Adagio stumbled back; not quite sure what she was hearing or seeing. Queen Chrysalis? Here? And now she looked around and saw they were the only ones left in the restaurant. She had heard the name before. When she had been a filly, some of the old timers spoke of the great evils, the unholy trinity - Discord, Tirek, and Queen Chrysalis. She had lived a little bit under the reign of the chaos bringer, Discord; she knew him. The others always seemed more myth than reality. The nightmare tales the old tell the young to keep them inline. But now here she was, The Black Queen! The devourer of love, the mistress of ruin.

"How? HOW, CAN YOU BE HERE?" Adagio asked in terror.

Chrysalis just smiled, her fangs being one of the few things that wasn't rotting on her. "In the near future, a rift between this world and Equestria will open up. Several actually. I use that opportunity to cross over; sneak out as it were." Her voice was soft with an undercurrent of malevolent glee.

"How is that possible? And if it's in the future, how can you be here, now?" Adagio was confused; none of this made sense. She had to figure out how this was possible and what she could do to escape. If half the legends were true about Chrysalis, she would have been more than a match for all three of Sirens at full strength. But now, by herself, without magic, she was helpless.

"What is time to a goddess? I admit, my powers are more limited here than in Equestria; but I have more than enough to project myself backwards, hmm, I guess backwards and sideways is the more appropriate term, in time." Her whole tone and demeanor was that of a strict nanny patiently explaining something to an exceptionally dumb child.

"I still don't get it." Adagio's curiosity was now overriding her fear. "Where are we. When are we? How did you find me?"

Chrysalis just kind of chuckled. "We are in the future, compared to where you are at, of a phantom timeline. In this one, you stayed behind, oh wait, let me back up. This is an alternative timeline from a phantom timeline. It's a bit hard to explain, but here goes. Originally you and Aria stay behind to look for the portal back home, which you find. You cross over, along with this world's Trixie, where you make a deal with Discord, the neutered mutt, to destroy Equestria for him and he provides you protection while you hunt for three more gems. It works, sort of. Discord protects you aaaannnd Equestria is destroyed, but not by you. Seems you get killed by Trixie after you try to kill her. Can't blame either one of you for that, but still, bad form to let your guard down like that.

"Anyway, during your trip, you lose heart and Discord shows you an alternate timeline; this one. In this, you call out to Sunset Shimmer for help, you fall in love, and live happily ever after. Aww, so sweet. He gave you the choice of resetting the timeline to see if you could achieve this one, you could carry on in your mission, or he could let you die. You chose option B; and died anyway, so not much of a choice. But, just as this realm was about to be taken over by a godform Trixie, thanks to you, she was defeated by Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle and they, along with Princess Celestia, reset the timeline to what it is now.

"As to how I found you; you're Equestrian, like me. I am connected to you, to all Equestrians, in this realm. I used that connection to trace back to this time and look into your mind. You see, as a formally magical creature, you can retain the memories of times that never were. I poked around in subconscious and found this. Which I used to make my introduction." Chrysalis bowed. "Exposition over."

"But why? And why me?"

"Ah, explanation and monolog time is it? Well, for question one, to show you my power. To show you that even in your deepest thoughts, you are not beyond my reach. And it was just plain fun. Plus your love for Sunset gave me a little power boost. As for question two, it's because you are the most like me. Sonata is like Discord; a mischievous child, but harmless. Aria is like Tirek, a psychopath, but dumb. Eh, not dumb, but lacking in vision. All smash and crash. You, oh you, you're like me. Dangerous, devious, and brilliant. Not as brilliant as I am, but who is? Your cunning, your ruthlessness is exactly what I need."

Adagio cocked her head. "Need for what?"

"As I said, my powers might be awesome, but they are still limited in this realm. So I am in need of an agent. I need you to go back and befriend Sunset Shimmer and corrupt her. Not kill her, but corrupt. Well her or Twilight Sparkle. Either or, or both if your capable of it. Get her, them to turn to evil. That's all I ask. Do this and you and Sunset Shimmer can have your own fiefdom to rule over once I ascend to the throne."

"And if I don't, you'll kill me. I know this. I've made the same deal countless times. I offer a stooge something they've always wanted in exchange for a favor, then once they've delivered, I betray them. Villainy one-oh-one. Even if I do what you ask, you're going to kill me anyway. And I remember where I am now. Me and the girls left Cantorlot High, indeed the whole state of California months ago after the Rainbooms destroyed our gems. In this timeline I have no feelings for Sunset except hate." Suddenly a light bulb went off in Adagio's head.

"That's why you showed me this. To make me desire her. If I hate her, you have nothing to offer me. You had to make me love her. Very clever. But that still doesn't explain why you need me to 'corrupt' her. If you're connected to all Equestrians, then you're connected to her as well. Why not . . . ooooohhhhhhh, you can't. Whatever it is about Sunset you fear, it also blocks you from AAAAAHHHHHHH!" Adagio screamed in pain as suddenly every fiber of her being was on fire.

"Oh Adagio, you are just like me. Too much like me. Too smart for your own good. You're right; on all accounts. Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle have something that prevents me from a direct assault. A certain power. A power that prevents me from accessing the greatest, darkest power that ever was. I need that power of theirs removed. Unfortunately, not even death can remove it. Only if the vessel becomes corrupt, does the goddess energy become foul and dissipates; thus allowing me to access the . . . power I want.

"And, yes, I was going to kill you regardless. So I will dispense with the carrot and stick approach. Do as I say and I will kill you. You will cease to exist, sweet oblivion. Don't do as I say, I will torture you forever. Right now, I am causing every atom in your body to explode. The nanosecond after they do, I reform you and do it all over again. I can do this for all time. I can even change my shape." Chrysalis transforms into Sunset. "Ironic." Next she becomes Adagio. "How meta." Finally she turns into the man who raped Adagio soon after she and the others were banished to Earth. "Insult to injury." She then turns back into her true form and the pain ceases in Adagio.

Adagio falls down on all fours and just pants. Never in her life had she ever experienced anything like that. Just the thought of it almost drove Adagio insane. Chrysalis stood over her and asked, "Pain or Oblivion?"

"O . . . o . . . o . . . blivion," Adagio said as best she could.

"If it's any consolation, I would have made the same choice." Chrysalis held out her hand. "On your feet girl. Adagio, AWAKE!"

Adagio sat bolt upright in bed. She was still in the homeless shelter she had been staying in since arriving in Philadelphia two days ago. Sonata was asleep on one side of her, Aria the other. Was it all just a dream?-she thought to herself. Then a sudden bolt of pain shot through her and she heard Chrysalis voice inside her head. "Adagio, get going." It was too soft, too sweet. The pain stopped as suddenly as it had begun and she knew it was no dream. She quickly began to shake Aria and Sonata awake.

"God, what the heck Adagio!" Aria grumbled.

"What is Adagio?" Sonata asked.

"We got to get going," Adagio said with a frightful urgency.

"What? Go where?" Aria asked even more irritated and confused.

"Back to California. Back to Cantorlot High. We're going to befriend the Rainbooms."

Author's Note

The rift Chrysalis mentions is the one Midnight Sparkle opens up in Friendship Games. All the other events take place in my story "Even Mountains Erode Over Time".