Captive
White on Black
Ch.05 “Captive”
Celestia hit the floor hard. Frantically she jumped to her hoofs, trying to determine just where her attackers had brought her.
Much to her surprise they were still outside, the changelings had stopped not fifty meters away from the castle walls, unceremoniously dropping her onto the road. As far as she could see, the changelings formed a solid wall to either side and Celestia assumed that they had the castle surrounded on all sides. None of them however stepped into the circle as if an unseen force held them back from coming closer to the castle.
During the entire time, from her capture to her rough delivery, the changelings hadn’t spoken a word. In fact they had barely seemed aware of their surroundings, marching almost zombie like towards their destination.
Alabaster wings unfolded awkwardly as the solar diarch tried to regain the feeling in the mistreated appendages. The changelings hadn’t been gentle in their capture methods, and when the freakishly silent mob had charged her, at first she had feared that they would try to rip her apart.
Uneasily she scanned the living barrier that denied her escape. She could probably outfly them, their small insect wings made them more agile, but they couldn’t keep up with the pure speed that her massive wingspan gave her, but the real question was: Did she want to escape?
The evening sun threw the shadow of Chrysalis castle over the goddess’ face. In her mind there was no doubt where she would find the leader of the changeling swarm. Was this an invitation? A challenge? A trap? But what good would a trap do? She had been at the mercy of the changelings just a few seconds ago, and if they had wanted her dead it would have happened already.
Hesitantly Celestia took a step towards the castle gates.
---
A shiver ran down the solar diarch’s spine. Like a strangely warped version of her home, the corridors stretched out into the distance. The first thing she noticed, was the total lack of corners or edges. All the furniture and walls looked, like they had been cast from the same material, the walls were made of but the rounded edges made it seem like the castle was melting in the heat of the evening sun.
Not that unfiltered sunlight reached the inside of the castle. Ever so often a green membrane would break up the otherwise smooth walls, but more often than not light seemed to be released directly from the walls. The still utterly black walls.
“Hehehehehehe...” Celestia shot around, searching for the source of the mysterious laughter, but the corridor was empty and once again silence fell over the castle.
Just as she continued on her way the mysterious voice spoke up: “Come here, my little ones hehehehe...” The voice was unmistakable, the slightly delayed doppler effect was unique to only one creature on Equestria.
Celestia strained her ears trying to pinpoint the speakers position, but the echo seemed to emanate from all around her.
“Don’t hide from mommy, I’ll find you...” At random the alicorn chose a direction and walked further into the castles innards.
“Gone, all gone... hehehe... isn’t it funny...” Apparently she had chosen right, with every step she took the voice became louder, continuing with it’s unintelligible ranting.
“Come out, come out wherever you are!” This had been just up ahead! Carefully Celestia approached the archway before her. She couldn’t remember climbing any stairs, or ramps but when she spied past the corner, she could see a balcony high above some sort of hall. Keeping her head low she sneaked onto the elevated platform, trying to glance over it’s edge without alerting whoever was down there.
Beneath her lay the throne room, a round pillar lined hall. In regular intervals balconies, much like the one Celestia was standing on, adorned the walls, making the room look more like an arena or a theater than a throne room. The centerpiece of the room was a large throne, not in black like everything else Celestia had encountered so far, but carved from Crystals, that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the Crystal empire itself. If light had hit the throne, it would have shined in the brightest of colours, but down here in the shadows it only glowed with a sickly green shine.
“Hehehehe!” Celestia’s eyes were drawn to the creature, that stalked between the pillars sneaking around one moment, only to suddenly jump out in the next. “Hah, got you!” It screamed joyously, deflating when it once again turned out that whoever she was seeking hadn’t hidden behind this column. Nothing was left of the proud changeling queen. Her mane was disheveled and bloody patches riddled her head, where she apparently had ripped her hair out. Spit and bile dripped down her chin and whenever she snarled at her invisible enemy new strands spilled out of her mouth. But what shocked Celestia the most were the changeling queen’s eyes. They weren’t dead like those of the other changelings but wide and bloodshot, like a cornered wild beast’s. Was this what had become of the changeling that had locked horns with a goddess not to long ago?
Suddenly Chrysalis head whipped around, like an animal she held her head into the air sniffing as if to find a scent trail.
“What do we have here? Children do you feel it? We’ve got a visitor. HEHEHEHE!” The ostentatious gestures that accompanied her speech were a stark contrast to her almost animal like posture. Celestia stood up and looked all around the room, but Chrysalis “children” remained invisible just as they had been before, the changeling was talking to an empty hall.
Graciously Celestia unfolded her wings and glided down into the throne room. The black creature seemed conflicted whether to straighten up or to shy away. Her body twisted strangely into a gesture half submission, half defiance.
Celestia’s face was frozen in a stony expression, her lips pressed tightly together into a thin line. Was this her fault? Had she doomed one race while defending another? The creature glared at her and snarled.
“PITY!!! DO YOU HEAR THAT CHILDREN? SHE PITIES US? HAH!” Slowly the changeling queen began to circle the white alicorn, stalking her like the animal she had become. Celestia remained calm. Queen Chrysalis might have defeated her once, but this broken ‘thing’ wouldn’t be able to harm her. Once she were face to face with Celestia again, Chrysalis stopped in her motion looking at the royals face.
“Shall we play with her children? Shall we show her her desires or maybe her fears?” The changeling cackled insanely as she listened to the unhearable answers of her ‘children’. Her horn lit up with green fire as she closed her eyes in concentration, but the flame looked weak and sickly, much like it’s owner. Only hesitantly the flame trailed down her figure, and she was trembling visibly from the effort.
When the magic died down, she was only halfway through her transformation, looking like someone had molded pieces of Nightmare Moon and the changeling queen together. Where both halves met her flesh boiled and twisted as if to reject the other half. Thankfully the spell lasted only for a few seconds, before the illusion shattered, shards of the image falling to the floor where they dissipated into dust.
The limp body of the queen fell to the floor, laughing maniacally as if her body was trying to force all the air out of her body but before long her laughter segued into sobbing. For a short moment she looked at Celestia with clear eyes.
“They are all silent. Their voices are gone, dead, all of them.” The words burst out of her, in between her wailing sobs.
Celestia didn’t know why, maybe it was the queen’s broken appearance, maybe the picture of Nightmare Moon had reminded her of another similar situation, but no matter the reason, her body reacted on it’s own. She sat down next to the battered body of the changeling queen, laying one wing over her as she had done so often for her student.
“Shhh, it’s okay … shh...” She whispered into the queen’s ear as if consoling a little child. Chrysalis’ body went rigid at the alicorn’s touch but after a while the changeling relaxed visibly.
Suddenly a shiver went through the black creatures body, forcefully she lunged toward the white alicorn, her eyes once again wide and panic filled.
“Feed me! Feed my children!” She screamed, before biting down on Celestia’s neck, as if the act of drawing blood would actually force the love out of the diarchs body. Celestia remained still, holding the raging queen in her wings, and continuing to whisper into her ears, even as she could feel the blood stream down her body.
Steadily she could feel her body, growing weaker but no force in the world could have forced her to let go at this moment. And so she was still holding onto the queen, when the blood loss finally took it’s toll and she passed out.
---
A lone candle standing in a sea of darkness, it’s weak flame flickering in the non existent wind. It’s a small thing barely noticeable and almost laughable when compared to the vast nothingness that surrounds it, yet it serves as a beacon. Ever so slowly, dulled minds awaken, and shed the terror of nothingness, walking towards the light and embracing it’s welcoming warmth.
Somewhere hidden deeply in the black sea a grey stallion watched the scene unfold in Twilight’s mind.
---
Celestia awakened. Slowly and painfully she forced herself onto her knees, a white silk like blanket sliding of her body and revealing a bandage covering her neck. With dazed eyes she looked around the room, trying her best to make sense of her memories, separating dream from reality.
The room around her, was black in black, the unmistakable telltale of changeling architecture. She wasn’t alone in the room. Dimly she could make out a tall and slim figure, it’s features obscured by the light that fell through the window behind it.
“So you’re awake.” The raspy voice with it’s weird doppler effect did nothing to ease Celestia’s headache and nausea. Overwhelmed by the dizzying feeling she collapsed back into the bed.
“...” She tried to speak up, but only a barely audible croak escaped her throat, throwing the white monarch into an uncontrollable coughing fit.
She could feel a hole riddled hoof, lifting up her head and something cold touched her lips. Too weak to resist she opened her mouth, pleasantly surprised by the sweetness of whatever she had been given to drink.
“Try not to strain yourself, your body is very weak.” It was strange hearing Chrysalis speaking anything but barely contained threats or vile mockeries.
She swallowed a few times, trying to ease the pain in her throat, before she managed to ask: “...ow...long?”
The queen looked at her for a moment, hesitating, before she answered: “As much fun as it would be to lie, the night hasn’t even ended.”
Relief washed over the disabled diarch. The world wouldn’t end if she didn’t raise the sun, a network of emergency plans, mages, and artifacts enchanted by her, made sure of this, but still, it wasn’t a good idea to refrain from her duties.
Celestia laughed, or at least she tried to, only to be forced into another coughing fit. Here she sat in the hands of her worst enemy, gravely injured, and with an army ready to raze a town full of mentally disturbed civilians, and she was actually relaxing. A somewhat wry smile crept across her face as she let herself sink deeper into the pillows.
“It seems you’re better than I expected, since you’re enjoying yourself so much.” The changeling queen said, making no attempt to hide her disdain.
Once again Celestia tried to speak, taking her time to lessen the stress on her vocal chords: “ … what... happened?”
For the first time, since they had been face to face, the queens stone faced mask broke and the corners of her mouth turned upwards in an sadistic smile.
“I think you’ll find that out for yourself.” She explained, while carefully swirling a glass in her hoofs. With shock Celestia looked at the remains of the green liquid inside of it, as her tongue tasted the remnants of the sweet liquid.
Before she could reply in any way, a searing pain shot through her, starting at the end of her spine and slowly working it’s way upwards along her back, until finally it hit her brain. And darkness once again took the white alicorn.
---
Celestia opened her eyes, but much to her surprise the world remained dark. Now that she concentrated on it, it wasn’t dark. No even with closed eyes, there always remained a modicum of light, or at least an ‘texture’ in the darkness for the lack of a better word. What the royal pony sensed, was not darkness but the complete lack of any sensing. Panic clouded her mind. Had she been blinded? Desperately she tried to feel around, but much to her horror, she couldn’t feel her legs either. She could feel nothing, no sound, no touch, no light, only her thoughts remained.
Just as she thought that she would go mad if she remained like this any longer, something reached out to her. Celestia had lived a long time. She had enjoyed all kinds of vices, she read all sorts of books, and she had tried all kinds of sensing magic, yet she was at a lack for words, trying to describe the sensation that enraptured her at this moment. Another mind touched hers.
It was warm, gentle, inviting her to share her thoughts rather than prying them from her and offering just as much in return. Celestia didn’t receive any concrete memories, there were no pictures or symbols, no language of the mind, instead she could feel herself and the strange visitor melt, flowing into each other, only to separate afterwards, each of them now an amalgam of the minds that had been before.
As she grew accustomed to her new senses, she realized that the two of them weren’t alone there were hundreds, no, thousands of minds around them, each of them flowing freely into each other creating a constant flow of thoughts.
As she watched and partook in this strange exchange of thoughts and personality a feeling welled up inside her that was oddly familiar.
Whenever she looked at what her little ponies had achieved, whenever she saw two ponies working together to achieve something they alone would never have been able to, whenever she saw the generations pass her by, not vanishing but living on in those that came after them, she would feel like she became part of something bigger, something amazing.
She marvelled at the wonder that lived in the heads of those little black creatures, for she had already realized that this was nothing other than the hive mind of the changelings.
Then something changed. It was like an electric charge went through the collective subconsciousness, leaving those whom it passed through strangely on edge. It was a mix of deja vu, vertigo, and ominous foreboding, and still none of these words could adequately describe the feeling of disembodied terror that spread among the detached minds.
Suddenly a scream passed along the psychic network, an expression of utter terror and confusion. Like a dying scream it passed through the conglomerate of minds, conveying what could only be guessed to be the last moments of a life. In terror Celestia watched, as more and more of the minds around her vanished. Soon their screams became indistinguishable from each other, turned into a constant torrent of agony that blocked out all of Celestia’s thoughts. And then silence fell.
Celestia was alone again, unable to feel anything. This time not even her own thoughts filled the darkness. Her mind had long since retreated into itself refusing to observe the death of a whole race.
---
Sobbing the white alicorn lay on the floor. Besides her stood the black figure of the changeling queen.
“This is what it feels like, when we don’t have enough love to maintain the connection. You have remained relatively unharmed, since you’re used to not sharing your thoughts, but all those changelings out there never had to be truly alone before. Too bad really, I would have liked to see you locked into your own mind.” She stated matter of factly, her face once again the emotionless mask of before.
Celestia fought with herself, trying to regain control of her body, as well as her mind. Slowly she shook off the emotions that weren’t her own, but a feeling of emptiness remained and she doubted that she would ever be able to leave it completely behind.
“Don’t worry, the nectar that I gave you has been diluted it won’t cause any permanent changes in you... probably.” The queen continued her monologue, another sadistic grin on her face as she spoke the last words, Celestia however was still far too shaken to reply to her cruel jokes.
“Well, since you’re apparently able to walk again it is time to meet with your army.” Chrysalis said, when she noticed that she would get no reaction from the dazed alicorn.
“What for?” Celestia replied, slowly finding her focus again.
“To discuss the terms of my surrender of course.” The changeling queen stated.
Celestia’s mind had returned to it’s usual astuteness, yet the princess of Equestria found herself at a loss for words.
---
Celestia stood on the hill above the changeling city, behind her the general's tent. She was back where she started, yet everything had changed. At the foot of the hill, a caravan of wagons was forming. Whatever carts had been available, had quickly been turned into makeshift prison transports to hold the ‘prisoners of war’.
Two hundred changelings and the queen Chrysalis herself, taken as hostages to ensure a continued peace between the nations.
Celestia had ordered the troops to retreat and only those she deemed the most trustworthy had remained. Nobody but a few hundred Guards would ever find out the exact conditions that had ended the war against the changelings. As far as the gross of her army was concerned, she had slain Chrysalis in battle, rendering the rest of the changelings nothing but harmless drones.
Among the black figures that scuttled about below her, one stood out between the others. Even from this distance, her regal posture was unmistakable. Even in chains she gave of an aura of might, and Celestia found herself questioning if it were the guards, that were holding her, or if it was the queen that led the two unicorns by their chains.
And a small trickle of energy flowed through the air, ever so thin, and invisible for ponies and Changelings alike.
---
“Huh, wha?” The small purple unicorn was harshly thrown back into the real world.
“I asked, if you are alright?” Rarity looked at Twilight, concern in her eyes.
“Yes, yes. I just have been lost in thought a little.” Twilight replied, trying to smile reassuringly.
“Oh really? Normally there’s a lot more pacing up and down and monologuing involved when you do that.” The white fashionista said, grinning slightly.
“I don’t do that... often.” Twilight grimaced.
“Well I guess I don’t have to tell you, that I’m here to listen to you when you need it.” Rarity continued, now serious again.
“Thank you Rarity, I just need to sort through some of Celestia’s memories that are still floating around in my head.” Twilight admitted smiling, this time with no need to force herself.
The two unicorns returned their attention to the rest of the table, where the rest of the Element-bearers were still trying to stomach the story they had just heard.
“So ya’re a prisoner?” Applejack finally asked.
“No, Celestia released me and the rest of the changelings after a while.” Chrysalis replied.
“You mean to tell me there are two hundred changelings running around freely in Canterlot?” Rainbow Dash asked, and from the tone of her voice it was evident that she wasn’t very comfortable with that idea.
The changeling queen smirked at Rainbow Dash’s discomfort and said: “No, they’re running around freely under Canterlot.”
---
“Woah!” Spike stood, mouth agape, at the entrance to the humongous cavern. Twilight had told him about the cave system, but to hear about it and to see it for yourself was something entirely else. Of course the bustling black city that filled the cave might have play a part in his amazement as well.
“Woah.” Spike repeated, as if a single woah simple wouldn’t describe the experience.
“This is amazing, how did you manage all this?” He asked one of his three changeling companions.
“Klick Klickklick.” The response came promptly and with an not so small amount of pride.
“Huh, I guess a bit of hard work goes a long way.” The little dragon pondered. “But you know you could really improve one thing.”
“Klick?” The changelings looked at their new companion questioningly.
“You could really work on your colour choice.” Spike deadpanned, looking at the entirely black city.
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I approve.
Nice update. For not being edited, I didn't see anything that caught my attention as a mistake. I wonder how long will it be until everypony realizes where Spike is?
i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/485/072/edb.jpg
all in all I am not one to be a grammer nazi or anything, I found the story to be very good and the pacing is wonderful. As for spike the changling...oh god that is gonna come back to bite someone in the ass....hard
Apparently biting Celestia did help, considering how much more sane Chrysalis is after she woke up. Is blood a back-up food supply for changeling queens (explaining the fangs and putting an emphasis on the vampire in 'love vampire')?
2016082 Nope, the blood is there for purely symbolic reasons, for now let's just say that Chrysalis has a reason why she hates pity so much. Later chapters will probably go into more detail on Changeling feeding habits.
2016389 Okay. Another piece of advice? I can understand her not going on Celestia's grand quest to prove to herself she can still do things but Luna should probably greet her on her triumphant return. She hasn't really been in the story so far and doesn't need to be a major focus but while Discord can still be stone or have gone wandering off it's hard to ignore that Celestia is supposed to have a co-ruler back home.
ADDENDUM: She wasn't even at either of the meals the engaged couple shared with the Elements, as far as I can recall.
2016082 no it was a love bite.... yeah i know horrible joke
Unedited or not, it's good
2016441 Good eye for detail. But have a little more trust in me please. :P
I tend to try and avoid commenting on a story mid point when its this old but I gotta say this chapter feels really out of place compared to the others. Ill start with the good, I liked the concept of the changelings being almost zombies and Chrysalis being crazed from lack of love, plus the city is well thought out and suitably weird The problems I have with it are, we have Celestia getting constantly 'worfed' though the whole thing, by the end of it I expected her to be defeated by a plush toy and her heavy armor apparently disappeared or does nothing. Plus, I see nothing in the past that wouldn't freak out Twilight into thinking Celestia was mind controlled, I'm sure you actually go into them building a relationship later on but at this point I can't see Twilight not forming an armed resistance to Chrysalis.
2018760
I'm surprised Celestia decided to retreat in the alleyway.
The hostiles were bottlenecked in the direct line-of-fire of a high power artillery unit (Celestia), plus the knights at her side who are capable of dealing with anything that gets close.
And before you mention they were civilian women and children, they took what could be seen as hostile action against the soldiers. Civilians don't do that; especially not en-mass.
It's a nice story, I'm just a bit sad that this story more or less only continues on the sideline in the sequel as it seems.
She went a bit cray cray.
8873267
Pinkie would b jelly