Book 1 - The Behemoth came to Canterlot

by Equimorto

Savatage

Chrysalis stared at the other creatures in the hall, while sitting on a couch in the corner, disguised as a green pegasus with a blue mane and a key as his cutie mark. Not anypony who actually existed, as far as she knew, she'd just made the disguise up on the fly. And if anyone asked, she would just pretend to be a friend who'd come to visit Suri.

Things had worked out impressively well. She'd found the perfect target to replace. A mare like Suri Polomare wouldn't be receiving any visits, especially not while she was on vacation. No one would find out she'd replaced her, and all Chrysalis had needed to do to prevent anyone from peeking into their room was say that she was working on a new line of clothing and didn't want her designs to leak.

She didn't even need to worry about finding a second disguise. She could easily walk around the hotel as Suri, no one would be able to tell anything was off about her. And she'd done that, actually, for a couple of days after arriving there and capturing the mare. Everything had been going well, perfectly even. Everything up until the second morning.

I told you I'm good at recognising you, Chrysalis. You shouldn't run like this. Why don't we have a talk instead?

Chrysalis growled, glancing down at the piece of paper clutched in her hooves. She'd been found, again, and by the same creature it seemed. The writing looked the same at least. Despite her best efforts to hide her tracks, despite travelling through the edge of the woods as an animal for part of the way there, despite moving in darkness, she'd still been tracked down.

At that point, she wasn't going to run away again. It would be a waste of time and energies, and it would most likely achieve nothing again. And the odds of her finding such a good target were low. But there was more to it than just that. If that annoying purple nuisance and her friends hadn't come after her yet then whoever was aware of her position was probably not planning to call them in.

Going by the last message, they just wanted to talk. Directly. And Chrysalis had decided she would give them just that. She was done running. A Queen shouldn't run, anyway. If this creature wanted to play with fire, she'd make sure they got what they deserved. And there was always a chance they wanted to help her. All things considered, meeting them was the best option.

And so, there she sat, studying all the other creatures in the hall. But none seemed to have any interest in her, all too preoccupied with talking with each other or merely passing by. Of course, Chrysalis had no lead as to where the other was actually planning to meet her, but if they were tracking her steps then she assumed they would make themselves known.

But for a while, nothing happened. Then, just as Chrysalis was about to start losing her patience, the receptionist suddenly stood up from her desk and walked towards her. "Excuse me," the mare said, "one of our guests made a call asking about you. She says she's waiting for you in room eight-thirteen."

Author's Note:

Proofreading by IncongruousAndHarmonious

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Hmm. Most intriguing. A neutral party, or just one who wants to work without the Mane Six's understandable bias? I suppose we'll find out in time.