For Better or For Far Worse
Chrysalis liked the smell of diesel.
The poet in her mused that it was the smell of industry. Of power.
Or maybe she appreciated the warmth provided by the rumbling engine. If she’d been in an actual carriage pulled by her drones they’d have all frozen out in this tundra. A tank with painted wood covering its sides was better insulated.
“I don’t like this,” complained Pharynx as he glared out the armored slat towards the field of snow rolling by.
“And what do you dislike this time?” Chrysalis sighed. A less welcome revelation of being cooped up with her military staff was finding out just how much of a complainer Pharynx was.
“This whole plan,” Pharynx insisted with a frown.
Chrysalis adjusted herself on her seat cushion. In the sparse metal box that was the tank’s cabin, it was the only thing of luxury. She lounged on it as if she were on her throne. “Do you doubt your queen?”
Pharynx flinched at that, ears flattening out. “No… of course not. But hoofing you over to ponies? What sense does that make?”
“My, you make it sound like I’m going over there as a prisoner.”
“Isn’t that what marriage is?”
The reply was so utterly earnest that Chrysalis couldn’t help a hissing fit of laughter.
Pharynx fidgeted in place and resumed scowling at the snow.
“What would you suggest?” Chrysalis asked him once she’d recovered.
Pharynx and his perpetual frown remained. “You could let a decoy go instead. Make Replica do it.”
The chief of Chrysalis’ army had been busy trying to read a map stretched out across a rack of shells. She looked up sharply at Pharynx’s callout. “What?! Me?”
“Yeah. You’d be good at it.”
Replica’s red compound eyes squinted. “And why do you say that?”
“Because,” Pharynx answered plainly. “You’re a nymph.”
“How about you try it. Charmer like you would get it on fine with a stallion.”
“I would take a bullet for the queen. The least you can do is take a d—”
“It’s adorable that you would worry over me,” Chrysalis interrupted. “But I’ve toppled a good number of kings before you were even a grub. This one won’t be any different.”
Pharynx looked away and muttered quietly, “Sombra beat the Crystal Princess and Prince.”
‘—and you couldn’t’ was the rest of that unspoken implication.
Chrysalis’ fanged smile didn’t leave her face, but she ground her hoof against the cushion underneath her. “Yes. Yes, he did. He did us a favor with that. Saved us the trouble of kicking them out ourselves. We’ll still be the ones to snatch that pink tart and her dull husband when we eventually take Canterlot.”
“Yes, my queen,” Pharynx recited to her monologuing.
Chrysalis clicked her tongue. She knew that tone. “I do have a contingency, Pharynx. Perhaps if you talked more with Replica you would know of it.”
“I talk with her plenty,” Pharynx said defensively.
“Only when you want more soldiers to throw at the front line,” Replica grumbled.
Before her children could get to bickering again, Chrysalis cut in. “Replica. Where are the soldiers now?”
Replica traced a holed hoof along her map of the Crystal Empire. “We have one division of infiltrators filtering through Equestria and making use of their train network to get as close to the Crystal City as they can. They’ll prepare the ground for the three divisions marching through the forest. We might be able to launch an attack as early as tomorrow. Though I’d like those tanks in position first.”
“And where are we with those, Trimmel?” Chrysalis asked before she raised her voice. “TRIMMEL!”
At the controls of their tank sat the tank commander himself. His head bopping with a pair of headphones on. At Chrysalis’ shout, he jolted in place and pushed an earpiece up. “Yes, my queen?”
“Our tanks. How far are they from the Crystal City?”
Trimmel took a moment to speak into his headset and listen to responses. “They were slowed down by having to go through the Jade Hills but should pick up speed when they get to the Dynasty Plain. I’d say around tomorrow night?”
“Excellent, let’s set the attack at midnight,” said Chrysalis and glanced over at Pharynx. “Well? Satisfied yet?”
Pharynx mulled it over, then blinked. “Wait. Why aren’t I leading the armies if you’re attacking?”
“Because I still need a bodyguard who’s willing to take a bullet for me,” Chrysalis replied with a toothy grin.
“So… this marriage is another sham?”
“It makes a perfect cover for us,” chortled Chrysalis. “I don’t know what’s going through that king’s head, but if he’s offering the Crystal Empire on a platter, I’ll take it. I’m sure he has some plan to betray me. It’ll fail.”
“And if he doesn’t? What if he’s serious about the marriage?” Pharynx, ever the antagonist, asked.
Chrysalis considered that thought. She’d gone through the act of marriage several dozen times in her life. Always in disguise, always pretending. Sombra’s offer would be the first marriage she’d ever done not as some pony, but as herself.
For a moment, a strange tickle of an emotion wormed its way through her at the idea. Of being in a relationship without the usual filters of make-believe and lies. Of not being some mare under an assumed name. Of being simply Chrysalis.
“Of course he’s going to betray me,” Chrysalis said resolutely.
“So how are you going to betray her?” Radiant Hope asked.
Sombra turned from the balcony overlooking the city’s courtyard. He had been watching the crystal ponies erect a new statue dedicated to him. Hope’s question caught him off guard.
“Who says I am?” he replied, amused at her outright bluntness.
“It’s what you do, isn’t it? Betray mares who believe in you.”
If Hope’s question had been blunt, then her faceted eyes stared with equal sharpness. Even the twinkles in her crystal coat seemed to radiate anger.
Sombra ran his tongue over a fang, trying to hide his smile. He rather enjoyed seeing her like this, with such fire and spirit in her.
Hope’s lip trembled when he didn’t answer. “It’s true? You’re marrying that… that thing?! Somecreature that did nothing for you. Wh-Who would rather eat you. A...a... monster that doesn’t deserve to marry you.”
Some of her anger had swung into a kind of pleading despair. Sombra gave her a little prod. “And who does deserve to marry me?”
Hope’s muzzle scrunched, and she shook before driving her hoof down in a hard clop against the floor. “It should be me!” she shouted before immediately bursting into tears.
Sombra swirled himself into smoke and quickly closed the distance between them. He enveloped the mare in tendrils before reforming around her and holding her to him in a tight hug.
Hope fussed and tried to kick him before she turned her head and buried her muzzle in his chest fur.
“You never seemed that interested in being a princess before. You told me you gave up on that dream.”
“Because I don’t care about a stupid title! I care about—” Hope cut herself short and grew sullen, finally catching on to his game. “—you.”
Sombra smiled and brushed at the top of her head with his nose. “And how can I not care for the mare who brought me back from death twice? And who keeps me from my darker impulses.” He added with a pointed nip to her ear with a fang.
Hope melted under his affection and leaned heavily against him. “So why marry this queen instead of…” she trailed.
“Equestria’s ponies are peaceful but I know Celestia, she will eventually cajole them into a war. Your ploy of giving them back the royals only bought us time.”
“It wasn’t a ploy,” Hope said with a frown.
“Your wonderful idea,” Sombra amended. “But even if Celestia didn’t attack. She won’t defend us either. Look what happened to the nation of deer when the changelings drove in their tanks.”
Hope startled. “You mean the changelings would attack us?”
“It’s what I would do,” Sombra replied with a small snort.
“So it’s politics, you’re marrying her to stop her from attacking?”
“Yes…” Sombra trailed before he gave Hope a side glance. “But there are other ways of making her loyal.”
Hope’s frown returned. “I don’t like it when you use your mind magic.”
“I have been using it less,” Sombra noted. “Or else we wouldn’t be arguing over it, hmm?”
“It’s still not right. Maybe she’ll work with us after all? She could be serious about the marriage.” Hope’s muzzle scrunched when she realized what she was saying.
“Oh Hope, she’s a monster,” began Sombra as he swirled a hoof into a long streamer of a smokey tendril and petted against her cheek. “Just like me.”
“Coming up on the Crystal City now. I can see the spiral of the tower,” Pharynx said.
“Let’s prepare. Pull us over, Trimmel,” said Chrysalis before raising her voice again. “TRIMMEL!”
After gesturing at the driver, the tank came to a stop by the side of the road, and the changelings disembarked.
Replica shivered with her fangs chattering when a breeze picked up. “I-I thought it-it was sup-supposed to be warm next to the Cry-Crystal City.”
Chrysalis wanted to shiver as much as Replica, but she endured it with a regal saunter across the snow. “The king’s minions did something to that Crystal Heart when he returned. I doubt it works as well as it once did. It’s not important. What’s important is which one of you will play my little bug.”
Pharynx and Replica looked at each other. Trimmel looked off into the distance, head bopping with his headphones on.
“D-Do we ha-have to?” said Replica. “I think I’d ra-rather be cold.”
“Make Thorax do it,” Pharynx muttered. “He’d probably like it.”
Chrysalis considered, then chuckled. “He probably would, wouldn’t he?” She turned towards the tank and lit her horn, floating the seat cushion out the side hatch and tossing it into the snow. She goaded it with a sharp kick from a forehoof.
Green fire encircled the cushion, and a very ragged and bedraggled drone appeared in its place.
“Congratulations Thorax, you’ve been nominated,” Chrysalis said, grinning.
Thorax looked up at her and shook in place, either out of cold or fear. “I was already the cushion, though…”
Chrysalis glowered and held out her forehoof.
“Y-Yes, my queen.” Thorax cringed before transformation fire enveloped him and turned him into a small hoof-sized, winged grub. He started wiggling into her leghole.
“Now for the rest of you. Let’s see some disguises. A trio of ponies to help with the wedding.”
“Why bother? They’re going to know we’re changelings,” Pharynx argued.
“If you give them a small deception to uncover, they won’t think to look for the bigger one.” Chrysalis peered at the miniature Thorax nestled in her hoof before she closed off the hole on either side. “Besides, you’ll be warmer with coats on and less embarrassing to speak to.”
Replica flustered at that, but she transformed and became a pale yellow pony with a pink and blue mane.
Pharynx sighed and transformed into a purple mare with a messy-looking purple mane.
Trimmel startled and looked in confusion at the other two before he followed and changed into a white unicorn mare with a blue mane. His military headset changed to a civilian one with purple notes on the cups.
“Clever,” Chrysalis remarked to him even as she rolled her eyes.
“Really? Fruit? Pretty generic,” Replica snickered as she eyed the grapes and strawberry on Pharynx’s haunch.
“Like your candy one is any better,” Pharynx sniped back. “Ponies like fruit.”
“Yeah, and they like candy too.”
“In the tank, grubs,” Chrysalis interrupted. “Argue where it’s warm.”
Chrysalis had visited the Crystal Empire once not long after it had first re-appeared. A personalized scouting mission to see how vulnerable the newly installed Cadance was. She had found Crystal ponies to be single-minded over their princess and Crystal Heart. Feeding off that simple love was fulfilling, if bland.
Now she could see where that single-mindedness came from. While there were guards on some street corners and some ponies with green magic in their eyes, the Crystal ponies were slaves at heart. Many of them simply trudged through their day. It was a fact that Chrysalis found encouraging. If they could so quickly love a princess, then a king, why not a queen?
Their tank rolled through the Crystal City’s streets. Some crystal ponies threw the vehicle vague looks, but Sombra’s oppressive hoof made most of them an incurious sort.
“Might as well drive right to their doorstep if they’ll let us. Park us by their trinket heart.” Chrysalis chortled.
That finally provoked a reaction, with a group of masked guard ponies and officers scrambling to cut them off.
“Halt!” called one of the uniformed ponies.
Beside her, Pharynx reached for a rifle on the tank’s rack.
“Don’t be an idiot,” Chrysalis chided him before working the hatch and stepping out into the open.
One officer was better dressed than the others, wearing a cap and a military shirt lined with medals. Chrysalis figured him in charge of the welcome party by how flustered and fuming he was becoming. It was quite a contrast to the faceless and dispassionate Sombra Guard around him.
“Where’s the king?” Chrysalis asked.
The officer stiffened in place, and his muzzle worked, caught between anger and etiquette. Eventually, he cleared his throat. “Your majesty. On behalf of the king, I, Field Marshall Deimos, wel—”
“Don’t care. I’m here to see King Sombra,” interjected Chrysalis. “Or will you make his future wife and your future queen wait? Take me to him. Now.”
She suppressed a smile at seeing Deimos reel back as if she’d slapped him.
Still, an officer didn’t reach high rank without knowing their place and as expected Deimos swallowed his pride and muttered, “Yes, of course, follow me.” They made it several paces before he stopped and blinked when the rest of her entourage emerged from her tank. “Who are those?”
“My ponies.”
“Your… ponies.”
“Mm hmm, aren’t they cute?” Chrysalis asked merrily.
Deimos glanced between her and the trio. “Why does the queen of changelings ride with ponies?”
“We don’t do weddings in my land. I had to outsource talent. For music, drink, and confectionary.”
Deimos stared at her.
Chrysalis smiled, enough to show a hint of fang.
“My liege keeps strict control over who visits the Crystal Palace. We can’t have civilians running around. They might get lost,” Deimos said flatly.
“That sounds reasonable,” Chrysalis agreed.
“If they weren’t civilians if they were say... changelings they could go with you.”
Chrysalis shrugged. “If you want to lock up my pets go right ahead. It matters little to me. We are wasting time.”
Deimos looked like he wanted to argue the point before he turned stiffly. “Right this way, your majesty. We’ll put your ponies somewhere comfortable until you are done.”
Chrysalis glanced back at her tank as Pharynx, Replica, and Trimmel were led away. “Wonderful.”
Radiant Hope lifted a small statuette of a changeling and eyed it. “You know, I once tried recruiting Chrysalis when I was gathering allies for your return.” Hope returned the token back to the large map of Equestria stretched out across what had once been the Palace’s dining room table.
Sombra arched a brow. “And what did she say to that?”
“She said I was a fool to think I could take over the Crystal Empire with a ragtag band of even bigger fools on the backs of changelings. She set me back years without her help.”
“Perhaps just as well. Corrupting the heart made me stronger than taking it would.”
Hope let out a frustrated sigh and shook her head. “How will you convince her? Or is it mind control as soon as she gets here?”
“You wound me, Hope. Chrysalis is a tactical thinker. She likes plans and machinations. If I offer her one to take over Equestria, she might join us on principle. At least as long as it suits a creature like her.”
“She didn’t like my plan,” Hope grumbled.
“Maybe it wasn’t very good,” Sombra muttered, sotto voce.
Hope glanced up sharply. “What was that?”
Fortunately, at that moment the doors to the dining room opened, and the queen herself strolled in.
“Are you hiding in here oh husband of mine?” Chrysalis called, voice dripping with saccharine sweetness.
Deimos soon followed her in, looking as if he had been trotting to keep up with the queen. “My liege, I present you Chrysalis, Queen of the changelings,” he said belatedly.
For a moment, Sombra’s eyes met with Chrysalis’, and they held each other’s gazes. A small bit of competitive spirit ran through him, eager at the challenge to face down the queen at her own game. The brief flick of her tongue running on her lips made him wonder if she felt the same way.
“You came alone? I thought you would want to talk strategy,” Sombra started.
“I brought my changelings, but your field marshal detained them,” Chrysalis replied.
“Oh? Deimos, I thought I said to let her bring any of her staff with her.”
Deimos stared at Chrysalis, his eye twitching. When he finally spoke it was in sputters. “My Liege, sh-she said… but the changelings were… “
“It doesn’t matter. I am the queen, and they follow what I tell them to do. We don’t need silly things such as advisers, do we?” Chrysalis murmured as she turned her eyes on Hope. “I assume it’s much the same for a king, hmm?”
Sombra weighed that statement and internally sighed. “Hope, go find something to do.”
Hope’s ears flattened out, and her expression turned stormy. “What? And leave you alone with—“
“Hope,” Sombra said firmly. “Take Deimos with you.”
It was a race between mare or marshal on who could turn the reddest. But eventually, Hope stomped her way out with Deimos in tow.
“Oh, finally,” Chrysalis practically crowed and sauntered towards him. “Believe it or not, I hate an audience.”
Sombra watched her approach and said nothing.
Chrysalis’ showy trot slowed by a step before resuming. “My pen pal of a king. No creature on this continent has sent me as much fan mail as you.” She grinned. “Except maybe Celestia when she begged me not to burn Olenia’s forest.”
As she closed the distance between them, Sombra turned to face her and inclined his head, remaining silent.
Chrysalis’ jovial mood darkened and her smile faded. “Where are all those words now? Have I made you stupid in my glorious presence? I thought you could at least manage one word if you’ve gone feral again.”
“You had a spy here even back then?” asked Sombra in mild surprise.
“He speaks! I read Sparkle’s book when the Crystal Empire reappeared. She called you ‘a maelstrom of a spirit, driven by anger and lust for crystals.’” Chrysalis’ eyes lidded and her mocking smile returned. “Thought it improved my chances, really.”
“You have done your research,” Sombra noted. “I was weak then, but now with the heart under my control, I am stronger than ever before. You should know that we have much to gain by working together and cement—”
“First you speak too little, and now you speak too much!” Chrysalis cut in with irritation. She swept the map table with her tail, scattering the pieces before hoisting herself up and cratering half of Equestria with her hindquarters. Her fores gripped at Sombra’s cheeks and pulled his face up to meet hers.
Sombra resisted the urge to kick her hooves away and braced himself on the edge of the table. When Chrysalis’ face loomed close, he turned his away.
“Where’s your passion, king?” Chrysalis murmured in his ear. “You sent me an offer with the one thing that could bring me to this frozen Tartarus-hole of an empire. I’ve called your ante. Pay up.”
“It was a possibility. One of many—” Sombra began.
“Are you a gelding?” Chrysalis asked suddenly. “Maybe that’s one possibility too.”
Sombra snarled and turned his head back. Chrysalis’ forward lunge met it, quick as a viper.
Muzzle scrunched against muzzle. Fang clashed against fang. The room silent as they kissed.
Sombra pushed back against that muzzle bearing on his, fighting for control. Chrysalis’ tongue moved in wily spirals, drawing him into her maw for a sensual suck. A moment later it pressed over, and Sombra found himself with a mouthful of her tongue instead, working and forcing its way down his throat. He gagged and felt the dangerous hot drip of something syrupy down his neck.
He shoved her away and backpedaled, coughing and panting for breath.
Chrysalis chortled from her place on the table. “Where are you going?”
“I need something to get the taste out of my mouth,” Sombra snapped back at her. He staggered towards the nearby liquor cabinet.
“Pour me one while you’re at it,” Chrysalis lilted in a sing-song voice. “It won’t help though. There’s only one antidote for a changeling’s love poison, and it’s a changeling.” She sprawled herself seductively from Yakyakistan to the Badlands. “I bet it’s already reached your stomach and on its way to your—” she stopped and blinked.
Sombra glowered at her, his muzzle suspended on a pillar of smoke that was once his body.
“Okay. I didn’t expect that,” Chrysalis admitted in a plain voice without her usual reverb.
Radiant Hope took out her frustration by stomping her way down the palace halls. Even though she understood why Sombra had done what he did, it still hurt that he would.
She feared for him. Both for what might happen to him and for what he might do without her. She’d watched him petrify Amore all those centuries ago, and he might have done the same to present day Cadenza if she hadn’t talked him into letting them go.
Her hooves started to ache, and she eased up on the step. With a sigh, she changed direction and started her way towards the bedrooms. She’ll try to get some rest. Rest… and not at all to listen if Sombra returned with the changeling queen.
That thought had her thinking the sound of groaning was her imagination until she rounded the corner and came across somepony sprawled out on the floor.
It was a crystal earth pony with a vase for a cutie mark.
Hope blinked, stunned at the sight of a pony she did not recognize. Nopony who wasn’t a guard or original supporter was allowed in the palace, and she knew all the supporters by heart.
The pony hoofed at the ground and tried to drag himself forward, only to slump and let out a mewling whimper.
The pain in the sound spurred Hope, and she rushed to him. “What’s wrong? Have you been shot? I’m a healer.” She sat on her flanks and patted his body with her hooves as she searched for an injury.
The colt’s eyes opened, and they were distant. His mouth moved, and his tongue fell at the corner of his lip.
Hope’s brow knit in confusion. This pony looked as if he were sunstroked and dehydrated. How could that be? A new groan from the male gave her nursing instincts a fresh kick. “It’s okay. It doesn’t matter. I can heal you. I can heal anything,” she soothed as she cradled his head in her lap.
The pony responded by turning his head and nuzzling her hoof. When her horn lit, however, he jolted and squirmed. “N-No!” he rasped, but she’d already sent out a beam of her magic.
Hope’s healing wasn’t a spell in the traditional sense with words to recite or rituals to perform. She simply aimed her horn and filled her head with positive thoughts, happy memories, and her love for Sombra. She herself didn’t quite understand why it worked, but it did. It always did.
Until now.
The pale blue aura of her magic spread out across the pony, but instead of rejuvenating, his coat turned black. It was as if her magic was burning away the color in a wave. Holes now opened all along the pony’s body, the sight of which left Hope speechless, too horrified to even scream.
Frantically she poured more willpower into the beam, unsure if she could do anything else and too afraid to stop.
The holes widened even further and her heart leapt to her throat. ’Oh Amore! I can see the floor through them! Please don’t die, please don’t!’
Slowly, so very slowly, the openings started to close, and Hope sagged in relief. She didn’t let up and closed her eyes to pump the last of her concentration into the beam.
She kept it up as long as she could until her aura sputtered. The magical overwork struck her then, leaving her head swimming and her body teetering.
“What... what did you do?”
Hope opened her eyes, and they met the blue compound pair of a changeling’s.
“O-Oh… of... course...” Hope groaned before she fainted from exhaustion.
Thorax caught the unconscious mare in black hooves of whole and shiny chitlin.
When his wings spread, they glittered like crystal.
“You are not committing.”
Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “That’s an amusing thing for you to say.”
They sat with the map table in-between them with the division markers back in place. Sombra had spent the better part of a hour detailing out an attack that would split Equestria between the Changeling Lands and the Crystal Empire.
“You’ve made no suggestions. No comments to this plan,” Sombra pressed.
Chrysalis idly spun one statuette of a tank in her magic and looked bored. “It’s a good plan. Celestia can’t possibly prepare for it. Even if she could, her ponies have no initiative on their own for war.” She snorted. “Tartarus knows how much I have to grubsit my own generals and they are good at killing.”
“But…?” Sombra asked, sensing the unspoken word.
“But I still remain an unconsummated mare!” Chrysalis jutted her lower lip out in an exaggerated pout that looked absurd on her monstrous face.
Sombra squinted. “You can’t possibly only want that, and I don’t believe you would ever pass up a chance to strike your enemies.”
Chrysalis crossed her hooves on the table and perched her muzzle on top of them. “No. I wouldn’t. Yet... ponies won’t believe an alliance would last for a pair of liars like us. But marriage? The audacity of it alone would make them tremble.”
“You want it for the appearance of the thing?”
“I’m a changeling,” Chrysalis replied matter-of-fact. “What else could I want it for? Let’s have a ceremony. In a chapel or whatever ponies use for such things and send the postcard to our enemies.”
“A chapel, really?” Sombra snorted. “Could you even step into one without bursting into flame?”
“Speak for yourself,” Chrysalis answered with a smirk. “Celestia forsakes us both. It’d amuse me to be in one of her churches. Perhaps after our vows, I can convince you to have me on the altar.”
“I paved over all of Celestia’s places of worship. Though... there is still an old chapel dedicated to Amore out on the hill.”
“Perfect,” Chrysalis purred.
Sombra glanced at her sidelong. The smooth, quick response gave him pause, as did the timing of her jests. He reflected on how a drive through the Crystal City would make it easy to notice that chapel in particular.
“If it’s just for show, don’t expect a crowd or for it to be long,” Sombra said slowly. “If anything, it should be just us there.”
Chrysalis unnerved him further by broadening her grin to the fangs. “A photographer and a pleasant view of the city is all I ask.”
Pharynx paced the length of the room like a caged tiger. Occasionally he gave the closed door a scowl.
“Would you quit that already?” Replica said with some annoyance. “You aren’t going to frown it open.”
“At least I’m doing something. All you’re doing is sitting there,” Pharynx shot back.
“I am doing something. I’m relaxing,” Replica countered as she leaned back in the lounger with her legs dangling off the edge. “Trimmel’s the one that isn’t doing anything.”
Between them, Trimmel continued to stare out the window, head bopping in his music mare disguise. The guards hadn’t bothered to take his headphones.
Instead of a cell, they had been given a royal guest room that was nicely furnished like an upscale hotel. There was one caveat in that the door locked from the outside, trapping them in apparent comfort.
“Our queen expects us to be ready at any moment,” Pharynx insisted. “What was the point of us coming at all if we’re just waiting until midnight?”
“You should try my job managing all the divisions sometime. You’ll learn anyling can be a feint or a decoy in her plans.” Replica puffed. “Even her favorite, Pharynx.”
That stopped Pharynx short, and he blinked. “I’m her favorite?”
“You get all the toys and tanks, don’t you?”
Pharynx grew quiet for a long time. Long enough for Replica to settle back in the lounger.
“Replica.”
“Hmm?”
“If I’m her favorite. It’s because I always do things she wants.”
“Or you could just be predictable because you hatched with an extra thick skull.”
“Still. She knows that I’d want to go out and help her and not sit here.”
“Probably.”
“She’d also know that I’d push you to not be lazy and wait.”
Replica frowned.
Pharynx grinned.
“Fine.” Replica sighed and got up from the lounger. “What’s the plan to get us out?”
Pharynx faced the door. “I guess I could turn into an ursa or something to knock it down.”
“Do that, and you’ll get shot by the guard.”
“Well, you got a better idea?”
Replica eyed Pharynx, and a small smile spread across her face. “Sure do. Put on your disguise.”
The green fire ran across Pharynx as he became the purple, strawberry and grape mare again.
“Now stand over there by the door.”
Pharynx did so. “Okay?”
Replica turned in place and gave Pharynx a double kick with her hinds right into his soft, pony belly.
“Hhhhhhnngggh!” Pharynx groaned loudly as he fell to the floor and clutched at his midsection.
Replica shifted her shape back into that of her own disguise and called out. “Hey, guard! My friend is sick!”
The door clicked and opened. One of Sombra’s officers was there. A blue coated, blond unicorn with a rifle slung across his back. He took in the scene of Replica standing next to a writhing Pharynx. “What’s wrong with them?”
“Dunno. She just got a sudden pain and collapsed,” Replica said prettily.
“Bucking hurts!” Pharynx growled from the ground as he glared up at Replica.
The officer took a few steps into the room and then paused. He looked between them and raised a brow. “You honestly think I’m falling for this old tri—”
The pony was cut short when he crumpled to the floor and landed beside Pharynx in an unconscious heap.
Replica looked over at Trimmel who stood with the broken remains of a crystal lamp in his hooves. “Wow! Good one, Trimmel.”
Trimmel pushed up one cup of his headset. “What was that? I saw you two distracting the guard.”
“You could learn something from him, Pharynx,” Replica said. “Maybe you’d lose fewer tanks if you could do surprise attacks like him.”
“Buck you,” Pharynx groaned.
Crystal Empire construction by its very nature was sturdy and resistant to the elements. The old Amore chapel still had its roof, altar, pews and a giant statue to the ancestral princess of love. The only blemish was a large jagged crack in the wall that ran up to the roof. Though even that added openness to the place as it worked like a large window to the rest of the Crystal City.
On the way there, Sombra had conscripted one of the crystal ponies. They followed behind with eyes lit with green corruption while carrying camera equipment.
“Nice trick,” Chrysalis noted with amusement. “You should teach me that sometime. I usually have to yell at my drones to carry something for me.”
“Yes. Sometime,” Sombra agreed simply.
Chrysalis glanced at him and took a slow trot around the chapel before stopping in front of the large statue of Amore. “You knocked down all of Celestia’s sun houses. But kept this one to a different princess. Had a crush on vintage love mares?”
“No,” Sombra answered.
“Sweetie, I’m starting to think you don’t want to go through with our pretend marriage. Are you getting cold hooves?” Chrysalis leaned. “Do we need to go to pretend counseling?”
“Amore knew that the Crystal Heart was killing me. Year after year she did nothing to stop it.” Sombra narrowed his eyes at the statue. “This place reminds me of her and strengthens my resolve for when I make hard choices.”
“So it’s a monument to lies. Out of a chapel. I appreciate your sense of humor, king.”
“Let’s get this done,” Sombra muttered and took a position on one side of the altar.
“Do we say vows first for the fun of it?” Chrysalis asked as she approached from the other end.
“It’s a photo. What does it matter?”
Chrysalis flicked out her tongue, all two feet of it. “Right to the kiss then. I hope your picture pony is ready.”
Their eyes met, and slowly they began leaning to each other. Chrysalis stooping her head forward while Sombra lifted his.
He watched her eyes and waited for them to close on the final approach. His horn lit with shadowy magic and he aimed it towards the crooked one just as their lips would meet...
“Sombra stop! Don’t do it!”
The sudden shout brought Sombra and Chrysalis short. More confusion was added when the flashbulb by the photographer made king and queen recoil and blink their slitted eyes.
“I suppose this is par for the course for a wedding too,” Chrysalis mocked as she rubbed her eyelids. “The wedding crasher mare out to steal back her colt friend at the altar.”
Radiant Hope trotted down the aisle towards Sombra and ignored Chrysalis. “You don’t have to do it this way.”
Sombra sighed. “We are only taking a picture.”
“You were going to use your magic on her. I saw you.”
“Hope! Quiet!” Sombra growled and darted a glance at Chrysalis.
“Oh no, let her talk. Now I’m very much interested in what she has to say.” Chrysalis chortled. “Let me guess. The big bad king was trying to change my mind?”
Chrysalis paced around Sombra and Hope, her expression now contorted into a fanged sneer. “Both of you are inept fools if you thought such a pathetic thing would work on me! I have twisted more minds under my will than you can ever dream of, you stupid ponies.” Chrysalis’ smile returned mid-monologue. “But I appreciate the irony of a pony betrayed by his lover. It’s almost Shakesponian. To have somepony so close be a trai— unggk!”
Her eyes bulged as magic struck her from behind.
“Y-You should listen to her, M-Mom,” stammered a crystal-winged Thorax. He struggled to hold Chrysalis in place with his prismatic-colored magic.
Hope turned back to Sombra. “I found a way to make the changelings join us. It wasn’t with your magic. It’s with mine!”
Sombra slowly walked around the immobile Chrysalis frozen like a statue. Only her eyes moved, and they followed him as he leaned close. With a hoof, he lightly booped her nose. Her eyes fell to pinpricks and the cheeks underneath colored red.
“Well, I’m listening,” Sombra chuckled and looked over at Hope.
“I found Thorax in the palace. The queen sent him out to set a trap in the bedroom, but he became too hungry to continue.”
Sombra sat on his flanks and propped his chin on his forehoof, studying Chrysalis like one might a piece of abstract artwork. “Go on.”
“With changelings, everything they do is to feed their hunger. But it’s like a sickness in them, a hole in their hearts. But if you fill that hole with love, they become peaceful and loving.”
“A docile changeling?” Sombra asked and grinned when he saw Chrysalis imperceptibly shudder.
“Umm… could you two please h-hurry up?” Thorax said. Around his horn beads of sweat showed on his brow. “She’s getting really mad. It...it would be better to talk about this after… after you showed her how nice it is first. Maybe? Please?”
“Well Hope, if you can do what you say. By all means, let us ‘make’ a friend.”
Hope stepped up in front of Chrysalis and lit her horn. “It will be okay. You will feel better than you’ve ever been before. No more hunger. No more needing to trick ponies. We could be real allies.”
From over her shoulder, Sombra marveled at how Hope’s soothing, caring tones did something that all his posturing and threats couldn’t do: bring a rare expression of genuine fear to the queen’s face.
As Hope charged her magic, Chrysalis’ eyes wavered and then looked up.
The gunshot sounded incredibly loud in the large hall of the chapel.
For the bullet itself, it shattered a tile by Hope’s forehoof and missed her by inches. It was enough to interrupt her magical concentration and Thorax’s.
All at once, Chrysalis sprung back, hissing like a wild creature. Spitting curses, she immediately lifted Thorax in her magic and flung him through three rows of pews until he slammed against the far wall of the chapel.
Hope turned towards Thorax but only made it a single step before a second gunshot had her dance backward.
“Thank the Abyss I have some competent children!” Chrysalis seethed.
Above, Pharynx clung by the crack in the chapel’s roof with three hooves while he held Replica with the fourth. Replica swayed with a rifle lifted to her fore shoulder.
Sombra lit his horn and made ready to blast them both.
“I wouldn’t do that, king. Your little mare can put you back together, but how well can you return the favor if what she has for brains is spread out on the floor?”
Hope gasped. “Y-You don’t have to do—”
“SHUT UP! I’m done listening to you and your...your nonsense,” Chrysalis snarled. “Pharynx. Replica. Shoot her if she talks again. Or if she moves. Or if he moves.”
For a few minutes, everycreature remained tense and quiet.
Finally, Sombra muttered, “What’s your endgame here? We can’t stay like this forever.”
“It doesn’t have to be forever. It just has to be until midnight,” Chrysalis replied. Some of her smugness had returned with her control.
Hope opened her mouth, then thought better of it and closed it.
“Umm...” Thorax mumbled from the pile of wrecked pews.
Chrysalis’ eye twitched. “What did you do—”
From the chapel’s entrance, Deimos’ voice came happily as he trotted in. “My liege! We have engaged with changeling forces thanks to information provided by Lady Hope and the changeling trai... tor.” He slowed his trot as he took in this tableau.
“Do you want me to shoot him, my queen?” Replica called.
“What?!” Deimos cried.
“Don’t bother, it’d be a waste of a bullet,” Chrysalis grumbled.
“Excuse me?” Deimos said.
“I meant Thorax,” Replica clarified.
“H-Hey!”
“Don’t bother, it’d be a waste of a bullet,” Chrysalis repeated.
Deimos looked to Sombra desperately. “Sir?”
“Good job, Deimos. But don’t get any closer. We are… negotiating.”
“Frankly, I’m ready to have them shoot all of us and sort it out in Tartarus,” Chrysalis groused.
“Why trot there when you can take the express,” Sombra said and glanced to the side.
The photographer’s flashbulb went off a second time and above Replica cried out as she dropped the rifle.
Sombra swirled into smoke and spirited across the room to crash into Chrysalis like an inky black tide.
Chrysalis reared back and kicked at the smoke surrounding her, but Sombra was quicker.
“Have you now, insect!” Sombra raged and lifted Chrysalis off the ground. He tightened his hold around her neck and twisted.
The queen’s head turned, turned, turned until it was canted at a grotesque angle under Sombra’s strangling grip.
“Deimos,” Chrysalis rasped, somehow still able to speak like some macabre puppet.
Deimos startled, caught between the surprise that Chrysalis would remember his name, much less speak to him directly. “Err… yes?”
“Did… you… move… the tank?” Chrysalis asked and her lips curled in a gruesome smile.
“The tank?” Deimos asked. “What tank?”
Outside, the moon reached its zenith, marking midnight. With it came the sound of a distant explosion as the tank parked by the crystal heart fired its main gun.
Sombra reeled from the sudden loss of magic and swirled himself back into a pony shape. He staggered backward once he landed on his hooves. Without connection to the corrupted heart, it took all his concentration to remain solid. Hope rushed to his side and clutched at his shoulders as he stumbled.
Chrysalis once free from Sombra’s grip fell to the floor. From above, Pharynx and Replica were quick to drop in front of their fallen queen and put themselves in between her and Sombra.
Even Thorax slinked close to join in the defense, though a glare from the changelings had him keep a few hoofpaces away from the others.
Deimos came up next to Sombra and fumbled with his service revolver. “My liege? What do we do?”
“I hope you’re good with jigsaw puzzles. You’ll need all the help putting that crystal back together,” Chrysalis taunted as her head rotated back into place. Though her voice was hoarse and she didn’t move from her sprawled position on the floor.
Sombra glanced upward. The snow was falling, and the surrounding air becoming chilly. He glanced over at the changelings and then at Hope and Deimos. “I’m good with puzzles. That and strategy.”
He rose to his hooves and started his way forward. Hope tried to tug him back, but he gently brushed her aside. On the way across the room, he magically lifted the photographer’s fallen camera.
Replica and Pharynx took combative stances, but Chrysalis waved them off. She looked up at him from the floor, muzzle perched on a hoof.
“If you spent half the effort today against our enemies, you would have won long ago.”
“Tch. What’s winning if it can’t entertain you?”
Sombra looked into those eyes. Those green, slitted and utterly insane eyes. He snorted a laugh and offered her the camera. “It has been fun, hasn’t it?”
“You’re better at this than Celestia ever was,” Chrysalis admitted with a smile.
“What do you think it means?” Celestia asked the others gathered around the table. On it was the box delivered to her study once it was magically checked for spells and traps.
Luna lifted the small bouquet of green and purple flowers. She sniffed at them and made a face. “It’s sickening. The flowers too.”
Cadance raised the large glossy postcard from the box and studied it with a small frown. “Maybe… we should get them a wedding gift?”
