A lunge hundreds of years in the making ended as Queen Chrysalis collided with the ground. And a banana creme pie that was laying in just the right place.
The once Queen of the Changelings regained her hooves almost immediately, despite wearing a comical beard of banana custard. "You INSOLENT--"
And just as quickly, she was silenced when Discord drew the zipper across her muzzle. "Out of stone for fifteen seconds and I'm already tired of your ranting." He sighed heavily, body twisting around the forcibly silent changeling. "Really Chryssy, I would think that you'd be happy to get to stretch your legs. But I suppose you're the sort who takes things for granite."
Chrysalis screamed mutely.
"Oh come now, as if your material was any good." He slid slightly to the side as a bolt of green scorched the grass. "And if you do that again I'll put you right back."
She froze at that, eyes still full of vengeful hate. But there was no follow-up blast - only a flinch as Discord unzipped her mouth again. "I would say you have no idea what I've been through, creature, but you understand all too well." She slowly paced to the side, never taking her eyes from the draconequus. "Let me guess. Now that you've freed me you think you're going to smile and laugh and turn me into a simpering sycophant?"
"Excellent alliteration," Discord commented. Then he ducked another blast of magic.
"I should have destroyed you when I had the chance instead of cocooning you!" Chrysalis' wings unfurled. "And next time, I shall!"
She lifted into the air - and went nowhere. A snap of Discord's claw manifested a weight around each hoof with a comical 1 TON written on each. "As funny as you trying could be, that isn't how this works."
Chrysalis tried to lift off again - unsuccessfully - before grumbling with resignation. "Just put me back in stone then. I want nothing to do with your pathetic pony ways!"
"Let's make a deal." With a motion that looped and twirled in ways that would have made Trixie envious, Discord sent a cascade of playing cards between claw and paw. He tossed five in front of Chrysalis. "You come with me and let me try to influence you away from being such a sourpuss, and I'll promise that afterwards I'll let you go." Five more cards extracted from the deck into his claw. "No turning back to stone, no putting you in a dungeon, no chasing after you. You give me my chance, and I let you go free."
She frowned. "I don't trust you. But I don't really have a choice, do I."
"Wonderful! I'm glad we're on the same page." Discord gleefully grinned before flipping the cards. On Chrysalis' side? The ace and eight of clubs, and the ace, queen and eight of spades. On Discord's? Five jokers. "Let's begin with something simple."
Atop the hill, the pair looked down on the bustling little town.
"It hasn't changed so much," Chrysalis smugly noted. "I would think that they would have turned their Princess' former home into some sort of shrine."
Half-ignoring her, Discord dumped a picnic basket out on the grass. The resulting calamity of cutlery fell into a near-perfect spread for the tea party - complete with a gently pulsing jar of liquid labelled LOVE. "It's grown and shrunk a few times over the years. I haven't paid a lot of attention honestly." The Lord of Chaos sat himself down on a purple mushroom that hadn't existed the moment before. "Tea, with a bit of love in it?" He shook the bottle. "It's a good vintage."
Grudgingly, the Queen sat opposite the Lord on the blanket. "Extracted from new parents cooing over their foals? Or is it some alchemical concoction the traitors developed?"
"It's mine."
The admission froze Chrysalis for a moment - before she laughed. "Yours? A creature such as you understands love?"
Her laughter ended as the air around her froze. All the warmth of the spring day was sucked into the fire in the draconequus' eyes. Chrysalis knew hate. She knew when to fear it.
And then it passed. Discord chuckled in a way the Queen knew was false. "I think the problem is that you don't know love, not me." Before she could scoff, he continued on. "To you, love has never been anything but a food source. Something to gather and hoard, not feel." He poured a dollop of love into her cup, and allowed four cubes of sugar to swan-dive into his.
The tea poured. Once it was finished, the teapot ran back across the blanket, turned in a circle three times and settled down for a nap. Chrysalis refused to give Discord the satisfaction of thinking it was weird. "That's because it is. For us it is food. It's what keeps us alive. The rest of you are simply blind enough to waste it frivolously."
"Your successor," Discord airly noted, "didn't seem to think so."
She snarled. And he smiled.
"That grub will be just the first in a long line of those I shall have my revenge upon." Chrysalis brooded over her tea.
Discord, heedless of her sour mood, tipped a bit more love into the cup. "You do realize how much time has passed, right?" A clock that hadn't been behind him before ticked away. "Just who are you seeking revenge on? Starlight Glimmer? Not only is it too late for that, it's so late that her lineage has blossomed and faded away again. The only ones left are me - and I think we both know how that would go - and Twilight Sparkle. Who you couldn't beat when she didn't have her full alicorn power, an army at her disposal and several centuries of experience." The clock chimed, popping out a tiny bird that declared cuckoo.
"I shall start with my revenge on Thorax's memory, then. By taking back my Hive and purging them of this pony-like foolishness!" The former Queen stomped a forehoof as punctuation, causing the watercress to flee in terror. "Once they are reshaped into what changelings should be, I will remind that Princess what true power can do."
As a rebuttal, Discord yawned.
Rising up to her full height, Chrysalis loomed over the lounging draconequus. "You doubt me?"
"'Doubt' implies the potential that you could convince me otherwise." He yawned again, mostly out of spite. "Tell me - just how are you going to change the changelings? What do you have to offer them? Being hungry again? Being hunted? Hated? Giving up everything they've built and gained so they can live in a cave in a desert? You're going to need to offer them more than a gift basket for that." Said basket popped into Discord's paw, full of wax fruit and a glass jar labelled Empty Promises.
She said nothing to that as the love turned sour in her mouth.
Discord didn't let up just because he'd won. "It's been dozens of generations since a changeling like you existed outside the history books." He paused for a withering beat. "When the books even still bother to include you." He slithered forward, rising up to put his face right in front of hers. "Why would they follow you? And don't say you'll take the throne by force," he added, flicking her in the crown off her head. "They outnumber you ten thousand to one and have every hero in Equestria on speed-dial."
"I'll just make a new hive, then!" She seethed, but didn't dare turn her back on him to retrieve her crown. Giving an inch would lose the war.
"With--" Discord got as far as pulling out the blackjack cards before Chrysalis cut him off.
"Then we'll see who outnumbers who!"
Discord flopped down the cards, showing two nines and a four. "And you think that your new changelings won't see how the old ones live? And betray you immediately?"
Chrysalis didn't have an answer for that one.
"Your kind of changelings are gone and never will be again. And you don't have any revenge to take. What does that leave you?" Discord's voice dripped with oil as he set his trap. His body contorted, wrapping around Chrysalis like a snake. He put his words right into her ears. "Just trying to satisfy your hunger? Sneaking around Equestria for the rest of your life, ambushing ponies in alleyways to take their love? Roaming around to feed and running away when somepony gets too close?" He pulled back to be once more face to face with her, and his eyes narrowed threateningly - but glimmered with mischief all the same. "Sounds less like a Queen and more like a wild animal. A scavenger." He paused for just long enough. "Prey."
The former Queen recoiled when the word struck her. "Changelings are not prey!"
Lazily, Discord meandered away from her and plucked a cookie off of the nearby bush it was growing on. "I've learned quite a lot about animals over the years running the Sanctuary. We both know I'm right."
He was, and they did. Chrysalis deflated to the picnic blanket. "So that's your pitch for me to accept friendship? That I have nothing, and I am nothing? That everything has been taken from me and all I have left is either friendship or annihilation." There was silence for a few moments before she added, "This approach of yours is far more depressing and has fewer balloons than I expected."
And then Discord smiled. "You haven't lost everything. Come! Come come!" He clapped his hands, signalling the changeling to rise. And then with a snap? They were gone.
She recognized the stone around them as the Hive - but nothing else. All the rest had changed dramatically in the time since she had last seen the Badlands. It couldn't even be called the Badlands anymore, and she doubted it was. Outside there were rolling hills of verdant greenery, tall willowy trees and a riot of spring flowers.
It made Chrysalis a little ill.
Discord didn't care in the least and clapped his claws to beckon her. "This way! This way! Pick up those hooves, I need you right over...." He snapped, teleporting Chrysalis two yards to the side. "Here."
Then she looked into her own eyes.
Draconequus laughter echoed alongside the changeling shriek. "That was even better than I hoped for!" Discord's sides split, popping out two more of him that joined in the hilarity.
"What is this?" The shock had passed into disbelief, and the former Queen could only look in confusion of a statue of herself.
"Some kind of a shrine," Discord explained with a dismissive wave. The two of him who had split off moved to the side, drawing Chrysalis' attention to the other statues in the somber hall. There were only two she recognized - one, the traitor Thorax; the other, the pipsqueak dragon Spike. A dozen or so of others stretched out, each carved by delicate hooves, set on low pedestals and surrounded by a litter of candle wax and dried-out flowers. "The changelings honor their greatest heroes here."
"You said history didn't even include me anymore." She was confused for certain - leery, as well. A shrine? Unexpected.
Discord snapped his claw once more, and a gust of wind swept debris and corrosion from the plaque on her statue. "Most don't. But your descendants call you Broodmother. The Queen who made the Hive survive when they had no other way." He paused to let that sink into her chitin. "They consider you a figure of reverence and pity. A leader who became a monster to help her people survive, and had to be left behind because you couldn't stop."
The draconequus turned to the changeling. "This is what you haven't lost. You still have a legacy that you can choose to change."
"I... I could conquer the Hive again," Chrysalis hesitantly threatened. "Use that legacy to take over and ravage pony lands. Destroy everything you and yours hold dear."
"You could," he agreed. A snap and the gentle clink of glass on stone as the bottle of love from tea appeared. "There's enough in there to last you around a month, if you're not as greedy as usual. The window over there leads out into open fields. Normally you would be meeting King Plumose right now, but oh my." Discord glanced at a watch displaying Greek letters rather than numbers. "I seem to have told him the wrong time and he won't be here for another ten minutes."
His yellowed eyes turned to the changeling that was once a Queen. "There was my chance, and now here's yours. Use it well, Chrysalis."
And with a snap, he was gone.
"And then what happened? Then what happened?" The nymphs and grubs practically scrambled over each other to hear more of the story.
"And then," the pink-on-green changeling said, "The Broodmother was still there when the King arrived in the hall. The two talked, and she came into the Hive."
One of the more rambunctious grubs waved a hoof in the air wildly. "What color did she turn?"
The crowd's babysitter shook her head. "The Broodmother didn't. She spent the rest of her days in the form of a changeling of old, being given the filia of the Hive around her. They say she never shared it because she wouldn't move on from the old traditions of her time." She paused before adding a half-whisper. "I think she didn't because she wanted to do penance for the bad things she did, and thought she didn't deserve to escape the hunger."
Another young grub piped up. "Did she ever do what she said and try to take over?"
"She did. Twice. And the Caretaker was correct - no changeling would join her, and her new children chose the Hive's way over hers." The older changeling smiled a sad smile. "But she was forgiven, because every changeling understood. It was part of what she sacrificed to help our ancestors survive."
The youngest of the grubs spoke next - barely more than a nymph, voice quiet and muted. "Was the Broodmother really a hero?"
Leaning over, the babysitter caressed the little one's cheek. "She was. And that's the point of this story. Just like any one of us could become a hero, every hero is also one of us. They make mistakes and sometimes do things that are wrong. And sometimes they have to make sacrifices that hurt themselves to help us all."
The youngest looked pensive - but the first excited one clamored over her to ask another question. "So what happened to her?"
"The Broodmother lived as part of the Hive." It was a rather short summary for a long life. "She caused trouble for the three different Kings she lived through, but she also brought knowledge to the Hive that we had lost. History from the earliest changelings and understanding about ourselves. Magic, too, that our people had lost. The Broodmother was not a nice changeling - but she was still a changeling."
The unicorn levitated the brochure-slash-map a bit higher. "Oh, and then there's this one. I think it's titled Young And Old."
His partner came over, bringing the camera to bear on the statue rather than the sloths. "It's pretty macabre. Maybe it's here as some kind of contrast? Cute fuzzy animals and a frightening statue?" The camera flashed, grabbing pictures from a few angles. "The filly's really lifelike, too."
The first looked the statue over a second time. "It's probably something from a donor that they can't get rid of because of the bits involved. Come on, the Caretaker said they had a family of jackalopes that just had a new litter. We really have to see that."
Well, that was an interesting way to deal with Chrysalis.
Is Discord staggering their releases? I suppose that makes sense.
Cozy...she's gonna be hard.
I actually like this kind of bittersweet ending. Chrysalis never fully becomes what a changeling can, and maybe she can't fully let go of the past, but she makes her peace with it. Makes her peace with the world she finds herself in, and with herself.
At the end of the day, isn't that all that any of us can really do?
9891416
He is staggering them - that actually gets brought up in the beginning of the next part. (The answer boils down to 'I only have enough patience for ONE of you at a time!')
Not a bad way to reform Chrysalis. I also like how the changelings remember he as more of a tragic character rather then a streight up villain. Can't wait to see who's next.
Sir, I want to tell you that you have done the impossible today. You've allowed me to do something that I couldn't do even when the show ended.
You made me cry, and it was so, so worth it.
Wait so Chrysalis died of old age?
Isn't' she supposed to be a changeling version of alicorn?
You know, longevity?
After reading what you've written so far, I am now heavily invested on seeing what happens to the other two villains. I feel a lot of sympathy for Chrysalis because of how she was portrayed here. Had she chosen a different path much sooner in life, she wouldn't have ended up with the fate that became hers in the end.
9891471
People who don't look at the show in a naive way in the fandom think of her that way.
That's why people think she was wasted just to fill a spot for villain trio, I think they didn't want to create a new villain and leaving Tirek and Cozy alone ........ actually that would have also worked, they kind of worked together before.
But yea, you just need to look at fanfictions here to see how people view her if they don't focus just on ponies
She was betrayed by her subjects when they basically won by capturing all threats to them.
9891497
To my knowledge there's never been anything definitive on Chrysalis' age/immortality. The only source we have on that is the one comic (FIENDship Is Magic #5), which is of dubious canon and isn't terribly helpful beyond her being old enough to have existed at the same time as Starswirl. Heck, for that matter we don't have any confirmation that any of the alicorns are truly immortal rather than simply very long-lived.
I'm also keeping a lot of the time frames loose because of that - if you abide the comic, Chysalis has already lived for a thousand years and has an unspecified number of years (but likely at least another century) in this tale. That's not a short amount of time.
A wonderful chapter and great route to take for Chrysalis redemption.
I don't think it was ever possible for Chrysalis to completely change her ways. I rather enjoy your interpretation, as it fits along so well with what we know from the show itself. Well done chapter, and I can't wait for the next.
Even if I legit don't believe Cozy even can be redeemed.
9891580
chrysalis can be redeamed, but like with discord it will take just the right pony to do it, unlike discord who needed kindness i think what chrysalis needs is a healthy dose of her seeming inverse, honesty...she needs someone who will show her the world and the consiquences of her actions without any rose tinted glasses, without any delusions or other such impediments
and more importantly she needs someone who knows these things because shes been there, she needs a kindred soul who will tell her in no short terms, just what vengence truely brings...a soul who has sought and found there vengence...and been left with the emptiness it brings and a hollow life of figuring out....'what now?'
i can imagine, years later a mare or stalion, scared and alone leaning against the statue of the mean 3, just talking about there expereinces abotu the life they lead and the theings they did good bad and otherwise with no filter, and of the cost of those deeds and in time of chrysalis within her stoney tomb finaly coming to the brutal understanding that she has been a fool, and then...and only then would she be freed when she truely understands in her heart of hearts not only waht she did wrong, but why she did it and why it was wrong in the first place
Huh. So in a way, she reformed. Just only in a 50% way.
I take it that she didn’t fully accept it, and even ditched change two times so she could take over the Hive. But at the end, she was forgiven and continued living in the Hive as a result. She didn’t accept changing fully, but after trying to take over twice, she permanently accepted change to the point to where she still lived in the Hive, while at the same time, still not being the nicest changeling and keeping her original form. However, she definitely got better closure than in the show. In my eyes, at least. Because as long as she lives the rest of her life with SOME sort of peace and change of heart, I’m happy.
9891541
Is the next chapter almost ready? THIS FIC IS SO GOOD!!!!!
9891723
The next one is being a bit troublesome - for reasons I'll explain in the author's note for that one. It's coming slower than I originally expected when plotting things out. Fortunately the last is mostly already down so that's out of the way.
Can't wait for more. Maybe Cozy will have a mom and dad at the end?
writing discord is indeed hard, but i think you did well
Very well done! I really enjoy Chrysalis's character here, though it took me a few reads to figure out the timescale - a lot of time passes between each of the sections.
So... you just have her die of old age while partially accepting the change? And then more time pass?
Well, not my cup of tea at all. I rather see her as immortal and having her to build a different new hive that would prosper more than "old" one while keeping some of the older influences would be a perfect take on revenge. Though it's still WAY better than the usual reformation routine - that I can accept and am grateful for. Even if the potential of her interactions with Cozy and Tirek is lost this way.
GLHF
Was that pink-on-green changeling at the end telling the story... actually Chrysalis? Perhaps in the end she did change, but felt shame in doing so at first, and thus threw away her old identity? It would be somewhat fitting for a changeling like her, too - so used to disguising herself as other people that she ultimately even throws away herself to become someone new. Plus - it would explain how the storyteller knows all the details of the story as well, when really, the only ones privvy to much of it should have been Discord and Chrysalis.
On the other hand, I'm probably reading waaaay too much into this!
I thought this was a one-shot. Talk about a pleasant surprise!
Heh, nicely done, really think you nailed the potential Chrysalis redemption.
Nice touch with the changing statue also :)
Well said in the authors note. A lot of time is needed to heal wounds. Im looking dorward to what happens next!
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Does that mean it's almost ready?
9897201
I actually just finished it up and am in the middle of editing passes. Barring something jumping out as particularly wrong, the next chapter should be out tomorrow. (I always prefer to sleep on a piece before publishing - let it sit a little bit to re-think.)
Oh. That's an interesting take on Chryssie's redemption.
Not gonna lie... I couldn't agree more with this. I have a very volatile temper with a frighteningly short fuse, but I've learned how to redirect the explosion, or just bottle it for safe release later. Does that mean I've a better temper? Hell no! It just means I know how to better control it now.
9897533
Does that mean that at some point today it's gonna be out?
I hope someone writes a story of what happened after Chrissy reunited with his hive. It must've been...interesting...to say the very least. As the hive obviously misses her, but they can't let her go back to doing her old ways either.
Damn. What was done to her was rather brutal. Not physically obviously but mentally, emotionally. When a god tells you that you have nothing left it's best to believe in. Not a huge fan of changelings though save for Thorax.
Great execution. Though I have to say Chrysalis should be humbled her kind chooses to see history as, 'A leader who became a monster to help her people survive'. It was made pretty obvious that Chrysalis became a monster because she was a monster. She only ever cared about herself, using her kind as extensions of her will to conquer nations and using hunger as a scapegoat. I don't believe she genuinely cared about any of the changeling's well-being outside their usefulness to her.
Anyway, well-written and enjoyable. Love the Ghost of Chaos Future approach you took with Discord.
Oh, wonderful take on Chrissy. I never would have thought of her like that.
Also Discord is a perfectly even level of wacky here. Still Discord, but you can tell that... eventually Friendship hurt him deeply and tamped that down a lot.
I've just read Chrysalis's chapter.
This is possibly the best take on "the Tyrant Trio being reformed".
Done so without the cringe of redemption.
I agree with your view on Chryssi's character. Back when we didn't know Discord was acting as Grogar, I half-expected for the "Terrible Trio" to join forces with the ponies to stop a Grogar who had reclaimed his bell. In the aftermath of the victorious battle, I pictured Chrysalis, once again offered a good in friendship — but this time she flees in in shame. Maybe she would live in self-imposed exile, ashamed of her past sins but too prideful to return to the world.
Uh, anyway. Loving this little story so far. ^^
Speaking as someone who's always been staunchly against reforming Chrysalis, you are spot-on here. She's got to keep something of herself if she's going to stop trying to take over Equestria. You did it right.
Also doesn't hurt that the Broodmother legend is brilliant and I'm getting emotional ;_;
Dead Man's Hand with a Black Queen twist. Nice.
...I was literally saying that in my head. Darn you meme culture! *shakes fist at cloud*
Of course he went bust. Never hit on an 18!
The best chapter yet.
That was great, and the fact that you didn't let Chrysalis technically reform was genius.. it really makes sense.