In the ruins of an old castle
In the ruins of an old castle, green and purple sparks accompanied by the growing and shrill sounds of battle illuminate and burn the floor and walls of what appears to be an infinite corridor.
Fast galloping through the dusty hallway were Queen Chrysalis and Princess Twilight Sparkle, destroying all types of decoration, from paintings of barely visible images belonging to faces, moments or places from the distant past, to rusted armor whose pieces scatter on the floor or melt at the contact of the arcane forces being shot from their respective horns; competing in what was became a deadly race to get their hooves on the mythical artifact hidden within that lair.
Not many days ago, news spread of the archaeological discovery of the century. In the south west of Equestria, near the shores of the San Palomino Desert, in the South Luna Ocean, a floating island had appeared out of nowhere. And buried beneath one of its mountains lay the remains of the fortress of Saint Ashtray the Grey, a mysterious master of the magical arts about whom there is little information to be found. Of his existence it is not even known what type of creature he was, but if we go by what the vast majority of posts made by ponies tend to do, there is no doubt that it was a pony. What is known about him, or at least what all the records that mention him do, is that among his vast collection of artifacts, none was more precious than a magical gem only known as ‘The Black Heart’.
Publicizing the latter might have been a mistake on the part of Freedom Press, the reporter pony that got the scoop, not least because it ended up causing a massive stampede of fame-seeking explorers and fortune-seeking treasure hunters, but because the news also reached the ears of the one and only Changeling Queen.
How dangerous this knowledge might be? Well, The Black Heart was described as an hexagonal black gem with the ability to indefinitely enhance the magical abilities of whoever possesses it, allowing an earth pony the durability of an army and enough strength to lift mountains and create earthquakes with their bare hooves, a pegasus an unprecedented flight speed and the ability to create and destroy huge storms with the flap of its wings, and if of a unicorn were speaking, magical powers capable of rivaling or even surpass those of the alicorns.
And if this could be applied to a changeling, and especially to the Changeling Queen herself, this could represent not only a considerable increase in her magical potential; but also could mean that her hypnotic powers should allow her to take control of hundreds, thousands of creatures simultaneously, creating the most faithful army of all time; and consume the emotions of a town or even a city without difficulty; or in other words, make Chrysalis the most powerful creature in the entire world.
It is truly strange that creatures of a distant past could create artifacts of unimaginable magical power, while unicorns of the present, with greater access to well-documented arcane knowledge, have trouble with spells more complex than telekinesis or teleportation; one could muse, but that is neither from here or there.
Back in the present, running neck to neck, Chrysalis swings her body in Twilight’s direction, trying to crush her against the wall. Sweating with fear like she hadn’t done since the time Rainbow Dash made her life’s mission to teach her how to properly use her new wings to fly, the Alicorn Princess realizes her enemy’s intentions in time. Thinking as fast as possible, Twilight concentrates some of the last remnants of magical energy she has left, managing to avoid the tackle using a quick teleportation spell, disappearing from the Queen’s path at the last second.
Chrysalis scream in rage and pain as the self inflicted collision just cost one of her insect wings to bend and broke.
Panting, Twilight reappears back in her place, still running, now taking the lead, but any sign of premature celebration was cut short when a bolt of magical green energy manages to hit her left wing, burning off some of it’s feathers.
Considering that taking the lead may not have been a good idea, Twilight worryingly risk a look back, and while she could see that the flames on her pursuer’s horn sparked and flickered, signaling a similar magical exhaustion on her part, and that she should not fear any more magical bolts, it meant little comfort when said pursuer was a rapidly approaching black armored juggernaut filled with murderous intent, called Chrysalis.
Memories of a long-forgotten nightmare resurfaced in those moments. The one in which her older brother, Shining Armor, convinces her parents to take her to the tryouts for the Canterlot High School Hoofball Team instead of enrolling her in Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.
In a similar manner to how that nightmare always ended, the Changeling Queen successfully catch up to her, ramming her against the stone wall.
Passing through the wall, they both tumble and roll through the hard, cold and dusty floor of the dark room they were now in. Twilight growls, rubbing her head with one hoof, while with the other looks for possible damage to her barrel, finding some bruises, but nothing seemed to be broken (thanks Celestia for that earth pony sturdiness gained with the ascension to alicornhood), and except for her burned wing, the rest of her body was intact. Chrysalis simply coughs up a cloud of dust, shaking her head to clear the dizziness from the impact and some old cobwebs that stick to her face.
Torch holders suddenly came to life, illuminating the place, revealing it to be a secret chamber, or rather, an entombed throne room.
Before any of them could figure out what was happening, a peculiar glow in the distance hits them in the eyes, catching their attention. Like moths to a bright flame, both place their gaze on the origin of this light. At the end of the room, there is a throne, on the throne lie the remains of who one can guess was Saint Ashtray the Gray, and on the head of that puppet of bones that are held in place by ancient silk threads, embedded in a white turban was The Black Heart, a jewel barely bigger than an average pony hoof, radiating power and extremely tempting.
Wasting only the time to exchange glances, both mares desperately rush out to claim possession of the artifact.
Near the last stretch the sound of a stone tile slowly descending was heard, a sudden rumbling was felt, a hidden trap had been activated. The walls crumble behind them as bits of rock and rubble begin to rain from the top, starting with the smallest of pebbles before larger chunks of the ceiling began to fell around. The columns that support the chamber fall, cracks begin to appear all over its surface, expanding across the ground.
Finally, just a couple of steps before eather of them can put their hoofs on the artifact and claim it as her’s own, the floor gives way. With a last-ditch jump and the fractured buzz of translucent wings and the uneven flapping of scorched feathered ones, pony, changeling and artifact are swallowed by the darkness below, with the rest of the collapsing chamber.
Blinking slowly, Twilight wakes up in pain and surrounded by darkness. After a few seconds of confusion, wondering why her bed was suddenly so cold and hard, the memories of what happened come back, the lair, Chrysalis, the race, the tomb room, ‘The Black Heart’ and the fall. She immediately stand up, with the adrenaline pumped through her body helping her with the symptoms of nausea and dizziness and easing the pains all over her.
Using her last remnants of reserve magic, Twilight uses her horn to illuminate the surroundings with a magenta light. It was some sort of underground plain, or it would be a plain if it were not for the rocks and debris from the collapsed room above scattered all over the place.
Before she could carefully analyze her situation any further, specifically where exactly was she, Chrysalis burst out of the darkness in front of her; quick reflexes saved her snout from being bitten off by scary sharp teeth.
They fight, but with a greater difficulty than what happened at the top. The Princess’s movements were clumsy and slow, surely hampered by the fatigue and damage already suffered, but so were those of the Queen, who does not seem to be in better condition, with cracks and cuts across her chitin, with dried green blood to accompany the wounds.
The thought of using an offensive spell crossed Twilight’s mind, but she quickly dismisses the idea as it was already an exhausting task to keep the light on on her horn, and knowing that being without her horn’s light would mean death against the Changeling Queen and her eyes better suited to see in the dark.
If she wanted to get out of this situation alive (and she fully intended to do so), this was the time to use what for her was her best and greatest tools: her intelligence and reason. Hoping against hope they would work with Chrysalis.
Looking at Chrysalis square in the eyes, at the murderous look and unsuppressed fury pouring from them, Twilight spoke:
“You know you don’t need to do this, right?”
“While I do appreciate your confidence in my abilities, I think I would need to get rid at least of you and your friends in order to take over the world and reclaim what was stolen from me!”
That was good, I mean, not the part in which Chrysalis seem to be sarcastically appreciative of an apparent support, nor the part in which she threaten to kill her and her friends, but the fact that the Queen had open up the door to conversation.
“The reality is that no one took anything from you,” Twilight responds, ignoring the Queen’s megalomania comments, choosing to focus on what was important to present for her argument.
“Back in the hive, we offered you forgiveness and friendship. It was your choice to flee and continue on a lone path of violence and vengeance.”
Twilight decided to leave out the fact that if they had wanted to, they could have captured her and she would be in a dungeon either way, or, had she accepted friendship, the reprimands and reparations that would have occurred; after all, the road to redemption is full of those; the Queen’s pride do not needed to be hurt nor her mental state to be burdened with the minutiaes of reformation.
“Yes, you would have liked that, wouldn’t you? Force me to disfigure myself in body and mind, to ‘Reform’.” Queen Chrysalis spew that word with so much hatred and disgust and what was most definitely real venom out of her mouth. “To become something different, something less changeling and more pony-like”.
“That is not true!” Twilight exclaimed with greater confidence and certainty. “Thorax’s transformation was the result of a stressful situation and that of the rest of the changelings was just them following his example.” Here Twilight had to rein over herself and not let her emotions do the talking, avoiding clarifying that said “stressful situation” was Chrysalis trying to kill him by stealing all of his love, pushing Thorax to share it.
“But before all that, he was living perfectly well, feeding on the love that was freely given to him by his friends.”
Once again, Twilight had to push and contain deep within her desires to nerd out and begin to debate the existence of posible changes in the changelings’ psyche caused as a result of the reformation metamorphosis, and how as of now, with Queen Chrysalis as the only unreformed changeling in existence, she was an invaluable source of information on the matter, both as an individual and as a potential test subject.
“And that is what I propose to you, that you can live your life in peace, with us, without the need to change, transform or even go through the metamorphosis if you don’t want to. It is true that to start anew, to not be enemies, to be allies if not friends, you would have to stop kidnapping ponies and not try to get what you want through means of force and fear. You know, reduce evilness perhaps a tad below what’s socially acceptable?”, concluded Twilight, panting.
To Twilight’s disbelief, Chrysalis sheathes her fangs and raises her head, but does not take her eyes from Twilight’s.
“Are you sure what you’re talking about?” The Queen finally asked after a tense moment of silence.
“I’m 100% sure,” assures the Princess of Friendship with courage and confidence, only to shrink a little below the skeptical gaze of the Changeling Queen. “Well, actually, maybe only 99.999% sure.”
“And for this I would only need to not kidnap more ponies...”
“Any creature!” Twilight quickly amended, remembering that she was now responsible for more than just the ponies.
“Fine! Any creature!” growled the Queen, annoyed; hard to say if it was because she felt offended that the pony thought it was necessary to clarify, or because it really was necessary to clarify.
“And you must be diplomatic in dealing with others. No more attempts to force anyone to do your will through threats and violence.”
“And if I accept these terms, do you guarantee that I will receive the love I need to quench my hunger?”
“What I’m telling you is that if you act more... Amicable,” Twilight said, feeling like she was walking on eggshells, trying to avoid using the F-word more than necessary, not wanting to trigger Chrysalis into another fit of rage. “You will no longer need to resort to lies and subterfuge to get the love you need to live. Have you ever wondered what it would be to live without the need to hide who you are to be loved and not have to run away all the time?”
At those words, Chrysalis twitched her eyes and frowned. Twilight swallowed the hardest lump of saliva, thinking for a moment that with that question she had crossed some of the Queen’s boundaries, and that she had surely ruined the last chance to achieve peace between ponykind and her.
That is when Chrysalis spoke: “Fine! I agreed to give you a chance to try this crazy idea of yours. But I warn you, if I don’t feel satisfied with the promised love, or if just a little color starts to contaminate my black carapace, If the holes in my hoofs disappear or I feel like I’m glowing in a funny way, I’ll end your little experiment and go back to my tried and trusted changelings ways of doing things. Do we have a deal?”
“I promise that nothing bad will happen to you and that you will not regret giving us this opportunity. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” Twilight hummed, making some strange movements, ending up poking an eye with one of her hoofs.
Chrysalis looked at her with an expression of confusion and mild disgust.
“He, he, he”, Twilight laughed, her cheeks turning red in embarrassment. “This is how my friends and I make sure we keep what we promise.”
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Very interesting start. Chrysalis accepted Twilight deal maybe a bit to easily for my taste, I hope that her reasoning gets expanded on in the future.
The reformed changeling look never sit well with me, so I like the conditions set by Chrysalis.
Looking forward to more chapters.
due to the absence of the “alternate universe” tag, you get the feeling that before you even start reading the story you already know how it will end and the plot will go according to the canon, depriving Chrysalis of a happy ending
11724656
And more chapters are on the way!
Thank you (thank you all) for reading, and I hope that you and everyone who gives my story a chance, enjoys it!
11724657
I considered using that tag, but from the description of the tag itself, I think my story doesn't need it.
What does this mean? Well, you'll have to read the whole story to find out.
i am bit concern this story will she able to change or be like thorax cause those season 6 already ruined the original changeling i cannot allow them to ruined her look she is fine the way she is
11724755
usually stories without this tag try very hard not to contradict the series and adapt to it. Therefore, whatever happens in these stories, the ending is most likely known in advance.
The first chapter seems a little intriguing (although the transition from violent confrontation to calm conversation seems a little faster than it should be.), but if the end of the story ends with Chrysalis alone in the forest discussing revenge plans with logs, then I will be disappointed.