Incognito (Chrylight collab)
"Chrysalis," Twilight began, "I'm not sure this is a good idea."
The suit was long and lean, tight in just the right places; it rode her curves with a touch so delicate it looked more a part of the changeling than something she'd simply slipped into. A uniform, ostentatious red, save for the cape about her withers and the mask upon her face, she trotted about the table like blood from a wound and, as Twilight absent-mindedly noted, she didn't make a sound.
"Nonsense, Twilight. Absolute nonsense. I spent the last twelve hours toiling at my sewing machine to make this costume, so there's absolutely no way this isn't going to work." Chrysalis halted and turned to her companion. Her eyes narrowed a little. "Understand?"
Twilight sighed, pushing away her plate of cooling pancakes and cupping her chin with a hoof. She sat there for a moment in silence, considering the mare before her as an eyebrow crept up her forehead. "You realise they'll know it's you, right?" She waved her other hoof lazily in an all-encompassing circle. "I can see your horn and your wings, which are all very distinctive things, and the perforations in your legs are all clearly outlined."
Chrysalis looked down at her hooves, twisted one about. Little dimples in the fabric sat where holes once resided. "I'm sure nopony will notice," she replied. "It's not like ponies will be staring at my hooves. Unless they're criminals, of course." A pause. "Or if they have low self esteem."
"You're also very tall. Taller than everypony who isn't named Princess Celestia."
"That wouldn't be a problem if she hadn't placed that thrice-damned ring on my horn."
Twilight pushed her chair back with a groan of protest and rolled off, onto her hooves, and crossed the room. Once she drew close enough she nuzzled gently at Chrysalis' chin, diverting her gaze up and away from the floor. "You know disguises better than anyone else in the world. So I'm certain that if I know that this," she said softly, prodding gently at the catsuit, "isn't a disguise, then you know it too."
Chrysalis turned away, glancing out the window. Off in the distance a cloud scudded by, corralled by a couple of pegasi. She briefly followed their progress. "I just want them to love me. Nobody ever has."
Twilight frowned a little but bit her tongue; she knew what Chrysalis had meant. She rested her head against her companion's shoulder. "I know. But you don't have to go incognito, Chrysalis. You just have to be you."
Author's Note
Originally part of the Chrylight/Twysalis collab. I fixed a couple of issues I had with it afterwards.
Tether (Chrylight collab)
A thin patina of sweat lay snail-slicked upon Chrysalis' chitinous brow, and under the imperious gaze of the plummeting sun it shimmered a dozen different colours and matted her mane like strips torn from a well-worn rug. Her features were twisted by both drive and exertion; her muzzle curled up in a menacing sort of half snarl, half frown which sat far too comfortably upon her countenance, as if she'd worn it many times before, perhaps more often than not.
She lifted a hoof, tried to push onwards. But the magic held her back and she could go no further. At length she pulled against it, hunched her body like so and flicked her hoof like that, but she could eke out little more than an inch or two before the line drew taut and she stood there, frozen, trembling, leaning into a non-existent gale and her muscles corded and screaming.
Finally, she collapsed to the ground, grass tickling her belly. Her hooves went to her horn once, grazing the mechanism upon it, but only briefly; seconds out of hours.
The sun fell. The world pulled night over itself like a blanket of stars and galaxies and mysteries uncountable. Purple hooves soon roused her from her stupor, arriving in a ragged, breathless gallop.
"I found you some flowers," Chrysalis said simply, though she didn't really want them anymore.
Author's Note
Sorta sequel to Incognito.
