Into Equestria

by TheMajorTechie

6 | A devious meeting,

Click.

Luster Dawn opened her eyes, letting the moonlit halls of Twilight’s castle fill her vision. She stood firmly cemented in place, hardly moving a muscle.

Elise tilted the thumbstick forward. The mare began to walk; slow at first, but soon enough, with the press of another button, she burst into a full dash, running down the long hallways of Twilight’s castle. Pane after pane of stained glass passed in her peripheral vision, though she hardly needed to glance at them anymore.

She reached the end of the hall—an intersection. It took a moment for her to remember which way to go. Left was the library, if she remembered correctly, and based on the particular hallway she was in, that meant that the right was…

“Twilight’s personal study.” Elise mouthed, nudging the thumbstick to the right. On weekends especially, Twilight tended to be found more often than not in her study than her library. Something about having more comfortable chairs, the last she heard.

“Twilight!” she could hear Spike’s faraway voice call, “Twilight, you—” he paused for a moment. Probably to catch his breath. “—you’ve got somepony who wants to see you.”

A visitor? This late? Sure, fans were pretty common to see come and go throughout the day when it came to the Princess of Equestria, but hardly anyone ever showed up in the after-hours.

A door further down the hall opened up, revealing the mare she’d been searching for. Twilight returned the gaze.

“Oh? Dawn, why are you here so late in the day? I was just about to—”

“Shh, my parents are sleeping right now,” Elise pulled her mic closer to her lips and moved her character a little closer to Twilight. “I don’t want to wake them up. I just wanted to drop in and talk a bit before going to bed.”

Twilight nodded. “Right. As I was saying, I—”

“Was about to answer the door. I heard Spike telling you just now.”

“Um…” Twilight looked away, then back to her protégé. “Yes… yes, you’re right. Would you like to come with me?”

Elise glanced at her controller. It’d be awfully hard to make Luster Dawn nod with her current controller configuration. Saying something out loud would make much more sense for now.

“Sure.”

~~~

Chryssi stood alone at the towering doors to Twilight’s castle, her changeling skin proudly glinting under the moonlight. At least for the time being, she didn’t quite see any point in a disguise. In fact, if anything, acting like nothing was wrong with two… changelings standing at the doorstep of the castle would probably boost her chances of infiltrating successfully down the road.

But… still, the thought of doing all this solely to appease Night didn’t feel quite right.

She shook her head, pushing the thoughts aside. Something rustled in the bushes nearby. Lighting her horn, she prepared to fire off a blast of mana at the disturbance.

“Woah, woah,” another changeling whispered, sticking their head out of the bush. “Easy there, queenie, it’s just me. You said to come to those coordinates, didn’t ya?”

Chryssi let out a sigh. It was just Pincer.

“Here, come out of the bush. We’re about to meet someone important.”

Pincer looked around for a moment before tentatively emerging from the foliage. “It’s not safe here,” he whispered, “we’re in plain sight. Shouldn’t we disguise ourselves?”

Chryssi shook her head. She could hear hoofsteps approaching the door now. Even if they wanted to disguise themselves, Twilight would likely make it in time to see the transformation.

“Very well then. Who are we meeting, queenie?”

“Twilight Sparkle. Maybe Spike, too, if he tags along. Act normal. We’re here to gathe—"

“Do you know just how late it is right now?” Twilight yawned, opening the door. “I know I often stay up myself when I find a good book to read, but holy horseapples. Can you co—” she opened her eyes again post-yawn. “…Queen Chrysalis?”

A toothy grin spread across the changeling queen’s face.

Luster Dawn stuck her head out the door next, peering at the strange creatures on their doorstep.

“Stand back, Dawn,” Twilight held up a wing. “Chrysalis. What do you want?”

“Oh no no, I don’t want anything,” Chryssi shook her head. “I’m just here to talk. Right, Pincer?”

The changeling nodded.

“…Riiiight. Chrysalis, did you hit your head on a rock or something? What makes you think that I’d simply let you in, after everything you’ve done before?”

“Observe.” Chryssi stepped back, lighting her horn. A bound Queen Chrysalis appeared in front of her, still struggling against her chains.

Queen Chrysalis vanished again. Bright green flames enveloped Chryssi, burning away the visage of the changeling queen’s skin. In the place of the changeling queen stood a human wearing a hoodie, her hands tucked into her pockets.

“Wait-what?” Twilight gawked. “But—Queen… wasn’t—I—” she vanished in a teleport, reappearing moments later. “She’s still imprisoned in stone! I… I was acting on instincts when I first saw you, but—"

Chryssi held out a finger, shushing the mare. “Sometimes, it’s better to leave things unanswered… Oh and also, call me Chryssi.”

Twilight glanced at Luster Dawn for a moment, then back to Chryssi. She pointed a hoof at Pincer. “What about him? He’s an unreformed changeling!”

“Long story, nobody cares, moving on!” Chryssi shoved a foot against the door before the mare could close it. “Anyway, Twilight, I’d like to talk a little bit. Think about it as catching up on old times between two best buds, alright?”

“Fine. I’m keeping a close eye on you, though.”

Chryssi smirked, letting herself in. Pincer followed close behind, still rather unsure of what to do.

~~~

“Talk to Luster Dawn? I thought you wanted to talk to me!”

Chryssi shook her head, leaning back in her chair and lounging her feet on the library table, much to Twilight’s chagrin. “I came to talk to the girl.”

“Dawn,” Twilight whispered, “If anything seems to be wrong, disconnect imme—”

“I can hear you, y’know. Don’t think that I can’t hear you just because my character has regular ol’ human ears.”

Twilight rolled her eyes.

“So,” Chryssi turned her attention to Luster Dawn. “I heard that a certain somebody at TechSIG found herself a personal student.”

“Wha—” Dawn’s eyes shrunk to pinpricks, mimicking Elise’s own eyes behind the headset. “How—”

“I’m just toying with ya, chill out!” Chryssi laughed. “It was in the newspapers, remember? Hey Pincer, pull up an article for me would you please?”

The changeling drone nodded, lighting his own horn and growing completely still. He spoke, even though his mouth never moved.

“How ‘bout this one, queenie?”

A clean-cut newspaper clipping materialized in front of him as he resumed his motions. Chryssi leaned over and plucked the flimsy sheet off his lap.

“Yeah, that’s good. Guessing you—” she glanced at Twilight and Luster Dawn. “—nevermind for now, we’ll discuss it later in private.”

She slipped the article to the two mares sitting opposite to her. “As I was saying, I already know who you are. All I’d like to know is where the servers are kept.”

“I—”

“You won’t be hearing any of that, Chryssi,” Twilight snapped, cutting off her student. “Dawn, you log off for tonight. I’ll try to tell Li—”

“Do you ignore me?” Chryssi began, “Do you really think that you can simply ignore me like that?”

“Heheh,” Pincer chuckled as his boss stood up. “You done goofed, you two.”

“Lemme show you what I do when I am ignored!”

Chryssi slammed her hands on the table. Crackling tendrils of light seeped out from beneath her palms, before—

Nothing.

Not even a scream.

She wasn’t even there anymore.

Pincer furrowed his brows, staring at the spot where Chryssi stood moments prior. “Whe…where’d she go?”

This time, it was Twilight’s turn to smirk.

“Anticheat.”

Comments

[ArcaneTech]

Just blew through, and this is sounding like an awsome time! Guess chrisdy will have to up her game!