies? She might be driven mad and make an attempt to purposely botch the re-enactment of Twilight’s life just to end it all.
She came to a stop at a raging river. Staring at the furious rapids passing by soothed Chrysalis’ anger somewhat, possibly because she was imagining throwing her companions into it. She may not be able to do that in reality, but she could dream.
“How are we gonna cross this?!” Pinkie Pie shouted over the roar of the waters when she caught up to Chrysalis.
“Simple.” Chrysalis answered in an irritated tone. “Even you should have figured this one out. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy carry us over it. I’ll go first. Dash?”
“On it!” Rainbow Dash saluted. “Come on, Flutters!”
“Oh, umm...okay.”
The two of them latched onto her from each side, much like they had done earlier when she had fallen from the cliff, and lifted her in the air. She in turn grabbed onto Spike from his position on Applejack’s back with her magic who gave a yelp of surprise. The spray from the waters below dampened the fur of Chrysalis’ disguise, but otherwise nothing of note happened on the trip over. It seemed that for once this was going to be an uneventful obstacle where these ponies would actually listen to her. Upon returning to solid ground, she learned that she really should have known better than to think such a thing, as the others had completely disappeared from their position on the other side of the river.
“Now what?” Chrysalis grumbled.
“I dunno. I’ll see if I can find them.” Rainbow Dash flew off in search of their missing companions with Fluttershy following shortly after. Moments later, Dash indicated upriver to Chrysalis and then disappeared from view. With a defeated sigh, Chrysalis walked along her side of the flowing water until she spied a giant, purple serpent like creature that had previously been hidden by a bend in the river. This serpent happened to be flailing about as he threw a tantrum in that river.
“What a world! What a world!” He proclaimed as he thrashed about in the water.
“Relative of yours, Spike?”
“Hey! I am a dragon, and he is clearly a sea serpent!” Spike huffed indignantly from his position standing beside her.
“I dunno, are you sure? He’s a purple lizard that’s throwing a tantrum. Sounds a lot like you.” Chrysalis teased him. Spike harrumphed in faux offence, but in actuality smiled in relief that his Twilight was talking to him in a much less angry way again.
“Hey, I think I see the others!” Spike shouted and pointed at a point across the river where five ponies were standing.
“Oh you wouldn’t believe what happened!” The serpent practically screamed at the assembly of five in an overly campy voice. “I was just sitting here, minding my own business when this tacky cloud of purple smoke just whisked past me and tore half of my beloved moustache clean off! And now I look simply horrid!”
The giant serpent dropped its head and neck, or upper part of his body, or whatever the heck it was on a snake like creature, into the river as he went back to his crying. This sudden action resulted in a wave of water breaking the banks of the river on both sides.
“Oh crap!” Chrysalis cursed with widened eyes as the wall of liquid came at her. She braced herself for impact but was still knocked off her hooves when it struck. She coughed up some water that she had unintentionally swallowed during the ordeal and stood back up shakily on her hooves. She noticed very quickly that Spike had disappeared from her sight and felt a surge of panic rising in her.
“Spike? Spike!?”
“Over here, Twilight...”
“Oh, thank goodness you’re okay!” She scooped him up in a hug. He hugged her back and after a few seconds of blissful silence, spoke up.
“So...you’re not mad at me anymore?”
Chrysalis returned the little creature to her back. His weight there had grown into an oddly comforting presence.
“Don’t be stupid, Spike. I wasn’t angry at you, I was just...frustrated.”
Instead of vocally responding, Spike chose to wrap his little arms around Chrysalis’ neck. Chrysalis froze in place, though quickly relaxed when she realized it wasn’t an attempt at her life but a hug instead. She let the little nuisance do as he desired, purely for the purposes of her disguise, of course.
While she had been distracted by the small purple lizard, the large one in the river stopped his flailing about and the waters calmed dramatically. It was perhaps a little odd that a single creature could cause the river to be so thoroughly violent, but Chrysalis really didn’t feel like questioning it at that moment.
“Allow me!” The campy voice said, perhaps in answer to a conversation she had not been privy to, as he formed a sort of bridge with his body for the others to hop across. Something looked oddly out of place and familiar about his suddenly half purple moustache. Upon Rarity’s arrival on her side of the river, she realized just what it was.
“Rarity, what happened to your tail?” Chrysalis stared in shock at the ragged stump of hair that remained of what had previously been a very elegantly styled tail.
“It’s okay, I just gave it to the serpent here to fix the atrocity that was his ruined moustache!” Rarity answered with an exaggerated carefree tone. “It’ll grow back!”
Rarity was clearly bothered considerably by the loss of her precious locks, yet she had willingly given it up to help another. Chrysalis would never have guessed that such a self obsessed pony would be willing to do something so kind and generous, despite knowing that she was supposed to be the bearer of the element of generosity. What was with these ponies? For every time they did something completely infuriating, they seemed to do things that completely defied her expectations of them! Given how frightened they were by mere trees, she had half expected them to be completely paralyzed in terror at the sight of a giant sea serpent.
“Fine, let’s just get moving again.” Chrysalis finally replied. If Rarity didn’t want to make a fuss over her lost tail, then that was fine with her. Preferable, even.
The next leg of their journey was uneventful. No raging rivers with crying serpents, no crumbling ground beneath their hooves, no raging animals, nothing. Near half an hour later, the castle they were heading for was in sight. It seemed almost too good to be true.
“Finally! Let’s get this over with.” Chrysalis said.
The group didn’t get much further before they were faced with another problem. There was another cliff, a pair of cliffs facing each other creating a crevasse actually, and the bridge that connected them had collapsed at some point. A quick look down showed that it was still connected from their side and appeared to be more or less intact, or at least the extent of it that wasn’t hidden by the mist below was anyway.
“Now what?!” Pinkie shouted into the darkness of the night.
“Duh!” Rainbow Dash answered as she fluttered her wings and flew into the chasm to retrieve the fallen bridge.
“Oh yeah!” Pinkie said.
Chrysalis smiled. For once, one of her companions had actually thought of the simple solution. The fact that it had been Rainbow Dash, the one she had generally taken for being one of the least intelligent of the bunch, surprised her. She watched as the rainbow maned mare disappeared into the fog, shortly reappeared with the end of the bridge in her mouth and then landed on the other side of the chasm. Then she did something incredibly infuriating. She dropped the rope.
“Come on!” Chrysalis screamed with rage as the bridge hung there limply over the chasm, incapable of supporting anything larger than a squirrel.
The fog swirled around Rainbow Dash on the other side, growing thicker and obscuring her from view.
“Maybe she saw something?” Spike suggested. “She probably has a good reason.”
“Maybe.” Chrysalis conceded. She gave it a fifty-fifty tossup as to whether it was something legitimate or Dash just being stupid.
“Umm...do you want me to get the bridge?” Fluttershy offered.
“No, I’ve got it this time.” Chrysalis answered.
With her magic, she reached across the crevasse and grabbed the rope that Rainbow had dropped. With more difficulty than she cared to admit, she tied it to a post on the other side, securing their path across.
“Alright, now let’s go see why Rainbow Dash got distracted.”
As the six of them started crossing the bridge, the voices of Rainbow Dash and some unknown pony came into earshot.
”No, Rainbow Dash, we want you to join us, the Shadow Bolts! We are the greatest aerial team in the Everfree Forest, and soon we will be the greatest in all Equestria, but first, we need a captain."
Chrysalis and the others finished crossing the bridge and found the sight of Rainbow Dash being wooed by a pegasus mare with a blue mane in a black and purple, skin tight flying suit. Just barely visible on the edges of her vision were two other similarly garbed pegasi. Rainbow Dash seemed to be complete putty in her hooves as they layered on the flattering words about her flying prowess so thickly that it put anything Chrysalis ever said to butter up ponies while in disguise to shame.
“We need...you!” The mare loudly whispered in Dash’s ear. Seriously, they were about as subtle as a shovel to the face.
“Woohoo!” Dash flew straight up into the air and cheered. “Sign me up! Just let me—oh, hi girls.”
“You do know that being the best flyers in a place where nopony actually lives is hardly impressive, right?” Chrysalis pointed out.
“What?!” The dark mare screamed and flared her wings furiously. “How did you get across?!”
“Magic.” Chrysalis tapped her horn. “I’m going to assume you’re either a conjuration of Nightmare Moon’s or that you work for her. Either way, you really need to put more thought into trying to stop us. Seriously, we have two pegasi and two unicorns, any of which could handle a broken bridge.”
The mystery mare hissed and then all three of the dark pegasi burst into clouds of magical, blue mist.
“Conjuration it is.” Chrysalis affirmed aloud with a smirk.
“Oh.” Rainbow Dash giggled nervously. “Sorry about that.”
“No, no, I get it. You were presented with something you really wanted and you were going to leave us to pursue it. I understand, I forgive you.” She dismissed Dash’s concerns as she continued on their journey.
Chrysalis’ words were sincere, she truly did understand, or so she believed. She wasn’t even angry about it, even if she knew she should be. Dash was proving to be a simple, single minded mare, and there was something about her incredible devotion to her goals that Chrysalis could respect. She could still look down on her for not seeing how obviously a trick the whole situation had been, but she hadn’t exactly had high expectations of the mare to begin with. To be honest, Dash almost reminded her of some of the changelings she knew back at the hive. Mostly the ones she’d never let out into the world because they were too innocent, naive or stupid to possibly avoid being caught by the ponies. Lucky for Dash, she wasn't a changeling that would get herself killed by being herself.
“What? No! I’d never abandon you guys!” Dash protested as she flew right in front of Chrysalis and landed, her wings spread wide in an effort to halt her march. Chrysalis rolled her eyes and walked around her. “You believe me, right?” She pleaded with the others, nearly on the verge of tears.
“Of course we do, sugar cube.” Applejack reassured her as she passed by. Rainbow Dash followed after the others, though with considerably less enthusiasm than before.
Chrysalis approached the nearby castle’s entrance and pushed open the ancient, ornately carved wooden doors. This part of the building was in rough shape, to put it mildly. At best a third of the walls’ height remained standing, the ceiling had long ago collapsed, and what did remain was cracked and crumbling. Vines grew over the floor and several pillars that lined the outer edges of the room, many of which were hewn in two at varying heights. There were at least a dozen windows, all lined with the metal framework for what may have once been rather fancifully designed glass, but not a single shard of what may have been remained in the gaping holes.
Beyond this area the castle appeared to be more intact, but this particular room was in complete shambles. It looked as if it had been torn apart by some sort of catastrophe, or perhaps a battle between incredibly destructive titans. Chrysalis could easily imagine that the final battle with Nightmare Moon might have occurred here all those years ago. Why they wouldn’t have repaired the place afterwards if that was the case, she couldn't fathom. The rest of the ponies filed in after her one at a time, gazing in awe at the ancient structure’s interior. Even in its ruined state, it was quite the sight to behold. Chrysalis could only imagine how grand the place would have looked in its prime.
“Whoa!” Applejack spoke as if for all those present.
“Hey, Twilight.” Spike paused to yawn, covering his mouth with a claw as he did so and pointing at some kind of stone structure in the centre of the room. “Do you think those are the elements of harmony?”
Beneath all of the overgrown vegetation was a stone pillar, approximately four times her current height, with a large sphere on top of it. Jutting out at various spots in the shaft of it were arms that each ended with a sort of dish. Upon each of those dishes was a stone sphere with what appeared to be imitation of gemstones carved into them. They looked unlike any of the descriptions that had been given to her of the elements of harmony. She had been told of flashy bits of jewellery with gemstones in them. The only thing that connected these to the stories she heard were the gems, and even that was a stretch as these looked to just be carved facsimiles of precious stones.
“I...don’t know.” Chrysalis admitted as she stared at the balls skeptically. “They don’t really look like I expected.”
The pegasi of the group flew up and carried them to the floor. Rainbow Dash in particular seemed eager to help, though Chrysalis was unsure as to why. Chrysalis placed a hoof on one and rolled it back and forth experimentally. She didn’t know what she expected to happen by doing so. She didn’t know what to do at all, actually.
“One, two, three, four, five!” Pinkie Pie counted the stones aloud. "How many are there supposed to be?"
“Six, I think. Perhaps these aren’t really the elements.” Chrysalis suggested. “Maybe we should stick with the original plan of splitting into teams and searching the rest of the place.”
“But what if these are the elements?” Fluttershy asked as she too poked at one of the balls.
Spike hopped off of Chrysalis’ back and stepped into the circle of balls. He let out a tremendous yawn, looking as if he could fall over from exhaustion any second now.
“You girls go ahead and look...I’ll stay and watch over these.” He assured them. His words were undermined considerably by his obvious fatigue and the fact that he tripped over one of the potential elements of harmony and landed face first on the ground.
“Right...uh...maybe Spike and I will both stay and watch over these. You girls go ahead and look around.” Chrysalis offered up as an alternative.
“That’s okay with me, Twilight.” Applejack agreed. “If the elements are somewhere else in this here castle, me an’ the girls’ll find ‘em lickety split!”
Chrysalis watched the other five mares wander off in two separate teams. When they had escaped from her line of sight, she looked back to the stones in front of her. Spike hadn’t gotten up from falling over and had in fact gone so far as to rest his little head against one of the spheres as if it were a pillow. Gentle snores filled the otherwise quiet room. She smiled absently at the sight, not even aware that she was doing so.
She returned to examining the objects laid out on the ground. They were in surprisingly good shape, considering how old they must have been. There were no noticeable cracks or chips on their surfaces and they didn’t seem to be worn down by the weather they no doubt had been exposed to inside a roofless building. Not to say they looked to be in anything resembling pristine condition, just that they were in remarkably better shape than the crumbling ruins they had been found in. She wondered if perhaps they had merely stumbled across what was intended as a fanciful sculpture inside the castle’s entrance hall that was intended to impress guests that were just arriving.
She fired up her horn and began investigating the orbs with a few spells. She could detect a faint, magical essence deep inside them, but barely. It could mean these truly were the elements of harmony that they were searching for, or it could just be the remnants of a spell that the cleaning staff had put on them all those centuries ago to keep them tidy and render their jobs a little easier. Magic as old as this was rather hard to pinpoint the purpose of with only a few seconds of examination. Even if these were the elements of harmony, one was missing, or at least she thought one was. Maybe there were really only the five of them that the others used and Twilight herself had acted as a conduit for all their destructive powers without having a stone of her own.
As Chrysalis prodded at the ancient artifacts, a starry blue cloud of energy snaked its way into the room and towards them. Upon reaching the stones, the cloud began swirling in a vortex around them.
“Seriously?” Chrysalis griped as the vortex of what was obviously Nightmare Moon’s magic grew in speed, crackling with its intense levels of energy. Within seconds, the stones were being lifted into the air and Spike along with them. She concluded that these really were the elements of harmony after all. Why else would Nightmare Moon try to take them from her in such a fashion?
“Whoa! What’s going on?!” Spike shouted as he woke up from his slumber and tumbled round in circles with the elements of harmony. “I think I’m gonna be sick!” Spike covered his mouth with his claws.
“Hold on, Spike!” Chrysalis shouted into the vortex. She tried to latch onto the elements and Spike both to haul them out of the magical field, but found that it was too strong to do so. Instead of pulling them out of the cyclone of magic, she was pulled in with them. As she too was exposed to terrifying levels of dizziness inducing spinning, she screamed.
“Hold on, Twilight! We’re comin’ for ya!” She could hear the shouts of Applejack and the sound of hooves rattling against the stone floor approaching her, though visually she could make out little more than a blur of colour as she spun around at a nauseating velocity. Before the others had a chance to help her or, perhaps more likely, get trapped themselves, the entire world disappeared in a flash of light.
The world reappeared in a plume of thick, black smoke. Chrysalis and Spike coughed as the acrid cloud filled their lungs. When the smoke cleared, it revealed another room of the castle. While far from being in good shape, it looked to be in one piece. Standing on a dais at the end of the room was Nightmare Moon, and the elements of harmony were floating in a ring around her as she laughed. Beside Chrysalis, Spike gasped.
“Go and hide,” she ordered the little dragon as she lowered herself into a combat ready stance and lit up her horn, “I’ll handle Nightmare Moon.”
The corrupted alicorn raised an eyebrow at Chrysalis’ gestures, completely ignoring Spike as he ran off behind a pillar.
“You’re kidding.” Nightmare Moon deadpanned. “You’re kidding, right?”
Chrysalis held her ground for only a moment before she halted the flow of magic to her horn and stood in a more natural stance.
“Very wise of you. What you lack in bravery you make up for with sense.” Nightmare Moon half commended, half mocked her.
“Why would I oppose you?” Chrysalis asked. “A creature as beautiful, and powerful as you are should be admired, not fought against.”
“What?” Nightmare Moon narrowed her eyes and leaned forward to get a better look at the unicorn that had just praised her.
“Who needs the sun when I could bask in the glory of this voluptuous moon before me.” Chrysalis started walking towards the confused alicorn with half lidded eyes and a noticeable sway in her hips.
Nightmare Moon blinked a few times as Chrysalis drew closer, staring at her with sultry eyes. She was so taken off guard by this change in behaviour that she involuntarily took a step back when Chrysalis took her first step up the dais Nightmare Moon stood on.
“You have such long, powerful legs, a perfect arch to your back, an elegant neck, a mane to rival the beauty of the night sky itself, and eyes that I could stare into for a thousand years and never grow weary of.”
“A...art thou trying to court me?” In her continued inability to get a proper grasp on the situation that had spiralled a direction she had never seen coming, Nightmare Moon fell into a more archaic speech pattern.
“I’m just giving you what you wanted all this time...the adulation you deserve. Now show me a smile, I want to see those fangs of yours.”
Nightmare Moon looked from side to side uncertain of how to respond at first, but her nervousness began to fade and she relaxed a little under the attention she was receiving, that she had longed for. This adoration took a form she had not expected, but she had to admit there was a certain...pleasantness to it all. Getting a little more into the spirit of the encounter, she let a toothy grin show. Chrysalis nearly closed her eyes, leaving them open but a sliver and moaned with what seemed near orgasmic pleasure.
“Ohhhh....I would love to exchange love bites with you.” Chrysalis moaned as she stared up the currently taller alicorn’s open maw. She ran her tongue over her own teeth. She continued in a breathy whisper. “You’ve shown me yours, it’s only fair I show you mine.”
With a small flash of green, Chrysalis revealed her own sharp fangs and smiled wickedly at the mare in front of her, her horn continuing to glow green long after the transformation was complete. Nightmare Moon’s eyes widened in surprise, but she held her ground, intrigued.
“Dost...Do you use dark magic as well?” She whispered in awe, suspecting that perhaps she had found a kindred spirit in that purple unicorn.
“That’s my little secret.” Chrysalis winked and then lunged forth, eagerly locking lips with the taller pony who, after a moment’s hesitation, returned the kiss with equal enthusiasm.
Chrysalis prepared herself for the expected influx of love that she would harvest from the princess turned abomination, but she could not have anticipated what she received. It was love, but barely recognizable as such. It was buried beneath a mountain of something darker. It was tainted with rage, jealousy, envy and every other negative emotion under the sun. She began to feel lightheaded and dizzy from her harvest. She had to cut off the kiss lest she fall over from absorbing such a contamination into her own body. Never before had she tasted love so thoroughly consumed by darkness, there was no way that it was natural.
“That was...pleasant.” Nightmare Moon declared with a satisfied grin, not quite aware of the reason that Chrysalis had ended their kiss.
“Twilight! We’re comin’!” The shouts of Applejack could be heard in the distance, along with a cacophony of other voices. Nightmare Moon and Chrysalis’ heads snapped to the other end of the room where five ponies could be seen entering from the stairs below.
“Hey girls, catch!” Chrysalis screamed at the mares who had just walked into view.
“What?!” Nightmare Moon screamed as the elements of harmony soared through the air towards the other end of the room where they were caught by the incoming mares, tossed by Chrysalis’ magic that had been slowly levitating them away from Nightmare Moon since just before the kiss. “You traitor!”
“Sorry to leave you all hot and bothered, princess. Consider it pay back for that little S&M show you forced me into at the town hall.”
Gritting her teeth and trembling with rage, Nightmare Moon struck Chrysalis with a backhanded swipe of her hoof. Chrysalis was sent flying several meters through the air and landed near the hooves of her companions.
“Are you okay?!” Rainbow Dash asked as she helped Chrysalis back to her hooves.
“I’m fine.” Chrysalis answered with a grimace as she rubbed the pain in her jaw. “Let’s just use these stupid things to get rid of Nightmare Moon.”
“Ah second that notion.” Applejack added as she stood defiantly facing their enemy.
“Alright, Nightmare Moon, it’s time to end this!” Chrysalis declared as she stepped just slightly ahead of the group, hoping that the conduit theory she thought of earlier was right.
“No...” Nightmare Moon uttered in fear and took a step back. She braced herself, shut her eyes tight and waited for her impending doom.
And waited.
And waited.
“Twilight, darling...how are we supposed to use these again?” Rarity cut through the awkward silence with an armour piercing question. Chrysalis’ ears plastered against her skull as she realized just how much trouble they were in.
“Seriously?!” Nightmare Moon had regained her composure and was laughing mockingly at the team of ponies that come to defeat her. “You don’t know, do you? You’ve come all this way and you can’t do a thing!”
“I’ll show you who can’t do a thing!” Rainbow Dash shouted right before hurtling through the air in an attempt to dive bomb Nightmare Moon. The corrupted alicorn didn’t even flinch as she swatted the pegasus aside with a flash of magic.
“A valiant effort, I commend you all for your bravery! You may be just what I’m looking for in my own personal soldiers!”
“We'd never work for you!” Applejack spat at the floor in disgust of what Nightmare Moon was suggesting.
“You say that now, but we’ll see how long it takes to break you.”
Nightmare Moon stepped towards the group of ponies and they all either flinched, wilted beneath her terrifying gaze, or took an involuntary step back. Not even Chrysalis was able to stand her ground. This was not going the way it was supposed to. She tricked the bearers into being her friends, dragged them through that forsaken forest, located the elements of harmony and tried to use them to blast Nightmare Moon into oblivion, and yet it didn’t work! She had gone through all the steps! What did she miss?!
As the crazed alicorn lifted the six of them into the air with her magic, Chrysalis could tell that she just didn’t have the power to compete with her at that moment. She just didn’t have enough love to compare to what she had when she had taken Princess Celestia down in a one on one duel. In order to reach that level of strength, she’d have to be draining copious amounts of love every day for at least a week if she wanted to avoid killing her prey. To do so at a quick enough rate to possibly save them, she’d need around half a dozen willing victims to open up their hearts to her and practically invite her to feast on them, and she'd be running a serious risk of killing some of them before she gleaned enough power.
The magic keeping them suspended began to constrict around them, snaking across their frames and squeezing them tighter and tighter. It was getting hard to breathe. If this kept up they’d likely lose consciousness, and who could possibly guess what would happen to them then.
“Twilight,” Applejack gasped through their sudden difficulties breathing, “ah hope ya’ve got a bright idea or two...”
Near half a dozen willing prey. That was all she needed. Sure, they may die in the process if things didn’t go well, but if Nightmare Moon won now then they’d likely all die anyway in that collapse of the universe that Time Keeper had kept babbling on about. What did it really matter if they died, anyway? It’s not like they were really her friends. They were just ponies. She could always find some of her subjects to replace them if need be.
“Girls!” Chrysalis gave a strangled yell. “Think about all the ponies and things you love and open up your hearts to me!”
“What?” Applejack coughed out.
“Just do it!”
Nightmare Moon chuckled. “And what is that supposed to accomplish? I’ve already won!”
Seconds passed and the only change was the ever tightening tendrils of magic. Chrysalis sighed and closed her eyes. She had tried. Nopony could say that she didn’t try. With that last thought, she went voluntarily limp against the magic binding her. There was no point in struggling anymore.
Just then, she felt one of the mares beside her opening herself up to her. It was Pinkie Pie, that overly giggly buffoon had trusted her enough to do as ordered. Over the next several seconds, the others opened their hearts one by one. Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and finally even Applejack complied with her demands. Lusting over the thought of striking back at the alicorn that had thus far dominated her spurred her on to casting the spell to harvest the love from all five of them simultaneously.
“What are you doing?” Nightmare Moon gasped at the sudden influx of green energy flowing from the five mares into Chrysalis’ horn. “Stop that!”
Chrysalis began to laugh. It was a slow, low chuckle at first. As the power surged into her body and the mares she feasted on one by one lost consciousness, her laugh grew in volume and intensity until even Nightmare Moon began to tremble at the sound of it.
Realizing that five of her captors were no longer capable of fighting against her, she abandoned her efforts to hold them in place and they dropped to the floor one by one. She refocused all of that energy onto the unicorn that howled with laughter by this point. It still wasn’t enough, she was losing grip on her captive. With a brilliant explosion of green light, bright enough that she had to avert her gaze lest she go blind, her hold on that mare was completely shattered.
When the light had faded enough for her to return her eyes forward, the unicorn that had been there before was gone. In its place was a equine like creature more than twice Nightmare Moon's own height. It had a mane of greenish blue, slits for pupils in the middle of a sea of multi hued green, and fangs to match that of the most terrifying predators around. Her fur was black...no, not her fur, for she had none. In its place was a smooth, carapace the like of an insect, which matched her gossamer wings. Scattered throughout her limbs were inexplicable holes, lending her an appearance so incredibly alien to what Nightmare Moon was accustomed to. Perhaps what shook her most was that in addition to the wings, she had a long, gnarled horn. She was an alicorn, just like herself.
“Mmmm...it feels good to be in my natural form!” Chrysalis exclaimed in her natural, dual toned voice as she stretched herself to her new full height.
“What are you?” Nightmare Moon asked, her face a mask of horror and disgust.
Chrysalis gave a wicked grin.
“I am the thing that nightmares fear.”
Spurred on by a sudden spike of panic and an overwhelming sense of dread, Nightmare Moon lashed out at the giant monster with a javelin of pure magic. Whatever this creature was, she needed it dead more than anything else in her life. The thing deflected her spell with ease using a spell of her own, chuckling in an infuriating manner while she did so.
“Oh, I haven’t felt this tremendous in years! I’d say I’m almost my old self again! Bring it on! I can take whatever you throw at me now!”
Nightmare Moon sent another javelin of dark magic hurtling across the room, which was just as easily deflected as the first.
“Oh, come on, you can do better than that, can’t you?” Chrysalis challenged the dark alicorn.
Nightmare Moon sent rapid fire bolts of magical energy, trying frantically to strike down the monster before her, but was met with only more failure and mocking laughter.
“You don’t stand a chance, princess.” Chrysalis taunted. “I have defeated two separate alicorns in one on one combat, including your sister, something that I believe you failed to do.”
“Liar!” Nightmare Moon screamed furiously.
She summoned dozens of magical javelins and hurled them all with every ounce of her power. A wall of green flame appeared for just a moment and the giant beast disappeared before Nightmare Moon's very eyes just prior to the magic tearing through the space that her adversary had previously occupied. Her magic disappeared after gouging several holes in the walls and causing a pillar to explode into a shower of stone fragments. A little, purple dragon stared in terror from his position where he had moments earlier been hidden behind said pillar before rushing off to find a new hiding spot. Nightmare Moon ignored the creature and tried to spot what had happened to her opponent. She felt a shiver running up and down her spine as she heard the whooshing sound of flames behind her. She whipped her head around and came face to face with a mouthful of razor sharp teeth and a threateningly glowing horn.
“Boo!”
Before she could react, Nightmare Moon was struck by a tremendous beam of concentrated green magic. She was knocked clear off her hooves and tumbled to the floor, unconscious. Chrysalis chuckled as she stood over her downed foe before shrinking herself back to her natural size, around the same height as Nightmare Moon.
“Just like your sister: a whole lot of power but a single blow and you’re finished. It’s almost sad, really.” She paused a moment as she thought back on the battle. “Perhaps if you had been more level headed you could have actually beaten me. Panic does you no favours in battle, princess.”
Chrysalis’ gaze wandered over to the mares she had feasted upon to attain enough power to defeat the Nightmare. A quick scanning spell showed that they were in rough shape, but none of them were in any real danger of dying. Lucky them. She had won, and nopony had died for her to do it. Things were as the timeline demanded. Or were they?
Her eyes returned to the fallen Nightmare Moon. She knew that after this event she was supposed to somehow return back to her normal form as Princess Luna. She recalled the intelligence reports she had received all those years ago saying that a bright, boastful mare claimed that it was her own doing. She only now realized that that mare was likely to have been Rainbow Dash, claiming such glory was certainly in her character. Even if she hadn’t told the entire truth, it seemed likely that she did have a part in the reformation of Nightmare Moon. How, though? Then it struck her.
The elements of harmony.
She had just defeated Nightmare Moon on her own using the power of harvested love. In the original timeline, Nightmare Moon had been defeated by the elements of harmony. The elements must have somehow cleansed her of whatever it was that had corrupted her. If she failed to cleanse her now, then would she truly have come close enough to the required events to avoid catastrophe? She needed to get rid of the darkness inside her before it was too late. Remembering the corruption that had run through Nightmare Moon’s love, Chrysalis had an idea as to how that might be possible, but she truly did not look forward to trying.
With a frustrated sigh, Chrysalis returned to her Twilight disguise. The last thing she needed was for Luna to wake up when she was finished to see a changeling and running off to blow her cover before Chrysalis had a chance to stop her. The next thing she did was cast a spell to erase Nightmare Moon's memories going back until just before Chrysalis had called for the bearers to open their hearts to her, and for good measure she did the same to the bearers themselves. She might have been able to dismiss Luna's memories as a dream and the whole heart opening business as a last ditch effort to activate the elements, but it would be much easier to just avoid having to explain at all.
After one last deep breath to steady herself, she placed her horn on Nightmare Moon's and began channelling the spell for harvesting love. The tainted love that flowed into her was even worse than last time, if that was even possible. Within moments, she dropped to her knees so that she wouldn’t fall over from the dizziness. Her belly, still a little sore from all the food she had been forced to eat since coming to Ponyville, tossed and turned violently and a headache grew until nearly all of her thoughts were consumed by pain. Her body’s natural defences went into overdrive as they tore through her supplies of non-contaminated love just to try and neutralize the harmful, tainted love she was absorbing. She could feel her powers draining at an alarming rate, and yet she could detect no change in the lunar princess. She felt almost as if she was dying, and yet she kept on with her task.
Just when Chrysalis felt she could go on no longer, Nightmare Moon began to glow with a bright white light. Chrysalis' access to her love was cut off abruptly as the light expanded to form a dome over her and pushed her away from the unconscious mare. After several seconds of swirling around her, the light gradually faded and left behind a pony very unlike Nightmare Moon in appearance. Her black fur had turned a soft blue, and her starry, ethereal mane and tail had morphed into a different simple shade of blue that would have been at home on any average pony. Adding to the complete transformation was her sudden lack of size, she barely looked bigger than Chrysalis in her Twilight disguise. She seemed peaceful as she lay there, sleeping. It had worked, or so it seemed anyway. Chrysalis had done it, she had cleansed Nightmare Moon of her contamination. Chrysalis turned her head from the sight and vomited up everything that had yet remained in her stomach.
She felt atrocious. She felt as pitiable and weak at that moment as she had felt powerful while facing down Nightmare Moon. She rolled over onto her side away from the pile of apple products she had just expelled from her body and tried to catch her breath. She hoped that she had truly gotten rid of the corruption that had plagued Princess Luna and not just inadvertently transferred it to herself. She didn’t feel corrupted, just incredibly drained.
"Twilight?" The uncertain voice of Spike the dragon greeted her ears, and Chrysalis groaned painfully in response. She forced herself back to her hooves and faced the little guy, who stared at her with a downright terrified expression. Chrysalis narrowed her eyes and stared at him, wobbling a little as she did so.
"Did you see what happened?" She asked, still out of breath. She hoped that he hadn't, she really didn't feel up to trying to dealing with him having seen her natural form. Spike trembled profusely. "Did you!?" She raised her voice, making it clear she expected a swift response.
"N..no! I didn't see anything!" Spike denied any knowledge of the situation with a frantic waving of his claws. "W...what happened to them? Are they...are they..."
"They're not dead. They're fine." Chrysalis assured him just before falling over. She barely had enough strength to ensure that she fell away from her own vomit.
"Twilight?!" Spike screamed in panic.
The last thing Chrysalis remembered before losing consciousness was the sun rising through a window.
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This was great.
And that's the wat moment of the day.
Leave it to Chryssie to save the day.
Failing to activate the macguffins might bite them in the plots later.
I love how she has to keep telling herself that she doesn't care for Spike's wellbeing.
7595720
She absolutely, most certainly does NOT have a soft spot for kids. She hates them so very very much.
Now, the big question: how is she going to explain to Princess Celestia that she defeated and purified Nightmare Moon without The Elements of Harmony?
7596971
Tis a good question that she'll very much need to ask herself quite soon.
7595720 Not might, definitely will. The Plunderseeds are killing the Tree of Harmony and all 6 Elements of Harmony are required to heal it. Without it Equestria if not their entire world is doomed. Tirek is coming back too and he's a magivore/manavore. No amount of Chrysalis' love magic will work if he can absorb it. Especially if the Elements Harmony magic had an infinite magic overload feature built in for such foes like him which led to him being reimprisoned and depowered again.
Can hardly wait for more, please keep going this is awesome!
7607139
Well, he did mention that he could get banished to the sun if he went back and admitted his mistake, which might indicate that Celestia is still around. It is true that future Celestia could very well recognize it, but then again...do you really think that Celestia wouldn't eventually figure it out during "Twilight's" lifetime? Remember, it's said in the prologue that Twilight died of old age, you're looking at potentially 60-80 years. Even if Chrysalis can bail early because Twilight doesn't do many world changing things as she grows older, she'd still likely have at least 20 years to go through, and that's an unrealistically low estimate.
To be completely honest, it may not be Celestia that Time Keeper is most afraid of in this situation.
Unless Rainbow just likes continuing...
I think the light could be a sickly, greenish huge.
NMM and Chryssi are about the same height.
Ok, there is the explanation.
Well, Celestia is going to know something is up since things did not go the way she had planned. I really want Spike to blow Chrysalis' cover.
This wasn't really as funny as I expected from the idea, but it's plain weird enough premise that it has been a good read so far anyway. Could maybe profit from playing the absurdity of the idea for humor a bit more, but that's just me. Considering how much of this will, by design, be spent retelling the events of the show with a minimal modification, a strong bit of comedy would go a long way to carrying it.
7649788
I'll admit, that's a more positive review from you than I had anticipated. I'll have to keep in mind that playing up the absurdity would be a good idea.
7649934
Well, the idea is interesting and the writing is solid, so there's nothing to really complain about. With the tags it has, I couldn't quite shake the feeling that I kept laughing at things I wasn't actually supposed to think were funny, though... still, the idea offers itself well to that.
7650951
I've never been a fan of tagging my stories...I often am unsure which ones I should actually use. Sure, for quick one shots it's easy, but longer stories that may have a bit more variety to them? Like, let's say you're tagging MLP: Friendship is Magic itself...it's a combination of a whole lot of different things. It's got adventure, and it's got slice of life, but you couldn't tag both of them as they're considered mutually exclusive. It's got comedy, but it's not uncommon for it to not focus on getting laughs. Another example for this story is the dark tag...I really only have it there because the basis of the story involves Twilight Sparkle being crushed to death, which could be considered really dark....though I wrote it in the prologue in a more lighthearted, dare I say even humorous, tone. Dark humour perhaps? I dunno. Tags are annoying things. Necessary, but annoying.
I was unsure whether or not to tag this story with several things. Comedy, Dark, Slice of Life, Adventure, because many of those could be debatable tags. I ended up settling on ones that are a lot less uncertain for the most part. Time machine equals sci fi. Sex because it's talked about. Alternate Universe because it becomes an alternate timeline. The only one I went with that I felt was debatable was Dark.
This is unexpectedly good. But did you need to leave us in a cliffhanger? In rather quite curious as about how Chrissy will deal with the aftermath of this one and with all other temporal shenanigans.
Also calling it now, RD is a virgin and will be into Chrissy's "in your face" behavior. No romance though, that's not how the changeling rolls.
All in all, moar when?
7656924
Not sure exactly. Recently I've been a lot distracted by Overwatch with its Halloween event going on with all of its limited time stuff. The next chapter is currently 4500 words or so, though I don't know exactly how long it'll end up.
Ah, character development. You do a good job with Chrysalis' character here, keeping her sympathetic without feeling completely divorced from her appearance in the show. Like when she forgave Rainbow Dash, because to her such treachery was normal. She really didn't hold any ill-will and was trying to be nice, but coming at it from what those with her would see as a warped world view.
Chrysalis is huge but she's nowhere near more than twice Nightmare Moon's height and this bit is from Nightmare Moon's perspective, so the phrasing is confusing. Maybe you mean "more than twice her former height" because Chrysalis is more than two Twilights tall.
Oh, never mind, apparently she grew bigger than normal. You probably should have made that clear, since she was just talking about being in her 'natural form' when not her 'natural height'.
Rarity: "I do NSFW commissions for an inflated price..." ;)
Stop acting like a high horse, a giant predator was about to gut her. >:?
To be fair she's 300% correct.
I'm loving the maternal instincts that Chrysalis displays here, they really add a layer to her character.
You know, I wonder why she didn't just recruit 5 changelings to sub in for the main 6.