Chapter 1
In a single, blinding flash the battle was over. Years of planning and manipulation was washed away by a wave of purple energy and two crossed horns. The advancing dome of shimmering magic forced the changeling Queen Chrysalis and her dark brood from the streets of Canterlot. Her swarm is cast out in all directions, scattered like mere dust in the wind. Hurled miles away, the defeated queen makes a hard landing in a desolate region of Equestria known simply as The Expanse. She lies motionless for what seems like hours before her dark body begins to stir and her shimmering emerald eyes open to the burning sunlight.
“How…all my planning, all that power, how could I have failed” Chrysalis mutters weakly. Her broken and battered form resting on the hot sand. To escape the oppressive heat, she crawls into a small nearby cave leaving a trail of translucent green blood in her wake. She curls up in the cool dampness of cave hoofing at the bleeding cracks in her black carapace. “…end…can’t be the end…”
As her eyes begin to fall shut she hears a familiar fluttering sound at the mouth the cave accompanied by a sharp, echoing voice. “My Queen, are you here, are you hurt!” The voice carries into the bleak darkness of the sand cave. The reverberation makes the yell deafening, but it is still a pleasing sound to the young queen’s ears.
“Hurry you fools *cough* your...your Queen requires aid” she yells back, trying to sound as commanding as her wavering voice would allow. The thought of imminent rescue returns some of her strength.
Three jet black changelings come galloping out of the darkness, sliding to a halt in front of their fallen queen. The looks on their faces are that of collective horror, their gleaming eyes peeled wide. The largest of the three is dressed in thin, ebon armor. Its scratched and dull, damage likely caused by the impact with the desert floor.
“My lady we are thankful…”
With a violent slap from her front hoof Chrysalis silences her minion. “What took you so long, worthless nymph!” she barked at him harshly. “And address me with your name and rank cretin, before I tear you limb from limb for your insolence” she followed her first insult in the same jagged tone.
“My apologies my lady” speaks the dark figure as he rubs the side of his muzzle. “I am captain Ghnat, of the fifth drone legion. It is lucky that we found you my queen you’re in terrible…”
Chrysalis merely had to raise a single hoof in order to stop the captain mid-sentence. “My condition is fine. I will not be so easily beaten by those…those”
“Those wretched curs, my lady?” quips Ghnat.
With a piercing glare from his Queen, Captain Ghnat immediately drops his head in fear. Standing up slightly her sleek black body quivers in pain, she braces herself against an adjacent wall. “Yes, an adequate description.” Chrysalis smiles weakly. “They think us beaten, they think themselves safe. We shall ravage them!” she shouts into the unyielding darkness of the cave. The sudden burst of energy doesn’t last and she slides down the wall meekly.
“But my lady, the swarm is in shambles, we are scattered to the four winds” the captain exclaims loudly. “We lack the forces to mount any kind of retaliation.”
“We shall rebuild, we must rebuild. We cannot allow this insult to pass” says the dark mare coldly. “My brood will feed…on more than just love. We shall make them hate us, make them fear us. And we shall devour every emotion, every…last…drop. Now, help your Queen to her hooves, there is much to be done, and gather the remnants of the swarm. Execute any defectors who think to flee…”
“At once my lady, glory to the swarm!” The captain and his men briefly salute before each rushes to lift their Queen’s slender form. Her warm verdant blood drips down their ebon carapaces.
“Yes…glory to the swarm” A cracked smile forms across her black muzzle. “And death to all who oppose us.”
And so the dread queen set out to rebuild her broken brood, making the hostile land of The Expanse their temporary kingdom. So it went for nearly three years, rebuilding, training, planning. The rest of the world blissfully ignorant of the changeling Queens dark machinations. It continued to turn unmolested, and soon had forgotten about the changelings and their attempted coup altogether. They had been defeated, nothing more than an old-mares tale now. It was just as Chrysalis had hope. Soon, she would wreak her revenge on the peaceful inhabitants of Equestria.
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It is a typical summer in Ponyville, clear skies and warm weather. The pegasus ponies had worked overtime to make sure that this particular week was especially beautiful. It’s the week of the Summer Sun Celebration, and everypony whose anypony was out and about enjoying themselves. However the quaint hamlet has an unwelcome observer to the festivities. Queen Chrysalis stands silently on a small knoll just outside of town flanked by three of her finest drones, including the rather submissive Captain Ghnat. Years of planning and preparation were about to be put to the test; this was her hour and nopony would stop her. She had chosen this week deliberately, it would be the first in a long line of mockeries she would inflict.
“Look at them all, blissfully unaware that the wheels of fate are turning against them,” she quips as she surveys her future conquest. “I will make an example of each of them”. As she speaks, churning green fire beings to well up from around her hooves engulfing her. Moments later she steps out of the emerald inferno in the brilliant form of Princess Celestia herself. The three black changelings at her sides undergo a similar metamorphosis donning the guise of Canterlot’s royal guards.
Captain Ghnat gives a brief bow after assuming his new form. “What are your orders, my lady?”
In the soft voice of her regal disguise Chrysalis delivers her commands. “Stay at my side and don’t speak unless addressed, last thing I need is my plan to be ruined by your incompetence! I’ve been planning this moment for years, playing it out in my head daily” she trails off slightly as she seems to lose herself in her fantasy “…it will be magnificent”.
Chrysalis had learned from her past mistakes, she had studied for this role well. Her spies had managed to steal several of the letters Twilight and her mentor pass between each other. Using these dialogues the Queen had prepared herself, rehearsing her part religiously. Now, like a skillful Manehatten actor she would put on the performance of her life. How fitting it is that her life, and the lives of her brood, depended on it. With furious wing beats the grim imposters take to
the skies ready to put their dreadful plan into motion. Their destination was the gnarled tree-house that Twilight inhabited.
The young purple unicorn was out front of her library home, her muzzle pressed firmly into yet another leather-bound tome. Chrysalis landed before her with all the pomp and circumstance that should accompany a royal visit. Her massive wings unfurled and her white, be-horned, head was held high. Twilight, surprised at her sudden arrival, greets her faux mentor with a bewildered but sincere smile. What does she have to suspect? The changelings have been gone for near on three years. Such thoughts were the furthest thing from her mind. All she knew was that her mentor had decided to pick an absolutely horrible time to surprise her.
“Princess Celestia, I didn’t know you were coming…did Spike forget to give me a letter?” The inquisitive pony stares confused at what she thought was her beloved princess. “If I had known I would have made room in my schedule, I’m trying to read up on aerodynamics to help Rainbow Dash with her newest tricks…and she needs all the help she can get. She tried this one trick earlier…”
The young pony may as well have been speaking gibberish, every word passes by Chrysalis’s ears like the summer winds. She is utterly distracted by the raw emotion pouring from Twilight. It was no secret that Twilight adored Celestia, and that her devotion to the princess was almost fanatical. Such a love was overpowering, it was more than simply a student’s love for a mentor. It felt almost like the love a foal feels for their mother, a deep unshakeable bond. Chrysalises had suspected as much, the tone of the letters often took an intimate, family like, feel. Yet the dark Queen was still taken aback by such powerful feelings. It was more then she imagined, and more then she could have hoped for. Chrysalis basked in the sudden influx of emotion; she had almost forgotten its sweet taste. Before she allowed herself to be lost in the throes of pleasure, Chrysalis’s attention snapped back to her dark intentions.
“Twilight, my faithful student, I have come to you with dire news!” she interrupts trying to mimic the regel nuances of the princess. “I fear that the Changelings may not have been fully defeated, and what’s worse I fear they have infiltrated this very village with the intent to steal, or destroy, the Elements of Harmony! They have somehow discovered that we had them moved into town!” The Queen was of course, speaking from knowledge. Her spies had indeed discovered that the Elements had been moved to the village. The move was to make them better available to the six heroines should their services be needed quickly. It will prove to be a wasted effort.
Twilight's eyes grow wide as her *mentor* speaks. “But princess, it’s been three years and nopony has found any trace of the change….” Twilight stopped mid-sentence remembering the fact that shape-shifters would be rather hard to find. “If they’ve really returned what are we going to do?”
“We have a plan, and you play a key role in it. Come Twilight, let us speak indoors lest those foul beasts catch wind of our designs” she motions toward the round wooden door of the library. Both she and Twilight enter, Chrysalis’s new height and wingspan forces her to duck through the small opening.
“This is bad news, really bad news” the purple pony exclaimed as she trots to the *c* section of her library. “Maybe I have a book on changelings, something to give us an edge in finding them.”
“That is unnecessary; we already have a way to detect them”. Chrysalis motions to one of her guards who opens a small satchel and, being sure to using his mouth rather than magic, passes Twilight a scroll.
Even with her careful act working so well she knew she had to be quick. Though her plan had few moves, each required a quick and masterful execution. She had to make her move before Twilight's natural skepticism and curiosity saw past her disguise. It was almost time.
“That scroll contains an advanced spell that should allow you to see through the changelings illusions” she says while pacing around Twilight. “The spell requires two unicorns for it to be activated; we shall have to do it together. Once its cast we can begin the operation.”
Twilight levitates the scroll to eye level and begins mouthing the incantation etched into its surface. Her eyes fixed on the paper; she fails to notice that the magic emanating from her mentor’s horn is not its characteristic bright yellow. As Twilight utters the last word of the complex incantation brilliant green flames instantly surround her.
“Gah…” she yelps as she’s thrown back into a nearby bookshelf.
As the magic flames begin to dissipate, Twilight struggles to her feet. She opens her eyes, whose whites now bare a slight green hue, and walks back toward Chrysalis. She shakes her head vigorously and stumbles forward slightly, clearly disoriented. Chrysalis’s plan was working flawlessly, for the scroll that Twilight had activated was truly a curse, a more powerful variant of the mind-controlling spell the Queen used on both Shining Armor and Cadence’s bridesmaids.
“Prin…Princess my head is spinning” she murmurs as she attempts to halt her swaying. “Everything’s hazy; it’s hard to see clearly.”
“It’s a side effect of the spell Twilight, you will just have to deal with it and make the best of the situation!” She said forcefully, now able to relax her façade slightly. “Now, it’s time to put my…our plan into action! Gather your friends; tell them to meet you out in the field near Sweet Apple Acres”
“Should I gather the elements?” she asked.
“No, we don’t want to alert the changelings that we are on to them, as far as they know this visit is just part of the Summer Sun Celebration and nothing more,” her tone was returning to its old, forceful self as she grew more confident in her spell.
“Spike!” shouts the young unicorn “I need you to go get everypony, tell them to meet me near Applejack's farm!”
Everything was working better than expected. The Queen, even with her all-consuming ego, had feared the worst after her last failure. Those three years of diligent effort, of painstaking study, and countless sacrifices were paying off in spades. But this magnificent play was merely in its opening act, there was quite a ways to go before its grand finale.
With a twisted smile that made even Celestia’s warm face seem like that of a sociopath, Chrysalis calmly whispers “This day is going to be just perfect…”
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“Where in the hay is tha’ girl” Applejack exclaims impatiently. “Big Mac’s pullin’ ah double shift without meh.” The antsy farm pony’s orange fur was caked with the mud of a whole days work. She dug her hooves into the ground repeatedly, digging up a small earthworm in the process. “She knows ah got work ta’ do, somepony’s gotta feed all dem’ folks what’s gonna be at the Sun Celebration!”
“Have some patience darling I’m sure she will be along, Spike made it sound rather important.” Rarity spoke in her smooth, calming way. “And would you please stop digging at the ground, you’re going to kick up mud.” She was wearing a rather elegant shawl around her haunches and preferred that it not to be suddenly covered in mud.
“Yea, quit your complaining, egg-heads jus’ probably stuck in a book.” Rainbow quipped in her usual tone. The blue pegasus was lounging in a nearby oak with the always wary Fluttershy sitting on an adjacent branch.
“How would she get stuck in a book Dashie, aren’t they too small?” shouts the bouncing ball of sugar that is Pinkie Pie. “Must be a really big book!” Dash and the others simply stare, unsure if she was joking or just being Pinkie.
As they continue their friendly bickering they didn’t notice Twilight and the mock Celestia approach. The second phase of Chrysalis’s plan is put into action. She was growing impatient, but she clearly remembered what happened the last time she let emotions get in the way of her judgment. She would have to proceed carefully.
“Wait, Twilight, before we meet them I must know something” the false mentor whispers to her would-be student. “Look toward your friends, what do you see, anything unusual?”
The purple mare squints, the effects of the spell casting a veil over her eyes. “I think I see…a shimmer around them, a green shimmer” she bobbed her head around slightly, still disoriented. The spell was working; Twilight was seeing exactly what Chrysalis wanted her to.
“No…Twilight it is far worse then I feared then” trying to sound as sympathetic as possible. “Those are not your friends my student, they are changelings, the green shimmer you see around them is the spell doing its job.”
“Waa…what do we do?” Twilight's voice cracks in minor panic. “We have to find out what they’ve done with my friends!”
“In time, for now, we have to confront them” she says coldly motioning to her guards. “When we have them in custody we will find out where your friends are.”
The two mares and their changeling escort march towards the unsuspecting group. It’s show time, the curtains are raised and the second act of Chrysalis’s masterful tragedy can begin. Twilight, in an impulsive fit of rage similar to her performance at the royal wedding shouts toward the group of ponies. All is going according to plan.
“You, what have you bugs done with my friends!”
“Twi’ what ya’ talking bout! We are yer friends, you playin a prank er something?” the orange earth pony stares at her comrade with worried eyes. The others look on with similar concerned expressions.
“Don’t you dare lie to me changeling, I can see right through your spell!” roars Twilight. “Now I’ll ask you one more…”
With a single hoof movement from Chrysalis, Twilight’s sentence is cut short. The unicorn’s expression becomes blank. Her eyes snap to attention, she stands stark still as if a statue.
“As amusing as this is, I’m getting impatient and growing tired of this form, Ghnat!” The captain lets out a strange hiss that echoes into the distance. Suddenly several changeling warriors storm out of the nearby forest and surround the five confused mares. Familiar green flames once more engulf the Queens body, and she steps out as the Changeling Queen in all her glory. “Hahahah! Did you insolent fools miss me?” the dread queen circles around the group like a predator stalking its prey.
“Hay, what did you do to Twilight!” Dash yell’s fiercely “Fix her now or we’re gonna have to pound you till you do!”
“Bold words, empty, but bold” the queen scoffs. “Let us see you back that claim up, come at me filly!” she screams, spreading her tattered wings out threateningly.
With a powerful yell, the overly aggressive mare flies toward her target like a battering ram. It is a truly foolish move. Empowered by Twilight's adoration and love for her mother like mentor, Chrysalis effortlessly deflects Rainbow's charge with a well-placed hoof to the face. The young pegasus is flung to the dirt, crashing into the ground on her side. The Queen walks over to Dash’s twitching body proudly.
“Bow before your Queen!” before the others can even react, Chrysalis brings her perforated hoof down upon Rainbow Dash’s exposed throat.
“Dash!” screamed Applejack.
The crushing impact of her sharp hoof cuts deep into Rainbow's tender blue-furred flesh. With a hacking cough warm blood seeps down her muzzle, pooling around her head. After a few sharp jerks her writhing form falls still, it was over. The other ponies stare in horror as Chrysalis sadistically grinds her hoof into the already dead mare’s throat cackling madly.
“Hah, such power!” she exclaims loudly. “Not quite as strong as I was under Shining Armor’s love, but it will do. Best of all, as my power grows, so does the strength of my spell on Twilight! Quite the vicious cycle I know, call me a glutton if you must hah!”
“You…you monster!” Rarity screams through her tears.
“Monster? No…master!” she says with a snort. “The product of meticulous planning, and seething rage! You wretched curs humiliated me, foiled my perfect plan!” she once more begins to circle them. “For three long years I rebuilt my empire, healed my brood. In exile, I plotted, planned, and spied. Every detail laid perfect, no thread out of place…” she walks back to Twilight’s still form, and places her foreleg over her. “And thanks to her love of the Princess, and my special curse, I’ll have all the power I need to capture Canterlot!”
“We beat yea once cheese legs, we’l beat yea again!” Applejack yells, in between sobs.
“You beat me? HAH, if I recall you all were captured by my forces easily” she snarls slightly. “I beat myself, a miscalculation, one that won’t happen again! Only two ponies in the world can maintain the barrier that drove my people out, ones under my control and the other is on a diplomatic trip to Trottingham with his…ugg…wretched wife”. She takes her leg off Twilight and proceeds to retake her godly disguise in another flash of green. “Now, take them from my sight. Lock them in the cages at the vanguard camp in Everfree. If they resist, kill them”. Her soldiers bow and quickly take on the personas of Canterlot guards. The group is led away, their friend still frozen in place.
“Twi…” Applejack murmurs toward her petrified friend as the group is led away.
With a wave of Chrysalis’s hoof, Twilight stirs back to life. “Twilight, are you okay, those foul beasts put you under some sort of spell, but don’t worry they’ve been dealt with”
“We did it then Princess!” Twilight enthusiastically cheered at the plain as day imposter “Ponyville is safe…now we can try and find my friends”
“Not quite my young student, these beasts have infiltrated the entire village” she murmured. “Our only choice is to raze the village and take everyone into custody.” “It’s for the good of the entire kingdom, and once we are done we must head to Canterlot, it may well be compromised to”.
Twilight looked shocked, even though her mind was locked under Chrysalis’s mighty spell her inquisitive, gentle, personality could bleed through.
“But Princess, surely…”
Before Twilight could finish her sentence a sickly green glow emanates from Chrysalis’s horn and surrounds the young unicorn. She immediately falls to her knees in obvious pain.
“It is for the good of our people, sacrifices must be made!” she barks. “This is the only way!”
The emerald green hue of Twilight’s eyes darkens as she rises back to her hooves, shaking. Her mind further twisted by her new master’s dark incantations.
“Yes…it’s for the good of our people;” she mutters weakly “sacri…sacrifices...”
“Now, my faithful student, you should rest” she says, trying to sound as sympathetic as possible, “Our forces will take care of this mess, guards escort her to the camp.”
She turns toward the serene village that lay behind her. There it stands, mocking her; it should have already been hers. Tilting her head slightly she glances toward Captain Ghnat, a sadistic smile forming across her face.
“Burn this cesspit to the ground, leave no survivors” she says coldly “And gather the swarm, we march on Canterlot come morning”.
And so the Swarm descends on Ponyville proper. What few guards there are, are effortlessly cut down, the town wasn’t prepared for any sort of invasion. They had the mighty heroines to protect them, the ones who had saved them from mad-gods and monster bears alike, what more would they need? Within hours the town was burning, and for the entire time young Twilight lay sleeping, her mind convinced all was right in the world.
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The rising sun casts its warm light across the gleaming towers of Canterlot. A soothing summer wind blows in from the east; it’s a perfect morning for the perfect plan. Chrysalis, still wearing her god like disguise, casts her gaze upon the imposing city. The still as a statue Twilight stands near her; now firmly under the full effects of her master’s cruel spell. In Twilight’s mind, she stood next to her beloved mentor as they surveyed the city. To her, Chrysalis’s murderous grim was Celestia’s warm smile. Every traitorous word sounded like a divine edict, and Twilight obeyed each without question.
“Twilight, my scouts have informed me that in my absence the Changeling Swarm has taken the city. Even now their arrogant Queen sites upon my throne, mocking us.” In truth Chrysalis no longer needed her guise, nor did she need to placate Twilight’s delusion. It was simply more fun that way. Celestia’s faithful student had become the dark queen’s toy, and she gleefully pulled the strings of her new marionette. “We have no choice but to launch a counter-invasion to retake the city, but with our enemies nature…I fear drastic measures are in order. We can trust nopony, everypony must be considered hostile.”
“…Canterlot…” Twilight stares blankly out across the cityscape. The blissful delusion within the young pony’s mind did not transfer to her body. She appears as a shell of her former self, lost in spell-born silence.
Behind the Queen and her puppet, stands the former heroines of the land, each bound and muzzled. Made to bear witness to their captors triumph and their kingdoms fall, they all seem as still as their bewitched friend. Stepping away from Twilight, the dark Queen moves to address her troops.
“Before you lies the city of Canterlot, a city that was almost ours” she shouts commandingly. “While we have the advantage in numbers, their forces have superior weapons and are dug in. We must stay focused… our target is the castle and its…pompous inhabitants,” she motions her hoof toward the massive central spire. “With their princess dispatched, their forces will break. We cannot let this become a battle of attrition; we must cut off the head quickly! When we break through I want you to storm the throne room, lay waste to all inside but leave the goddess to me. You pathetic nymphs would break on her like waves against a granite cliff…only I can, and will, end her wretched life,” Chrysalis thrusts her hoof into the ground and bares her fangs toward the unsuspecting city. “Glory to the Swarm!”
“Glory to the Swarm!” roars the seething black mass of insect like changelings.
Forming a symphony of horrific buzzing and hissing, the winged beasts dart off toward Canterlot proper. They blot the sky like a true swarm, it’s as if night itself is baring down upon the peaceful metropolis. As Chrysalis predicted, the initial wave has no problems breaking through the bewildered defenses. Gnashing teeth and sharp, pounding hooves tear into the cities front lines. It was far from a clean affair however. The lightly armored drones are easily cut down by the guards, but each one that falls had three take its place. The Queens plan hinged on speed and numbers, she was throwing the full force of her swarm against the wavering defenses. Each loss was an acceptable sacrifice; she had made many such ones on her road to retribution, no sense in stopping now. Spying a path to the castle through the carnage, she ordered Twilight onto her back. The hollow mare proceeds in silent obedience and the two took to the skies.
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“Bar the doors, give us some breathing room!” the imposing form of the true Celestia was giving orders to her elite guards. “These foul beasts seek to make the same mistake twice, let us remind them what happened last time. Form lines and hold your ground!”
Bolstered by the words of their goddess, the elite guards stand firm. The room falls silent as the Princess and her men cautiously watch the main entrance. The buzzing, hissing, and screeching of the drones breaks the silence, followed in turn by the furious pounding of chitinous hooves on the reinforced door. The guards, their spears and horns at the ready, stand stoically. With one final loud bang the door shatters open and the writhing mass of drones pours in. The elite guards for all the grandeur are simply outnumbered. Before the slaughter can go on any longer, a massive bright flash sends the changeling drones flying.
“Enough, this is over!” she yells fiercely, the brilliant glow on her horn fading.
“Not quite…” echoes a familiar voice. “But it will be over soon” Chrysalis says smoothly as she trots into the royal chambers. As she enters the doorway, she re-assumes her true form. The expressionless Twilight shadows her every move, still following her veiled master.
“Twilight! What has this fiend done to you?” Celestia stares in horror at the beloved student. The once lively, all be it reclusive, unicorn now looked like nothing more than a shade.
“She can’t hear you, and even if she could it wouldn’t matter” Chrysalis says coldly. “I’ve trapped her in a fantasy, a wonderful little tragedy where I’m her glorious mentor and you are the vile changeling Queen! And don’t that you can break this spell as easily as the first, I’ve spent years perfecting it!” As before, the Queen had a hard time believing her own words. Memories of her past defeat bounced around in her mind, tormenting her. She was in too deep to fail now, she had to be quick in case her words prove to be false. After casting a shield spell over Twilight for extra assurance, the dark mare stares down her prey.
Without uttering another word to each other the two mares charge forth. With their horns clashing like swords the two
monarchs duel, each impact sends brilliant flashes of magic out in all directions. In between the melee strikes the two jump back to lob magic projectiles at one another. The pulsing orbs of energy are either deflected or dodged, blasting craters throughout the once pristine throne room. More evenly matched then their first fight, the two appear to be at a vicious stalemate.
“Is that…*pant*…all you got bitch!” the cocky queen of the changelings taunts her royal counterpart.
“Resorting to name calling are we?” the princess retorts. “Hardly befitting a Queen!” The snarky jab barely fazes the confident Queen. Though her confidence may be born more from the fear of her failure rather than the assurance of her victory, but it matters little. Throughout the whole exchange, the motionless Twilight stands keeping silent vigil from the doorway. Chrysalis’s cruel fantasy plays in her mind.
“You didn’t answer my question!” Chrysalis screams as she fires a twisting beam of energy toward the princess, who in turn fires one of her own. In a near prefect reprisal of their first meeting, their twin beams lock in a dead heat. Save this time, instead of one overpowering the other, the sparking ball of energy at the midpoint detonates in a magical torrent. The two leaders are flung across the room in opposite directions, once more silence descends over the battlefield. Shaking the dust from herself, Celestia rises to her feet. Before the princess can even react, the slender black form of Chrysalis charges in and rams the princess. Her hard, chitinous carapace hits the princess like a raging buffalo knocking her to the ground.
“Heh, harlot….” With winded sounding laughter, Chrysalis’s horn begins to glow. A green glow coalesces around Princess Celestia’s long, sharp horn, lifting her up by it. With a shattering sound akin to the falling of an oak, Chrysalis’s magic aura snaps Celestia’s horn from her head. Her beautiful crown still supported by an ivory nub. The sun goddess lets out a bloodcurdling scream that even sends chills through the body if her attacker. Chrysalis levitates the broken horn square with the princess’s chest. With another green flash she retakes the Princess’s form. One last insult before the end.
“All hail the Queen!” She yells as she plunges Celestia’s own horn into her heart. Divine blood splattering across Chrysalis’s black muzzle. With a dulled thud, the once graceful and enigmatic ruler of Equestria falls onto the cold marble floor of her palace. Her characteristic glow begins to fade almost instantly, replaced by a dull, lifeless grey. Her gleaming crown bouncing only a few steps before it is crushed by Chrysalis’s mighty hoof. “All too easy…pity, I had hoped for more of a challenge.”
Arriving all too late, the dark half of Equestria’s twin rulers comes charging in. She had been busy fighting off Changeling forces in the street, but had finally managed to break through to the castle. Before she can utter a single word in her booming voice, Luna’s gaze falls onto her sisters now faded form. Her pupils constrict as small tears begin to well up in her eyes.
“You…you vile usurper! You shall pay for this, have at thee foul monster!” Luna’s horn begins to glow brightly as blasts of lightning shatter through the windows and screech toward Chrysalis. Caught off guard by the attack the impact of the bolts forces her back several feet, and she falls onto her front knee. Another glow from Luna’s horn surrounds a nearby pillar, jerking it free and smashing the would-be usurper into the wall. Screaming, Luna focuses a blast of raw magical energy and launches it at the dust veiled crater in the wall. The room falls silent. “It is done then, sister I…*hurk*.” A green ring of energy forms around Luna’s neck as a sickening laughter echoes through the throne room.
“My turn” coughs Chrysalis as she emerges from the smoke. The force of Luna’s assault had broken her illusion, her true form is now exposed. She is not without her wounds, her black carapace is fractured, and her hind leg drags. Green blood oozes from the breaks, but she pays them no mind, her victory is at hand. “Now, let’s end this, shall we?” With a violent crack, she snaps Luna’s neck. Her lifeless body falls limp upon the floor near her sister. Her pale blue crown clattering as it falls. From her magic bubble, the unflinching Twilight Sparkle stares blankly. The glorious victory scene in her mind was but a charade.
Chrysalis stumbles, then collapses as her extensive injuries finally catch up with her. She lies motionless for a few moments, allowing a small pool of blood to form around her. Weakly, she raises her head and gazes upon Celestia’s massive throne.
“Mi…Mine!”
With pained groans she crawls toward the ivory white throne, intent on consummating her victory. With a final scream of agony she lifts her sleek body onto the cold stone. No grand speech, no triumphant laughter, just the bitter silence of the wrecked throne room. Unable to sit, the new queen of Equestria opts to lay across the marble throne, resting her head on the hoof-rest. She begins to shut her eyes, thinking she’s finally able to rest. Soon, however, things begin to stir in the dark corners of the massive room. As if sensing their Queens victory countless changelings begin to enter from the shadows, marching in through the gaping holes created during the melee. Each one bows their head as they gather around the blood stained throne. She raises her head slightly, and surveys the rooms with a smile.
“This day has been just perfect…”
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Epilogue
Darkness had fallen over the once glorious kingdom. Their new queen’s retribution had been harsh, and it had come in many forms. The swarm spread throughout the kingdom like a wildfire, imposing their lady’s dark will upon all. More slaves then subjects; the once noble ponies were reduced to serving their emotion fueled masters. An entire oppressed, tortured nation...hating them...fearing them....feeding them. Their combined anguish rising in a crescendo of raw pleasure for every changeling, emotional junk food. Yet, there was one place where the ponies wore smiles. As a final, mocking blow to those who had once bested her, she spread her mind altering spell across the city of Canterlot. Its population milling about as if nothing had happened, casting warm smiles to hungering imposters. It was an endless feeding ground for her brood. Ruled over by their imposter Queen and her always faithful student.