A Change for the Princess

by Apple Bottoms

Chapter 4 - Chrysalis Arises

“You - Chrysalis! Queen of the changelings!” Princess Twilight Sparkle commanded, jerking herself upright as she tried to wipe away the offending tears. “I demand - your assistance! You will obey me! I have freed you, and you will - you will bend to my will! Give me the changeling venom!”

Chrysalis laughed, a cruel and ragged sound, and bared her teeth at Twilight Sparkle in a grin. “Oh please, you think you freed me? I was starving to death in there, Princessy. People stop leaving offerings and gifts after a few decades. And once that awful forest sprung up, well - ponies forgot we were here at all. And I suppose I have you to thank for that.”

Here her voice became sharper, and Twilight felt her strength being sapped away as Chrysalis came closer and closer. “But just as all seems lost, suddenly I hear someone emoting over me - maybe not over me, but close enough that I can hear it, and then I can taste it. Love is what changelings feed on, but grief … grief works in a pinch.”

“I don’t - I don’t have to grieve!” Twilight barked, even as her knees buckled and she fell to the cave floor. “You will - you will give me your venom! And I’ll - I’ll be able to go back to my friends!”

This made Chrysalis pause in her dramatic monologuing, and she turned, kneeling beside Twilight Sparkle to peer into her face. “You’re not joking. You’re serious, aren’t you? Please tell me you’re joking.”

Twilight gritted her teeth and fought to get back on her hooves, but Chrysalis gave her a harsh backslap as she laughed, and it almost made her fall completely. She felt so weak, and so shaky; the tears felt uncomfortably close again. “Get away from me!”

“‘Get away from me!’” Chrysalis mimicked in a whimpering voice, then laughed. “Or what? You’ll get your Elements of Harmony to come turn me to stone again? Newsflash, Princess Crybaby, they’re DEAD.” Chrysalis cackled, and rose a few feet off of the floor with a hum of her wings. “Oh, I’ve missed this; flying, being able to move my joints, being alive again. I can’t say I’ve experienced the joy of taunting you with your friends’ deaths before, but I gotta say, I’m liking it.”

“You - you won’t - you won’t -”

“I won’t what? Get away with it?” Chrysalis cackled, and landed a few inches from Twilight’s face, so she could push it down onto the cold stone floor. “I’m not getting away with anything, because it’s been got. I’m free again; that’s all I need. Now I can go rebuild my army, march on Canterlot, yada yada, queen of the world, baby. Thanks for the nice head start; it really was very nice of you. Now, I hate to eat and run, but … well, toodles Princess.” And like that, in a hum of wings, Chrysalis was gone.

Twilight Sparkle struggled to lift her head for a few moments, and finally succumbed to the changeling queen’s magic, slumping to the floor.

***

Twilight Sparkle wasn’t certain when she woke up next; she slept for a long, dreamless time, only occasionally interrupted by the vision of Chrysalis’ face cackling from above her. When she at last began to return to consciousness, it was slowly, and with the sensation of pain trickling into every inch of her. Despite her regal bearing, Twilight Sparkle groaned.

“Yeah, that’ll wear off in time.”

Twilight Sparkle thrashed, and paid for it immediately as she banged her head into the stone floor of the cave. With a muffled growl, she pushed herself up into a sit, and tried to look around the cave.

There was Chrysalis, just as she had seen her before, but … not, somehow. She sat aloft the stone pedestal that she had once been trapped in, and considered Twilight Sparkle as she slowly bobbed one holey hind leg.

“What are you doing here?” Twilight Sparkle hissed, her voice tight. “I thought you were off - building your army.”

Chrysalis snorted, and rolled her eyes as she considered the edge of one hoof. “Yeah, about that; turns out, changelings have gone soft in the last few hundred years. They invited me to hot yoga - and, if you can believe it, that’s somehow worse than regular yoga, and still it doesn’t drive them to bloodthirsty madness.”

Twilight Sparkle offered Chrysalis a feral grin. “Poor baby.”

Chrysalis’ sarcastic glance shifted to rage instantly, and she snarled at Twilight Sparkle before she could quite restrain herself. “Fine, I walked right into that one. Well, you were out cold for a long time, so I did some looking around. Turns out this new world is a bit of a dump. No immortals to sap for miles around.”

Twilight Sparkle’s grin faded as she looked away, and she shook out her mane, trying to remove the cave dust from its regal length. “Yes, well, that happens when you get locked in stone for crimes against ponykind; sometimes you miss some things.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes, and made a circular motion with her foreleg. “Alright, blah blah blah, I’m the bad guy. Spill. Where are the other princesses? Weren’t there like, a bunch of them?”

Twilight Sparkle paused, and held still as she took in a slow breath. “Princess Cadance … she abandoned her immortal life, to spend her days with my brother.” Twilight Sparkle smiled a little bit at the memory, remembering how funny it had been to see Cadance with wrinkles, bouncing Princess Flurry Heart’s foal on her knee. “Unicorns can live a longer life, but even that isn’t forever. And then Flurry Heart, and - well, she had an alicorn daughter, but all things must come to an end, I suppose. Even royal bloodlines.

Princess and Celestia and Princess Luna … they sailed away one day. They were here for such a long time, I never thought they’d be gone for … for good. I just thought they’d keep going on their vacations. Then one day they came to say goodbye, and … they were gone.”

“Ugh, I didn’t ask about your pony drama, I asked about immortals. Do you think I could give one fig about your princesses if they aren’t here to make a meal of? What about the Dragonequus? Discord?” Chrysalis snarled, and gestured loosely to a pile of rubble. “That old blowhard Tirek got smashed centuries ago, so now I wonder where his pal went. Did Discord do the smashing?”

Twilight Sparkle turned to consider Chrysalis, and squinted at her a little. “You really don’t know anything, do you?”

“I don’t know how to make this any more clearer; I WAS STUCK, IN A ROCK, FOR CENTURIES!” Chrysalis enunciated each yelled syllable very carefully, rising to her full height on the pillar. “Don’t tell me Discord did some stupid self-sacrificing nonsense too, I know he was fond of that yellow one - Flutterbutt.”

“Fluttershy!” Twilight Sparkle found herself yelling as she rose to her own hooves, her strength rapidly returning. “Her name is Fluttershy! And she - and she loved Discord! More than he deserved at times, but he loved her back just as much! I know this might be hard for you to understand, but for some ponies, the idea of being without the ones they love - it’s unbearable!”

Chrysalis snorted, but she was cut off by a sudden bolt of energy shooting at her from Twilight Sparkle’s horn. “You need my venom; you’re really so eager to shoot the fang that feeds you?” Chrysalis hissed, and slowly lowered herself from her pedestal.

“I can cut it out of your limp body if necessary.” Twilight Sparkle growled, and this time it was Chrysalis’ turn to look worried as the princess’ horn glowed. “Get out before I change my mind.”

“I think I like this new Princess Twilight Sparkle; she’s crazy.” Chrysalis grinned wickedly, and before Twilight could respond, she kicked up a cloud of dust with her buzzing wings and vanished into the night sky. Twilight scanned for her, but by the time she caught sight of her again, she was only a dot on the horizon, and all Twilight Sparkle could do was sink to the floor and watch her go.

Comments

[Doctor_Den]

Of course, I understand that it was necessary to create a dramatic situation in the form of the last two immortals, but the situation with Tirek turned out to be ambiguous. Why did Twilight even admit that he was smashed? In fact, without outside help, in his weakened state, he is not able to do anything serious so that he cannot be stopped.
Also, he could not get out of the stone confinement on his own.
If Twilight didn't know that his statue was smashed and someone else was doing it, then why did the attacker smash Tirek but decided not to touch Chrysalis?

[Razzy]

That day was when they realised that joking that someone else 'should get smashed' to a yak is a horrible idea.

Ah, yes, the pure good ponies, sure looks like the treatment they should employ.

[Venlinelle]

Princess and Celestia and Princess Luna … they sailed away one day. They were here for such a long time, I never thought they’d be gone for … for good. I just thought they’d keep going on their vacations. Then one day they came to say goodbye, and … they were gone.”

I choose to believe they went back to the mysterious society of alicorns they were apparently born into and are visiting relatives.