This tale is a sequel to If You Would Friend a Tiger. However, it also leans on the lore of its timeline more than most of my stories. I therefore recommend that readers at least be familiar with Cadence of the Crystal Empire, Twilight Sparkle Was Shot, and When All Your Wishes are Granted. The story also refers to A Canterlot Wedding from the television series.
Years ago, she was defeated at a royal wedding by the ponies of Equestria.
Before that, she was both destroyed and brought into being by a young pegasus named Cadence.
And centuries before her birth, the Two Sisters and their precious Elements...
Feh.
Princesses. Bearers of Elements. Nobility, all. And all of them so secure in their pathetic, sadistic victories over her.
Over. And over. And over again.
But this time, things will be different.
This time, behold her greatest plan. Her final ambition. Her most magnificent failure. Victory is irrelevant; her enemies’ deaths are all she requires, broken and in agony.
With her madness fully unleashed, Queen Chrysalis begins The Last Changeling War.
Cover art by Zig-Word on DeviantArt.
And, of course, the seminal story that starts it all begins here.
Part of the Sunset Rising Continuity.
Chrysalis actually being an effective impersonator! This really is fanfiction
Interesting way to tie in current events.
Fantastic opening. Looking forward to seeing where it goes from here, especially with none of the expected misfits in the rescue operation to be found in the character tags.
11240137
Well, with Starlight not being Twilight's apprentice in this timeline (and someday I'm going to write the story explaining that, I promise), neither she nor Trixie are exactly friends with the Princess of Friendship.
The Thorax of this timeline... kind of has his own thing going. I'm not certain whether it will be explained in this story or a different, shorter one yet. But it will be explained. In fact, he's been referred to once already in a different story.
And Discord... well, his power has been steadily waning with the ascension of Order in his world, but he is still a force to be reckoned with. And he does have friends among the ponies, especially Fluttershy. So, we'll see.
And there are few hunters so poor as a parasite who thinks it clever to kill her host, to say nothing planning for her own destruction.
Still, Chrysalis was admirably patient. For her, anyway. But now that she’s laid out her plan, it’s time to see what happens when it makes contact with the enemy.
With two flames were the changelings forged, and with two flames can they be fought. There is never a single solution to any problem, nor a coin with only one side.
As for the castle, I'm pretty sure it can still regrow that. It's just not going to appreciate having to do so.
Chrysalis in any universe just can’t escape these wildcard unicorns who pop up out of nowhere (as far as she’s concerned) to ruin her plans.
Interesting take on Celestia's visions. I wonder if Luna can do something similar by reading the dream realm. Not individual dreams because that would be a violation of privacy. But a collective reading of all dreams looking for patterns that ponies may have subconsciously noticed but aren't aware of while awake. Not sure if I'm communicating my idea well.
11459545
I think that's a fascinating idea. If I'm understanding you properly, it would be conceptually akin to Ozymandius from Watchmen viewing hundreds of television screens simultaneously to ascertain upcoming trends and actions of mass consent / social direction. Please tell me if I'm missing your point.
In any case, I think that would be well worth exploring. Thank you!
11460139
That is one possible example, yeah.
Ah. Should've known this would've been a lot more complicated than just a quick in-and-out after the inexplicable abduction of every alicorn on the planet. Looking forward to the conflict to come.
Also, should I assume that Sunrise has the same sun mark as her counterpart, or are you delaying a reveal of something a bit different? (Of course, it's entirely possible that you can't answer that question one way or the other...)
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"They kidnapped them offscreen."
"Yeah but how?"
"By doing it offscreen."
Yes, while this war will be a bit shorter than most human wars for reasons that will be soon revealed, it will still be a war. And while the princesses will do all they can to minimize the cost, there is a limit as to what can be done in such times.
As for the fair lady's cutie mark, I don't blame you in the slightest for forgetting during the interim; it's been a long, long time betwixt chapters...
camo.fimfiction.net/zkWSJgNwKfv5pEIBxO_Bh5WiosFHFP3OYtZxTCW_rOg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcdn.discordapp.com%2Fattachments%2F400575361588658178%2F978912947256582174%2Fsunrise_cutie_mark2.png
While the sisters certainty is admirable, I worry alongside Sunset that Celestia's "good intentions" could end up blinding her.
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It wouldn't be the first time. We'll have to see what happens.
No plan survives contact with the enemy. The question is what you can do with the pieces. We'll see how it all breaks down soon enough.
Okay this chapter clears up a few things.
One thing I would be worried about is that Chrysalis is a master of mind magic and her changelings have been exposed to her power continuously since they were hatched.
Are they even capable of surrendering?
Maybe Thorax is a mutant with resistance to her control.
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All excellent points, which the princesses at this time do not seem to have considered. Time will tell, of course...
Did he release an album called "Dark Side of the Moon," by any chance?
I do wonder why Sunrise and Luna want to maintain this facade. I just hope that whatever they have planned doesn't trample on any of the other battle plans, though I suppose Luna will make sure of that. This will be very interesting going forward as gambits collide.
hmmm...that last bit has me worried and suspicious.
11486022
>Kidnapped them offscreen
I always figured the original invasion worked in spite of Chryssie, and the more successful second attempt was her telling Pharynx the broad strokes, then invoking a legendary effort to keep her cheesy hooves out of it.
11661975
(nods) I've had friends and family in the US military, and I always heard that it was the people on the ground who pulled off the major victories, not the broad-strokes planners. Wouldn't surprise me if it were the same on Equus.
So as scary as Chrysalis was in the first chapter all of her plans have been seen through, countered and all of her leverage is gone. I guess the rule is the same here as in the show she can only accomplish anything off screen once you can see what she’s doing she’s completely ineffectual.
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Well, I wouldn't describe her as "completely ineffectual" so much as "dangerously broken."
Her plan wasn't a bad one, as such plans go. She hadn't counted on the Crystal Heart supercharging Twilight's spell as much as it did. And even after that, the only thing that saved Flurry Heart was her pet tiger being so screamingly powerful, which no one could have reasonably anticipated. And in Ponyville, without Sunrise having both the courage and quick-thinking to use her magical difficulties to create a break-contact opportunity, Chryssy's plans regarding the Castle of Friendship would have gone off without a hitch.
And then, well, there was what Sunny did right after. Which I also think no one should have been asked to anticipate.
But above all, there's just the problem that Chrysalis doesn't really know, even now, just what the heck she's dealing with. Her main objective would seem to be just causing as much heartache as possible, culminating in horrible vague things involving Cadence. Because Chrysalis is absolutely cave wall licking crazy. And no doubt she will at least cause suffering.
But at first, her plan had a real shot at succeeding, And even now, with she is still dangerous. Fortunately, she absolutely sucks at improv. And also fortunately, she's overconfident.
I think there is a reason that the ponies need this mad queen to continue thinking everything is going according to plan. If she were truly ineffectual, the ponies would not have to take her seriously. But I think it a good thing they do. And I think that her doom is not because of her feebleness - although her underestimating her foes is certainly contributing to her downfall - but above all because of the ponies' strength.
Chrysalis' main strengths do lie in subterfuge, true. But they are not her only strengths. All that being said, few beings in the world would face the Equestrian royalty without a plan. And once the ponies finish outmaneuvering her, I think only then shall it be safe to outmatch her.
Glad I’ve caught up on this. Brilliant showings from Sunrise, Cadence, and Twilight. Definitely looking forward to seeing how it all develops from here. Inasmuch as Chrysalis ever had a plan, outside context problems have made it go incredibly awry.
You would think that since they are fighting changelings the sight of a pony where they aren’t supposed to be would raise a few red flags. At least send another pony with Rarity to check Fleur. Sigh… and now Applejack is watching the two unicorns wander off alone!
11746442
Yeah, it's been shown that the average pony doesn't put things together that well, especially when under stress.
As for Applejack, she has her own reasons for acting as she is about this...
Wait, are we supposed to already know why Fleur is here and why Fancy Pants seems to be a touchy topic? Or is it being left vague on purpose? I don't remember her being mentioned in this story so far, was it from one of your other ones?
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It's vague on purpose. And it will be filled in later. So, you haven't missed anything.
Had a bit of a brain fart but when did AJ and Rarity get so close again?
11749111
About Here.
- MLP: FiM
- Romance
- Comedy
- Slice of Life
A while back, Applejack and Rarity had broken up and were plainly miserable about it. With their own summer plans unexpectedly cancelled, the CMC decided to save the day... and see if their cutie marks were in matchmaking. It could have gone worse.11749353
I vaguely remember now 
Thanks for the reminder
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My pleasure.
What did you think that rigamarole after beating Discord was, Dame Applejack?
In any case, brilliant portrayal of the
calmanxiety before the storm. Looking forward to more. And I do wonder just what Celestia has planned for all those unicorns…While the spell was necessary I hope the Princesses have some kind of plan for the harmless changeling exiles who likely just had their lives destroyed across the world.
11757223
I don't think anyone really anticipated just how much oomph the stone was going to add to the spell. And with the addition of the monolith having been such a last-minute thing, it's probably not so much a plan of protection as it is a repair or reparation kind of thing.
Well that kind of physical power partialy explains such a restrained lifestyle. Could you imagine one of the Pies getting tipsy at a party and giving what they intend to be just an enthusiastic slap on the back only to break somepony's spine? Though it does make you wonder how Pinkie hasn't killed anycreature by accident by now.
11759911
When I think of the speed and strength that the other members of the Pie family usually walk around with day to day, I imagine Maud when she saved Pinkie from the falling boulder in the Maud Pie episode. That was not exhausting for her to the degree that battling a Changeling army was, of course... though for the latter the farmers had rubies to nom on before the fight, which distinctly helped.
As for Pinkie herself, part of her not having killed anypony yet is having being trained since birth to maintain constant restraint. Which, um, let us take a moment and contemplate that what we see in the TV series and these timelines is Pinkie being self-restrained.
But Pinkie also continually bleeds off energy through her constantly bouncing and etcetera. Without the Pies' constant "never show off or expend energy wastefully" philosophy to guide her, Pinkie ends up showing off the almost limitless energy that the rest of her family takes for granted. She also eats rocks much less than the rest of her family, limiting herself to sharing gems occasionally with Spike and nomming rocks when she visits home to be polite. So, she usually has far less energy and resilience than the rest of the Pie family, which is still a terrifying amount compared to most other ponies.
Even the Yaks respect Pink Pony.
War is Hell, but ponies are trying their best to heed their better angels in spite of it. And the poor changelings just cannot process what’s happening to them. None of this makes any sense! (Read: It contradicts what the queen taught them.)
Also, now I want to see Spike enjoying a meal with the Pies.
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Yeah, I agree: that definitely needs to happen.
11759911
Now I'm imagining Death by Hug/Snu Snu being a horrifyingly real possibility where a particularly perky Pinkie's concerned
Note to self DON'T CHEESE OFF LUNA
Do not taunt Happy Fun Horse.
There's something wonderful in watching Chrysalis as her ambitions crumble to dust. The showdown between sisters is imminent. I can't imagine it's going to be pretty, not when one of them knows she no longer has anything to lose. Looking forward to seeing what comes of it.
11773638
Yyyyyyeah, I suspect that things might not have gone so pleasantly had Luna known just how hurt Sunrise was...
To the last, she rejected anything and everything that would have meant accepting she was wrong. Now it's time to assess the damage... and round up those she left behind. Goodness knows there's more to do. I just hope Cadence's horn will grow back.
11777715
Aye, this version of Chrysalis would NEVER stop, NEVER accept she was wrong.
You know, this reminded me of a video I watched a long time ago! It was a pretty good one, although I barely remember the name...
The Princess of Friendship best heals and is best healed through those connections. This isn’t over for Twilight or anypony else, but this marks several steps in the right direction.
Very glad I read this on Valentine’s Day. I can think of no better way to commemorate Chrysalis’s ultimate defeat than flourishing love. (Though now I want to see their wider social circle’s reactions.)
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Yeah, ‘tis the season. And I do agree: there is no better defeat of Chrysalis and her philosophy than the flourishing of love.
As for the reactions of those around them... I imagine that over time we’ll see a little here, and a little there. Though the finale will, I think, show Cadence’s opinions pretty clearly.