*~*~*
The hallway down towards the pit was dark and empty, the walls covered in the scratchings of a long lost race. No one ever came down here anymore, few even knew of its existence, and fewer still were brave or stupid enough to brave its depths. But Chrysalis was neither. She was just so, unbelievably, desperate. The war she had planned must succeed, and for it, she needed every muscle she could muster. She only hoped that this particular muscle could be contained and properly utilized.
And there she stood, before two massive wooden doors, each a hundred feet high, and bound shut in some of the thickest chains ever forged. Engraved upon the wood were more of the same chicken scratches engraved onto the walls around and behind her. And while those were merely warning tales to frighten off those foolish enough to venture down here, these marks were those of binding.
Those sigils, carved by the great mages of old, were meant to keep even the most powerful and monstrous of beasts contained within, and served their purpose very well. But not as well as they should have, for those whom had lain the enchantments never imagined that one might try to open the doors, which is why it would be so easy for Chrysalis, almost too easy.
With but a snap of her fingers, the chains flew off, the sigils glowed briefly and violently, and then all was still and quiet once more. Pushing open the doors, Chrysalis began to step inside, but halted when a cold wind howled out from somewhere in the darkness before her. With yet another snap of her fingers, a torch from down the hall floated to her awaiting hand.
After a moment’s hesitation, she stepped inside.
*~*~*
Stepping inside, she followed a long and narrow corridor just a bit smaller than the doors she had passed through. Chrysalis passed row upon row of empty cages, and although they were empty, they still bore evidence of things that have been kept within in times long since past. If only she’d been here then, she mused, she could have had access to an even greater arsenal of living weapons. Alas, only one remained within , and that was the one she was here to see.
But why? The questioning thought startled Chrysalis. Was that. . . self doubt? Was she, queen and overlord of the changeling race really beginning to question herself? While for many a little self doubt here and there was common place, for her it was a nightmarish ordeal. She was always self confident that her plan would work, even if her previous ones had failed!
Little did that meager changeling know that that had been the intent of what she could not read. And what couldn’t she read again? Ah yes, the sigils that lined the doors, the walls of the corridor before the doors, and now the walls inside the Pit. And while the magical essence and even its intent had been clear and easy to read on the doors, the subtler magics of the runes lining the walls, floor, and ceiling all around her were much more subtle.
So subtle, in fact, that Chrysalis didn’t even notice them. She hadn’t detected them in the corridor on the way in, yet had detected them on the door itself, but by the time the chains had snapped and the chiseling into the door stopped glowing, the majority of the magic had abated and the runes had gone passive once more. And thus it was that chrysalis's doubts began.
Taking one final step, she stopped before the door, before in a sudden rush of energy and fury she slammed her fist into the brittle wood, shattering it as the momentum of the punch carried her through the doorway. Pausing there, she caught her breath before descending one more into the Hellpit.
Down into the deep dark pit she went, steadying herself with every step before stepping forward once again. But every step was worse than the last, and the ever increasing worries, doubts, and fears plaguing her mind only increased. Biting her lip, Chrysalis looked downwards, past the railing that kept her from falling down. Nervously, she observed all the steps she had still to take. Still biting her lip, which was now bleeding, she looked to the steps in front of her, before looking down into the pit once more. Stealing a glance at the steps one last time, she turned from them, climbed up on the railing, and jumped.
Down she went, her mind screaming all the while as her doubts, worries, and fears all increased a hundredfold, tearing at her mind and ripping her sanity to shreds. Or they would have, had Chrysalis been a normal human. But insanity was nothing new for her, and as mother of a species that was prone to morphing, piecing herself back together was nothing new.
Plummeting down she went, alighting upon the cave floor with ethereal wings outstretched, formed out of her innate Changeling magic, making not a whisper o’ sound apart from the slide of her dress across her form as her wings retracted into her back.
And then, there she stood, once more before a pair of mighty doors, only this time, they were crafted from steel rather than wood. And there were also three such pairs of doors, and sleeping before them all, was a hound. Not just any hound, no, this was the one that guarded the gates of hell: Cerberus. But at the moment he was sleeping, or so she thought from his steady breathing.
She watched as one of Cerberus’ three heads lifted up, yawning, before it looked about. Chrysalis froze as the dog’s eyes locked onto her, standing stock still. Despite the scale difference between her and the floor’s massive tiles, Cerberus had someone managed to pick her out. The growling that began deep in his throat jolted her out of her startled state. A vortex of green energy arose around Chrysalis a she summoned up her magic, flowing from her palms and into the vortex as she faced Cerberus.
She began a low murmuring, a buzzing sound even, droned from her lips and filled the chamber as bright green energy began to swirl around Chrysalis in an unfelt wind as she began chanting a spell she had prepared for exactly this occasion. Suddenly, in a great howling of wind, the magical vortex snapped out at Cerberus, wrapping around him and holding him in place as his form began to flicker and fade as she transported him far away from Tartarus, to a very specific destination.
She smiled as she thought of that small town, filled with those meddlesome children who had foiled her plans once before. With the image firmly in her mind, Cerberus flickered once more before vanishing completely. Chrysalis collapsed immediately after, having not realized how much the spell had drained her. No matter. She could rest now that Cerberus had been teleported to Ponyville.
* * *
Waking up, she blinked away the bleariness that clung at her eyes. Still wondering how long she had been out, Chrysalis sat up, and then stood up, rolling her shoulders and rotating her head. Satisfied she looked presentable enough, she stepped towards the massive doors in front of her. Stepping first to the left one, she laid her hand upon it, searching inside with her magic, but could find no signs of life. And what she did feel, she did not like in the slightest. The energy that still lingered in this cage had an acrid smell to it, so to speak, so whatever had been kept within was extraordinarily foul, but also long gone, whatever it was. Chrysalis would need to look into it later to see if the beast still lingered elsewhere, or if it had finally been vanquished.
The next cage she stepped towards, well, it perplexed her at the very least. It, the energy inside inside the cage felt torn apart, as though something of complete anarchy and chaos had been shoved within, though by the cartoonish sketches on the outside of the door, it was pretty obvious it had escaped. A Draconequus. Very interesting, was it the same one or was there the potential for another Draconqueus besides the one that existed as a dormant statue in the Capital Gardens?
The last cage yielded the results she was after. After placing her hand to the door, a whisper echoed from within.
“So. . . ” came the dry voice, “someone has come to see me. I never imagined someone would come to visit me after I was imprisoned here!” At the end, the voice came out as a harsh snarl. “Well then, speak, if you are so brave as to come all the way down here, and tell me who you are!”
Chrysalis paused a moment, not used to others addressing her so. Quickly though, she shook her head, gathered her thoughts, and replied at last.
“I am Chrysalis, mother and queen of the Changeling race, and I have come to request your assistance.”
A chuckling broke out from beyond the doors, but so close Chrysalis was sure that he was as close to the door as her. “You’ve come all this way, down into the farthest pits of Tartarus itself, to request my aid. Me, Tirek, of all beasts upon the face of Eques?” To my own ears, it was quite hilarious the amount of indignity that Tirek had spun into his words.
“Y. . Yes.” Chrysalis stuttered before piecing herself together again. “Yes I have, and I’m sure you would be more than willing to help. Afterall, you were imprisoned here simply because you were trying to fulfill the prophecy given to you.”
“What do you know of the prophecy?!”
“You shall know of him, and him you,
You will chase after each other and war shall rise.
For if one does not, the world shall burn,
And whoever wins will destroy the other
And all the victor holds dear” Chrysalis recited in a mocking cat-call.
“HOW?! HOW DO YOU KNOW THOSE WORDS??!!” Tirek shouted from within his cell.
“Oh, as Queen I have a lot of resources with which I can draw upon.” Chrysalis replied as she walked along the doors of the cell, her hands trailing across it, feeling out every nook and chranny, sensing out the cracks filled with magic that sealed the door shut.
The only reply that Tirek gave was a simple, “Hmpph.”
“Well,” Chrysalis continued. “That prophecy is going to be rather difficult to fulfill when you are trapped inside of a cell, now is it?” Chrysalis paused, knowing that her manipulations were working perfectly. Afterall, manipulation was every Changelings second middle name, right after deception. Which made filing forms hard when your name was Mother Deception Manipulation Chrysalis. The weird looks she’d get.
“Fine then, I will help you. I expect you are more than capable of opening these doors, and freeing me?”
Opting to act instead of replying, Chrysalis trailed a path vertically across the seam of the door with a trail of green energy extending from her left index finger. The energy stuck to the seem before catching fire and morphing into a white hot flame tinged with black. There was a minute hiss as the magical fire melted through the door and releasing long pet up air from within. With a soft, and almost unheard, *click*, the door unlocked, and slowly drifted open. . .
But then the doors stopped opening, and a horned head poked out from between the small gap to find Chrysalis passed out. Again. Even though Tirek didn’t know this was the second time. Squeeeeezing his narrow and frail form through the opening in the double doors, he tried not to disturb the sleeping beauty who had freed him. He looked up at the stairs and doorway high above, before conceding, and sitting down n the floor, his back against the wall, as he waited for Chrysalis to wake up.
Looking back up at the stairs once more, he began to ponder if he had the strength to climb then. But no, even that second check of height vs energy showed that he definitely could not climb those steps. Turning back to the sleeping queen of the Changelings, he wondered if he could consume her energy. As a Centaur, he could naturally feed on the primordial energy of those around him, big and small, plant and animal. But, much like how Changelings had limits on the emotions they could feed upon, so to did Centaurs have limits.
The energy that was innate to Changelings and allowed them to morph so easily as they did was a magical virus to those who were not immune and attempted to feed on a Changeling. Changeling magic had once turned a friend of his into a convulsing, continuously mutating blob of agony before Tirek silenced him. He still shivered at the memory.
As he looked about the chamber yet again, he began to miss some of his old cell mates, despite their eccentricity. There had been Eris, a female Dracoqeus and sister to Discord who had been sprung out by her brother not too long ago, what had it been, something like 4 years now. AS he glanced at the cell, he noticed something rather odd about the drawings upon it. They were all of pastel horses, and the order of them reminded him of his people’s cave paintings from the distant past, telling a story as the drawings moved across the wall unnoticed until now.
And by moving across the wall, they really were. That’s how it was so easy to tell that that had been Eris’s cell. Struggling to his feet, legs still shaky, he walked over, and watched the story unfold.
A sliver of clear blue formed, a pond it looked like, surrounded by trees and subset deep within cave. Tirek watched a small pink pony with hair like cotton candy flew out of the roof, well, less flew, and more crashed down on the cave floor. Though she appeared unharm, she still looked dazed as she got up and squeeled in delight. He knew this because a thought-like-bubble appeared over her, much like a living comic. He watched as she went closer to. . .
His attention to the strange art piece was pierced by the sharp intake of breath followed by the scrambling of feet as Tirek turned to see Chrysalis arose back to her feet. Still looking sleepy, she looked puzzled as she turned and still saw him there. After a quick explanation by Tirek, Chrysalis knew why.
Soon enough, they left, holding each other up and sharing their strength as they slowly climbed the stairs, plans being shared and formed as a wicked smile crossed Tirek’s face.
* * *
Author's Note
This is my third story so I'd appreciate any feedback on it.
Also, as you can see from the titles, there is more coming. . . a lot more.
Thank you for reading !
Author's Note
So yah, second chapter. . . Same as before, leave any thoughts you might have. . . how is your day going?
Facet 8
* * *
The train roared down the tracks, slamming Twilight quite suddenly with a rush of deja vu. Outside of the candlelit coach she road in, the flames cast upon the planes below, dancing and swirling through the night. They formed shapes all too familiar, but at the same time, distant and unmoving, as though she was glancing through a window much as Plato had once said, and could only see the shadows of the people. The train whistled its lonesome cry, echoing back from the cliffs that soared not too far away from town.
The whistle jolted Twilight from her thoughts as she returned from the window perch and headed towards the door. Situated at the forward end of the command coach lent to her, she was barely there when Applejack came through the door first, before Twilight could see herself out.
“Before you even ask, yes, we’ve made it.” Twilight smiled at her soon-to-be old tutor, savoring her heavy accent, all too aware she’d be leaving her soon.
Looking out the window once more, the planes had vanished from view, and all Twilight could see was a mildly rundown boomtown on the edge of the San Palomino desert. Which she had expected. Twilight always made sure to know of where she was going, even if it was but a stop on a longer journey of hers.
The boomtown of Mercy was situated at an oasis in the vast desert, and also served as one for the weary travelers who stopped in from time to time. In fact, so many were people passing through, going to and fro across the great desert, that any census had failed to account for the actual number of permanent residents. Even those were subject to flights of fancy, young men and woman taking off for work and a married life, or older folks being sent for by some dignitary or their family so that they may be taken care of. Anyway, Twilight can’t fill you in on everything she knows, now can she?
Shaking her head in confusion, Twilight turned back to her mentor as Applejack finally spoke.
“Y’all right, sugarcube? Lookin’ a bit lost in that head of yours.”
“Yah, I’m fine. So what are we doing here again?”
“We are here on behalf of the Princess to get you properly trained for combat. Add to that, the one training does need some discipline.”
“Oh really, and how do you know her?”
“We go way back, back to our hometown of Ponyville where I rescued her from a pack of Diamond Dogs. We used to constantly compete, but she’s. . . she’s. . . ”
“She’s what, Applejack ?”
“She’s darn tootin’ lazy, that’s what!” Applejack shouted in a sudden fit of anger. “Sure she may be confident in her abilities as an amazing pilot, but she lacks humility! And she ain’t done a single day of hard work in her entire life!”
“Really, then what does she do for work?” Twilight asked with a gentle smile, tring to ease her mentor. Applejack noticed the tone and calmed herself down before putting her Stetson back on her head.
“She’s a weather expert. At least last I heard.”
Having come to edge of the train station and the start of the town boardwalk, the pair looked around for someone who appeared to be waiting for them. Stepping down and glancing up and down the street, Applejack’s eyes were the first to pick out the Cardinal Red Mustang. Sure, it was a tad beaten up, but they were nice and fast when you needed some speed. Which is why Applejack and Rainbow Dash had longed share a fondness for them.
“Listen m’am, this one’s not for sale, so you better lay off!” Called out a figure in a sharp but feminine voice from across the main strip when she noticed Applejack looking jealousy at her car.
“Oh, plenty sorry, it’s just that I’m very fond of Mustangs.” Applejack shouted her reply back, looking like she wanted to hide under her hat out of embarrassment. “I’m also lookin’ for a friend of mine to pick us up, know anyone like that?” She continued, peeking out from under her hat.
“So I was sent to pick you up. Figures. So which one is Dash’s new pupil?” the figure inquired, emerging from the darkness of a nearby building .
Twilight finally piped up. “I am! Miss. . . ?”
“Name’s Spitfire,” she said as she finally came into view. She was of medium height and build, but had definite signs of being athletic. Her blond hair had mild a mild red at the tips and was cut in a spiked variation of military standard, and she wore a black military blazer alongside a pair of track pants. The look on her face was not the most approving. Anyone could tell that Twilight wasn’t anywhere near the standard strength of soldiers or athletes, and it barely helped that she had managed to beef up a bit since her youth.
“Well, hop in, we don’t have all day. It’s late enough as it is without me having an early shift in the morning.”
They clambered into the banged up four seater as the captain climbed into the driver’s seat while Applejack took shotgun and Twilight crammed herself into the back. Spitfire revved the engine before stomping on the gas and the old Mustang tore out of the train station with a squeal of rubber.
As she started the car, Spitfire spoke again. “Listen now, This is my base you’ll be stayin’ at, I don’t want any funny business or hijacks on the premises, you hear?
“We gotcha,” Applejack said before being interrupted by Twi.
“Wait a minute, you’re the Spitfire? Captain of the famous Wonderbolts, best fliers and test pilots in all of Equestria??!!”
“The very same.” Spitfire replied before going quiet in a way that told the rest to be quiet as well.
“Um. . . ”, “What. . . ”, “Wait. . . ”, “Well. . . ” Twi stammered.
Eventually though, silence fell over the car until at last they came to an area filled with rocky pillars where canyons arose from the dusty planes. What had once been distant monoliths from the train station had come close enough to rise vertically right in front of them. Deftly, and with much experience, Spitfire drovie into and through one of the many canyons before them, ‘til they came to a stop at a ‘T’-Intersection with a cliff rising right in front of them. High in the cliff, a light shown through a cleft which stood out prominently, and Twilight could almost swear that she saw some movement up there.
Doors opened and slammed shut as Applejack and Twilight followed Spitfire out of the car, their bags in hand. Well, in Twilight’s case it was actually a crate, which he held with both hands, though only managed to through using her magic. As I’ve said before, she was nowhere near strong enough to carry it alone.
Spitfire walked up confidently to the solid rock face, smiling a smile that the others couldn’t see. Oh, were they in for a surprise! Always good for catching the rookies off their guards. Knocking once, twice, then three times, she stepped back from the door. A great rumbling arose from within the mountain as the cliff began to shake, before, with a great hiss, the cliff popped forward, splitting in two down the middle, and then moved on unseen tracks to either side vast opening in the cliffside.
Twilight’s and Applejack’s mouthes both dropped open in amazement Twilight before Applejack gathered herself back together enough to close her mouth and shut Twilight’s as well. Spitfire smirked at both of ehm before simply stepping to the car and getting back in.
Leaning out the window, she called out, “Follow the car, don’t get lost, and most of all, don’t touch anything.” Bringin’ her head back into the car, she turned the car back on, and began to slowly pull into the cavernous warehouse that had been revealed.
Applejack and Twilight looked at each other in puzzlement across the top of the car as it passed between them. The expression on Applejack’s face was an almost identical copy of Twilight’s own perplexity. Ad the Mustang pulled forward and they followed behind, the doors slowly began to rumble shut behind them.
Sealing with another hiss, the machinery that had made the underground warehouse almost deafening to be in quieted to a near indistinct sound. The mustang drove silently onward into the warehouse, where there were long iles to the right filled with crates and to left was a bare rock wall with several doors embedded in. High above it all on the left was a long glassed in area, probably a security room of saw time was Applejack’s geuss. Twilight was bust examining the crates, her mind sifting through what details it could pick out to try and determine what might be in them.
Lost in thought and having stopped long since, they were startled by the sound of an approaching pair of boots. Looking up, they watched as Spitfire approached them.
“Well, glad you both stayed put.” She said, looking pleasantly surprised. “C’mon. Time to meet your new trainer.”
Twilight practically squeeled in excitement as they passed through one door out of many that decorated the left hand side of the cavern. Up and up they went, 2 flights of stairs in all.
* * *