Can a creature that feeds on love, ever truly know love?
After the blast leaves Chrysalis wounded and lost in the Everfree forest. She does her best to drag herself back to her village. However due to the severity of her woulds she collapses. Eventually she reawakens to find herself in a strange house, home to three mares and with their help maybe she could truly learn to understand the thing she calls food.
Where did I go wrong? the black creature asked itself.
I had all of Canterlot in my hoof and yet, I still lost.
Chrysalis continued lay in the spot she had landed a little over an hour ago. She continued to replay the event in her mind over and over again. She had captured and trapped that foal Cadence with almost no effort. That foal Shinning Armor hadn't had any doubts she was the real Cadence, everything was going perfect. But those damn mares had to ruin everything. She had done everything she could to stop that wretched stallion Shinning Armor from inviting those mares but yet some part of him was able to resist. If they had never shown up, no creature would have ever found that pampered princess and my people would be feasting.
"Damn them!" she shrieked at the sky, gaining a small amount of joy as birds scattered in fear. However a sudden realization dawned on her and crushed that small piece of joy. That witch of a princess would send her guards out to hunt her and the rest of her children down.
If I stay here I'm a sitting duck Chrysalis craned her head up and began to survey her surrounding Trees, Trees, Rock, Trees A dark forest was all that surrounded her. Staring back up at the sky through the hole she had torn through the tree Canopy the rays of sun shining through the hole as if to mock her.
They won't find me she told herself by the time they get here I'll be long gone and once they've let their guard down, I'll strike again
"Search the area!" Came the sudden echoing shouts from somewhere above the forest. "The local guards said they saw a large black object crash somewhere in this forest, spread out and start looking."
A jolt of sudden fear shot through her body How did they get here so fast? No, I can't think about that I need to get out of here
Chrysalis was able to climb to her feet with surprisingly little effort. However it was only after she tried to walk when she discovered the full extent of her injuries. She dropped back to the ground as a sudden jolt of intense pain flooded her senses. It was only then that she noticed the steady trickle of blood that now ran down her front leg.
"Damn, I guess I wasn't as lucky as I thought" she said aloud, grimacing at the pain.
"Okay, okay, we've got this, we've been through. worse All we have to do is get out this forest and then we can just fly away. There is no way those foalish ponies can keep up with me." Chrysalis continued to speak aloud, doing her best to motivate herself without giving away her position.
Once again, she began pulling herself up and once again she fell.
"Damn it" she swore, "If I don't get out of here now, this will be nothing compared to what that foul Princess will do to me."
Chrysalis began to run through her options in her mind. Flying out of the forest was out of the question. The canopy that hid her was far too thick, and any attempt to break through it would draw to much attention. Using her magic was out of the question. Everything had been drained when her spell was broken leaving her with just enough to move small objects. However, that gave Chrysalis a genius idea.
Focusing all of her remaining magic on her wound, would allow her the ability to move on hoof for as long as the spell lasted.
Okay, at best I've got fifteen minutes before that wound opens back up and I'm done for.
Once again Chrysalis climbed back to her hooves. However this time she let out a small laugh of victory, the pain that had previously struck her down was nothing but a memory.
"Did anyone else hear maniacal laughter?" came a voice from above the trees
Crap
Chrysalis took little more than a second to decide on which direction she wished to run in; the one furthest away from the voices. As she continued to run, she couldn't help but feel as if something or someone was watching her. However, she did her best to shake the feeling and keep on pushing forward.
Though the path she ran was dark, she was certain she was heading in the right direction to escape this foul forest, or so she hoped. Through some spout of sheer luck she managed to stumble upon an old trail.
Almost out, she told herself, a small smile forming on her lips.
Up ahead she could see a fork in the road quickly approaching
Left or Right? she asked herself quickly deciding to continue down the left path. However she quickly decided against it as she noticed a large manticore sleeping in the middle of it.
Really now? How could I have not seen that?
Making her way down the right path, she began to experience true joy as the forest began to grow brighter, the exit right ahead. However it seemed that the fates had not smiled on her in this moment as her spell began to fail, the held back blood beginning to flow once again.
Sudden searing pain shot through her body, quickly knocking her out as her body did everything it could to stop the bleeding. There she lay just out of the searching guard’s sights, but slowly bleeding out.
Though the fates did not smile on her, they had not forsaken her. Off in the distance a Grey googly eyed mare trotted happily down the path on the way back to her home, a wagon full of food trailing behind her.
Ditzy Doo hummed happily to herself as she trotted down the stone path, the sun beginning to set off in the distance giving off enough light to allow the mare to find her way. Once again some luck shined on the Changeling Queen as ray of light reflected of her horn catching the eye of the curious mare.
Ditzy cautiously crept over to the source of sparkles, expecting to see little more than a lost bit or a tin can; she was stunned to find what appeared to be a large black pony.
"Are you alright?" Ditzy asked, poking at the creature in front of her.
"Hey Mis...... Mr, hey pony thing! Are you okay?" Poking it again
Worry crept onto Ditzy's face as she noticed the trickle of blood running down the creature’s leg.
"Don't worry, my bestest friend Carrot will be able to help you."
After a few minutes Ditzy had moved all the food out of her wagon and instead rolled the new found pony into it. Though she didn't fit quite properly, it would have to work. Before trotting off Ditzy turned back to her food now lying in the grass
"Muffins, you're in charge ‘til I get back make sure the apple doesn’t do anything stupid." With a wave Ditzy began her trek back home new found friend in tow. Completely oblivious to the fact that in the shadows stood three stallions clad in golden armor with hovering spears at their sides. Behind them stood a much larger pony that any creature could recognize as the ruler of Equestria, Princess Celestia.
"Your Highness, shall we apprehend the fugitive?" The middle guard asked, raising his spear.
Celestia let out a soft chuckle. "No Brass, I believe she is already in perfect care. Tell the rest of the guards to return to the castle. I don't believe she'll be a threat to anypony much longer."
"What about you my princess?"
"I'll remain here; I would like to see how these events unfold."
The three guards turned around and began their march back to the castle. However they were quickly halted as a large bag of bits descended in front of them.
"What are these for, Princess?"
Celestia's grin slipped into a slight frown "Make sure these make their way to Nightmare, tell her she was right." she finished dropping the bag reluctantly.
"If you don't mind me asking, right about what?"
Celestia let out a small sigh. "Apparently Manticore can solve most problems." With that she trotted off, determined not to lose sight of the grey Pegasus.
Chrysalis let out a small groan. To her surprise she wasn't dead, just in horrible, horrible pain. She feared to open her eyes for she knew that by now she must have been captured and was most likely in a dungeon on the moon. However between the small bursts of pain she could feel something soft below her. Determined to find out where she was, she let her eyes slowly drift open as light flooded her view. After several seconds the world had begun to form into solid shapes. However in front of her still stood a grey blob.
"Hi! My names Dinky Doo!"
"Aaahh" Chrysalis shrieked as she fell of the bed, whacking her head in the process and almost knocking herself back out.
"Moooooom!" shouted the grey filly
"What?" came the returned shouts
"I think I killed our guest! Sorry!"
Chrysalis groaned "What fresh hell is this?"
{Author Note} A big thank you to RidiculousPony who sent me an edited version, which allowed me to fix many mistakes through out this chapter.
(Also this Chapter may seem rushed and that's because it partially is, for the next week I'll be unavailable, so instead of leaving you guys to waits I've done my best to complete this chapter in one sitting. When I get back I'll spend much more time editing it)
"So what is it?" asked the young filly, as she continued her onslaught of poking and prodding of the creature her mother had dragged home.
"Dinky honey, please stop poking our guest."
Chrysalis remained quiet as she continued to feign sleep, using every bit of her will power to keep from giggling as the young filly continued to poke her, despite the other pony's request.
"But mom she's all squishy, and buggy."
Okay, so two ponies, which means either I'm in a dungeon with a mother and her foal, or I'm in their house. though from the outside there were no signs, within Chrysalis a surge of joy shot through her. She had escaped the forest without getting caught and apparently the news of what she had done, had not spread out this far, yet.
"Ditzy! I'm home!" came the shouts of a third pony from somewhere below.
"We're up here!" Ditzy shouted back "Come up stairs, we've got company." she finished stepping back out into the hall
Chrysalis did her best to slow her breathing as she listened closely for the approaching mare. It was quite easy to tell the approaching was alone, leaving her with still a large chance to escape, even in her wounded state. She focused all of her attention on the two mares that now stood just outside of the room.
"You wouldn't believe how crazy it out here. Royal Guards are flying around Ponyville and Everfree forest." came the muffled sound of the newest voice.
Uh oh the Changeling Queen thought to herself. Apparently escaping isn't a valid option. I wonder, if claim insanity could I at least get the good side of the moon?
"What's going on? Did the princess lose her pet bird again?"
"No apparently some lunatic of a queen attacked Canterlot. They called her a changeling, said they could disguise themselves as almost anything."
Oh, look at that I've already convinced one pony. Dark side of the moon here I come
"So what happened to her?" asked the grey mare.
"Apparently she was defeated with the power of love, how cliché is that?"
Apparently she's never heard of tough love. Chrysalis silently muttered to herself.
"So why are the guards still out if she’s already been defeated?"
The newest mare let out a snorted laugh "Apparently love has an explosive force equivalent to several large sticks of TNT, who knew? The guards were giving out pictures of her; they want us to report any strange things."
"Do you have a copy of her picture, does she look cool? Is she cool looking? Does she have laser eyes?"
"No Ditzy, she’s not cool looking, she looks like a large bug with a horn." Carrot answered, as she began to unfold the scroll.
Ditzy let out an inaudible gasp "I've seen her somewhere!"
Carrot Top let out a slight giggle at her friends sudden outburst "Oh really now, where did you see her?"
Ditzy placed a hoof under her chin and began to recall everything she had seen today.
Uh oh, I've got to do something or I'm busted. Chrysalis let one eye slowly peel open, in a attempt to spot the filly she had seen and heard earlier bingo she mentally cheered as she spotted the the filly staring out the window at the end of the room.
Finally Ditzy removed her hoof from her chin, taking a deep breath as she prepared her answer.
"I don't remember, but I know I've seen her before."
"Sure, you have." Carrot retorted rolling her eyes in the process "Now what about this guest? Where are they?"
Now or never! Chrysalis told herself, she focused every ounce of her remaining energy on changing her shape and to her surprise it appeared to be working. Green flames silently shot across her body, as she could feel changes to place.
"She's right in here." Ditzy said as she turned the knob of the wooden bedroom door.
The audible gasps were the first sign that something wasn't right. However, Chrysalis was certain that a mere pony would not be able to see through her disguise so quickly, even if she was already alert to the situation.
"By the Sun and Moon Ditzy! What’s wrong with her!?"
A cold bolt of fear shot through Chrysalis's body as her mind began to play through the worst possibility. She had used too much magic and was beginning to fade.
"Why is it all sorts of different colors?! Why does it have holes in its legs?! Why aren't its legs the same size “The confused mare continued to shout, staring at the semi abomination before her.
Chrysalis shot up not thinking about the consequences. The only thing she wanted right now was to see what had gone wrong. However in her haste to see what had gone wrong she made another mistake, she startled the orange mare.
As the multi-colored demon spawn began to rise from it spot on the bed, Carrot Top did not hesitate. Using all of her strength she swung at the creature, land a blow directly in what she believed to be its jaw, breaking the illusion it had placed on itself.
Chrysalis's world once again faded to black.
Several minutes later, life returned to her body as she tried to sit up. To her surprise she was completely unable to move, or see for that matter. It appeared that during her forced nap one of those ponies had seen it fit to tie her up and blind fold her. Once again she slowed her breathing as she heard the sounds of hoof beginning their ascent up the stairs.
"Insane! How could you possible think bringing something like That into our house?" came the voice of the mare she had now come to label as orange
"Well I couldn't just leave it out there by the forest. Its hurt didn't you see the holes in it? I'm pretty sure that's not healthy and besides how do we know it's bad?" asked Ditzy as she stopped just outside of the door.
Carrot top scoffed "Really? There are hundreds of guards searching Equestria for this creature. Its apparently attacked Canterlot and you're honestly asking me if we know it's bad?"
Ditzy nodded in acknowledgement
"Of course it's bad! The only reason I haven't called the guards yet is because of the puppy dog eyes. Which by the way I'll beat it one day. For now it wouldn't hurt to find out what it is.
"I call it Bizzaro Celestia." Ditzy blurted out before grasping the handle.
"Whys that?"
"Because she's like Celestia, but uglier." the grey mare happily answered as the door opened. Revealing the large black creature now firmly strapped to the bed, potato sac placed on its head.
"I command you to release me at once!" came the muffled demands of the changeling queen. Her patience stretched as far as it could go.
Carrot let out a mocking laugh "Really? and who are you to be giving commands?"
"I am Queen Chrysalis ruler of the abyss and sovereign of the Changelings. You will release me at once or suffer dire consequences, “came the once again muffled shouts of the queen from within her mask.
"Well I guess if you want, Miss Chrysalis, I could fetch the royal guards. I'm sure they'd be more than glad to give you the royal treatment."
Chrysalis paused for a second not quite sure on how to answer. On one hoof she hated being so powerless, but on the other hoof so far these ponies hadn't turned her in, which meant she still had some hope. However on the other hoof, her forth hoof really, really itched, but that was something that could wait."
"No, no, no," she quickly blurted "after reassessing the conditions, I've decided that my current lodgings will suffice."
"Good, I'd hate to have the royal legion muddy up my clean floors."
"Hey Carrot," the grey Pegasus said as she moved to the side of the bound queen. "Can we take the potato sac of her head? It seems like a bit much, it's not like she’s going to bite us." Ditzy paused and tilted her head towards Chrysalis "Wait, you aren't going to bite us, are you?"
"What?! Bite you? What do you take me for?"
"Huh, I guess that's a yes." Carrot answered as she trotted over and began removing the sac from the Queens head.
Chrysalis clenched her eyes shut, as the darkness that had once filled her vision was destroyed and quickly replaced with a blinding light. She let out a sigh of relief as she was once again able to breathe easily.
"Okay then, start talking." Carrot Top demanding staring coldly at the changeling queen.
"Ooooh, someone’s bossy." Chrysalis giggled mockingly "Why should I tell you anything? Once I do you'll just hand me over to those guards."
"Who said we were going to do that?" Ditzy asked slightly confused at the Changelings assumption.
"Ditzy is correct," Carrot added "We never said we'd turn you over to them. In fact when this is all said and done, we might even help you get out of Ponyville."
"Is that so?" Chrysalis scoffed "If you're already aware of what I've done why would you help escape? In fact if you already know the crimes I've committed what is there for me to tell?"
"First off, Ditzy has never been wrong. If she believes there is some good in a creature, than there is some good in them. Heck right now, there is a genetically altered muffin eating a salad downstairs. If it wasn't for Ditzy I think I might have kicked the poor thing out."
Chrysalis raised an eyebrow “Genetically modified muffin? Eating a Salad?"
"Don't ask" Carrot answered flatly "All you need to know is sciences is bad and magic is good. Magic and Science I don't know what they do."
Chrysalis did the best she could to shrug "Fair enough, so you're willing to let me go under the assumption that part of me is good. And all I have to do is?"
"I was getting there. All you have to do is tell me why."
"Why what? Why you should let me go?"
"No, I want to know why you attack Canterlot. It seems like such a stupid plan, out of all the places in Equestria you could have chosen you picked the one with not one, but four gods living inside of it, I can't see you being evil, stupid maybe, suicidal even, but not evil."
Chrysalis paused and began to think about all the planning she had gone through. In order to begin plan a she had sent her spies out to do research. Though in the end, they had little to show she had learned what she believed was enough to complete plan A without any confrontations.
"What do you mean "four gods"? My spies told me there were only two Princesses and some guards watching that city. The one known as Celestia and the one currently trapped within the moon, Luna."
The sudden laugh of Dinky Doo caused everypony to jump in surprise "That's funny; it sounds like your spy ponies information was almost as outdated as our school text book."
Funny, A foal had better information then I did. Chrysalis mused to herself.
"So then Child, if you know, who are these other two "gods" that live in the Canterlot?"
"Well there is Discord, he's the god of weird things and fun. I like him the most because he replaced all of our school lunches with desert. Then there is Nightmare Moon, Princess Luna created her with Science and Magic but I'm not suppose to tell anypony that, so please keep it a secret. She was mean before and scary before, she's still pretty scary. But one time when I was visiting the castle with my mom, she paid me twenty bits to give her something called an "alibi".
Chrysalis did her best to nod from her position strapped to the bed. "So you're telling me Equestria is also run by a schemer and an idiot?"
"Pretty much" Interrupted Carrot
"Hey! That's not nice Miss Carrot."
"Dinky let me tell you something, well Discord brought you desert. He turned my carrot garden into a horror show of cannibalistic carrots. I spent two hours watching as my garden ate it then began a march across Ponyville. Anyways I believe we've gotten extremely off topic."
"Okay then, just so we are all clear, all I have to do is tell you why I attacked Canterlot and you'll let me go?" Chrysalis asked as she craned her neck back up in an attempt to maintain eye contact with the two mares.
Carrot Top stiffed a laugh "Well let you go, as long as we believe there was some form of good intentions in you’re terribly thought out plan. If you can't convince us we get the guards and I don't think they'll be as understanding. Also it's in your best interest to tell the truth. Ditzy doesn't like it when ponies lie to her."
"Me lie? I would never." The changeling queen said sarcastically. However a sudden spear of anger shot through her. Leaning back up she found the source to be none other than the grey mare.
Carrot Top laughed again "I told you don't lie, now whenever you're ready begin."
Chrysalis laid her head back down on the bed and returned her gaze to the ceiling. Mehshe thought to herself I'm screwed either way, at least this way someone will write my story.
"Okay then," she said with a sigh "If you want the full story. I guess I'll begin eight hundred years ago."
"You're old." blurted the young foal
"Yes, yes I am, and I believe you might be tasty, but I don't go blurting it out around other creatures do I? Now if you'll let me continue." Chrysalis laid her head back on the bed and began her story once again.
"My legend dates back to the 12th Century you see. My legend is quite old. The 12th Century was a long time ago. You see back then Changelings were far more common, except unlike now, ponies knew we existed and yet they were powerless to stop us until we had already finished feeding."
"Feeding on what?" asked the curious foal
"Okay, before I say this it's going to sound much worse than it actually is." Chrysalis continued to stare at the ceiling wondering if there were anyways to avoid this. She quickly realized the best option was to continue with the truth. "Changelings feed off the love given off by ponies."
A look of disgust quickly washed of Carrot top's face "That's horrible, were not even into your story and yet, you've already gained a down vote from me."
"Why?" Ditzy asked confusedly "Don't we all feed on love?"
Carrot top shook her head. "No Ditzy, we sure we feel better knowing we're loved. By what she's saying is they eat love."
Chrysalis let out a heavy sigh "Foals" she paused and thought for a moment No, No, No, I've got to earn their trust if I want out of here she let out a forced chuckle and muttered an apology
"I guess this is my fault for not explaining better. You see a changeling doesn't feed on love itself, they feed on the magic created by love. You see a changeling is made almost entirely of magic, that's how we can harness and use it."
"So you're a parasite?" Interrupted the orange mare
"Ouch that really hurts you know," the Changeling Queen retorted "If a parasite is how you see us, then so be it. However the magic given off by love is the only source pure enough to sustain us. Do you see the holes in my legs? If we go to long without absorbing any magic we begin to fade, eventually our bodies completely disappear and Poof we are gone. So call us parasites if you wish, we have no say in this matter."
Carrot Top looked awkwardly around the room doing her best to avoid eye contact with the Queen
"I guess I over reacted, sorry. No pony can change what they are and I guess that goes the same for other creatures. Though that doesn't explain why you attacked Canterlot."
"Well then if you'd let me continue I could tell you my story and we could be done with all this." She said doing her best to hide the agitation in her voice.
"As I was saying, back then ponies were completely unable to stop us from feeding. We would send five to ten of our top solders in, we would swap them with the real pony and they would live amongst them for up to a week."
"What would you do with the original pony?" Asked the concerned grey Pegasus
"We'd usually hide them in a cave and when we were done gathering the energies we would release no worse than when we took them. Sometimes however they would escape before we could finish thus blowing our cover. This is how it went for hundreds of years. We'd gather as much energy as possible, and then move onto the next town.
"So what changed?" Carrot Top asked now deeply focused on the story being told to her.
"The unicorns did, after time they discovered ways to break our disguises. One particularly annoying unicorn I believe his name was sunswirl or duskswirl, it doesn't really matter. He managed to create a spell that could break the disguise of any changeling within a mile radius. Eventual it became nearly impossible to gather enough food to sustain such a large group."
"So is that when you began attacking villages?"
"Gods no, Canterlot was our first attack, and even then it was never meant to be an attack. But I'll get to that point in a moment. After town began using that spell to weed out any of our solders we eventually came to the conclusion that in order to survive we would have to split up. Three of my generals took control of one portion of the clan; well I took control of the main group. Even then we were forced quite literally underground. We retreated underground, and lived off the stored energy for the past two hundred years"
"Let me guess, you ran out of storage?"
"For a pony you're quite smart. But yes you are correct; we did our best to ration out what we had stored. Sadly we were the lucky group; I do not know what became of my generals or the rest of my children, though there were only hundreds of us down there. We he had enough energy stored in crystals to feed thousands for many years. But when it ran out I was left with one option. Return to the surface, or let my people starve."
"Okay then, but why did you attack Canterlot? Why didn't you just try to sneak back into society, as you had done before?"
"We were desperate, and very little stored knowledge of the surface world, using all the records we could find, we discovered that Canterlot was one of the closest and largest Cities in Equestria however it was also home to Princess Celestia and even though during our time above ground we had never met her, we all knew the tales of her might."
"That still doesn't explain attacking Canterlot, even if you were desperate why not at least try to sneak into the towns?"
"The attack was our plan B, Our plan A was to simply get as many Changelings into Canterlot and gather enough Energy to bring back to the Hive. Penetrating Canterlot castle was much easier than I expected, my main goal was to see if they had any remaining knowledge about us and to my surprise they did not"
Carrot Top was starting to get a reasonably good understand as to how the creature sitting before her worked
"So if everything was going according to plan, why did you switch to plan B?"
Chrysalis let out a small sigh "One simple screw up by a clumsy solder, he blew our cover and sent Celestia into high alert. Once that chained had started, she got that fool Shining armor to put up a barrier to keep my children out. The only problem was me being trapped inside. So after a few changes and one kidnapping I had modified plan B for the perfect attack."
"Well apparently it wasn't perfect." Carrot Top retorted.
Chrysalis shrugged the best she could, her body still bound to the bed. "That was plan C, at first everything was going great. I began absorbing Shining Armors energy thus weakening the shield. Phase two of the plan was simply break the shield swarm and gather as much energy as possible before the guards or Celestia could catch us."
Chrysalis did her best to keep her shame from creeping into her voice "However as I drained more and more of Shining armors energy I began to feel more powerful, but I wanted more, I told myself it was for my subjects, I told myself it was for us I told myself we deserved it. I told myself I deserved it. I broke the shield and instead of giving the order to begin collecting, I gave the order to attack."
Chrysalis let out another sigh "And that's how I ended up here, defeated and strapped to a bed, oh how the universe hates me." Surprisingly she immediately perked up "So can I go now?"
"I don't know," Answered Carrot who had now heard all there was to know of the creature her friend had brought home “you did go all power hungry and evil, but on the other hoof you did it for your people. What do you think Ditzy?"
Ditzy smiled "I think we should go get some Ice-cream that always helps me decide."
"Yay Ice-cream!" Cheered the unicorn filly.
Carrot Top turned to face the bound queen a sly grin spread across her face "Well I'm sorry it looks like we are going to have a short recess, when we get back will give you our verdict." With that three mares dashed out of the room.
It took Chrysalis's mind several seconds to process what had happened and the now empty room, she continued to stare at the ceiling expecting at any moment the ponies would return and at least until her. However the house was now completely silent.
"Oh come on, can you at least untie me?"
Chrysalis tilted her head as far as she could, just enough to see out into the dark hallway. She waited several seconds for a response but none came.
"Come on, this isn't funny."
Still no response
"But... but, I like Ice cream to!" She received only silence "Ah Bucket" she muttered. She had a bed might as well enjoy it. Once the guards find me it'll be moon rocks for the next thousands years.
{Author Note 2:} Once again let me repeat this chapter is rushed, it was either I finished it tonight or it didn’t see the light of day for the next week and a half. It should be also noted there was A LOT of talking, this won’t occur again as the next few chapters will allow me to show more then tell.
"Stupid ponies" muttered the bound changeling queen "I don't need your stupid Ice cream anyways." a tinge of sadness creeping into her voice. I love ice cream she silently thought to herself.
Chrysalis did her best to loosen the binds that held her to the bed. However, her captors had proven to be far more talented than she had thought.
"How did they tie so many knots without magic?!" She whined. No longer attempting to untie the bindings instead she was now flailing blindly in an attempt to rip herself loose.
With a sudden snap she managed to pull one of her front hooves free. However her joy was quickly crushed as she realized that it was physically impossible to untie a knot with one hoof.
Luckily for her she had managed to free at least one leg or the facehoof that occurred might have never been.
"I hate everything." she groaned, laying back down in defeat. After several minutes lying in almost complete darkness. Chrysalis began to think of all the possible outcomes. If the old laws remained, she would at least come out alive, ponies didn't execute no matter how harsh the crime. So at the very worst she was going to suffer banishment and at the very best she was probably going to be looking at dungeon walls for the next thousand years.
After some time her thoughts shifted from her own punishments to that of her peoples. Without her they would have no tactical leader. They were already weak and starving before the attack and now they were scattered and injured. Even worse they'd be hunted after news of their existence spread across Equestria. Maybe she could talk Celestia into sparing them.
"Hey there Celestia, I know I stuck you to the ceiling in a goo cocoon. But would you be so kind as to let my people go free because it would be the nice thin-" Herself mocking was cut short as something solid hit the closed window across the room from her.
*Thump* *Thump* rang to more impacts as Chrysalis stared at the closed window only able make out a sliver the closed curtains that hid her from the fleet of guards outside.
"Pssst my queen, are you in there?" came the muffled voice from outside
Chrysalis was surprised she hadn't expected any of the changelings to find her, especially not so quickly after they had been scattered.
"My queen? Are you in there?" rang the voice once again
Chrysalis let a small grin slip across her face; she might make it out of this yet.
"Yes my little changeling, now hurry and release Me." she answered
Through the curtains the Changeling queen could see a soft green glow surround the latch that had secured the window. With a barely audible click the lock was released and the window began to slide upwards the gentle breeze began shifting the curtain. To Chrysalis's surprise it wasn't the hoof of a changeling grab onto the ledge, but instead the hoof of a white pony.
A feeling of dread spread out through the changeling queen as the White Pegasus, his armor a clear indication of his position as a member of a royal guard, pulled himself up through the open window.
"So those ponies decided to turn me in?" growled the bound queen "Should have expected it"
The guard continued to stare at Chrysalis a look of confusion on his face
"My queen what are you talking about? It’s me Thorax, Commander Mandible sent me."
With that all her fears and worries were washed away. Here changelings had come back for her. Sadly for her though they had felt the need to send Thorax, sure he was as loyal as any other Changeling. However, he wasn't the brightest insect in the hive.
"So my little Changeling you seemed to have found quite the disguise. Why don't you untie me and we can discuss how you managed to find me." Using her free hoof to point out the other three bindings that held her to the bed.
With a flash of green flame the white Pegasus was no more, in its place now stood a black changeling completely indistinguishable from any other. Quickly moving over to the bed the Changeling began to cut the binds that held his queen in place. After a few moments all the ropes had been cut and Chrysalis was once again free to move. However, as she made her way towards the bedroom door, she found her path blocked by the very Changeling that had freed her.
"My Queen, we can't risk leaving yet. They've only just begun the retreat back to their castle. It would be most wise if we allowed them some time to leave the area."
Chrysalis was about to nodded in agreement when she remembered the three ponies that had bound her in the first place.
"Once the ponies that captured me return, they'll most likely alert any of the guards still in the town."
A look of concern spread across the smaller of the two changelings face.
"It's up to you my queen, if you wish to make your escape, I can create a distraction. However, if we stay here we might be able to wait long enough and with any luck the ones who captured you won't return before then."
Chrysalis nodded "Will wait it out, we've suffered injuries today, no need to risk anymore."
The changeling queen made her way over to the now opened window and did her best to peek through the curtains. It was as Thorax had said; many of the guards had begun forming large groups above the town before taking flight back towards Canterlot. However, something caught her attention that made her blood run cold. Above a large tree house flew a pony much larger than of the other cards. She couldn't make out any details from this distance, but she was almost positive it was Celestia.
Using what magic she could muster she slowly slide the window shut and assumed the fetal position on the floor.
Noticing this Thorax took up position next to his queen
"Whats the matter your majesty?" concern thick in his voice
"Sh...she.. She’s out there." stuttered the stunned queen.
"Who's out there?"
"Cel... Celestia" she said pointing to the window
Thorax slowly peeked through the curtains and began scanning for any signs of the much larger pony princess. However, after several minutes of careful examination he was unable to find any signs of her or that she had ever been in the area. The only things that caught his eye were the groups of guards taking flight, slowly signalling their time for escapes approach.
"My queen, there's no sign of her out there. Are you sure you're not imagining things? You do appear to be under a lot of stress."
A small twitch went off in Chrysalis eye as she pulled herself towards the window. Oh well there he goes being silly again, of course she's out there However, once she managed to reach the window it only served to confirm Thorax's words.
Doing the best to regain her composure she stood back up and smiled at the changeling before
"Ye.. yes, that was just a test. Why don't you tell me how you managed to find Me." she said with a forced grin hoping that would effectively change the topic.
"Yes my queen!" Thorax said with a salute
"After the blast, Commander Mandible and I landed pretty close to you, but we lost you when you started running through the forest. The Commander ordered me to follow you well he made sure the others made it back to the hive safely."
Chrysalis nodded "So how did you manage to find me in this house? The entire royal legion is outside and you managed to do what they couldn't?"
"Actually I managed to catch up with you as that grey mare started pulling you away. So I disguised myself as one of the guards and took up chase. I followed her all the way back to this house. However I before I could find a way inside, several of the other guards told me to start searching the alleys. So I had to kill time until they left. After that I came back here and climbed in through the window."
"Why did you climb instead of fly through the window?"
"I didn't want to break my disguise"
Chrysalis gave a look of confusion at the changeling’s last statement
"You were disguised as a Pegasus, they can fly."
Thorax paused for a moment as he thought about it.
"Oh yeah" he said with an awkward laugh "I guess you're right."
Chrysalis facehoofed "How about we see what's going on outside."
The Changeling queen slowly made her way towards the window once again. Moving the curtains slightly to scan the outside. To her joy the streets were almost completely empty, not a single guard could be seen in the air or on the streets below.
Oh goodie she thought to herself as she clapped her hoofs together.
"I believe it's time we make our escape."
Thorax nodded "Before we go, may I suggest a change to the plan?"
"Sure, it's not like we had a plan to begin with."
"What if I take the shape of you my queen? That way when the ponies that captured you return they have no Idea that you've actually escape, giving you more time to gather any stragglers and escape. I'll give you an hour to get ahead and after that I'll make my escape."
The more Chrysalis thought about it, the better that planned seemed. Not only would it ensure the guards wouldn't be alerted, it also ensured she could get all the Changelings back home, mostly uninjured. Chrysalis nodded in agreement
"Okay, but if you don't reach the hive within two hours after my arrival I'll be sending a retrieval team."
With another flash of green Chrysalis found herself staring at her double. That always seemed weird to her, sure she'd taken the form of the same pony in the room as her before, but it always seemed so weird to see a second copy of herself. Doing the best she could she retied the ropes that had once held her, ensuring that should he need to Thorax would be able to release himself.
With a silent farewell Chrysalis made her way out of the room and down the stairs.
Chrysalis happily trotted to the front door. I'm home free she told herself. It had been a long day, and it would be nice to return to little hole in the earth. Though slightly more hungry and a little bruised not much worse for wear.
However her slight glimmer of joy was quickly replaced with terror as she opened the door, meeting face to face with the one creature she had hoped she would never have to see again.
There before her stood none other than Princess Celestia and though Chrysalis had already defeated her once this day. She now seemed different, more powerful.
"Hello, my little changeling" her voice as regal as always.
Chrysalis quickly slammed the door, placing all of her weight on it.
*Knock, Knock, Knock*
This is a terrible plan Chrysalis told herself, bracing the door with what little magic she had left.
*Knock, Knock, Knock*
"Who is it?" she answered only realizing how stupid that question was after the fact.
"Pizza" Celestia answered doing her best to mask her voice
"Really now, I'd expect more dignity from the ruler of Equestria."
"Candy gram!" The sun goddess said in a sing-song voice.
After several seconds of silence Celestia grew board, with a flash of her horn she now stood in front of the terrified Changeling Queen.
"Hello, my name is Celestia. I didn't get your name when you crashed my nieces wedding."
Chrysalis remained in her little safety ball on the floor, before muttering her name. "Chrysalis, nice to meet you" she muttered sticking a hoof out blindly. To her terrified surprise, she felt another hoof grasp her.
"Well Chrysalis, it's nice to properly meet you." rang the cheerful voice of the princess
"Wha...What?" mumbled the terrified Changeling
"I said nice to meet you." Celestia repeated
Chrysalis looked up, expecting see the angry face of a god. However, once again to her surprise she was met with something she had not expected instead of expression of angry or even hatred. She was met with an expression that appeared to be a mixture of both concern and happiness.
"Are you okay? You weren't hurt were you?"
Chrysalis was stunned; this had to have been some kind of trick. But the more she stared at the Sun Goddess before her the more her fears dissipated.
"I'm fine" Chrysalis mumbled
"Well that's good to hear, I didn't expect the power of love to have such a powerful kick to it. Why don't you stand up so we can talk?"
Chrysalis gave no response; instead she continued to stare at Celestia searching for any signs of trickery. But once again her expressions and words remained truthful.
"If you want we don't have to sit stand up, but I think it would better if we got more comfortable don't you?"
Without thinking Chrysalis found herself nodded and she was quickly surrounded by a golden glow. She hadn't expected Celestia's magic to feel this way, especially after the battle they had fought. This magic felt nothing like what she had felt before. It felt good; she could feel it spread throughout her body and very being.
With a flash they disappeared from the hall only to reappear one room over in the living room. Each of them now sitting on a separate couch.
"Now that's much better isn't?"
Once again Chrysalis found herself nodding
"So let us discuss a few things, such as why you found yourself invading Canterlot."
Chrysalis thought about it and after some time she realized she didn't have any alternative options. So she began to talk, she did so in the hopes that maybe she had been wrong. Maybe there were some creatures that didn't see Changelings as foal eating monsters and so she told Celestia everything.
After what seemed like ages Chrysalis finished her stories. Throughout it she had explained everything, starting from the day the Changeling hunts began leading to their underground isolation and finally reaching her plan to infiltrate Canterlot and yet throughout her entire tale Celestia showed no signs of anger. Instead she saw emotions ranging from sadness to pity, but never anger.
"If you were aware of my sister and I why did you never seek our counsel? I'm sure we could have found a solution."
Chrysalis let out a genuine laugh "You can't be serious, ponies were no real threat to us. However, you and your sister control the movement of the sun and moon. We thought that if either of you ever found out about or existence we'd be wiped off Equestria.
Celestia's expression quickly shifted. Part of her understood the creature that sat before her. It was a creature that had its life in roll forced upon it. She tried to recall whether she or Luna had ever created these creatures. However she found the eons had faded any of those memories of long ago. Staring at the creature though, she could only feel sadness. It very way of is what condemned it to be a monster in the eyes of her ponies.
"Chrysalis, what if I could find a solution? A way for both Changelings and Ponies to live in peace?"
"Why would you want to help us? We attacked your Castle and hid your niece in a cave" Asked the confused Changeling Queen
"Well first off a castle can be rebuilt and Princess Cadance isn't one to hold a grudge and if she knew what I now know, I don't think she'd be against trying to help you and your people. But most importantly, no creature should have to live like that. Slowly starving in the dark."
"So what could you possibly do to help us?"
Celestia let out a soft chuckle as she stood up "You just let me figure that one out for now though, I'm going to leave you in the care of these ponies, and I’m sure after a nice talk they'll agree to it."
"And what about the other changelings? Once the news spreads further the hunt will be back on."
Celestia gave a devious smile "Don't worry about that, I'll give a few press quotes change up the story and by the end of it, nopony will even know changelings were there. Don't worry about any that might have been captured. I'll have the guards personally escort them."
"So let me get this straight, my people are free to go, you'll help us find away to return to the surface and all I've got to do is stay here with those three ponies."
Celestia nodded in the affirmative "That's correct, my sister and I will do all the work all you have to do is stay here and out of trouble, heck you can even try to make some friends."
"Wait, I feed off love and you expect me to make friends and stay out of trouble? How exactly am I supposed to do that?"
Celestia shrugged "You're a clever girl, I'm sure you can figure this out."
With another golden flash Chrysalis was alone and confused, so very confused. But part of her was also glad, after everything she had been through and against all odds everything started looking up for her and her little changelings.
Sometime later the three ponies returned home, it had been a long day. First they had stopped to get ice cream, then they went to the park for a bit and afterwards they had been invited to dinner at Octavia's and Vinyl's house. Now it was finally time to go inside and deal with their "guest"
However as the three ponies entered the living room they were left both stunned and deeply confused. For on their couch sat not only the Changeling Queen they had bound upstairs, but now a second one had somehow joined her. Not only that but several empty wrappers and cans sat on the small table in front of them.
“No!” snapped the orange mare “There is no possible way I’m going to let her stay here.”
It had been the seventeenth “No” within the past hour, after returning home they had been greeted with Chrysalis and one of her minions lounging on Carrot’s couch. They were also met with an empty fridge. To make things worse, the Changeling Queen had created some absurd story about how Princess Celestia said she had to stay with them, till she could find a suitable solution to the changeling food problem.
“But Carrot, Princess Celestia said she had to stay with us.” Ditzy said as she finished refilling the fridge with fresh food, it was a weird experience being on the receiving end of the fridge raiding.
“And who told you that?” Carrot asked
“Prin-“ Ditzy was quickly cut off as Chrysalis entered the room
“I did, and I can assure you everything I’ve told you has been the truth.” answered the Changeling Queen, as she magically picked up a can of Soda from the freshly filled fridge.
Carrot could feel the urge to harm the large Changeling rise as she heard the hiss of the can opening. However, she fought the thoughts back into their corner. Maybe later she told herself.
“Why exactly should I believe you? You aren’t exactly the most trustable creature and you yourself admitted to trying to escape.”
“Well if you don’t believe me, why don’t you just go ask her?”
“That’s a great idea!” Carrot said sarcastically “I’ll just fly down to Canterlot and ask Princess Celestia if the Changeling Queen I have hiding out in my house, is a fugitive or not. Then I’ll ask her if she’s staying with me.”
Chrysalis shrugged “Hey, it’s not like she’s just going to come crashing through the roof to confirm my story.”
The mares fell silent as they waiting. After several seconds of awkward silence, Carrot Top was the first to speak up.
“I honestly thought that would work, it seems to work every other time.”
Ditzy and Chrysalis were in the process of nodding in agreement when the front door was violently ripped from its hinges and set hurtling towards the unfortunate Changeling Queen who was only able to utter a swear before being reasonably crushed by the impact.
The three remaining mares winced as the Changelings hoof twitched from underneath the door, before turning their gaze to the large hole where the front door had once sat.
“Come in Princess!” Carrot Top cheerfully shouted towards the empty door way. “You got her, though I don’t think this is what we had planned.”
“Don’t worry my little pony.” rang the sweet voice of Celestia as she entered through the large hole in the wall. “I’m sure I didn’t hur-“ Celestia paused as she stared at the carnage before her, Chrysalis was almost completely under the large wooden door, except for what she believe to be a front hoof, which continued to twitch “Ouch” Celestia said with a grimace.
“Yeah, this seemed funnier on paper, than in reality.” The sun Goddess added awkwardly,
After a few seconds of awkwardly staring at each other Celestia’s horn began to glow as she began undoing the revenge scheme gone wrong. The door lifted from the crushed Changeling Queen, after a few seconds the door had been magically reattached and was better than new.
Now she turned her focus the Chrysalis who remained crushed on the floor, slowly a golden glow began to surround the Changeling Queen as her injuries were quickly healed by the sun itself, with sharp gasp life returned to the Changeling as she shot to her feet.
“What happened?!” Shouted the confused Changeling mare
The three other mares stood in silence as Chrysalis gaze shifted to each one of them. After several seconds Ditzy was the first to speak up.
“Carrot Top and Princess Celestia, thought it would be funny to get some revenge on you so when we went out to get ice cream Princess Celestia showed up and set up the entire plan to hit you with the door. But I think she messed up the plan and might have killed you, just a bit though, you got better.” Ditzy finished her entire explanation in one breath. Looking like she was about to collapse from lack of oxygen the grey mare fell to her flank.
Celestia and Carrot silently stared at Ditzy mouths hung open in complete shock, they had been ratted out in under 20 seconds by their own co-conspirator.
The sun fell from the sky and the moon quickly took its place. The mortal mares looked out the window in confusion; it was at least another three hours before sun down.
“Oh my, just look at the time.” Blurted the sun goddess “I must be going, please forward any complaints about attempted murder to my sister.” With a brilliant golden flash Celestia was once again gone.
“Well then,” Carrot Top began with an awkward smile “why don’t we have somethin-“
The orange mare was cut off by Chrysalis as she began to trot out of the room
“I’m going to bed, if you want to see me really angry, try and wake me up.” With that Chrysalis turned the corner into the living room and was gone.
“Put a sheet on the couch, I don’t want Changeling goop on it.” Shouted the orange mare.
“I’ll swallow your soul” rang the returned shout of the Changeling Queen
“Okay then, looks like we are going to bed early.” Muttered Carrot as she exited the room, closely followed by both Dinky and Ditzy.
Three Hours later
Equestria was silent; many of the confused ponies had accepted that night came early. A few had formed groups and began their march towards Canterlot, where the evil Nightmare Moon held their beloved Princess Hostage. However, that’s a story for another time. Like most of Equestria, Carrot Top’s house was silent, Carrot and Ditzy were soundly asleep in their respective rooms and Dinky had fallen asleep after sneaking into her mother’s bed.
However, there was a single exception to the silence of the house, a single mare that rebelled against sleep. Chrysalis, continued to lay on the couch, running through the events that had led to this moment. Then two thoughts snapped into place. The first was how weird the day had been and the second was how uncomfortable this couch was.
“This won’t do” Muttered the Changeling Queen as she stood back up. “I’m going to have to get creative if I plan on making this work.” A devious grin slipped across her face as she thought back to a room she had seen during her bout of freedom, and then another thought hit her.
“Where in Tartarus did Thorax go?” she shrugged in response, not my problem she told herself.
After a few seconds of stumbling in the dark and one quick fall down a flight of dark stairs, Chrysalis found herself in the basement. With a bit of concentrated magic she was able to find the light switch, with a quick flick her sight was restored.
With a grin Chrysalis severed the room, sure it would need a “bit” of work, but when she was done with it, she’d have a perfectly good lair. As she began moving some large boxes away from the furthest wall she noticed something strange.
“Thorax, what are you doing?” She asked the smaller changeling who apparently fallen asleep in side one of the boxes.
The much smaller Changeling quickly snapped to his hooves
“Securing the area my queen.” He said with a quick and awkward salute
“Sure you were.” Retorted the Queen “Gather yourself my little Changeling, tonight we build.”
“As you wish my Queen” Thorax shouted enthusiastically as he proceeded to trip and knocked several smaller boxes to the floor.
Chrysalis stared at the mess on the floor before returning her gaze to the Changeling who was happily moving boxes completely oblivious to the mess he was creating
“Actually I have a better task for you; I want you to head out Canterlot and contact Celestia.”
A look of terror spread across the Smaller Changelings face as he realized he most likely wouldn’t be returning.
“Do not worry my little Changeling, we’ve come to an “agreement” you well be welcomed there. However, do not break your disguise, it would be best to keep our remaining presence hidden. Once you’ve found her, ask her to return here.”
With that the smaller Changeling disappeared in a wall of green flame. In his place now stood a white Pegasus, with a silent salute Thorax disappeared up the stairs and out of the basement.
“Poor fool” Chrysalis said with a chuckle “Disguised himself as one of the day guards, during the night guard’s shift.” Returning her focus back to the task at hand, she continued to move items from the back wall.
The next morning
The three mares sat at the large wooden table and happily ate their breakfast. Ditzy as usual was eating a large carrot muffin her new personal favorite after an incident with an exploding blue berry muffin. Carrot and Ditzy however, were enjoying a bowl of the latest cereal to hit Equestria, Nightmare O’s according to the box they “Contain a little bit of Lunar Banishment in ever box.”
Then something dawned on Carrot, it was silent, too silent. In the one day since their latest “guest” had arrived it was never quiet. Carrot quickly lifted herself from her seat and began trotting towards living room, where the Changeling queen apparently slept. Upon her arrival her worst fears were confirmed, Chrysalis was gone.
“Ditzy, we have a bit of a problem!” shouted the orange mare
“What’s the matter Carrot?” Answered Ditzy almost instantly, causing Carrot to jump a good foot into the air.
“How did yo- actually, never mind. Do you know where our guest is?”
“Yeah, she’s in the basement” answered the grey mare cheerfully. “She woke me up last night because she needed to borrow some power tools.”
“We don’t have power tools.” Stated the confused orange mare
“I keep a full set of power tools in each room, In case of emergencies” Ditzy’s expression became far more serious as she said those last few words.
“Disregarding the fact that you’re probably insane, we should probably go see what kind of mess she’s created.”
Ditzy’s expression melted back to that of happiness “Okay Carrot!” she happily said as she trotted off towards the Basement.
As they descended into the basement any hope of finding Chrysalis hanging shelves was quickly destroyed. As the three ponies continued their slow decent down the stairs, they began to notice a thick black substance coating the walls. Doing their best to avoid the gunk they continued down to the basement.
“What did she do down here?!” Shouted the aggravated mare, as she looked at the destruction within her basement. The black substance that coated the stairway was even more prominent within the basement itself. As well as several small sacks of green muck. However, the main source of her anger was the large hole at the back wall. Upon closer inspection Carrot noticed that it wasn’t exactly a hole, as much as it was a stair case.
“Well down the Rabbit hole” muttered the orange mare as her and her two companions began their decent into the unknown.
Carrots felt her emotions mix as they reached roughly ten minutes of continuous decent. She felt amazed by such a creation. Never had she seen such architecture, the stairs themselves were their own feat; they appeared to be hoof carved with great detail and care.
Alien like plants covered the walls, some gave off a sinister glow, providing the light by which they descended. The decent filled Carrot with Horror on its own, the sheer depth at which she had descended seemed impossible and yet here she stood at the entrance to another world.
Carrot, Dinky and Ditzy gasped in unison as they entered this new found world. A field of grass spread out as far as the eye could see. Upon looking up, they were met with another amazing site, the sky however, something was off with this sky, instead of bright blue Equestrian sky they had known all their lives, they were met with a completely alien sky, large plant like tendrils descended from the green sky . Dinky and her mother took everything in amazement, whereas Carrots mind had to fight itself to keep from shutting down.
“Hey mom, look over there!” shouted the young filly as she took off towards the only landmark in this completely alien worlds. Ditzy quickly following behind her daughter as they headed towards the monolith like rocks that sat beneath a large orb of light, that served as this worlds sun.
“Wait!” Shouted the orange mare “We don’t know if it’s safe.” However, her cries fell on deaf ears as her friends took off into the unknown, forcing Carrot to follow behind them.
Upon arrival at the strange out crop Carrot was met with something that managed to push her amazement, at the center of the rocks was Chrysalis. However it wasn’t the Changeling Queen that pushed her amazement, it was what she was doing. Chrysalis was hanging shelves on a small wooden bookshelf.
“What?” muttered the Changeling as she placed the drill back on the rock.
With that, Carrot Top finally felt something snap.
“What? You’re asking me what?” snapped the poor mare. “No, I’ll be the one asking that. What in the seven fires of tartarus is this? You’ve destroyed my basement and built this in less than a night.”
“Do you like it?” The oblivious Queen asked quite pleased with her work.
Carrot was about to continue her rant when she paused to think about the question, sure she thought everything about it was amazing, but that wasn’t the point. Chrysalis had destroyed her basement, and created some secret world beneath Ponyville.
Before she had the time to continue her verbal assault she was once again stunned as Princess Celestia walked out from behind some of the largest rocks, completely oblivious to the new arrivals.
“See, I told you, with enough explosives and some dark magic we could build a perfectly good lairs for the rest of the Changelings. Once we get everything sorted out, I’m sure it’ll only take a month to get the rest of them moved from the outlining caves.” Celestia turned her gaze back up to the miniature sun “Less than two days and we’ve already made progress.”
“More Changelings?” muttered the Carrot Top, her voice less than a whisper. “More Changelings!?” she shouted, her voice alerting Celestia to their presence, the sun goddess felt something she hadn’t felt in eons, fear.
“Hey, this isn’t my pantry.” The Princess said awkwardly, before teleporting to some unknown corner of the universe.
“How many more?!” Snapped Carrot
“One maybe two hundred, from the first colony.”
The stress of the morning finally one out and Carrot fell to the ground, she wouldn’t awake for quite some time and when she finally did she would find herself in the presence of Princess Celestia once again.
{Quick Note: This Chapter was written entirely on my Ipod, meaning Grammar and Spelling suffered a little more. This chapter is also much shorter than most (1500 – 2000 words) Once again I’d like to apologize for me breaking my computer and screwing things up further}
{Author Note: This chapter serves as a bridge for the rest of the story. Due to time College and other things in life, I'll be taking this story in a more episodic style. The chapters that come after this one, will most likely have their own self-contained story, I'm sorry if this displeases anyone, my options were this, or completely stopping the story.)
Beautiful, simply beautiful Chrysalis thought to herself as she starred out at the open valley before her. It had been litter more than a week since the new haven had been built and everything was going smoothly. Celestia had remained true to her word; the changelings that her soldiers had already captured had been safely escorted to their new home beneath Ponyville.
One thing continued to bug the changeling queen though, Celestia continued to help them out and yet she asked for nothing in return. She knew Celestia had to have some form of ulterior motive but she had no clue what that was.
"My Queen, there's a pony at the main entrance, she requesting an audience with you." The young Changelings intrusion was enough to knock Chrysalis out of her thoughts.
"If it's the ponies from stairs, I thought I made it clear that this is as much their home as it is ours." Chrysalis answered trying her best to suppress her annoyance. Though she hadn't seen much of the three ponies that recused her, well captured her in the first place. She still received a visit from them every now and again, not so much from the orange one.
The small one and her mother would come down most often. They were fascinated with her children and her children were equally fascinated by the foal and her mother. Two ponies that showed no signs of fear or disgust with the Changeling race, instead they visited them as if they were old friends, causally talking to any who worked up the nerve to approach them.
"My queen?" The young Changeling repeated for the fifth time.
"Oh, pardon me, I was lost in thought." the Changeling Queen answered shacking the memories away
"It’s not the ponies from upstairs."
It was only then that Chrysalis noticed the fear on the young Changelings face
"Then who is it?" Chrysalis asked taking on a more serious tone, it had to be something serious to cause one of her soldiers fear.
"The one from the wedding."
"Celestia?" The confused Changeling Queen asked "She's been coming in and out all week, I thought you'd be use to protocol by now."
The changeling shook his head "No the one who's form you took." he grimaced
"Oh buck me." the queen winced as the Princess of love came into view
"Hello Chrysalis." Spoke the pony princess "It’s been quite some time since we last met."
"Yes, Cadence it has been quite some time." the Changeling Queen answered as she slowly backed away.
"Do not fear me Chrysalis." Cadence said as she reached a hoof out. "My dear Changeling, I hold no grudge."
Chrysalis hesitated Okay now this I'm calling shenanigans on, I took her place for three days. I almost ruined her wedding day. There is no possible way she'd forgive me that easily. I'm going to just go ahead and assume the revenge card. pushing those thoughts to the back of her head she took a step back towards the Princess and her loyal Changeling
"Well then, why exactly are you here then?" Chrysalis asked doing her best to hide the suspicion in her voice.
Cadence sighed "Well, I actually came here for two reasons, one reason is on official business and the second reason is to put some of your fears to rest."
Cadence paused to conjure up a pillow for herself, before taking a set in front of the changeling queen’s throne.
"As I've already said, I bare no grudge towards you."
"And why is that?" Chrysalis asked her need for answers over powering her suspicion
Cadence shrugged "After you and the rest of the Changelings were sent flying away from Canterlot I was furious, I had ordered the guards to begin the search as soon as the wedding was over. But Auntie Celestia had another plan and after a bit of convincing I agreed with it."
Chrysalis wasn't convinced "So you're telling me, just because your aunt asked you to play along with her, you completely got over any hate for me."
Cadence gave a nervous chuckle "Well that's not completely true, Auntie Luna was giving me some dream therapy to help get over my anger and coming her to see you myself was the final step."
I guess that makes sense Chrysalis told herself from what she had seen so far that Celestia was quite the convincing leader. In the past week alone she had managed to earn most of the changelings trust an amazing feat considering they were enemies a mere week before. But now it was time get to the business portion.
"Okay then, now that we've got that part settled, would you like to tell me what the serious business portion of your visit was about."
"My aunt requests your audience." Cadence said with a grin
"Why didn't she just come herself?"
"Because where she wants to meet cannot be reached by conventional means." Answered the Princess of Love her grin only continuing to grow.
She's playing games Chrysalis told herself as she slammed a hoof down "Then how does she propose I meet her, if I have no knowledge of where or how to find her?!"
Cadence chuckled "You let me deal with that, all you have to do is sleep."
"What do yo-" *Thwack* with a mighty thud the Changeling Queen was rendered unconscious her motionless body falling to ground in front of the young soldiers and his queens attacker.
"Do you feel better?" asked the Changelings as his body was engulfed in blue flames.
"Much better Auntie Luna." Cadence said with a giggle as she turned to face her aunt. The last bits of Luna’s disguise burning away with the flames.
"Do you think you can forgive her?" The Lunar princes asked with a grin
Cadence shrugged "Let me do one or two more things before she wakes up and I'll consider us even." The devious princess laughed as she conjured several small markers and large box of corks.
"Cadence, I feel as though you've been spending too much time with Discord."
Cadence shrugged once again "If you want to be so boring, I for one am going to enjoy this immensely."
Meanwhile in a void between Nothing and Everything
The Changeling queen let her eyes slowly began to open, she was met with a blinding light and the pounding of her head. From her view point on the floor, if it could actually be called that. She could see she was no longer in her hive, but instead a large white room. Slowly the Changeling Queen was able to climb to her hooves, doing her best to ignore the pounding of her head.
"What happened" she slurred still trying to shake the dazed like feeling
"I believe Cadence still holds some form of grudge." rang a familiar but unseen voice. "Hard to blame her though, you did almost ruin her wedding and hid her in a cave for three days."
"Who's there?!" Hissed the Changeling queen as she searched the featureless room.
"Oh, did I forget the physical body? Give me a moment." The voice echoed seemingly nowhere and yet it was everywhere at once.
As her vision finally stopped its spinning and the drums inside of her head finally began to stop their assault on her brain Chrysalis was finally able to recognize the voice.
"Celestia?! Where are you?" Shouted the queen
"Here I am!" rang the sing-song voice from behind her.
Chrysalis spun around on her hooves and found herself face to face with the Sun Goddess, her mane still managing to blow in an unnatural manner despite that lack of... well anything.
"Where are we and why does my head feel like someone hit me with a brick?" Stammered the confused queen as she continued to try and take in the lack of anything..
Celestia chuckled as she conjured two small couches, gesturing for Chrysalis to take a seat across from her.
"Let me answer your second question first, then I'll explain the first one. First off, I'm going to assume Cadence didn't use the spell I gave her?"
Chrysalis paused as the memories came back and a frown spread across her face
"She knocked me out!"
"You locked her in an abandon mine" the Sun Goddess retorted
"Fair enough." Now how about telling me where we are and why you brought me here?"
Celestia turned her gaze towards the nothingness that sat above them
"First off, try not to think of this place as a "where" instead you have to think of it as a "when" we a currently sitting in a place that never happened, It's a blank slate that we left out of time and space."
Chrysalis was amazed not even in her wildest dreams could she have imagined something like this could exist. Well technically it didn't exist, but that's beside the point.
"Here the normal rules don't apply" Celestia continued "Here there are no restrictions on what I can do with my powers."
With a flash of her horn the white room was gone. Chrysalis and Celestia now found themselves sitting in a large open field a single oak tree provided shade for the both of them.
Chrysalis was stunned, had never even considered magic this powerful existed.
"Beautiful isn't it?" Celestia asked as she stared into the sun
Chrysalis nodded in response
"Surely you didn't bring me here, just to show off your powers."
Celestia's face slowly gained a red shade
"Really?" the Changeling Queen groaned "You really brought me here to show off."
"No" the Sun Goddess answered awkwardly "I...I want to talk to you about something important."
"And what’s that?" The skeptical Queen asked
Think Celestia think The Alicorn told herself Come on, you can't tell someone you brought them here just to show off. You're good at lying on the spot, we can totally play this off.
"Well, I wanted to talk to about trust." Celestia answered doing her best to sound confident in her lie.
"What is there to talk about, I trust you, you trust me." retorted the Queen
What is there to talk about? Celestia asked herself Distraction, that's what we need a nice big distraction
"Is it really hot out here? Or it just me?" The princess blurted and with another brilliant flash of her horn they found themselves on a beach, the cool breeze slowly whistling past them.
"Wow isn't that much better?" Celestia asked with a forced chuckle
"Yes, it's so much better." Chrysalis answered flatly "Now how about you tell me what you wanted to tell me."
Come on Celestia we got Twilight to go out and makes some friends with a lie and hell, that ended with her earning the Elements of Harmony Celestia continued to coach herself Now just make up a lie about trust and we'll be home free for the next thousands years or so. Then a spark went off Twilight and friends
"Well you see, I trust you, and you trust me. That is correct, but the other Changelings do not trust ponies and vice-verse. I've devised a plan to remedy this situation." Celestia stated proudly
"You're making this all up on the fly aren't you?" Chrysalis asked
"Shut up and listen to my amazing plan" answered Celestia "The news of the Changeling attack has already spread quite far across Equestria and it'll eventually reach all the way across. The bad news cannot be stopped and the damage will be done. However, we can reverse its effect."
"And how exactly do you expect to do that?" Asked the skeptic Queen
"Simple" the Sun Goddess answered rubbing her hooves together "We provide good news about the Changelings."
"What kind of good news?"
Celestia gave a devious chuckle "Well first you need to complete phase one, then we can continue onto phase two"
Chrysalis gave a sigh "You don't have a phase two yet, do you?"
"Shut up and listen to phase one" hissed the Equestrian Ruler
The Changeling Queen gave a groan "Fine what's phase one?"
"You will befriend the Elements of Harmony and the other ponies of Ponyville" Celestia finished with a manacle laugh. However it seemed the conjured beach enjoyed Celestia's laugh as much as Chrysalis as one of the larger waves managed to not only hit, but completely drench the Princess.
"You know Celestia; an evil laugh works better when you're creating an evil scheme, not plotting for someone to make friends." The Changeling Queen said with a genuine laugh as the Soaked Princess's horn began to glow as she dried herself off.
"Yes, because I'm going to totally take advice from the villain who was defeated by the power of love." retorted the princess
"Shut up and tell me how making friends will make ponies trust the Changelings?"
"It’s quite simple actually, if the Elements of Harmony, the ponies who have saved Equestria twice now, trust you, Then more ponies might be willing to give Changelings a chance."
"So are the Elements aware of your plan?" Chrysalis asked
Celestia laughed "Are you kidding, the only one who knows you're here is Twilight Sparkle."
"Oh great, so the only pony who knows I'm here is the sister of one of the ponies who's wedding I almost ruined. Let me guess, she probably wants to knock me out as well?"
"Actually no" answered Celestia "She's more fascinated with the Changelings, in fact she's asked several times to come with me on my check-ups. I'll set up a meeting for you two, maybe if you let her do some studying on you, she'll be your friend."
"So I'm supposed to become her friend, by letting her do science to me? Yeah, there's no way you're not making this up on the spot." groaned the Chrysalis
"Oh well look at the time" stated Celestia "It looks like our time together is over." the Sun Goddess finished as she conjured a large brick.
"Don't you dar-" *Thud* Chrysalis world faded to black
Back in the Hive
"I can't believe you filled every one of her leg holes with corks" stated the astonished Lunar Goddess
Cadence laughed "Well I can't believe you have such artistic skills with a blue sharpie"
Life began to stir within the Changeling Queen once again. The sudden movements startling the two ponies princess.
"I think it's time we head home, right auntie?" Cadence quickly asked
Luna nodded "Couldn't agree with you more." With a blue flare of her horn the two ponies vanished, leaving the groggy Changeling Queen to herself.
"I really have to learn to duck." groaned Chrysalis as she rubbed her head. Once again she found herself climbing to her hooves and once again she found herself alone, save for the Changelings playing in the fields below. It was only as she took a step towards her nest that she noticed a strange feeling in her legs.
Looking down she was able to see the source of the strange sensation, during her little "nap" someone had seen it fit to plug her leg holes
"Very funny" she muttered to herself as she focused her magic to remove the corks. Each firing off like a small cannon ball.
"All of them are lunatics" she groaned ash she continued towards her nest. As she approached her nest a small shimmer of light caught her eye.
"A mirror?" she asked herself as she examined the small polished hoof mirror. It was then that she saw the other part to their sick and twist joke. Across her muzzle that Evil Princess had drawn a large mustache, which could only be described as fabulous; around both her eyes Cadence had drawn two large black rings and angry eyebrows.
Chrysalis moaned as she dropped the mirror
"I remember when I didn't have these kinds of problems, it was a nice time."
{I'm sorry if this chapter didn't meet people’s expectations, the entire thing was written in one sitting and completely on the fly. Once again, due to my time constraints (College) I'm not completely sure when I'll be able to write another chapter.}
(I truly hope you guys will forgive me for the future delays)
Final Chapter: The Unexpected Change (Story Merged)
{ Do to a lack of time caused by College; I have to end this story here. I would like to apologize to those who have taken the time to follow it this far. However, Chrysalis Torment is far from over, you can follow her suffering by going to Equestria's Crazies This isn't a "full" chapter only a means to close this story and create a bridge, it also serves as an announcement that I can be sure people will see. }
It had been a month since Chrysalis had set up her new home beneath Ponyville and surprisingly life had been good for both the Changelings and the Ponies. The entire hive had taken up the disguise of one pony a relative of Carrot Top staying with her for an indeterminate amount of time. The welcome part alone had provided the hive with enough energy to feast for months, something Chrysalis hadn't expected.
In the month the news of the Changeling attack had spread far and wide and for a while Chrysalis had feared the hunt might once again be on. However, both Celestia and Luna had quelled any attempts to start a witch hunt and instead had any captured Changelings shipped off to Ponyville.
Life was good for the Changelings once again and that's all that mattered to Chrysalis and lately she found herself doing something she hadn't done in ages, relaxing.
The Changeling Queen found herself lying in the cool morning grass, though the dew the coated it was of magical creation, it held the refreshing qualities nonetheless. From her vantage point atop the hill she could see the "Village" the other Changelings had built. It was a strange sight indeed, instead of building on singular construct for all the Changelings, they had taken up building houses though obviously built to look like Village far above them, and there were obvious alien features to them.
"Look out!" came the shouts of three foal, knocking Chrysalis from her thoughts as she turned to face the source of the voices she found the reason for their pleas as a large red ball collided with her head and bouncing downing the other side.
The three Changeling foals quickly rushed to their Queen bowing and begging for forgiveness. Chrysalis gave a small chuckle and sent them off in the direction their ball.
It's good to see children play again. She thought to herself It has been ages since the newborns were able to enjoy themselves instead of trained from combat She shook the darker memories from her mind and watched as the three foals chased the ball currently heading towards the town.
Once again her thoughts were interrupted, this time however it was by a blinding flash of light. Quickly she climbed to her hooves and began searching the area for the source. However, as far as she could tell, there was no source.
"What in Tartarus was tha-" Chrysalis's question was cut off as it answered itself
"Discord you idiot!" came a cry from above "You forgot a zero!"
Chrysalis turned her gaze skyward, doing her best to block out the glare from the artificial sun that lit her paradise. Far above her she was able to make out the silhouette of at least 3 creatures plummeting towards the field bellow. Casually she made her way towards their estimated landing point.
Meanwhile
"Discord you idiot!" Luna shouted "You forgot a zero!"
Discord shrugged as they continued their descent towards quickly approaching field
"Well if I'm such an idiot why didn't you just teleport us here?"
"I had more hope that you could pull of a simple teleportation spell without something going wrong." the Moon Goddess hissed.
Discord gave a forced laugh "Oh, I thought it was the fact that last time you tried to teleport your front half went to Canterlot while you flank went to the moon."
"That's it!" growled Luna as a layer of black magic covered her own and a spell began to form.
However, the spell was quickly ended as their decent ended as well. With a bone shattering crunch the two of them slammed into the ground.
"Huh, who knew someone could forget they had wings." the Sun Goddess said with a laugh as she landed in front of Chrysalis.
Chrysalis felt a mixed set of emotions run through her. Confusion, amusement, surprise and a bit of pity for the two morons who forgot they could fly. But mostly confusion. However, she remained silent and continued to watch as the two gods slowly climbed from their crater, shoving and pushing each other back down like foals.
Celestia sigh "You two need to grow up already, you're eon old and yet you still act like children." with that she grasped them with a spell and placed them at her sides, before finally turning her attention to Chrysalis.
"Good morning to you as well." answered Chrysalis "What brings you to my humble abode this day?" She asked secretly hoping it wasn't about what she thought it might be.
"Well" Celestia began "I'm sure you know why I'm here, I gave you a single task almost a month ago, I've given you the benefit of the doubt that you'd complete it in your own time and sadly you haven't."
"Now, I can explain myself." Chrysalis stuttered as she took a step back, preparing herself to run if things turned ugly.
"There is no need for fear, Chrysalis." Celestia interrupted as she tried to ease the Changeling Queens nerves. "I have come up with an alternate means to improve your public image and help ease the ponies fears of Changeling.
Chrysalis let her guard drop "And what pray-tell is that?"
"You'll be moving from Ponyville to Canterlot." Celestia said bluntly
"Wha..what?!" Stuttered the Queen "You're kidding right? We've just got everything set up here!"
"Do not fear Chrysalis, It'll all be here when you return and just think if everything works out when you return your people will no longer require a disguise to move about." Celestia said calmly "You'll also be able to move between the Castle and your hive any time you wish."
"And what if I refuse?" Chrysalis asked slightly worried at the response she might receive
"Well" Celestia began cheerfully "If you refuse, I'll have no choice but to place you under arrest, afterwards you'll be escorted to Canterlot where my original plan will continue. Either way, it's going to happen, how it happens is completely up to you."
Chrysalis was speechless, Celestia wasn't kidding. Everything was going so well too, deep down inside Chrysalis had expected something like this; her luck was never that good.
"Very well Celestia, I'll accept your offer. But in my absence, who will watch over my little Changelings.
Haha Chrysalis laughed to herself you've got her now, she'll have to let you stay.
A soft golden glow began to form around her horn and with a flash another flash of light two smaller ponies had joined the group.
"For the last time" groaned Carrot Top "Ditzy, you're a Pegasus you can't use magi-" Carrot Top paused as she noticed they were no longer in the living room.
"See Carrot!" Exclaimed the excited Pegasus "I told you, I read all of Twilight's spell book."
"Wow, I'm amazed my little pony I haven't seen a Pegasus use magic in quite some time." Celestia stated, hopefully the mare wouldn't realize what had actually happened. "I wouldn't try something like that often though, it's quite dangerous"
Discord was about to speak up and state what really happened. However, a quick hoof to the jaw from Luna was enough to silence the loose lipped god of Chaos.
Carrot Top and Ditzy both exchange a quick confused glace with each other, before bowing to both their princesses. For a time it had been quite common for either one or both of the Princess to show up at their house. Though as of lately neither of them had even written.
"It's good to see you both." Celestia said as she returned a quick bow to each of them. "I've got a "small" task for you."
A small look of worry spread across Carrot's face last time she was asked a favor by the Princess of the Sun it ended with an entire hive of Changelings living beneath her house.
"What is that?" the orange mare cautiously asked
"For the next little while Chrysalis will be staying with us." Celestia began "In that time, I want you to look over her hive."
Carrot Top was Stunned, Ditzy was ecstatic, Chrysalis was Confused.
"You are the only two ponies other than Twilight Sparkle who are aware the Changeling hive is here. You are also the ponies with the most experience on Changelings; it makes sense that you would make the best leaders in Chrysalis place."
Before Carrot Top and Chrysalis had a chance to voice their opinion, Celestia horn began to glow and in a flash of light only Carrot Top and Ditzy remained.
"Did you hear that!" shouted Ditzy "We're Queens!"
Carrot Top groaned and fell to the ground "That's good Ditzy, that's good."
Meanwhile in Canterlot
The three mares and one Draconequus reappeared within the throne room of Canterlot Castle. However, not everything had gone as expected. Apparently in their absence Blueblood had taken upon himself to throw a small "party" for him and some of the higher class snobs.
Celestia had already begun her speech for sending Blueblood and his gang packing. However the sight of the Changeling Queen was enough to do that for her. The nobles scattered as they did their best to flee from the Changeling pushing each other in their attempt to save each of their own lives.
The four of them couldn't help but laugh at the panic caused by the sudden appearance of the Changeling Queen after several seconds the room was destroyed, but also emptied.
Celestia was the first to speak up "Well it looks like we won't have to worry about spreading the news of your arrival in Canterlot. I'd say within the next hour there should be a fair sized angry mob looking for your head on a stake."
Chrysalis was horrified "What do we do then?" she asked nervously
"I'll tell them to go home." Celestia answered flatly "Now, if we don't want to be disturbed I believe its best that I give you the short version of our tour. Luna, Discord would you be so kind as to find Blueblood and deal with him?"
Luna and Discord both nodded in agreement before heading in the direction they last saw Blueblood screaming like a mare in on their way through Luna paused to tap Discord on the shoulder
"Why did she bring us along if she didn't need us?" The confused Lunar Goddess asked?
Discord shrugged "Any screen time is good screen time." With that the two of them continued back on their way.
Chrysalis and Celestia continued on their way through Canterlot Castle. During her time as Cadence she learned the layout of the castle quite well. However, now she had a real chance to explore and move about as she pleased.
"Okay then, our first stop will be your room. Which is right up here. You'll be in the room across from the Nightmare Moon.
A look of fear spread across Chrysalis's face "You mean.... the Nightmare Moon?" stuttered.
"Yes" Celestia causally answered "I believe you to will get along quite well. You both share the same interests, conquering Equestria and secretly plotting my downfall."
The two of them continued on their way, Chrysalis couldn’t help but wonder where the Alicorn of Darkness was. However, she shook the thought and continued on her way. Eventually coming to a stop at another large set of wooden doors.
"This room will serve as your office." Celestia stated as she opened the large wooden doors revealing a large empty room with a single window facing the Canterlot Hedge maze. "You'll be working cross Changeling and Pony affairs once everything is settled."
Without warning a small explosion ripped through the castle causing both Celestia and Chrysalis to shake with the floor. After a few seconds the ground stopped shaking.
"Chrysalis, you'll have to excuse me. It sounds like Nightmare has returned from her little vacation."
Chrysalis only gave a slow nod as she watched the Sun Goddess trot off she couldn't help but wonder to herself on constant thing
Why does all the weird stuff happen to me?
{As I stated before the story will continue in Equestria's Crazies I'd also like to apologize for this absolutely shitty chapter, I'm on very limited time and I won't be able to write again till at least the end of the weekend.}
