1: Ponies Are Not Just the Food Source
Queen Chrysalis had been having a really bad day. Presently at this very moment, she had been catapulted out of Canterlot.
She sighed, the ground had been approaching very quickly, she knew she could fly, so it wasn't such a big deal. The big deal was that she screwed up.
She remembered that day quite perfectly, everything was going perfectly that is until that mare Twilight Sparkle screwed everything up. She smiled to herself, yes everything would have been perfect if she would have murdered Cadence in her fit of anger.
She could feel several strong emotions from that Sparkle, anger at her brother for not telling her about the wedding on time, that mare did have a lot of suppressed anger, so much for ponies preaching friendship.
The only thing that was left to do is to channel this anger into somepony else, however, that was failed fast.
Then if her original plan ended up successful than Twilight would have ended up so depressed at the thought of killing real Cadence then the only thing that would left to do is relocate her somewhere else, and the most brilliant part is that Twilight would have to be replaced by the permanent infiltration drone. However, that didn't happen.
Right now I think I feel very angry at her. This is ridiculous, Changelings can’t feel any emotions, that's why we need to take them from someone else. We are vampires damn it….oof.
Chrysalis was so focused on her thoughts that she didn't notice that she already fell into the forest, it kind of hurt a bit.
“I deserved that,” reluctantly she stood up, and then tried to look at where exactly she was. She knew she was in the woods, but where? She thought she just flew a small rural town just now, “Oh that's right, I believe ponies call that town Ponyville.” She smirked, maybe someday when she is going to be the Queen of Equestria she is going to rename it into Bugtown.
“I want to be the Queen of Equestria, and then the whole world! Is that too much to ask?”
“No, your highness,” out of nowhere a random drone showed up, “those foolish ponies don't know what they are missing.”
“Damn right they are. What are you doing here drone, that's an awfully good timing for you to show up?”
The drone shrugged, “Some of us saw you, uh your very graceful fall from the skies above.”
“Drone.”
"Yes, your highness.”
“Would you just please go away, for now, your Queen wishes to be alone.”
“As you wish your highness,” the drone vanished like he wasn't even there.
Queen Chrysalis sighed in relief. Finally, peace and quiet, and nature, I can enjoy peace and quiet. At least it would have been that way if she didn't notice the faint emotional feedback somewhere very close to her position. Emotions meant a food source, and that was worth the investigation.
Meanwhile, four little fillies had been trotting in the forest, “Babs, are you sure it was a good idea to go into the forest to find out our cutie marks?”
“Of course it is, don't be such a chicken Scootaloo.”
“I am not a chicken,” Scootaloo said angrily.
“Then stop acting like it, chicken.”
Scootaloo only rolled her eyes.
“Actually I am with Scootaloo, what the hay did we forgot here?”
“Oh come on cous, not you two. I thought we all agree to this, Your sister and her friends went here many times. That crazy zebra lives here too. What a big deal?”
“The big deal is that this forest is dangerous,” quickly replied Sweetie Belle. “I think that back then we were all just eagerly overexcited by the idea of getting cutie marks that we weren’t actually thinking with our heads, and Scootaloo she just hates this place.”
“Are you sure it's not just because she is chicken?”
Meanwhile, Queen Chrysalis managed to track down the troublemakers and just now had been observing them.
What those imbeciles are doing in this forest. Only an imbecile would voluntarily go in there, or they have to be crazy to live here.
“That’s it, Babs, I bucking dare you to say chicken one more time.”
“Or you what, chicken? What are you going to do?”
“Oh nothing much,” Scootaloo pretended to be deep in thought, she then said next part in a very cold voice. “I just leave you alone in the company of a very hungry Timberwolf.”
Chrysalis smirked, I like that one.
“You wouldn't dare, you are too much of a goody two horseshoes to do it.”
“She is right Babs, there are plenty of monsters who live here.”
Just like me, I am a really scary monster.
“What the hey? I am a bit confused. I think we, uh mistook Babs Seed with Diamond Tiara.”
“No Bloom, my eyes don't deceive me, this is, in fact, your cousin Babs Seed.”
“Woah, Woah, Woah. Girls come on now, are you still at it? I thought that we did sort everything out back then.”
They continued to trot on the path which would eventually lead them to the old castle ruins.
“Wait, weren't those three were at the wedding?” For a brief moment, she forgot that she should stay as silent as possible and blubbed it out.
“They were your highness,” she heard in reply. Foals didn't seem to notice her sudden outburst.
“Then what are they, what am I staring at here?” She continued this time she started to whisper, probably some other drone who wanted to annoy her, despite her clear orders to leave her alone, not everything did.
Despite the popular belief changelings don't have a hive mind, that was just a lies that had been spread across the nation to boost the fear the harvesting sector Twenty-Five and Thirty-Two. More commonly referred as Ponyville and Manehattan.
“The one on the left is orange pegasus filly, the one in the center is marshmallow unicorn filly, and the one on the right is red-yellow earth pony filly, and…”
Chrysalis groaned, “I know what they look like a genius, Those three should be with them.”
“Oh, you mean that wedding, that was over two months ago. You actually got fired out of the castle by the big oversized trebuchet, you uh…”
“Go ahead my dear drone, go ahead and said it”, The pregnant pause became really awkward. You don't need to be a changeling to feel it, ”What else did I do while in there?”
“Your Highness, you were about to infiltrate the important diplomatic meeting, however, you got drunk on the excess of emotions and then well you foolishly revealed yourself. Why are you even wasting your time with them?”
Why would a drone change the subject so suddenly? However, Queen Chrysalis already knew what to say. It's better to pretend to be uninterested then being scolded for being too soft. Chrysalis shrugged off several childhood memories.
“Why would I care about foals that are emotional food generators? I would really hate to waste my food, and dead foals are wasted food source.”
“What about that time when you almost sucked an entire population dry?”
“My dear drone, need I remind you that as far as other forms of media and storytelling are concerned comic books do not bucking matter. Please keep this in mind next time when you are going to drop a couple crazy ideas in an Equestria Publishing Department, to provide the necessary funds for our kingdom.”
“But I like comic books, and for your information, they are called visual novels.”
“Oh this is just perfect,” Chrysalis huffed in annoyance. “For Discord's sake, they are just foals. We are going to mess around with adults because that's a fair game. However foals of any race are protected, we are never going to abuse foals. Is that clear?”
“Yeah, okay I get it you don't need to be so hard ass about it, I am sorry but you are becoming a bit too emotional, and if you are going to continue on that path then we are going to get discovered.”
Chrysalis forced to calm herself down, as much as she hated it, the drone was right. “I am bored alright! Can't drones just take the hint?”
“Of course your highness, I am sorry.” The drone quickly apologized.
“Drone, don’t you have anything else to do?”
“Not really your highness, ever since we botched the welding operation that was nearly two months ago, we just”, the drone paused, ”many of us just left with a lot of free time.”
“What are you some kind of combat unit?”
“I am companion unit Your Highness, we do specialize in infiltrating deep inside the foreign territory, we also specialize in providing emotional support.”
“Providing emotional support?” Chrysalis raised her eyebrow.
“What I mean to say is our responsibility is to make sure that the ponies around me have remained happy because being happy is far more preferable to being stressed by the presence of bug-like creature. Which reminds me you are not doing yourself any favors by remaining in your original form.”
“I am a really bad actress, as you might know, I am an administrator unit. We weren't taught how to act.”
“I am not saying that you need to act by foal napping other ponies. I am just saying that creating an original character is much more preferable.”
Chrysalis only rolled her eyes, “You mean creating a ton of paperwork to make it believable. My dear drone you can't really create a brand new character for long-term purposes unless you actually want to stay in character for a long term. Anyway, why are we even talking to each other? Go back to work or something.”
“This is my work Your Highness, I am a companion unit, don't you remember me saying it.
I wish I could forget, Queen Chrysalis only groaned because she knew she is not going to receive the privacy she wanted, and therefore this is going to be a very long day.
There is also another reason why she preferred for her appearance the way it is. It provided an excellent defensive ability when she was forced to be in the environment like this forest, all the other natural predators just avoided her presence and never dared to bother her or her pray.
Meanwhile, three little fillies continued their trek, unaware of a certain bug queen that's been following them around, “Did you hear that?” Scootaloo thought she heard something.
“Heard what, we didn't hear anything?“ her companions answered to her in a unison.
That's right little filly, listen to your friend's advice and move on, you didn't hear anything. Chrysalis then turned to her companion, “What’s the hay was that? That's little filly heard something.”
“She couldn't possibly hear anything, the physiology of young pegasi is just too different from ours. Unless?”
“Unless what drone?”
“It’s really nothing, at least I hope it's nothing, but there is a really small possibility that this filly is an infiltrator unit.”
That's was a bit troubling, all of the deep cover infiltrator units are heavily documented and then all of the information is stored in a central located deep inside of the Southern Sands.
Harsh weather conditions and the remote weather conditions are guaranteed that no one, especially if they are an obnoxious adventurer like Daring Do would be bothered to find it, and even if they do then without proper authorization they are guaranteed to die a rather gruesome death.
But for now, this filly would have to wait, for now, she is forced to deal with the possible intruder that doesn't seem like to get a message that Chrysalis is an alpha bitch here in this part of the woods.
“What kind of foolish beast is that going to be this time?” Chrysalis sighed, she guessed she has no other choice but to reveal herself.
"Probably it's a Manticore, their species always being very difficult."
"Manticore...Manticore... hm, Manticora ... Man Eater ... Man ... What is a man? You know my dear drone this is a bit weird."
"Your Highness please focus, the beast is already here and is about to eat them alive."
"What are you talking about it?" Queen Chrysalis grabbed Manticore with her telekinesis who tried to sneak on her pray, “I am always focused.“ She smacked around the Manticore, “I am just trying to point out a few ridiculous inconsistencies in the language.” Twack. “I mean calling this dumb beast Ponticore would probably have been simpler.” Twack, Twack, Twack. “This beast is really dumb because it doesn't seem to understand that it shouldn't mess with me whenever I am around!” Twack. “I....” Twack “Am...” Twack. “The...” Twack. “Bucking...” Twack. “Changeling...” Twack. “Queen.” Twack.
With each and every word the Manticore got thrown around like a ragdoll, at some point, Queen Chrysalis lost focus ad the Manticore tried to escape, “Oh where do you think you are going? Come back here, I am not completely done with you.” Queen Chrysalis grabbed the manticore again and prepared for more twacking.
However, all of that noise finally attracted enough attention for other ponies to notice her, “Uh, so when we should tell her that we can see her now?” asked Applebloom.
“Probably, never. In fact, we should probably run,” said Sweetie Belle.
“And then what? Ending up getting eaten by the Pomticore?” said Scootaloo.
“Would still be a better option than staying in the company of her. What do you think she is going to do with us when she is going to be done with that manticore?”
“I don't know Sweetie Belle, I think Manticore would never eat Fluttershy.”
“Apple Bloom, that was Fluttershy, and that just the rest of us, meaning that we are probably going to end up being eaten alive by that beast. Sweetie Belle blinked a couple of times, “Mother of Celestia I am turning into my own sister!”
“Who is she?” This time it was Babs turn to ask questions.
“What do you mean who? She is the changeling queen, she is evil!” yelled Sweetie Belle.
Babs blinked, “by evil you mean cool right because she is so cool right now.”
“No, I mean she is evil-evil. She invaded a Canterlot during the Royal Wedding and then Princess Twilight and Princess Cadence kicked her butt, and…Oh no, she came back for revenge, because we are the sisters of the Elements of Harmony, well two of us at least, Scootaloo is an honorary sister.”
“Hey, I heard that!” Yelled at her Scootaloo.
“What? I only tell how it is…
“Hi...”
“Gahh!” yelled everypony in fright, then they noticed a lone changelings drone, who just now announced his presence, their screaming make him flinch.
“So um, you are not going to eat us?”
“No not really, I actually find pony meat completely disgusting,” this sudden revelation only made things worse. “What I mean to say we are not meat eaters, unlike the vast majority of monsters in this forest.”
“I see, I take it that was you trying to be funny?”
Changeling nodded, “I wasn't really good at the comedy, wasn't really my specialization.”
Meanwhile, Chrysalis finished with torturing the manticore and with final twack she left the unconscious body of the beast on the ground.
“Don't tell me, the creature is dead?” he asked.
“No!” She said defensively, “I just taught that foolish beast a lesson he will never forget.”
“Right, somehow I don't really believe that.”
At the same exact moment when the other changeling has focused his attention on his queen, Scootaloo and other fillies tried to escape, unfortunately for them, Chrysalis had been paying attention.
“Now then, where do you think you are going?”
“Somewhere far away from you. My sister told me everything about you, you are dangerous. She also told me to not talk to strangers.”
“Well, I just don't know what your sister would have thought if she knew that you four sneaking around this forest.”
“Ha, like she would actually believe you, you aren’t exactly this trustworthy.”
“Maybe, maybe not, but she would believe the word of another pony.”
Scootaloo gasped, “You wouldn’t.”
“I would,” Chrysalis smiled, “Now then I tell you what, take me to your leader, and then we can all pretend all of this never happened.”
“Who do you mean? Are you, do you want to take us to Princess Celestia?”
“NoNoNo, not Celestia, just take me to Princess Twilight, I am very interested in her just like I am interested in you.” She pointed her hoof at Scootaloo.
“Me? Why me?”
“I don't really know why but I've been observing you for quite awhile, and I am not really sure but I think you are very special.”
“Aha,” Scootaloo sounded very unsure “Look, lady, I think that it's very nice that you saved our lives, but I still don’t think that hanging around with you is not a good idea.”
“Where are your parents?” Chrysalis asked suddenly
“I am an orphan, I don't have any parents.” Scootaloo tried to sound defensive.
“My dear, everypony has parents, even if those parents choose to ditch their children into an orphanage, you had to come from somewhere. For example, if you are really want to convince me that you are an orphan, then I am going to start digging up some paperwork and I better go and find it.”
“Alright, alright, you can come with us, just please drop the subject.”
“Excellent, now then my dear drone you know what to do.”
“Do I have too?”
“But of course you are volunteered to be my companion, and that means...”
Drone sighed and then shifted into a pink fluffy pony, “Pfff- Phfff- Pfff.” He or should we say she climbed up onto Chrysalis back and then made herself comfortable.
At the same time, Chrysalis shifted herself into white unicorn mare, with a green mane. On the tip of her snout, she had small glasses.
“Wait where did eyeglasses come from?” Asked Babs “How did you?”
“It's my secret, maybe someday I am going to tell you, maybe not, who knows? I do. Am I going to tell?”
Babs and Scootaloo rolled her eyes.
Author's Note
Kind of pushing this idea of the box because I thought it's going to be fun to write, at least I hope so. Unfortunately, it has a very slow start. Babs Seed is here just for the sake of being a mild antagonist.
