The Fall of Canterlot
Celestia ground her teeth with frustration as Chrysalis managed to deflect another one of her spells with a green magical barrier, redirecting the lance of golden magic through a nearby cloud, obliterating it. This queen was agile and swift, though aside from an opening exchange, she had been on the defensive for most of this encounter. She was powerful, but Celestia was confident she could take her down if she kept the pressure on.
The two were flying around each other in the air high above Canterlot, exchanging spells in a deadly dance. The pegasi of the royal guard didn’t dare draw closer to the two, knowing that they wouldn’t make any difference. Instead, they were focusing on trying to evacuate the civilians; this was easier said than done, of course, as it was practically impossible to tell who was one of the enemies and who was an actual civilian until it was too late. The streets had exploded into bedlam and pandemonium so quickly that most of the guards weren’t even sure what was really happening.
Chrysalis looked down towards the city while ducking under another beam of magic from Celestia. The very tip of her tail was caught in the beam and was promptly incinerated. Growling under her breath, Chrysalis folded her wings to her sides and entered a free-fall dive for the streets below. Celestia chased after her, her horn sparking dangerously.
Chrysalis flashed Celestia a grin before spreading out her wings and arcing up to fly along one of the busiest roads in Canterlot just as Celestia’s spell went off. The golden beam of magic pierced the roof of the building the queen had been diving for, lighting some of it on fire.
“No!” Celestia shouted while spreading her wings to slow her descent. Her hooves crashed heavily onto the roof of the building and she looked inside to assess the damage. Nopony had been inside, thank goodness for that. She then lifted her gaze to the Changeling Queen, who was quietly chuckling under her breath with amusement. “You coward!”
“A coward?” Chrysalis lifted a hoof to her chest in mock offense before her forked tongue clicked against the roof of her mouth. “I do believe you are mistaking cowardice with practicality, your highness.”
Celestia shouted with anger before she hurled herself at Chrysalis with a powerful beat of her wings. Chrysalis didn’t have enough time to prepare a proper defense, and Celestia tackled her head on while arcing skyward. Shaking her head to clear the stars that had exploded across her vision, Chrysalis locked eyes with Celestia and snarled like a feral animal. She then opened her mouth and bit for Celestia’s shoulder.
Acting quickly, Celestia managed to kick away from Chrysalis and evade the sharp fangs that had been on a direct course for her throat. Still, her horn flared to life and she released a blast of concussive energy directly into her opponent. Chrysalis yelped in pain as the force of the blast sent her spiraling head over hooves through the air. Her wings snapped back out and beat quickly, sending her flying back down to the streets.
“Oh no, you don’t!” Celestia snapped, reaching out and ensnaring Chrysalis’ tail with telekinesis. She pulled her high into the air before throwing her hard through one of the windows of Canterlot castle. The glass buckled and shattered under the impact. It didn’t even slow Chrysalis down, and when she hit the wall on the other side of the window, the force of the impact left spiderweb cracks along the surface.
Not letting up her offensive, Celestia flew through the broken window and set down in the hallway, her horn lighting up with blazing fire. Chrysalis had slumped to the floor and glared up at Celestia angrily. The alicorn took the look in stride before the light on her horn flared up even brighter.
There was a swirl of green flames, and Queen Chrysalis was replaced by Princess Rainbow Dash, staring up into her mother’s eyes with terror in her own.
Celestia hesitated, her eyes widening.
That hesitation was all the disguised queen needed. Chrysalis lunged and slammed a hoof into the side of Celestia’s face, sending her stumbling to the side. She shook her head and turned back towards her adversary, about ready to end this fight.
Chrysalis took a step back, still disguised as Rainbow Dash. “Oops. Did I hit a nerve?” she asked mockingly before the floor beneath her ignited in a sizable circle of yet more sickly green fire. Laughing sinisterly, Chrysalis began to sink into the flames like it were a pool of water.
Celestia growled and fired off her spell directly at Chrysalis. It impacted a barrier, which had been hidden and then pierced through it. Chrysalis shouted in pain in Rainbow’s voice when the beam struck her, and smoke and light exploded from the point of impact, forcing Celestia to take a step back and shield her face with her wings. A second passed before she gave her wings a hard flap, dispersing the cloud of dust and smoke.
Chrysalis was gone.
“You really are a coward, aren’t you?!” Celestia shouted, her nostrils flaring with every agitated breath she took. “Hiding behind the homes of my subjects, using the face of my daughter as if it were a shield. You disgust me!”
“I aim to win, Celestia,” Chrysalis’ voice taunted her from the walls, echoing all around her. “I don’t care what methods I have to resort to; if it will bring me and my kind one step closer to ending our eternal starvation, then I will stoop to any low, resort to any dirty tactic, go to any length!”
“Starvation?” Celestia questioned, her eyes narrowing. “If it is food you need you could have come to us peacefully! We would have been open to discussing trade!”
“We do not feed on cupcakes and hay like you do!” Chrysalis voice seethed bitterly before the wall next to Celestia erupted into green fire. Chrysalis shot out of it, tackling Celestia in the side and back out through the window, sending them both into a free-fall as they grappled and struggled.
Celestia grunted and managed to kick Chrysalis off of her before righting herself in the air and using her wings to come to a steady hover. She glared up at Chrysalis, who was now hovering a little ways above her. “Then what do you eat? Meat?”
“As lovely as that sounds,” Chrysalis growled before her horn lit up with magic again. “We cannot eat that, either! We are Changelings! We consume love!”
Celestia blinked and narrowed her eyes. “Love?” she asked curiously.
Chrysalis chuckled in amusement. “For once I encounter a monarch who doesn’t find that sentence entertaining,” her face hardened into a bitter scowl shortly after. Her chuckling devolved into a snarl. “Yes, pony. The Changelings are sustained by emotions; specifically, love. Much like your beloved magic of friendship, other emotions generate power, and the power of love is what my species needs to survive!”
Celestia eyed Chrysalis warily, though when she spoke next, her tone was significantly more diplomatic. “If that is the case, why then did you launch a full-scale assault on my city? What do you intend to gain from such an action? You’re only going to sow and reap fear and hatred.”
Chrysalis snorted in annoyance, though she lowered down to Celestia’s eye level. “I would not expect a creature like you to understand. This is how it has always been for us! We take the strength we need because there is no other way!”
Celestia frowned disbelievingly. “Have you ever even tried?”
“If such an option existed,” Chrysalis snapped, a hiss slipping out of her throat. “WE WOULD HAVE LEARNED ABOUT IT CENTURIES AGO!” green energy shot out of her horn at Celestia, forcing the alicorn into a dive to get out of the way. Chrysalis gave chase, her pupils dilated.
Celestia grunted with effort as she spun into a dodge roll. Glancing towards the ground below, she barely had time to let out a shout of surprise and break her fall before her hooves slammed down hard on the surface of one of Canterlot Castle’s lowest balconies. Cracks appeared where her hooves made contact, running in patterns for several feet in all directions. She then lifted her head to face Chrysalis, who was still shooting for her like a thrown javelin. With a grunt of effort, Celestia’s horn ignited once more before an enormous beam of magic shot towards the advancing queen.
Chrysalis countered with her own, slowing her flight to a stop with her wings just in time to avoid plowing into the attack face-first. The two beams struck and, for a moment, they seemed to be even. Then, with a throaty growl, Celestia pushed more energy into her attack. Chrysalis’ beam was quickly overwhelmed and, with horror in her eyes, the changeling queen took the full force of the blast head-on, consumed in an explosion of smoke and golden light.
With smoke and steam rising from her body, Chrysalis fell out of the cloud and to the balcony below. She hit the floor on her side, crumpling into a heap. Now shaking horribly, Chrysalis began to struggle back to her hooves, glaring hatefully at Celestia. “This isn’t o-over!” she hissed venomously.
“It is over,” Celestia countered bluntly, stepping forward slowly. “You know, I feel that you might have been able to approach us peacefully. There is an abundance of love in Equestria, and we would have been more than happy to share with you.”
“Don’t lie to me!” Chrysalis shrieked, managing to get back to her full height. “Even if you would have been fine with such an arrangement, you cannot say the same for your subjects! Many would be afraid of us, would hate us for how different we are! We would starve long before we could earn such affections!”
“You underestimate our capacity for compassion,” Celestia countered coldly, magic appearing on her horn again. “But you have wasted your opportunity. You have invaded my city, hurt my ponies and attempted to defeat me. You will receive no sympathy from me.”
Chrysalis growled angrily, her horn sparking to life as well.
“Now give up,” Celestia continued. “It is perfectly clear that you cannot win against me. You are beaten. Surrender now and I promise you that you will be treated fairly.”
“No,” Chrysalis hissed through clenched teeth. “I will not stop hunting for food for me or my subjects! I will topple any and every obstacle that stands between me and that goal! I will never surrender to you, pony!”
Celestia sighed. “Then so be it…”
“Sister!” came the voice of Princess Luna from overhead. Celestia turned and looked in surprise, and relief, as her little sister came in. Celestia noted the bruises on her body, but she seemed to be otherwise fine.
Chrysalis eyes widened and her pupils dilated. Her eyes refocused so that she could see the pink trails of magical energy, the love, drifting off of Celestia’s body, and she saw just how much more intense they became when Luna announced her presence. Chrysalis licked her lips and opened her mouth wide, drawing the energy in.
Celestia cried out in pain when this happened, the pink energy becoming visible in the air as it was forcefully pulled out of her. With an alarmed shout, Luna swooped forward and fired a blast of green magic into the ground directly in front of Chrysalis, kicking up dirt and dust and forcing her to break her focus and back away. Coughing now, Celestia gave Luna a small smile.
“Thank you, little sister,” she said while pulling herself back to her hooves.
Luna glared at Chrysalis hatefully. “So, this is the monster that led the assault on our city?”
“It is,” Celestia replied, her horn lighting up again. Chrysalis looked at the two fearfully, all of her confidence melting away. “Luckily, this battle is now over. We win.”
“Yes,” Luna said simply. Celestia’s breath hitched in her throat when a beam of magic struck her in the back of the head from Luna’s horn, sending her down to the ground in a dazed heap. “We do.”
Chrysalis’ fear instantly was wiped away with a sadistic smile, and she sauntered towards Celestia, who was struggling to move her body. That spell… it had paralyzed her!
“What’s the matter, Celestia?” Chrysalis taunted while driving a forehoof in between Celestia’s shoulder blades. “You were so confident a second ago. Where’d all of that go, huh?”
“Luna…” Celestia managed to choke out in a wheeze, her eyes looking towards her sister in shock and confusion. “Why?”
Green fire swirled around Luna’s body, burning her image away to reveal another changeling, this one with purple eyes. He snarled down at Celestia before bowing to Chrysalis. “Princess Luna has been captured, your majesty,” he reported simply.
“Marvelous,” Chrysalis laughed before lowering her teeth to be next to Celestia’s head. “And now it’s your turn, my little pony…” she stood tall and pulled a large chunk of the broken balcony, about the size of Celestia’s head, over to her with magic. “Sweet dreams.”
She drove the heavy piece of stone into the back of the alicorn’s head. The last thing Celestia saw were the green glows of the flames burning within her city and the giant plumes of black smoke rising into the air.
And then she knew no more.
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8817511
Damn That's fast.
Celestia isn't wrong. Long term this is a bad idea for love gathering.
Too bad that battle isn't canon.
Even in this universe, Chrysalis’ decision to invade and attack really only makes sense from a viewpoint of self-centered egoism.
Notice then when Celestia asks if the changelings have tried a peaceful solution, she doesn’t answer; she just asserts that it’s not possible. When Celestia correctly notes that there is an abundance of love in Equestria, and suggests that changelings might have been able to approach peaceably, Chrysalis again asserts that it’s impossible. She never once provided so much as a shred of evidence or experience to show that it’s not possible.
The only reason it was impossible is because Chrysalis decided that it was. This is complete ego, and it’s a big part of why Chrysalis is such an effective villain. Notice that in every story where there is some kind of peace between changelings without Thorax, it’s aleays because Chrysalis either puts her ego aside, or because other changelings outgrow her ego and decide to try things differently.
8817556
Indeed, though I do plan on going into more detail as to WHY she thinks it's impossible later on.
8817580
Well it's pretty much cannon that Chryssi is nuts, though it wouldn't surprise me if she actually suffered a mutation that makes her unable to passively feed on love like regular changelings
Exactly.
8817771
It was only Six PM for me when I posted the latest chapter, so...
moar! now! i demands it!
8817810
time zones be damned! im british! i dictate what time it is! the northern line of longitude runs though london. alight, we put the line there, but it still stands.
8817838
Well, you're gonna have to wait. ;P
The true weakness of alicorns revealed: rocks to the back of the head.
8817907
I mean, rocks to the back of the head can mess anybody up with enough force.
Silly Chrysalis, a bad upbringing does not a norm make.
Let's see how Equestria reacts to having its own heads of state cut off like Celestia claimed she would do to the changelings...
Keep going! ;)
Damn you.... CHRYSALIS!
media.giphy.com/media/KTIjOgamEPT2/giphy.gif
8817580
I'm guessing that the explanation is generally that that's how it was in the past, that Chrysalis can't grasp the concept of "times change".
8819378
Well said.
This are quite near to each other, it may be better to replace one with something different.
Probable but not definitive. A people motivated by starvation will explore alternatives and seek to change their situation, not merely address the immediate need. However, discovery has no roadmap. Success could easily take centuries, and a long line of failures is no guarantee that success will not be found tomorrow.
I hate it when authors write something like that. Do you know what happens when a society decides that some people are prey for others? Here's a hint: lots of people in both groups die horribly.
Quite aside from the social issues of declaring your own subjects to be fodder, Celestia needs to consider the effects of the feeding itself. Luna destroyed her own emotion-sucking parasite for a host of good reasons, reasons that are valid for even a single changeling. She could be offering to damn her ponies to constant suffering for the benefit of another people. Let's ask Rarity about the dangers of blind generosity, shall we? Made any dresses out of shower curtains recently?
8969343
I think you misunderstand... she wasn't saying she'd give her ponies up as food, she's saying she'd be open to exploring the possibilities of social interactions that could generate the emotion the Changelings require.
8969418
Which require ponies to involve themselves with Changelings in order to generate those emotions. Rather than misunderstanding, I've taken it to a deeper level. Reduce the situation to its bare elements and take a look.
The leader of a nation is proposing a situation where citizens of that nation are mandated to engage with potentially dangerous strangers. The citizens are further mandated by the state to feel a certain way about this. The proceeds of this experiment go to benefit the potentially dangerous strangers. Also, we don't know if the citizens will be intrinsically damaged by the experiment.
None of this is a good thing. And let's say the experiment is successful. Changelings and ponies live together in harmony. Yay! Twenty years later a changeling is starving because her pony husband doesn't love her anymore. Gee, I can't see any way that could possibly go badly.
You can't treat this as two races of people that need to get over their differences. We are talking about two different species, one of which has a dietary need to feed on the other. There will always be an adversarial relationship between them and to mandate anything else is to curtail the rights of one in favor of the other.
8969555
Assumption.
More assumption.
Ever hear of the exchange of information?
You ARE grossly misunderstanding this to an insane degree, I hate to break it to you. Nowhere have we seen anything that indicates Celestia being the sort to force her ponies into something like this. What she was putting forward was that, if the Changelings wanted love, they could have simply approached as potential friends or allies. They would have been free to Interact with the pony population as visitors, with individual ponies being free to respond as they see fit. With ponies being the naturally friendly bunch they are, it's not too hard to imagine that this idea could work.
It likely would have if Chrysalis wasn't so stubborn and set in her ways.
Prediction: Chrysalis tried several other kingdoms: the griffons, the yaks, the dragons... none of them really had the love ponies had. Chrysalis, not being one to show patience or understanding, tried aggressively "encouraging" them to force themselves to feel love, with predictable results (that is, they made enemies, and were forced to leave). Eventually, Chrysalis realized that Equestria was her last hope, so she decided to launch an all-or-nothing attack.
PS: How did Celestia not know that changelings feed on love? For such an old, wise being, Celestia sure can be stupid.
So evil!
If it ain't broke, take a step back and make absolutely sure it ain't broke because you're probably wrong.
I far prefer this to the canon "fight". So epic.
Bugs are dumb. I'm helping Celestia to not let up her offensive.
To be fair, this is much more believable, than the bullshit we got in the canon. "OMG, the love that I gathered from this love-sick dork over a week made me more powerful than the 1000-year old sun goddess! I will now overwhelm her by sheer brute force!"
Yep. Chrysalis is still so stupid calling her an Idiot would be an insult to idiots.