Part II
The Rolls-Royce Phantom crept to a stop in the Canterlot High parking lot. Chrysalis looked up from her laptop, mildly surprised at having made it there already. Her attention went to Sunset, who was already stepping out the door held open by Pharynx. Not waiting on him to get to her side, she opened her own door, her boots crunching faintly on the mushy snow.
Canterlot High School was as familiar as it was different from her memories. The main building was identical save for a few obvious touch ups. The real surprise was that it was no longer the main building, that honor going to a much larger structure beside it. Now her old school looked more like the little brother of a nicer, more expensive, more pampered sister.
She still felt some nostalgia. Just a touch.
They had a good twenty minutes before Sunset had to go to class. More than enough for their purposes. “It’s this way,” the redhead declared as she guided the two adults across the snow-covered schoolyard. They rounded the corner of the old building and went straight for the large horse statue in front. Chrysalis knew that statue well. It had been there when she’d been going to school here. According to what information Thorax had been able to scrounge up, the statue predated the school by at least two centuries. Supposedly there’d originally been three statues, but time and urban progress brought an end to the others. It had only been through a public outcry that this one had survived the school’s construction.
Also there, and worth so much more nostalgia, was Vice-Principal Luna. She saw them coming and approached, her merry smile contagious. “Chrys! It’s been far too long.”
“Indeed it has, Loony.” The two exchanged a warm hug. Chrysalis didn’t miss the nonplussed expression on both her son and her niece. “Look at you, a vice-principal! If Principal Study Session knew the Little Nightmare would become one of the leaders of his school, he’d have probably committed himself to an asylum.”
“If I had known, I might have joined him.” Luna’s giggle only made Sunset’s gaping more pronounced. “You planning to pester my sister while you’re here?”
Chrysalis’s grin could have made a nun blush. “Depends. That janitor’s closet between rooms 203 and 205 still available?”
Luna was no nun, but she was still red around the cheeks. A hand over her lips failed to stifle her laughter. “It exists, but I’ve gotten adept at shooing students out of there over the years.”
With a dramatic gasp and a hand to her chest, Chrysalis recoiled. “Such hypocrisy! After all the hours you and I spent there, you would deny other eager youths from exploring the joys of nature?”
“Okay!” Sunset stood between them, pushing them away from one another with outstretched arms. Chrysalis was sure the girl’s face was steaming. “That’s enough of that, thank you.” She hunched slightly at Luna’s and Chrysalis’s giggles. “We’re here for a mirror portal. You two want to reminisce, do it when Pharynx and I aren’t around.”
Reminded of her elder son’s presence, Chrysalis couldn’t resist taking a look. He appeared frozen in place, eyes staring at nothing and cheeks possessing a luminosity that somehow failed to melt the snow at his feet. His hands were making little twitching motions. Even when she snapped her fingers in his face, he was unresponsive. Chrysalis sighed with a grin and turned back to the others. “Guess we’ve lost him for a while.”
“Miss Shimmer raises a good point,” Luna admitted with a sheepish, apologetic smile to her student. While Sunset tried to cool down, the vice-principal turned serious, though she maintained that warm expression Chrysalis had such fond memories of. “I’ve spoken with my sister and some of the faculty, and we’ve all agreed with your proposal.”
Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “How hard was it to convince Celestia?”
“Not hard at all.” Luna raised her arms in a shrug at her ex’s stare. “I know, I was as surprised as you are. Regardless, we’re all going to try and keep the story under wraps and let you assist in whatever way you can. Let’s just hope there are no more surprises involving Equestrian magic anytime soon.”
Finally recovered, Sunset stepped in. “My friends and I are doing our part, but let’s face facts: there’s no way to stop every student from spilling the beans.”
“Then it’s good we have Thorax on our side.” Chrysalis looked to Luna, sliding into the familiar attitude of a woman in charge. “I assume he’s come by to speak with you on things?”
“A few times, yes.” The vice-principal crossed her arms, also taking on the typical commanding presence her students were more accustomed to. “We’ve given him the information we have on the subject, but it’s not much. Even our resident Equestrian can’t give us all the answers.”
Sunset’s blush was more subdued this time. “Yeah, the magic back home doesn’t behave the same way here. I’m stumped. Maybe if I had my horn I could get a better grasp of what it’s doing, but for now it’s mostly guesswork.”
Once again, Chrysalis tried not to focus too hard on the idea of her niece having a horn – to say nothing for being a horse from another dimension. “What about that princess friend of yours?”
“Same problem,” the redhead replied with a shrug. “Even a powerful alicorn mage like her can’t do much without a means of controlling the magic in the first place. A few big spells were possible at the Fall Formal and Battle of the Bands, but we barely understand how we did that. It sorta just… came to us as it was happening.” She turned to face the statue, annoyance plastered vividly across her features. “All we know for sure is that magic is leaking from there to here through the portal, even when it’s closed. We don’t know why, or how to control it, or what it may do in the future. We did some research. Given the lack of weird magical anomalies in the last few centuries the leak is probably a new thing.”
With a thoughtful hum, Chrysalis approached the statue. She paused before the mirror surface, taking in her own sharp features. So this is where all the trouble has been coming from. To think that the old thing held a secret like this all along. “How do we know if the portal is open?”
Sunset stepped up beside her and tapped the surface with a finger a few times. “Not open.”
That was it? No visual queues, no flashy lights, no deep concentration and meditation? How boring. She’d really been hoping for more. Then again, if it were something obvious then surely someone would have noticed in the last two hundred years.
“I’ve got to head to class,” Sunset announced. “I’ll see you later, Aunt Chryssy.” Unaware of the happy moths swarming in Chrysalis’s chest at the nickname, she left the two women alone before the statue. Pharynx was keeping his distance, having developed a wariness to be anywhere near this so-called ‘Equestrian Magic’. He may have also been giving his mother a chance to be alone with an old friend. Though he’d deny it fervently, he was considerate like that.
Luna stood beside Chrysalis, hands on hips and eyes on the horse statue rearing above them. “Your help in keeping this under wraps is appreciated, Chrys. Even Celestia is grateful to you.”
Chrysalis caught Luna’s eye through the mirror and smirked. “Won’t admit it to my face, though?”
A scoff precluded the response. “She won’t even admit it to my face. But I know Celestia. This situation scares her, and she’s willing to accept any aid she can get, even if it’s from the ‘vile seductress’.”
“‘Vile seductress’?” The smirk became a wicked grin as Chrysalis ran a slow hand up from her hip to the curve of her waist, stopping at the ribs. She’d have gone higher, but this was a school. “I had no idea she thought so highly of me. Did she warn you not to get lured into my charms?”
Now it was Luna that was smirking, despite her renewed blush. “She might have made certain insinuations about me potentially succumbing to temptation.” She took a long, deep breath, inhaling and exhaling in the manner of one sampling the fresh air. “I missed pushing her buttons with you around. It lets me go to bed with a smile on my face.”
There were words on the tip of Chrysalis’s tongue, words about other things that could be used to make her smile. The only things holding her back were not wanting to traumatize Pharynx if he happened to be in earshot and a quiet worry that it might be too much for Luna. Even so, she couldn’t stop eyeing the woman who skipped more than a few classes with her in a certain notorious janitor’s closet. Among other places. Luna certainly hadn’t lost any of her physical appeal over the years.
If she noticed the ogling, Luna gave no indication of it. Her features darkened as she ran a hand along the smooth surface of the statue before them. “As appreciated as your help is, it won’t solve the bigger problem. This ‘magic’ that keeps happening is a threat to the students and faculty of this school. The Dazzlings didn’t cause any permanent harm, but the way Sunset got possessed is a different story. What if more dangerous things come through next time?”
Pursing her lips in mild disappointment, Chrysalis allowed her thoughts to leave her ex’s physical form. She was technically here on business, after all. “We’re going to have to rely on Sunset and her friends on the other side for that part. Equestria’s princesses are… wary of my intentions. Apparently there is another Chrysalis in their world who is not exactly on friendly terms with them.”
Luna raised an eyebrow. “Is she a queen?” She laughed at Chrysalis’s wide-eyed stare. “You’ve got the manner of one. Face it, if we lived a thousand years ago you’d probably be the ruler of some kingdom, storming around threatening to invade whatever neighbor happened to offend you that week.” There came a familiar clamorous sound, the kind that some deaf or dumb individual decided to call a ‘bell’. “Ah, right. Classes. I’ve got work to do. I’ll see you around?”
An unmistakable undertone laced Luna’s query: hope. Though she knew it shouldn’t have, it still caught Chrysalis off guard. She regretted the extra second it took to form a response, not sure how Luna might take it. “Yes. Probably. Maybe we can have lunch together soon.”
She didn’t look back. Tried to make it seem she was distracted studying the statue. Yet she didn’t miss the happy smile forming on her old flame’s lips as Luna turned away. It made her nauseous. The moths were back, welcome and loathsome at the same time.
She closed her eyes and tried not to think on it. She had work to do, meetings to attend, numbers to crunch. That last part killed the moths entirely as a quiet dread filled her. Not for the first time, she considered hiring someone to do that part of her job, but no. There was nobody she’d trust to do it, not after the fiasco from a decade-and-a-half ago. Always check the figures. Always know what is where and why. Don’t let anyone take advantage of your ignorance. Nobody could…
Her eyes opened as a fresh thought struck her out of the blue. Her gaze went to the stone horse above her. Turning around, she stared at the school, now quiet since the classes for the day had officially begun.
Sunset was good with numbers. Math was one of her better subjects, and she was a Grade-A student even in her worst years. If there was anyone who she might trust not to screw things up or rob her—
It happened quickly. Too quickly for her to react beyond a startled yelp. There was a flash of light from behind, then arms grabbing her around the waist. Before she knew it, Chrysalis fell through something hot, and then the world was a hideous kaleidoscope of pastel colors. Though there was no pain, Chrysalis could feel her body warping and reshaping itself. It was hideous, as if her insides had become a writhing, wild mass of worms. Her world had become incomprehensible on even the most basic level. She screamed, screamed because she had no other way of displaying her terror.
Just as quickly as it had begun, it was over. Chrysalis rolled across a hard floor, limbs flailing and scream fading. She hit something just as hard as the floor, pain flaring up her side.
“Quick! Silence her before she wakes up the whole town!”
Chrysalis grit her teeth, only to open her mouth wide as she became aware that those were not her teeth. They felt odd, unnatural. She felt odd and unnatural. She tried to raise her head, to open her eyes. Before the swirling room could become clear, she found a solid black appendage flying at her face.
The first thing Chrysalis noticed when she awoke was how warm it was. Not uncomfortably so, but impossible to miss. The headache was similar and far less welcome.
Groaning and wondering how she could have a hangover when she had quit excessive drinking in her teens, she tried to roll over. This didn’t go at all as planned, mostly because her arms didn’t move like she meant them to. They felt, for lack of a better descriptor, long. Hoping to grab her sheets, she tried flexing her fingers and was rewarded instead with a peculiar tightening sensation in her palm. Not even out of bed yet, and today was already threatening to be a long one.
When a second attempt failed to roll her over, Chrysalis finally realized how odd she felt. Her legs weren’t… positioned right? Sticking forward, like her arms, and on top of one another. She didn’t sleep like that, did she? Come to think of it, she couldn’t remember her bed being so hard. At last succumbing to the inevitable, she opened her eyes in hopes of getting a better grasp of her situation.
What she saw in place of her arms was… incomprehensible. Her mental faculties screeched to a stop as she took in long appendages, thin at first but thicker towards the bottom, and covered in holes. Holes. Holes, in her body.
Heart hammering, she moved the things that were now her arms. They obeyed, rotating in odd ways as she positioned them closer to her face for inspection. Despite what she could only assume were gaping wounds, she felt no pain. Carefully, tenderly, she touched one of the holes, jerking back in expectation of an agony that didn’t come. This was enough to reduce her heart rate a little, and with it her alarm.
If she had holes in her legs, did that mean…? She bent her head down to take in her body and once again came up short on thought. Black, hard material around a green middle. When she tilted her head slightly, she could make out damaged, insect-like wings pressed flat against a solid green carapace. There was a tail, cerulean like her hair and with odd holes that only made her sense of reality fragment even more. The ways the hairs randomly stopped and seemed to start again to form such neat cutouts boggled the mind. And the legs… no, hind legs.
She was a horse. But a freaky, half-bug monstrosity of a horse.
Then it all clicked. The mirror, the flashing lights, her headache (which gleefully made its return now that she was kind enough to think of it again), it all made sense. Chrysalis had been pulled through the portal.
She was in the horse world.
The moment this comprehension fell upon her, the panic ended. Not entirely, there was still a niggling little terror in the back of her mind. Yet the fact that she had a real, definitive, logical answer to her situation allowed her to calm down and focus on the important things.
Like figuring out how to use this body. Squirming and kicking and grunting, she eventually managed to roll onto her stomach and get her feet – hooves, she reminded herself – under her. It took a half-dozen tries, two of which resulted in humiliating pratfalls, to stand on all fours. Not trusting her wobbly knees and wanting to avoid further indignities for at least a few minutes, she opted to take in her surroundings.
It was a prison cell, as far as she could tell. And a cave too. All around her were pale blue stone walls, smooth and dry. The only opening available was blocked by a green substance she couldn’t identify. There were no commodities of any kind: no bedding, no toilet or sink, not even a chair to sit on. “W-well,” she muttered shakily, “no one’s wasting tax money on this place. Wonder if there’s a proper legal system I can use to sue for better accommodations.”
There came no answer, not that she expected one. She sighed and got to work figuring out how to walk on four legs. Embarrassing as her stumbles and near-falls were, they proved a great distraction to the little voice inside her head noting over and over again that she was imprisoned in an alien world by what were most likely the sworn enemies of the Princesses of Equestria. What had Sunset called them again? Changelings? At least, she assumed changelings were responsible. It could be anyone, really. She was by no means an expert on Equestrian races, much less race relations.
But even that frightening prospect gave her fuel. Why would these creatures want to kidnap her? What did they hope to accomplish? Maybe she was a hostage being held for some kind of political ransom. Or they could simply be seeking information about the human dimension. After all, they apparently snatched her directly from the portal, which means that grabbing her specifically may have been a matter of chance. But wait, wasn’t the other side of the portal located in the private estate of Princess Twilight? So how did these creatures get to it?
Assuming the portal’s location hadn’t been moved, this had to have been planned, and carefully. You don’t sneak into an enemy stronghold just to sit in front of a door and hope something juicy comes within grabbing range, especially considering the need to get out with the prize unnoticed. These creatures had something very specific in mind, but they probably hadn’t been targeting her specifically.
Having walked a few dozen circles around her prison, Chrysalis was reasonably certain she wouldn’t be performing any epic faceplants in the near future. She concluded there was no point in waiting around to have the truth revealed to her, and so approached the green material blocking her exit.
The last thing she expected was for it to open the instant she was directly in front of it. Blinking away her surprise, she stepped out and took stock of her surroundings. It was some kind of hallway, albeit a twisting one with no straight lines in sight. More important was the lone four-legged creature standing on the other side of the hall.
It was tiny compared to her, sharing her black colors and bug-like features. It came with a sharp-looking, pale blue crest on its back, a pair of wicked fangs, and a short, curved, pointy horn. Its alien eyes were the same blue as its spines, save for white spots that may have been its irises. Despite its diminutive size, it had quite the dangerous appearance.
Which was ruined entirely by its dropped jaw, gaping eyes, and ear-like fins (ear-fins?) folded down on its head like a dog caught misbehaving. Chrysalis’s immediate alarm was promptly replaced with a dry amusement. “I’m going to assume you’re supposed to be my guard.”
The creature managed to pick its jaw up off the floor. It sputtered for a few seconds, looking between her and the door she’d just exited. “H-how… How did you get it to open? You can’t do that! It only opens for Queen Chrysalis!”
Changelings confirmed. Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. With theatrical slowness, she looked down at her strange equinoid body, then back to the creature. Though she wasn’t used to this new face (What did she even look like?), she was pretty sure her disdain was shining through loud and clear.
“Oh, no.” The creature pressed its black hooves to its equally black cheeks. Despite its strange features, it was still perfectly capable of displaying its panic for all the world to see. “Oh, spit! We put the wrong one in the cell, didn’t we?” The creature, presumably a ‘he’, fell on his face before her, little bug wings spread wide. “I’m so sorry, my Queen! Please forgive this humble servant, I didn’t know! I only started my shift an hour ago, I had no idea of this mistake, I swear!”
Well. This was not at all how Chrysalis expected things to go. Not that she had any intention of complaining. Putting on what she hoped was an aloof, distant expression among these things, she took on her most commanding tone. “And where is the other… me?”
Without raising his head, the creature hastily replied, “We already sent her back through the portal. She’s in the hoo-men world!”
The human world? Was replacing her the whole point? For a brief instant, Chrysalis imagined a corrupt version of her living in her home, running her business, fooling her family.
Then she burst out laughing. She laughed so hard she fell on her haunches and had tears coming out of her eyes. Oh, but this was rich! There wasn’t a chance in Tartarus that some doppelganger could just waltz into her life and expect to go unnoticed. Her children would be on that bug like a trio of flyswatters. Whatever this Queen Chrysalis had been expecting, she was going to be in for a very rude awakening.
All concerns for home confidently disregarded, Chrysalis recovered her senses and focused on her immediate situation. Home was safe. Whether she was or not remained to be seen. Her attention went back to the changeling, which remained bowed but was also staring up at her like she’d grown a second head. She had him (unintentionally) fooled. Best use him while she still could. “What is your name?”
“My… name?” He blinked. That he even could was legitimately surprising. “But you never ask—” With a gasp, he brought his head down so fast Chrysalis winced at the thwack of it hitting the floor. “I-I am Ricinidae, Your Majesty.”
“Ricinidae.” A curious name, but it rolled off the tongue nicely. “Has there been any news from Equestria since the… botched kidnapping?” As an afterthought, “Rise.”
Ricinidae did so, smoothing over the crest on his back with a lone hoof in apparent anxiety. “My apologies, my Queen, but I am only a drone. I am not given information relating to such important matters. I have not heard any rumors of such, at least.”
So they had some sort of class system? Would Queen Chrysalis be offended that they thought so little of her that they assigned someone of apparently lower class to watch over her? Pushing those questions aside, she considered her next course of action. She had at least the element of surprise, and with the real queen missing…
Chrysalis eyed Ricinidae. He seemed outright terrified of her, all shifting hooves and knocking knees. It reminded her, unpleasantly, of how Thorax used to be until oh-so recently. No time for that now, she could use this. “Consider yourself my escort for the time being. Go, lead me to—” Her throne? The exit? Whatever they used to communicate with the world at large? “–my room. I would consider my options.”
If anything, the changeling appeared even more terrified, scrambling backwards as if to avoid an attack. “I-I am merely a drone, Your Majesty! Surely I am not worthy of escorting someling as prestigious as—”
Chrysalis had always possessed one great advantage over others: ferocity. When she first entered the world of business management, that world saw her as nothing more than a pair of tits. The technique she unleashed had not only let her terrorize and bowl over any who dared underestimate her, but would now serve to get her out of the mess she’d found herself in. Her words were like fire spat from the barrel of cannon, and no less loud. “I didn’t ask for excuses, you little grub! When I give you an order I expect it to be fulfilled before the saliva finishes exiting my throat and splashing on your sniveling face. Now do as I command!”
Ricinidae needed no further prompting, though Chrysalis had to hurry to keep up.
They didn’t get more than twenty feet before a squishy sound caught Chrysalis’s attention. She glanced to her side at one of the other cells, the only other one with its ‘door’ sealed. Just as she did, another one of the changeling creatures appeared, slamming into the green material with enough force to make it bend slightly. Although it was the same as Ricinidae in most ways, she couldn’t help but notice the different colors on its crest and plates. That it was the only other prisoner was enough to make her stop entirely.
“Ricinidae. Why is this changeling imprisoned?”
The drone turned sharply, wings buzzing to arrest its forward momentum, and returned to her side. He looked into the cell as the prisoner shouted obscenities, clawing at the surface of the green... goo. Or whatever it was. “They told me this one came through the mirror from the other side. Very vicious, very angry, but also clumsy. They subdued him and brought him back here.”
Chrysalis could feel her heart in her throat, assuming these things even had such an organ. This could only be one person, but she would need to be cautious. “Go on ahead, Ricinidae. I would question him alone. Wait for me past the exit.” Her escort hesitated only a moment before obeying, buzzing away on vibrating wings.
As she couldn’t be certain how good these creatures’ hearing was, Chrysalis waited to take the risk until Ricinidae was around the furthest corner. She kept her distance from the cell’s entrance, not wanting it to open automatically as it had for her own cell. “Pharynx? Is that you?”
The creature in the cell paused, peering up at her with fangs bared. A forked tongue slithered between his black lips. “Where is my mother, bitch?”
Yep, that was Pharynx. Chrysalis chuckled at his choice of greeting. “When you were six, you cried because I scolded you for tearing up a very expensive suit I’d gotten for you.”
His strange eyes went wide.
“At twelve, you punched a girl named Fairy Circle for kissing you on the cheek. You admitted to me later that you’d panicked because the thought of girls actually liking you was terrifying.”
Even through the green film, his face visibly paled.
“And when you were fifteen, I caught you in the bathroom—”
“Okay, okay!” He sat back and waved his little hooves at her. “No more, I get it. Yes, Mother, it’s me.”
Smirking and satisfied he didn’t plan to attack her at the first opportunity, she stepped close to the green wall. Like hers before, it promptly opened, and Pharynx was quick to scurry out of the cell. Huh. Turned out these creatures blushed in green.
Pharynx was distinct from Ricinidae in a variety of ways. Though his body shape was identical in both form and size, the fin-like spine on Pharynx’s back was longer and a little taller. It was also a deep red, and the plates on his back were a dark purple, whereas Ricinidae had no change in coloration anywhere in his plates. His eyes were a similar purple, and his fangs were noticeably larger than the drone’s. Perhaps it was a quirk of a human passing through the mirror portal, but she had to wonder at the odds of both of them being changelings in this world. Considering her sons were adopted, she’d have expected them at least to come out as horses.
Perhaps Pharynx had some great insight into her appearance as well. If so, he decided to sum up all his thoughts into a complaint. “Oh, come on! Why do you get to be the tall one here too?” He examined his hooves with a scowl. “Look at me, I’m a damn dwarf. If I had a pickaxe I’d feel obligated to sing Heigh-Ho.” It was enough to get a fresh laugh out of Chrysalis, which only grew stronger when he glared up at her with his weird purple eyes. “Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, ya giant. How’d you get out of your cell?”
It took a few more seconds to recover, but when she did Chrysalis took in her eldest son. He was entirely unrecognizable. She wondered if that were the case for herself. It was strange enough seeing him as a quirky horse-bug thing. She wanted to take a closer look, but then she recalled Ricinidae, who might come back if left to wait too long. “I convinced the guard that I was their Queen Chrysalis. Apparently they were trying to body-swap me with her.”
Pharynx’s eyes widened in alarm, then narrowed in uncertain curiosity.
Then he burst out laughing. “Oh, Sunset is going to go to town on her! I only wish I was back home so I could watch. A thousand bucks says we get there to find this other you tied up to a chair.”
Chrysalis grinned and decided not to challenge that bet. Yet it only lasted for a second or two. The visage of her son looking like… She doubted even the Equestrians would appreciate the term ‘monster’ in this context, but he was certainly different. At any rate, his appearance was a stark reminder of their current, potentially dangerous situation.
Back to business. “We need to keep up the illusion while we form some kind of plan. For now, you’ll have to refer to me as ‘Your Majesty’ or some other such nonsense.”
“I can do that.” He sobered up instantly. His uncanny ability to appear cool and intimidating served him well. He might be small, but Chrysalis doubted she’d want something that looked like him coming after her. “They knocked me out shortly after I went through that blasted portal, and I woke up in here. Sorry, I know about as much as you do. Probably less.”
“Perhaps. Come.” She turned and marched down the corridor, and Pharynx was quick to join her, not exactly beside her but still pretty close. His usual bodyguard position. Only for the sake of the ongoing illusion did she avoid smiling at his presence. Suddenly, this whole situation felt a lot less challenging.
They found Ricinidae through an opening into a larger chamber. The little drone was being grilled by another changeling that shared Pharynx’s colors. Not just his colors; they were practically identical. Some sort of warrior class, perhaps? Maybe all changeling in a class shared appearances, like identical siblings.
The newcomer whirled upon them as they arrived, to the clear relief of Ricinidae. “You! What are you doing out of your cell, you—”
“Do not speak to your queen in such a disrespectful manner,” Chrysalis snarled in its face. “Why are you pestering my escort?”
Her gamble worked; the creature backed off with wide eyes, all aggression gone in an instant. “I… But you…” It shook its head forcefully, then peered at her. “You can’t be Her Majesty. She went to that hoo-mun world.”
Chrysalis did her best to manipulate her face into an expression of utter scorn. She even managed an eye twitch, something she’d not been confident her new body could pull off. Speaking with exaggerated slowness, she asked, “Are you questioning me?”
The creature snapped like a twig, prostrating himself before her with wings spread wide. “N-no, Your Majesty! I was only confused, that’s all!”
Wow. This was going to be far easier than she thought. “‘Confused’. I should not be as surprised as I am. You’re lucky I’m in too foul a mood right now to deal with your sorry hide. Leave my sight!” He was gone in a purple-and-black blur, only the fading sound of his wings hinting that he was ever there.
Knowing she had to maintain the facade, she looked upon Ricinidae with haughty authority. “This creature from the other world is going to be my guest. Lead on.”
“O-of course, Your Highness.” The changeling, whom Chrysalis was starting to think was very young, appeared relieved to be free of the presumed warrior.
This reminder got Chrysalis glancing back at her son once more. Though he was doing a decent job of maintaining the stoic mask of professionalism she’d hammered into him since he’d chosen his career, he was still glancing around at their surroundings. Not that she blamed him; this place was strange, like they were in a living cavern. She swore she saw some of the stone tunnels opening and closing entirely on their own. But at least he was able to mask his curiosity by appearing watchful of threats.
This all led her to a new idea. “Ricinidae.”
“Y-yes, my Queen?”
“I doubt I have to tell you, but our guest is new to...” To what? The hive? The colony? The castle? “This world. I’m sure he is curious. Treat this as a guided tour. Take the long route. Show him everything. Tell him everything.”
Ricinidae paused to look back, uncertainty plain in his features. “Everything, Your Majesty? Forgive me, I do not wish to give away the wrong things.”
A perfectly reasonable fear, and so Chrysalis decided feigning anger was unwarranted. She maintained her indifferent posturing, however. “I will be with you stop you from saying anything stupid.” She would let him think the actual act of explaining everything was beneath her.
Ah, changelings’ throats also had an Adam’s apple, perfectly visible when they swallowed their anxiety down. “Of course, My Queen. This way, Mister… uh…”
“Pharynx,” her son replied sharply. “My name is Pharynx.”
“Ricinidae. Come, this way.”
And so the tour began.
“So, wait. You don’t control the walls?”
“Nope. They open and close entirely on their own. Only our Queen understands how they do it.”
Ah, that was her queue, wasn’t it? “And no, I’m not explaining it to you.”
“Then how do any of you get around?”
“We can detect when holes are about to open and close. Part of being a changeling, I guess.”
“You guess?”
“Never really thought about it.”
“But what if you need to get to the opposite side of the place in a hurry and there are no holes leading straight there?”
“We… make do.”
Chrysalis’s frown was probably interpreted by Ricinidae as a warning not to be critical of his queen’s choices. In reality, it was in disgust at the sheer inefficiency of such a system.
“O-on the plus side, any enemies who try to sneak in will get really confused, making them easy to pick off!” Their guide shot Chrysalis a hopeful look. She was tempted to remain aloof, but decided a small nod of approval would work, even if delivered with the impassive mask. Ricinidae tried to hide his sigh of relief. Chrysalis had to wonder about this constant anxiety he displayed around his monarch, but shrugged it off as the typical alarm of a higher official watching a lower employee do his job.
They stood on what Ricinidae called a ‘balcony’. It seemed more like the opening before a cliff face to Chrysalis. The land all around the changelings’ home was bleak and unwelcoming. It did little to reassure her that escape would be easy.
It seemed Pharynx was focused on different topics. “So it’s a hollow mountain?”
“A ‘castle’.”
“Looks like a mountain to me. Maybe a termite mound.”
“We’re not bugs!”
“Sure you shouldn’t call it a ‘hive’?”
“We are not bugs!”
Chrysalis stopped gazing at the desolate landscape stretching as far as the eye could see to place a hole-speckled leg in front of Ricinidae. The poor changeling appeared somewhere between infuriated and terrified, the former likely for his people and the latter perhaps of his ‘queen’s’ reaction to what might be a slur.
She didn’t want to make Pharynx look like the villain here, but she also had to maintain an image. That in mind, she turned her aloof gaze upon her transformed son and said, imperiously, “Do recall that you are a guest in my home, human. We can be outstanding hosts.” She set her expression to one of judging authority. “We can also be terrible hosts. It is up to you which one we end up as.”
Chrysalis underestimated Pharynx’s acting talent. That he could so effectively affect pretending to pretend to be aloof and uncaring while letting a little contrition slip out? Marvellous.
The strange look Ricinidae was giving her, on the other hand? Not sure what to make of that.
“And this is our military training grounds.”
“There’s an awful lot of them.”
“All our people are trained to fight to some capacity.”
“Why? Is it some sort of warrior culture?”
“No, it’s just…” Kneading his lips with his fangs, Ricinidae glanced at Chrysalis, who imperiously nodded. “There aren’t many of us left. We’re the last stronghold of our kind, and the ponies could attack at any time. We all need to be prepared.”
That confession left a strangely hollow feeling in Chrysalis’s gut. She gazed upon the training grounds, a large cavern with a series of flat outcrops on the walls. Every surface had changelings doing something. Over there, some kind of marching drill. On that outcrop, what appeared to be an armor inspection. Through the air, some kind of formation practice. The very bottom of the cavern was filled with changelings sparring amongst themselves.
Pharynx glanced back at his dark red crest, then looked at the changelings below. “I notice there’s not a lot of red ones, and all the teachers are red.”
Ricinidae nodded. “The red ones are part of the Home Guard. Elite warriors. They are among the less common.”
Chrysalis saw no reason not to speak up regarding her thoughts on this account. “It is my understanding that the human world possesses alternate versions of most, if not all, of us.”
Catching on to her meaning, Pharynx grimaced. “So there may be another Pharynx in the hi—” Ricinidae shot him a warning look. “In the castle who is a member of the Home Guard. That’ll be awkward.”
“Then perhaps we should move on,” Chrysalis offered, making sure to phrase it more like a command than anything. As she cast one last look over the training grounds, she wondered about what Ricinidae had said about their race being so close to extinction. Was her royal doppelganger of this world responsible, or had it been a problem long in the making?
They stood in a long, thin corridor that stretched a good four stories high. There were at least a dozen similar corridors on both sides of the one they were in. Each path was lined with egg-shaped gaps in the walls, most of which were empty.
A few held green pods, in which floated more changelings. Some were adults. Most were not.
“I’m sorry,” Pharynx said, not bothering to mask his incredulity. “Did you say ‘programming’ chambers?”
Ricinidae walked along the corridor, eyes following one of the pods as they passed it. If he felt any horror for the tiny changeling trapped inside, it didn’t show on his face. “That’s right. For programming. Don’t humans do programming?”
Seeing Pharynx at a loss for words, Chrysalis spoke up. “It may be easier for our guest to hear a suitable explanation of how it works.” She silently hoped that this was just an alien way to educate.
“Of course, My Queen.” Ricinidae paused before another pod, this one with a slightly older changeling suspended within. He touched the surface with a hoof, the thick membrane curving slightly at the contact. There came the sound of liquid sloshing within. “The young ones need to understand their place in society. They must learn, but they grow quickly. How long does it take humans to reach maturity?”
Pharynx, grimacing at the pod, replied stiffly. “It depends, but generally around eighteen to twenty years.”
Their guide nodded in understanding. “Not dissimilar to a pony. Changelings mature within three years.” He paused for a few seconds, appearing thoughtful. “We don’t have that kind of time to teach our young, but we adapted biologically to account for it. With the programming pods, the children can learn everything they need in their decided field in about a year.” Then, as if in afterthought, “They spend about a week at a time in the pods. Technically they can stay for two, but there are risks for going longer, and a week gives us plenty of leeway in case a caretaker makes a mistake.”
Pharynx raised an eyebrow. Or at least the part of his face where an eyebrow would be. “Caretaker?”
Ricinidae pointed upwards. Following the motion, Chrysalis spotted a trio of purple-crested changelings resting in a large alcove near the top of the wall on their left, all appearing to be in deep meditation.
“The caretakers are linked mentally to the students, teaching them all they need to know.” Chrysalis couldn’t help but be fascinated! It was hard to fathom how education in her world could be revolutionized with such a method. Maybe, if the Equestrians could ever have peace with these creatures…
Pharynx’s words cut her musings off. “You said ‘decided’ field, not ‘chosen’.”
Ricinidae frowned at the accusing tone. “Children cannot be allowed to choose their own path. They tend to choose poorly. We barely number above five thousand. Every child of our Queen must be directed to a life task in order to preserve our people as a whole.”
While the idea of a child not being permitted to make their own way in life appalled Chrysalis, she knew from experience the necessity of micromanaging very limited resources. She doubted the concept was any different for a race on the very edge of survival.
After some scowling and mumbling, Pharynx too seemed to accept the explanation. Yet he still appeared unsatisfied. He turned and pointed to a pod ahead of them, which housed a much bigger changeling. “What of the adults? Why do they need to be here if their path has already been decided for them?”
Now it was Ricinidae who was scowling. “Because sometimes even adults may stray. Those who disobey, who learn dangerous things, who become too friendly with the ponies. They need to be reprogrammed, to be reminded that their loyalties are to Queen Chrysalis.”
There was the horror Chrysalis had been dreading. Maybe trying to learn this educational system wasn’t worth it after all.
Chrysalis, Pharynx, and Ricinidae stood atop a ledge high over a dark cavern. A sickly green glow emanated from growths in the walls. It wasn’t a large chamber, maybe fifty feet across and wide. At the bottom, set in seemingly random clusters of a dozen or so at a time, were eggs. Green, fragile-looking things, all being tended to by four yellow-crested changelings wandering from place to place. Other changelings they passed bowed at Chrysalis’s presence, but these? She might as well not exist.
None of that mattered. For Chrysalis, she saw only one thing: the egg. It was nearly four times as large as the others and set atop a dark grey growth, like some display in a museum. The egg’s surface was black as pitch, but shiny. When she shifted her head she could see radiant blue and green reflections of the light, like living auroras. It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever laid eyes on, but that didn’t explain why she couldn’t look away. She tried. She couldn’t.
Ricinidae held a nostalgic smile as he waved a hoof at the sight. “The hatchery.”
Pharynx stared at the eggs below them, ear-fins flat against his equinoid skull. After several seconds of this, he tentatively asked, “I don’t mean to be rude here, but… these are changeling eggs, right? They don’t belong to some domesticated creature?”
At first, their guide appeared confused by the query. Then awareness dawned and he smiled. “Humans give live birth, I take it?” When Pharynx nodded, he shuddered. “That must be terrible. Yes, these are all changeling eggs. Their growth rate depends on how much love we feed them. They can stay in a static state perpetually if we leave them be.”
As… distracting as the black egg was, Chrysalis could pay enough attention to agree that giving birth did sound horrible and she wanted nothing to do with the task whatsoever. It wasn’t the only reason she chose to adopt, but it was certainly a big one. Looking upon the sheer size of the black egg, to say nothing for the sheer number of normal ones in each cluster, she couldn’t help doubting that the oviparous route was any more comfortable.
“Right.” Pharynx shook himself, as though to rid himself of a sudden chill. “Okay. Gotcha.” He looked to Ricinidae. “So families just bring their eggs here for care? Some kind of… collective daycare?”
Ricinidae chuckled at the query. He shook his head with a silly smile. “No, no, individual changelings are infertile. We cannot have young.”
Pharynx blinked, clearly at a loss. “Then where do the eggs come from?”
Ricinidae looked to Chrysalis. Pharynx followed his gaze.
Chrysalis was suddenly very happy that the black egg held her attention. The very thought of what was being suggested made her want to squeeze her legs – her hind legs, she idly corrected herself – closed.
Pharynx appeared nervous enough for the both of them. He gazed down at the eggs one more time. “So, when you called the changelings Chrysalis’s ‘children’ earlier, you meant…?”
“That’s right,” Ricinidae said. He didn’t sound pleased. His tone was, at best, coolly neutral. “It was literal. Queen Chrysalis is not just our queen, she is our mother.”
Chrysalis reeled in place, the world spinning. Five thousand changelings. All her children. The rational part of her mind reminded her that, no, they were not all her children. Yet the thought still staggered the mind. And with her history…
“And…” Pharynx asked this next question with eyes darting fervently between Ricinidae’s stoic face and his own mother. “Does she… love you?”
Ricinidae paused, eyes going wide. He looked to Chrysalis, but only for a brief second before lowering his face away. “O-of course. Our Queen loves all her children. Unconditionally.”
The blatant lie shouldn’t have hurt half as much as it did.
“Mo— Your Majesty?” Pharynx stepped closer. In the corner of her eyes she saw his peering gaze. “Are you alright? Is there something about that egg?” She wanted to respond, but wasn’t sure how. Thinking beyond the black egg was challenging enough without the swirl of unwelcome thoughts these revelations had launched in her mind.
Ricinidae made an anxious sound. “M-maybe we should go now. I don’t think—”
“No.” Chrysalis thrust a hoof at him. “Tell him.” She wanted to know.
She needed to know.
Ricinidae’s eyes narrowed. His ear-fins folded back against his head. After a few quiet seconds, he nodded. Though he spoke to Pharynx, he didn’t stop looking at her. Neither did Pharynx. “It is the Royal Egg. There is always at least one. It serves as a fail-safe. If anything happens to the current queen, a new one will be born from that egg. It and the Queen are connected. I do not know how. I doubt even the caretakers know how.”
Connected to the queen? What did it mean that she was feeling so… protective of it? She was not a changeling, body notwithstanding. She was not their queen.
“The Queen has never liked coming here,” Ricinidae muttered, his gaze still piercing her.
Was it because of this strange lure in her mind? Did Queen Chrysalis feel this every time she came to... lay eggs? Chrysalis wondered if she was turning green, and if doing so would be misconstrued as a blush instead of nausea.
Pharynx stepped before her, but was far too short to interfere with her view. “I think I’m ready to move on.”
Chrysalis bit her lip, flinching at the feel of fangs. “Yes. Y-yes, let us move on.”
She didn’t want to be in this room any longer than necessary.
“What am I looking at?”
The question came from Pharynx. Chrysalis was glad, because she’d been tempted to blurt out the same thing. Which, needless to say, would not have been conducive to retaining their cover.
Before them were three large… sacs? She could think of no better term. They were similar to the pods in the Programming Chambers, except suspended from the ceiling. Like those things, these had creatures in them. Except they weren’t changelings. Chrysalis might not have seen any of the denizens of Equestria in the flesh before, but she was pretty sure these not-quite-horses were what Sunset Shimmer referred to as ponies.
Ricinidae cocked his head to the side much like a dog trying to understand why its owner was pointing a finger in a random direction. “Uh… Ponies?”
Pharynx nodded slowly, not taking his eyes off the presumed prisoners. “I can see they are ponies. I asked about the cafeteria. Or the kitchen. You know, a place that serves food?”
“Exactly.” Ricinidae gestured with both forehooves at the ponies above them. “Food.” His gaze went to Chrysalis. It wasn’t the usual fretting and concern. There was something… searching in that look.
“I…” Pharynx looked pale. “You eat ponies?”
“What?” Ricinidae gaped, blinked. A long pause. Another blink.
Then he burst out laughing. “Oh, I get it! I’m so sorry, you look like a changeling so I forgot. No, no, we don’t ‘eat’ ponies.” Grinning from ear-fin to ear-fin, he amended, “We eat love.”
By his prolonged silence, Pharynx was clearly at a loss. He looked to his mother blankly, this latest revelation a bit too much for him.
Though she was just as clueless as he was, she at least had a way to keep the conversation going. “I think he needs a more thorough explanation.” She was proud of how firm that came out. In truth, her own insides were squirming at what she was seeing and what her imagination was conjuring up as potential reasonings.
Ricinidae’s eyes narrowed at her again, but he nodded. “While we can eat food like other creatures, that food provides us only very limited nutrition. We see it more as a luxury.” Then, in a whisper Chrysalis probably wasn’t meant to hear, “Not that we ever get luxuries here.” Raising his voice once more, he continued, “Changelings get their nutrition from the energy produced by the emotion ‘love’. It’s… hard to explain to non-changelings. You’d need to talk to an expert or the Queen herself to get a full grasp on the biology of it.” He sent a pointed look Chrysalis’s way.
He was getting braver. She scowled at him. “Do not look at me. I’m not about to share something like that. The last thing I want is the Equestrians getting their nasty hooves on such information.”
Their guide bowed. “Of course, Your Majesty.”
He knew. His tone was just a touch too flippant for him not to. Chrysalis felt her pulse rising, but she pushed down the urge to panic. They weren’t in trouble yet. They were alone in this chamber of… victims. They could work something out.
Pharynx, either ignorant of their cover being blown or trying to buy time, asked, “If this is the traditional way to deal with outsiders, why did you put myself and your queen in those prisons?”
Ricinidae sat up once more. The white portions of his eyes moved up in what had to have been the changeling version of an eye roll. “Changelings can’t produce love. Well, we can, but not in a way that other changelings can consume. Since the two of you became changelings in this world, the feeding pods would have been wasted on you.”
‘Since you two became changelings.’ If Chrysalis hadn’t been confident before, she certainly was now.
She was just starting to consider a violent solution to the problem when a wall to their right opened up as if by magic. This was becoming less startling by the hour since it kept happening no matter where they went in this castle – for that matter, how did the changeling know for sure the cells she and Pharynx had been locked in were secure from that kind of thing? What was startling was the seven red-crested changelings that promptly burst through the new opening. They formed a v-pattern, all wearing spiked purple armor and appearing ready for a fight.
Despite the flashy entrance, no blows were thrown. Instead, the newcomers stood at what Chrysalis assumed was their version of ‘attention’. The leader removed his helmet and addressed her directly. “Your Majesty, my apologies for being late. Had we known you were back at the castle, we’d have come sooner.”
Okay. Not attacking. Still fooled. Chrysalis needed only to play along. Ricinidae was still a problem…
The changeling in question stepped between her and the probable royal guard. “Her Majesty is giving her guest a tour of the castle. I am her escort for the time being.”
“You?” The leader’s eyes narrowed, which was enough to make the more lightly-colored changeling fidget. “You’re a drone. Do not get in the way of the Home Guard.”
Though confusion had slowed her down, Chrysalis was able to regather her wits quickly enough. “And you will not presume to know my desires. I will not have you intimidating my guest.”
The armored changelings muttered among themselves, at least until the leader recovered from his shocked expression and snapped at them. Turning back to her, his eyes took on a look of hurt. “Have we displeased you, My Queen, that you would send us away? Are we to be replaced by this…” He scowled at Ricinidae. “...civilian?”
How to solve this? Chrysalis knew that saying the wrong thing now could reveal herself as a fraud. She couldn’t rely on Ricinidae to provide an answer this time. She glanced down at Pharynx, who had planted himself firmly in front of her despite his diminutive size and being heavily outnumbered. Worry ate at her. If she said the wrong thing now, they wouldn’t get to go home—Ah-ha!
Her attention snapped to the leader, her full commanding presence back in action now that she had a plan. She spoke her words slowly. “Would you be so proud as to declare yourselves the most loyal of my guard?”
As one, the seven stomped their hooves in a single loud beat, heads held high and bodies stiff. “We serve Her Majesty, the Queen,” declared the leader. “We are Her Home Guard, we are Her Shield! Command us, Queen Chrysalis, and we shall die to see your will done.”
She smiled. Sweetly. With a hoof, she guided Pharynx aside, then did the same to Ricinidae. Approaching slowly, she said, “Then there is a special task I have for you. Something that has become very important to me recently.”
The leader tilted his head back to maintain direct eye contact as she approached. His face was firm as steel. “We obey.”
“Good.” Studying the back of her hoof as she might the back of her fingernails – and hoping it had the same effect – she casually continued, “When we attempted the kidnapping from the human world, someone botched things up. They let the target go. That’s not what bothers me. What bothers me is that I woke up in one of my own prison cells. Someone knocked me unconscious. Someone among the team doing the kidnapping. Seeing as the strike came by surprise, I didn’t get to see who it was.” She dropped her hoof. Met the leader’s gaze. Maintained her sweet smile.
Then she was in his face, all teeth and fire and ferocity. “Find the fool changeling that dared to strike your Queen! Find him, throw him in a cell, and then let me know so I can personally mount his head on my wall!”
Her ploy worked like a charm. Within five seconds the soldiers were gone, off on a hunt for some poor changeling who was likely only following orders. Granted, their queen did get hit, it was only in a roundabout way that made sense if you didn’t look too closely. Chrysalis saw two possibilities: either they’d quickly find the culprit and the matter would be closed with some harsh words and a pardon, or the Queen’s Guard would tear itself apart from the inside. The first bought her time. The second would buy her time and cause Queen Chrysalis some well-deserved headaches.
She turned from the hole in the wall, which chose that strangely convenient moment to close, and looked upon Ricinidae. His smug smile was hardly what she’d expected. For a moment the two merely stared at one another, Pharynx in the middle and seeming quite uncomfortable for it. He carefully sidestepped out of the way.
“I think,” Ricinidae stated pleasantly, “that it’s about time we showed our guest the Queen’s quarters.”
Raising an eyebrow, Chrysalis replied, “I do hope you mean the more luxurious ones.”
“That I do.” He sauntered past her, moving towards the original exit that, unlike its peers, didn’t seem interested in leaving anytime soon. “If you’ll follow me, please.”
Pharynx sidled up beside her with a scowl. “We’re caught, aren’t we?”
“Indeed.” After some hesitation, she did as their guide suggested. “At the moment I think it best we played along.”
He let out a little snort, but didn’t object, keeping by her side as he always did. When this was over, she had every intention of telling him how grateful she was for that.
They were mildly surprised when Ricinidae kept his word. Though the path was winding and occasionally led to what felt like backtracks thanks to the strange habits of the castle tunnels, they eventually found themselves in the throne room. It was a disturbing sight, featuring a massive throne Chrysalis was sure she could have laid down on without difficulty. The throne itself was a black monstrosity of seemingly random spikes nestled among a miniature mountain range of similarly jagged rock. It sat in a cavern dotted with numberless holes which did not seem to share the random opening and closing nature of their brethren throughout the rest of the castle. High above was a collection of a couple dozen of the ‘feeding pods’ they had been shown earlier, all filled with ponies.
For a frightening moment, Chrysalis feared that they’d been led to an ambush and would soon be trapped in one of the pods up above, a gift for when her more ‘royal’ version came home. Pharynx looked about ready to grab her and flee, though she doubted he could given the size difference. Yet Ricinidae did not stop in what may be the least royal or luxurious throne room in any world. Instead, he led them to a seemingly random hole among the myriad that littered the walls, this one only differentiated by being a bit smaller in size.
A few twists and turns brought them to the first and only traditional doors they’d yet to see in the castle. Chrysalis was no stonemason, but she suspected the black things were made from ebony, or perhaps some kind of dark granite. There were no decorations, nor were there any handles, but they were more than tall and wide enough to permit her towering frame.
Ricinidae stopped and turned to his guests, gesturing with a hoof to the doors at his side. “The quarters of Her Majesty, Queen Chrysalis.”
There was a long, awkward pause. Chrysalis’s eyes went to the doors, then to him. He merely watched her, still with that pleasant, expecting smile.
Pharynx grumbled under his breath. “What, not gonna open it for her?”
The changeling’s smile widened. “I can’t. The doors are enchanted. Only Her Majesty can open them.” He looked pointedly at Chrysalis. “With her magic.”
Magic. She was supposed to have magic. Chrysalis couldn’t resist letting her eyes cross as she finally looked up at the long, jagged thing poking obnoxiously out of her forehead. There were eyesores, and then there was that. She hadn’t tried to use it to do anything since they’d arrived. The thought hadn’t even occurred to her.
They were so boned.
“We are so boned.” Pharynx stood before her and planted his hooves, readying for a fight.
“Now, now, hold on.” Ricinidae raised both hooves in what was probably meant to be a placating gesture. “Yes, I figured it out. No, this isn’t some ambush or scheme to prove it. But you are going to want to figure out how to open these doors. It’s the safest place for you in the whole castle.”
Pharynx growled and scuffed his hoof on the floor, which Chrysalis found comically similar to how horses and cows did such things in cartoons. “How can we trust you, bug?”
The smile faded, though Ricinidae did not appear offended by the apparent slur. “Because, frankly, you two have the run of this place.” He looked to Chrysalis. “I’m pretty sure that, for all practical purposes, you are Queen Chrysalis right now.”
Chrysalis took this in, but her brain couldn’t put the pieces together. She set a gentle hoof to Pharynx, both for his comfort and to hold him back. “What do you mean?”
“There are many ways for the Queen to control us,” their host answered, fidgeting and biting his lip. “Fear. Ferocity. Punishments for slight offenses. But by far the most effective way is the Programming Chambers.” He tapped the side of his head with a hoof. “In here. It’s not just learning how to disguise ourselves or basic algebra. We are instinctually made to obey the current queen. Queen Chrysalis didn’t start this, mind you, it’s been part of our way for centuries.”
Eyes narrowing, Chrysalis felt she understood what he was getting at. But to make sure… “I am not your queen, though.”
“Aren’t you?” Ricinidae shrugged. “I can’t tell the difference. When you first gave me orders, our Chrysalis or no, I felt compelled to obey, in exactly the same way I was compelled to obey her. With what I’ve seen so far, I think that is the case for every changeling.”
He brought his forehooves together with a light clop. “The changelings need a queen. When the Queen left on her little mission in the mirror world…” He pulled his hooves apart. “...there was suddenly a hole in need of filling. And since you happen to fit that hole perfectly in every conceivable way…” The hooves came back together. “...we have our queen again. Our instincts are incapable of telling the two of you apart. So, yeah. You rule the kingdom now.”
Ricinidae dropped into a low bow and uttered, with absolute seriousness, “Queen Chrysalis.”
Chrysalis opened her mouth. Closed it. Her thoughts, in order:
Son of a bitch, I ended up in politics anyway.
Is this really all that different from being the CEO of a major international company?
Sunset is going to find this hilarious.
Pharynx was sitting now, seemingly in a daze. He shook his head slowly. “But wait. You know we’re not from your world. If you can figure it out, the others will too. Won’t that be a problem?”
“Hmm…” Ricinidae scratched his chin with a hoof in a thoughtful pose. “I’m sure there will be some loyalists who will want the old queen back, but they also have the programming. They can’t oppose the Queen, whoever it is right now, at least not directly. Or openly.”
“But indirectly?” Chrysalis asked.
“There are those of us who… ‘don’t agree’ with the direction Queen Chrysalis has taken us,” Ricinidae admitted. “Their best bet is always to keep their heads down and not be noticed. If any are, they get sent to be reprogrammed. It works for a while, but the reprogramming can’t permanently change what a changeling is on the inside. Eventually, the old thoughts and feelings return. So unless the Queen decides to start slaughtering the dissatisfied, we’ve only stopgaps.” He shivered, voice abruptly going low in the dark, narrow hallway. “I think Queen Chrysalis would be using such tactics were we not already so few in number.”
The sound that came from Chrysalis’s throat was more of a hiss than anything. It startled her, but not enough to keep the vehemence from her tone. “I would never subject someone to… to reprogramming. The very thought is sickening.” Pharynx shot her a look. Once again, she couldn’t read it, and she really wished she could. “Alright, one step at a time. Door. What would you propose?”
Ricinidae shrugged. “Use your magic?” Her scowl only produced a sheepish smile from him.
The next twenty minutes were a practice in frustration and, though she was loath to admit it, anxiety. Yes, Ricinidae said that she basically ruled the castle now, but the idea of the others knowing she wasn’t their Chrysalis was an itch that couldn’t be scratched. She focused on the doors and her horn, thinking of whatever lay beyond as a safe place where she and Pharynx could ride this storm out. Ricinidae tried to offer helpful tidbits. Even Pharynx had a few words to offer, though it was obvious he was only shooting darts in the dark. She tried calming her thoughts, focusing on herself, thinking about the doors opening, everything short of kicking the stupid things down, but alas, nothing worked.
At last, she surrendered to the inevitable. “I just can’t,” she grumbled, head hung low. She snapped when Ricinidae opened his mouth. “Yes, yes, I know! I should ‘feel it inside me’ or whatever. I don’t. I feel no different than I usually do, except that now I’m famished.”
Ricinidae’s little ear-fins abruptly perked up. “Famished? You’re hungry?”
Catching the hint of excitement in his tone, she raised her head so to eye him curiously. “Yes?” Now that she stopped to pay attention, she really was hungry. Very much so. She could really go for some red wine chicken ciccioneddo right about now.
“Ah-ha!” Their host clapped his hooves sharply, a grin sprouting on his face. “Maybe that’s it. The Queen’s magic is fueled by love. She needs to eat in order to use her magic, and you’ve not had a drop of love since you arrived. We just need to get some food in you.”
Chrysalis could feel the blood rushing from her face. “You… You want me to eat…” She couldn’t stop from looking back down the corridor. Though she couldn’t see them from here, she could easily view the pony-filled pods in her head.
“Don’t worry.” Clearly unaware of the source of her discomfort, Ricinidae started walking for the exit. “Queen Chrysalis only keeps the ponies with the sweetest, more innocent love. It’ll be the tastiest treat you’ve ever—”
“There is no chance in Hell I’m feeding off another sentient creature.”
“But I promise, it’s—”
“No.”
Ricinidae turned to her, his expression the very definition of conflicted. He looked to Pharynx, who offered no response, not even a shrug. Then he looked at the door. Then to Chrysalis. Then back down the corridor. At last, he heaved a sigh and sat. “Well, you’re going to be very hungry. As Queen, you can’t really ‘starve’. You’ll just be very uncomfortable and unable to use magic. We don’t really have any of what you’d call ‘normal’ food.”
“I don’t intend to be here long enough for it to be a problem,” she replied, hoping her cool tone masked the discomfort still roiling around her insides. “My son and I are going home.”
Her guide – and now, she supposed, advisor – sat up straight and frowned. “How? The portal to your world is all the way in Ponyville. The Queen merely teleported herself and a few soldiers near Canterlot and took a train. Without your magic, it would take weeks to get back.”
Ah, but that was a puzzle she’d been thinking on for quite some time, and by now she felt she had a solution. “If things on the other side of the portal are going how I think they are, then the Princesses of Equestria may already be aware of my presence in this world. I need only make my whereabouts known.”
Ricinidae cocked his head. “Again, how?”
The answer, she felt, was obvious. So obvious, in fact, she had to question why he was even asking. “By contacting them, of course. Does your Queen have a way to communicate with them directly, or could we simply send a lone changeling to carry the message?”
Ricinidae’s pale, glowing eyes went wide, his semi-transparent wings snapping open as he jumped to his hooves. “You want to do what? But the Equestrians are our sworn enemies!”
Another question with an obvious, if decidedly more challenging solution. “I am your queen while I am here, am I not?” At Ricinidae’s hesitant nod, she smiled. “Then as acting queen, I consider it my job to make them not your enemies.”
Just as quickly as it had risen, Ricinidae’s flank fell to the ground. By how his forelegs wobbled, his front was at risk of something similar. “Y-you… You want us to make peace with the Equestrians?”
Chrysalis stared at the dumbstruck changeling. She turned her head to Pharynx, who met hers with a look of plain disinterest. With a hint of annoyance, she said, “Please tell me I’m not going to have to explain how stupid it is to remain in a state of war against a superpower when your entire civilization consists of only around five thousand people.” Surely the changelings as a whole weren’t that stupid. Ricinidae in particular seemed quite the intelligent individual despite being a ‘Drone’, which seemed to suggest being low-born or a commoner or whatever term they used here. Surely, surely, he would understand the intelligence behind this direction. Unless their culture was really that backwards…
Despite the wobbling, Ricinidae managed to raise his head once more. “Y-you have to understand, the ponies hate us. Not that I blame them, what with us briefly conquering their capital and all. It’s just that any messenger you send will be… I mean, it’s a suicide mission!”
Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “I think you overestimate the ponies’ nature.”
“I do not! They’ll kill any changeling that reveals itself. I know it!”
“They will do no such thing,” Chrysalis snapped back, causing the trembling creature to flinch. “They wouldn’t harm a messenger for no reason. At the very least, they’d want that messenger to send a response.” Granted, this all depended upon Equestria following the same code of diplomatic ethics as civilized nations did in her own world. She was also basing her interpretation of Equestria’s reaction entirely upon what she’d been told of it by Sunset Shimmer, who was hardly an unbiased source.
Pick your path. Own it. Face the consequences.
“I need two things, Ricinidae. I need the throne room banned so that Pharynx and I can have a place to rest and cope with this situation without interruption, and I need to talk to the fastest messenger present in the castle.” She grimaced as a fresh discomfort ran through her insides. “And I know it’s a long shot, but if you have any food that doesn’t come from sucking sentient creatures’ emotions out through a straw, it would be appreciated.”
They did have something that could, in the most technical of terms, be deemed ‘fit for consumption’. It was some sort of purple mush that somehow combined the texture of sand with that of slime. She’d say it didn’t taste bad, but that would require it to have a taste to begin with. She still ate a small bowl of the stuff, if only for the hope that it would put her insides at ease.
Pharynx had resolutely refused any of it. That worried her, but she chose not to press him. He could make his own decisions.
While waiting for Ricinidae to complete his tasks, they settled in the throne room. Chrysalis decided to spend the time testing the wings she now had, and was startled to discover that they could lift her off the ground despite their ripped appearance. Being able to control herself in the air was another matter entirely, though she doubted that had as much to do with the wings as it did her total lack of experience with them. Still, the knowledge that she could experience self-sustained flight, even if that was merely wobbling a foot off the ground, was too big an opportunity to pass up. She’d go home and be able to boast that she’d flown.
In private. With her family and maybe an in-the-know outsider or two.
But still, boasting!
As she struggled to make herself move in a single direction, she noticed Pharynx watching her with curious eyes. She smiled at him invitingly. “Are you sure you don’t want to try it? It’s a lot of fun once you get used to the lurching in your stomach.”
He kept staring at her, his expression gradually falling. Abruptly, he turned away.
Part of Chrysalis was tempted to leave him be. Pharynx had always been guarded about his feelings, and she’d never pressed in respect to his privacy.
Yet there was an instinct. It wasn’t an unfamiliar one. She’d known it for more than a decade while raising the boys, but always ignored it. It had frightened her, that emotion, that strange need to know. It had felt so… alien. After her recent revelations however, she finally had a name for that little ache in her chest: motherly concern. No wonder she’d been so terrified.
Not anymore.
Okay, maybe a little.
Maybe a lot.
Shaking her head to clear it, she eased the buzzing of her new wings and landed with a finesse she was mildly proud of. “What is wrong, Pharynx?”
“Nothing is wrong, Mother,” he replied without turning to her. She didn’t miss the strain hidden beneath the firm tone. “I’m merely wondering when the poison they fed you will kick in.”
“If you were truly worried about that, you wouldn’t have let me eat it in the first place.” She took a step nearer, but avoided getting too close. “You’ve been deep in thought for a while now.”
“You know I don’t think much.”
She scoffed, which finally prompted him to look back at her with a scowl. “The only thing you ever do is think. You’ve probably spoken more words in the last couple hours than you have in the entire past year.” She smirked at the green blush forming in his cheeks. “I understand you’ve filled your quota for the next decade, but I’d still appreciate it if you spoke to me.”
He bowed his head, brow furrowed and lips set in a ponderous frown. After a moment of this, he turned to her, but didn’t meet her gaze. “You really like flying?”
Though she wondered at his choice of subject, she couldn’t help but grin. “Who wouldn’t want to be able to reject their physical limitations, even for a minute?” For an instant her thoughts turned to the silvery jets in the skies and all she could do was sigh. “When I was a little girl, I was absolutely fascinated by airplanes. Especially the small, nimble ones. Had I not become so devoted to working in business, I probably would have been a pilot.”
He blinked up at her, jaw loose. “A pilot? You?”
She shrugged. “I was determined to defy my limitations in one way or another. Ultimately, it came down to the limitations of my body or the limitations of my social standing. I went with the latter, and I don’t regret the choice. Still…” Her smile turned wistful as her wings buzzed for a few beats. “Sometimes I lament that I never learned how to fly.”
He took this in, took her in. Once more, his head bowed. “In all the years you raised Thorax and me, never did I see you smile so brightly as you did just now, hovering in the air like that.” His expression, already sober, turned grim. “Except for that time you and Sunset had that talk after the Battle of the Bands. You smiled like that then.”
The pleasant moment fled Chrysalis. She wasn’t sure how to take that statement, but it certainly felt like something she should be inspecting closely. She pushed it aside for the moment. Her attention was better devoted to her son and the hurt look on his face. “Pharynx?”
He turned his head from her, his typical stern frown returning. There was a more defensive touch to it than usual. “Forget it. I understand. No point talking about it.”
“I disagree.” When he said nothing, she glowered. “Pharynx.” He hunched his shoulders and kept quiet.
Oh, so he intended to sulk, did he? “Boy.”
His entire body tensed. His head snapped towards her so fast it was a miracle he didn’t crack any bones – or whatever changelings had if not bones. He bared his fangs in what she suspected was an instinctual act for his new body. The glare in his narrowed eyes was pure venom.
Works every time. Somehow avoiding a chuckle at his predictability, she kept her voice soft. “Tell me what’s bothering you. Please.”
He let out a snarl. “Don’t say ‘please’. You shouldn’t pretend like what comes out of your mouth for us is anything but an order. That’s why you never said it before, and I’m not falling for it now.”
Chrysalis felt as though she’d been slapped in the face. The sheer vehemence in his words… “W-what?”
“Stop it. Stop faking it! You think I don’t know how you see me? How you see Thorax? I accepted it a long time ago, Mother.” He might as well have spat in her face. She certainly felt like he had. With eyes narrowed, he passed a hoof around as if displaying their surroundings. “You ‘programmed’ us into our roles, right? We’re your henchmen. Your drones. Your…” And here he threw in some extra venom. “...employees.”
He felt that way? He’d always felt that way? But… But they always had such a rapport! He was her strong right arm, her best support, the firm presence when she was weary or struggling. Did he not understand that? Had she been misinterpreting him all these years? “Pharynx, I don’t see you as—”
Rearing back, he slammed both forehooves into the ground, his wings spread wide and red sparks flicking off his horn. “Stop lying! In all these years you’ve always only been brutally honest with me, so don’t stop now!”
Shock gave way to anger, and if there was anything Chrysalis knew how to wield, it was anger. She took a threatening step closer, lowering her head to match his and better see into his eyes. “Stop acting like a child. You are my son. Thorax is my son. I get that I was a crappy mother to you both, and I’m sorry about that, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t care.”
Body heaving like a bellows, he met her glare-for-glare and didn’t back down. “If that were true, then why did you never smile that way for us? What makes Sunset Shimmer so fucking special that in just three years she can turn you from the ice queen to… to…”
Pharynx hadn’t shed a tear in Chrysalis’s presence since he was eight years old. To see them forming in his strange, purple changeling eyes took her breath away. “Pharynx?”
He wasn’t looking at her anymore. His gaze was at something distant, something only he could see. “I made my peace with it. I understood my place. But coming here, seeing these creatures, realizing how shitty they are being treated and knowing that they’re all your children... You really are the same in both worlds.
“All we wanted was to know that you loved us. That you were proud. We tried so hard. Thorax worked day and night for years building his information network, swearing off his own hobbies. He even gave up a girl over it. I learned three different martial arts, won five tournaments, and broke my arm three times. Do you have any idea how much that hurts?” He closed his eyes, and a lone tear slipped down his cheek. “I even took those fucking etiquette classes you insisted on so I wouldn’t embarrass you in front of your peers. All so that once, just once, you’d acknowledge us. And you. Didn’t. Care. Then Sunset Shimmer swoops in and suddenly you want to be a mom?”
He turned away from her. Which was good. Now he couldn’t see the agony that was sweeping through every square inch of her strange, four-legged body.
“Fuck that. Fuck you. Fuck Sunset Shimmer!” His next breath was a slow, heavy shudder that brought him to his haunches. “And f-fuck me, too.”
He might have been quiet about it, but his trembling shoulders and painful hisses were enough. The struggling effort to keep her from hearing his weeping left Chrysalis’s legs feeling like rubber. She wanted to say something, say anything, but all she could do was look back and recall every moment that he’d gone above and beyond for her, the work he and his brother put in. Back when they were little, she recalled how they’d always sought her attention, always distracting her from what seemed so much more important. Hindsight made things so obvious, and she felt foolish for not realizing at the time just what they needed from her. When they’d stopped being so needy in their teens, she’d assumed they’d merely grown up and become independent.
But they’d never really stopped trying, had they?
Oh, Goddess, she was going to start crying too. She was such a terrible mother. “I-I…”
“Your majesty, this is Anisoptera, our fastest messenger.”
Quickly rubbing her eyes clear, Chrysalis turned to find Ricinidae standing in one of the throne room’s many entrances. At least, she thought it was him. Those with the same colors were practically impossible to differentiate. At his side was a changeling almost identical in appearance, though there was indeed a certain, barely noticeable sleekness to its form. Its crest and eyes were a bright orange.
“O-of course. If you would give me a—” When she turned back, Pharynx was just disappearing through one of the myriad exits. Chrysalis suddenly understood what certain authors meant when they talked about a heart being torn to pieces. Sucking in a ragged breath, she brought her attention back to the newcomers.
With no small effort, she forced her voice back under control and took on a commanding tone. “Anisoptera. I have a task for you.”
Hours passed. Chrysalis paced the throne room, fretting and uncertain. Pharynx had yet to return, and this held all her attention. Not the plan she’d put into motion, not her curiosity about what Sunset and Thorax were doing with the Queen, not even that blasted egg in the hatchery. Pharynx. Where was her son?
Did he hate her?
This felt like her confrontation with Thorax all over again, only more time consuming. More raw. She cared for Thorax, she really did, but it was Pharynx who was always at her side wherever she went. Was this jealousy over Sunset a new thing, or had it been stewing for years? He felt he was nothing more than an employee. An employee! This couldn’t be, and yet it had to be.
Had she really ‘programmed’ her sons into their roles? Did she do things in the distant past to encourage them to be what they are now? It sounded so wrong, so horrible, so unmotherly. She couldn’t remember, and that only made the emptiness worse. What if Pharynx was right?
She’d been such a success in her life, but in this she was as capable as… as…
“Your Majesty.”
She froze. How long had she been pacing? Without a view of the sun in here, there was no way to know. She turned to find a green-crested drone watching her from one of the many entrances. Green. That color belonged to the Planners. That was what Ricinidae called them. An overly broad term for what amounted to the changeling equivalent of secretaries and middle management. Pushing her thoughts of Pharynx into the background, she asked a quiet but hopefully firm “Yes?”
The changeling bowed. “I am to inform you that they have found and imprisoned the one who dared to strike you during the mission. He is being kept below.”
Oh, thank the Goddess, a distraction! “I would see him immediately. Go, lead me.”
As they descended once more to the prisons, Chrysalis reminded herself that the changeling she was going to meet had only been doing his job. Of course she had feelings regarding what that job had entailed for her, but she would try not to begrudge him that. She came up with fifty different ideas for what to do with him. Most were ridiculous and conjured up solely so that she wouldn’t have to think of everything else happening.
The green changeling brought her to the prison, where two Home Guard changelings stood in waiting, their expressions grim. They took over, guiding Chrysalis down the somewhat familiar prison passage to a cell not far from where she’d originally been imprisoned. The cell in question was flanked by two more Home Guard.
Chrysalis peered into the cell. What she saw was yet another member of the Home Guard, settled on his haunches in the middle of the room and glaring at nothing. When her hoosteps ceased, he glanced up, then jumped into an aggressive stance. “You! How dare you take the mantle of our queen in her absence!”
That voice. That voice. She took a step closer. No matter how she eyed him through the green barrier, she couldn’t tell him apart from his peers. Yet there could be no mistaking what her ears – ear-fins? She needed a mirror – told her. “Pharynx?”
He bared his fangs, a long, split tongue slithering out of his mouth as he hissed. “How do you know my name, usurper?”
The glass shards that had once been her heart stirred. More internal bleeding. Just hearing the anger in this creature’s tone made her feel weak and stupid. But no. This was not her Pharynx. Hers was… gone. Missing. Brooding, perhaps. What to do with this one?
“What’s the matter, usurper?” not-Pharynx growled. “Afraid I’ll let your little secret out? When the real queen returns from your world, she will unleash such pain upon you that you will beg her for—”
This was more Chrysalis’s speed. The words came with a subtle harshness. “Be silent.”
Not-Pharynx’s mouth clamped shut with an audible click of teeth. He glared at her with intense hatred. She reminded herself that this wasn’t her son, but that didn’t make his expression hurt much less. Still, she forced her face to maintain its impassivity, studying him as one might a bug before squashing it. Not-Pharynx fumed and fidgeted and growled, his wings even buzzed, but he said not a word.
This, she realized, was an opportunity. “Can you do it?” She queried with genuine curiosity. “Can you disobey?”
He sat, slowly, with a clear intent that said ‘I am doing this because I chose to’. His shoulders heaved once and steam snorted from his nostrils. He said nothing, only glared.
A sick feeling entered Chrysalis’s guts. “You may speak.”
He wasted no time. “How are you doing this? You are not my queen!”
So. They had no free will. If she said jump, they wouldn’t even pause to ask ‘how high?’ Ignoring not-Pharynx’s ranting, she considered the horrible implications. These creatures, they were little more than slaves. Pharynx was her subordinate on paper, but he could at least talk to her as an equal. If he really wanted to, he could say ‘no’ to her.
When was the last time he had?
Had he ever in his adult life?
Had Thorax?
Not-Pharynx slammed into the barrier separating them, the effect diminished by the soft, squishy sound the green material made. “Pay attention to me, usurper!”
“Oh, hold still,” she snapped, and he promptly sat down on the hard cell floor. “Let’s begin with the obvious: I am aware you only struck me because you were following orders. As such, I don’t intend to give you any harsh punishments. You will stay locked in here for now, until such time as I can think of something better for you.”
Not-Pharynx snarled at her. “You have no right to keep me in here! You are supposed to be the one imprisoned, you wretched creature. How are you able to fool everyling? How did you get the Queen’s power of control?”
Though she had some answers, she decided there were better ways than merely voicing them. Chrysalis turned to the Home Guard directly to her right. “You. What is your name?”
The armored changeling blinked, clearly unaccustomed to being spoken to directly by its queen. When it spoke, it’s voice had a certain feminine quality. “Phyllophaga, Your Majesty.”
Interesting names these creatures had. “Phyllophaga. What do you think of Pharynx’s claims?”
Phyllophaga’s eyes widened. Was that panic Chrysalis detected? The armored changeling glanced at her – Chrysalis assumed it was a ‘her’, at least – red-crested companions, then to Pharynx, who was watching her like a shark might watch a tuna. After some hesitation and a bit of shifting from side to side, she finally ventured, “You are our queen. Just not the… previous queen?”
Curious. Sparing the soldier anymore of her gaze, Chrysalis looked to the one on her left. Immediately recognizing her attention, he looked straight ahead in the manner of one desperately trying not to stare and stomped a hoof. “We obey!” Following his lead, the other two unnamed Home Guard stomped and echoed his sentiment. Phyllophaga was just a beat behind.
Not-Pharynx let out another hiss. “Traitors. You’re all traitors! Do not think our Queen will go easy on any of you fools!”
“I think I’ve made my point.” In truth, Chrysalis had not been sure of what would happen. She’d mostly expected the soldiers to think Pharynx insane and she their regular Queen Chrysalis. But now she understood that they knew about the swap and had no intention of doing anything about it. Because of their instincts and programming? Then why was this Pharynx so devoted to the queen? Ricinidae said the ‘programming’ wore off after a time. Maybe this Pharynx was legitimately loyal.
She could use this.
“Your Majesty.” The green changeling was back. Or maybe it was a different one. She felt a little guilty that she couldn’t tell. “The messenger has returned from Equestria.”
Already? Chrysalis must have been pacing in the throne room longer than she thought. She’d been told it would take three hours to reach Equestria by flight, so the messenger had to have left at least seven hours ago, maybe eight.
Eight hours. Where was her son?
It was night. Chrysalis was told it had been for two hours now. She was also told the timing of her message was fortunate, because the target of the letter was nocturnal. Thinking back to her renegade teenage years, Chrysalis had every reason to believe it.
Not-Pharynx and Ricinidae stood to her sides, Anisoptera a little ahead, and some Home Guard were behind them a few dozen yards. They stood atop a cliff overlooking what the locals of this world called the Badlands, right at the point the world started to become green and clean again. This was deemed necessary, as Queen Chrysalis’s throne was apparently made of some sort of anti-magic stone and this put them beyond its influence. The location served to put their coming guest on even footing. Supposedly. With Chrysalis lacking any form of magic, she imagined she and her changelings were going to be hopelessly outclassed.
The sky, lit by a full and brilliant moon, was also paradoxically covered in stars. Never in her life had Chrysalis known a sky like it, and she had to admit it was quite the beauty. Combined with the quiet of the forest before them and the cool winds of the Badlands behind them, it was an altogether pleasant evening.
“Why am I here? Planning to make me a scapegoat? Sacrifice me to your pony gods?”
Not-Pharynx had to try and ruin it, of course. She dearly missed her own son, who had far better wit than this guy. She ignored his complaining in favor of watching for their visitor, who had promised to come at around this time. “Do we have the timing wrong? Are we early?”
It was Anisoptera who spoke up. Her voice never failed to surprise with its gentility. “The Princess Luna isn’t one to abide by the schedules of others. By our expectations, she’s twenty minutes late. By hers, she’ll be right on time.”
In other words, Luna’s pony counterpart was making them wait just to prove she could. Chrysalis scowled and said nothing. She tried to keep her thoughts on the coming meeting rather than her still-missing son.
How long they waited, she wasn’t sure. She only became aware of a presence when the sounds of the night life came to an abrupt halt. The changelings around her went stiff, Pharynx himself lowering into an aggressive pose. Chrysalis turned her head about, seeking any sign of danger, but there was nothing, not even movement.
A voice, shockingly familiar, echoed through the trees like the whisper of a ghost. A ghost with a lovely voice, but a ghost nonetheless. “Greetings, Chrysalis. We must ask: how are you enjoying your reign so far?”
Luna. Chrysalis had to remind herself that this wasn’t her friend and ex, but an entirely unknown entity that may not take well to her. Straightening her posture, she gazed directly forward and into the dark forest. “It has been… enlightening.”
“We are sure.”
Abruptly, the shadows a dozen feet ahead of them coalesced. Chrysalis watched in quiet awe as it coagulated and took solid form. Princess Luna emerged, her coat a lovely blue and her mane… Oh. Oh, wow. Chrysalis couldn’t help trying to imagine her own Luna with hair that looked and moved like a night sky. That would be amazing.
Before she could get over her shock at the sight of her human friend’s equine counterpart, the princess smiled pleasantly. “Before we begin, we should warn you that Sunset Shimmer has contacted Princess Twilight Sparkle with news.”
Chrysalis couldn’t help but smirk. “How long did it take her to figure it out?”
Princess Luna’s smile turned into a proper grin. “To quote her directly: About as long as it took to see her fall on her face in the school hallways. It seems watching creatures walk on two legs is very different from having to do it yourself.” Chrysalis couldn’t help but giggle, which became proper laughter when Luna added, “Apparently they have her tied up in a janitor’s closet. We were told the numbers 203 and 205 will mean something to you.”
“That is priceless,” Chrysalis declared between giggles. “Now I’m glad I didn’t take that bet!” She looked to Pharynx as she said it, grinning wide. He shot her a glare that could have melted a glacier. It did a wonderful job ending her mirth, though not for the reasons he probably would have liked.
“We are curious,” the princess said, losing her smile as she eyed Chrysalis’s entourage. “How did you convince these changelings to help you escape?”
Right. Business. She turned her attention to Princess Luna. “I didn’t have to. They are – and this is their terminology, I note – programmed in such a way that they cannot disobey me. The entire castle is aware of who I really am, but I am so much like their queen that their instincts have effectively replaced her with me in her absence.”
“You are nothing like our queen,” not-Pharynx spat. “You are a pathetic excuse of a—”
“Yes, yes, you’ve said this before.” Rolling her eyes, Chrysalis shot him a disdainful look. “Be silent until I say otherwise.” There was that glacier-melting look again. Too bad for him she was immune after the first few hits.
The princess thought on this with a deep frown. “Fascinating. Disturbing. It’s like they are slaves.” Shaking off her contemplation, she refocused on Chrysalis. “We suppose you’ll be wanting to go home immediately.”
Chrysalis felt her own lips slipping into a conspiratorial smile and made no attempt to prevent it. “In time. I didn’t get as far as I have without noticing an opportunity when it punches me in the face, and what we— what you have right now is a brilliant one.” She stepped forward, ushering Anisoptera aside so as to have an unobscured view of the princess and vice versa. “I am in control of the Changeling Kingdom for the time being. They must do as I say. And I say it is time for the changelings and the ponies to make peace.”
Princess Luna had such lovely, vivid eyes. Like Sunset’s. Maybe it was a pony thing. Right now they were wide open. “You are serious?” When Chrysalis only nodded, she was apparently rendered speechless. She took in Chrysalis, then the changelings surrounding her, then looked over her to the Badlands beyond. Eventually, she replied, “What you suggest is not a simple matter. It will take time. There are risks. Ponies are frightened and paranoid of changelings since the invasion, and many will hesitate to accept them. What of the changelings? Would they be willing to make peace if you are not there to force it upon them?”
“That’s...complicated.” Chrysalis turned her gaze left. “Pharynx?”
He leapt to his hooves in an instant, wings abuzz. “The changelings will never make peace with the ponies! We don’t want their soft, weak ways! Making peace with them is a mistake, and isn’t what our real queen desires. Queen Chrysalis is the only one who knows what we need, not some hair-brained clone from another world that doesn’t even have magic, much less know anything about us or our society!”
He started taking a breath to continue, but Chrysalis cut him off. “Thank you, Pharynx. That is enough.” Then she turned her head right. “Ricinidae? Your thoughts.”
The drone nodded anxiously, unable to stop glancing at the princess as if afraid of being devoured whole. Apparently she had a fierce reputation among the changelings. “There used to be many different changeling tribes with their own queens spread throughout the world. Now there is only us. If we keep following Queen Chrysalis’s ways and the ways of those who came before her, we are sure to go extinct. We need the love of other races to survive. Getting that love by force is starving us. We…” He finally met the princess’s gaze, though he remained crouched low as though preparing to flee. “We need a new way.”
“Thank you, Ricinidae.” Her attention went to the last of the trio surrounding her. “Anisoptera?”
The messenger blinked, clearly not having been expecting this. She looked from Chrysalis to Luna and back, then shrugged. “Don’t ask me. I just follow orders.”
“The point is effectively made,” Luna admitted once Chrysalis looked back to her. She seemed puzzled, as though she’d just been introduced to a whole new concept and was trying to wrap her head around it. “We – and this time I mean Equestria as a whole – know precious little about changelings. We assumed they were of one mind in regards to us.”
“That’s one thing that changes now,” Chrysalis declared firmly. “I intend to have the changelings open up about everything. Their culture, their philosophies, their abilities. You cannot befriend them if you don’t know them, and it is not fair for them to have to live in hiding all the time.”
“What?” Pharynx, who had been glaring at nothing this entire time, abruptly whipped around to face her. “You can’t do that! The ponies cannot be allowed to know our secrets!”
Chrysalis smirked at him. “You won’t try and stop me.”
He let out a choking sound, undoubtedly well aware of why she’d phrased her response in such a way. “Y-you’re dooming our race. The ponies will slaughter us!”
Ricinidae stepped in, his voice firm. “We either risk a fast extermination at the hooves of the Equestrians or guarantee a slow, lingering death at the hooves of our ancestors. At least with the ponies we stand a chance!”
“Madness! This is not what our mother wants!” He leaned towards Ricinidae, all fangs and hisses. “Don’t you care about what mother wants?”
Chrysalis was prepared to intervene, but the sudden explosion that was Ricinidae’s response cut her short and made everyone, even Pharynx and the dreaded princess, jump. “Our mother?! Don’t talk to me like she cares about us as her children! We’re nothing but tools to her, bodies she can and will sacrifice on a whim if it means getting her way. Queen Chrysalis is insane! She would rather see our race, the thousands of lings she gave birth to, die in searing agony than admit her ways are wrong.”
Pharynx recovered swiftly despite his surprise, taking advantage of Ricinidae’s pause to breathe. “We are her children! It is our duty to die for her if need be to see her will done. She does love us, and she doesn’t see us as tools. Do not talk as if you know what that’s like for her, because you don’t!”
“I—!”
“That is enough.” At Chrysalis’s sharp command, both changelings went quiet, though they continued to shoot fire and ice at one another with their eyes. “All of you will remain here. I intend to speak privately with the princess.” Without awaiting acknowledgement from them or Princess Luna, she turned for the forest and began to march. To her relief, the princess didn’t hesitate to walk by her side.
As soon as they were deep enough in the woods to have some privacy but still be visible to the changelings, Chrysalis let out a low groan and rubbed her forehead with a hoof. Which was tricky to do considering the horn poking out of it. “And I once thought having three children was a chore.”
“They are certainly a lively bunch,” the princess noted with a hint of mirth. “Are they really the queen’s children?”
“Yes.” Chrysalis made sure her tone was dripping with frustration. “Every. Single. Changeling.”
Luna frowned at this. “That’s a problem.” At Chrysalis’s curious glance, she elaborated. “If Queen Chrysalis is the mother of all changelings, and neither she nor you are here to birth more…”
“I know.” She sat and sighed, her eyes drifting to the glimmering starscape that made up the princess’s mane. Goddess, but that was incredible. “And from what Sunset told me, you people aren’t exactly into capital punishment.”
“True.” Luna lengthened the word, giving it a wary, suspecting edge. “Are you proposing we kill her?”
Chrysalis pursed her lips. Was she? It seemed like a terrible thing to suggest, but if it was one life against that of an entire race… “There is a ‘Royal Egg’ in the castle. If Chrysalis dies, the egg will hatch into a new queen. One that can be raised to be friendly with Equestria. She could be the key to peace.”
“But only if Chrysalis dies.” Luna nodded her understanding. “I am afraid it is not something we can condone. I have a reputation as a warrior and have plenty of blood on my hooves, but I only perform such actions when necessary in the heat of battle. I have no intention of killing a defenseless former queen, and I am sure my far more peace-loving sister will feel the same way. Queen Chrysalis’s hair-brained scheme to enter the human world has bought her a one-way ticket to Tartarus at worst.” At Chrysalis’s raised eyebrow, she added, “It’s a prison for the worst enemies of Equestria.”
So they’d take Queen Chrysalis and seal her away. She had to assume the place was warded against magic or something. Whatever the case, she would have to trust the Equestrians to handle the queen. There were no good options against her in the human world, except perhaps incarceration in a mental asylum. If the queen were half as smart as Chrysalis herself, that wouldn’t impede her for long. Then again, her counterpart had tried to replace her in the human world without adequately understanding the repercussions, which was a pretty stupid move. Almost insulting, really.
Why had Queen Chrysalis done that?
Princess Luna was studying her. She’d been silent too long. “I suppose this is just another problem to deal with. I am sorry for dumping these things in your lap, but I have my own responsibilities back home. I can’t be queen of these changelings and run a multinational business back in my home world at the same time.” To say nothing for how she didn’t want the royalty job in the first place. Or how she really wanted to spend more time with her three children.
“Which reminds me.” Luna’s expression turned uncertain, as if she didn’t know if what was about to come out of her mouth fit the situation properly. “Sunset mentioned that she’d like you to return soon. That she and Thorax have been using… ‘emails’? To mask your absence, but the illusion won’t last forever.”
Chrysalis couldn’t stop from smiling even if she wanted to. She had made sure Thorax would be able to access her accounts in an event where she was somehow indisposed. To know they were doing exactly what they should in this time of crisis was heartwarming. Then again, this wasn’t really a ‘crisis’, was it? No matter, she was still proud of them.
But things weren’t over yet. “They’ll have to wait a little longer. My son, Pharynx, is also here, but has gone missing. I must find him.” And have a long, painful talk. Possibly with Pharynx tied to a chair so he couldn’t storm out when his anger got the better of him.
Luna raised an eyebrow before turning her head back to the clearing. They could still see the group of changelings waiting on them. Ricinidae and Pharynx were pointedly facing away from one another. “I assume the ‘Pharynx’ who joined us tonight is this world’s version of him. He seems very much devoted to his biological mother.”
Chrysalis followed her gaze, focusing on the red-crested changeling with the purple eyes. He was sitting on the ground with his forelegs crossed. It was amazing how that creature could so perfectly imitate her son’s pouting scowl and posture without actually being human. It made her miss her own Pharynx so much more. But he had… run away…
Abruptly, the words of this Pharynx replayed in her mind. She thought on his tone, on his anger, on his seemingly compulsive defensiveness. She thought of her son’s. “Are we so sure about that?”
The princess gave her a curious look. “You have reason to believe otherwise?”
Chrysalis felt sick. What she was about to do felt wrong. Yet, no matter how hard she analyzed it, she couldn’t help but think it needed to be done. She met Luna’s lovely, big eyes. “I have an idea.”
Schools were eerie places at night. Chrysalis could never be certain of why, but she wouldn’t complain. One didn’t become a horror junkie by jumping at shadows. She walked through the empty hallways, Pharynx close to her side and glaring at every corner and crevice.
They turned a familiar corner in the old building and were greeted by the sight of three individuals. Sunset Shimmer, sitting on the floor and her face aglow from the light of her phone, was the first to notice their approach. She hopped to her feet and jogged forward to meet them, all smiles. “Hey, Aunt Chryssy! Enjoy your vacation?”
“‘Enjoy’ isn’t the word I’d choose to describe it,” Chrysalis replied, accepting the welcome hug. “But it was certainly an eye-opening experience. I’m glad to not have holes in me anymore.”
“I can imagine.” Pulling back from the hug, Sunset grinned at Chrysalis’s shadow. “Hey, Pharynx. What was it like being a bug?”
His eye twitched. “It was…” He glanced at Chrysalis. His glare stung. “Enlightening.”
“I imagine so,” Thorax said as he caught up, hands in his pockets and a wry smile on his face. “I’m almost sorry I missed—” He froze when Chrysalis pulled him into an abrupt, tight hug. “...it?” She wanted to chide him for acting so surprised, but reminded herself that they were still making repairs to the bridge that was their relationship. When he finally returned her embrace, it was in awkward, jittery motions, but she felt a little warmer for it nonetheless.
Stepping back, she gripped both his and Sunset’s shoulders. “Thank you both for watching things in my absence. I’ll want to look over those emails you sent in my name, but know that I have every faith in you.”
The sound of footsteps drew her attention to the last person standing guard in the hall. Luna. No stars in her hair. Oh, how Chrysalis wished to put some there somehow. Not that the Vice-Principal didn’t look fetching without them. Not that she ever failed to look fetching.
Luna, unaware of Chrysalis’s traitorous thoughts, had a smug smile on her face and hands on her hips. “I’ll be honest, Chrys: I never thought I’d ever get you in that closet again. You are full of surprises.”
Ignoring the blanching faces of the others, Chrysalis laughed heartily. “Thanks, I do try. Is she still in there?”
Thorax answered quickly, perhaps in hopes of avoiding any further reminders of his mother hiding in closets with other women. “We moved her to the Vice-Principal’s office once classes were over and the faculty had all gone home.”
Sunset, frowning, mimicked Luna’s hands-on-hips posture. “What are we supposed to do with her? She’s not a threat here. She has no magic, no transforming abilities, nothing. And kidnapping aside – which we can’t prove without revealing Equestria to the world – she’s not committed any crimes.” The frown deepened as she looked at her boots. Her next words were much quieter. “I’d hate to unleash her back on Equestria, though.”
Ah, to the point already. Good, Chrysalis didn’t want to procrastinate. This was already uncomfortable. “I may have a solution, but it depends upon… certain factors. I intend to talk with her.”
The three makeshift guards shared a questioning glance. Luna shrugged. “Be my guest. The office is this way.”
Chrysalis was mildly surprised that said office was in the old school building. She would have expected the primary faculty of the school to move their offices to the new one. As they approached, Chrysalis decided to make her intentions clear. “I’m going to need some privacy. Just me, her, and Pharynx.”
Thorax raised an eyebrow at his brother, who said nothing and maintained his scowl. “I guess that’s fair. He did jump through that portal into who-knows-what for you, after all.”
“Not that we wouldn’t have done the same thing had we been there.” The way Sunset said this made it sound almost as if there was some doubt towards her and Thorax. Chrysalis chose not to correct her. For now. Or mention that she was touched by the sentiment.
“Here we are.” Luna unlocked the door to her office and stood aside. “Don’t worry, she’s still tied up.”
“But if you need us, we’ll be right outside,” Thorax reassured her.
Chrysalis smiled for him, even though her insides were swirling. “I think we’ll be fine, but thank you.” She grabbed the door handle and pushed forward before her doubts could get the better of her. Not looking at Pharynx was imperative.
The room was dark, masking most of its contents. Even so, there was a certain… confining feel to the room. Which made sense; Luna had always been one to favor smaller, darker spaces. There was a single light on the vice-principal’s desk, a lamp that pointed slightly to the right of the chair. It provided enough illumination to see the unmistakable figure of Chrysalis’s horse-world doppleganger. The resemblance was truly uncanny, complete with the cerulean hair, grey skin, and sharp eyes. The woman wore a simple green dress, dark in color with only one shoulder and a slightly brighter sash around her middle. It wasn’t anything like what Chrysalis might have worn even in her younger days. Indeed, it seemed almost… plain.
Of course, she was also tied to the chair she was in. Not Luna’s, that was on the other side of the desk. No, this one was one of the folding kinds. The queen’s legs and arms were tied tight with what appeared to be jump rope, and an extra set connected her slim waist to the back legs of the chair. The only thing that could move freely was her head, which was turned sharply so as to glare at the new arrivals. She didn’t try to speak, probably because of the rubber band ball held in her mouth by what appeared to be a pool towel. Growling, however, was not out of her vocal range, as she made sure to let them know.
Chrysalis signaled for Pharynx to stay back, then approached the queen. She couldn’t stop smiling. “Well. This is almost exactly what I envisioned. If you promise not to bite, I’ll remove that gag so we can have a discussion like rational adults.” The queen kept glaring, but she made a sound that might have been agreement, so off went the towel.
Queen Chrysalis worked her jaw and licked her lips for a moment while her human counterpart sat in Luna’s chair on the other side of the desk. Her first words were biting. “How did you come back? You’re supposed to be locked up in a cell.”
With a shrug, Chrysalis leaned back in her seat and crossed her legs. Oh, it felt so good to have just two legs again! “That mirror portal is so good at its job that it was able to slip me in neatly as your replacement in the minds of the changelings. They pretty much obey me now.”
The queen jerked in her seat with a snarl, face twisting into fury. “Impossible! I am their queen! They’d never scrape and bow to a pathetic, magicless human.”
“Say what you want, this is the reality.” Elbows on the arms of the chair, fingers interlaced, Chrysalis eyed her counterpart. “I have to ask: Why in the world did you think replacing me was such a good idea?”
At first, it seemed the queen wasn’t going to answer. She squirmed against her bonds – the redness of her wrists suggested this was hardly the first time – and muttered under her breath. Just as Chrysalis considered a different approach, the queen responded. “It wasn’t originally meant to be you. I figured I could be anyone I wanted. You were an opportunity to be myself.” Another low growl. Her next words were begrudging. “I didn’t expect this world to rob me of my gifts.”
“Or for my niece to catch on so quickly?” A sour expression was all the answer she needed, but her smirk didn’t last long. “But still, what could possibly make you want to come to the human world? What did you hope to accomplish?” She noticed the shift in Pharynx’s head towards them, his features blank but his eyes sharp.
“Are you kidding?” Queen Chrysalis rolled her eyes. She was very good at it, complete with an air of frustrated disdain. Was that what Chrysalis looked like sometimes? “An entire civilization completely unaware of the threat at their doorstep. It’s a feast waiting to happen. I thought it would take nothing to conquer a race so stupid they didn’t even know how to wield magic.”
That made Chrysalis cock her head. “You thought we were just ignorant of magic, rather than that there was no magic.”
The queen let out a huff of annoyance. Her cheeks even turned a little pink as she glanced away. “In my defense, I knew the Elements of Harmony worked here, so I assumed it was the people who were the problem.”
At last adding to the conversation, Pharynx asked, “Why do it yourself? You have changelings who would have come in your stead.”
He was answered with a scalding look that made him flinch and look at his feet. The queen held her glare for only a second or two before turning back to Chrysalis, head held high. “You should teach your minions to only speak when spoken to. Does he not know I am a queen?”
For however much longer that would be the case. Noting how Pharynx’s eyes stayed glued to his shoes, Chrysalis bristled slightly. “His question is valid.”
“As is my point,” the queen snapped, not losing her haughty air. “My changelings are idiots. All of them. I can’t trust them to be the first to enter this new world.” Pharynx’s whole body stiffened.
Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. She looked down at her counterpart’s bindings. Looked back at her.
The queen sighed. “Ha-ha. Yes, I know. Feel free to rub it in, I’m sure you want to.” A wicked grin formed across her cheeks. “After all, you’re me. So tell me, Chrysalis: What kind of power do I hold in this world?”
Smiling at the obvious attempt to stroke their mutual egos, Chrysalis sat back and got comfy. Luna apparently had an eye for good chairs. “Quite a lot. I’m no queen, but I am in charge of a great many people. I’m one of the infamous sorts.” ‘Infamous’ in that a lot of pundits spoke of her as though she were evil without even considering that she might have a perspective of her own, but the queen could interpret the answer however she wanted.
“The infamous sort, hmm?” The hum was practically a purr. “I know what that’s like. Pathetic creatures with petty views on ‘morality’. They don’t know their place, do they?”
Chrysalis shrugged and inspected her nails. Was it just her, or did they appear better now than they had before she’d left? “Unlike you, I live in a free country. People can say what they want. Doesn’t stop me from having customers.”
The queen leaned forward as much as her bindings would allow. “But what if you didn’t have to put up with them? What if you could use all that power to—”
“Are you going to bore me now?” Chrysalis sent a disinterested look her doppleganger’s way. “Whatever you’re about to offer, I’m not interested.”
Now it was Queen Chrysalis’s turn to cock her head. Once again, Chrysalis had to wonder if that was how she looked sometimes. “I’m offering you even more power. How could you say no?”
“I don’t need more power,” Chrysalis replied easily. She smiled at Pharynx, who puffed his broad chest out not unlike a bird trying to look more menacing. “I wish to focus more attention on my family.”
This was met by harsh, sharp laughter from the bound figure before her. “Family! How rich! As if I’d ever let myself be chained down by something so trivial.”
Pharynx deflated, unnoticed by the giggling changeling queen.
Chrysalis, on the other hand, felt her anger start to boil. She schooled her features. Kept them neutral. “I learned that all the changelings are your children. An entire race. I imagine it must be hard to care for so many. I understand why you’d prefer to be… distant.”
“Excuse me?” Queen Chrysalis’s laughter came to an abrupt end as she peered at her. “What are you talking about?”
“It’s okay.” She was reaching. Deep down, Chrysalis hoped her equine self was merely playing up a role to protect herself. That would be the ideal scenario. Maybe then… “I know what it is like to have trouble managing family. I’m not the mother of five thousand, of course. Can’t imagine what it’s like having to love and care for so many—”
“Love?” The queen barked a laugh, but this one was cruel and piercing. “And here I thought you might be my equal. Clearly, being a human comes with a lot of negative side effects. Just like being a pony.”
Chrysalis scowled in defense of the chill seeping into her heart. Surely, this woman couldn’t be that cold. “They all depend on you.”
“Yes. Yes they do.” The queen’s teeth were flat as any human’s, but Chrysalis was sure her wicked smile was meant to bear fangs. “Without me they are nothing. The entire race wouldn’t survive a month. It is my guidance that has kept them going for this long. That is why they serve me. Because it is necessary. They are little more to me than tools.”
She couldn’t mean that. Chrysalis didn’t want her to mean that. If this… ‘mirror version’ of her could be that cold, what did that say about herself? She thought of Pharynx, of Thorax, of Sunset. No, she was better than this. And if she was better than this, then… “Some of them see you as their mother. Why not give them what they—”
“I never knew I could sound so pathetic.” The queen shook in her seat, perhaps trying to dislodge her bindings again. When that failed, she resorted to talking. Harsh, hard, and with an ever-sharpening edge. “What are you hoping to gain by this conversation? I get to not be bored for a few hours. You? You’re just spouting nonsense. Did you think if you dug deep enough and asked the right questions I’d break down and give you some sob story? ‘Oh, they didn’t raise me right!’ ‘Everyling hates me, so I decided to show them what hate really is!’ ‘All I wanted was for someone to love me!’ Pah!” She spat on the desk between them.
“You think I care what those simpletons think of me? Or anyone, for that matter. I’ll tell you what I care about. I care about waking up to know my enemies will soon be destroyed. I care about being able to see something killed with nothing more than a look. I care about having slaves who will do what I need them to do when I need it! After all, I am forever. Those pathetic creatures are not. In three decades not a single one of the changelings alive today will be around, the lot of them replaced by new, fresh subjects. Why should I get attached to such short-lived, painfully simple creatures? They exist for no other reason than—”
“Stop it!”
The two Chrysalis’s turned as one. Pharynx stood by the door, hands clenched into fists and entire body shaking. Though his face was dry, his eyes were not. They channeled a hideous blend of anger, horror, and despair that tied Chrysalis’s stomach into knots. “Don’t you care? Don’t you care about any of them?”
The queen rolled her eyes and turned her sour expression on her human counterpart. “You really need to teach your slaves proper behavior.”
“I am not a slave!” Pharynx stomped. Seemingly unsatisfied with the result, he did it again, then slammed his fist against the wall. All without taking his eyes off the queen. “I have a name. It’s Pharynx. I’m Pharynx!”
Queen Chrysalis stared at him, face blank. When he only stared back, shoulders rising and falling with his heavy breaths, she asked, “Is that name supposed to mean something to me?”
He fell back as if he’d been punched, eyes going wide and face pallid. “Y-you… I was always there. Every day. I stood at your side. I protected you. I maintained your privacy, watched over your room when you slept. I… I… I’m Pharynx. Mother—”
“Oh, stop it!” The queen turned away with a huff. “Nice try at deception, honey, but there’s no way they’d let one of my changelings through the mirror now.”
“Stop ignoring me!” Pharynx took a step closer. His hands rose, but he didn’t seem to know what to do with them. His knuckle was raw. “Mother. Please. I’m one of your Home Guard. I-I trained day and night for years to be among the best. I was by your side when they ejected us from Canterlot. I helped n-nurse you b-back to—”
The queen groaned and rolled her head back melodramatically. She refused to look at him. “I do not care. Even if you were one of my changelings, why would any of that matter? You would have been doing what you were meant to do, not out of any love for me and certainly not because of any love I might give you. It’s all instinct, you miserable creature, and if you somehow were a changeling whining about these paltry things I would consider you defective. You wouldn’t even be worth reprogramming.”
He stood in place, perfectly still. He gazed at the side of her head. The look in his eyes was haunting, the product of a life ripped away and shredded to bits. For a time, Chrysalis had to wonder if he was even breathing, until his voice cracked on a faint, sickeningly pleading “Mother…”
The queen said nothing.
She looked at nothing.
Her face exposed nothing.
Then Pharynx was gone. He ran, the door slamming against the wall so hard there’d probably be a hole from the handle. Chrysalis wasted no time in following, not giving the wretched queen so much as a glance. She could rot in Tartarus forever. She passed up a startled Luna, Sunset, and Thorax with a quick shout of “Stay here, I’ve got him!”
He was easy to follow. Unaccustomed to two legs, he spent more time struggling to stay on his feet than running. He shoved out the front doors into the frigid night and was moving for the statue. Chrysalis burst through the doors herself just in time to see him fall to the ground, hard, at the bottom of the steps. “Pharynx!”
“L-leave me alone!” He tried to climb to his feet, slipped on the icy concrete, collapsed once more. Crawling came next, but Chrysalis was already on him. She knelt down to grab his shoulders and was violently shoved off. “I said go away!”
“Pharynx, please, I only want to—”
“You are not my—!” He whipped around and jumped up, only to overbalance and topple forward, landing at her feet. The impact with the concrete stunned him, and for a few precious seconds he merely lay there, staring at her shoes.
And then he screamed. The sound was so hideous, so loud, so sharp that Chrysalis knew she would remember it for the rest of her days. She watched, helpless, as the big man curled into a ball and wailed like a child needing his mother. The irony wasn’t lost on her.
This was her fault. She’d known it was risky, but she felt if anyone could get to the heart of the queen, it would be someone as loyal and devoted as Pharynx. She’d imagined she might disappoint him, but to crush him so brutally? It had been beyond any of her wildest expectations. And now a son lay crippled at her feet, his entire life bleeding out of him in the form of blubbery, pitiful sobs.
She could really be a monster sometimes.
“I c-can’t feel her,” he wailed between hacking cries. “I can’t feel her! M-my head’s so empty. Mother. Mother! Make it right! Tell me what to do! Help m-me. Mother! Come back!”
Thorax appeared at her side, face torn by horror. “Mother! What’s wrong with—?” He moved towards Pharynx, arms stretched, hands grasping.
Chrysalis, her own face wet, stopped him with a hand to his chest. “He’s not ours,” she said, voice devoid of any emotion. “He’s… He’s not our Pharynx.”
He looked at her, tears threatening to break out of his own eyes as his brother’s equine counterpart continued to weep and utter hopeless pleas at the world. Then he pushed Chrysalis aside and went to the bigger man. Crouching low, he wrapped his arms around his not-sibling. “It’s okay, brother. It’s going to be okay.”
Pharynx’s head rose sharply, eyes wide above soaked cheeks. “Th-Thorax?”
“Yeah. It’s me, Pharynx.” Pressing his forehead to the changeling-turned human, Thorax whispered kindly. “I’m here.”
“She doesn’t know my n-name. Thorax. Brother. Mother doesn’t know my name!” He pulled himself up just enough to wrap his meaty arms around the smaller man.
“It’s okay. Everything’s going to be okay, brother.” Thorax patted and rubbed Pharynx’s back and continued to whisper kind nothings in his ear.
All Chrysalis could do was stand there. Feeling useless. Feeling guilty. Wondering where her real son might be right now. Wondering if she had ever caused him to break down like this. Wondering if she might do so in the future. Body shuddering, breathing hitched, she turned and walked away. Away, to the school. Away, to where Sunset and Luna were waiting to hold her as she cried.
She’d never been more grateful for a mere hug.
It was done. Queen Chrysalis had been returned to Equestria, where a veritable army, all four princesses, and an apparently superpowered being known as Discord were waiting to take her to Tartarus. The Equestrians weren’t playing around. Whatever their history with the queen, they were forgoing no precautions. Now all Chrysalis could do was wait until word came through that it was safe to return and finish her business there. Which should be any minute now.
She’d feel a lot better about that if she weren’t waiting beside Pharynx. The two of them sat on the now-dry steps of Canterlot High the next morning. It was Saturday, so at least they didn’t have to deal with gawking school kids. Luna, Sunset, Thorax, and even Celestia were there, though the latter kept as far away from Chrysalis as possible. At least she wasn’t sniping her with sour looks, apparently aware that things were too delicate for their usual feuding.
Pharynx had stayed with Thorax that night. Even if he knew it wasn’t his Thorax, he seemed to take comfort in the man’s presence. Now he sat on the steps a few feet away, emotionless, his gaze vacant and muscular body sagging. It was as if all life had left him. Thorax kept by his side, but otherwise left the man to his thoughts. Chrysalis didn’t want to look at them. It didn’t stop her from doing so on occasion.
For her part, Chrysalis had been up half the night. She spent a lot of it going over what Thorax and Sunset had been sending out to the company on her behalf. It was impressive; they’d handled things so well she was now confident that, should she want it, she could go on vacation for a few weeks and trust them to take care of the entire business in her absence. It was one more quiet confirmation of her faith in them. Perhaps someday soon she’d start… ‘training’ her niece. With her and Thorax working together, and maybe Pharynx too, they could easily replace her. And with three heads instead of one, they could do it without having to devote their every waking moment to it like she had for so many years.
She was distracting herself. The moment she realized it, her eyes were drifting back to Pharynx.
“Are you going to be alright?”
She flinched and jerked her gaze away from the changeling. Luna had settled on the steps beside her. Though her expression was calm, she made no attempt to hide her concern. She’d asked the same question last night before they parted, but Chrysalis hadn’t answered. She had not had an answer to give.
“As ‘alright’ as I can be, I suppose.” Trying not to imagine the woman with stars in her hair, Chrysalis turned her gaze to the statue a couple dozen feet away. “Just worried.”
“The Chrys I know would never admit to something like that,” Luna gently pointed out.
“The ‘Chrys’ you knew didn’t have a son missing.” She clasped her hands together on her lap to prevent them from doing anything that might further give away her anxiety. “She didn’t just face her evil twin from another world.” She shrank a little as she said the next words. “She didn’t have to worry about how similar she is to her counterpart.” Curse her eyes, they were back on Pharynx.
A moment’s pause. “Do you love your sons and niece?”
No hesitation. “Yes.” The word hurt coming out Chrysalis’s throat, almost so much as to bring tears to her eyes. “At least, I think? What if I’m wrong? What if I only think I love them, and… and then something comes along and I realize it’s more important to me than them? What if I abandon them? What if I make them feel like… like…” Damn it, why couldn’t she stop looking at Pharynx?
Luna leaned forward so that Chrysalis could see her despite where she was looking. “I think if you’re that worried about this, you have nothing to worry about. You’re not Queen Chrysalis, you’re our Chrysalis. You’re not one and the same.”
“How can we be sure?” Chrysalis looked down at her hands. Even clasped, they were shaking. “How can I be sure?”
Luna’s hand, gentle as velvet, landed atop hers. It sent a cold, not unwelcome chill through her body. She looked up, and Luna was smiling at her. Pony or human, those eyes were lovely. “I am sure.”
Good Goddess. Why had they broken up again?
“Got a message.” Sunset’s voice snapped Chrysalis out of her momentary, far-too-brief reverie. They looked to the teen, who stood close to Celestia as she opened her magic journal to the other world. Relief swam across her features as she reported, “Looks like things went okay, save for a few last-ditch efforts from the bug queen. Chrysalis is officially in Tartarus.”
“We’re not bugs.” Pharynx’s complaint had no fire at all. It was hollow and distant. Perhaps he’d said it purely on instinct. Without looking at anyone around him, he asked, “Does that mean I can go?”
Sunset, already writing in the journal, nodded. “Princess Twilight and a few others are already on the other side waiting for you.”
The changeling-turned-human let out a long, low sigh. He turned to his not-brother and whispered a few words, which Thorax responded to with a pat on the back. Then he stood and started for the portal, his pace slow and his entire body slumped.
Grudgingly pulling away from Luna, Chrysalis stood and looked to her niece and son in turn. “I’ll be back once I’ve found Pharynx and cleared things up.” After a moment’s uncertainty, she added, “I’ll try not to be too long.”
Sunset nodded, her smile warm. It seemed she had little doubt in her ability to solve this problem. “We’ll keep the business from blowing up until you get back.”
Thorax stood and took a step closer, his eyes drifting to the portal. “Are you sure you don’t want me to come?”
Smiling for him, Chrysalis reached over to give his hand a squeeze. “I need you here with Sunset. I promise, I’ll get your brother back.” He opened his mouth. Closed it. With a heavy breath, he stepped back.
Knowing that was the best acknowledgement she would get right now, Chrysalis straightened her posture and started for the portal.
“Chrys.” She paused to look back at Luna. The Vice-Principal shared the same smile as Sunset: confident and trusting. “Good luck.”
Chrysalis was not blushing. Suggestions to the otherwise were slander. Ignoring the dark look Celestia was suddenly sending the two of them, she nodded and resumed her walk. She moved faster than Pharynx, and soon they were side-by-side. He didn’t look at her, and when she tried to touch him, to offer some form of support, he flinched away as though from living flame.
Restraining a sigh of defeat, she stepped through the portal with him.
She liked to think she was getting better at handling it after two tries. The strange warping feeling throughout her body didn’t make her feel that nauseous, and when all the flashing colors and weird sounds ended she didn’t instantly fall on her face for transitioning to four legs, although it was a close call. The first thing she noticed was that she wasn’t in some building but standing on a wooden platform in an open field.
Then there were the ponies. She counted a dozen of them at first glance, most prominent being the purple one with wings and a horn, which she instantly registered as Princess Twilight Sparkle. She looked adorable as a pony, not that Chrysalis intended to admit it.
The third thing she noticed was a deep, inexplicable pull to the south. Something was there, demanding her presence. It was very insistent.
“W-what?” Pharynx was the one who spoke, despite having collapsed immediately upon arrival. His head whipped up and to the south, his purple eyes going wide. “The egg. The Royal Egg! It’s activated. Why?”
The egg? Chrysalis followed his gaze but saw nothing save a green field and Ponyville in the distance, all thatched roofs and brick chimneys. Except for the crystal castle. Still an eyesore, not that she’d dare tell the princess that.
Twilight was at the bottom of the steps already, worry across her features. “Welcome back, you two. Sorry about the steps, we moved the portal to make room for Queen Chrysalis’s military escort. Is something wrong? Was the trip through the portal uncomfortable?”
Blinking back her surprise, Chrysalis shook her head and stepped down from the platform. “No, it was the same as the last two times. It’s just…” She looked to Pharynx the no-longer human, but his attention was rooted to the South. “If what he’s saying is true, then apparently the Royal Egg back at the castle has ended its hibernation and is preparing to hatch.”
Twilight’s ears perked at this, her expression the definition of scholarly interest. “Oh? Chrysalis – er, Queen Chrysalis – did keep ranting about an egg and how it needed to be destroyed. We all figured she was just trying to distract us.”
Chrysalis felt her lips pulling up in a gradual grin. Of course! If both versions of Chrysalis were in the human world, then they were both disconnected from the Royal Egg. It would only make sense for its biological(?) programming to assume there was no queen anymore and activate itself. If she recalled what she’d been told correctly, what she was feeling was its call to all living changelings to come and protect it until it could hatch in a month’s time. It also made perfect sense that Queen Chrysalis, who had ambitions of immortality and eternal rule, would want the egg destroyed before a new queen could be born to challenge her authority. That the egg had existed at all was likely down to nothing more than primal instinct to have one around at all times.
Chuckling at the queen’s expense, Chrysalis fought down the egg’s call with no small effort and turned to face Twilight properly. “I think our ‘no queen for the changelings’ problem just solved itself.”
Clearly not understanding, Twilight cocked her head – disgustingly cute, Chrysalis was absolutely not smiling because of it – and replied, “That’s... good? I guess you can explain later.” She promptly brightened, practically bouncing in place. “We all wanted to thank you for capturing the queen for us! Chrysalis has been a pain in the flank for what seems like an eternity. I brought all my friends and some of Celestia’s assistants to help us come up with a definitive plan for making peace with the changelings. I can’t wait to start!”
Certainly a little go-getter, wasn’t she? Any other time, Chrysalis would have been happy to work with someone so eager and, if all she’d heard about this pony was true, capable of getting the job done. Yet even Twilight’s cheerful grin couldn’t bring any enthusiasm to her heart. “I appreciate your candor, Princess, but I’m afraid I can’t help you now. I still have a son missing. My first and only priority is him.”
“You mean Pharynx?” As if it were the most obvious thing in the world, Twilight turned in place and pointed. “He’s right there. Showed up at the castle last night.”
Standing among the other ponies, innocuous and appearing bored, was a big red pony with a short, wild violet mane. His purple eyes shot wide open when the princess’s hoof aimed his way. He met Chrysalis’s gaze and appeared ready to run for his life.
Chrysalis raised an eyebrow at him. “That’s not Pharynx.”
Slapping her hoof to her head, which Chrysalis would have thought to be a painful experience, Twilight said, “Right, right.” She waved her hoof at the red stallion with an encouraging smile. “Come on, Pharynx. Just like we practiced.”
His gaze darted between Chrysalis and Twilight, his body a bundle of twitching nerves. After a few seconds of apparent indecision, he closed his eyes and scrunched up his face in concentration. Chrysalis waited, not sure what to expect. Was this some sort of Equestrian joke? A prank intended for those crossing the portal? She looked to the Pharynx by her side, hoping for some sort of clue, but he was too busy staring South to notice.
Just when Chrysalis turned back to observe again, the stallion burst into green flames! She watched in mute shock as the fire roiled across the stallion’s body, yet there were no screams. Soon the stallion was gone, replaced by…
By Pharynx. She stared at him, and he stared right back with those strange eyes. Right, she thought, changelings. It’s in the name. She approached him, paying no mind to anyone else around them.
Pharynx – her son, not some otherworld fake – watched her approach in silence, but he was far from still. His whole body was tense, yet his eyes jittered as if struggling to hold her gaze. He looked so… so guilty. What did he have to be guilty for? None of this, not even his outburst, was his fault. Chrysalis felt her heart thudding against her ribs as she closed the gap between them, long legs quickly making up the distance. Just as she was standing before him, Pharynx finally lost his internal battle and looked at his hooves.
Which meant he didn’t see when she practically dove into him, snatching him up and crushing him to her chest in the strongest hug she could offer. He squirmed, clearly having no idea how to react. At least he didn’t try to escape as she pressed her face into his small shoulder.
It wasn’t until her tears started to drip off his shoulder that he spoke, his voice hesitant and confused. “Mother?”
“Shut up, you stupid boy,” she hissed through her teeth. “Shut up and let me hold you.”
He obeyed. He didn’t have much choice. Chrysalis relished his presence in a way she didn’t know she could. In her mind, she could hear his screams. Not his screams. Not his crying. But still his. Still his. “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry, Pharynx. I’m sorry. Mother’s here. I’m here, and I love you, and I missed you, and I’m sorry.” Sniffling, she tried to brush her tears away with the back of a hoof. It didn’t help much. It may have made things worse.
There was no way to know how long they remained like that, her whispering what she hoped were comforting words in his ear and rocking back and forth. His tiny size compared to her brought her back to when he was three years old and first adopted. Had she ever held him like this back then? She didn’t know. It stung that she didn’t know. That was something a mother was supposed to know, wasn’t it? But she didn’t know, and that made her cling to him all the harder.
“M-Mother,” Pharynx finally ventured. When she didn’t say anything, he continued. “Mother, it’s okay. I’m sorry. I was… I was just angry. I… I m-mean…”
She pulled back at last, just so she could look him in the eye. “It wasn’t just anger, Pharynx. It was something more. When we get home, you, me, and your brother are going to have a long, overdue discussion.” She chuckled through a hiccup. “Sunset can supervise.”
Despite the moisture on his cheeks, he gave her a smile. It was frail, and didn’t last long, but it was genuine, and that meant more to her than he could possibly imagine. “You’re going to try and get me all mushy, aren’t you?”
Her second attempt to clear her eyes was more successful. She grinned down at him. “Consider it punishment for disappearing on me. If you ever scare me like that again, I’m going to make you sit through a whole season of one of Thorax’s Mexican soap operas. Subtitles only.” His shudder only made her smile stronger. “I love you, you meathead.”
He blinked up at her, seemingly at a loss. Then his cheeks gradually turned green. Despite a vicious attempt to fight it off, he was smiling again. “I l-love you too, Mother.”
They held one another’s gaze for a few more seconds. Then there came a cough, and both abruptly remembered that they were in public. Much blushing was had, and a formal agreement between the two of them that Sunset and Thorax would never learn of this.
They would later regret neglecting to include Princess Twilight in that arrangement.
With Pharynx back at her side, Chrysalis worked with Twilight and her companions to draft some new rules for the changelings. She even brought the princess to the Changeling Kingdom so that she could make her queries directly with creatures who actually knew all the answers, which they had to give since their presiding queen demanded it. It wasn’t the kind of work Chrysalis was used to, and the more she did it the more convinced she was that she didn’t want to. Fortunately, for their part she mostly had to merely instruct the changelings as a whole to obey Twilight until the new queen currently growing in the Royal Egg was old enough to lead on her own. That queen would, of course, be taught by both changelings and ponies so that she could help bring a lasting peace between the two races and, hopefully, save the changelings from extinction.
Not every changeling was happy with the arrangement, but enough of them were that the rest were convinced to at least give the whole ‘peace’ idea a try. This world’s version of Pharynx was, in fact, one of the most vocal supporters of the new system. His dramatic about-face was met with suspicion by some.
The Thorax of this world, who had apparently been exiled from the kingdom for wanting to make peace with the ponies, returned. Chrysalis had witnessed the reunion of the changeling brothers. There had been tears on both sides, despite Pharynx’s attempts to hide it. Seeing them reconciling what she gathered had been hard differences was enough to convince her that it really would be okay to leave the peace process in the hooves of the changelings and ponies.
The whole process took a week, which was shockingly fast, but Princess Twilight was nothing short of obsessed with the idea of making an entire race of new friends. With somepony (Chrysalis had to pick up some of the lingo) like her in charge there was no question that the project would succeed. She and her son were ready to go home and stay there this time.
It was morning, not even an hour before they were set to leave the kingdom for good. Chrysalis was testing her wings again. She planned to fly to Ponyville this time, and no well-meaning pony princesses or sons would stop her. What good was having wings if she weren’t going to use them? Chrysalis was not going to miss such an opportunity. Wings were the primary thing that made her consider this world for future vacations.
A knock echoed through the royal bedroom – which she’d finally managed to open thanks to Princess Twilight’s help understanding how horns work. The place was sparse, with only a large bed, a few cabinets that were mostly filled with what appeared to be wines, and some rather ominous pictures depicting ponies in states of distress. The former queen might have been a monster, but she was by no means lavish. Then again, maybe she couldn’t afford to be.
Pharynx was off saying goodbye to a few friends he’d made here, so Chrysalis had to answer the door herself. She landed with grace; she’d long come to assume that her talent for flight was instinctual of being a changeling queen. “Enter.” With a flick of her horn, she opened the doors.
Pharynx stood in the doorway. Right away, she knew this wasn’t her son. The way he didn’t meet her gaze, how he hesitated at the threshold, the uncertain expression in his purple eyes; yes, this was definitely the Pharynx of this world. She sat in the center of the room facing him, cocking her head in curiosity. She’d not seen much of him since they’d returned from the human world, and what times they did meet had been brief, strictly formal affairs. “Hello, Pharynx. What can I do for you?”
His eyes met hers. It was the briefest of glances, lost in an instant as he looked at his hooves once more. Yet it was enough to see the fear. It hurt, but it was a shadow of an ache. Chrysalis thought she knew where the pain really came from, and so didn’t hold it against him. She reflected on how he’d been when they’d first met, a demanding and confident changeling attempting to display strength in his every motion.
Pharynx was but a shadow of his former self. She couldn’t help feeling responsible for that. “This is about her, isn’t it?”
He tensed, then looked back as if expecting to find someone listening in on the conversation. Then, eyes still set firmly on the ground, he approached her. His steps were slow, but the closer he got the more firm his motions became. She said nothing, not wanting to interrupt as he visibly built up his confidence with every clop of hoof against stone. He stopped a few feet away and planted his hooves shoulder-width apart. He didn’t look up.
Seconds passed in silence. It was just a little awkward for her, but Chrysalis said nothing. She felt it important that he get the first word.
At last, Pharynx found his voice. Still looking down, he said, “You’re not her. You’re a weak human from a weak world with no magic and silly ideas about peace with the ponies.”
She raised an eyebrow at his harsh tone. She was pretty certain his support was a big reason those ‘silly ideas’ were getting on so well with his brethren.
“You’re not her,” he repeated with conviction, even if he still didn’t look up. He stomped, perhaps to emphasize the point. “You’re not my mother. You’re not even a changeling!”
He sucked in a long, slow breath. His eyes glanced up, not enough to meet hers. “But you’re as close as I’m gonna get. To her. I know she didn’t love me, but I…” He closed his eyes and hunched his shoulders. A tremble shook him.
Chrysalis took all this in with stoic calm. “But you still loved her.”
“This is stupid!” He shifted, as if trying to turn away but unable to. “I told Thorax, it’s stupid. You’re not her. She’s in Tartarus, and she can rot there! She didn’t love me, didn’t care, so I don’t need to be here. Stupid. I-I told Thorax…” Biting his lip with those wicked fangs, wings giving off light buzzes, he risked a quick glance at her face. “I know it’s stupid, so why am I…?”
“Pharynx.” Chrysalis touched his shoulder. He flinched, but didn’t pull away. “What did you want to say?”
He met her gaze. He held her gaze. In his stare, Chrysalis saw so many emotions at war for dominance. Fear. Anger. Love. Disgust. Regret. Hope. Disappointment. Confusion. More than anything else: a deep loss. It was enough to make her want to hug him again, to let him know that everything was going to be okay, that his mother was here.
She wasn’t here. She never would be. Reminding herself of that was… painful.
“Goodbye.”
He was gone, lost on buzzing wings as he fled her sight. Chrysalis could only watch him go, uncertainty filling her to her core. She raised a hoof as if to stop him, but there was no one there to stop. She remained there for some time, wondering if she couldn’t have done something different.
Then Pharynx trotted into the room, Princess Twilight not far behind. “Morning, Mother.”
Twilight, smiling as always, started off chipper. “Hey, Chrysalis! Are you ready to… go?” She took in Chrysalis’s face, smile fading. “Is everything alright?”
She knew how she must look. Concluding there was no point in masking her uncertainty, she said, “I just got a visit from Phar—” A pause. A glance at her son. “…this world’s Pharynx.”
Pharynx and Twilight shared a concerned look. It was Twilight who asked, “I take it the meeting was awkward.”
Sighing, Chrysalis looked to her boy. He met her gaze, expression curious. “I know he’s not you, Pharynx, but… but he’s still you. That makes sense, doesn’t it? I want it to make sense.” Please, let it make sense. She hoped, dearly, that he wouldn’t misinterpret her meaning. There was a niggling fear in the back of her mind, steadily growing louder, that he’d mistake her emotions for this other Pharynx as reflective of her feelings towards him. Maybe they were. But not in a way that meant… That meant…
She didn’t know what she meant. The whole subject was mind-numbingly confusing.
And scary. Very scary. She looked into her son’s eyes and begged him to understand.
To her unparalleled relief, he smiled for her. “Yeah, that makes sense.”
Twilight looked between them a few times before tentatively adding her own opinion. “He’s got the rest of the changelings. They’re all going through so much right now. But if they stick together, they’ll get through this. Pharynx included.”
Chrysalis focused on her, words coming out sharper than she intended. “Can you say that with certainty, Princess? Can you tell me, right now, with absolute confidence, that they’ll be alright?” That he will be alright?
To her credit, Princess Twilight didn’t flinch at her scrutinizing look. She countered with a warm smile. “No. But I think his chances are really good. Especially with that brother of his.”
Pharynx proved he could still surprise his mother by developing a warm smile that, in the future, he would probably deny his muscles were physically capable of. “Yeah. This world’s Thorax is a pretty good guy.” Then he noticed Chrysalis’s stare and coughed into his hoof, cheeks going green. “If you ever tell my brother I said that…”
Grinning, Chrysalis dramatically set a hoof over her heart. “I’ll take it to my grave.”
He let out a quick breath of relief. “Good.” He didn’t immediately fall back into his usual poised indifference though, instead looking up at her with care. “Are you going to be alright? Do we need to stay another day or two?”
This was why Chrysalis liked Pharynx, aside from being good at his job: he had a surprising knack for knowing when to talk and when to shut his yap. It was nice having a son who was coming to learn when to express what he really cared about. That in the moment what he cared about was his mother only made her feel blessed.
For his sake, she resisted the urge to snatch him up in a hug in front of the princess. Again. A grateful smile did the job well enough. He certainly received it well.
Turning to Twilight, Chrysalis said, “I think I’ve had enough of this world for a while. We’re ready to go home, Princess.”
They had their little family meeting. It lasted hours. There were snacks and drinks to make it more tolerable. They helped immensely when the tears started up. Thorax and Pharynx, after great amounts of encouragement and a few promises from their mother, finally got some long-held complaints off their chests. Chrysalis dumped her guilt and fears all over everyone present. She was very apologetic about it. Assurances were made, embarrassing secrets uncovered, and bonds reaffirmed.
Sunset supervised.
Thorax and Chrysalis made supper at the end and they all enjoyed, for perhaps the first time ever, a family meal around the table. There was a general sense of weariness. A good weariness, made welcome by the general sense of warmth and familiarity they all shared. Pharynx even dropped his tough guy demeanor entirely for the night, though he assured all it would be back come morning. Reputations to keep and all that.
The boys slept in their old rooms, the first time they’d stayed the night under their mother’s roof since they were teenagers. With the dishes and leftovers stored away and a shower had, Chrysalis sat on her lawn chair on the balcony, watching the winter stars glitter and sipping hot chocolate from a wine glass. Alcohol before bed? Don’t be absurd.
There came a knock from her open balcony door. “Mind if I join you?”
Not bothering to look down, Chrysalis smiled and gestured to the chair next to hers. Sunset, her purple-pinkish pajamas partially hidden beneath a thick jacket, did as she was bid. She had a steaming cup of tea in her hands. From the smell, some sort of mint. “How are you feeling, Aunt Chryssy?”
The little nickname, once so effective at making her bristle, now never failed to make her feel a little warm. Smiling, Chrysalis pondered the question. The stars above twinkled like so many little candles. She was reminded, pleasantly, of Princess Luna’s mane. That, in turn, made her want to see her own Luna. They had much to talk about.
Her attention went to Sunset. The first thing on her mind was to ask the big question. Sunset had already put this family on a new, better path. Perhaps, if she wanted to, she could do the same for Change, Inc. At the very least the little prodigy could help her run the accursed numbers. Only if she was willing, of course.
No. Not now. They still had much to learn among themselves, and Chrysalis didn’t want to think about business. She had a family. That was more important. Business could come later. For now, they had the stars, the chill of the winter night, and each other.
“Nostalgic,” she said at last. “Hopeful.” With a smile at her niece, she finished with, “Loved.”
Sunset returned the smile. Sipped her tea. They remained in comfortable silence on that balcony, talking about nothing at all until the need for sleep sent them to their beds.
It would be the best slumber Chrysalis had had in years.
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New Story!!!
I guess this is the first time I can like a story without ever having opened it!
I absolutely adored this story during prereading. The characters are just so, so believable, and it makes me actually care for Chrysalis. You've managed to grab my heart and play its strings like a harp with this piece, and I'm really happy to see it's out now.
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!
Shtahp it, yer makin' me
This story is so meaningful and moving!! A lot was unpacked in these two chapters and I'm very glad I read it! Loved it, it's amazing!
Seeing this fic published is a surreal experience - I'd noted it earlier, but this is absolutely not a story I would have checked out had I come across it, and based on the subscription, cover art (it's great, just not my type of thing) and tags (though I was surprised to see an E rating, and then realise the story technically didn't break that rating, it just feels like a T story), that's even more true.
So it says a lot that I had a blast pre-reading and providing feedback for this. Part II was more my speed due to the locations and characters, but they were both immaculately crafted, strong in characterisation for a cold, aloof yet not-emotionless Chrysalis, and just an all-round pleasure to read. As you know. The world building in the first half of Part II was probably my favourite individual element, but I'd be hard-pressed to pick out something that wasn't at least worthy of mild praise. Truly, this is the work of a writer who knows what he wants to do, and how to get it across to his desired audience. It's certainly one of the better used of the shared universe between EqG and FiM, though I will confess I don't read much of that.
I might return again in some time and give a more detailed, final take but for now, I'm stoked to see this out there! I hope it gets read by as many people as it deserves to be read by
If one thing can be said about this Chrysalis, is that she does not pity the fool.
In a way, Chrysalis is more accepting than the average parent, but she makes it clear to Sunset that she has to own what she does.
To me, this story was deeply disappointing. It's not your fault, though; it's mine. I set my expectations too high as I read the opening beats, and my biases colored the narrative. So, most of the themes and emotional notes you were trying to hit sort of just bounced off. I'm sure almost everyone else will find this an impactful read, but I just can't. The only objective critique I can make is that the first half of part two, before Pharynx storms off, is a tell-heavy slog of exposition. You didn't need quite so many words to let the audience know Queen Chrysalis is a sociopath: we're already aware.
Absolutely loved this. So heartwarming! It seems Sunset isn't the only one that turned over a new leaf.
Oh, that is priceless, both Sunset's discovery of Queen Chrysalis and the closet thing.
Gotta say, it seems so weird for Twilight to greet Chrysalis so pleasantly, considering in the show Queen Bugbutt has been so antagonistic, not to mention tried to take over Equestria three times.
Great story, the confrontation between Chrysalis and OGChrysalis was created beautifully, and I find it great that it took a visit from another universe to make them realize their failings, Sunsets mistake create an infinite amount of good.
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I guess I thought that by that time in the story, Twilight had evidence that human Chrysalis is different from the bug Chrysalis? In show canon, Sunset and Twilight are fairly good friends by this point in the story, and Twilight is probably using Sunset as a source of information. And it's just like Twilight to look on the bright side of an opportunity to make new friends.
Sequel pls
I really liked this story. The first chapter even turned out to be vital for me.
You dick. You made me think back on the way I treated my friends and those that were close enough to be considered family, and just how I almost lost it all.
Go friggin friggitty figure that ponies was also a common interest among them.
Take my goddamn upvote, fave and addition to my personal library.
That description is completely useless.
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Which one and why?
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Main one. It tells almost nothing at all about the story.
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It does what I needed it to do. You must take in everything: a family photo for the cover art, the description of Chrysalis as eminently successful, the mention of her three failures, the specific declaration of her as a mother. I wanted the readers to know that, regardless of the specific events, Chrysalis as a mother is what the story is about. Mentioning the other surface elements – the events that transpire, the journey made, the characters in relation – is all unnecessary at best and spoils the plot at worst. I wanted potential readers to discover it all for themselves.
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There is now a blog relating some of my thoughts for this story and inviting more questions, in anyone is interested.
You need to stop writing things that are interesting, intriguing and creative. You're inspiring me to do stuff, but I want to be lazy!
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Cool!
Bravo, good author. Bravo. That was amazing.
This was a fantastic story! I loved everything from the concept to the execution.
I choose to believe the royal egg hatches to reveal a blue Changeling named Ocellus.
LOVED IT!
Exquisite stuff from start to finish. Brilliant answer to the question of Sunset's guardian, and an even better presentation of how different two counterparts can be while still being all too similar. (The parallels between the Sunsets and Chrysalises there is especially great. You don't have to follow the same fate as your counterpart.)
Thank you for a fantastic tale. It's always good to see a believably sane Chrysalis.
Fitting: As a loving mother, it was of course easier for Chrysalis to act as a callous overseer than for her counterpart, as a callous overseer, to act as a loving mother.
Or it would have been, if her counterpart had even gotten that far.
No doubt the story turned out well because of my invaluable input.
You're Welcome
lol just kidding
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Truly, it was the key to everything!
Hey, every little bit helps!
Damn. I'm gald I decide to read this story, and love how you did human Crissy. How everything comes together. Love it!
And now, a part of me hopes you'll continue the story in away, but another part feels this was good way to end it.
Either way, love it!~
That was a great read! :)
Oh this story was so wonderful! I love Chrysalis and your portrayal of her is amazing! The brothers deserve a spin off in my opinion (Hey, a person can hope!). This was truly one of the greatest stories I've ever read here. Thank you for sharing it with all of us!
It takes a monster to make you wake up to your own bad behavior.
Only by meeting her heartless Equestrian counterpart could human Chryssy see how cold-hearted she used to be.
I was going to start this with a comment about the line Chrysalis has near the end of the previous chapter about how she would have "gone into politics" if she wanted to take over the world, but then I got further in and saw that she already commented on that herself in the actual text, oops.
I really just love in general how this builds on what was established in the previous chapter. Obviously there's a whole new world here in the form of Chrysalis going to Equestria herself and getting to see what changelings are like. Even without that, though, there are still more details about the EqG world. We get to see Luna after being teased about her before. We can see how Chrysalis has started making progress with her children. We get to have more Pharynx after he was a slightly less involved character. So, so much more Pharynx.
There's a lot that sticks out to me about the sequence of exploring the changeling castle. It's got a lot of interesting worldbuilding about what's been going on with the changelings--the desperation that they face as a species on the brink of extinction is baked into every aspect of their society. After having been reading through the No Heroes catalog though, there's something funny about seeing this more nuanced take on changelings after seeing the old assertion that changelings are an inherently evil and monstrous species with no redeeming qualities. Slightly surprised that there wasn't any mention of pony conversion pods--not sure if perhaps you thought that to be a step too far and would have made it harder for them to be sympathetic.
It does feel like this section drags on the pace a bit, though. It's particularly noticeable in how it gets to be a bit repetitive in its order of "Pharynx asks about something, Chrysalis has to maintain the facade, Ricinidae gets more suspicious." I don't know how much I can really criticize though because I can't think of any better ways to go about it, it does feel like a necessary part of the story. It's important to show how rundown and dysfunctional the changelings have gotten to be, largely as a result of Queen Chrysalis's actions, and how this parallels Chrysalis herself. It's important to show how these drones are indeed capable of cognitive thought and they can't just keep the wool over Ricinidae's eyes forever. I did really grow to like Ricinidae over the course of the story, he becomes so much more than just a random drone.
And all of Chrysalis's revelations over the course of her foray through the castle set the stage for what's to come with Pharynx...and boy was I not prepared for this. In many ways it parallels Chrysalis's interaction with Thorax in the previous chapter, but it's so much more intense. If the Thorax scene hits you like a truck, this one hits like a freight train. Pharynx isn't like Thorax or Sunset Shimmer, he's not a passive character, and it's abundantly clear that this is something he's been keeping bottled up for a long time, ready to burst at a moment's notice. To me it seems like the opposite of the saying "You never know what you have until it's gone." Pharynx and Thorax didn't like that Chrysalis never properly gave them the attention they needed, but they had gotten to be complacent enough with what little she did offer them that they didn't feel any need to be vocal about it. Now, after all that, Sunset Shimmer comes into the picture and suddenly Chrysalis is trying to go out of her way to be a good parent as if all of that never happened--it's like a slap to the face.
But, where the Thorax scene occurred near the end of the first chapter and was over fairly quickly, the Pharynx scene happens around the middle, and the train just keeps on rolling from there as the focus transitions to changeling Pharynx. This makes for a particularly unique parallel as we see what Pharynx would be like in this setting where he's required to be more outspoken about his loyalty, to do everything his queen bids of him. He sees no reason not to put his life on the line for the glory of his queen and his race. He sees no reason to doubt that his mother appreciates him for his actions, for surely Queen Chrysalis loves all of her children. Surely.
And that brings us to Queen Chrysalis herself, as it finally becomes fully apparent just how much the two versions of the character contrast with each other. Chrysalis may not meet her personally until the latter half of the chapter, but her presence is readily felt all through the time that she spends among the changelings, as it's made increasingly apparent how authoritative and abusive and egotistical she is. The most obvious tension here is in the threat that Queenie might pose were she to escape, and the lingering worry about what might be happening to EqG!Pharynx while no one's got their eyes on him, but the real conflict is in Chrysalis's self-doubt. Chrysalis wants nothing more than to see that Queenie has some amount of good in her, not merely for what it might mean for getting her to see reason and admit the error of her ways, but because of what it might mean about herself. If Queenie is a heartless, manipulative monster, then what does that say about Chrysalis?
On a somewhat tangential note: I think Chrysalis, as she had come to be developed by the end of the show's run, never would have been able to settle for redemption. It's telling to me that she was the one who broke off the sappy bonding moment in Frenemies and insisted on friendship not even being considered. Cozy Glow is still just a child, most likely one who had a broken and dysfunctional upbringing, she probably wanted friends at one point but she didn't understand how to view them as people, she needed the opportunity to be shown what compassion means. Even Tirek I could see being convinced to at least leave and not bother anyone if Scorpan were to come out from whatever rock he's been hiding under and talk him out of his desire for conquest. Chrysalis, though, is clearly far too proud and conceited to ever let go of any of the ways in which she has been wronged. I think the most she could have gotten would be to have a breakdown when it becomes apparent that she's never going to be able to win and willingly accept petrification, not wanting to accept being a part of this new world in which friendship reigns.
It's despite all this that I really had to hope that Queen Chrysalis would turn out to have a heart buried deep underneath that black chitin. I wondered if she would be relieved to see one of her loyal changelings come to save her from her imprisonment. But...no, she's well beyond all that. The twist in this scene that Pharynx wasn't actually the "real" Pharynx was hardly subtle, but that doesn't make it any less gut-wrenching when Queen Chrysalis pulls the rug out from under him. Pharynx wanted nothing more than the reassurance that his mother and ruler cared for him, and she couldn't even be bothered to remember his name. And Chrysalis is horrified, because she can see how similar it is to the way she treated her own Pharynx.
My only major gripe with this part is the way Thorax feels shifted out of focus. He wasn't a big part of the previous chapter, but as I've already mentioned he was still pretty significant. In this chapter, though, his presence is largely relegated to the background, with his most notable contribution being in how he comforts changeling Pharynx after the meeting with Queenie. We don't even get to truly see Equestria!Thorax in any onscreen scenes. It also feels like there's this weird retroactive cheapening of Thorax saying that he was going to resign from Change, Inc. at the end of the previous chapter, since now it seems like he's still just working under Chrysalis in exactly the same capacity? I know it was said that he'd continue doing work for her but the way he just defaults to filling in for Chrysalis alongside Sunset seems a little odd to me. Granted, it does make for another interesting parallel with how Equestria!Thorax was banished from the changeling grounds for disagreeing with Queenie's rule. I get the impression that if you were to ever do another story in this series, it probably ought to focus on Thorax, considering that this chapter largely focused on Pharynx and the first on Sunset. It does also seem that Thorax would be an important character to bring to the fore if you ever go deeper into the logistics of Change, Inc.'s business, seeing as he's the most involved with it.
But perhaps the nitpickiest thing I can say is that...it weirdly doesn't feel like this should be a "Chapter 2" of the same story as the first? It's obviously a logical continuation of the plot and the character arcs therein, but the premise is drastically removed from the prior scenario of "Chrysalis adopts Sunset Shimmer and learns to be a good mom." It seems more like this ought to have been its own story, a full-blown sequel.
Lastly, some miscellaneous musings that I couldn't fit anywhere else:
I guess this is technically a fix fic in regard to the reformation of the changelings?
Is it possible that Change, Inc. could be some form of contracting company that employs multi-talented agents who can fill various positions at other firms as needed? It seems like something along those lines would be fitting the nature of what changelings are as shapeshifters. I'm not sure if there's any precedent for a company like that.
I have to wonder how Chrysalis being imprisoned in Tartarus might affect her relationship with Tirek and Cozy Glow. This would put her together with Tirek for a significant span of time and maybe both of them could be "pen pals" with Cozy Glow together, which could potentially let the three of them have a little more rapport with each other by the time "Grogar" does his big villain team-up.
I also wonder how this might have gone if this whole Chrysalis abduction/replacement plan had happened without the previous chapter taking place, without Chrysalis being warned of the existence of Queen Chrysalis and the changelings. Queenie's escapades probably would have failed in just the same way, but how would Chrysalis have been able to handle the situation without being aware of Equestria's existence? Would it have been harder for her to assume control of the changelings? Would she have come to the same conclusions about herself?
The recurring motif of "the moths" was really cute to me, it's such a distinct character element for Chrysalis, though in rereading I was a bit saddened to come to the discovery that it actually doesn't come up nearly as much as I remembered.
For as much as Chrysalis doesn't seem to be fond of her world's Celestia, I imagine she's going to be none too pleased with Princess Celestia when she learns about whatever happened between her and Sunset Shimmer.
And I choose to believe that Chrysalis brings her Luna to Equestria because she thinks she'd be hotter as a horse with fancy star hair.This story is just...damn, it's so good. In many ways it feels to me like a spiritual successor to Lightning's Bolt, shorter and more compact, condensed to that theme of a mother having to learn how to properly care for her child(ren). It comes with so much more added tragedy, though, on account of the way this story starts a lot farther down the road than that of Lightning Dust and Keen Arrow, so Chrysalis is not just having to learn how to be a good mother but also how to make up for being a bad mother for so long. You can really feel the hurt and the anguish in every scene, it feels so believable the way that Chrysalis has to go through this, and you're so relieved at the end of it all that she was able to come out on the other side as a better, kinder person.
(I did notice a handful of lingering typos, if that's something you care to be made aware of, though I recall seeing you say that you prefer those to be relayed through DMs instead of comments?)
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Since I'm probably never going to expand upon this: Actually, I envisioned that Chrysalis originally adopted them because she was young and callous and wanted the tax breaks that comes with being a single mother without the whole "giving birth" thing. Motherly instincts kicked in though, as they do, and after a short while she really started to care for them as her children. She was just terrible at showing it.
My intention was always for this to slide neatly within the pages of canon MLP. The only thing that is likely different is Sunset's apparent age when she first reached the human world, although I think that concept is nebulous all by itself?
I prefer to think that the two grossly misunderstand one another. Chrysalis (and you) is not entirely wrong about what Celestia was like in high school, but her view of Celestia is far more negative than she actually was, and vice versa.
Excuse me while I bang my head on the desk. One of my editors brought this exact subject up, and I disregarded the issue because I like to "help" my audience develop their reading skills. Why would Chrysalis knock on the front door of the school, and why would Celestia answer it immediately if she were in her office which most certainly would not open directly to the outside of the school?
Nah. Her own neighborhood would be similar, if perhaps a little more wealthy in appearance, and Chrysalis isn't going to judge people based on their incomes.
Exactly that. She knows about them "ponying up" when they play, so that's all she was talking about when she mentioned it. She had to be cryptic or else Chrysalis would have just called her nuts or accused her of attempting a joke in terrible taste, but it was pretty hard for her to give Chrysalis a cryptic statement and let the readers know her meaning at the same time.
My own view of the changelings in No Heroes also changed. Had I continued the franchise, I had a whole trilogy arc planned as a finale in which the changelings were shown in far greater detail, which would have shown them in a nuanced light. And brought about a giant war and made an Octavicorn, but it was mostly about changelings. It even would have had Chrysalis surrender herself to Luna and her team for judgement in return for aid for her people (before the war, mind you, so not as a "I've been defeated, please spare them" thing).
That said, I consider this a wholly different world from No Heroes, so nothing from that franchise factored into this. Didn't even cross my mind.
This was both intentional... and not. I wanted the first part to be where Thorax got his important scene and the second part to be Pharynx's moment. The problem stems from the fact that the second chapter is almost three times as long as I intended it to be, and as a consequence Pharynx's role in that part became larger. It had never been my intention to give him so much more presence than Thorax got, but it's what happened.
That was the idea in the first place. I didn't label them as "Part I" and "Part II" for nothing. The second one is supposed to be seen as a sequel. I left them in the same "story" because they're intrinsically linked and I wanted to be certain readers would view them back-to-back, but they're not meant to be looked upon as separate chapters of the same story.
If people want to view it that way, I suppose they could. But no, the reformation of the changelings had nothing to do with the creation of this story. My only purpose was to explore the idea of EqG Chrysalis, particularly with her being Sunset's adoptive "aunt", which has been a beloved headcanon of mine for years.
I address this subject in the accompanying Q&A blog in this comment.
Never occurred to me, but it could be an interesting dynamic to explore. Last time I depicted Chrysalis in Tartarus she was insane from hunger and loss. Having her able to properly communicate with other villains would definitely change things. Plus, her returning after what Chrysalis did would indeed be a "big deal".
This is something I came up with ages ago as a distinction between character types, usually in reference to the whole "Luna vs. Celestia" element. Characters who favor Celestia tend to get butterflies and characters who favor Luna get moths. I don't know how consistent I've been with that over the years, but it's a fun distinction to make, similar to the oaths ponies make to the princesses as an indicator of their preferences.
One of my few regrets is that Princess Celestia herself made no in-story appearances.
Indeed, I do. Leaving them in comments just lets the entire world know the mistake existed at one point in time and will now never be erased. I get that everyone makes typos and they're not a big deal, but I don't see any added value in displaying such mistakes to the world.
Anyway, glad you enjoyed this one so much! I haven't had so much fun writing a story since Guppy Love, so it's great to see so many other people enjoyed it as well. Looking forward to your next gargantuan piece of commentary.
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It doesn't help that time between Equestria and EqG world seems wonky in general. One of the IDW comics suggests that Sunset was Celestia's student while Twilight was still a child, which ought to make her considerably older, and yet she's still passing as a senior in high school by the time Twilight also goes through the mirror. To say nothing of the Dazzlings getting banished hundreds of years ago but still being around. My personal headcanon is that time doesn't truly pass in the EqG world, everything is retrofitted into this high school AU and no one is allowed to get older, memories come into being retroactively--so, for example, Sunset wins the fall formal three years in a row, but she's always in her senior year, when she's in her second year the year before becomes the junior year, and so on.
I suppose I can understand that. I could see it being quantified that Pharynx doesn't actually have that much more going on than Thorax, it just seems that way because of how much more screentime he gets, as well as effectively being doubled when changeling Pharynx comes into the picture.
Coincidentally, I did just start reading Life of Pie last night and saw that Fine Crime gets the moths too.
It makes sense, Chrysalis definitely is a Luna person...albeit on a more personal level than most.
Oh absolutely. Pointing out typos is on par with pointing out "plot holes" in movies, it's not unreasonable but it's definitely the least of a story's problems. Seeing comments that exclusively consist of picking out mistakes and errors is so...needless--like is that really all the person took from the story? (Not to mention the irony that these commenters themselves rarely notice all of them.) I don't consider typos to be a measure of a person's writing skill unless I'm tripping over them multiple times in every paragraph. I only brought the topic up this time because this is an actually recent story so it seemed like the iron was still relatively hot.
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You should read The Fishbowl.
I love comments, but these? Worst. Comments. Ever.
"Okay, fine, thanks for pointing it out, but what did you think of the story?"
Great story!
It's been a few months but I think of this story & QC whenever I have dark chocolate squares. Love that little characterization a lot.
Second part is something this story didn't need, but it fits anyway.
The first part is what really important. Despite the lack of action and magic.
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What most interests me here is that I've had some people, including a couple of my pre-readers, say exactly the opposite: that the second part was more important. I'd say the first part is more important for Chrysalis and the second part more important for everyone. Which of those two is of a higher value is apparently a point of disagreement.
Personally, I think the first part is better as a story but the second part is more... entertaining.
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First part is the core of the story: it presented characters, shows what they went through, and drives character development, with self reflection in the end.
Second part expands on what is already there, reignites already solved problem, to resolve it once again, more throughfully. It also features physical side of things, in comparison to the emotional in the first part, but essentially it just repeats what was already done in the first part with some additions, like comparing the best version of character against the worst one. And also solves big problem for everyone, albeit it's more of a "we don't really need to do it, but would be bad if we didn't" kind of thing.
Second part might as well be a sequel.
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Well, it is. That's the whole point. It's meant to be taken that way.
ah, this was really great! loved all the Changeling worldbuilding, from the reprogramming to the Changelings being the shrinking remnants of a once much more numerous and healthy species to everything about the Royal Egg. and Changelings instinctively obeying EqG Chrysalis despite knowing she is not the "real" Chrysalis is another very neat aspect that i enjoyed! the way Queen Chrysalis treats her hive being something that horrifies EqG Chrysalis and also holds up a mirror to her relationship with her own sons was great, and Pharynx's feelings of resentment toward Sunset really felt like a dynamic true to life.
and of course, the Chrysalis/Luna ship i loved, both their shared past (poor Thorax, having to hear about his mom in that context!) and Chrysalis's reaction to pony Luna. her heart also being melted by pony Twilight's adorableness near the end was also a really nice touch i enjoyed
This is one of the best exploration's into Chrysalis' character I've read!