• Published 1st Jan 2013
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White on Black - TheSexyMenhir



“You are hereby invited to the wedding of her royal majesty Princess Celestia of Equestria.” Twilight is stunned when she receives this message, especialy since she didn't know that Princess Celestia had been seeing anypony...

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Captive (once again)

White on Black
Ch.10 “Captive (once again)”

“We need to talk,” Twilight's voice echoed through the empty dining hall.

She was painfully aware, that once again she had to stand up to the one person she had always wanted to make proud.

Celestia seemingly shook the shock from running into this little impromptu interrogation and entered the room, closely followed by Chrysalis. The changeling queen looked slightly amused by the situation, something that couldn’t be said about Celestia, who looked worried.

“Has anything happened? Do we need to cancel the wedding?” she finally voiced her concerns.

“No, at least I hope we don’t,” Twilight replied, “but it seems that you have been hiding some important details from us.”

Celestia’s mimic changed from worry to confusion in a matter of seconds. She shared a look with her fiance, but Chrysalis seemed just as clueless as she was. Before she could even think about asking any questions, Twilight spoke up again: “We need to know what you and Chrysalis are doing in your bedroom at night.”

Hiding a rather fierce blush, the solar empress turned towards her protege and said, “I don’t think that what we do at night isn’t really important for anypony but us.”

“Uhm Twilight darling, you might want to rephrase that,” Rarity whispered to her oblivious friend.

“What? NO! I don’t mean... argh! I just want to know about the magical ritual!” Twilight finally managed to stutter out.

The suppressed giggles and snorts that had filled the room after the purple Unicorns faux pas, immediately died down as the gathered ponies saw the look on Celestia's face.

“Who told you about that?!” Celestia asked, breathing heavily. Her demeanor was a far cry from the full blown rage that they had faced earlier that week, but seeing a being of nearly twice your size fume at you, still was a rather unsettling sight.

Celestia’s rage subsided as she felt a black chitinous hoof touch her shoulder.

“Does it matter? The cat’s out of the bag, and I think these mares deserve some answers,” Chrysalis said to her lover. Celestia struggled with herself for a moment; sure, she had exposed Twilight to danger several times already, but always on her terms, making sure that her protege was ready for the challenge ahead. This was different, and a part of her reeled back at the thought that she wasn’t able to shield Twilight from the worries of the world anymore. Hadn’t it been for the fact that Chrysalis, of all ponies, had asked her to be honest she probably would have found a way to avoid answering the unspoken question in the room.

“Okay, what do you want to know?” she sighed.

“I think it’s time we heard the full story. From the beginning,” Twilight answered.

Surprisingly it was Chrysalis who replied to this request, “Then I suggest that we sit down and wait for the food first, this will take quite a while.”

---

After a few minutes, they had settled down around the table. A steaming alfalfa souffle was waiting to fill empty stomachs and a bottle of wine had made the round.

The element bearer ate, but Celestia could tell that they did so more out of courtesy. Everyone was dying to hear her explanation.

“I already told you how we captured Chrysalis. Along with her we also took several hundred political and military figures, they were intended as hostages, to discourage any aggressions from the side of the changelings,” she began to relate her tale.

“But Canterlots own prison is a rather small place, and I fear not really one of the safest institutions, and the dungeon of Tartarus is hardly the place for someone that willingly surrendered to us. That left me with only one option, “I needed help...” ”



“And she just surrendered?” the princess of the night asked her sister. The two were standing on a hill in the Everfree forest. Beneath them hidden by the thick canopy, was the prison convoy. The laughter of the guards that had assembled around the few campfires, that Celestia had allowed.

“Yes.” Celestia’s answer was short and brisk,but then again she had been answering the same question for the last half hour, over and over again.

“Don’t you fear that it is a trap?” Luna looked at her sister with concern. Even if she was trying to hide it, the experience inside the changelings castle had obviously affected her. Even when Luna’s return from exile had been a joyous occasion for them both, the two of them still were far more distant than before her fall, and at times like this she regretted that they couldn’t just be open with each other.

“If it is a trap, it’s by far the best hidden one that I’ve ever seen. Most of the changelings are on the brink of exhaustion, and I made sure that Chrysalis herself would be kept in Irons at all times,” Celestia said, trying to reassure her sister, or maybe herself. The surrender of the queen had been a shock to her as well.

Silence hung between the immortal sister for a moment, as they watched the fate that had befallen one of their enemies.

“I suspect you didn’t just call me here, for my keen tactical assessment of the situation,” Luna finally spoke up.

Celestia frowned at the bluntness of her sister, Luna had always been the more straightforward of the two.

“It’s as you say sister. I fear for the safety of our citizens if we were to imprison them in the Canterlot dungeons. You and I know that the royal might be well trained but they lack in actual experience,” she replied.

“So you want the night guard to keep watch over them?” Luna asked.

“It’s more than that... I want you to reopen the old night guard fortress.” The solar regent looked nervous almost sheepish.

Luna shuddered. The Night guard fortress was a building deep beneath Canterlot, built in her final days as Nightmare Moon, before she was banished. Originally it was supposed to be a spearhead for her invasion of Canterlot, but her sisters determination to keep the ponies safe had proven greater than she anticipated, and she had been banished before she could give the final attack order.

“I know that this place must bring back bad memories for you, but I don’t know of any other place that could take in so many prisoners on such short notice,” Celestia said, avoiding eye contact with her little sister.

The hug took her by surprise. For a moment she could only sit there, dumbfounded, but then she finally wrapped her forelegs around her sister as well.

“Don’t worry about it sister. As much as it hurts, I have to accept that my actions from a thousand years ago had consequences, and if I can help to turn one of those into something good, then I’ll be happy to help,” Luna said, as she put some distance between the two, looking her sister deep into the eyes.




“In the following day, Luna and I worked together to transfer the changelings to their new underground prison. We mostly worked during the night hours and used hidden passages, since I didn’t want my little ponies to worry about them just yet, also I wanted to avoid alarming Cadence, given her personal history with Chrysalis,” Celestia said. The souffle had long since turned cold, forgotten by the ponies that were hanging on the sun goddess’ lips.

“For a while I just let them be, the night guards didn’t report any irregularities and soon I had nearly pushed aside the incident altogether. Some part of me however was still worried, and the continued silence only served to fuel my worry, so one day I descended into the fort and talked to Chrysalis.”





Celestia could only marvel at the trained militaristic precision with which the bat ponies of the night guard had worked on the checkpoints she had to pass through in order to reach the prison tract. For a moment she couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if she had hesitated only a little bit longer to banish her sister. For the first time she didn’t feel only regret about her decision.

An entourage of four Night Guards accompanied her on her way to the high security cell. Their hooves echoed eerily through the dark, barebone corridor. They had passed several smaller cells, that held the lower ranked changelings, here in the heart of the bastion there was only one prisoner, and aside from the guards at the checkpoints, nopony that could be impersonated.

Up ahead a singular massive steel door came into view. There were no visible bolts, no hinges, or edges, and the door seemed to seamlessly pass into the walls.

When they reached the doors Celestia’s guides stopped. She shot them a curious look, but they showed no sign of activity, and their stoic faces remained the same.

Just as Celestia was about to speak up, the metal door suddenly began to lift. Celestia looked around, but she couldn’t make out any viewports or magical means of detection.

With a shrug she entered the central chamber.

The room was about twenty meters in diameter and perfectly round, along the walls there stood a total of fifteen Night Guards, all of which had been specifically chosen because they didn’t have any remaining family or loved ones, nothing that could be exploited by the deceitful changeling queen.

The center of the room was taken up by a large glass cubicle, magically reinforced and nearly unbreakable she had been assured. All of the furniture was made from the same material, leaving no place for the changeling queen to hide, nothing to obstruct the view of the guards.

Celestia was appalled. They had robbed the changeling queen of all privacy, putting her on display like a caged animal. At the same time she was well aware that all those security measures were necessary, after all even she with her thousand years of experience had been deceived by the Chrysalis masquerade.

Carefully she approached the holding cell, her steps somewhat more hesitant than normal, but even Luna would have had a hard time telling.

Chrysalis sat in the mid of her cell, eyes closed and seemingly asleep, but as soon as Celestia had reached the glass wall, her eyes opened and she looked at the white regent.

“Come to gawk at the captured monster, have we?” her unsettling, echoing, voice was filled with spite and disgust. With a trained grace that mirrored Celestia’s own royal training she stood up and walked over to where Celestia was standing, until only a few centimeters and a glass wall divided the two.

She took the opportunity to look at the changeling queen. This time there was no coup d'etat, no danger, no post telepathic haze that clouded her mind mind and she felt very much like she was only seeing this creature for the first time.

The chitinous features while haggard were surprisingly equine, and hadn’t it been for the lack of fur, she could have very well been a pony. Only the green slitted eyes disturbed what otherwise could have been considered a beautiful face. Abashed she averted her eyes as soon as she realized that she really was gawking at her prisoner.

The changeling queen let out a bitter laugh.

“Am I so ugly that you can’t stand to look at me?” she mocked the diarch.

Celestia focussed back on the strange creature, that had so surprisingly had submitted to her only days prior. There was no sign left of the broken animalesque thing that she had found at the center of the almost dead city. Instead there burned a fire in her eyes, defiant and spiteful.

“Are you immortal?” she asked, for the moment banishing her feelings and assuming the role of the just ruler, that she knew so well.

Chrysalis looked at her dumbfounded, whatever question she had expected this certainly wasn’t it.

“Answer the question!” Celestia said sternly.

“Not in the traditional sense, no, but being queen of the hive has some perks,” the black queen finally replied.

“What do you mean?” the alicorn asked, her interest piqued. She had several other immortals over the course of her life, but most of them were spirits or avatars of some sort. Chrysalis was the first tham seemed to be connected to a mortal race, like the alicorns.

“Ah, that’s not how the game works. I get to ask the next question,” Chrysalis chirped mockingly, distancing herself from the cell wall, and dropping onto her bed.

Celestia shot her an angry look, but the changeling queen only grinned in reply.

“Fine, ask your question.” Maybe she could trick her into revealing what her plan was, but that would only work if she kept her talking.

“Why are you asking about my life span?” the question came quick and precise, and all coy playfulness had vanished from the queens voice.

A beat and then without even batting an eyelid Celestia replied, “I have yet to decide on the matter of your punishment, and the length of your imprisonment. My question: What do you mean when you say that you aren’t immortal in the traditional sense?”

For a short moment Chrysalis seemed actually surprised by the answer, but soon she regained her composure and answered, “As you might guess, the queen of the swarm is too important too simply be replaced, so if I should ever perish, my mind will be divided among the changelings of the hive mind. Soon after a changeling will give birth to a new body and my mind will pass on to it. My turn: What have you done about the remaining changeling?”

“I have placed the city under military rule for now, one of my generals is supervising all government matters, but for now we have kept the original infrastructure intact.” Celestia herself was surprised how quickly she had betrayed those information, which very well could be of tactical value.

“And the changelings? Are they alright?” Chrysalis asked, sounding demonstratively bored.

“I believe it’s my turn to ask a question, isn’t it?” Celestia said, and for a short moment a mixture of worry, fear and anger flashed over the changeling queen’s features. Celestia looked at her intently.

“They are all right. I’m making sure that they are treated the same way as all citizens of Equestria would be,” she finally said.

It was as if a great burden had been lifted of the changelings back, and as she turned towards the solar empress, Chrysalis eyes were full of relief.

“Thank you.” The words hung in the air, weighing heavier than the sun itself.

“Don’t thank me, you still owe me two answers...” Celestia once again averted her eyes. The look of genuine worry about her people was far too familiar to her, after all she saw it whenever she looked in a mirror...

Author's Note:

What this? A new chapter and it didn't take me months to complete it? Heresy!