And Your Colours Feel so Right
Sunset Shimmer slammed the door to her room in Canterlot Castle behind her, immediately sitting down on the brightly-sunlit floor and huffing in frustration.
“Why do you keep doing this, Celestia?” She muttered to herself, hanging her head and looking down at the thick maroon carpet, “You know this stuff doesn’t help...” Some moments passed in quiet, irate thought, before the mare looked up across the room to view the large mirror covering as much of the far wall as it possibly could, only restrained by the bookshelves on the adjacent walls.
“We’re the only two ponies in Equestria that actually bucking matter, you know,” She said while standing up and looking at herself through the mirror, subconsciously tracing her soft, orange-coated curves and fiery scarlet and golden mane, the sharp horn atop her head and powerful cyan eyes completing her perfect image.
“So why do you keep wasting yourself like this!?” Sunset shouted in anger, but it went unresponded, even by an echo. That weird empty feeling made her huff again and summon the assignment she was suppose to complete; a piece of parchment with the ‘benefits of friendship’ or something listed across it, with the implicit request to ‘make a friend’, which was apparently to make her happy, despite her magical studies already doing so.
The unicorn then threw the paper onto the desk by the left wall and looked over to the bed right next to it, sighing again, this time in contemplation, as she glanced over at the glass door to the balcony opposite the bed, the bright light beaming through unhindered by the curtains pulled away from it. She scoffed and closed her eyes, flaring her cyan magic and quickly teleporting all the way outside the castle, landing on the stone ground some paces away from the main entrance doors with her back to them.
Trotting off into the Plaza of Canterlot, Sunset felt the aura of snobbishness given off by so many of the locals there, and it only made her more aggravated as to why Celestia would waste her resources on such useless ponies! She sighed and leered at the ground as she kept walking towards the flower shop tended to by a green earth filly that her mentor kept trying to get her with, apparently taking the unicorn’s appreciation for the filly’s silence as some sort of pseudo-friendship.
Unfortunately, the large crowd that was always passing by the Castle prevented the orange mare from walking in peace, but she wasn’t going to let any amount of pretentious imbeciles get to her! She power-trotted through the masses, pushing away anypony that bumped into her and keeping her eyes locked on the fences that lined the edge of the Plaza, where the density was thinner and she could maybe get some peace.
Sunset stumbled a bit when a purple filly ran in front of her, accidently tripping the filly over one of her legs and making her spill the books in her saddlebags all over the ground. The fiery-maned pony didn’t stop, though, only continuing forward with a discontented sigh.
She kept going, noticing with slight relief that she was nearing the edge of the Plaza, less ponies flitting around her and buzzing with their usual pompous conversations, but she got rudely interrupted when she practically slammed into somepony else.
“Hey!” The irate unicorn shouted as she got knocked away from the pony, but quickly stopped in her place as she examined the mare who kept trotting along without even a glance spared her way. For some inexplicable reason, she was gorgeous; a lovely tangerine coat of soft, silky fur, a smooth and sharp mane and tail of vermillion and marigold, and a strong, tapered horn with an aqua groove spiraling up it.
Sunset barely registered her legs beginning to take her in the direction of the other mare, her eyes so enraptured with her while her heart began to beat faster and her cheeks started to burn. She stopped noticing the ponies flitting around her as she kept walking, their dull aristocratic selves fading from her cognizance, even as she continued into a slightly thicker group of them.
The movements of the other unicorn were smooth and confident, as if her mind was only one thing, and would ignore or eliminate anything in her path. Quite similar to the Princess’s pupil right then, actually, though said pupil’s attention was far more drawn to the pony that so quickly and nonchalantly captured her gaze, keeping it on her and numbing her viewer’s senses of anypony else and even the forces of the world that kept her moving through space and time.
Eventually, the fiery-maned beauty stopped in the middle of a more empty street, making her follower do the same and finally begin to notice the world around her. The mare seemed to be sensing something, making her slowly turn her head around.
Sunset, however, for all of her usual tenacity, felt herself too embarrassed to have the pony see her in such a state, and quickly hopped onto a empty bench that faced away from her crush and laid down on it, trying to keep herself hidden behind the two wooden beams of its backrest. She managed to observe the mare through a slit between the beams, seeing her sparkly aqua-coloured eyes sweeping around her, seeming to look for something.
The mare on the bench swore she saw a slightly longer glance thrown right at her, but her emotions kept her unmoving and watching the other unicorn continuing to turn around, eventually coming to a stop after having gone in a full circle. Shaking her head with what looked like a faint grin, the pony resumed her confident trot through the streets of Canterlot, her viewer soon scrambling off the bench so she could keep after her.
The nervousness and embarrassment lingered on Sunset as she continued walking, trying to keep her view fixed on the orange unicorn, but occasionally glancing around at anypony who entered her sight, worrying that they might see her in this quiverring, heart-throbbing, cheek-blazing state, where the rumours would undoubtedly pile up. She could see the headlines now; ‘Celestia’s Student Caught in a Tryst!’, ‘Sunset Shimmer Clopping Herself in Public!’, and what was probably the worst, ‘Princess Celestia X Sunset Shimmer, CONFIRMED!’.
All terrifying prospects, to be sure, but nothing would compare to how the Princess herself would react to such scandals; there’s no way she would want to be seen around such a fool, so she would at the very least remove Sunset as her personal student. Even with just that, the unicorn would have none of the amazing literary resources she did now, preventing her from learning anything more about magic, but also the protection the Castle and Celestia herself offered her against the inquiring public would be gone, prompting an avalanche of far too personal questions to be asked of her, where even her teleportation spells wouldn’t help her hide!
Shaking her head, Sunset finally managed to break out of her reverie long enough to notice the dramatically different part of the city she was in, the bright and wide streets made from (relatively) smooth asphalt replaced with cracked and torn concrete alleyways with little to no sunlight beaming into them. However, she still could see the pony she was following because of the green magic glowing from said pony’s horn, as well as hear the pony’s hooves clack against the ground with seemingly little action taken to dampen the noise.
Such noise allowed the tailing unicorn to move with as little fear of being caught as one could in a dark alleyway in what was certainly the wrong part of Canterlot. Her heart was beating as fast as before, but only now because of the memories of her mother and Princess Celestia telling her never to go to these alleys, even despite how good they knew she was at magic.
The other mare eventually stopped in the middle of the alleyway and faced a wall to her left, making Sunset quickly duck against the other wall in hopes of not being seen in the dark lighting as those pretty aquamarine eyes of the mare she was following glanced around. Fortunately, she didn’t seem to be spotted, as the mare again faced the wall and lowered her head so that her horn was perpendicular to it, then pushed it forward into some sort of slot in the wall, if the quiet click and flame-like whooshing heard over pounding heartbeats and heavy breathing was anything to go by.
A small section of the wall the other unicorn had put their horn in moved back slightly, prompting her to pull her horn out and step back a bit, watching as the wall then lowered into the ground to reveal a passageway that sloped downward slightly, a green light glowing from deep within it.
Sunset gawked silently as other orange mare trotted into the passage while swaying her tail, almost inviting her viewer in behind her to find out what fascinating things may lurk down there. And, of course, Sunset never stood a chance. She quickly darted after the other pony and tried to keep her hoof-steps as quiet as she could as she trotted briskly down the tunnel, glancing around occasionally at the oddly sharp-textured stone around her while maintaining sight of the red and yellow tail that was becoming so tinted in green light.
After nearly a couple of minutes, the green light began to stop glowing brighter, at which point it was revealed that a large green crystal embedded in the rock wall was emanating it. Both mares passed it without slowing down, but the second one did stare at it for a few second as she went by, wondering why these crystals were used as a light source and why she never heard of these tunnels before.
More glowing crystals in the tunnel walls were soon passed by the unicorns, the green light having utterly suffused the area by this point, making it somewhat difficult to differentiate everything for the Sunset that was so used to white sunlight saturating her world. The other mare, though, was completely unimpeded as she walked calmly and confidently through the passageway, her brightly-coloured form being the main thing preventing her follower from stumbling face-first into any walls.
Eventually, however, full colour did begin to slowly seep back in from yet further down, helping Sunset to see the crystals were glowing at differing brightnesses, with some merely pinpricks of light in a large crystal while others were nearly suffused with their glow. The crystals became brighter and larger as they kept going down, the colour slowly returning with each step before it finally ended in a faint green tint to a fully-coloured view while the tunnel it was lighting suddenly opened up into a far more spacious cave, nearly a hemisphere in shape and at least twenty ponies wide in each lateral direction.
The solar student gasped as she saw many tunnels punched in the same side of the room she was in, presumably leading throughout Canterlot to other secret entranceways, while a few other doorways resided on the opposite side of the room, one she could see through right then led to an area with many glowing green ...eggs, she thought? embedded in the far wall. There were also crystals in the ceiling of the room, though they glowed in multiple light colours, providing better colour contrast than the tunnels.
However, there was one thing within the room that best attracted the pony’s attention, and that was the large black throne atop a wide dais in the center of the room, some sort of glowing green goop lining it like cushioning.
“I appreciate you coming here so easily,” Sunset heard, making her gasp and turn to the other orange unicorn a short ways into the room, who was looking right back at her. “I didn’t want to hinder your love for yourself with some fruitless battle.” That voice, which sounded so similar to the listener’s own, held a power and authority only seen in Princess Celestia, which seemed so far different now to the arrogance and brazenness of Sunset herself.
“I don’t...” She spoke to the other mare, admiring how lovely her form looked with that smirk on it, but tried to shake it off and continue, “I don’t know why... I’d fight you.”
The other unicorn laughed slightly at the statement, then turned her body towards the throne as started to slowly walk towards it, keeping her eyes locked on the mare under her grasp. “I thought that seeing somepony in your own form would immediately bring to mind an impostor, but...” She arrived at the dais and paused with one hoof on the first step, her eyes squinting slightly in accusation, “It seems I was incorrect.”
Sunset blushed a bit at being talked down to like that, thankful that the other mare turned her head away as she resumed trotting up to the throne, and then without hesitation, jumped up to sit on it. “Well...” Sunset started, but had to clear her parched throat from the warm air that she just realized was more than just her embarrassment, “What... or who, are you then?”
“I’m glad you asked that,” The other unicorn said with a domineering grin as she leaned back in the throne, folding her hind legs and resting a foreleg on them, the other going on the foreleg-rest to complete her look of casual authority. However, as well as that luscious orange form looked sitting in the throne, it was still too small for it, but that was amended when bright green flames quickly wrapped around her extremities and flew up them to her barrel, changing the flesh as it went, from a soft tangerine fur to a obsidian black chitin littered with holes that looked more fitting on an insect. The flames also lengthened the appendages, making them as long as Princess Celestia’s, if a bit thinner, all before trailing up her barrel and neck and then finishing by transforming her head.
“My name is Queen Chrysalis, Queen of the Changeling Hive,” The being spoke in an odd sort of metallic-echoic tone that was also somewhat deeper than a Sunset’s own, all from a mouth filled with brilliant white sharp teeth and large fangs along with a dark green interior and a long, forked tongue. She(?) next made another sound, but not from her mouth, as she instead lifted thin, membranous wings off her withers and fluttered them a bit in the confines of her throne, showing that they were also more insectoid than mammalian with their immensely fast back-and-forth motions. Of course, that was not to discount the more unicorn-like horn atop her head, although this wasn’t quite the same either, given its jagged shape and scrawled-around-looking channel.
Sunset stared wide-eyed at the supposed ‘Changeling Queen’, questions about the societal structure of the ‘Hive’, to the biology of her likely subjects, to what kind of magic the Queen used to transform so easily, to how they all managed to live under Canterlot for however long it took these caves (they didn’t look that naturally created) without anypony noticing and writing about it. Surely Celestia would’ve done something then... or maybe it was Celestia that was keeping them secret...?
She was abruptly torn from her thoughts when something trotted out of a larger entranceway in the left wall behind the throne, its form much more akin to a normal pony, though it had a chitinous shell with holes on its legs, a short, tangled teal mane and tail, bright green glowing eyes, and a cute, timid fanged mouth. This was clearly one of the changelings the Queen spoke of, especially given how it quickly stopped at the sight of its Queen, staring with surprise and fear while nearly loosing hold of the green, gooey parcel on its back.
“N164,” Chrysalis said to her subject, only moving her eyes to see the changeling shake slightly on the spot, “I believe I ordered noling to enter this room at this time.”
A short pause, during which the ‘ling seemed to gather the implied order, then took a deep breath and responded in a voice higher-pitched than the queen, but still with that odd echoic tone, “I, um, needed to get this reservoir to some of the T-class grubs, my Queen.” At a raised eyebrow that questioned why that was necessary, she(?) continued, “The specialized ones need around ten percent more love than you anticipated.”
Queen Chrysalis nodded curtly, gesturing to the glowing egg-filled behind her with a hoof and commanded to her subject, “Go.” The ‘ling quickly obeyed, bowing her head before quickly trotting off to the room with only a faint glance to the pony still in the room. The Queen merely smirked as she looked back to that very pony, who was staring in bewilderment and awe at the smaller changeling, a curiosity no doubt wishing to be sated behind it all.
“So,” The large being spoke, quickly snapping Sunset’s attention back to her, “You clearly have questions, not the least of which is ‘What did that cute little nurse mean by “the grubs needing more love”’?” Her smirk got a bit larger at the unicorn’s surprise, but she quickly quashed it by explaining, “Our species feeds off of emotions to survive, and with love being the most powerful of those, it is quite nutritious to us.
“That is why I could tell somepony was following me back up in Canterlot,” She continued, “I knew your form was found to attract attention, though I didn’t quite expect it to take that form from you.”
Sunset blushed and looked downward slightly from embarrassment at that, replying hesitantly, “Y-yeah, well...” She tried to think of a explanation that wouldn’t make her seem stupid in front of this Queen, but achieved nothing even after several seconds.
“The abilities granted by your position no doubt have given you a flattered interpretation of yourself,” Chrysalis said, earning the unicorn’s wide-eyed awe again at how good the changeling was at reading others, though said ‘ling brushed it off as if it were nothing new. “Unfortunately, even with all of that,” She added, looking to the ground with her grin fading in seemingly slight disappointment, “You still feel held back by your mentor. Princess Celestia herself is stopping you from achieving your full potential.”
Sunset nodded wordlessly, keeping silent for a few moments before licking her lips and clearing her dry throat, and then finally asking, “H-how did you know that?”
The Queen smirked again, glancing around as a gesture at the large room they were in, then looking back to the visitor and explaining, “We’ve been here quite a while, Sunset Shimmer, and we keep our eyes on anypony particularly interesting. And besides,” She waved a hoof, “I actually do sympathize with you to a degree there.”
The orange mare blinked again in complete surprise, sputtering out, “W-wait, really?!”
Chrysalis inhaled through her nostrils and gained a solemn grin and replied, “Yes. Princess Celestia and her ponies haven’t been the kindest to us over the years, which is why we’ve resorted to hiding under her nose for now. However,” She continued, with more vigour, “We, as in you and me, can solve both of those issues at once.”
Sunset squinted her eyes in a mix of temptation, confusion, and suspicion, then simply asked, “How?”
“Well, you, as the personal student of Princess Celestia, have a decent connection to her, which can allow you to change the way she thinks about our race on my behalf,” The Queen explained, “And in exchange, I will grant you access to all the books we have on magic that the ponies have ‘lost’ over the years.” Her visitor’s eyes widened at the offer, and so she followed up, “Sound fair?”
Sunset mouthed silently as she stared at the changeling in stupefaction for several seconds, all the while said changeling continued to present her cordial grin. The unicorn then blinked a couple times before looking to the dark, jagged stone floor, muttering some things quietly as she thought about it, and finally looked up and spoke, “What...” Her voice was a bit dry, so she cleared her throat before trying again, “What do you mean by ‘changing the way Celestia thinks’?”
“You’d talk to her and hers as well as speaking to the public to get them to better their relations with my Hive,” Chrysalis responded, “As of right now, any of my subjects caught in Canterlot would be immediately locked up in the dungeons with a nonzero probability of them being dissected to figure out they work while keeping them alive to find out anything else they know. I’d prefer if that didn’t happen, obviously.”
The orange mare nodded hesitantly and paused to think; the Queen’s words made sense as to why she wanted to do what she did, but something about the stakes and urgency of it all seemed a bit off. The being before her definitely had some deeper reasoning for what she wanted to happen, but the pony was trying to decide if it was really bad enough to let the entire Hive remain down there.
“Tell you what,” Chrysalis suddenly spoke, breaking her visitor out of her thoughts as those green flames from before wrapped around her body again, making her into a carbon-copy of the unicorn she was speaking to, and continued in that unicorn’s delicious voice, “Let me sweeten the deal for you. I know a few things that Celestia likely would never teach you, so let me show you some of that to start out with. Then you can say whether you want to continue.”
Sunset twitched in excitement. The intimidating insectoid’s words may have put her off, but just the thought of being taught magics forbidden by her irritating mentor by the tantalizingly-curved, silky-coated, sharp-minded, and exquisitely amazing mare before her felt like the opportunity of a lifetime.
“A-alright!” She answered, just a bit too loud with a stutter and burning cheeks, her heart beating faster as the powerful magic of her new teacher summoned a couple very old and hefty books on things she had never imagined doing with magic before. Oh yes, she was never going to regret this...
