'Sects and the City
If you go down in the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise...
The Everfree Forest is, of course, the most dangerous wooded area in Equestria, but that isn't to say that the danger is, as it were, evenly distributed. The part of it closest to Ponyville, for example, almost counts as habitable; the fact that somepony, or somezebra, does live there might seem to remove the 'almost', but statistical anomalies can be ignored. The path to the Castle of the Two Sisters has also been mostly tamed, to the point that a group of young classmates can make regular trips there. Further out, one may run into timber wolves, but dangerous though they may be, if you're quick on your hooves you stand a good chance of escape. Then there are the cockatrice nests, the manticore hunting grounds, the Ursa runs, and things yet darker that nopony has survived to talk about.
And then there was the clearing. Nothing in the Forest (with one exception) got too close to the clearing if it could help it, especially when the occupant was screaming.
Like she did most of the time. Like she was doing right now.
"Oh, you think I failed, do you?!" she raged. "I'll have you know that this was exactly what I had planned! Now that I know where the Tree of Harmony is, I don't need anycreature's help! Not you, or the rest of those miserable wretches! You may think my hive is lost to me, but once I've devised the perfect plan to take the Elements for myself, I'll use them to destroy Starlight Glimmer and reclaim what is mine! No creature on Equestria will stop me, least of all you!"
The target of her ire gave this as much thought as it was capable of doing, then very slowly fell over.
"INSOLENCE!" Queen Chrysalis, former tyrant of the changeling swarm turned vagabond clearing-squatter, stampeded across the clearing to stand over the small purple-hued log. "How dare you take that tone with me?! Do you not know who I am? I could destroy you with a thought!" She raised her hoof high, prepared to shatter the log into splinters...
Then stopped. Her eyes grew wide, and she abruptly retreated, hiding behind a large stump. "Now I see your plan," she muttered, raising her head just enough to peer suspiciously at the harmless, plan-incapable log. "You wouldn't defy me unless you had garnered outside support. You're in league with..." Chrysalis glanced fearfully up at the trees. "...THEM."
For the most part, the squirrels in the Everfree didn't much care about the varying levels of danger. They were dark of fur and red of eye, but otherwise were very like the squirrels everywhere else in Equestria: small, fuzzy, extremely judgmental jerks. A few of them stared down at Chrysalis from the surrounding branches, snickering occasionally.
Her eyes flickered from one sniggering rodent to another. "They report back to the yellow one," she whispered. "I'm sure of it."
The log said nothing, resolute in its defiance.
In an instant, fear turned to rage once more, and a green glow snatched one of the hapless sciuridae, pulling it down to eye level. "So be it, then! Go back to your mistress, and tell her that I'm eager for our next meeting! Tell her that I shall destroy Starlight Glimmer and all of her friends! What do you say to that?!"
The squirrel blinked at her for a moment... then its eyes narrowed and it pointed a diminutive digit at her. "I say," it announced, "that you've been alone in this forest a bit too long, 'Your Majesty'."
Chrysalis dropped the creature out of shock, and it quickly scampered up the nearest tree. She took a step back uncertainly, then stopped. "Wait a moment... I know that voice."
The clearing suddenly grew brighter, and she turned her head to see a column of swirling lights in the center of it. There seemed to be some kind of figure silhouetted in the lights - an elongated, distinctly non-equinoid figure - and this fact made Chrysalis drop to a defensive crouch. An intruder! If it was who she suspected, his presence could only mean trouble. She had to be ready for-
"Who do you think it is?" a voice by her ear asked, and if she had been wearing horseshoes she would have jumped out of them. As it was, the changeling queen made a highly undignified leap into the nearest bushes.
A moment later she peered out from the shrubbery, only her eyes and distinctive horn visible. "Discord! I knew-" She halted. "What are you wearing?"
And indeed, the draconequus was clad in what appeared to be some kind of outlandish one piece uniform, made of an unfamiliar form-fitting material. It was primarily black, though blue around his (barely existent) shoulders and with some kind of irregular pin on his chest. He smiled at her placidly. "Please state the nature of the medical emergency."
Chrysalis emerged from the bush, though still watched the embodiment of chaos cautiously. "Emergency? What are you talking about?"
"Oh, you know how it is." A small, grey, strangely angled object appeared in his paw, and it produced odd noises and lights as he passed it over her. "Fluttershy told me... you do remember Fluttershy, don't you?"
"The yellow one," she growled. glancing upwards.
"Oh, good, you do. It's important to remember the names of those you kidnap. You know, just in case one of their friends comes along and wants to exact a little revenge." He stared down at her, letting his words hang in the air, and for a long moment the clearing seemed even darker... then abruptly it brightened, as did Discord's apparent mood. "Anyhoo, after a certain incident which we will not go into here, she informed me I should utilize my time a bit more productively, such as by caring for the infirm and needy." He smiled at her again. "And I couldn't think of anycreature more needy than you."
"Caring?" The scorn in the changeling queen's voice was an almost physical force. "I don't need your help! I don't need anycreature's help!"
"Of course not," he said soothingly, while glancing around the clearing. It showed every sign of her habitation, with fallen twigs and splintered branches littered across the ground, the results of her various tirades. A haphazard collection of leaves seemed to serve as a bed, while a pile of crudely stacked timber appeared to be an aborted attempt at a throne. "I'm sure you and Twilog Stumple are very happy here. This is just a little wellness checkup, to see how you're doing. Won't take a moment. And let's face it," he added, leaning in close, "it's not like you could stop me, is it?"
She glowered at him. If he was here to spy on her... but no. Without the protection of her magic-suppressing throne, he could have done so without announcing himself, and she would never have been the wiser. She really was at his mercy, but for the moment at least he seemed to have some. Chrysalis sighed. "Just get it over with."
"Don't worry. It's all non-invasive, and I am a professional." He continued passing the strange object over her body. "How have you been feeling lately?"
"I'm fine," she grated.
"Mm-hmm. No unusual symptoms? Paranoia, narcissism, megalomania?" He peered at the device. "No, sorry, obviously those would be usual symptoms."
"How dare-!"
"Are you getting enough exercise? A morning jog to get you feeling the wind through the holes in your legs?"
She snapped at him. Literally snapped, tooth and fang closing around the point in space where, just before Discord snatched it away, a furry forelimb had been holding the strange object over her torso. He made a show of looking shocked, then inspected the device again. "Irritability... check," he murmured.
As she glared at him, he beamed down at the changeling queen cheerfully. "Well, everything seems to be order," he announced, "apart from a few lingering symptoms such as having no hive or drones, the crushing shame of being completely trounced by a powerless mare and your own offspring, and..." He paused and poked at the device's surface, his brow furrowing. "...extreme malnutrition, apparently. Chrysalis, when was the last time you fed?"
"I feed," she protested. "These woods are full of-"
"-simple animals and mindless monsters," he finished, "incapable of more than the most basic, instinctual forms of love. You can survive on that for a while, to be sure, but if you don't supplement your diet with more complex emotions, you'll end up just wasting away."
It galled her to admit it, even privately, but the draconequus had a point. "I know that! But this is just a temporary state of affairs! As a Queen, I can go weeks without feeding properly!"
He stared at her. "Chrysalis... how long do you think you've been here?"
Her hooves shifted hesitantly. "Just... just a week or two... isn't it?" Discord shook his head. "Longer?"
"Much longer." Discord reached up and pulled down from nothing; a wide strip of fabric unrolled from thin air, and on its surface was a list of some kind; most of it was incomprehensible, but she was able to pick out phrases like 'Horse Play', 'Molt Down' and 'Sounds of Silence'. "By my calculations, it's been a full half-season since your attempt to claim the Tree of Harmony."
Chrysalis was so unsettled by this revelation that it didn't occur to her to wonder how he knew about that particular incident. "Six weeks?!"
"Possibly longer," he agreed vaguely.
"So long.... I had no idea..." She'd stolen some love from a family of ponies in a cottage some distance from Ponyville before creating the wooden doppelgangers, but that had been the last time; exposing her presence was too dangerous, as no doubt Starlight Glimmer and her friends would have noticed her nearly-successful attempt to steal the Elements of Harmony, and greatly increased security around Ponyville. (Paranoia had in fact settled in rather early in her degrading mental state, but had never been very far below the surface in any case.) After that, she had to admit, the days had rather blurred together...
She looked up at him sharply. "Why are you telling me this?"
"I told you. I'm here to help you." He snapped his talons, and the fabric disappeared. "What you need right now, Your Majesty, is to fill that empty stomach. Or... whatever internal organ stores love. I would guess the heart, but there's some debate on that where you're concerned."
She ignored this. "Are you telling me to go out and feed on ponies?"
"I?" He pressed a paw to what in a less noodly creature might have been called his chest. "Good heavens, no! Fluttershy would be ever so cross if I did that..."
"Then-"
"...but as your physician, it is absolutely my recommendation that you take in the nutrients you're currently lacking," Discord finished. "How you do it is hardly my concern. I would, however, suggest that you do so far away from Ponyville. That would make it easier on everycreature, if you see what I mean, and the exercise would do you a world of good."
She stared at him doubtfully. "You're trying to trick me," she said, though there was little confidence behind the accusation. "You want to flush me out of hiding so-"
"I could just send you to Celestia's court," he suggested, talons raised to snap. "Make that my good deed for the day. Is that what you'd prefer? I'm sure you'll have no problem defeating-"
"No!" She gathered up her pride. "...no. The time is... not quite right to challenge Celestia."
"Of course," he said, and if his words were heavily padded with mockery she decided not to notice.
"And I suppose the Elements aren't going anywhere..." she mused. "...very well. What you say has merit, and I will need to be in top condition for my next encounter with Starlight Glimmer."
"There you go!" he said encouragingly, and was suddenly surrounded by a group of Discords cheering and throwing confetti. "Bon voyage, arrivederci, hasta la bye-bye, you don't have to go home but you can't stay here!"
She scowled at him, then launched herself into the air and through the arboreal cover, squirrels scattering in her wake.
Discord watched her leave with a certain satisfaction. Chrysalis staying in hiding and plotting her next useless attack was boring and predictable. Chrysalis being forced to move on from her failure promised to be more interesting, and he could honestly tell Fluttershy that he'd helped somecreature.
"A good deed indeed," he said aloud to the purple log, which Chrysalis had left behind. Discord picked it up, considered it thoughtfully, then turned it into an exact replica of Twilight Sparkle, though still wooden and immobile. "Now for my bad deed for the day... I think I'll put you at the foot of good ol' Purple Smart's bed. Right where she'll see you when she wakes up. Just... staring."
And then he did.
Chrysalis hovered in the evening sky and surveyed the lands below her. It was all very well to tell her to feed, but where? The lights of Ponyville lay tantalizingly close, but even without Discord's warning she knew that would be a foolish decision. And there was Canterlot in the middle distance, which would be even worse.
You don't have to go home...
Home? She had no home now. Her hive was infested with traitors and abominations, making a mockery of what a changeling should be. She'd spent centuries taking care of them, working her hooves to the chitin, and this was the thanks she got? Ungrateful wretches! They probably never even gave a thought anymore to their poor, abandoned mother.
(The exact nature of the relationship between Chrysalis and her drones had, of course, been completely dismissed from her memory in order to heighten her sense of victimhood.)
...but you can't stay here.
Where, then? Equestria was dotted with large cities with plentiful prey, yet she had to be extremely careful. She knew about the Friendship Map, or to be more precise she knew of the Friendship Map, its exact workings still something of a mystery to her. She was aware that it would send ponies off to handle problems of some sort; did that mean it could send them after her? If so, she could go to some random town, lure in some witless pony and prepare to feed, then immediately get ambushed by those six. And weak as she now realized she was, that would be it.
No. She needed a way to feed that was guaranteed to be safe. Previously, she would have started a new hive somewhere, and possessed knowledge of several suitable locations; sending drones out to collect love and bring it back to her would have been perfectly safe, at least for her. But with the traitors out there, and more importantly the knowledge of how a changeling could rid itself of the endless hunger, any drone she hatched could betray her. The age of the true changeling was over, perhaps forever.
It pained her to even think of it, but what she needed was an ally. One she could - ugh - trust to help her get back on her hooves. It wasn't the first time she'd had the thought; her wooden simulacrums had been a step in that direction. But they'd been worse than useless, and in any case she didn't have the strength to try again. So that was out.
But then who? Was there anycreature in Equestria that a changeling queen could rely on?
A tendril of memory slowly uncurled.
...oh. Yes. Her. Chrysalis hadn't thought about her since before she lost her hive. Not precisely an ally, but the next best thing. And she definitely wouldn't be inclined to report Chrysalis to the authorities. Whatever else she might do, she wouldn't do that. It wasn't an optimal solution, but it might be the best choice available. But... would she even still be there? Would Chrysalis even be able to find her?
There was only one way to find out.
Her mind made up, Chrysalis reoriented herself and flew toward Manehattan.
The Ponera Hippodrome wasn't the largest venue in the city - it was, in fact, the seventeenth largest - but in a town with as many stadiums, theaters, concert halls and convention centers as Manehattan had, that was still saying quite a lot. It wasn't as famous as Carneighgie Hall or as popular as Maredison Square Gardens, but it contained all of the modern amenities and had a core following of attendees who preferred its 'big, but not too big' atmosphere. If you could get booked there, you weren't necessarily among the elite entertainers, but you were definitely a pony to be watched. Literally.
For the performer currently on stage, it was the highlight of her career thus far, and so it was a shame that her evening was going to go so very sharply downhill in less than an hour.
Six thousand ponies were arrayed in the seating, a full house. Something less than twelve thousand eyes watched the cream colored unicorn down below; a not-insignificant portion of the audience preferred to focus on their hearing over their sight, and the mare sang so strongly, so purely that this was completely understandable. It was the last song of the evening, and Harmony Delight, the spotlights making her sky-blue mane glow, was giving it everything she had.
"And I'll never be..." she sang into the microphone she clutched in one hoof, "...no, I'll never be..." She let the lyrics hang in the air for a few seconds, building anticipation. "...the mare that you... neeeeeed!" The music crescendoed as she maintained the note for as long she she could, finally dropping into a bow. The spotlight winked out, the music ended, and the crowd went wild, stomping enthusiastically onto solid, dent-resistant wooden plates built into the stadium floor.
A moment later the spotlight came back, somewhat dimmed, and the house lights began to rise. Harmony was still on the stage, panting heavily and smiling just as hard. "Thank you, everypony!" she called, waving happily. "I love you all! Thank you! Good night!"
With that, she trotted off stage and into the forelegs of the stage manager, Dress Rehearsal, who bustled her off to her dressing room. A picture of Harmony's cutie mark, a golden musical note whose flag extended into a pastel pink ribbon and twined around the stem, was hung on the door. "That was amazing! Simply spectacular!"
"Thanks, Re." A purple field clutched at a glass of water proffered by a stagehoof, and she gulped at it eagerly.
"I mean it! I've seen a lot of talent come and go, and filly, you've definitely got what it takes!"
Harmony gave her a weary smile. "That's so sweet of you!" And there was this about her voice: it was light and bubbly, and always seemed an the cusp of laughter. She sat down in the room's only chair and leaned her head back; her makeup artist - a huge beast of an earth pony named Heavy Foundation - moved in and, with soft cloths and cleansers, expertly began to undo his previous work. "Is Blitz here yet, Vi?" she asked, keeping her face otherwise immobile.
He grunted. "Harmony, you know that colt's always around somewhere when you're on stage. He'll be here."
"I know, I know. It just.... doesn't feel like it counts until I talk to him."
"Beats me why you two don't make everything more official. You're already pretty inseparable; might as well set a date for the inevitable."
"Oh, stop," she said with a giggle. "It's not like that. He's just an old family friend."
"Sure," replied Heavy, his gravelly voice laden with amused skepticism.
Time passed as the earth pony worked, ensuring there would be no permanent staining, and she allowed pleasant exhaustion to sweep over her, enjoying the coolness of the cleansing wipes stroking across her fur. Eyes closed, she listened as the sound of thousands of ponies gathered together slowly ebbed and quieted. An immense feeling of satisfaction grew within her as the tiredness faded, and it was more than just the sense of a job done well. In some ways, she enjoyed these post-performance moments more than the performances themselves; it was when she could finally-
A towel suddenly fell on her face. She moved it aside with her field, and was presented with the gently smiling and upside-down face of an earth pony, his hide an unremarkable shade of brown. "Great show, Harmony. As always."
"Blitz!" She hopped out of the chair. "What took you so long?"
"Oh, I was just having a discussion with a writer from Before the Horse magazine," replied Promo Blitz. The 'unremarkable' descriptor extended to his mane, features and general countenance, but he was preternaturally adept at navigating the entertainment industry. "Her bosses sent her to see what you're all about. We talked for a while, and she thinks she can get them to put you on the cover." He lifted a hoof and waved it through the air. "'Elements of Harmony: The Story of Manehattan's Newest Rising Star."
"Oh, Celestia, that's so cheesy!" she said with a giggle. She threw a foreleg around his neck. "You're amazing, Blitz!" Behind her, Heavy just shook his head as he put away the contents of his makeup kit.
"That's what I'm here for." Her just-an-old-family-friend manager and promoter eventually drew back from the hug. "And if that works out well, maybe we can look at a cross-country tour. Canterlot, Vanhoover, Fillydelphia..."
"A tour?" She sat down and touched her forehooves together uncertainly. "I... I don't know, Blitz... I don't want to leave Manehattan, you know that."
He took her hooves between his. "There's nothing holding you back any more, is there?" Blitz watched her a moment longer, then let her go. "But we can talk about it later. I'm going to stay for a while and make sure everything gets put up properly. Are you okay to make it home? You look beat."
"I'm fine," she assured him. "I'll just grab a coach."
"All right. I'll see you later. And Harmony? Good work tonight."
He slipped out, narrowly avoiding bumping into a stagehoof, and Heavy rolled his eyes. "'Oh, Blitz,'" he said mockingly, the falsetto sounding strange coming from a voice usually pitched in the basement, "'you're just so amazing!' Filly. You aren't fooling anypony."
"I promise, Vi, it isn't like that."
"Uh-huh. I'm just saying, you should stake your claim before somepony snatches him up. That colt's sharp as a tack. There's artists out there that'd love to add him to their team. Or maybe their... collection." He waggled his eyebrows suggestively. They were good eyebrows for this purpose.
"I'll keep it in mind," she responded dryly. "But... thanks. Hey, I'm opening for Haulin' Oats at the Clydesdale next week. You available?"
"For you? Absolutely." He held out a hoof, and she bounced her own off it. "Take care of yourself, Harmony."
"You, too." She trotted out the door, in the manner of one without a care in the world.
A bit later, a stagehoof that had been lingering outside the dressing room doing very little while trying very hard to look busy followed after her.
The most evil pigeon in Equestria tracked the coach by air, and followed it to one of the more expensive residential blocks in a city already famous for its high rent. As it approached the tallest building on the block, a flock of pegasus paparazzi swooped down toward the vehicle, cameras at the ready, before building security moved in to disperse them with oversized flyswatters, the only thing that reliably worked. They didn't care about pigeons, though.
Harmony exited the coach and passed through the building's main doors, two extremely beefy guards stepping aside briefly to let her through. The pigeon regarded them for a moment, then decided they didn't seem the type to let even a mouse pass by unchallenged. She would have to find another way.
She circled the building as she ascended, peering into every window as it passed. If she had cared at all, the scenes she witnessed could have given her a brief but densely packed education about life in the big city. But she wasn't there for such trivialities, which were entirely beneath her. She had drones for that sort of...
She closed her eyes and tried to banish the thought. Then opened her eyes just in time to prevent slamming into a wall.
When her initial search proved fruitless, she made a few educated guesses and went to the building's upper levels searching for an ingress. She found it in the form of a steaming central heating vent, its grate far too small for even a poorly-fed pigeon. But that was hardly a problem.
She gripped the grate with one claw, poked her beak through the largest opening she could find, and in a flash of green fire there was instead a small garter snake entangled in the wire mesh. The snake squeezed through and fell a few hooflengths onto the metal floor of the ventilation shaft. Another flash, and a mouse sniffed the heated air. Yes... definitely a familiar scent there. As she'd suspected, her target had chosen a high place. She scurried along the metal, poking nose and whiskers into every vent she passed, until-
This one. There was something... different about the scent than what she was used to, yet it was still everything she wanted, and her tiny rodentine mouth watered.
She shifted from mouse to ant, and crawled through into a darkened kitchen before resuming her true form. It seemed that Harmony hadn't made it to her apartment yet. Good. Now all she needed to do was find a hiding spot and ambush the ungrateful little-
A sudden instinct made Chrysalis duck quickly, dropping heavily to the floor. It was the only thing that prevented a rolling pin, propelled by a purple magical field at astonishing speed, from occupying the same space as her head. As it was, it sailed onward and embedded itself in the wall.
"Did you really think I wouldn't notice you skulking around at the stadium?" Harmony demanded, all of the cheerful fluffiness in her voice replaced by steel. With a flick of hornlight, she lit a nearby lamp. "How did you find me, anyway?"
Chrysalis carefully got back to her feet. "Oh, I don't know, perhaps the fact that this city is plastered with posters of your face might have helped."
"Oh. Right. Concert advertisements. Fair enough." It was a large kitchen with a central island counter, and they began to circle it, watching each other warily. "What do you want, Chrysalis? I have a life of my own here! You're not part of it!"
"Yes, I saw. Playing songbird for a bunch of wretched ponies. That's quite the 'life'!"
"That's rich coming from the laughingstock of Equestria," Harmony snapped. "Everypony knows how you lost your hive!"
"'Watch your tongue!" Chrysalis shot back. "That was just-"
"A temporary setback? You would've gotten away with it if not for those meddling ponies? Give me a break!"
The changeling queen made a sound somewhere between shock and outrage. "Such disrespect!"
"What are you doing here, Chrysalis?" the unicorn asked again. "You shouldn't even be here, remember? We had an agreement! Manehattan is mine!"
"I'm changing the agreement. I need a fresh supply of love, and you absolutely reek of it."
"I don't see how that's my problem."
"Oh, don't be so selfish! You're carrying far more than you need!" Chrysalis looked the unicorn up and down. "And let's be honest: you could stand to skip a meal or two."
"How dare-!"
But Chrysalis was ready for the anger. She launched herself at Harmony, turning into a tiger in mid-pounce. In a flash of purple (and multiple tearing noises as the mare hadn't removed her performance outfit yet), the unicorn was replaced by a timber wolf, wooden jaws snapping at feline throat. The tiger managed to twist in the air and bounced off the wolf's head with both hindpaws, vaulting over it into the living room. Before it could reorient itself, the wolf charged forward, becoming a large ram and bashing into the tiger, throwing it back into the front door to the sound of splintering wood.
The dance continued like this for several minutes, filling the apartment with so many sporadic bursts of green and purple light that if the windows hadn't been securely draped, a passing pegasus might have suspect either an amateur firework artist or a rave. As it was, it was fortunate that the high-rise included really good soundproofing. But one combatant was suffering from acute malnutrition and the other had just completed a strenuous evening and was using abilities she hadn't had much call to use so vigorously in quite some time. Neither of them could keep it up for long, and the melee was eventually reduced to a macaque trying desperately to remove a koala from its leg.
The monkey resumed its unicorn form, panting heavily. "This... is... stupid."
After releasing the leg and scurrying backward, the koala was replaced by Chrysalis, also the worse for wear. "...agreed."
"Truce?"
"Truce."
Harmony looked down at the tattered cloth draped over her body. It had been sparkly, sheer and sequined, and had not been designed for battle. She sighed. "Make yourself comfortable, I guess." She stood up and trotted into the bedroom.
Chrysalis stared after her suspiciously. "Where are you going?"
"To get changed."
"But-"
Harmony poked her head back out briefly. "You know what I mean!"
"You can wear any clothes at will! Why are you even bothering with physical garments?"
"Because they look better when I'm performing, all right? And maybe this one can be salvaged." A moment later she returned, unadorned and holding two damp towels in her field. One of them suddenly accelerated and slapped against Chrysalis' face. She quickly removed it, suspecting a new attack, but Harmony had turned away, rubbing her own face with the second towel as her hornlight directed kettle, faucet and stove into action. Soon, a pot of tea was in the making.
"Sit down."
Weary and battered, Chrysalis still demanded standards. "Not until you return to your true form. You know how I feel about being shapeshifted in my presence!"
Harmony's smile was nasty and premeditated. "Of course I do. That's why I'm still like this." They glared at each other a moment longer, then Harmony released the air from tensed lungs. Not a sigh, but a burst of exasperated breath. "Fine. If that'll make this easier..." Another burst of purple, and...
The figure standing there now was a bit shorter than Chrysalis, but not by much, and the holes in the legs and horn were in different positions. Nevertheless, the resemblance was still strong, apart from color, for where Chrysalis' mane and tail were a fungal green, the other changeling sported a toxic purple. The hair was styled into sensible curls, and was clearly washed more often than the other's hair, in that it had been washed. And instead of a cluster of orbs, the tines of her crown were bent outward from a magenta cap, segmented in a manner reminiscent of spider legs.
She looked at Chrysalis. "Better?"
But Chrysalis was incapable of grace even in her small victories. "I suppose, as long as you also address me properly, Spinnerette."
The other changeling queen ground her teeth at this, then managed, "Yes, mother."
"Good." She glanced around vaguely at what remained of the living room. The battle had resulted in the destruction of many fine and loyal pieces of furniture, some of them quite expensive. Not that Chrysalis could tell, or would have cared if she did. She selected the least damaged part of a sofa and settled into it, hooves beneath her. "You know, I wouldn't have found you if you'd changed your identity on a regular basis like you're supposed to. The last time I received reports on your progress as 'Harmony Delight' was before I lost my hive, and that was ages ago."
"You were spying on-?!" Outrage quickly turned to weariness. "...of course you were. Couldn't risk me coming back, could you?"
"Can a mother not sincerely worry about her daughter?"
"When it's you? No. But that was when Harmony really started to do well. If I took a new form, I would have had to start from scratch."
"And would that be so bad? You're letting this 'career' nonsense distract you. When are you going to start your own hive?"
"I'm not ready to settle down yet," Spinnerette protested. "I'm only eighty! I have my whole life ahead of me!"
"Pah! When I was your age, my hive was five thousand drones strong!"
"...and you flew to Canterlot every day in your bare hooves, upwind both ways, I know, I know..." A teacup sailed through the air and stopped in front of Chrysalis. "Drink."
Chrysalis watched her cautiously, then took the cup in her own field. Her daughter carefully perched on a love seat that had been torn in two by a bugbear's claws. They sat in silence for a moment, one wondering how they could bridge a gap of non-communication that spanned decades and the other staring into her cup as if trying to remember what to do with it.
Spinnerette spoke first. "I don't understand, Chrys... mother. Even without your hive, why do you need me to get more love? I'm sure you haven't lost your touch."
Chrysalis ran a hoof along the lip of the cup awkwardly. "It's gotten... dangerous for me," she said, and the admission of even that much weakness required effort. "The agents of the Pony Authority are just waiting for me to make one mistake."
Her daughter peered at her over the rim of her teacup. "The... 'Pony Authority'?"
"They have a nationwide intelligence network, with agents in every bush and tree," Chrysalis insisted. "And that wretched map. How can I feed when any potential prey could be simply bait in a trap? And after what happened in the Everfree..."
"Wait. What happened in the Everfree?"
Her mother laughed darkly. "Of course you wouldn't know. The government hushes it up."
Spinnerette carefully put her cup down on a miraculously undamaged end table. "Oooookay. So if it's so dangerous here, just leave Equestria."
Chrysalis stared at her, uncomprehending. "What?"
"Go somewhere else. I'm not saying try to get love from dragons or gryphons, they're tough customers, but there's plenty of other places outside Equestria. You could go to Prance, or Saddle Arabia, or Zebrabwe..."
"But... that would be admitting defeat!"
"Yes!" Spinnerette, losing patience, raised her voice. "Because you were defeated!"
"I was not defeated! I was betrayed!"
"Because you never took care of your drones! You kept them just above starvation levels! How does that feel now, mother?"
Chrysalis shot to her hooves. "Don't take that tone with me, child! You don't get to complain after you abandoned me and the hive!"
Spinnerette sputtered at such blatant gaslighting. "You kicked me out when I was ten!"
"Because you tried to overthrow me and take my throne!"
"Oh, please! I'm a queen! That's what we do! Don't even pretend you wouldn't have done the same thing if our positions were reversed!"
"Of course not," Chrysalis said with a sneer. "I would have won." Without warning she launched herself at her daughter again, forgoing shapeshifting for the more economical art of hoofticuffs. Before she knew what was happening, Spinnerette was caught up in a fierce grapple.
"Get off! What about the truce?!"
"A true queen seizes every advantage!"
The younger queen, too tired to even change, struggled against her mother to no avail. Chrysalis' head leaned inexorably closer, mouth open wide (and gently drooling) and fangs bared. There was no way to stop her from feeding...
And things would have gotten really weird if the door hadn't opened at that exact moment. "Harmony," came the voice of Promo Blitz, and they both froze in place, "I got some of those Yakyakistan cabbage rolls you love. I was hoping- whoah. What happened to your door?" He inspected the tiger-sized imprint for a moment, then turned his head toward the living room. "I thought you didn't... like... afterparties...?"
Blitz took in the mangled furniture and the two changeling queens locked in mortal combat. Five seconds later, the package he carried fell to the ground. "Oh, BUCK!" he screamed, and turned to run. Before he could reach the elevator at the end of the hall, however, a green glow enveloped him, and pulled him into the apartment, the door closing behind him. His trajectory brought him into flank-first contact with a wounded recliner, which did not so much cushion the impact as explode around him. He landed flat on his back, surrounded by stuffing and springs; Chrysalis was upon him immediately afterwards, her expression now one of rage.
"Mother, stop!" Spinnerette protested. "He's on our side!"
"Ridiculous," her mother snapped, never looking away from the luckless earth pony. "Do you think I don't know a traitor when I smell one?!"
Realizing that the proverbial jig was up, a burst of blue fire surrounded Blitz, revealing a reformed changeling of periwinkle and green. "...hi, Mom..." he said hopelessly.
"Mandible," she snarled. "Well, now everything makes sense. You were one of the first to betray me! Did you do it on her orders?!"
Even amidst his terror, he found defiance. "What I did," he said sharply, "was for the good of the hive!"
"I AM the hive!"
Spinnerette grabbed hold of the other queen's barrel and tried unsuccessfully to pull her away. "I swear, mother, if you hurt him I'll..." She hesitated, then gave in. "...I won't help you."
Chrysalis' head spun a full 180 degrees to look at her. "Then you will help me if I don't? You swear?"
Spinnerette sighed. "Yes. I'll help you. I promise."
Her mother glared at Mandible a moment longer, then roughly pushed away from him. He painfully got to his hooves with the younger queen's assistance. "Spin, what's going on?"
"Drones should speak only when spoken to!"
Spinnerette glared at her mother. "Chrysalis needs my help..."
"Lies," Chrysalis announced breezily, returning to the sofa. "I have deigned to accept your help."
"...but it's only for a little while until she gets back on her hooves." She raised her voice. "It's only for a little while. Isn't that right, mother." It was a statement, not a question.
The elder queen chose to show magnanimity to a humiliated foe. "Of course, of course." She gestured at the floor in front of her. "Now, be a good girl and come sit with mother."
Younger queen and reformed changeling shared a glance, then Spinnerette sighed and sat down in the indicated spot. Chrysalis draped her forelegs over her daughter's shoulders and leaned in. "You aren't planning to share this love with me, are you?" she asked warily.
Spinnerette's expression twisted in disgust. "Give me some credit, mother. I am still a queen, hive or no hive."
Her mother glanced at Mandible, who had decided to let the queens do queen stuff, and was helping himself to some tea. "Has he tried to... you know...?"
"Reform me? Oh, he's tried. Filling my ears with all that nonsense about 'joining the changeling community' and 'making friends'. I'm doing just fine right here, thank you very much."
"Well, at least you still have some pride left," Chrysalis admitted.
"What can I say? I'm my mother's daughter."
"As it should be." With that, she pulled her head back, positioned her mouth above and behind her daughter's ears, inhaled...
And then things got really weird.
Streams of energy rose from Spinnerette's skin and flowed into her mother's mouth. The energy had no real substance, yet Chrysalis slurped and chewed happily as if it was a delectable chocolate cake, delicious and moist. "Oh!" she managed between swallows. "Oh, it's true what they say. Hunger does make for the best spice. This is delightful!"
Spinnerette just grimaced. Having her reserves siphoned away like this didn't exactly hurt, but it was still extremely unpleasant. The sounds only made it worse. "Aren't you done yet?" she asked after a few minutes of masticating bliss. The concert had left her full to bursting, and already a substantial portion of that was gone.
Chrysalis chuckled wetly. "Not hardly." Another minute passed, then the chewing became more thoughtful. "Although... there is something different here. This taste is..." Another inhale, another barrage of squelchy sounds. "...this isn't romantic or familial love, it's not devotion... what is it?"
"Adulation," her daughter explained. "It's the love ponies feel for... well, performers, artists, just about any type of celebrity that gets their emotions running, really. It's not the most intense kind of love, but it does the job."
"Interesting." More slurping. "And you're able to steal it from all those ponies at once? Clever."
Spinnerette snickered nastily. "That's the best part. I don't have to steal it. They give it to me willingly."
The chewing stopped. "Willingly?"
"Sure. It's a lot safer and more efficient than trying to pick off one at a-"
There was a crash just behind her, and a sudden feeling of emptiness. Spinnerette turned to see the couch knocked over and Chrysalis crouched in the far corner of the room, hissing loudly.
She rolled purple eyes. "Mother, it's safe. I've been doing this for years. Do I look like a deer?"
"But..."
"They're not giving their love to Spinnerette," Mandible explained as he returned from the kitchen. "They're giving it to Harmony. Apparently it doesn't count as 'sharing' if it's done under false pretenses. It's just another kind of theft."
Chrysalis glowered at him. "This was your idea, then?"
"Believe it or not, no," he replied. "After... well, after you 'left', I decided to check on Spin and see if I could bring her back to the rest of us. Turns out she'd figured this whole routine out ages ago. I've just been helping... bring it to the next level."
"And why would you do that?"
"Because I don't want what happened to you happen to her," Mandible said bluntly. "If she can stay fed and doesn't hurt anypony, she won't end up... hiding in a cave, or wherever you've been for the last year or so. She can have a mostly normal life." He looked at the younger queen. "Besides, she's an amazing singer. It's a shame to let that go to waste."
"Aww, Dib," Spinnerette said fondly. "That's sweet of you."
Chrysalis looked between the two with a scowl. "Ugh. Must you carry on like that? I saw you hanging over each other at the stadium. You're broodmates! It's disgusting!"
"It's just an act, mother," Spinnerette said dismissively. "If somepony approached me and tried to get romantically attached, my instincts might take over and get me to feed off them, and then it's goodbye, Harmony. It's happened before. But with Mandible posing as Harmony's plausibly-deniable coltfriend, it heads off problems before they can start."
The elder queen looked unimpressed. "Yes, well, even so. You two are still closer than I'd like. If I didn't know any better, I'd almost say that you two were becoming friends." If anything, her expression was even more repulsed than it had been a moment ago.
"Whaaaat? Nooooo," Spinnerette scoffed. "A changeling queen doesn't make friends. Especially with a drone. That's crazy talk! Right, Dib?"
"Y-yeah," he said weakly. "Crazy talk." Then he sighed and looked at his mother. "Okay. I can't make you leave, obviously-"
"Obviously," Chrysalis agreed.
"-but I'm not going to let you interrupt Spin's schedule. She's got multiple performances lined up and we have to keep the ball rolling."
The elder queen raised an eyebrow. "A drone presumes to dictate terms to a queen?"
"If Spin doesn't feed, you don't feed," he pointed out. "And that's about the only thing you care about, isn't it?"
Crysalis couldn't deny this, couldn't even decipher why he spoke as if it were a bad thing. But his tone annoyed her. "That, and revenge," she added warningly. "But very well."
"And you can only stay a couple of days," Spinnerette added, "so you need to start making plans about where you're going to go after that."
"Oh, don't worry, child. Planning is my specialty."
"Two days," her daughter repeated. "I mean it."
"Of course."
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Fantastic! A great set up and even better execution. I never would have thought of it, but it suits her oh so well.
Huh, that works better than it has any right to.
That was amazing. I'm glad to see how things worked out, I was a bit concerned. But... 'This Day Aria' was beautiful, I'm surprised she couldn't sing here.
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Yeah, admittedly a bit of fudging on my side for the sake of (alleged) humor.
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Ehh... I figured she lost her singing voice when she lost a lot of her mind.
This was gloriously silly. Well done.
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But she found a Better Way To Be Bad...
You had me at "(Takes place before Season 9)".
This was delightful. The idea was brilliant, and the execution absolutely top-notch.
This is great because it's canon. Although "(sic)" is for when you're transcribing something and keep the errors, rather than just saying something completely ridiculous that happens to be accurate.
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Huh. And here I thought it just stood for 'spelling is correct'. Learn something new everyday!
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Nope, it's Latin.
This was VERY well done and I LOVE the misdirect of making us feel like she was going to be a Comedian, when in fact she would become a Heel/Frog for acting.
It's honestly REALLY interesting take, ESPECIALLY with how you display her psyche about how she can look at the Losses as just "ACTING" and "NOT HER FAULT" an stuff.
Huh, and here I thought that a villain as incompetent as Chrysalis was usually only good for entertainment when she failed hilariously due to her own pettiness, narcissism and deep personal stupidity. And yet here she is, being funny even when she manages to succeed... after repeated, hilarious failures, but I'd hardly call that a problem. Still, doing that believably and making me almost-kinda-sorta root for her (at least, in the same way that last audience did) definitely deserves some kudos.
Thouroughtly enjoyable.
Chrysalis is just as petty, delusional and even pathetic as she should be, but I also really liked Spinnerette and the dynamic she had with her mother.
Never really thought about a possibility of existence of Chrysalis's offspring, birthed to make their own hive. Of Chrysalis sisters, cousins, parents I have heard, but of a daughter?
Hive politics are always very interesting. Also, Discord's and Rarity's involvement in the story are both really nice.
Goes into my faves! <3
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Also, how did you come up with the name "Spinnerette"?
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Ehn, nothing special, just wanted a bug-ish part that sounded feminine. Glad you enjoyed the story, though!
Sequel?
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In the works right now, as a matter of fact! I've been on a weird writing binge lately.
I really like the idea of a bunch of other changeling queens out there in Pony society, blending in where Chrysalis wouldn't.
Came for the interesting premise, stayed for the perfect Hall & Oates pun. Eager to learn more about Spinnerette and Mandible.
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Chryssi is proof that intelligence and competence are completely different things. She's very clearly the smartest of all of the MLP villains (Wacky headcanon aside) but she's repeatedly just batted off because she's just so fucking arrogant and stuck in her ways, which is her downfall. She could have had everything, besides conquest, but she was too stuck in her ways and unwilling to open herself up to others to ever change
Robert Picardo you are not, Discord.
Which just shows how much of an argument there actually is for a changeling to reform, because when you got right down to it, it was either stay a 'ling that's always two steps away from starving to death and stuck forever serving a frankly callous, unthankful, and borderline abusive queen who was always a bit more interested in expanding her personal power and rule, regardless of whether or not the resources were actually there to support it, than seeing to the needs of her hive and subjects and thus always alienated by everybody...or become a 'ling that's guaranteed to pretty much always have a comfortable life that's well fed with food given freely by all, led by a benevolent and caring king that would rather see himself as an equal than a superior, and is the friends with many powerful political allies that are all more interested in maintaining the peace and friendship than to make war.
I mean, I know which one I'd want, to the point the choice is really shouldn't even be up for debate--Chrysalis can deny it as much as she wants, but expanding your political power is worthless if those you rule over aren't being kept happy or content, and even in a monarchy, it's the citizens that ultimately decide the success and failure of a government, because the moment they decide it's not doing it's job, you can better believe they're going to get rid of it however they can in favor of something that will.
Oh, I like where this is going. An unreformed changeling, living as a productive and well-adjusted member of society? And now, she has to take in and rehabilitate Mother Fyaying Chrysalis?! Oh, yes PLEASE.
"It's the Pony, I tell you, trying to keep the changeling pony down!"
Hopefully Chryssie will recover at least a bit.
I'm really enjoying your writing style and depictions of characters!
Huh, I didn't even remember making that comment. Fun to come across stuff like that.
If they cared about pigeons in Manehatten, they wouldn't have time to do anything else.