Bright lights! Busy streets! The hustle and bustle of city life! All of this means absolutely nothing to Queen Chrysalis, who is currently huddled in the darkest depths of the Everfree, talking to her pet log. But changelings - true changelings - are always hungry, and Chrissy hasn't fed in a long time. Attacking ponies and stealing their love is a risky proposition, though, so her options are limited. Necessity reminds her of a target she can feed upon safely... even if it means travelling to the heart of Manehattan itself.
(Now broken into smaller, easier-to-consume chapters. Takes place before Season 9)
Chapters (3)
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.
Just broke this up into three chapters, in case anyone's confused. There will be a sequel, Neigh's Anatomy, the first chapter of which will be posting probably later today.
why did I find this story just now? It's been a long time since I saw such tube and funny stories.
I read three chapters in one gulp and didn't even notice.
OH BOY NEW CHAPTERS?
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No, sorry. Old text broken into chapters.
Of all jobs this is not what I was expecting
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Aw. Well there's the sequel now!
My brain: “Frog? What on earth? I know what a face is but what is a frog? Okay, now you are describing a heel. Wait... frog, heel. DANG IT! You have hurt me with a pun!”
I really like the idea of a bunch of other changeling queens out there in Pony society, blending in where Chrysalis wouldn't.
Of course! The perfect profession for Chrysalis - nothing but being such a low down, good-for-nothing wrastlin' heel would fit her so well!
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.
Actually, it sort of does...but beside the point.
Yeah, good luck with that.
Why is this in the synopsis?
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'Cuz I'm kind of dumb and probably should've removed it previously.
The montage of jobs Chrysalis tried was hilarious. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any better, the finale happened! It was like a love letter to professional wrestling and its wonderful cheesiness. Plus, it worked well as a career path for her.
Well...if it works, it works.
And oh boy does it work.
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Well, to be honest, I suspect that the absolute intelligence level of any character is at least a little open to interpretation. If nothing else, what would we even say is the concrete, comprehensive definition of intelligence? I've seen arguments for the genius, the idiocy and everything in between of every villain in the series, as well as most minor characters and a number of major ones. And ultimately, even if we could have an objective view of things, Chrysalis only appears in a handful of episodes, so it's all pretty arguable.
That said, I do hold to my view that, even looking past her arrogance, she's at least a little thick... but I freely admit that's solely my interpretation, no more valid than any other. Though, if I'm honest, I do prefer portrayals of her as stupid, but that's mostly because I think she's really funny as an idiot.
In any case, you do raise a good point about the difference between intelligence and competence. Ultimately, intelligence is only as good as the person with it allows it to be. Everyone has flaws that can limit their thinking or blind them to what they need to think. In any test of wits, victory comes not necessarily to the most intelligent, but to the one who can most harness their advantages and work past their flaws... and, if it's a contest, the one who can most exploit their opponents' flaws.
Wow, that was an extensive ramble - I do apologize. It just got me thinking, is all.
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.
Ohhh, this was so good. I hope you're a changeling, fellow "not fast writer," because I want you to savor my adulation. Just don't forget to save some room for dessert, because I'm off to read the sequel!
'Sects and the City is some A+ title game.
"It's the Pony, I tell you, trying to keep the changeling pony down!"
Hopefully Chryssie will recover at least a bit.
She was just so far beyond then they couldn't cope.
Well, that certainly suits her well. Maybe she'll recover some sanity, too.
... I wanna see her piledrive Glimglam now.
And they all lived happily ever after...
Until the Storm King returned from the dead and took over the wrestling federation.
Okay, the acting flub I could see coming from a mile away, but the buckball incident...poor Chryssie. Not even a legitimate actual genius could have prepared for that kind of shock.
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.
And you can't even pull an "extra sausage" joke...
Wait, shapeshifter.
I'm posting as I go, so I wasn't aware that you genuinely gender-inverted the scenario until after posting this.
I wouldn't have even needed the poster to come up with the next bit, although maybe the chapter title put in a bit of work there. (The emojis are firmly stuck in Season 1, so you'll just have to imagine the luchapone)
WWE had plenty of celebrity cameos, including some that nobody could have predicted until it aired. Seriously, who was expecting Florence Henderson (best known as the mother of The Brady Bunch) as a guest host? In no universe did it make sense for her to be anywhere near wrestling, but in our universe it happened.
Just saying, finding a way to lob an opponent at Glimglam could happen.