Celestia opened her closet and was immediately jumped upon by a lank, emaciated form. The Alicorn cried out in surprise as the black creature sprung up from her body and rocketed across the room, leaping under the covers of her bed. The bemused Princess stood up from the floor and tore the blanket from the bed. Celestia’s mouth hung open at what she saw. There, in the middle of her mattress, curled tightly in a fetal position, was none other than Queen Chrysalis. She did not, however, look very queenly at the moment. The Changeling was trembling like mad, clearly frightened out of her mind. Celestia was so utterly astonished that she did not put her guard up at all.
“…Chrysalis?” murmured the Alicorn. Chrysalis turned to look at the Princess, her emerald eyes completely wild.
“Tick-tock!” screamed the changeling, “Tick-tock-tick-tock-tick-tock!” Celestia took a step back. She had apparently underestimated just how scared Chrysalis was.
“…A-are you alright?” asked the princess, although moments after asking it she realized that she already knew the answer.
“Tick-tock-tick-tock-tick-tick-TICK!” cried the Queen as she pulled the covers back over her head. Convinced that this situation would require assistance, Celestia stuck her head out into the hall.
“LUNA!” she called, “There’s…a problem in my room.”
“Celestia, I’m not going to discuss your weight with you again,” came the reply, “It was the same yesterday, it’s the same today, and it will be the same tomorrow. Stop worrying about it.” Celesita blushed, then called out again.
“This is a…different problem,” she said, “Please come here.” There was a loud, melodramatic sigh from Luna’s room as the indigo Alicorn trotted over to her sister’s room. Upon entering she spotted the large, shivering mass beneath the blankets on the bed. She raised an eyebrow at her sister.
“You got a dog?” the princess muttered cynically. Celestia sighed and pulled off the blanket, revealing the frightened changeling. Luna’s eyes went wide, first in alarm, but then in fascination. “Celestia…why is our enemy in your bed cowering like a foal?”
“Tick-tock-tick-tock!” snapped Chrysalis, sticking her forked tongue out at Luna before pulling the blanket back. The two Alicorns looked at each other.
“How did she get in?” asked the lunar princess.
“I don’t think that matters at this point,” replied Celestia, “What matters is getting her out.” The white Alicorn reached out and placed a hoof on the changeling’s shoulder. Chrysalis responded by leaping from the bed and clinging to the ceiling by unknown means.
“Tick-tock!” screeched the completely daft queen, “Tick-tock-tick-tock-tick-tock!” Luna and Celestia both stared at the oddity. It was not often one saw an insane fairy monarch standing on one’s ceiling. At the same time it was not a sight desired to be seen by either Alicorn princesses, thus they decided then and there that they would rid themselves of it. The only question, as stated earlier by Celestia, was how they were going to do it.
“What do you propose we do about this?” asked Luna as she watched the ticking Queen shuffle across the surface of the ceiling.
“I’m not sure,” Celestia said with a shrug, “That’s why I called you here.” Luna rolled her eyes.
“Oh, sure, because I know how to deal with crazy queens appearing in your bedroom.” She added seriously, “Why don’t we just get the guards and tell them to deal with her?”
“Because they have a strong desire to live,” said Celestia. “Though that might work if we can find one with a death wish.” Though her sister was joking, Luna immediately thought of one particular guard she knew of who actually did have a death wish, who she had ordered to see the castle psychologist.
“How about we put a sleeping spell on her,” suggested Luna, “Then we can take her out into the middle of the Everfree Forest and drop her off somewhere.”
“She’ll find her way out,” Celestia said with a shake of her head, “And she might hurt somepony.”
“She hasn’t hurt anypony so far,” observed Luna. Celestia realized this to be true, and wondered if perhaps Chrysalis had the fight scared out of her by something even worse. This thought momentarily made her uncomfortable. If there really was something horrible enough to make a hardened warlord like Chrysalis lose her mind, then Equestria might be in danger.
“What could have done this to her?” she pondered out loud.
“Well, presumably something that ticks,” said Luna. This would, Celestia realized, account for the queen’s constant spouting of the words ‘tick’ and ‘tock’. The only object that she could think of that would make such a noise was a clock. Because the idea of a malicious queen being frightened by a clock seemed absurd, Celestia did not want to be the one to say it. Instead, she turned to her sister.
“What do you think that could be?” she asked. Luna came to the same conclusion Celestia had, and let out a sigh.
“Do you think it was a clock of some sort?”
“Maybe something powered by clockwork,” suggested the white Alicorn, “Though I don’t know what.”
“More importantly,” said Luna, “What would make her come here?” Celestia let out a thoughtful ‘hmm’ before replying.
“Maybe because this is the safest place in Equestria. It’s surrounded by a city, protected day and night, and home to us.” Luna pointed a hoof at Chrysalis.
“But she managed to get in,” the indigo Alicorn pointed out, “What’s stopping the clock-thing from doing the same thing?” Again, this stirred troubling thoughts in Celestia’s head. She hoped to whatever higher power ponies may or may not believe in that this wouldn’t result in a nationwide scare. There would be meetings, conferences, and every single sort of political gathering that made the princesses so bored that they felt like stripping themselves of their royal titles and fly off to live in a cave somewhere.
“So what should we do?” sighed Celestia. The princess’s sister gave a ‘hmm’ of her own as she gave the situation some thought. But before she could voice her ideas, Chrysalis suddenly let out a ghastly shriek. The two princesses jumped in surprise as the queen dropped down between them, clamping her hooves around their mouths. Celestia noticed for the first time that Chrysalis had a peculiar smell about her, similar to the salt air of the ocean.
“Tick-tock,” she whispered fearfully, “Tick-tock…” Though the two sisters were about to push the changeling away, they both paused. A ticking noise was suddenly audible in the room, and this time, it wasn’t Chrysalis who was making it. It fell upon their ears in obtrusive bursts, tick, tock, tick, tock. Though it was certainly loud enough to be in the room, Celestia realized that it lay outside. Slowly, she and her sister crept towards her open window. Chrysalis was dragged via magic to the window as well, kicking and screaming the entire way. Once Celestia and her sister saw what lay beyond her room, they gasped quietly.
There, right outside the tower, was an enormous beast resembling a crocodile. For all intensive purposes, it was a crocodile, the only real difference being its monstrous size. The tip of its long, gnarled tail twitched perfectly in time with the ticking, indicating that the crocodilian was the source of it. It looked up at the tower with hungry eyes, zeroing in on the changeling queen. The three flinched as the beast opened up its gaping toothy maw, running a pinkish-white tongue along its shining white cones of death. Strands of rancid saliva dripped onto the ground. Celestia and Luna slowly shuffled backwards away from the window.
“Celestia,” murmured Luna, “Why is there a sea-dragon outside of our tower?”
“I…I’m not sure…” replied the stunned Celestia. There was a loud slam as Chrysalis fled into the closet again. The two Alicorn Sisters gave each other a glance, then looked back at the changeling’s hiding place. They both trotted over to the closet and opened the door, where they saw Chrysalis cowering behind some dresses.
“Chrysalis,” began Celestia, “Is…um…is that thing here for you?”
“Tick-tock,” squeaked the changeling as she nodded. For the first time since they’d known her, the Alicorn sisters felt sorry for the love-leeching abomination.
“I’m only going to make an educated guess about this predicament,” Luna said quietly, “When you were expelled from Canterlot two months ago, you were thrown all the way to the sea. Is that correct?” Again, the whimpering queen nodded. “Ah,” continued Luna, “And I’m also guessing that you somehow encountered the sea-dragon outside.” Once more the changeling nodded. Celestia was beginning to piece together what happened to the unfortunate queen.
“Chrysalis,” said the white Alicorn, “Has that thing been following you all this time?” With one last nod given by their frightened adversary, Celestia pulled her sister aside. “Well, Luna, it appears that the reptile outside has developed a taste for a certain changeling.”
“How horrible,” murmured Luna, “And to think she’s been chased across Equestria by that thing.”
“This appears to have taken our problem to a whole new level,” said Celestia, “Now we have a sea-dragon in our garden.”
“We’ve got to do something about it,” said Luna, “That ticking is going to give me a headache.” The Alicorn looked back at Chrysalis. “You know, we could…” Celestia raised her hoof to her mouth in shock.
“Luna, how could you even think that!” she cried, “That’s absolutely horrid!”
“Well, so is she,” pointed out the indigo princess, “I mean, she almost destroyed our home, tried to marry another mare’s fiancé, and almost killed us all. Don’t you think what’s happened to her could be considered karma?”
“Luna,” began Celestia, her voice heavy with reproach, “As rulers of Equestria, it is our job to rise above such petty behavior. If we were to do what you are suggesting, we would be sinking to her level. Need I remind you of the Nightmare Moon incident?” Luna looked sheepish.
“I guess you’re right,” she sighed, “I’m sorry. I guess I’ve just been away for so long, I’m having trouble adjusting to the new codes and such. Remember when what we used to do with ponies like Chrysalis?”
“Hang them by their hooves in the dungeons and have Old Prickly beat them with a cactus?” Celestia said with trace amounts of embarrassment in her voice, “You know I was never in favor of that.”
“Neither was I,” said Luna, “But everypony else seemed to enjoy it.” While the two sisters were reminiscing about the old judicial system, the tower suddenly shook. The Princesses both ran to the window where they were greeted with a terrifying sight. The enormous sea-dragon was making an attempt to scale the walls. The Alicorns looked at each other grimly. Both were immensely powerful, and considered by many to be goddesses incarnate. But it was common knowledge that, while they could defeat dragons, hydras, and even power-mad members of their own kind, nopony messed with a sea-dragon.
“TICK-TOCK!” screamed Chrysalis. Celestia and Luna whirled around just in time to see the changeling come barreling towards them, nearly knocking them out of the window as she fled out into the sky, her ragged wings beating as fast as they possibly could. The crocodilian below turned its massive head to watch as the changeling became a small dot in the distance. It rolled its eyes, and slammed its tail against the earth in annoyance. The blow caused a minor quake that shook the castle. There was another, more powerful quake as the beast dropped down from the tower. Luna and Celestia watched as the leviathan turned around and began to skulk its way out of the garden, its ticking presence leaving along with it.
“Well…I guess that problem took care of itself,” Celestia muttered.
(Listen to this, to hear the ticking noise. You will become hopelessly addicted to it.)
