Queen Chrysalis- Changeling Castle- Three Weeks After the Canterlot Wedding

“I can’t believe you are thinking of some dumb pony again. Didn’t we just get through this with Shining Armor?”

“Hey, he was cute!” Queen Chrysalis snorted, a sly smile on her fanged muzzle. “I didn’t hear you complaining when he bucked us so hard we couldn’t get out of bed until almost one in the afternoon, Chryspy.”

“I get stuck in a volcano for two hundred years and I’m stuck with that new name!” she groaned. “I told you not to call me that! Now, get this stupid purple pony out of our head!”

Chrys sighed and just shook her head. It had only been a few weeks since that disastrous wedding, and those of them that had survived were just starting to heal. She couldn’t even use her wings yet, they were quite shredded and not healing well. Her doctors didn’t know if they ever would heal well enough to fly again. At least, not until the spell was cast once more, but she was still strong, that wasn't going to happen anytime soon if she could help it! They had lost so many changelings in the resulting weeks, even more still missing. Yet, she couldn’t let go of the feeling that purple stallion had sent through her.

He was still young, if she had to guess no older than somewhere in his 30’s, and everything about him was purple; purple fur, purple eyes, purple mane and tail. Such a monochrome pony! Though, he had on a magenta suitcoat with an orange bowtie, and those dark purple eyes did stand out from his lavender coat… she shook her head, stood up from her bed and began to pace. Everypony else at the wedding had been terrified. Yet, that one stallion, when she passed him by and flicked her tail in his face (purely for fun!) had been aroused by it.

“Just forget him already!” Chryspy grumbled. “Our changelings need you here, and we got plenty of those little cat critters to give us love.” On the mention of said cat critters, the door to her bedroom opened and one of them padded in on its tiny paws. They were almost a cat-rabbit hybrid kind of critter, a little bigger than your average kitten with a small, bushy tail ending in three soft points. This particular one was a faded yellow with black stripes down its back. It held a small bowl of sliced peaches in its forepaws. It jumped onto her vanity chair, then onto the vanity and placed the bowl down. With a little meow and smile at her, it placed a red, heart-shaped note next to the bowl that said ‘We Wuv U’, and then wiggled as it beamed up at her.

“Ah, lunch is here,” she chuckled and licked her fangs. Temporarily forgetting about that pony, she lifted up the little cat critter in her magic and put her horn to it. She ignored it’s squeals of pain as she began to drain its tasty love for her. It didn't take long for her to drain it of its love, tossing the empty corpse back to her vanity and starting in on the peach slices.

Later that day, as the sun started to set over the horizon, Chrys found herself once again pacing back and forth in her room. “I just have to know! It’s driving me crazy!”

“Well how do you plan to get there? Fly?” Chryspy snapped. “Canterlot will be VERY hard to get into right now. They probably have guards checking for our kind at every entrance. Do YOU want to spend two hundred years in a volcano like I had to, if you get caught?”

“I won’t get caught. I’ll do some… unique pony this time. Or catch an insignificant one that nopony will know the difference of and change into them.” She let out a deep sigh and rubbed her forehead. “I’ve learned my lesson on trying to take on a well-known pony.”

“Don’t make another stupid decision like at the wedding, just stay here.” Chryspy groaned. “Celestia might do even worse to us this time. She could put us in a cage in the middle of nowhere, or worse, in a cage all the way on the moon, now that her sister is back. We’d never survive that.”

“Oh it's not like I’m trying to take over again! I’m just going after one stupid stallion!” she stomped her hoof. “I won’t even bring him back to the hive, unless he begs me too,” she gave a deep, hearty cackle. “I’m going, and that’s that.”

She lit up her horn and concentrated, then with a snap and a flash was outside the gates of the castle with a teleportation spell. Her gaze turned back to it, the crumbling grey walls that had been smashed in when they landed here, already rebuilt and covered in green changeling slime, until the stones could be cemented together once again. The little houses of the cat critters that had once lived around the castle were mostly demolished now and the materials used to repair the castle.

“We’ll be back soon,” she grinned and trotted down the path away from the castle. “All I need now is to find a quick way to Canterlot.”

“Good luck, it’s not like a pegasus is just going to-” Chryspy paused as the sound of screams fell from the sky.

Chrys looked up to see a pegasus stallion, light orange fur and a two-toned blue mane, racing their way with two of her changelings on his tail. He let out a yelp as he tried to dodge one of her changelings and ran into the branches of a tree, then tumbled to the ground to slide to a stop at her feet. “Well, that’s convenient.”

The stallion slowly rose to his hooves and gazed up at her, his eyes wide upon recognizing her. “Y-y-your the changeling queen!” He gulped and held his wings tight against his barrel in terror.

“Oooh a smart one we have here,” Chryspy chuckled. “Looks strong too. Obviously Discord is on your side today.”

“Indeed he is,” Chrys gave a fangy grin down to the stallion, who she could now see had a blue shield with a yellow lightning bolt over it as a cutie mark. Her two changelings landed behind the stallion and bowed to her. “A nice catch, you two. I’ll take him from here.” They nodded wordlessly and took off toward the castle.

“What’s your name, stallion?” she asked as she gave him a fangy grin.

“F-flash Sentry,” he gulped, his ears down flat against his head.

“Well, Flash, I have a proposition for you. Come a little closer, I won’t bite, and I’ll tell you how you can have your freedom back.”

Shiny Whistle- Canterlot- Three Weeks After the Canterlot Wedding

Shiny Whistle stood behind his music stand, leading his students with a baton as they practiced another song. It was only their second day back in the studio after the wedding, his father having finally agreed he could continue his lessons for his students. The weather was beautiful, the sun shining brightly into the room and glittering off his students' instruments as they moved along with the song.

Few students had yet returned though. Of his usual twenty when they had the full class practicing, only five had shown up. Probably too scared still to leave their homes. The student’s were all doing well, what with the lack of the instruments usually used in the song, but Shiny barely paid attention to that.

His mind wandered back to the wedding: the changeling attack, ponies around him suddenly transforming into the little bug like creatures; being corralled into another room while he watched more important ponies placed in those green, gooey pods. Then there was their Queen. Her amazing performance, both in transformation back to her usual self and in defeating Princess Celestia in one on one combat. The way her chitin had practically glowed a greenish-black in the sunlight as she looked out the window, still so fresh in his mind!

He took in a deep breath as his baton waved in his magic for the students to continue, and could still smell her scent: dark chocolate and cantaloupe, with a hint of roses, as it tickled his nose. No other mare he’d ever met had smelled so good.

“Um, Professor Whistle?”

“What?” Shiny blinked and shook his head, then looked down at the students to see they had stopped playing. :”Everything okay?” He turned to one filly, Scarlet Harmony, who had spoken.

“Um, yes sir, it’s just… the song is over,” she blushed pink against her dark red coat, her flute placed on the music stand before her.

“Oh, right.” He blushed and lowered his baton. “Well class, I think that is all for today. Go home and continue practicing. We’ll continue tomorrow. Be sure to let your classmates know we are back in session if you see them!”

Shiny took in a deep breath and sighed as the students trotted out of the classroom. He held a hoof to his head and shook it slowly. Why can’t I get her out of my head? She’s a villain, she tried to take over Canterlot! Yet, she smelled so good!

His gaze turned to his desk, messy as always with his penny whistle carefully secured in its case on the edge. Newspaper clippings spilled out of his desk drawer. He trotted over and opened the drawer, raising the clippings in his magic and arranging them neatly before he placed them carefully back inside. If father knew what I was reading…

The top clipping caught his eye, and he pulled it out once more as he heard the door shut behind the last student. It was a fairly recent article that detailed Twilight Sparkles findings about the changelings. The few behind bars in the castle dungeons hadn’t said much, but progress had been made on the ones that had died. Most of it was beyond him, the detail scientific and detailed as they went over the anatomy of a small female drone. He blushed again and put the article back with the others.

“Better get home before father sends the Royal Guards out looking for me,” he sighed, closed the drawer, and locked it. His research was safer here than at home.

It didn’t take long to get from his studio back to the family home. As he trotted inside his father stopped him near the kitchen. “How did your mother and I meet?”

Shiny groaned and put a hoof to his forehead. “Must we continue going over this father?”

“Just answer the question, Shiny. If you really are Shiny.”

He took in a deep breath and let it out as he replied. “You saw her in a musical on Bridleway and fell in love at first sight. You met by getting over your fear and trotting up to her to ask her to sign your record of the current play she was in.”

“Good answer. You may continue.” He moved out of the way and Shiny joined his brother and sister at the dining table for dinner.

“You’re back!” Dew Song beamed and tackled her brother in a hug. “Did all your students show up? Did you have a good class?”

“Yeah, class was okay,” he nodded and nuzzled Dew’s cheek. “Only five students have returned so far though.” He leaned his muzzle down to her ear. “I guess their parents are even more paranoid than our father.”

Dew raised her bright pink forehooves to her muzzle and giggled. “That would be hard to do!” She hugged Shiny once more then returned to her seat between her big brothers.

“At least you can hold your classes,” Velvet Beat, his older brother, groaned and ran a royal purple hoof through his royal blue and yellow streaked mane. “Soarin’ and the rest of the band have been so busy we can’t even think about performing.”

“I’m sure once things settle down you guys will be back to it,” Shiny said as he nodded to Velvet. “We could sure use some good music to cheer ponies up.”

“Who’s ready for dinner?”

Shiny perked up as his mother trotted over, bowls of hot tomato soup carried in her honey colored wings as she placed one in front of each of them, along with a grilled cheese sandwich. Thoughts of the changeling Queen and her changelings pushed aside for the moment, he dug into his meal.

Author's Note

Here we are again! I'm having a bit of a hard time with book 2, so to keep myself still writing, decided I would work on this little gem as well to keep me going. I'm pretty much using this as my quarantine story. Still working on book two of course, but wanted to make sure I had something to PUBLISH during these hard times as well. After all, the stress is very high for most of us right now, what better than a fun little clop story?
First chapter here is mostly to set the scene. I hope you enjoy so far, and will continue with this little tale of what COULD have happened before Long Live the Queen started.
This is not edited except by me, as I want to get this out to you quick and easy. If you notice any mistakes, please send me a pm and I will get to fixing them. Be sure to comment, like, and follow if you are new!