Starlight Rising

Deep in the wastes of southern Equestria, in a foreboding cave sealed with green ooze, sat Queen Chrysalis and her changeling army. Even though it had been a few years, she sat on her throne with a scowl on her face. The fact that she could not take down the princesses in Canterlot and claim Equestria for herself still consumed her. After being flung a great distance by the energy from the love of Cadence and Shining Armor, she was sore for quite some time but no longer. She got a smile on her face and decided that the time had come to give it another go but using different methods.

While most of her changelings were mindless drones who could do nothing more than hiss, she did have a general that could speak and think for himself. Chrysalis called out, "General Green Ooze, we need to talk."

Green Ooze sped to her and asked, "Yes my Queen? What is it that you wish to discuss?"

Chrysalis replied, "The time has come, the time to punish those princesses for what happened so long ago has arrived. The time has come to go to Canterlot, kidnap Celestia and Luna and take Canterlot as our own. After that, we'll take all of Equestria."

Green Ooze asked, "But what about Cadence and Shining Armor? What if they are there and use their love to throw us back again? What about Twilight Sparkle and her friends? What if they use the Elements of Harmony on us?"

Chrysalis replied, "General, many things have changed since their wedding."

Green Ooze asked, "What all has changed."

Chrysalis replied, "Well for starters, Princess Cadence and Shining Armor now rule the Crystal Empire so they won't be any kind of threat to us. They have their own problems to deal with." She began to laugh, "Oh and you know what happened to Twilight Sparkle?"

The general replied, "Yes my Queen, she became a princess but why are you laughing?"

Chrysalis laughed, "Well one of our scouts recently returned from Ponyville and she has become the mindless sex slave of some show pony named 'The Hot and Dominant Trixie!'" She started laughing so hard she could hardly speak, "Is-Isn't that funny!" She continued to laugh for another minute before calming down, "Ok, back to Twilight. She may be an Alicorn princess but the fact that she is under the complete and absolute control of a unicorn that only knows street magic is hilarious! Without her being able to lead her friends, this should be a cakewalk!"

Green Ooze asked, "So I take it you are going to want to do this as soon as possible?"

Chrysalis replied, "Yes, I am. Without Twilight Sparkle in the way, nopony will even be able to stop us. All we'll have to do is take on the form of other ponies when we go there, cover them in ooze and bring them back here!"

Green Ooze asked, "I have heard rumors that Celestia has a new protege, one that is far smarter than Twilight Sparkle. I have even heard that this one has mastered time travel."

Chrysalis replied, "Well I doubt she will be able to tell any of us apart from whoever we duplicate. The only reason Twilight could tell me apart from the real Cadence is because they were close. This one is from eastern Equestria and from what I understand she has no close relationships with anypony."

Green Ooze sighed, "Well alright. I would suggest that we take the form of other ponies, preferably pegasi when we go in and take the princesses."

Chrysalis added, "Oh, and we will be going into Ponyville and taking Twilight's friends just for the fun of it."

Green Ooze replied, "Ok, you are our Queen and whatever you say goes."

Several days had passed and Starlight and Spike were back up in their study tower. It had been a rather boring that day as Celestia had been in meetings all day so she was pretty much left to do her own thing. Spike noticed that Starlight had been studying battle tactics, geography and changelings that day. He asked, "Starlight, why have you been studying such strange things today? I honestly don't see how those subjects are going to help you with what Celestia has you working on right now."

Starlight replied, "Spike, I don't know what it is but something in the back of my mind is telling me to study these things, almost as if I have to learn it."

Spike replied, "Oh alright. Don't get upset if Celestia isn't happy over you studying these things."

Starlight pretty much brushed off what Spike said. She knew that she should be studying more of Starswirl's works but deep down she felt this stuff was beyond important. While she would never admit this to Spike or anypony else, she felt almost as if learning this stuff would not only be beneficial to her, but that all of Equestria might depend on it.

Evening had arrived in Canterlot and Celestia's busy day had drawn to a close so she decided that before sitting down to dinner, that she would go and see what Starlight did that day. She headed up to Starlight's tower, knocked on the door which was promptly answered by Starlight. "Celestia, how did your meetings go today?"

Celestia replied, "Tiring, very tiring." She noticed that Starlight had a few books laying around on the tables in her library. She asked, "And how was your day? What have you been studying?"

Before Starlight could even reply Celestia headed in and took a look at the books. She asked, "Battle tactics, geography and changelings? Why in Equestria have you been studying stuff like this today? You were supposed to be studying advanced magic today, not doing leisure reading."

Starlight replied, "Celestia, I don't know why but something in the back of my mind told me to read this stuff."

Celestia sighed, "Well alright but I have a completely empty schedule tomorrow so we are going to study extra hard, none of this simple informational material." Her expression changed to a glare as she continued, "And what the hay possessed you to read up on changelings?"

Starlight replied, "Like I said, something in the back of my mind told me to study these three things today. When I get a nagging voice in the back of my mind, I pay attention to it."

Celestia sighed, "Well alright, see you tomorrow."

Starlight replied, "See you tomorrow."

Celestia slammed the door behind her as she flew off of Starlight's balcony. While she knew that Starlight had tendencies like this, it bothered her that she would study what she considered such menial subjects. It especially bothered her that she would be reading things about changelings given the past interactions she had had with them and the fact that they were pretty much irrelevant at that point.