Chapter 18
There was a loud shout that echoed from the hallway followed by a great room rattling explosion. A bright green flash sent the door to the class along with parts of the adjacent wall shattering inward, kicking up a plume of dust and debris. The alicorn slid across the floor; a dome of pink magical energy surrounding her briefly before flickering out.
He felt hooves wrap around his middle and then something pressing against his back. When he looked behind him he saw it was Ocellus, protectively holding him tightly against her, with a look of shock and terror on her face.
Gallus, Silverstream, Sandbar and Smolder all rushed over to the alicorn who was struggling to stand on her hooves. Yona stayed with him and Ocellus and moved to stand protectively in front of her friend. The ferrets darted away and hid behind various objects in the room.
“Sparkle! Where is my child!” roared an angry out of sync voice that made his ears perk up.
Another flash of green erupted from out in the hallway, dissipating the cloud of dust quickly and revealing five figures. The first was the yellow pegasus, shivering in fear, with her hooves firmly held to the floor by thick globs of green resin. To her left was Odonate, firmly holding down a struggling purple lizard by pressing a front hoof down against its back; and on her right was Phasmid.
In front of them all loomed an agitated Chrysalis with her lips drawn back and fangs bared.
“I know she’s here so don’t you even dare attempt to lie to me!” the tall changeling shouted venomously as she stalked into the room.
“Mom!” he called out as he wiggled free from Ocellus’s grip and galloped up to her.
The changeling queen turned to look in his direction and the look of rage vanished from her features, replaced by one of relief. She scooped him up in her front hooves, and pressed him against her in a carapace crushing embrace. He rested his head against her neck, comforted by her familiar scent and her long mane as it rested against his back to cover him like a safety blanket.
“I’m so sorry I let them steal you away,” she said so softly only he could hear her. “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay,” he squeaked back, tears forming in the corners of his eyes.
At the open end of the room four pegasi flew in and landed on the stone floor. They quickly looked over the scene in front of them before green flames burned away their disguises to reveal the changelings underneath. Ocellus and Yona moved away from them quickly, joining their friends along with the alicorn.
“My queen,” Odonate said as he moved to stand beside Chrysalis so he could whisper to her. “I’m sorry to interrupt but it’s not safe to linger here much longer.”
Chrysalis nodded and passed him over for Odonate to hold before she returned her attention to the alicorn.
“How dare you and those disgusting traitors try and take my child from me,” she hissed, her tone distorted and full of malice. “Give me a reason not to burn your precious school to ash Sparkle.”
“What are you talking about?” the alicorn asked as she stood defensively in front of the six students. “Her cocoon was found just outside of the school.”
“In a tree,” Silverstream added.
“Silence!” boomed Chrysalis, causing the students to huddle closer together behind the alicorn. “I know all about your disgusting plot with Thorax.”
“What plot?!” the alicorn yelled back. “I really have no clue what you’re talking about!”
With a contemptuous scoff, Chrysalis used her magic to make a scroll appear and hurled it to the floor before the alicorn’s hooves.
“Is that not one of the silly magical scrolls you use to send out messages?” Chrysalis growled.
The alicorn stared at the scroll for a quiet moment before her horn glowed a soft pink and her magic surrounded it. The scroll rose into the air and unrolled in front of the alicorn's muzzle. As her eyes quickly scanned over the page, the look on her face went from curious to incredulous.
“I would never condone something like this,” the alicorn said, looking up at Chrysalis with a serious expression, “and I did not write this.”
“I’m not here to argue semantics, Sparkle,” Chrysalis motioned with her head behind her where the purple lizard was being held flat against the floor, under Phasmid’s rump. “You dictated it to your stooge then.”
“My stoog- Ugh!” the alicorn groaned. “I mean Spike didn’t write it either!”
“Then why would one of my changelings have one of your signed scrolls among their possessions?” the changeling queen spat acrimoniously. “Why would he steal away my daughter and why was she delivered to you just as your scroll directed?!”
“I don’t know why one of your changelings had the scroll or why they took your daughter!” the alicorn shouted back, “and I would never even consider being involved in something like foal-napping or, or that! All I know about this entire thing is that her cocoon was found outside; one of the students brought it inside and she’s been watched over carefully ever since!”
“Twelve, Sparkle!” Chrysalis choked out before quickly recomposing herself. “Twelve.”
“Chrysalis... I am so sorry that-” the alicorn started to say, her voice full of sympathy.
“Shut up,” snapped Chrysalis.
The changeling queen glared daggers at the alicorn before swiveling her neck to look over at him, her expression softening as she looked into his eyes.
“Did they hurt you?” she asked him.
“No,” he said shaking his head, “Ocellus showed me how to feed and Gallus got a fish for me and I threw a bunch of things at the alicorn, and I got to play with ferrets and I made a pony faint too.”
“Your highness, we have an angry orange mare incoming,” Phasmid called out as he moved into the room, dragging the purple lizard with him.
The young guard’s horn lit up and a translucent green wall appeared in front of the hole to the hallway. A moment later an orange earth pony, with a blond mane and a brown hat on her head, skidded to a stop on the other side of the barricade. She turned around quickly, balanced on her front hooves, tucked her rear legs back and then bucked the barrier so hard it caused Phasmid to wince and stumble slightly.
“We should leave before any more reinforcements arrive my queen,” Odonate whispered to Chrysalis.
“Tell your friend to stand down, sparkle.” Chrysalis hissed to the alicorn. “We don’t want any casualties among your precious students do we?”
The alicorn looked over her withers at the huddled group behind her, to the gang of changelings that stood beyond them, and then she looked over to the orange mare and the growing crowd of ponies that gathered around her.
“Applejack, stop,” she called over to her.
With an angry snort the earth pony mare lowered her rear hooves onto the floor. She turned to Fluttershy, stomped hard against the resin that held the pegasus to the floor, shattering it and freeing her. Then, unable to do anything else, she began to pace back and forth along the magical force field, studying the room’s changeling inhabitants.
“So now what happens?” the alicorn asked.
“Me, my daughter, and my changelings leave, unmolested and without any creature following us,” Chrysalis instructed as her horn lit up and a shimmering field of green magic lifted him, away from Odonate, back into her embrace.
“Done,” the alicorn said, “just leave. No pony will stop you or get in your way.”
“On your word as the princess of friendship?” Chrysalis asked, tilting her head inquisitively at the alicorn.
“Oh my word,” repeated the alicorn, “as the princess of friendship.”
“Oh sparkle…” Chrysalis said, mock sadness in her tone. “That title means nothing, just like your word.”
With a nod from the changeling queen, Sandbar was pulled quickly away from his group of friends, in the grip of a green field of magic, and into the clutches of a changeling.
“Sandbar!” the alicorn and the five others behind her called out in unison.
“That’s why we’re taking a guest with us,” Chrysalis said.
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This got Intresting real fast
0w0
That escalated quickly!
Welp. I was hoping this chapter was going to calm down my fears, but now I'm just more worried. I'm betting $5 someone gets seriously hurt or dies.
the plot thickens...
That changeling who was disguised as a famous pony is behind this, isnt she?
Welp, time to go ah hunting everyone
Never take someone’s child without facing the consequences of your actions or the actions of those you're responsible for.
9488738
*Tosses a ten dollar bill in*
Nah, money's on this getting sappy
Oh no! Don't throw gasoline onto the fire, it never ends well for anyone!
I assume Twilight will offer herself up instead of Sandbar, but that could all depend on how fast this situation develops.
It just goes to show how paranoid Chrysalis is when she assumes Thorax of all changelings would condone, much less plan, a foalnapping.
9488824
Well.. He sorta stole (convinsed then to go against her beliefs and "pushed her away" ) from her, so yeah.
9488781
*Slams down a 20$*
My money is on... Um... I didn't think this far through...
9488860
Teeny tiny grand canyon sized gap between that and foalnapping babies though.
9488876
*punches a $50 bill into the pot*
I'm betting again. There's going to be a three way way war by the end. Chrysalis vs Twilight and gang vs Cicada and Leech and whatever else becomes of them.
well considering the scroll and how paranoid and fearful chrysalis from those loses an extra shield wasn't the worse but im sure her child shall try to make it comfortable before they return sand
Goddamn that got exciting in a hurry! And Chrysi can sure throw some shade when she wants to.
But what did she mean by 'twelve'? Twelve casualties from a raid on her hive, perhaps?
Whatever the case, when the real culprit comes to light, there's going to be blood. Excellent chapter!
Poor Chryissy suffering the oh so common problem of not really understanding her enemy. She should know Twilight doesn't lie, steal, kidnap or kill. But villains do tend to assume everyone is as bad as them. Chrysalis is being played like a fiddle, 12 changelings killed by rouges and she attacked an innocent civilian target, crossing the yaks, dragons and hippogriffs in the process. The ponies are gregarious to a fault and Thorax's hive likely still considers her family but the other races...
.....The rest of the brood was killed inside their cocoons weren't they? That is what the Twelve means.
9489032
Or that the other cocoons are still missing.
9488967
kinda but who knows might been a bunch of newborns in that pile that got converted so for crysalis might not be that different
9488974
I'll take that- Twilight sides with Chrysalis. This story has focused on a maternal Chrysalis, and Twilight understands that this is a reasonable action for Chrysalis to take when she thinks her child has been kidnapped. Chrysalis will release Sandbar once she thinks she's safe(since she doesn't want people coming after her in force), dig a new burrow, and we'll get the lead up to something like a war while Twilight tries to use it as an opportunity to bring Chrysalis into the fold.
9489061
Yeah but not HER babies. These are HERS. That's important.
9489060
"I would never even consider being involved in something like foal-napping or, or that!"
Sounds to me that something happen beyond mere kidnapping, something that Twilight can't even bring herself to say. I hope I'm wrong, but must acknowledge the very real possibility that all those cocooned changelings are dead.
Twelve?! Am I the only one who caught this? It looks like 12 cocoons were taken at random because I doubt anyone could tell which is which.
Although Pepper’s cocoon might have been easy to tell because of how much attention Chrysalis gave it.
It seems that Cicada and Leech have managed to dupe some members of Thorax’s hive. In all honesty it would be Pharanx who be more likely to Oder something like this. Pharanx has always preferred the more aggressive tactics that were Chrysalis’s policy.
Chryssie, this just means that your word means nothing
Also taking Sandbar will just assure that they will come after you
Twilight should refuse to let them go until Sandbar is returned, I suspect she will let them go but she shouldn't
...It's a scroll... you buy them at a store
Even if they were some kind of special magical scroll that only Twilight has, it wouldn't exactly be difficult to waltz on into Twilight's unguarded castle and snag a few
I'ld love to Like this Story again.
Hmm... I do find it interesting that even with all the "she" and "daughter" talk, he still identifies as male. That's VERY different from how this sort of HIE story usually treats gender reversal.
Well, shit.
I wonder how our little protagonist is going to internalize all this.
9489317
To be fair whenever they use feminine pronouns in context with Pepper, he’s out of earshot. At the moment he’s not even paying attention to Chrysalis and Twilight’s conversation either.
Although at this point Pepper might continue to refer to himself in masculine pronouns.
9489004
I believe that's how many changelings she has left.
Edit:
I should've read the rest of the comments first.
I'm thinking the "12" is the number of brothers/sisters "Pepper" lost. Twilight says "(...)foal-napping or, or that!" implying that something FAR worse than foal napping is indicated in this forged letter.
Plus I'd bet this incident was instigated by Cicada who had Leech plant the letter. Why risk fighting Chrysalis when you can get her to attack the ponies and get them to fight her?
So now the plot unfolds. Cicada and her double-crossing allies are setting things up for a war between The ponies, pastel changelings, and Chrysalis's hive, hoping to weaken all three and then come in and clean up once they've all exhausted themselves against each other.
And to do this, they killed a changeling loyal to Chrysalis and planted evidence on him suggesting this... most likely after apparently twelve other nymphs were killed.
They're going to run into a slight problem though. Cicada and her allies don't realize just how smart Pupa really is, including how Pupa will likely remember and relay to Chrysalis how the students were wondering in front of her why she was hanging from a tree and how none of them knew the reason that would had been the case. How Fluttershy asked what Pupa was, Ocellus told her she was a changeling nymph. Then how Yona found it in the tree, and Gallus brought it down for her. Chrysalis will then know, at the very least, that the students and Fluttershy had no foreknowledge of what was happening. That should keep Sandbar safe at least. Hopefully once she calms down from "Mama Bear" mode she'll think about it a little more and note the things that don't make sense. Not everything will be known, probably not even the fact that Cicada is becoming a queen, but at the very least that there's an unknown third party involved should be noted.
Frankly, if twelve of her other nymphs were killed, I'm surprised Chrysalis didn't go apoplectic (or more like apocalyptic). Mayhaps the fact that she didn't know Pupa's whereabouts kept her from leveling the school on sight.
It'll be interesting to see how things proceed from here.
I........did not expect that.
But whatever is going on, peppers cocoon was put thier as some kinda diversion, but for what?
9489677
I really hope the other stolen cocoons weren't destroyed
9490317 9490316 9490315 9490314
S
P
A
M
!
9490451
It's more appropriate to say that the fact you felt the need to pointlessly use four posts to give a one-word response to the chapter is distasteful.
If you were actually enthusiastic about the story, you'd be saying more than a single word about a chapter. Otherwise you are basically just crying for attention, of which I shall not be giving you any more.
Silly Chrissy, you're being played like a two-string fiddle! Granted you're a little manic right now, but once you interrogate everyone you'll find holes you can't deny in their corroboration...
Well, looks like we're in scenario b2-s. Question is: can we get forensics for the investigation or will ponies keep running around posturing and accusing one another?
Keep going! ;)
9490451
No.
Wow. Hateful ass motherfuckers.
9490482
I would not ask for attention because I don’t give a fuck if you read it or not. I only reacted because you decided to get pissy with me for no reason.
To go even further I have only replied to your post now to clear things up, but like hell you’ll care. To you i’m just some dumbass sitting in front of a keyboard doing troll things, but thats not wether you like it or not. I don’t care how you respond to this, or if you respond at all. Just know that this story is better than anything you’d come up with, so don’t expect me to read a book you wrote. Yea, go ahead, tell me my story is shit, but I write it because I have fun, not because it’s good.
9490670
Honestly I wasn’t being serious. Guess ya’ll couldn’t tell.
I have no idea how many stories I’ve ssen you comment in... I just know it’s a lot.
9490669
Do they even do forensics? I mean since magic is mostly everything, science hasn't been shown at all except some cameos. Also even though Twilight will keep her word, its not like others who woreship her and the heroes will commit hienous acts under their detection.
More please
9490823
Ah, so you were trolling. You know that behavior specifically incites hatred, right? Don't complain about getting responses you intentionally sought after.
9490846
Twilight
hashad her lab from when she studied Pinkie. It's not unreasonable to assume there are tools available to aid in investigation and analysis.Besides, evidence isn't about coulda shoulda woulda, it's dida.
Though Chrysalis probably won't see reason from the ponies alone, they'll have to get her loyal drones to reach whatever conclusions they find out.
9491117
Alright just stop nitpicking.
I specifically said I Wasn’t. so pick wether or not you want ot be rude or reasonable. A troll would keep going, I decided to forget about this like a day afterwards.
And don’t go throwing the fact that you “Read what I said” at me because clearly you didn’t read it right, look again.
And I deleted the comments anyway, so why is it still a problem? Drop and forget.
9491727
I respond when addressed. The fact that you deleted your comment means that nobody will be be able to "read what you said" and obviously can't read it anymore now.
It's you who aren't "dropping and forgetting". Let this be the last response then, if you're genuine.