• Published 9th Sep 2012
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Game of Worlds - DualThrone



Six months after finding the Empty Room, unnoticed among the dust and loss, another shadow stirs to reshape Equestria.

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Twilight: Unanticipated Stop

After their surrender, their captors quickly got the chaos of the fight under control. The wounded were collected and duos were tasked to carry them. The dead were lined up in very neat rows and wrapped tightly in bolts of cloth (Twilight couldn’t tell where they’d gotten it from) and other duos were assigned to them. It turned out that as impressive as Twilight wiping away a large swath of forest was, the rushing tide of creatures had halted and fallen back before the attack, suffering little more than scratches and bruises as they’d gotten far enough away to be shielded by the dense forest. Meanwhile, the five ponies and pair of griffins had been checked over, placed in restraints that were clearly designed to hobble a running pony (or flying griffin) without making walking overly difficult, and what seemed to be some sort of magic dampener affixed to each one. While the guards had moved on to the others, Twilight had tested the dampener and discovered that it had somehow been calibrated to permit simple telekinesis (such as a unicorn would use to pick up food or drink) while inducing throbbing stomach cramps if the limit was exceeded; Twilight found herself involuntarily impressed with how intricate the device was.

Oddly enough, the creatures had made no move to disarm the griffins. Or, more specifically, a couple had made as if to do it when the creature that had given them a hug of wild gratitude had stepped in and, based on their reaction, gave the offending soldiers a severe dressing-down. The one that had attacked Twilight directly and given her that maddeningly cryptic look when Twilight had suggested that they couldn’t speak Equish, seemed to be the one in charge based on how it was walking around chittering instructions and getting bows of acquiescence in return.

Eventually, the group began to move, setting an easy but regimented pace that was quite easy for the captives to keep to but ate up distance at a surprisingly rapid clip. When they’d gotten used to the pace, Dawn’s first action was to turn towards Rarity, who’d been totally silent since the end of the battle.

“So.” Dawn looked over at Rarity. “Your life as Jade.”

Rarity colored very slightly.

“All… buried, I remember. You forbade Sweetie to have anything to do with it and it’s causing problems between you,” she continued in a very light and casual tone of voice. “So you put aside all those skills you were using to defend yourself, and all the equipment you brought with you that you were using to fight with.”

“You lied to us,” Twilight said quietly, a tone of hurt that she felt far more vividly than she was expressing woven through the words. “Not a white lie, not a little lie, a bald-faced blatant lie. About you, about being Jade, about Sweetie Belle, about something that you know your friends would support you in…”

Rarity looked up, her expression troubled and slightly anguished. “Darling, it’s not…”

“I’m not finished,” the lavender alicorn said firmly. “You know us, Rarity. You know that we care, that we understand, that we would do anything for you because we are all, all six of us, the Elements of Harmony which work only because of the special magic that come of us being the closest friends.” She no longer tried to keep the hurt out of her voice. “We’re your friends Rarity! We fought a horrible monster together, bled together! You were part of returning me to life, giving me a whole new life as the daughter of the mare I’ve worshipped and loved like family since I was a foal. We found out about your second life as an assassin and we didn’t say anything about what that implies. And yet, with all that, you looked us all in the eyes and lied. Worse, you put effort into the lie, pretending to be offended and angry that Dawn would ask about it.”

Rarity swallowed and started to say something but Twilight cut her off with an angry sweep of a hoof. “We don’t expect you to just confess everything, that wouldn’t be fair of us at all. But you couldn’t have said that you were taking care of a few issues? That you were keeping your edge just in case? That no, you don’t need us to do anything, but a hug and just being there for you would be great? You felt that you couldn’t trust us to be discrete and respectful?”

“Now Twi…”

“Applejack, this probably isn’t the best time to say anything,” Pinkamena interrupted quietly, but with a seriousness and firmness that seemed to have the same effect as if she’d yelled, the orange farmpony nodding and looking down with a suddenly sag to her shoulders.

“Well, Rarity?” Twilight continued, as if Applejack hadn’t said anything. “Do you have anything to say?”

Rarity swallowed again and quailed under Twilight’s furious look. “I…” She sighed and hung her head. “Twilight, I’m sorry. I trust you all, I… love you like family. I know you’re my friends and you’d do anything and everything for me. But this… what… I had to take care of things that were… very dangerous. Things that could have gotten you all hurt, maybe killed!”

“Like going after a crazed moon goddess who wanted to bring Eternal Night?” Twilight asked dryly.

“Or a dragon?” Pinkie suggested.

“Or confronting a malevolent spirit of mischief that could reorder reality at will?” Twilight added.

“Or the Guardian?” Dawn grinned a little. “Or trying to defeat a crazed sun goddess who had turned into a tyrant so bad that Nightmare Moon plotted to bring her down?”

Rarity colored deeply, looking thoroughly miserable. “But… those things… you defeat them once and you… and they’re gone and they won’t come back to… they don’t remember you for decades and show up at any time to destroy your happiness! The assassin order does those things! They do those things, they have done those things! I couldn’t involve you without putting targets on you that would have lasted forever.” She looked up at Twilight, tears welling in her eyes. “Darling, you could live for thousands and thousands of years and every minute of every day, there would have been bad ponies watching and waiting to take everything from you!”

“That’s my choice to…”

“No it’s not!” Rarity wailed, drawing alarmed looks from the nearest soldiers. “I couldn’t allow that, Twilight! I couldn’t… I would not allow them to hurt you or hound you for the rest of your life. I couldn’t give you the choice because you might have chosen to do something and then…” She swallowed. “…but… but I made sure. It will never happen. They will never touch you, they will never stalk you, they will never threaten you, or Applejack, or Dawn, or Flutters, or Rainbow, or Pinkie, or anypony that I care about ever.”

The normally balanced (even when dramatically overreacting to something) Rarity looking to be on the edge of full-on hysteria gave Twilight pause and she stopped to look steadily at her friend. “We’re more than capable of handling danger, Rarity. You could have let us in, let us bear the consequences…”

Rarity looked up with a fierce expression. “You are too good for me to allow that, Twilight Sparkle. All of you are too good for me to allow you to risk yourselves. And now, you’ll never need to confront the assassins, ever, or fear their wrath.” Something dark and chilling entered Rarity’s eyes for a moment. “I made sure of that.”

“How?”

The dark and chilling thing bore down on her from behind Rarity’s eyes. “You don’t need to know that.” And just like that, it went away and Rarity was back. She seemed to realize that the coldness had been in her eyes because her ears drooped. “Sorry, darling. But you really don’t need to know how I made sure of your safety. I fear you would think less of me.”

“Rares, short of you admitting to selling your body for our safety, you’re gorgeous and golden to us,” Dawn grinned. “And even if you did sell that wonderful alabaster flank, you’d still be gorgeous.”

Rarity eyed the grinning Dawn, her mouth working as she struggled between a very Rarity expression of dignified disapproval—and a demure little grin as she recognized what Dawn was after. She settled on the disapproval. “As gauche as always, Dawn darling…” And then that demure grin. “…but thank you.”

“Don’t mention it, beautiful,” Dawn beamed. “Damn shame we’re all chained up or we could have ourselves an awesome group hug. Because I totally forgive you for lying to us all, lying to my face, giving me an evil eye over your lie, and then pulling out all the gear and flaunting the lie. It’s all good.”

“Dawn…” Twilight sighed. Rarity’s tearful explanation didn’t help the hurt but she didn’t need Applejack to tell that whatever her reasons, Rarity was totally convinced that she had to conceal the truth from them, and she had a vague and disquieting feeling that the alabaster mare had taken extreme measures to protect them from other assassins. She just wished she knew what Rarity had done, the better to trust her again and appreciate the depth of her sacrifice for her friends. “Rarity, I’m… disappointed in you but you’re still my friend. I wish you would tell us what happened because it’s very hard to have you admit to lying, tell us that it’s for our own good, and expect our prior trust to still cover the gaping holes.”

Rarity hung her head. “I can’t tell you, Twilight. If I could tell anypony, it’d be the six of you. But… I just can’t.”

Twilight considered that. “Can’t, or can’t bring yourself to?”

“…the second.”

Somehow, hearing that Rarity really and truly wanted to be forthright but felt unable to, lessened the hurt and Twilight dropped back to nose her friend. “I understand, Rarity. I... guess I wish you felt able to tell us.”

“Just tell me one thing, Rarity,” Pinkamena said, trotting up to walk alongside the unicorn, walking freely (after the fifth attempt, they’d given up trying to restrain her). “What you did… did it hurt you?”

Rarity thought about this visibly. “No, it actually… liberated me.”

Pinkamena gave her a Pinkie smile. “Then I forgive you and hope you never lie to us again.”

“Speaking of lies…” Twilight looked back at Applejack who heaved a mighty sigh and doffed her Stetson.

“Yeah, Ah didn’t say anything but that’s cuz Ah knew it was the sorta lie ya gotta tell, ‘stead of the kind of lie you want to tell,” she replied. “An’ as much as she loves all that frou-frou nonsense, Rarity is as good o’ pony as any in all of Equestria. So Ah trusted that she had a mighty good reason for lyin’ to the ponies she’s closest to an’ Ah didn’t say anything.”

Twilight sighed and smiled. “I guess I can see that. Just…” She sighed again. “I think we would have been better off having this talk before we caught Rarity in a lie and had to have it under unpleasant circumstances.”

“Unpleasant circumstances, ye say?” For a few minutes, Twilight had completely forgotten that they were traveling with the two griffin sisters since neither had said anything since the battle had ended. Now Elli was looking back at her with a bemused expression. “Is that what ye calls blatherin’ yer secrets an’ th’ details o’ yer conflicts inta th’ listenin’ ears of yer captors?”

Twilight actually swallowed hard at that, abruptly hyperaware of many sets of intelligent eyes following them with interest, a few switching to looks of sympathy as Twilight did her best to facehoof without being able to bring her hoof to her face.

“They are a tad easy ta forget about, sister,” Delphine said, giving Twilight a small smile. “And it’s easy to forget that one who cannot speak to ye may understand ye perfectly fine.”

“I’ve been wondering about that, actually,” Twilight said, looking over at the nearest soldier, who gave her a polite nod before returning its attention forward. “They’re completely unlike any citizen of Equestria and according to every book I could find, these lands are unsurveyed and a complete mystery so there wouldn’t have been any ponies they could have learned the language from. So how do they know it?”

“Perhaps ye should find their leader, an’ ask her,” Delphine suggested. “I’m sure that if she truly wished ta, she could find a way to communicate with you.”

“Yes, I thought that was their leader and…” Twilight compressed her lips and thought back to the apparent leader, slipping into analyst mode as she considered the image in her mind’s eye. Delphine’s assertion made her look at her mental details in a different way, and small affectations and subtle differences in movement abruptly fit into her new paradigm. “…and now that I think about it, there is something effeminate about her movements and subtonal vocalizations. I suppose she’s like their alpha female, assuming their structure is lupine, or their queen, assuming their structure is more insectoid.”

“Why do ya think insect or wolf, sis?” Dawn asked. “I mean, they walk around like lupine and those war cries were sorta wolfish, but the big heap bodyguards here said their language sounds like something dragons speak.”

“A dialect, actually,” Delphine corrected her. “Generally spoken by th’ more bestial dragons and those who act as servants to a more powerful dragon. High Draconic is the written language of dragons and spoken by those ancient, highly intelligent, an’ culturally-refined among the dragons. Low Draconic is also spoken by certain races with strong dragon blood in them, as many dragons can sire or bear offspring with any other complex creature.”

“And you said these… creatures seemed draconic to you?” Twilight asked, giving the nearest soldiers a nervous look.

“In the way they act? Ya, darl, very dragon,” Elli said with a vigorous nod. “As we said when ye asked us, they clearly intended no harm ta us, ‘cept fer tryin’ ta capture us. They have individual initiative, independence, but a hierarchy an’ they obey that shadow beastie.”

“An’ they have dragon in them,” Delphine added. “Or at least something like dragon, something ancient and strong in their blood. ‘Tis natural for them, slipping silently through the forest, appearing only when their master commands them, attacking six very dangerous prey as one, without hesitation or fear and without lethal force. These creatures are hunters, Twilight Sparkle, and predators besides.” She paused and looked grave. “I suspect there’s a very good reason that these lands are uncharted and unmapped.”

><><><

A few hours into their march, the forest began to thin and soon they were at the edge of a vast desert as far as Twilight could see. The column halted and began to split off into groups, twenty or so creatures to a group, and formed into tight circles. The soldiers around Twilight and her group did the same, notably keeping their prisoners safely within the interior of the circle. After the circle was formed, the waiting began, all in complete silence.

“What do you suppose…?” Dawn began before one of the soldiers turned and hissed at her, putting a claw to its lips in an urgent-looking manner before returning its attention to the desert. Dawn blinked and uncharacteristically fell silent at the admonition.

The minutes stretched into tens of minutes and then a half hour. Twilight was about to breach the silence a second time, to whisper a question to the nearest soldier in case they answered, when she felt a vibration in the ground that rapidly increased in intensity. Seconds later, the sand in front of each of their group exploded into a geyser that spewed earth like water and from the geysering earth emerged…

a pony? Twilight felt her eyes go wide in shock as a grey-violet mare with a long mane and brilliantly green eyes emerged from the dust; her shock increased as the mare seemed to levitate into the air without a horn or magic… and then she saw the rest of her. The front of the pony was ordinary enough, her coat dusty but well cared-for and her mane rather attractive, but her rear half was snake-like, gleaming scales that looked all the world like polished stone glimmering faintly in the dust-muted desert air.

The mare-thing looked around at the defensive circles and grinned, laughing with a soft hissing undertone to her voice. “Defenssive circless?” She lisped in a rich, languid voice with a distinct Canterlot accent. “Oh, I am sso flattered… and a bit offended. Do you not trusst me, my new allies?”

One of the soldiers, its head bowed respectfully, stepped forward and began speaking to the mare in the sibilant language that the griffin sisters had compared to Low Draconic. The mare-thing tilted her head, listening, then nodded. “I ssupposse that’ss fair enough,” she nodded. “But I have delivered my sside of our arrangement. Where iss the toll promissed me?”

The question seemed to relax the soldiers around them and a minute later, four soldiers came trotting over with a large chest carried between them. They carefully set the chest down and one of them opened it, revealing a variety of sparkling gemstones, predominantly diamonds. The mare-thing gave a cry of delight, surging forward and snatching one of the largest diamonds out of the chest. “Sshe remembered!” She cried happily. “It’s been… oh my, it’ss been centuriess ssince I’ve had diamondss!”

She immediately popped the diamond into her mouth and began chewing with an expression of pure ecstasy. “Mmm… oh, oh…. and they’re of particularly high-grade, too.” She opened her eyes and beamed down at the soldiers. “I sshall not forget thiss act of kindnesss from her, remembering that I love diamondss besst and sending me ssuch a high grade.” She slithered closer to them. “Sso… who iss it that you wissh to transsport through my…”

The mare’s eyes fell on Twilight and she froze in place, staring with abject shock. “…a member of the Equesstrian royal family,” she said lowly after several seconds of staring. “You’ve ssseized a member of the Equesstrian royal family? And you’ve involved me?” The shock morphed into mingled fury and terror as she reared back, towering over the creatures with serpent fangs bared and her pupils narrowing to reptilian slits. Her tongue darted out, sampling the air with a snake-like gesture, and her eyes became even wider. “And it’ss worsse! Celesstia’ss own daughter! You’ve kidnapped the foal of the Ssun Princesss! And you’ve involved me! You’ve all but killed me! Killed me, do you comprehend that? The pact between me and the Dual Throness iss that I sshall leave their little poniess alone, and they sshall protect me here from sso-called ‘heroess’ sseeking to murder me for glory. And now you’ve involved me in the kidnapping of the heir to the throne!”

“Calm yourself, Maredusa.” A slightly resonant, honeyed voice said in perfect Equiish as the leader of the creatures brushed by Twilight without a second glance. “The seizure of Lady Twilight Sparkle and her companions is on our heads, and your name shall not even be mentioned if Celestia or Luna come seeking her. And any talk of you being executed for being an accomplice is sheer hysteria; the era in which the Dual Thrones were merciless and cruel towards any who so much as irritated the diarchs has passed us by centuries ago.”

Twilight turned and gaped at the half-snake half-pony mare, and she could feel that she wasn’t the only one. “Did you just call her Maredusa?” She asked, unable to help herself.

“Did I?” The leader threw an amused glance over her shoulder. “Why yes, I did, for that happens to be her name. And before you ask Lady Sparkle, yes, she is the same Maredusa mentioned in Equestrian myth and legend. I regret that you had to meet her under these circumstances, where she has flown into hysterics over a wholly imagined threat to her life.”

“Next time you ssee your mother, assk her how ‘imagined’ Celesstia’ss threats are,” Maredusa retorted, although she had visibly calmed down. “And remember that where you have a large brood, I have naught but my daughter.”

The leader’s expression softened with sympathy. “I have not forgotten that. If we didn’t have wounded and was the long passage not so dangerous for our captives, I would not have asked your help.”

Maredusa gave her a severe look. “You assked my help without informing me that you wisshed to kidnap the Elementss of Harmony and the Ssun Princesss’ child. You deceived me, at leasst in part, and I am displeassed.”

“Would it help if I told my mother that you weren’t involved?” Twilight asked tentatively, not wanting to draw the ire of a creature that legend stated could turn ponies to stone with a look.

The gorgon looked genuinely surprised by the offer before smiling broadly. “You are kind to offer, child, and I would be deeply grateful if you were to intercede on my behalf to your celesstial mother. Sspeaking of ssuch, how iss Luna? I heard of her exile and was quite ssad to hear of it; sshe hass always been accepting and kind towardss nonponiess like me and the otherss.”

“Luna… I mean, Aunt Luna is going fine,” Twilight replied. “I think she and mother have almost gotten back to where they were before her exile, mother minding the day and grand policy, and Aunt Luna minding the night and the details.”

“And sis got a great reading buddy out of the deal,” Dawn added. “Auntie Luna is just as literate and book-loving as Queen Egghead here.”

Maredusa gave her a curious look. “You… are alsso the progeny of Celesstia?”

“Yup, Twilight’s twin sister believe it or not.”

The mare looked taken-aback. “You...” she leaned closer, her eyes alight with curiosity. “…ressemble her, yet you lack wingss and horn and her coloration. You ssmell magical too, although not perssonally magical. Are you a homunculuss?”

“Not really,” Dawn replied. “Big, long, complicated story, though, so I’d be peachy keen if I didn’t have to tell it.”

“Then you needn’t.” Maredusa turned her attention to the other three mares, the soldiers stepping aside as she slithered through their ranks and came to a stop just above the very fascinated-looking Rarity. “Good afternoon, madam unicorn.”

“Rarity, darling,” Rarity corrected her. “And that is a beautiful mane! How do you keep it so luxurious when you do so much digging? And what do you do to that coat? The health of it is just… lovely in this desert light!”

Maredusa blinked at this, eyeing Rarity skeptically for a moment, before seeming to realize that the mare was being perfectly sincere and she immediately blushed. “I… that iss extremely kind of you Rarity. It’ss been… well, centuriess ssince a pony lasst complimented me with ssuch earnestnesss.”

“Think nothing of it, Maredusa darling,” Rarity smiled warmly. “It’s a great honor to meet a pony…”

“Being, if you pleasse.”

“…being straight out of legend,” Rarity continued smoothly. “Although those legends don’t seem to be quite true. For one thing, you’re quite alive and not the victim of a pegasus hero…”

Rarity went silent because Maredusa had suddenly gone very, very still, her eyes going cold and the pupils almost disappearing as she bared her teeth. “Do not call her a hero,” she snarled. “That… that… faithlesssss whore was no hero, and sshe iss only called one becausse sshe sspun ssuch clever taless of how sshe outssmarted and sslew the monsstrouss Maredussa. That ssslut couldn’t outssmart her dinner, couldn’t think her way out of a paper ssack. That sshe wass alive at all after her pathetic firssst attemptss wass a mercy from a naïve little gorgon who wass lonely and ached for ssomeone to appreciate her, compliment her ssincerely, or jusst be good company.”

“So that was her famous exercise of wisdom,” Pinkamena commented with a sad expression. “Manipulating and hurting someone so she could brag about defeating a monster that she had to know was no monster. The lies she told were just as bad as the betrayal, weren’t they?”

“You sspeak wissely, pink pony,” Maredusa replied, the hissing fury still in her voice although she apparently had control of it. “It iss alwayss worsse to have your name blackened than to merely be heartbroken. And sso, the Maredussa that wass admired ass a gemcrafter wass replaced by the greedy hoarder of gemss. The Maredussa that helped griffinss with the initial tunnels of their city-sstatess became the filthy worm that hid in her dank tunnelss. The lovely Maredussa who wass honored in sculpture became the ugly beasst with ssnakess for hair.”

“I’m sorry, Maredusa,” Rarity said, boldly trotting forward and patting the gorgon on her serpentine coils. Maredusa recoiled slightly but then relaxed and gave her a grateful look before looking to Dawn and Twilight. “And in my desspair, I met Luna. The famouss beauty of the Night Court, the grim and courageouss warrior-princesss, the noble executor of the lawss her gloriouss ssisster made, lonely and unloved and sseeking a friend, esspecially a friend that could undersstand. If circumsstancess would have permitted, I would have been the firsst to sstand by her when she fell into darkness, for sshe undersstood and sshe truly cared.”

“I appreciate that you wish to tell your true story to these worthy ponies, Maredusa, but even as the heat kills in full sun, the cold will kill in your sheltering tunnels if we allow the sun to slip away from us,” the creatures’ leader said in a polite tone of voice, “and I wish to thank you for your aid in this; your agreement will save many of our wounded and will make our journey safer and more pleasant.”

Maredusa bowed to her with a liquid grace. “We pariahss musst work together when we can.”

“Would that more felt as you do,” the leader sighed.

“I wass taught well by the wissdom of a good friend and you by the wissdom of a good mother and the foressight of a great queen,” Maredusa smiled a little. “But yesss… we sshould not dawdle. Provisionss await in my grotto, a mere hour distant.”

Maredusa turned and slithered smoothly into the gaping opening to the tunnel she’d emerged from at first, followed by the various soldiers, four of whom hefted and carried the chest of gems (which, to Maredusa, was apparently the equivalent of a box of expensive sweets). As they and their soldier escort passed her by, Twilight slowed and looked at the leader.

“Is there anything I may call you?” She asked.

The leader smiled pleasantly. “Your Majesty would probably be the most appropriate mode of address, but you may call me Thryssa, Princess Thryssa if it matters at all. After hearing so much about you and seeing your intellect and power at work, I dare say that it’s a singular honor to meet and speak to you, Lady Sparkle.”

“You’ve… heard of me?” Twilight asked, slightly startled.

Thryssa nodded as she took up the pace and walked alongside the taller alicorn. “But of course I have; any creature with ears has heard of you. May I call you Twilight, or would that be overly bold of me?”

“You’re my captor; you can call me whatever you’d like,” Twilight replied.

“While that is certainly the case, you will come out of your captivity as well as you went in, and I would prefer to be remembered as one who was considerate towards you, as befitting the daughter of Celestia and the bosom friend and niece of Luna,” Thryssa said politely. “So I ask again: may I call you Twilight without offense?”

Twilight couldn’t help but smile. “It’s a bit hard to get offended at my own name.”

Thryssa smiled back. “Delightful. As I meant to say before I interrupted myself, you are well-known and the deeds of both yourself and your closest companions are spoken of by all things clever enough to comprehend them. Long before your true parentage was known, your unusual gift for magic and your incisive intelligence were admired.”

“Ah didn’t know we were famous outside of Equestia,” Applejack remarked from behind Dawn.

“After you returned Luna to herself and Discord to a stone prison, it could scarcely be otherwise,” Thryssa told the farmpony. “I know that you are Applejack, of one of Equestria’s most ancient farming bloodlines and the Element of Honesty. I know that the pink mare is Pinkamena Diane Pie, formerly a rock farmer, and presently the Element of Laughter. I know that this other pink mare is a living homunculus, a magical copy of Twilight Sparkle that was given full life as Dawn.”

Her eyes shifted to Rarity. “And I know you Rarity, Element of Generosity, far better than you might wish I did. I recognized your touch and your blades and who gave them to you. Would that it had been my hoof that struck your blow for you; I would have been less gentle.”

Rarity blinked and looked blankly at her. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“That is a lie, Rarity, but I understand.” Thryssa smiled warmly at her. “You have done me such a kindness, although unknowingly, that I shall speak no further of it.”

The alabaster mare looked warily at her. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

“At the moment, that is for the best.” Thryssa looked between the five mares, chuckling at their various surprised expressions. “Yes, despite the wishes of Celestia, we keep very well-informed about Equestria. It only makes sense; you are just an Everfree Forest away from us.”

“Ye speak about Equestria like it’s a diff’rent place,” Delphine noted. “You don’t consider yourselve part of Celestia’s domain, do ye?”

“No,” Thryssa replied curtly. “If the Sun Princess wants us to acknowledge that she is our ruler, she must rescind her decree keeping us in this desert and accept our queen as her peer and a legitimate member of her court, just as the various nobles that represent major cities of Equestria are. Until then, she can sit on my horn and spin.”

“You don’t have a horn,” Dawn pointed out.

“Don’t bother me with trivialities,” Thryssa retorted waving off the point. “She decrees that we must remain here forever, her dirty little secret hidden away in a hostile desert where no pony cares to go, and then would have us bow to her as our monarch? Perhaps if Luna sat upon the throne as sole ruler, but the day we bow to Celestia is a day I never want to see.”

The bitterness in the princess’ voice practically radiated from every word, enough that Twilight cringed slightly at it. “I… didn’t know…” she said in a small voice.

Thryssa sighed. “From what I know of you, if you had known you’d have taken action or at least satisfied your curiosity by visiting. I admit to being bitter and in my bitterness, I’m being overly cruel. Celestia is not the same pony she was, and perhaps she will soon be the kind of pony who would rescind the decree of thousands of years ago. Until then…” A look of revulsion flitted across her face “…we must take whatever allies we can find.”

“Including that Void dragon?”

“Is that what he’s called…” Thryssa grimaced. “I don’t think even mother wanted his so-called ‘help’ but he came with an offer we couldn’t in good conscience refuse.”

Twilight was about to ask what this offer was when her attention was drawn by the soldiers marching ahead of them respectfully parting ways and from their ranks emerged a black-coated pony with… dragonfly wings? Then she looked harder and realized that despite appearances, it wasn’t any kind of pony she’d ever seen before. Its coat shone with the muted shine of velvet instead of the luminosity of a healthy coat. Its muzzle was slightly more pointed and a pair of fangs just barely peeked out of its upper jaw over its lower lips. Its legs looked like it was made of a solid material instead of living flesh with a pattern of deep pitting and holes covering the leg below the knee. Most noticeably, however, was the jagged horn protruding from its forehead.

The not-pony pulled up short when it saw Twilight looking at it. “Uh-oh,” she said in a chirping, slightly higher voice than Thryssa’s, in similarly perfect equiish. “S… sorry, sis… I didn’t know you were with…” As Thryssa raised a paw and massaged her temples with a pair of claws, the not-pony eeped with Fluttershy-esque skill and looked very embarrassed. “…I did it again, didn’t I?”

“Yes, Tetti… you did it again,” Thryssa sighed. “Maker, Cricket! I’d expect Chidi to space out and forget her guise but not you!”

“I didn’t forget! It was just… um, sort of important and…” She gave what was apparently her sister a wry smile. “OK, I forgot.”

“Yes, yes you did.” Thryssa sighed heavily and looked at Twilight. “I was really, really hoping to approach this issue more gently after we’d established a rapport but this sort of changes things.”

“You’re shapeshifters, aren’t you?” Pinkamena asked.

“My race are known as changelings,” Thryssa said, nodding towards her sister who was twirling a long strand of a luxurious-looking blue mane, done into ponytails with a pair of valuable-looking clasps holding the style in place, around her hoof in clear embarrassment. “And no, despite the fact that we appear to have a chitin exoskeleton and have anisopteran wings, we aren’t insects.”

“It hadn’t occurred to us that you were, darling,” Rarity assured her. “Your blood is as warm and… well, bloody as any pony’s.”

Thryssa chuckled. “Not quite the vote of confidence I hoped for but thank you nonetheless. Here, there is no longer any purpose to the façade.” Her eyes flickered with a green light and emerald fire caught the end of her muzzle and seemed to burn in a line towards her flanks. Her guise rapidly ‘burned’ away in the magical fire, her true form seeming to surge out of her previous, sharp-edged shape. Where Tetti wore no adornments other than her hair clips, Thryssa was clad from head to toe to tail in bronze-colored armor that was composed of hundreds of fine metal scales and a silvery metal helmet that fit around her jagged horn (that looked sharper than Tetti’s) and conformed to the contours of her face.
Her dark aquamarine mane had been braided into a very long and complex-looking style with several sapphire-adorned ornaments in the braid and although she was clad in armor, Twilight could tell that she was distinctly taller than her sister and was built along slimmer and more lithe lines. A pair of large, delicately-veined dragonfly wings fluttered and twitched at her shoulders as she stretched a bit and smiled.

“It’s always a pleasure to go about in my own shape,” she commented, her voice having acquired a slight vibrato which Twilight supposed was due to the change in the shape of her vocal chords. “It feels more free and natural, and I’m very proud of my appearance.”

“I can see why!” Rarity exclaimed. “The bronze brings out your aquamarine mane and eyes beautifully and the sapphires set in silver are just exquisite. I can just see the perfect dress for that build and coloration… mmm… something goldenrod that conforms especially to flanks and… mmm… chest. Ah, if only I could get you to Carousel Boutique…”

“That, Rarity, is the focus of all my mother’s hopes and dreams: to be accepted as a noble in the court of the Dual Thrones and the sole sovereign queen of the eastern deserts and all their peoples,” Thryssa told her, smiling warmly at the praise from the fashionista. “Perhaps one day, changelings and gorgons alike can stroll into your shop and enjoy the attentions of a gifted dressmaker and fashionista.”

Rarity’s eyes practically sparkled at this possibility and Twilight chuckled at her friend’s entranced expression before looking up at the revealed Thryssa. “So what was this bargain you couldn’t refuse?”

“He—his name is apparently Tharalax—offered us the means to unite all of the desert beings under our queen, our mother,” Tetti replied. “And not by violence, which is surprising considering the sadistic qualities of our sometime ally. This means for union came in the form of a pony, and she delivered precisely what Tharalax promised: the beings of these deserts, mutual prisoners of Celestia’s decree, accept the queen of the changelings as their leader and willingly take council with her on matters of state.”

“Unfortunately, he has proven to be precisely what we all knew he would be: traitorous scum who took our consent to his offer as an invitation to use us as his pets and servants,” Thryssa growled, twitching her wings in agitation. “He uses the mare he brought to us as leverage, threatening to remove her again and let our dreams of union and equality wither, which we cannot permit to happen. And so, he can call upon the heir to the Hive Throne, the eldest daughter of Queen Chrysalis the Visionary, Marshal of the Everfree Line, Lady of the Southern Wastes, and arrogantly demand that she gather her personal guard, the most elite soldiers in the Changeling Hive Monarchy, and capture some ponies.” She looked solemnly at Twilight. “I swear that if he had told us before we were committed that he intended for us to seize the daughter of Princess Celestia and four of the six Elements of Harmony, I would have told him to buck himself to the moon.”

“Hive Throne? Changeling Hive Monarchy” Dawn snorted. “Sorta sounds like something bugs would call their monarchy.”

Thryssa treated her to a poisonous look. “First, you may call us ‘insects’ no matter how stupid it would sound but ‘bugs’ is abjectly offensive. Secondly, the title comes from nearly fifty thousand years ago when we changelings did call our monarchy a hive. Thirdly, be silent child and let the adults speak.”

“Child?” Dawn gaped. “I’m Twilight’s twin sister, you fly-winged twit! We’re exactly the same age!”

The changeling blinked. “Really… were you not created almost from scratch a mere six months ago?”

Dawn and Twilight both looked at her with narrowed eyes. “How can you know that? Speaking of such, how can you know all of us so well?”

Thryssa gave them an amused look and lit her horn. A moment later, a perfect doppelganger of the Wonderbolt Spitfire stood before them. “Maybe I’m just observant,” she replied in Spitfire’s voice. Another change and Rarity stood before them. “Or perhaps I’m just that good, darlings.” She returned to her true shape with a small grin. “Changelings, remember?”

“But haven’t you been complaining about…?”

“An agreement negotiated and signed under threat is not morally or legally valid,” Tetti stated. “At the time, the beings that now reside here were under threat of extinction by the hooves of various pony ‘heroes’ and they went to the Princess of the Sun for aid. Her ‘aid’ consisted of a vast prison and a web of lies that would protect us from them and protect them from us.” The smaller princess trotted closer to stand next to her armored sister. “We’ve never regarded the agreement as valid. We haven’t abused it overmuch—a little bit of spying, a little vacationing, purchasing supplies like exceptionally fine apples—but it was always an agreement created under duress and when Celestia put us our of her mind, the force that maintained the agreement was gone.”

“But why did she banish ya in the first place?” Applejack asked. “Y’all look a mite odd but ya could pass for ponies even without the disguise. Why’d ponies want ta kill ya?”

“Who can say?” Terri replied. “When the abuse and murder became bad enough, we gave them a reason but as to why they started? Ponies naturally cluster in herds, as changelings naturally cluster in swarms, and the invariable logic is that if the strongest individual thinks a certain way, that is the way everyone must think. We, naturally, begged the Dual Thrones for relief; the Princess that cared and wanted to help us couldn’t, and the Princess that could help refused.”

“Mother was a different pony back then,” Twilight sighed sadly.

“She was,” Tetti agreed. “But all signs are that the loss of Luna to Nightmare Moon utterly destroyed her, and the trauma was enough to open her eyes to what she was and who she’d become.” She turned and looked directly at her older sister. “Celestia is a different pony than she once was.”

“Perhaps,” Thryssa acknowledged noncommittally.

Tetti rolled her eyes. “And there was a time you wondered why Mother wanted her third-oldest to lead an embassy to the ponies instead of her heir.”

“That time wasn’t very long, you know,” Thryssa pointed out. “You are the brainy one and the hopeless romantic. Excellent qualifications for an ambassador to a former enemy.”

Tetti smirked. “And I have the good manners to show gratitude when the ponies I’m attacking with my personal guard go out of their way to spare their lives.”

“Ah, that was ye?” During the course of most of the conversation with Tetti and Thryssa, Twilight had noticed the two griffin sisters talking quietly out of the corner of her eyes but saying nothing. All seven of them startled a little when Delphine seemingly appeared out of thin air next to Tetti.

“Y... yes, it was me,” Tetti replied after a moment to get over her surprise. “I realize that having a creature walk up and give you a big hug and chitter at you in a foreign language is a bit unsettling…”

“Naw, I could understand ye Princess Tetti,” Delphine smiled. “So happens ye were speaking a dialect of a language I’m fluent in. I was more nervous about the claws than unsettled by the hug. I suppose the chief advantage ta shapeshifting is that ye can assume a form that’s best for combat without having ta put on weapons and armor beforehoof.”

“It is indeed quite helpful in battle,” Thryssa nodded. “And it’s a pleasant form to take because of its feline and dragon aspects.”

“An’ what’s it called?” Elli asked. “We thought it might be a variant of hellehound, called a Ninth hellehound.”

“It’s a shape we engineered ourselves, actually,” Thryssa said. “With all the time we’ve had in the deserts, we decided that there was no reason to confine ourselves just to what we see; we took the opportunity to devise shapes that do not otherwise exist so that ponies who meet us on the borders of this prison will think we’re something other than what we are. We called it a drakkat.”

“But how do you…?”

“When you’ve turned yourself into everything from ponies to diamond dogs to griffins to gorgons, you get an instinctive sense of proper internal anatomy,” Tetti told her. “That, and we could more or less copy our own bodies with slightly different skeletal aspects. Under the supple chitinous shell, we’re barely different than ponies, which was a substantial bonus in the few occasions when pony and changeling fell in love and married: it’s one of the few ‘exotic’ pairings that results in viable offspring, which points to ponies and changelings originating from a common ancestor.”

“Trust you to turn a sexual fetish into a fascinating research subject,” Thryssa grinned.

“Interracial intimacy isn’t a sexual fetish, Riss,” Tetti sighed. “At any rate, Lady Sparkle, we can indeed develop shapes to shift into that don’t mirror the shape of any living being we’re aware of. It requires immense skill and a massive investment of time but the result is well worth it. Without the drakkat form, I dare say that apprehending you and your friends wouldn’t have been possible.”

“Your Majesties?” Both changeling princesses turned to the male-voiced guard who bowed low to them. “We have conveyed word to your mother of your victory, as you ordered, and she replies that she will await you in Maredusa’s grotto that she might personally welcome the prisoners to her kingdom, as befits their station as Elements and royalty.”

Both sisters looked taken-aback by this but Thryssa quickly nodded. “Convey our thanks to our mother and tell her that it shall be a pleasure to see her again after these many months on the Line.”

“I go,” he replied with another bow, disappearing in the direction he’d come.

The changeling sisters looked at one another then at Twilight. “It’s been years since Mother has left the capital,” Tetti said. “You must be far more important than even we understood if the queen of all the eastern deserts is traveling to pay her respects.”

“Yes.” Thryssa suddenly smiled broadly. “This will be a true joy. I’ve missed Mother immensely, little Lepi even more.”

“Sis, it’s been years since anything was ‘little’ about Lepi,” Tetti chuckled. “Lovely and talented mare, and she knows it. Of course, she’s always been your favorite sister.”

“Hey, I’m fond of you too, Cricket,” Thryssaa protested. “You’re more of a peer to me than Lepi is; she’ll always be little Lepi to me.”

“Then sis, I’m going to have the time of my life watching you react to your little Lepi’s latest hobbies,” Tetti informed her with a wicked grin. “C’mon, you seven… Mother will be eager to see you.”

><><><

The rest of the hour passed fairly quickly. Thryssa and Tetti (whom Thryssa occasionally called ‘Cricket’ for some reason) had proven to be very pleasant company, happily answering any questions Twilight had asked of them. The Hive, as they called their monarchy, was a nation of merely two hundred thousand changelings and, very recently, had been expanded to encompass gorgons, a nesting pair of rocs (which Tetti described as gargantuan birds of enormous strength and unstable temperament), dust drakes (wingless dragons that shared Maredusa’s immense tunnel complex), and various other races that had been sent to the eastern deserts by Celestia’s decree over a hundred-year period nearly ten thousand years before. Changeling society was a matriarchy and the title of queen had been passed down from eldest to eldest with Thryssa being the heir apparent to her mother Chrysalis.

Chrysalis, according to her daughters, had earned the title ‘the Visionary’ for undertaking a large society-wide program of education, combat training, mastery of the changelings’ natural shapeshifting, and an initiative that Tetti had headed that sought to develop entirely original shapes for the changelings to use as needed. Her mother’s vision, as Thryssa explained, was to prepare changelings for the day when the decree would be repealed and changelings would join their long-lost pony brothers and sisters as citizens of Equestria and loyal subjects of the Dual Thrones. Neither one was very clear on what had prompted Chrysalis to undertake such an initiative, but the timing that Tetti described sounded like it coincided with the reemergence of the Guardian, which meant that Chrysalis had expected Equestria to be victorious and that the victory would make Celestia willing to free the changelings from their sandy prison.

The pair remained extremely vague and unspecific about the mare that Tharalax had brought with him, and how just one mare had managed to unite so many disparate races under Chrysalis’ rule without violence but it was clear that they regarded this mare with admiration and a touch of affection. About Thryssa’s offhoof comment that the changelings would be willing to submit themselves to Luna’s rule but not Celestia’s, however, the changeling princesses had quite a bit to say but the explanation had barely begun when they arrived in the grotto that Maredusa had mentioned.

When Maredusa had referred to her ‘grotto’, Twilight had been expecting a large cavern since the gorgon had clearly expected that it could accommodate the entire changeling army that had gone to fetch them. The grotto, however, was more akin to an underground mansion: polished stone floors, soaring ceilings with eye-popping architectural features, lines carefully carved to make the walls look like they were made of stone and mortar, benches, tables, windowsills inlaid with gold and intricate jewelwork, fountains, statues of hundreds of different beings…

“Amazing!” Rarity declared breathlessly. “This must have taken…”

“Centuriess,” Maredusa said as she slithered over, smiling. “Welcome to my home Lady Ssparkle, Princessess Thryssssa and Tetti, companionss of the aforementioned. I’ve laid out ass large a rapasst ass I had ssuppliess for, in honor of your coming and of the vissit of Queen Chrysaliss. You may even get to meet my daughter, Mara Belle, if she returnss from her travelss in the north in time.”

“Taking us into your home is a kindness unlooked-for, Maredusa,” Tetti said, bowing to her. “And it is a breathtaking home indeed, almost a palace. I look forward to the day when it will be filled with your progeny, and receive state visits from nobles far and wide.”

“I look forward to it ass well,” Maredusa agreed. “Though if the only noble that ever came wass Luna, I would conssider that to be ass good as a thoussand lesser royalss; ssuch loving regard ass sshe sshowed me when I was in deepesst distresss sshowed a goodnesss of ssoul full worthy of my eternal gratitude and loyalty, whether sshe wass Luna or Nightmare Moon.”

“If you could choose, which would you rather have?” Thryssa, Tetti, and Maredusa immediately turned and dropped into low bows in the direction of the changeling mare that had appeared through one of the doorways; deciding that it was the better part of valor, Twilight did the same.

The action evoked an laugh of almost musical resonance. “You honor me but please, rise; I would rather have my daughters’ embraces now than all the obsequeence in the world.”

Twilight raised her head in time to see both Tetti and Thryssa almost leap into the embrace of the changeling queen with small chirps of happiness. Chrysalis smiled broadly and closed her eyes contentedly, nuzzling each mare in turn. “Oh my daughters, my precious children… your mother’s heart has ached with worry for you ever since you embarked on that creature’s errand. To see you well is all I could ask of the Maker for all the rest of my days.”

“I should hope you would honor our memory by fulfilling your vision if the worst happened,” Thryssa chided, although her heart wasn’t in the rebuke.

“I would, but it would be as painful as if my heart had been torn from my breast,” Chrysalis said in turn, nuzzling both daughters again before they stepped away and to either side of her, giving Twilight her first clear look at the queen of the Changeling Hive Monarchy. Chrysalis was tall and lithe like her eldest daughter, at least as tall as Celestia if not just a bit taller. Instead of a jagged horn, hers was a graceful twisted loop and the pitted appearance of the typical lower legs of a changeling (which Tetti explained as an adaptation to how heavy their bodies’ dense chitin was) had been delicately shaped and smoothed into a series of entrancing, looping designs. Atop the mare’s head was a black crown, very jagged and sharp in appearance, that looked like it had been shaped out of changeling chitin instead of metal. A thick, luxurious aquamarine mane spilled over the queen’s gracefully long neck and cascaded down her shoulder, secured in place with a few artfully-placed silver jewel combs. Chrysalis’ eyes were neither the intense gold of her eldest or the gold-streaked blue of her third but an intense emerald green that flickered and smoldered with magic, more than hinting at the fact that like the elder monarch of Equestria, Chrysalis was a pony of great power.

Where Celestia went about in a simple golden breastplate, Chrysalis was adorned in a resplendent robe that Twilight could immediately tell was the most expensive silk, a deep royal violet to compliment her luminous carapace and trimmed with, based on Rarity’s appreciative intake of breath, real fur. Around her neck was a heart-shaped fire ruby that smoldered and flickered as if there was an actual fire burning within, all secured in a golden setting that had intricate writing around the rim, large enough that Twilight could tell that it would be legible at close inspection, but tiny enough that she couldn’t read it. The combination of her adornments and physical features made Chrysalis easily on par with Celestia for regal presence and beauty.

“Lady Twilight Sparkle,” Chrysalis said, inclining her head respectfully. “Firstborn of Celestia, savior of Luna, jailer of Discord, slayer of the Guardian…” those magic-flecked eyes twinkled “Ponyville town librarian.”

“Good evening, Queen Chrysalis,” Twilight replied, bowing to the changeling queen in turn. “I wish the circumstances of meeting you were a bit better, but it’s nice to meet you anyway.”

Chrysalis laughed softly. “Yes, it would be better if you came of your own will, but it wouldn’t have been quick enough for my vizier and ally.”

“Your daughters mentioned her.” Twilight gave the queen a curious look. “I just can’t think of what pony would be powerful enough to do what they say without any violence at all.”

“I disagree,” Chrysalis replied, grinning widely. “For you know her.”

“I… I do?”

“You do.” Chrysalis turned her head. “Empress?”

From a doorway near the one through which Chrysalis had entered, a luminous black mist flowed and gathered into a tall, elegant black-coated form that Twilight (and, judging by the gasps from behind her, her friends) knew all too well. Draconic turquoise eyes looked over the assembly and locked on Twilight’s, eyes going wide with amazement and… happiness? “…Twilight…?”

Twilight swallowed and stared at that black-coated form, those broad wings, the blue-silver armor that seemed almost a part of the all-too-familiar alicorn’s body. A body she had once shared with Luna… and Twilight was sure had been permanently surrendered after the battle with the Guardian, making the (supposedly) dead female the last casualty of that horrible battle. A name came to her lips almost unbidden, gasped out in a voice just barely louder than a whisper. “…NIGHTMARE?”

Author's Note:

Yeah, I'm a big fan of Chrysalis and changelings, why are you looking at me all funny?

If I could remember who the author was that wrote this awesome comprehensive guide on mythological creatures in Equestria (with power ratings!), I'd totally credit them here for giving me Maredusa and Mara Bell. If anyone knows who they are, tell me so I can give them a shout-out.

Just random, useless, fun information:
Lepi is taken from the genus of butterflies.
Chidi (pronounced like "kitty") is taken from the insect genus cicadas.
Tetti is taken from the genus for bush crickets.

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