Chapter 11 - The Queen Falls
For Whom the Twilight Falls
Chapter 11 - The Queen Falls
Horns blared, startling the group.
Then they watched as dozens of ponies and other creatures started throwing open their doors, draconequui appearing out of thin air, their faces set in a grim look as they prepared whatever they had to throw at the changeling army.
“Ready the defenses!” a voice roared from the sky. Celestia’s head immediately twisted to look up, and she saw a grizzled pegasus, a scar running down his milky left eye hovering there. “Ponyville, ready your monster defenses!”
Monster…defenses?
Feeler’s eyes widened. “Of course! How could I have forgotten! Ponyville has their defenses against the Everfree Forest’s monsters, they have protocols for attacks ever since that hydra attack two decades ago!”
The sky flashed with lightning, pegasi pushing dozens of dark clouds over.
“Princess Sunset!” The grizzled pegasus called from the skies. “Get inside! Ponyville will not fall to the changelings — We are prepared to fight! Miss Solaris, Miss Solaris, Princess Chrysalis, we will need you to fight!”
Chrysalis blanched. “Fight? Y-you would trust me?”
The pegasus landed down beside them, his eyes still staring at the changeling horde on their way. “We will take everything we can get right now.” He said firmly. “Trust is not an issue. Not now, after your display of setting up a new hive. Ponyville isn’t strong enough to face the insane alicorn. But we can hold our own against a horde of changelings.”
Sunset frowned as she looked at his blind eye. “Wait. Are you…” Her eyes widened in realization. “Lieutenant Flash Magnus.”
The pegasus bowed deeply before Sunset. “Princess. You still remember me.”
“How could I not?” Sunset replied. “You were part of my honor guard for three decades before your retirement! I had no idea you retired to Ponyville!”
His face betrayed a hint of amusement. “It seemed like a quiet enough place. What I didn’t expect was them turning to me for my expertise in fighting the monsters from the Everfree Forest. I was happy enough to oblige. With me, we’ve pushed away the monsters for the last two decades.”
“And you’re still alive,” Sunset marveled. “I suppose the scar is from one of the monsters?”
“The hydra, aye. We should find another time to catch up,” he grinned. “Now, we have to repel the invaders.”
“I won’t get in your way,” Sunset confirmed. “I would be useless, anyways.”
“Don’t say that, Princess,” Flash chided. “It wasn’t your fault. Anyways…it’s time I do what I do best. Improvise.”
He turned to the rest of them. “Miss Solaris,” he addressed Luna. “The unicorns will cast a barrier together, but I suspect your talents can be used somewhere else. As with your sister. I would ask that you join the respective groups, but both of you are taught by the best. We’ll need you to run point, help out wherever you can.”
Luna nodded. “I can run disguise dispelling spells. That’ll at least deny the changelings from shifting into your friends.”
“I can run point with Luna,” Celestia added. “Support her as she does her magic thing.”
“I’ll get my changelings to help wherever they can,” Chrysalis said softly. “They’ll be loathe to fight their old friends, so they’ll probably run assistance.”
A nod from Flash. “Good. The draconequui will be causing chaos, so you better stay out of their way when it starts raining chocolate and cotton candy.”
A laugh from Celestia. “I wouldn’t expect otherwise!”
“For now…” Flash flapped his wings, ascending into the skies. “Let’s hope fortune favors the bold today. Because if we defeat the changelings…you know who comes next.”
Nobody said a thing at that, but they knew.
Midnight Sparkle.
Pharynx’s wings beat at the air as the changeling army flew towards Ponyville.
“General?” Stinger was there by his side. “You look perturbed.”
“I am worried for the Queen,” Pharynx cast his gaze to Stinger. “If we go ahead with her orders…she’ll die.”
“Well, it’s a good thing our new Queen is already building a new hivemind, right?” Stinger gave a wry smile. “Where’s your brother?”
“He’s coordinating the evacuation of the hive,” Pharynx said softly. “The nymphs and mothers will need to blend into pony society. Once Midnight discovers our treachery, we’re all dead.”
Stinger nodded. “Thorax is a good coordinator. He’ll make a good future advisor to our new Queen.”
Pharynx sighed, before looking up at the sky. “Fuck.”
Stinger looked at him with concern. “Are you okay, General? I’ve not heard you swear…in forever.”
“We’re losing Queen Arach,” the skin around his eyes were tight. “No matter what we do, she dies. But we cannot disobey our Queen, can we?”
“No,” Stinger stared at the town in the distance. “Does she have a final message?”
Pharynx’s eyes grew distant. “Just one. For our new Queen.”
“Listen to me closely, Pharynx,” Arach’s voice was laboured, in pain. Pharynx knelt before his chained Queen, his eyes regretful. “I…will not be around for much longer. Not if we are to defeat her.”
“My Queen,” Pharynx said softly. “I await your orders.”
“As of today…I abdicate my throne to my daughter,” Arach whispered as she slumped in her chains. “Arach shall no longer be Queen. All…hail…Queen Chrysalis.”
Pharynx’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”
“I only folded in to her because she threatened Chrysalis,” Arach voice was wracked with pain from the injuries Midnight had inflicted on her. “And when she returned, she made a fatal mistake. She left Chrysalis somewhere she could not reach immediately. My final orders are such. Evacuate the hive. Send our army to Ponyville, you will be in command.”
“My Queen-!”
“Quiet, Pharynx,” Arach’s voice found some strength. “I have taken on our changelings’ pain for the good of our kind. I have taken all her punishments for every mistake our kind made against her because we need to survive. I have been Queen for decades. It is time for a new age. One that my daughter will usher in.”
Pharynx nodded slowly.
“Send my sister…” Arach’s whispered. “Send my sister, Carapace, to Dragon Lord Ember. Ask, no, plead for her help. Without the dragons…we will all fall before Midnight. I have seen her might. Send…send Hexa to the yaks. The kirins…send Actias. The centaurs…”
She coughed, spitting green blood on the floor.
“My Queen!” Pharynx rose from his kneeling position, determined to help her, but Arach raised a hoof to stop him.
“Send Aethina to the centaurs,” she breathed. “Lena to the batponies. Promachus to the hippogriffs. We’ll need their aid to defeat Midnight.”
“I…hear and obey, my Queen,” Pharynx whispered. “Do you have anything more?”
“Just a message for Chrysalis,” she whispered. “Tell her…tell her even if I never got to say this one final time to her face…Be strong, my daughter. You have exceeded my expectations in everything. You will have to tread your path without me now. Be strong. I love you, Chrysalis.”
Pharynx shed a tear. “The message will reach my cousin, my Queen. You have my word.”
“Now go,” she commanded. “Go. And don’t turn back.”
Pharynx nodded, then turned to leave the room.
He looked back once at his Queen hanging in the jet black chains.
And then cursed Midnight with all his being.
Chrysalis was on top of the Town Hall, watching as her brethren neared Ponyville.
“Let me talk to them first,” Chrysalis urged Flash. “I’m sure I can work something out.”
“Chryssy, that’s a bad idea,” Luna warned. “Midnight commands them.”
“Let her try,” Flash said as he stared up at the horde. “If she can stop the bloody battle that’s about to come, I’m willing to give it a shot. Seen myself my fair share already. I would like to avoid more bloodshed.”
Celestia glared at him. “But what if they attack Chryssy?”
“The princess ever teach you the recall spell?” Flash grunted as he unsheathed his sword, keeping it at the ready. “Use that.”
Luna blinked. “Right! The recall spell! Um, Chryssy, this might feel a little weird.”
“What’s going to feel weird—” Luna’s horn lit, and there was a tingling sensation down Chrysalis’s spine. “Ah.”
“It’s a tether,” Luna explained. “At any given moment, I can pull, and you’ll pop right back to wherever I set the other tether. Right now, that tether is me, so you’ll appear right next to me.”
“Useful,” Chrysalis mumbled. “Celestia, could you come with me?”
“Of course,” Celestia grinned. “What sort of friend would I be if I didn’t? Gonna need that recall spell, though.”
“No need,” Luna replied. “Just put a hoof on Chrysalis. I can’t manage two at once, it strains my mind if I do.”
“Gotcha,” Celestia smiled at Chrysalis. “Ready, Chryssy?”
Chrysalis steeled herself. “Ready as I’ll ever be. Wait! Doesn’t Celestia need some armor or something? Just in case?”
“Don’t have those,” Flash grunted. “If you can’t tell, we’re a farming town. Defenses on a basic level is already above and beyond the usual.”
“Besides,” Celestia smirked as Philomena landed on her outstretched hoof. “I don’t need armor. Radiant taught me some…very useful magic tricks with phoenixes.”
“Say what—” Chrysalis gawked as Philomena was set aflame, and a line of fire ran down Celestia, making it look like she was on fire for a moment. The flame dissipated just as quick as it had appeared, but now Celestia had an outline of orange on her fur.
“The flames of a phoenix are incredibly useful,” Celestia explained. “They have a lot of uses, if you know how to tap into their potential. Only problem? Barely any let themselves be tamed or befriended. Philomena and Radiant are the exceptions.”
“I see,” Chrysalis grinned. “Well, let’s go. I trust you to watch my back, Tia.”
“Hey, Lulu, she said it!” Celestia smirked. “You owe me ten bits later!”
Luna groaned. “Oh, c’mon!”
Chrysalis stared at the two. “You made a bet…on me calling Celestia by her nickname?”
Luna shrugged. “We bet on everything.”
Chrysalis stared at them for a moment, then looked up. “They’ve stopped. Is that…a flag of parley?”
“A white flag, yes,” Flash noted. “That’s interesting.”
Chrysalis steeled herself again, and nodded. She flapped her wings, then buzzed upwards, with Celestia right behind her.
“Cousin!” she called out. “I know you’re there! Talk to me!”
She hovered a little distance away from the changeling horde, waiting for a response.
Then a purple-black changeling made his way to the front of the horde, and his eyes bored into Chrysalis.
“Cousin,” he said softly. “I have not heard you call me that in years, Chrysalis.”
“Pharynx,” Chrysalis replied back. “How are you doing?”
“Well enough as can be,” he said, staring at her. “I’ve been made General, as you could probably tell.”
“Yes,” Chrysalis said carefully. “You have been, yes.”
“Can we talk on the ground?” Pharynx asked, glancing at the crowd surrounding them below, before gazing at the pegasi on the storm clouds, ready to fry him at the first notice.
Chrysalis paused. “Is that so you can wipe them out faster?”
“No,” Pharynx promised. “If it makes you feel better, only Stinger and I will come down to the ground. My right as General, and hers as Deputy.”
A small nod from Celestia, and Chrysalis relaxed. “Okay. We can do that.”
Pharynx barked an order, and a green-black changeling made herself known.
With Stinger and Pharynx, they landed back down on the top of the Town Hall, Flash glaring at Stinger and Pharynx.
“This has to be a trick,” he said. “There’s no way you’re asking for a parley.”
“No tricks,” Pharynx promised. “Just…protocol.”
He sighed heavily. “I have news, Chrysalis. News from the old Queen.”
Chrysalis frowned. “Old Queen? You mean Grandmother? But isn’t she dead?”
“No, Chrysalis. Your mother. Old Queen Arach.” Stinger said softly.
Chrysalis’s brain took a few moments to buffer. “Wait. You mean…?”
Pharynx and Stinger both knelt before Chrysalis. “Your mother abdicated, Queen Chrysalis,” Pharynx said hoarsely. “You are our Queen now.”
Chrysalis blinked.
They were telling the truth.
As Pharynx and Stinger knelt, the changeling army all dipped their heads in the skies, their horns alit.
“We pledge our allegiance to you, Queen Chrysalis,” Stinger said respectfully. “We pledge our loyalty, our lives, all to your new hive. If you would accept us.”
“W-what?” Chrysalis stammered. “Accept you? Of course I would! B-but why did Mother-”
Pharynx lay his head against hers, their horns touching.
And then her mind expanded.
Chrysalis could feel her small hivemind expanding as hundreds more joined her command, along with the bright mind of Pharynx at the forefront.
Celestia looked at Chrysalis with concern as she fell to her knees too, her eyes widened.
Hundreds of voices, all chittering to her.
And with one sentence repeated over and over.
Hail Queen Chrysalis.
“Your mother had a message for you,” Pharynx said. “I’ll give it to you once we’re in a more private setting—”
There was a shout from the gathered pony crowd, and Chrysalis’s mind started buzzing with the changelings all saying something.
“Tia,” she whispered and pointed upwards, in the opposite direction of the changeling horde. “Look.”
All of them looked at where Chrysalis was pointing.
Dragons.
A dozen or so of them, with two at the forefront that stood out due to their size. One of them was holding a scepter in her claws.
“Dragon Lord Ember,” Celestia breathed. “That’s…Dragon Lord Ember.”
A flapping of wings, and Flurry landed right next to them.
Her eyes locked on the largest dragon, a purple one with green scales running down his back.
“Spike?” Flurry whispered.
Arach blinked as she felt her hivemind dissolve.
One by one, they all disappeared, leaving to join another.
She smiled.
“Long live…Queen Chrysalis,” she rasped. “And may her reign be long and prosperous. My daughter…will be safe.”
The door was blown open.
“YOU DARE?!” The voice of Midnight roared as her magic wrapped around Arach, dragging her upwards. The chains broke under the pressure as Midnight dragged Arach towards her, and they cut into Arach, causing more green blood to splatter on the floor.
“YOU DARE?!” Midnight spat in her face. “You dare betray your Queen?”
Arach gave a rasping laugh. “You’re not my Queen. Not anymore. You’re not Princess Twilight. Now…my Queen…is Queen Chrysalis.”
“Your daughter,” Midnight hissed. “I should have killed her.”
“And if you had done that,” Arach said shakily. “You would have lost your leverage. As you had when you left her someplace you could not touch immediately.”
A bellow of anger as Midnight slammed her into the wall with her magic.
Arach felt her ribs crack.
“I said,” Midnight dragged her upwards again, looking at Arach’s bloodied and battered body. “If you ever betrayed me, or any of your changelings did, I would kill all of you. Starting with you. I gave your kind a chance to redeem yourselves after the new hive was formed. To wipe them out.”
Arach coughed. “Y-you could…never understand. Princess Twilight…did. Y-you could…never. You…have f-failed. M-my plan,” she laughed, her voice breaking up. “Has w-worked. Y-you…lose.”
“Then you shall die,” Midnight had composed herself. “And all of you will fall beneath my blade. I suppose I shall have to turn to the batponies for my new army, now. A pity. The changelings had so much potential.”
“No one…” another cough. “Will follow you. Y-you…are insane.”
“Insane I may be,” Midnight whispered into Arach’s ear. “But I am still the most powerful being in Equestria right now. Scream for me. Scream, because I promise you will not go quickly.”
And the last thing Arach saw was Midnight’s blade rising into the air, before it sung down, slashing across her vision.
Arach screamed as her vision was taken, her eyes gone.
I’m sorry, Chrysalis. I’m sorry. Sorry I never got to tell you one last time that I loved you.
Even if she’d never know.
Then as Midnight began her work, Arach screamed again.
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Damm Mightnight has such less mercy...itˋs Terrifying. Well done.
Luckily I see Twilight as a pure soul so I can rest in peace tonight. But thats still one heck of a Story
Great chapter
Hmm, Arach called to the leader of the bat ponies, yet Midnight is going to try to use them for her army. Well even if the bat ponies ally with Midnight, there are, what, four or five other creature groups?
Oh wow...Arach used her final moments in power, her final moments alive, to set up her daughter's success... she may be the smartest creature in this story so far. Also the fact that we're getting all the different species right from the start is great! Plus, I'm glad to find out Thorax is safe, helping the others evacuate. Long live Queen Chrysalis, though I do feel bad for her having to find out about her mother's death right before a large battle is about to begin
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meanwhile me trying to keep track of everything
help me this is hard
Now I have to write Spike and Ember too ☠
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Been there. You can do it, I believe in you!
Well, Midnight is... Completely insane. Who would be insane enough to follow her?
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You said it yourself, pal.
I have to say while NightmareMoon might have inevitably killed everyone. Her region was far less brutal. Midnight Sparkle is far more of a tyrannical dictator
well.... uhm...... lets hope they can turn Twilight back before she goes completely bat-shit crazy
Dragons!
Well...Midnight is doomed.
Truly heart-rending. Chrysalis has some very big shoes to fill. But hey, at least Midnight doesn’t seem to have noticed Arach’s other gambit. The world stands united against a single alicorn. The question is whether it will be enough.
well i feel bad for not liking Arach at first.