The Crystal Empire Horror Story
The Crystal Horror Show (Tentative)
B_25 & Ploish
It had been exactly as she dreamed. Days and nights and that lurking in-between spent thinking and trying and devising of endless methods applied to countless plans. Of all the possible attempts leading to the attack. Every contingency for every superpower the pesky ponies seemed to own.
It'd been torment dying in that cave. Sleeping on a boulder and scratching out her plans against the wall composed of rocks. Waking up the next morning to fewer subjects standing around. Enduring more of their dread and doubt and ever-growing hunger. Stress mounted and hope faltered.
Everything rested on tonight.
The figure of black strode in the midnight, the clacking of her hooves thundering loud against the crystal—far louder than the pelting of the rain. Thunder growled in darkened clouds while lighting sliced through the night. Everything illuminated for a second. Chrysalis revealed for shorter than that.
Darkness blanketed once more. Only the glow of her eyes shone through the night. Their green hue loomed over the guards standing before the pillar of the spire. They didn't bother to look up. They'd already know who the robed figure was.
And those in disguise stepped aside.
The former queen cackled as she ambled down the long hall, guard after stationary guard appearing on her sides, stallions and mares, beings composed of flesh—minds under her control. Flickers of green electricity charged through her horn. Enough to subdue them all into their greatest fantasies.
Chrysalis strode past them all, but did so ever so slow, allowing her head to swing over them, keeping at whatever pace she pleased. In merely gazing into their eyes could see witness their dreams. The sunsets on beaches to towers being climbed. Everyone a hero seeking to save their personal prince or princess.
Different dreams bearing the same themes.
Crystal Guards could be so cliche.
But Chrysalis paid this fact little mind. Not when that green flick became bright and bigger and longer and lasting further with every guard past. She'd been weak on love, power, starved during her exhale. And for her next trick—she'd need a supercharge.
In every step, the guards then passed, the form of the changing then expanded. Legs growing longer and barrel expanding as the rest of her body did the same in relative proportion. The charging of power now filling the hollowness of a husk. It was a transition between extremes. From the despair of hunger to the hope of power.
Everything leading her to the final door in the hall.
Chrysalis was standing tall as she reached it, veins and frailly bits gone from her frame, life pumped back into her again. Maybe she could have snacked on something legit before coming in. But the idea of keeping herself so totally vacant would make her first meal a unique experience for all involved.
The queen came to spread her hooves far apart on the ground, arching her great frame into the air. Everything surged into her horn, all focus and pressure and power, silent and swirling currents of wind sucked into its expanding glow.
And just as silently, it exploded.
Waves of neon green splashed onto the ground and rode across the walls and hung forward from the ceiling, splashing forth and phasing over objects... but coming to lift ponies on impact. Risen into a long swirl spanning just within the span of the height and width of the hall. Collecting more and more of them, a great stream, a long line strung with guards—throwing them out the entrance.
Leaving the place down to only the royal family.
“Gah!” Shining's back slammed into the throne, in which he slumped, setting his hooves on its rest. His wobbly arms pushed against, fighting to rise—only for him to collapse. His tattered chest heaved as his every breath was followed with the choking of blood. “I-I... y-you... won't... get away...”
“Problem with that statement, my little annoyances, is whom are you referring to?” Chrysalis strode before the steps of the throne, panting beneath her words. She was far more controlled about it. The scratches and scuff on her shell wasn't anything grand. “Regardless of how you answer... it doesn't matter anyway, does it?”
From the side of the throne, thrown there from the middle of the fight, the pink princess attempted to rise. Her shaky hooves barely supported her weight and only the tip of her horn filled with magic. Not even an iota of power able to pass through her now. It was so pathetic as to be tasty in of itself.
Chrysalis sat on the mat and lowered the bubbling of her own magic. She even grinned and closed her eyes. It wasn't like she'd all that much power either. Waiting for the sounding of the hooves, her ears perked at hearing them, slow, then slowly building, gaining speed... into a charge?
Jackpot.
Chrysalis flew open her eyes with the slithering of her tongue coming through parted lips. Only the tip of her crooked horn shone as the essence of her magic collected around the body of the stallion. The limp prince of alabaster raised from the throne, barely contingent at all, fighting to crack open an eye at the sudden change of height.
And to see himself hurling toward the charging mass of his wife.
There wasn't anything to do but watch. To see the princess of love lower onto her hooves as she prepared to pounce, leaping into the air, gaining air—then slammed into the side with the body of husband. During the crash, their limbs curled around the other instinctively. So cute as to nearly make Chrysalis vomit.
Consolation came in seeing them roll. From seeing them mess the finest fibres of the carpet and crashing across glinting crystal. Smooth and utterly hard. The clump of their bodies slid afar until squeaking to a halt. They were a mere pile of bodies now. Too weak to exist alone. Not strong enough together to stand back up.
There was a moral in that, somewhere.
“I do not think I can begin to express how beautiful it is to see you two lying in defeat.” Chrysalis couldn't stop. Not in talking nor in licking her lips. The latter felt lathered in sweet cherry. A taste she couldn't simply get enough of a taste of. “I dreamed about it. Pictured it during the dark hours. And it was all dark hours.”
One hoof then the second, third followed by the forth. Steps stomping fissures into the crystal and, when the ebony hoof lifted, leaving a perfection indention within the flooring. Chrysalis strode toward them. Driving fear into them was half the reward. Every step harder and more powerful than the rest. It was her goal to simply be viewed and felt no more as a mere horror.
And her dreams were slowly becoming true.
“I do not think the greatest fancy of my imagination could craft any of this.” Another step crunching the ground. The breaking of crystal coming to crack after the attacks of Chrysalis hooves. “Your fears linger in the air like a rich perfume. Love is nestled within the particles. None of you are scared for your own fate.”
Chrysalis hoof crashed inches before their muzzles. His body laid over hers, but his muzzle rested next to her own. Both of them had barely the strength to open their eyes. They couldn't move. The shivers through their frames were all their spirits were capable of.
“But rather you fear for what will happen to the other... and the love given from between you.” Chrysalis narrowed her eyes, half sinister, half sweet, the expression unique. Her tongue slithered into the air, hungry, bearing a sense and a will all of its own. “Don't you worry now. A family's greatest fear is to be separated. And I would never dare to break apart ponies to loving of each other.”
Chrysalis sat. She leaned back and displayed the curve of her taut shell, of the sleek belly painted black. One of her hooves patted the place, rubbing up and down, treating it as a thing—nearly like a living thing, a contraption perhaps, for something horrible to come. “The problem with you pesky ponies is you keep coming back. No doubt you'd find a way out of this defeat if given time. What is true for me is no doubt true for you.”
The whole length of her horn swirled in lines of neon green, all the power from her size surging into her charging conduit. Brighter and bigger and broader her sizzling aura became. It's hue darkened. The final shade before a fatal strike. “There is one difference between us. The reason why us villains will always win. Ponies and goodness lack a single thing—viciousness.”
The spell exploded upon reaching its apex of required power. Its broad space it consumed transferred over to the fallen couple. Resting over them, it took their bodies into its epicentre, a shade of green defining the silhouettes of their forms.
Then it started to implode. Condensing into thickness as the subjects within did the same. Their sizes diminishing and their frames shrinking. Chrysalis leg towered before them. Becoming longer and rounder and taller. Soon becoming a spire despite not a thing about it changed.
And the couple occupying less than an inch on the floor.
Chrysalis towered above the rice of white and pink, so weak and tiny and humiliating, all of these before their greatest of foes. It tickled the giant in all the right ways. The power rising at seeing the couple who rendered her weak for so many months finally given her just revenge.
Her horn glowed smaller, weaker now—but that wouldn't be a problem for much longer. The remaining magic of neon lifted the two specks from the floor, sure to course them over the slope of her belly and treating them to the landscape. Knowing that its depths were about to become their destiny.
Finally. Their minuscule forms laid suspended before Chrysalis gigantic muzzle. Her giant eyes made into toxic pools and her expression requiring all of a cliff in order for her expression to be contained. So big and powerful. Malicious in command. There was something downright dirty about all of this.
Chrysalis slowly parted her mouth and exposed the interior of her maw to the tinies. Warm gales released in steam blowing over the couple. The spongy velvet of her tongue rolled out, lolling downward, keeping flat and still, like a bed.
The couple were powerless to do anything, not even swirl their arms around in a mock attempt to fight their fate. Rather the magic floated them inward to where the heat rose and the air thickened with Chrysalis's breath. Vines of thick strands connected all over, from teeth to ceiling to cheek, dripping, the sounds audible to those equally as little.
And then their bodies were dropped onto the tongue. It rose to collect them, some of it lifting up so they would slide back—beyond the veil of lips. Chrysalis made sure to keep her mouth open, all so the couple could see the world from inside her maw, the view capped from her mouth.
An act of utter domination.
Then her lips closed. Sealed tight. Any light, now, taken away from the couple as they were cast into her darkness. Chrysalis snickered at feeling their minuscule weight pressing on her tongue. Proof she had one. That they were weak. Going so far as to swallow them in the final jest of winning.
How so very long she waited for this.
Chrysalis tilted back her head and then swallowed. The joined masses collected at the back of her throat, tugged inward by her velvety walls—which the duo bugled against. With her throat exposed, the queen followed the lump with a hoof, tracing it down and moaning while she did so.
Until feeling the duo spat into the chamber of her stomach. The place had been devoid of food or anything of the kind. She felt them. Chrysalis could sense them. Little tickles of hooves walking around. Ponies tucked within her stomach, trapped within the innermost part of herself—set to die by something like her belly.
It made the changeling high on power for the love she bore for this unique torture.
“And this is why you ponies will never win in the long run,” Chrysalis gazed at her stomach while she spoke, patting the spot, rubbing around, doing a little shake. The bodies within tumbled around. Control had never felt so sexy. “You simply cannot stomp the life out of your opponent. To destroy every ember. It's in there I shall always rise... and why you will now die.”
The couple had been shrunk and swallowed and left to digest. Chrysalis had felt their movement within match the sway of her own hips—her every move, they had to endure—and felt very pleased in finding a way to exert more control, more humiliation upon them. But soon their tickles ceased. And the magical potential of royal starting to assimilate with the new host.
Now where was that kid?
Chrysalis stalked through the halls with the poise of a villain finally confidentshe was a good one. Everything she portrayed herself as was promised and proven through her success and deeds. The feeling of eating the royal couple fed the sensations of bliss that reaffirmed the doubt in her mind that it had no cause to worry.
It didn't take her long to find the room belonging to the little one. With sinister care she opened the room. Her hulking frame wasn't enough to fit through the door, having to squeeze on through into the darkness—the neon of her eyes the only glow to the room. Shuffling sheets confirmed the remaining royalty was still here.
And still fast asleep.
One leg after the other. Raising back into the air taller and taller. The proven villain feeling the transition to horror soon approaching. All the fables and tales that would be told not about the queen, but rather, the monster of black and neon devouring disobedient young ones.
Maybe her legacy would live on, beyond the realm of her royalty, in becoming the next horror of the world. Chrysalis cackled softly to such thoughts as they shook her frame with pleasantness. How she loved the feeling, growing power, the majesty of it all!
And her frame stalked over the crib, a foe poised ready with her silhouette vaguely defines—only the glow of her eyes, vile and settling on the sleeping filly able to be seen. One of the numerous portraits she would get commissioned. Walking down the hall of victory should bring one back to pleasant memories quite indeed.
Her horn charged in silence and her mouth opened with the breaking of saliva.
As well as a groan slipping out.
Chrysalis fell onto her arm, which slammed into the handle of the cradle, relying her weight onto it, wavering her rump around to deal with the horrible swirling coming from within her stomach. One of her hooves crossed and hugged over her belly. She hoped to press against the surface, somehow, would repress and maybe suppress the pushing withing trying to get out.
It did no such thing.
Perhaps mild indigestion from many weeks without food. Chrysalis rolled her eyes, knowing its target was herself. Even in her most brilliant moments—utter stupidity was still possible. Maybe that would prove her fatal flaw. That thought meant for another day. Perhaps merely eating the couple would have had the same effect with some rice. Maybe a few carrots. Why didn't I have a nice supper either before or with them?
Chrysalis turned around, desperately holding her stomach, shambling away in defeat. None would see her fall, but she felt the full extent of it. Everything built within her head, now leaving through her body in the throes of aches and pains. She'd be hungry again in the morning.
Softly closing the door behind her, the somewhat-proper villain went to stalk the halls once more, though, this time, leaning against the walls as she continued forward. At least all the guards had been thrown out. None would see her like this... and none would help her find the master bedroom.
Meanwhile. Inside the infant's room, the baby rolled in her sleep. Flurry's body started to rise as the beginning of a cry started within her throat—paused by a stroke across her side. Ones done by only by familiar hooves for anything else would set her off.
Though no such things, but mere invisibility, loomed over her sleeping form. But her blankets were pulled over her body, tucked in and hugging her tightly—the space between her forehooves filled with her stuffed snail. Flurry snuggled into at once, smiling in her sleep, returning to peace.
The great thing about living in caves is one does not have to worry about light. It is either always night or always dark. Since a changeling's body, usually, is composed of sheer ebony—this isn't an issue. Complexion rarely matters when it can be manifested to one's perfection.
Chrysalis groaned while giving an errant kick to her hind leg. The warm blanket of spreading sunlight settled over her shell and its kisses might as well bitten off a chunk of chocolate. Sunlight burned her. Somehow blinding sealed eyes.
When had the queen also become a vampire?
The new ruler of the Crystal Empire paid such thoughts little mind as all they serve to do was bug her into properly waking. Her closed eyes led half-alive frame into crawling across the sheets, a weak hoof swatting around, searching for the entrance of the covers. It felt something faintly like that.
Chrysalis slid her body beneath the covers only to finding the hugging warmth despicableagainst the hull of her frame. The sunlight heated the space beneath the sheets to render the space a burning sauna. There was no escape. Not when the room brightened intensely with the merry rising of the sun.
Finally her eyes dared to open. Swiping open to close again. Seconds later came to the second attempt. The neon of her iris stayed open for longer this time, thankfully—but the sight wasn't anything to be thankful for.
Shining and Cadance, the royal couple, were standing on the bed. Their bed. Both of their muzzle tilted up as their eyes bore down at her. They oozed authority and control. The bug shrivelled as the foul taste of defeat disgusted her tastebuds once more.
“N-No! You will not take me!” Chrysalises tried to fling a hoof forward only for the dense blanket to bar her attack. They'd be tucked too tightly underneath the mattress that any hopes of breaking their hold were dashed. Drat. “D-Don't come any closer! M-My magic will still...”
Chrysalis didn't dare the bluff for it wouldn't change fate. The couple strode forward on both sides of her covered frame. She crawled up, wiggling against clinging comfort in a desperate escape. By the time her frame escaped the brim of the blanket—she had swept her foreleg through the air. “Take this!”
Chrysalis grinned as the couple didn't spot the surprise attack. Their eyes swept rise as the coming hoof reached their cheeks, enough force to knock to them into each other, maybe just enough to fly off the bed together. She even twisted her frame into the blow to give all the force needed.
Until her hoof phased through their muzzles, and her body turned with the flow, twirling herself off the bed. She rolled off the edge, falling, slamming against the ground. Her back arched and her chest clenched with a couple coughs. The world went fuzzy for more reasons than one.
Above, two muzzles of white and pink peered over the edge of the bed, gazing down. They looked strangely concerned. Not hurt or vengeful. Just there. Confused by her. Then they floated over, looming in the air. Incorporeal blobs merely floating.
“O-Oh... nnnghmm... ha... he... hahahaha! Mere hallucinations, I see! Magical exertion playing upon my dread!” Chrysalis leaned up the best she could, striking a hoof into the air. It wavered from side to side and so too did her head. “Mere rubbing of my eyes and you two shall clear away for good!”
The two looked down with expressions of confusion and, even as Chrysalis rubbed both eyes, they bore expressions still as confused. Before more so when Chrysalis didn't actually rub her eyes, but rather, her ears.
And then the bedroom's double doors were kicked in.
“Oh, fuck me.” Chrysalis leaned her head back against the ground, the thinness of her hair shit for cushioning. Her eyes peered down her body to the ponies storming the room. She'd already raised her forelegs together as if waiting to cuff. “If I agree to surrender now, will you come back in a few hours? I really need to sleep this off.”
Starlight charged to her left hoof and Twilight to her right. Both lowered their heads to reveal the charged tips of their glowing horns. It wasn't the threat of power behind them that killed Chrysalis. Rather it was the brightness making a deal with her churning stomach to vomit.
“You'll get all the sleep you want, Chrysalis,” Twilight spat that last word out as, above her, an assortment of chains and gags and blindfolds manifested out of nothing, each brimming with power and intensity—and a horrible glowing of utter brightness. Fuck. “Once I've had my way with you.”
Even in momentary victory.
Chrysalis could never catch a break.
And was subsequently blindfolded, gagged, chained, and numerous other things not fit for description.
What had intended to be torture was revealed to be mild discomfort. The chains didn't so much hurt, but rather, weight a tad heavier than the former queen would have liked. Her gag touched the back of her throat so that, always, she had the urge to swallow but got nothing from it.
And the blindfolds were pointless in aiding her sleep when the ponies around her would shut up. They must have placed her in the center of some court for the voices came in a perfect circle. Chrysalis would have laid down if her chains hadn't been bound taut to the ground—forcing her to sit up and straight, always.
“Chrysalis! Do you know why you are here.”
“Mufufle-duffle?”
“Someone remove the gag.”
“No, you remove the gag.”
“Dufflemaugf-mahf!”
“I can't remove it if she keeps talking!”
“Chrysalis! On order of the Crystal Empire... shut up.”
“Mmufduleffe...”
The gag was removed.
“Please.” Chrysalis choked. “Don't remove the blind—“
The blindfold was removed as well.
“I hate everyone.” Chrysalis gave a nod. “Including myself.”
“Now is not the time for jokes, Chrysalis.” Starlight appeared out of the right corner of her vision, standing taller than the queen. This was only because one was chained down—and this same one wanted to make mention of this fact for the sake of her pride. “Cadance and Shining are dead now because of you. Died when you swallowed them.”
Chrysalis tilted her head into a dive left. “You're just discovering this fact now? I thought Twilight hired you for your intelligence.” She blinked while pulling back her muzzle, then nodding. “Other than your ability to kiss flank. Your face looked like it just came out of the space in-between.”
“Chrysalis!”
“Friends are supposed to comfort each other during trying times.” Chrysalis nodded again, closing her eyes, smiling genuinely. “Kissing butt is a good way to go about it. But it takes determination to really have your muzzle all the way inside there.” Her head tilted in thought. “Did it smell of lavender? I've always wondered in the shower.”
Twilight rolled her puffy eyes. “Like you shower.”
“Showered in your tears last night,” Chrysalis replied. “You know. When you found out your family was dead.” Chrysalis tried looking down—only for the chains to prevent the movement. “Inside of that belly. I can't point to it. But you know which one I'm referring to.” She gasped as the chains tightened. “In fact... they still may be in there! Quick, shrink yourself down and enter my maw. There's a chance you can still save them.”
Twilight shook her head slowly, smiling, the act of confidence a mere rouse. “Oh. I'm so going to have fun speaking about your fate.”
Chrysalis blinked. She gazed at the ghosts standing on either side of the princess. “Would it have anything to do with the connected hallucinatory we all seem to be having?”
“Oh, I assure you, Chrysalis, they're quite real.” Twilight swung her foreleg over Shining's neck and for it to fall through. The dull thud rung when her hoof smacked against the floor. She pulled it back, hiding it between her legs, rubbing the soreness with the rubbing of her thighs. “At least as real as spirits can be.”
Chrysalis, surprisingly, was able to lean her head all the way back. The assault of inner-turmoil struck. Consequently, she gave up on all matters of life. “Oh, Twilight Sparkle, just tell me what minuscule detail I missed that, somehow, has led to my defeat once more.”
“...basically their spirits are tethered to the Crystal Heart—much like Princess Amore.”
With her head still rolled back, Chrysalis rolled her eyes, another power the ponies had. Somehow, every time, regardless of everything they revealed: they found new bullshit to summon to win back the tides of their fight. No need for viciousness if they could always pull something positive out of their rumps.
With her muzzle still upside down, Chrysalis glanced around, spotting the plethora of guards suddenly here. “And how did you get all these guards back so fast? Actually.” She rolled her head forward again. She groaned. A terrible kink developed within her neck. “How did you and your flank kisser know to come here so quickly? Everything had been taken care of before I went to bed.”
“You can thank the princess for that—the other princess in the room.” Twilight blinked and tilted her head. “Half here, at least.” She glanced over at Cadance. “That's how that works, right?”
“What my little sister is trying to say, Chrysalis, is as soon as your belly was done with us, we were able to escape.” Chrysalis made a mental note that she had yet to use the washroom. “Shining brought back all the guards who had fled in fear for failing their duty. I took to being inside a maid and composing a letter to your greatest friend at once.”
Chrysalis groaned but, ultimately, nodded her head. “Guess that marks everything off. Well done, everyone. You've managed to somehow win a war literally with things I could never have foreseen. How you all keep doing this is beyond me.”
Her expression then narrowed. “My only question, then, is why am I still alive?”
Twilight grinned. “Here's that kicker of fate I was telling you about.”
“Because your grand plan was to eat us,” Princess Cadance began while, at the back of her mind, wondering if being a ghost still allowed her to be a princess, “our spirits are still nestled inside you... somewhere. The moment we perished, our souls joined together.”
Chrysalis deadpanned. “Meaning we're connected?”
Cadance glanced over at Shining. “Told you she wasn't a complete idiot.”
“There's still an insult inside of that.”
“Is it undeserved?”
“...no.”
Cadance rolled her eyes. “You were supposed to say yes so I could prove my other point.”
“...yes?”
“Because our spirits are stronger than your body—it also allows us to control.” Cadance grinned. “Like giving you extreme nausea last night. Or the urge really to puke but unable to do so. Kinda like this.”
Chrysalis went to make a face but the pain struck first. Like a sucker punch to the stomach summoning its empty contents to rise. All chains snapped around her frame as she fell forward, opening her mouth with her long tongue then dolling out—nothing following afterward. Merely looking like a heaving and panting dog. Poor bug.
Shining glanced at Cadance. “I'm just surprised she would go for it. You want to take back that complete idiot remark?”
“I've gotten enough amusement to take it back to ease.”
Chrysalis fought to raise her head. She would have sworn if only she could breathe first. Enduring the intense pain, her eyes squeezed shut, everything within ready to burst, feeling the end, a violent explosion ready to occur.
Then everything ceased.
“We can blind you.”
Everything went dark.
“We can—“
Everything went silent.
“And we can make you stop breathing.”
Chrysalis's lungs forgot what oxygen was as her throat clotted. Her eyes went wild and she fought to keep calm. But one who is silent with wide eyes is known, at a glance, to be stiffing fatal pains.
“So,” the couple said as they floated over her frame and hovering in the air, “in short, we own you. No chains or gags or blinds needed for we can do all three whenever we please.” And to serve their point, the changeling's body was set free. Cadence spoke first. “This victory will be more interesting than the ones before.” She cackled. “Don't you agree, former queen?”
The answer was not answer with words, but rather, the fumbling of hooves. Chrysalis scampered into a sudden turn before phasing into a blur of black and green. Doors burst open and clacking against crystal echoed from a distance.
Chrysalis broke through the final, towering doors, stumbling into fresh airs. Cool, though refreshing to inhale. She took a long draw through her snout as though it would be the last. Most likely the case. The stagnation of caves would be her house yet again.
And in her first step into freedom.
Electricity justifiably tore through the height of her neck. The sizzle and flash of blue raised the villain from her hooves, the tortuous wiggling of her frame lifting her into the air. It ceased. She fell. Slumped against the ground with weight on her chest and rump sticking up in the air.
“Another cool power that comes from being a ghost!” Chrysalis's head was rolling when she lifted it from the ground, eyes much doing the same, doing her best to settle it on the floating ghost of Cadance. She had a foreleg raised with sparks of blue coursing from it. “Electricity! I can use my spiritual energy to summon and try a great number of things, too.” She lowered her hoof. “One of the great perks of having your spirit tied to a literal machine of engine powered by the stronger emotion ponies can feel.”
Chrysalis's head stopped rolling.
“Still want to try to escape? I'm still learning about my new form—and seeing all the different things I can do for you is a great way to pass the time for us both!” Cadance giggled. “So how it about, big bad?”
The once villain shook her head.
“Now that's a good girl.” Cadance sat in a hover above the ground. “From this moment on, you are not allowed to leave eighteen meters of us.” Her eyes blinked. “Think of it as being a reverse of a restraining order. We're able to go wherever we want in the city. But you will have to ask for permission first.”
Another set of sparks raged through the changeling's neck.
“So that doesn't happen again,” Cadance finished. “I like to lead and teach by example.”
The entrance to the spire threw open behind them. Chrysalis, already defeated and humiliated, didn't bother picking herself off the floor. The rest of the gang walked over in no real hurry as panic had faded and absurdity took its rightful place in the world again. Passing crystal ponies glanced over but never staring. Getting interested or involved in the matters of royalty was never worthwhile.
“As I'm sure my brother and sister were to instruct you,” Twilight began while puffing out her chest, feeling rather proud of herself, no doubt, after a night of crying in the feeling of being useless. “You won't be able to leave the city now because of your crime. And neither will they for the time being.”
Candace laughed. “I'm sure you'll be a great help around the empire! Cleaning and doing our work and managing our guards.” Her head fell left and a grin a little too-big bore across her lips. “And we already know what will happen if you slack!”
The royal couple then floated together with Cadance still speaking up for them both. Shining only grinned. “You know, all of us may have had a rocky start... but I'm sure we can find a way to peacefully coexist.” She actually held out a phantom hoof to the fallen queen. “What do you say?”
Chrysalis spoke with her chin still against the ground. “That I'm going to greatly miss living in those horrible caves.”
Times goes faster as one gets older. Childhood is forever and adulthood is quicker than a wink. Many have theories as to why time passes quickly with age. But in the case of Chrysalis, however, she'd found a way to slow it down again.
To make a month feel like a year.
And it involved living with the royal family.
“Pass the bacon?”
The family—plus one—sat around the table. Despite its size, barely any food laid across it. Chrysalis didn't really need to eat and most of what Flurry ate consisted of mush. Shining and Cadance sat at the table with a coffee mug and cup for tea that was never moved for the past thirty days.
Yet they pretended to drink and move it around. Not because they got anything from it, but rather the gesture filled them with something. Maybe it was that things were normal, or the familiarity comforted them during their new state of existence. Chrysalis never tried to ponder the matter too deeply.
“We've been over this before.” Chrysalis set her elbow on the table and leaned a cheek into her hoof. “You can't eat food. If I give it to you—you'll look at it and move the plate around. Maybe you pick up a strip but only to put it back down again.”
“So?”
“So then you slide the plate back to me,” Chrysalis replied with a growl. Shining made note of the blue electricity sparking from the edges of his hooves. All he was missing now was a hood. “And either the plate is cold or the food is covered in your ectoplasm. I'm not eating it. And since you won't subject your daughter to eat it—the food gets thrown out.”
She then rolled her eyes upon arriving at her point. “So what was even the point of cooking the food if it's not going to be eaten simply because you wanted to play with your food—something you give your daughter trouble for? If you want to play with food... then buy some that's plastic or made for pets.”
Shining crossed his arms. “I'm not going to play with fake foods.”
“Then we're back to the original point.”
Living together had been hell... and time in hell goes a lot slower.
Because every second is torture.
The only silver lining to all of this, of course, was to the abundant love floating in the air. Sure. Seeing Cadance rub snouts with her daughter while whispering playful words was enough for Chrysalis to imagine knife entering every inch of her own frame—but at least she was always full.
Though ones forgets about the throes of hunger quite easily after being full.
But their love had come in many fashions.
The first love came in the morning and was beyond sexual. Both ponies, despite being dead and ghosts, somehow, were always horny as fuck. And they had no problem fucking in their bed—with the sleeping changeling lodged off to the side of it. Didn't matter if she was awake either.
In fact... they got off to it.
There'd been rumours that the concept of love—and all its possible ramifications—existed both literally and metaphorically. Hope was placed in the latter for it proved to be less bothersome than the former. What became of this, however, was Cadance arching her back followed by the quick flicking of the hips: until her angelic cry announced the finishing of the both.
With ectoplasm mixed with something else. It'd washed over the side of Chrysalis back one time. Like jelly—though more composed of slime. It dripped in a long droop from her raised hoof. What the hell was it? Bringing it in close was the answer. Saved by sniffing seconds before tasting.
Musk. Ghost musk. An impossible feat.
Unless done by the power of love.
Such a cop-out.
“You two are the worst.” Chrysalis groaned and flicked her hoof against the sheets. Her hooves clopped against the ground at the side of the bed, taking a moment to arch her back—closing her eyes, hoping to do the same with her ears. “Why are you two panting so much? You don't even have lungs.”
Both of them turned with a grin. “Sometimes it's the breathing in of itself that's sexy.”
“You find pretending to be out of breath sexy?” Chrysalis asked while tilting her head. “I'm the one living in caves for years.” She shook her head. “How are you two more repressed then me? Normal ponies aren't supposed to be like this.”
Cadance smiled as she rested her taut flanks between Shining's thighs. “You'll find that ponies are only normal until you get to know them better.” She snickered with a hoof covering her lips. “After that? It's nothing but accepted strangeness.”
“Because I've been accepting of every second of this?” Chrysalis shook her head with the closing of her eyes. There wasn't any point in bothering with this. Best to leave the couple as they were and simply endure their couple ways if they were around. Drawing it out worsened it all. “Forget it. I'll get my guards to clean the sheets later.”
Shining huffed as he rolled his head onto the pillow—phasing into it. His voice came from behind its covers. “Don't you mean our guards.”
“Changelings that are subservient to you renders them a fifty-fifty agreement.” Chrystal wiped a hoof across the length of her barrel. More glowing blue goo slick across her frame. The smelling of pony and ghostly sexy clinging to her being. Could ghost cum stick to one's living soul? “But the semantics change very little about their situation. Take full ownership of them! I don't care anymore.”
She trudged on with a growl. “I'm taking a shower.”
“Hey hey hey! Don't forget our deal now!” Shining's face phased out of the pillow as he arched hip. His bottom was still held down by the flanks of his sitting wife's frame. She seemed to be enjoying herself keeping there in a fashion that looked cute. “We lived here first. That means we get a warm shower, first.”
“Your rules are silly and you whimper more than your wife during sex.” Chrysalis carried on despite the risk of shocking or choking or immediate freezing to inside her hooves. One cares less about living the more it starts to suck. “Do as you please to me. But I'm not wasting warm water on what who will not feel it. Join me if you must. I do not care anymore.”
Chrysalis left the room while her tail snagged the towel handing from the door.
Shining glared up at Cadance. “We're going to let her get away with that?
“She's not wrong.”
Shining's eyes narrowed.
“Don't make that face. Your little whimpers are cute and I close my thighs harder around you when I hear them.” Cadance leaned in with closed eyes and a big smile, nuzzling the side of his snout. He blushed at once, not returning the gestures nor refusing it. “We've had a month of teasing her already. Don't you think we've already had our fill?”
“Cadance?”
“Yeah.”
“We're dead because she ate us.”
“I know.” Cadance nuzzled his cheek before pulling back. “But nothing is going to change that fact. All we can do now is make the present and future more enjoyable for us all.” She sauntered off his and to the side of the bed, floating in the air instead of reaching the floor. “Besides. She's in the shower now, right? Now we can try shower sex with someone else there with us.”
Shining raised into the air—which was just him, lying on his back, floated upward—while arching an eyebrow. “This feels like you wanting to have sexier. Around her. In every possible location.”
“Are you saying you don't want that?”
“I'm saying whatever you want me to say to make that happen.”
Life had changed, but the appearance of it kept the same. One slewed perspective could say the loving duo ascended from their apparent deaths. Certain changelings had sided to the empire. The ones who were loyal to Chrysalis more than her ideals. Sometimes it's the someone and not their cause that you care about.
These changelings became useful for a number of things one, for instance, being as how they looked no different from any other guard. Being close to the heart-source of love always kept them powered and full. And they bore no ill-will to the ponies around them—aside from the former queen.
Shining and Cadance were able to take their bodies whenever they pleased, able shapeshift into themselves and live the normal life whenever they please. When the craving to hold their daughter against their chest, when documents had to be signed with the act watched, when a meeting was needed with a skittish dignitary that's when they took to being mortal once more.
Beyond that, however, remaining incorporeal was more fun.
Which brought Chrysalis to a breaking point.
Everyone had been gathered around the table meant for debates. Really what this really meant was the changeling would shout for hours while the two either sat there bored or started to touch each other. One time they broke into outright sex during a heated tangent. This drove Chrysalis further into insanity.
This time, somehow, she was convinced things would go different.
“There will be no talking, no touching, and no other third thing until I am done talking.” A tome crashed into a table. Old with yellowed paged tucked between the covers. A black hoof pulled it open to a page—revealing the spiderwebs between the pages. “I've spent the good last half of this week finding out ways to exorcise ghosts.”
Shining turned to Cadance. “We have to worry about fitness?”
Cadance booped his snout. “You stop that.”
Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “You two need to move on to whatever comes at the end of life. My hope is that it's nothing but—when I realize I'll be going there myself soon enough—I want there now be something else that comes after.”
Everyone blinked. Kept silent. And waited for the existential thought to pass through the air.
“According to this book on ghosts.” Chrysalis dived a hoof onto the page, not caring where it landed, for none would look to the pointed passage. The two leaned forward and pretended to look anyway. Point taken. “You two have unfulfilled desires in this life that cause you eternal weariness. The reason you do not pass on is for this fact alone.”
Now it was Cadance's turn to give shit. “Wait a second there. That's one of my old softcore romance books! I used to read that as a filly.” She glanced up at the ebony changeling to find its cheeks beat pink. “You're using a dusty romance story from a hundred years ago as your scientific basis for helping us spiritually pass on?” She shook her head. “Don't you think—I don't know—that the Crystal Heart full of power and is what keeping us tethered to the world?”
Chrysalis closed the book while groaning. “Don't take me for as much as a fool as that.” Her head dipped and did so with a sigh. “I already know the odds of this being the case are close to none. If it's the other option—then I'm screwed for life.” She lifted her muzzle. “Even if it's improbable I would like to try it.”
She then slid the book aside. “Not like I have anything else going on.”
Shining actually sat firmly for this. “You mean you want to hear everything we wanted to do in this life before passing on?”
“Yes!” Chrysalis replied. “It gives me something to do away from the two of you! And, not only that, if I take away all your reasons for wanting to be here—then maybe you'll go out on your own will! I won't even try to take over the world afterward. Not when you ponies can always pluck a victory out of nothing.”
The couple only looked to each, nodded, then turned forward with closed eyes.
“I wanted to be there for Flurry's first day of Magical Kindergarten,” Shining started.
“I wanted to see Flurry take my spot on the throne,” Cadance followed.
“There was also that shield spell I wanted to perfect—didn't go well last time you attacked.”
“And I still need to ratify the Crystal Constitution.”
“Never liked that Iron Will guy.” Shining stroked his chin before striking his hoof forward. “Give him a wedgie for me!”
“I always hated auntie having anything over me.” Cadance patted the top of her barren head. “Complete my Cloudsdale Tiara Collection and send Celestia a picture of me wearing them all.”
“How about those figurines I never got around to panting?”
“Parasailing for me.”
“Visit Klugetown while we're at it?”
“Only if I find your porn collection before we go.”
“Make note to burn the rest before she can find it.”
“If there's going to be a fire, then I want to try cooking a pizza in a wood-fired oven.”
“Learning the harmonica while it's being made would make for a decent time.”
“I'd like to try spit-roasting.”
“Beating those inferior Royal Guards in war games for me.”
“How about conducting a group marriage ceremony?”
“ENOUGH!” Chrysalis struck her hoof against the table, and from there, sealing her destiny. “You two can have as much fun in the morning as you please. If this is my fate, then I'll keep it to the floor. Still better than any cave anyway.”
With that she turned around. The thundering of her hooves accumulated into the bursting of the door. Then all the loud sounds echoed away as the upset left to enter her doomed state. She would come to adjust with it over time. That, or would join the ghosts in their after-life.
Cadance looked down at the baby cradled within her pink forelegs. Flurry seemed happy to be snuggling against the fluff on her chest. Even though it was fake, the reaction and comfort it evoked were real. And that's what all that mattered to the deceased mare.
“I'm going to hand you off the to the nanny now—but I'll see you later tonight, okay?” Cadance leaned in and nuzzled the snout of her foal. Flurry nuzzled back. With a smile, she handed the baby to the nanny posed at the side of the room—coming close after being called. “Take good care of her, okay? We should be back sometime during the evening.”
The nanny nodded with a smile. Both of them left the room, closing the door behind them. With the living gone, that left only the dead in the room—sort of.
“We have an hour before morning court and two before guard inspection.” Cadance glanced over at her lover with a smile. “Wanna scare some tourists?”
“You know it!” Shining said. “Iron Will's group will be at the stadium in five minutes!”
Both of their souls floated out from the body. Their changeling hosts reverted to black, their frames falling forward on the table. They were knocked out with their eyes closed and would keep that way until the ghosts returned. Small price to pay, once a week, for good pay, a place to say, and always to be full.
The two ghosts then floated toward and through the door, out of the spire, flying together without the need for wings. Ghost sightings reached an all-time high in the Crystal Empire. But royalty has since refused to comment on the matter.
