Empire of the Sun

“WHAT?” The disbelief in her voice was priceless, “This is an outrage!” Her torn, scratchy song was suddenly music to Celestia’s ears.

“Yes!” Celestia beamed, ignoring her completely and practically levitated to him, shining. All of her anxieties were gone. Joy and Love rushed through her heart. The two would rule Equestria; her subjects had to accept it. She slaved for them for more than a thousand years, she could do this one thing for herself.

“Wait, really?” Was his response as his eyes widened, completely dumbfounded.

Chrysalis hesitated; she backed away from the pair, in something that looked like fear. At first, Celestia was confused; it was off putting to see the Changeling Queen afraid. Then it dawned on her: Chrysalis had been in a similar situation before, and it ended up with her blasting off into the sky.

Celestia chuckled happily at this as she nuzzled Sirius’ shoulder, who, was not breathing. At first she thought it was just the moment, rushing him, but when she found his face, he was staring. Not at her, not at Chrysalis, but the castle staff that had gathered in the throne room. They looked uncertain and nervous. Many looked away, some looked like they had let some hope go.

She stood up fully, facing them, ignoring the changeling’s now angry, stare.

“What…?” She asked them, confused, “I thought you liked him!” For a second, nopony spoke. Then, after Celestia felt on the verge of confused tears, one of the guards spoke up,

“My Princess, he is kind in heart, don't get us wrong. But our magic is unusable.”

“My horn keeps shorting out, and that's only around him!” Somepony else jumped in.

“He's a good stallion, but we cannot have him stay here!”

Chrysalis now smiled, relieved some ponies were on her side,

“You see?” She asked, stepping forward in a bold move, Don't tempt me, “I told you, he is trouble! Trouble in your own home!” For the first time, Luna showed herself in front of the crowd, and got protectively in front of Celestia and Sirius, dividing them from Chrysalis and the crowd.

“Do you not hear yourselves?” She asked. Everypony was quiet. It was clear they wanted to say something, but didn't.

“Why do you deny your Princess your trust? Why do you deny her her rule? And of most important, why do you deny her, her Love?” She announced in her projective, authoritative voice.

Somepony dared to call out, “Easy for you to say, your magic’s not overloading!”

Celestia flinched thinking about how her sister would react. Possible scenarios included destroying the throne room in rage, to reverting to being the Mare in the Moon.

Surprisingly, Luna remained calm, “You squabble about easily fixable problems. Is it not magic that keeps us safe? And most of all, the magic of Friendship? How long do you think us, of Canterlot, will allow magic work against us?” The crowd’s mood was now changing. Celestia was in a state of admirable gratitude; Luna had come a long way.

“Have we learned nothing of Twilight Sparkle and the Elements of Harmony? Have we not seen of the power that our friendship brings us?” she continued, her voice getting louder, “We, are, EQUESTRIANS!” She called, her voice reverberating in the hall, now stirring up the crowd in loud chatter of agreement, “We do not flee from the first conflict; we do not banish those that can teach us!” Even the Sun Princess was getting excited from this.

Chrysalis’ face made it clear that she couldn't be having anything further from a good time. She hissed loudly that stopped the chattering crowd and placed her in the center of attention.

“You may be Equestrian,” she said, “But mark my words, blue eyed demon,” she stared straight into Sirius’ eyes, “You will not marry Celestia!” Before anypony could move, her horn lit up a bright green, and she disappeared in an explosion, the remnants of her teleportation spell sparkling seconds after.

About a full fifteen seconds of silence passed before Sirius said,

“Well… Chrysalis is back,” getting some snickers from the crowd.

***

It was inconceivable; preposterous! Queen of the Changelings, Queen Chrysalis galloped full force in the thick, dark, forest. The one time she had reached her heart out to Celestia, the Pony Princess shattered it to ten thousand pieces!

Not that it mattered. No, it didn't matter. Celestia wasn't the problem. It was the demon. Celestia was an obstacle. The Demon was the finish. He would bring not only destruction to her Hive, but the world!

As she was intent on getting back, a jarring, “Psssst!” came from somewhere. She stopped, sliding a bit on dirt and looked around. It was dark, of course, and lots of tree trunks and branches prevented far sight at all.

“Psssst!” it came again, and she managed to identify which tree it was coming from. Except, when she did, its trunk opened two yellow elliptical eyes with searing red pupils.

She didn't jump, but she took a step back, a bit freaked out.

“Oh, don't look so surprised,” a familiar, annoying voice mocked, “I know you're happy to see me!” A flash blinded her for a second, revealing, an unholy sight.

“What do you want?” she asked, hostility rising.

Discord, the Draconequus Spirit of Chaos, slithered up to her, chuckling, “Hey I'm just here to offer a trade.” She stared up at him, annoyed,

“Hurry up.”

Discord looked annoyed at that, himself, apparently frustrated that “Chrissy” (she recalled that he called her), wasn't playing his games.

“Okay, here's the deal,” he said, getting serious, which was slightly frightening, “You don't like Sirius.” She only blinked in silence, not disagreeing.

“I don't like Sirius,” he said. Now she knew where this was going.

“Oh no you don't!” she hissed, “I would rather get help from—”

“Event Horizon, the Draconequus Spirit of—”

“Destruction,” she finished, watching as Event Horizon dramatically swung down from a tree branch, ruffling leaves. His green eyes looked surprised.

“Have we met before?” he asked. Why do you keep forgetting me? Her eyes drifted to the changeling wing on his back. Memories soared through her brain. Then her gaze caught the smirking face of Discord.

The monster.

“No,” she responded, “I've heard your name around.”

“I know,” Discord said, sounding sarcastic, “Horizon’s name is getting pretty popular these days.”

“It is?”

“Can we hurry this up?!” Chrysalis snapped, impatience suddenly slammed into her.

“Fine, fine,” Discord said, raising his arms up in surrender, “The Dashing Duo, Horizon and Discord, up for sale! The Price? Collaboration…” He smirked again. Discord was tricky. Collaboration for him could mean anything from “slave” to… “slave”. But as she was starting to think about it, there was no way she could take Celestia and Sirius alone. Without the help of the Changelings, she was but one pony.

With Discord and Horizon, she would be… two. In nagging annoyance, she knew very well that Discord would more than likely mess things up for everypony, while Event Horizon would just do his job. Horizon was very determined to contribute to any thing that involved destroying anything: the world, a city, a friendship, a hope...

Discord had problems washing dishes.

It always amazed her how much Chrysalis knew about the Draconequui, a race she should have no business interacting with.

“No,” she said, “If we are to work, you will work under my command.” She was taking no chances.

Discord and Horizon eyed each other.

“De—” Horizon got cut of as Discord slammed his lion paw over his muzzle.

“Wait a second,” he said, eyeing the Queen, “How do we know you can do this right?”

She smirked herself, now, placing her hoof on her chest, “I am Queen of the Changelings. I have not survived thousands of years off of luck.” And she got serious, “and I'm certainly not going to go extinct now!”

Horizon caught onto Discord’s suspicion, “That told us nothing.” That's it.

Her horn glowed and she dragged Horizon’s face to hers as close as possible as he yelped. She stared him dead in the eyes, angry and growling.

“I am older than you, Horizon. It would be wise to listen to me.” He looked slightly intimidated,

“Okay okay… Fine. As long as somepony doesn't have objections,” he looked at Discord, who was looking thoughtful.

“Oh, whatever, as long as she gets us through, I don't care,” Discord responded, throwing his arms up. She couldn't help but be proud of herself. She'd won! But she couldn't show it.

“OK, when should we meet?” she asked, being careful about not to let her position go. Horizon squirmed away as Discord shrugged. I already regret this.

“Very well,” she said, remaining calm, “At the entrance to the hive. Midnight. If you're late, I'm turning you into a changeling.” They were too powerful for that threat to work. But they didn't know that.

“Whatever,” Horizon said, throwing his arms up like Discord had earlier.

They both disappeared and she let out a breath of relief. That could have gone a lot worse.

***

The Hive was in no better condition from how she had left it this morning. Her children were scattered about, many hunched, coughing and sobbing. One source was influencing all of this… A magical energy was inhabiting the walls of her castle, but yet, she could not feel it. Sorrow began to envelop her heart as she felt the urge to mourn again. She had sulked around her castle, depressed she could not even pin where the problem was coming from.

The castle walls began dripping and melting, for some unknown reason. The walls were made out of hardened… Something. She didn't know what it was, for her mother built it, but its original form was a thick black liquid. And it looked just so, the streaks and lumps and bumps could be found all throughout the walls. But now, for some reason, it was melting, becoming a liquid form once more.

It was getting more dangerous to live in her own castle by the day. She rushed up to her throne room, hearing something through the doors. It sounded like the television set.

“Foolish XJ-9,” it said, muffled, “you will join the Cluster, willingly, or not!” She burst through the door, knowing exactly who was behind it. The green floor flashed in her presence, and she found Krookile and Stallct hovered in front of the TV, on the right side of the hall.

“That show is for children,” she growled, rushing to her crystallized throne, “I told you it was banned in these halls.”

“The whole franchise is for children,” Stallct buzzed with his wings.

She eyed him, seeing his tired form slouched and limp, her only response:

“Fight me.”

She loved the two dearly, but they could be a pain, and very… weird.

Krookile yawned, clearly very sleepy, and buzzed his wings, “Did Celestia agree?”

“No, but, we have help.”

“Ooooo,” Stallct buzzed, “By whom?”

“I cannot say,” she said, and for very good reason. If the hive heard she had invoked the help of Chaos and Destruction, they would be fools not to panic. And now upon thinking about it, she realized it wasn't the best idea to tell the two Draconequui to meet in front of her Hive. She got up from her throne as fast as she sat down and stared at it, unsure of what to do. There was nothing she could do for the hive, and she couldn't go back to Canterlot, for she made yet another threat against it.

For once, she felt stuck; lost. It was a terrible feeling. Anxiety was suddenly beginning to rise as she flipped through ways she could help her subjects. There was nothing. Her only plan was to persuade Celestia, but then the blue eyed demon got in the way.

Until midnight, nothing could be done.

A distant thunder through the thick walls indicated that another part of the castle collapsed in on itself.

“That one sounded bad,” Krookile once again yawned, “Perhaps you should check on it.” Because they certainly weren't.

“I hate you guys,” she said, relieved she'd be able to help something, and lit up her horn for teleportation.

In a flash, she was a large hallway, the far one on the outer part of the castle. A gigantic hole was barren in the black, now gooey, ceiling.

To her surprise, changeling were buzzing about, lifting things and gathering. Even stranger, Event Horizon was floating by it, wearing a hardhat, smiling like a maniac.

“Okay now,” he said, “gather that… stuff, and bring it here!” He kept waving his arms in vague directions, none of which pointed to the giant, gaping hole.

“What are you doing? I thought you couldn't fix stuff,” she demanded, fully knowing he could, just hear his reaction again. He huffed,

“For the last time, Creation is not the opposite of Destruction!” Despite his nonsensical directions and appearance, Horizon was just as equally good at repair and creation. As she thought about that, another thought got inside her head.

“Wait… How did you get in here?” She wasn't even worried about how the changelings could even move, much less lift and do work. He shrugged in response.

Wonderful.

They were already proving themselves to be useless.

She waited impatiently for Horizon to finish, half expecting Discord to show up at some point, but the collapsed part of the castle was fixed, and he had still not shown up.

Horizon started applauding the changelings who had helped, “Great work guys!” They buzzed some acknowledgements, but disappeared into other rooms from the hallway. Well, now that they knew the Draconequus was here, it wouldn't hurt at all to talk to him now.

“We need a plan,” she said flatly, when the Draconequus had come to the ground.

“Already have one,” he said, tapping his forehead with a talon. That was finally some good news.

“Here's how this is going to work…”