CH 88 A Queen's Choice
Chrysalis sighed. It had taken hours, but now her hive was back in order. Now she finally had a chance to relax, and relax she would. She slipped into what yesterday would have been an extravagant waste. As luminous liquid enveloped her form, its warmth seeped through her carapace and into her core.
She reclined and gazed out of the penthouse’s window. Luna’s moon started its journey below the horizon. What are you up to? The love-infused moonlight has been as much a boon as a danger. It had taken all her impressive willpower to reinforce and control her deployed lings. There had almost been a whole host of lings discovered due to intoxicated moon-bathing. A fanged smirk formed on her face. That was the second time a forceful donation of love had caused problems. At least this one was spread over hours and was not mixed with a very physical expanding shield spell.
She held her foreleg before her. The carapace glistened as if new. A bribe? A gift? A trap? Chrysalis mused as she peered at the moon through a slowly closing hole.
As the moon vanished below the horizon and the sun took its place, her eyes shifted to one of the holes that was not shrinking. The hole that had she been an instant slow in reacting would have been through her chest. Rage sparked the heart that had been Celestia’s target. Other faces lined up next to the hated Sun Princess, Thorax, Starlight and many more. Each slight, each defeat, each failure, compounded and multiplied so much she hissed in rage.
Energy rippled down her horn, hungry for a target to lash out at. Through gritted teeth and past a snarl, she brought her hoof to her chest and inhaled. She expelled the hate with the exhale. The promised inferno of anger quashed to a meer ember of annoyance. A few motes of humour danced through her, enough for a soft chuckle. Here she was, copying one of Cadance’s habits. The too-perfect face she had mastered looked back at her in her mind, and the anger sharpened its fangs as it threatened to return.
"No.. no, not yet." Taking another breath, she lay back and let the liquid love completely envelop her. A wonderful calm came over her. In that one moment, there was nothing to worry about. No enemies to hide from, no thorns in her hoof she needed to tear her bloody vengeance from.
Not breathing burned a trivial amount of the liquid love compared to what her starved body soaked up. The level of the liquid fell so rapidly that she had to task four lings to the task of topping it up just to remain completely covered.
Her submerged giggle caused the last air in her lungs to escape as rising bubbles. Instead of any discomfort, there was just the warm caress of love sustaining her. What yesterday would have been an unforgivable waste, what would have spelled the death for most of her children now was just using up an excess before it spoiled.
A novel thought came to mind. What if it’s not about me? Nightmare Moon was impersonating Twilight… is this bounty just incidental? Is this just part of the Nightmare’s plan to win Luna over?
A slight tingle was all the warning she got before her contemplations were shattered by torment. She had no air to scream, but she still thrashed as lances of burning pain ripped into her. The agony in her old wounds surged, then faded to nearly intolerable itching. Despite the discomfort, she grinned. The pain repeated hundreds of times, and with each, her glee only increased even as each took months worth of love for her entire hive.
Her carapace broke as her limbs shattered against the reinforced bath. As an animal part of her mind noticed, it let the pain out quicker. The random flailing became a more deliberate act of self-destruction.
The liquid flowed through new gills as she took heaving breaths, still submerged. As the vital fluid raced through, her sanity returned, and she started to actually see what her eyes were telling her.
Above her, small specks of golden light floated to the surface. The minute golden suns in the sea of pink should have been beautiful, and if she did not know exactly what they were, it would have been.
Each was an enchanted dust-sized shard of Celestia’s horn. It was ingenious. It was a peerless attack. Using her own horn filings as a weapon made it impossible to counter. They were the one thing that could effortlessly hold the full wrath of the sun. It was another thing that was beautiful to behold from a safe distance. It had looked like a blizzard of fire instead of snow. Anything that it did not incinerate, it ripped into like a vorpal sandstorm. If you endured, if you survived, they melded into you and cursed the wounds to never heal.
A flicker of thought and some drones leapt into motion. Carefully each of the golden motes was skimmed from the surface and disposed of. Another thought and she knew how many times they replenished the love around her. Ten years, Tens years wroth of love for my whole hive… She crushed her anger before it even started to build.
It’s not all about you. She reminded herself with difficulty. There were many ways Celestia could have struck her down, many simpler spells she could have used. Why did you use that one? Was I to be a lesson for your foes? Was this spell crafted for another target?
She played with the thought and toyed with it like a cat with a mouse. Bit by bit, she plucked apart everything she knew about Celestia’s attack. Its abrasive nature could slowly grind down carapace, but it would do far more against naked flesh.
Was that for your sister?
The changeling in the full-length mirror was not one she had seen for a very long time. Not a single hole marred her from. Her horn was a long deadly blade, and her segmented carapace was thick with a healthy gleam to it. It was clear she was at least two hooves taller, and yet she moved as if she was half the mass she had been. The changeling in the mirror gave a content grin with just a hint of fang.
Chrysalis rested a hoof on the engraved frame. "It’s been so long, I don’t even recognise myself."
It took seconds to recognise the mix of her own emotions. Happiness, contentment and optimism. Her expression twisted with disgust. That last one was one emotion she would never allow herself to have again.
Even with a slow stride, her longer legs brought her to the full-length window rapidly. She rested a hoof and stared out at ’her’ city. Manehatten was a hive of activity. Each and every ling had recovered from the love overdose and now sprinted around at the very slowest. The weave buzzed with joy and was the only reason the frantic workers did not smash into each other.
A motherly smile reflected back at her from the glass. Keep up the good work, my children. The words she pushed out to her hive were laced with warmth, love and pride. For a moment, everyling stopped and looked her way. She gave them a regal wave, yet another thing she copied from Cadance.
A cheer rippled over the weave before they returned to work with even more vigour.
"Things are changing." She mused aloud as, with a flash of green, she assumed a pony form. Her aura slid the window open, and she took wing. If not for her hunger being sated, the siren call from below would have had her trying to burrow through the ground with her own hooves. Every basement, pool, bath and enclosed space that could be sterilised, cleaned and made watertight was full. Even if all her current drones were love haulers, it would take years to relocate their windfall of love. There was a decision to make, and she would have to make it soon. Use it, leave it or stay here?
With the damage the Blight caused and the deadly magical flux, it would still be years before the ponies would be able to move to reclaim the city. There was a small risk they might scout it before that though, but the escape tunnels were in place. There would just need to be more haulers in that case.
Her mind pulled the production numbers from the weave. The current podded ponies were producing two hundred and six units of love a day. The experimental farms were currently at about eight hundred, with the expectation only to rise. As much as she did not want to admit the truth, the numbers did not lie. On the other hoof, podded ponies were simpler to care for and were trivial in comparison to conceal.
With a mental order, one of her scribes started taking notes and tallying numbers. Even past the contentment a full belly brought, a quiet growl escaped her. I’m a queen, not a bucking accountant. It had been so much simpler when her swarm gorged themselves as they destroyed nation after nation. Her mind did the logical thing, it moved on to what happened next. How a self-righteous white Alicorn came with zeal and flame. To the contempt of being left beaten, broken, starving and sealed inside that volcano.
Her eyes strayed west to where Canterlot would be visible if she flew high enough. Her mind strayed to a fantasy of a little gift of a few tones of fire rubies converting the Canterhorn to an active volcano. Turn about is fair play…no? She shook her head. As satisfying as it would be to watch the look on Celestia’s face as her valuable city melted or was hurled into the sky in the eruption, the petty vengeance was not worth it. It would just inconvenience Celestia at best and would waste too much prey… or would that be livestock now?
Yet again, much to her annoyance, Cadance’s breathing technique came to her aid. She thought about things logically again. No matter what, her hive was less of a priority to Equestria than the Blight and Moonlit Scroll. After all, they could always rescue ponies the hive captured. That meant that until both were dealt with, the hive was safe.
She directed half a dozen builders to start work on another nursery. Now was a perfect time for more experimentation. She dipped a wing and set a new course, aligned to the building that held the larder. There were many ponies there she did not even know the tribe of, let alone their talents, and right now, that was the best place to acquire donations for her personal brand of alchemy.
Chrysalis was in a bath again. This time, simply scented water warmed her as she scrubbed herself despite the fact she knew she was completely clean. A cleaning spell and the fires of her transformation had made sure of that, but such things never left one feeling clean.
It had been a productive day. She had six main plans and two dozen contingencies in motion. She had crafted three new classes of changelings that were now growing inside her. None would be as valuable as her heir, and their cohort would be, but they would still be valuable additions to the hive she could be proud of.
She put aside the sponge and stretched out in the huge bath. Compared to the ones in the royal palace, it was gaudy and somehow seemed cheap despite the likely millions of bits spent on it.
Her mind drifted back to her time as Cadance to revel in the attention of the royal spa ponies. For one fleeting moment, she considered abducting some of them to add yet another caste to her hive. They could make a specialised form of harvester, with the right talent with words and offering happy endings. She discarded the idea. For now, the free-range farming technique was proving far more profitable.
She closed her eyes and turned her magic on herself, letting her senses flow through her and settle on the three batches of eggs inside her abdomen.
The first mixed a love hauler with some of Shining Armor’s traits. It would have a vast love store, and if it worked right, the oversized horn it would grow would allow it to protect an area. She had tweaked it to remove any limitation it might have on growth. So in times of plenty, it could easily grow to building size and protect a whole city on its own. If moving to a new area, they could turn into a wagon or a train carriage, and they would be large enough they would not strain themselves maintaining the disguise.
The second was a blend between a tender and a builder. She had spent hours browsing the podded ponies looking for the best donors. Each had a keen mind and a talent that would hopefully be useful in logistics. This new caste would be suitable for scribes or weavers able to create their own crafting supplies as needed. Having more samples from Twilight would have been ideal for this, but even if she did, who would waste such potential on glorified librarians and accountants?
The last was the dullest, but if there was a move to farming free-ranged ponies, they were the most necessary. Fortunately, there had been a lot of farmers in the villages they had ’saved’ from the Blight by abducting them.
She considered if a glass of love would be an indulgent treat and, for once in her life, was too sated even to feel tempted. For a moment, she considered that the day might just be perfect, but threw the idea away. The last time she had thought a day was going to be…
My queen? Just the tone of the mental voice gave everything away. Stiff, formal, with a hint of a waver.
She was proud of her achievements. For once, she had been in a state of total physical and mental contentment, so, of course, she should have known it would not last. Yes? her own reply was razor-edged and promised many hours of pain if some ling had done something stupid.
We have a situation here.
She grit her teeth and did her best not to snarl. Even she did not know where her tone fell between patient and murderous. I am not in the mood to play twenty questions.
Over the weave, she could feel the ling trembling, taste their fear waring with their devotion. My queen… Princes Twilight would like to speak to you.
Chrysalis sat up. The rapid motion flung water around the room. Nightmare Moon is there?
She looks like Twilight and has her daughter plus friends playing with the local foals.
To be expected, she’s keeping them away from any possible conflict. "and denying me easy hostages," she mused aloud.
Chrysalis donned her metaphorical crown and settled back in the bath. Magic crackled along her actual crown and danced into the weave as she deepened her connection to it. As her awareness of her physical body faded away, she directed one last quick thought to her nearest Praetorians, commanding them to be on alert.
First, she focused on the ling that talked to her. It was easy to follow that single strand, thickening it with power as her senses raced along it. He was the one that had wanted to experiment with farming free ranged ponies. Loyal, dependable, but somewhat of a risk taker. He was more adaptable than most hence why he was in local command.
There was no resistance as she pushed into his mind. All the details of how the village was run. The love income and the fact they had more than doubled the population of the village and replaced most of the missing or dead ponies. With the smallest amount of venom and a little mind magic, everypony had embraced the new version of reality.
Despite her current anger Chrysalis was impressed. You have pleased me. Ensure you continue to do so… She pushed a note of praise twined with caution to the ling, reinforcing her words. She slipped free of him and sought out the mind of another nearby ling.
Chrysalis located one who was the dimmest and quietest on the weave. Clearly, one that would not be missed for their conversational ability. She was a soldier whose only remarkable trait was her lack of aggression, the perfect backup for infiltrators content to just sit and wait for weeks at a time with no complaint. Chrysalis carefully, if not gently, pushed their will aside and assumed direct control of their body. Her consciousness slipped into the lesser form. The body already knew how to walk, so she just aimed it in the right direction and focused all her attention on the reason for her visit.
The Nightmare in Twilight’s form stood to every pony sense in serene meditation. Emotionally, things were far more interesting. It was hard to parse as, unlike Celestia, even the slightest of flickers went off like fireworks.
The whole thing felt like a poor imitation of her weave was being used for an argument. Trust, distrust, hate, anger, boredom, sadness, pleading, happiness, joy and exasperation were fired back and forth like war mages playing table tennis with artillery spells. She was glad it would not be her head getting an induced headache.
As her borrowed hooves brought her closer, more and more of whatever internal debate was going on became apparent. She knew it was wrong, but it was as if three ponies were bickering and trying to encourage a fourth to get out of bed when they really did not want to.
Passion and glee drowned out everything else as flames flickered from Twilight’s form. The air chilled, and still, the flames picked up. She reared up and spread her wings as the flames whipped around her in a frenzy. She held the pose for a long moment turning her head just enough to meet Chrysalis’ gaze. The Alicorn inhaled, and the flames winked out. She slammed her hooves into the ground, literally into the ground. Her front legs were buried well past the fetlock.
The ground rumbled once, then twice, then with one final heave, slabs of molten rock erupted from the earth only to be caught and shaped by a dark magenta aura. In a needless display of telekinetic prowess, many tones of rock were squeezed into the rough shape of a fortification. Thin lines of magenta magic cut, severed and disintegrated the excess, refining the functional but crude structure into something actually presentable.
Headless of any risk and failing to be impressed by such a blatant display of power, Chrysalis trotted her borrowed body right up to the still-at-work ’Twilight’. "Nightmare."
The Nightmare’s magenta eyes hardened. "Chrysalis."
"Why the hostility, Princess?" Chrysalis tossed her head haughtily. "You are the one that wanted to talk after all."
"My name is Night, and it would behove you to maintain my masquerade, assuming you wish me to do the same?" The Nightmare said with a glare. "So, in public, I am Twilight Sparkle, as you well should know." She turned and stalked towards a sheer wall of the new fortification and, with a flick of her horn, ripped a crunk from the wall without breaking stride.
Despite Chrysalis’ pretence, fear radiated from the nearby changelings over the weave, only to be pulled away, like water in a bath going down the drain. It swirled around and then into the Nightmare. She glanced over her withers and licked her lips, a content smile on her too-smug muzzle. "Do come in. We have much to discuss, My Little Pony."
With a silent snarl, Chrysalis stalked in after her. "I am not your little pony."
"Perhaps not, but you are a pony."
“I am no mere pony," Chrysalis spat. "I am a Changeling Queen.”
The Nightmare hummed as if in thought. "Yes, you are, but you are still one of the six tribes of pony kind."
"...six?"
"Yes, six." The Nightmare snapped before her voice smoothed to Twilight’s lecturing mode. "Earth Poines and Crystal Ponies, Thestral ponies and Pegasus ponies, Unicorn ponies and Changeling ponies."
"You expect me to believe…" Chrysalis’ words cut off as, with a flash of shadowy flame Nightmare Moon stood there in all her dark and terrible glory.
"And how do you think I did this if Alicorns were not also part changeling?"
"Then why did Celestia…"
"My dearest sister," the title dripped venom. "She seeks to destroy what she can’t control or has no use for… In your case, she merely crippled you so she could use you and your hive for a test for Twilight and Cadance."
Images of her sisters danced in Chrysalis’ mind’s eye. All the time they spent together, the contests to see who could create the most powerful or interesting drones. All of them dead. All of them gone, and she only remained because she was weak enough that Celestia could control her.
Never. She bared her fangs into a vindictive smile. "I defeated her."
Nightmare Moon’s cackle devolved into a madmare’s laughing fit. "Oh, by the stars, I needed that…"
If she was in her own body, she would have snapped. She would have lashed out with hoof and horn and showed this parasite just what a fully fed queen could do. That option denied, she offered her best death glare as she considered changing into something with a petrifying gaze. No, then I won’t know why she is here, she thought before she growled out. "I did not come here to be insulted."
Nightmare Moon held up a hoof as if asking for a moment, then took a deep breath. She proved to be another pony that had started using Cadance’s breathing trick. As she breathed out, her form shifted and melted down to a thestralised Twilight. "You have our apologies." She bowed her head, but kept her slit eyes locked on Chrysalis’ own.
With a flash of green, Chrysalis rose up to her full height, her borrowed body taking on her true majesty. She glared down at the now smaller mare before her. "I bested her with Shining Armor’s love. She was no match for me."
The Nightmare slowly shook her head and whispered one word. "Sit."
That single word hit like a hammer blow. Its echo shook the world. Chrysalis’ real body complied an instant faster than her borrowed one. The feel of the water resisting her real body’s motion was almost enough to pull her mind away from her puppet.
All the anger, all the rage she had been containing flared to life. She hissed and rammed a turret of power into her borrowed horn. "How dare…"
Faster than even a blink and as soft as a feather, the Nightmare had a hoof silencing her. "Calm yourself.".
The soft, tender words blew through her and ripped the anger away, leaving only a chill stillness, an utter calmness in its wake. Even the smug surety wafting off the Nightmare failed to raise her ire.
The cool touch of the Nightmare’s magic reached up to Chrysalis’ puppet’s horn, mending the cracks and warps the excessive energies had caused.
"What did you do to me?"
"All six tribes were bread and conditioned for tens of thousands of generations to obey Alicorns. My sister could have stopped you with a single word."
A few hints of indignation tried to push through the enforced calm, but she squashed them herself. Now was not the time for flying into a rage. "So why did you want to have this little heart-to-heart?"
"I merely wished to offer you our gratitude."
"You do? But we are enemies."
The Nightmare shook her head, the barest bit of pity in her eyes. "You simply wish to feed, to grow and to rule." She flicked a wing. "You do not wish to nail us to an alter and cut into mine flesh again and again, relishing in the undying nature of an Alicorn to maximise the agony inflicted."
Chrysalis knew of torture, she knew of pain, but something about the Nightmare’s tone, the texture of her emotions, painted a picture far too vividly. She could almost hear the screams and feel the blade caress along her carapace before its blade took its first bite into her soft insides. A clop of a hoof on stone shattered the vision and left only the echo of a whimpering sob.
The Nightmare swept her wing around in a wide sweep. "If you treat your love stock like you do here, you will have our blessing and our protection." She finished with a companionable smile.
Chrysalis just stayed there and sat on her rump, even through the enforced calm, that was a lot to take in. Nightmare Moon protecting me? Am I dreaming? Or was the love from the moonlight spiked? Tainted somehow?
"Is this some sort of trick?"
"No. In all honesty, this is me being selfish." The Nightmare waved her hoof ariely. "I tried helping everypony myself, empowering them to reach their potential and that led to a sojourn on the moon."
"That’s not what the history says."
The Nightmare shrugged her wings. "They also say we were nought but myth. They say we were jealous, vain. Neigh, we would never fall because of something so petty, so trivial as the affection of mortals." Her muzzle trembled with effort but failed to keep the ugly sneer from it.
The Nightmare snorted and pawed the ground with a hoof. Her muscles quivered with the need to move, and her emotions screamed for vengeance. Then it all vanished. She sat with her expression calm, collected, and relaxed. Her emotions tasted of pride and iron clade determination, but nothing else. "Celestia killed my family. She incinerated everything we had left from those we loved. This is after she cast dear sweet Luna, the painter that loved to dance in the starlight, into a bloody gladiatorial pit." The Nightmare smiled sweetly.
The enforced calm slipped but left mostly confusion in its wake. Chrysalis did not know what to do. She was the queen. One of her roles was to always know what to do. The mere thought that Nightmare Moon would demand to talk to her just to tell her a sob story of an origin tale should have been ridiculous, and yet it had happened. "Night… I am not your mother, nor your confessor, so why are you telling me this?"
Night’s wings dropped a fraction. "I find what my sister did to those that betrayed you abhorrent and a waste of your tribe’s potential."
"That’s all?"
Night shook her head. "You can be of use to us. There is a pony I would very much like to meet again." The malicious glee and hunger that danced in Night’s emotions made Chrysalis very happy she was not this pony.
"So you just want to use us?"
"Yes, but loyalty is rewarded, and if you aid us in acquiring Moonlit Scroll, you with be handsomely rewarded."
"So who…" Chrysalis’s question was cut off by Night’s shadow standing up and assuming the form of a different pony. A familiar pony, that certain pony that had paid very well indeed for a new identity. Now, how can I use this without gaining your ire?
Before she could blink, Night was muzzle to muzzle with her. The Alicorn’s eyes blazed with power, and the whole world became nothing but an endless void.
"Where. Is. He?”
Chrysalis suddenly felt very, very mortal.
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And say goodbye to any changelings problems also good chapter
This was just VERY nice to read, loved it!
Finally Chrissy and Night had a talk, and what a talk it was!
It is tons of something, not tones.
a chunk of material, not a crunk
and bred to obey, not bread.
otherwise a good chapter.
11647262
Correct on two of them, though tones is the metric unit.
Edit to add: Checked further, and yes, for metric, it would be tonnes. Tones isn't correct in either sense. I'm still getting used to some of the differences between American and British English.
Yeah I kinda knew she was going to become one of the Nightmares freed.
Okay Celestia just moved into villian list
11647272
MUSIC has no metric unit, but weights do. The E makes it a completely different word with different meaning.
11647272
no that is still wrong.
tonne maybe, but not tones.
11647391
Further checking has shown you are correct on that point. I'm still getting used to British writing.
11647388
I saw the point on that one, looked further into it. I thought it was just another one of those spelling differences between American and British English and I thought that was correctly from British for the measurements. I stand corrected on the issue.
Well, I'm always happy to see a competent Chryssie.
As she said best, I merely hope that the collective known as the Moon-Simp Gang doesnt punish her too harshly for helping Scroll.
As for how much of his new identity is privy to Chrysalis, this could very much develop things very quickly, and I can't wait to see it
Oh goodie. Progress, finally.
Changelings are one of the pony tribes... Isn't that interesting. Also Chrysalis would probably switch sides just to spite Celestia at this point.
But... Night/Twilight going to find out the truth in time? Based on the way things are going, I don't think so.
But will our Warlock get his ascension or just kill lots of ponies first? I think he has a compulsion to do this and it was meant to free NMM from the Moon early. Not ascend him.
Ok forget what I said in the Previous chapter! THIS IS GOLD!! Night going full lecture mode about the Six pony tribes and demanding to know where the Antagonist of the story is? Yes. Perfection in all it's glory.
The more we learn about alicorns, the more they both scare me and piss me off. I'm so glad Twi and Luna are "the good guys" here.
If she tells Twilight what the payment for her help was, and what she did with those eggs... Little Star is going to be excited to find out that she has a little half sister on the way. "More family!"
...That is going to be one weird family tree.
11649468
Wierd? You mean AWESOME!
This story is so much fun
That was a good chapter.
table tennis? Did you mean ping-pong, and is there another language beside my native one that calls it that?
11675501
Yes its the same thing.
gifdb.com/images/high/kagome-sit-boy-inuyasha-zkte34fy79n2f8ag.gif