Chapters Siege of Canterlot; Duality
Good night, Queen!
Waking up from one of the most pleasing sleeps she had in a while, Queen and commander in chief Chrysalis stretched her chitin plates. The pleasing sounds of clicking and cracking filled her ears, reminding her of the letter she spent the last day reading.
A giant smile appeared on her face as she saw a closed envelope laying on her desk, right above the last letter and her intrusion plans. Chrysalis could almost smell the mare who sent it, so sweet it was.
How weird it may be, it was reality. She had a… crush. Not the usual one as ponies may be familiar with. For the first time in her life, Chrysalis was ready to give away some of her love instead of taking it, even if it was only for a single specific mare.
She got off her bed, stretching once again. This time, sounds of chitin weren’t as pleasing as before, but they still satisfied her black, almost empty heart, filling it with something new.
Her night pleadings were immediately cut off as a soldier loudly opened the door to her room, forcing it to hit a wall and to produce a lot of loud cracking sounds. Chrysalis even felt pain in her exoskeleton when the noise reached her sensitive ears, forcing her to cringe and frown towards the sloppy soldier.
All the rage she had immediately disappeared as she saw a bunch of papers balancing in his hoof. It reminded her of that sweet letter and that no one should ever see it.
With a quick burst of green magic, the table sparked, leaving a few burnt marks on her plans of Canterlot, while another flash of magic happened under her bed. Both letters weren’t in proximity or eyesight anymore and Chrysalis breathed out with relief.
Soldier finally gathered enough bravery to enter the room of the queen who’s slumber he just disturbed. “S-sorry, my queen! I didn’t mean to!” He said with a trembling voice. Chrysalis could see his chitin shaking vigorously. Any second the stack of paper would fall from his hoof.
Rolling her eyes, Chrysalis conjured some of her magic, lighting up both her horn and the stack, levitating the latter onto the soldier's back and anchoring it with a bit of sticky, washable , goo.
“Excused. What’s the status-quo, soldier?” she said with an unusual temper. Any other day she would just blow up and the whole mobile base would hear her screaming at the newbie, but this time, something different was on her mind.
Breathing out with relief, the soldier saluted before spewing his report like a robot. “Yes, Ma’am! Generals are expecting you at the meeting in T minus eleven, Ma’am! No news about Canterlot’s falling, Ma’am! And no reports from underground patrol either, Ma’am!”
Chrysalis tilted her head, “What do you mean by ‘no reports from underground’? They all just disappeared or they haven’t seen anyone?” She said with a slightly raised tone. Some of the leftover anger began boiling inside of her, but the others emotions were too strong to let it take over.
“Guilty, Ma’am! They haven’t noticed any activity at all, Ma’am! Foe is either invisible or didn’t appear there at all, Ma’am!”
Chrysalis stood up from her bed, levitating her set of armour towards herself. “Th~ Thanks, soldier. And cut with “Ma’am’s”, it’s getting annoying.” She barely managed to speak out. New words filled with emotions were hard to adapt to.
“Yes, Ma’am!” He stopped and cringed for a second, “Sorry, Ma’am!” He cringed again, before just stopping his talk and saluting to her.
Chrysalis chuckled, before leaving her room. The soldier stood there for a while until she was gone, afterwards, he disappeared in the crowd of equally indistinguishable drone army filling the down floors of the mobile base.
For Chrysalis however, the day anticipated much more. Not the mobs of common drones, but the whole table full of generals sitting and probably doing less than any lower soldier. At least that's how Chrysalis thought of them lately. The whole war didn’t even move for an inch ever since they came to Canterlot.
Usually, Chrysalis would just come, screaming at everyone and everything and then leave, putting a few plans on the table, giving rude suggestions or just maps with strategic places. That time, things were different. Chrysalis was different. And with her sudden change of character, the winds of war were about to change too.
The door burst open, letting the queen in. The room, which seconds ago was full of havok and voices went completely silent as she took her place in front of the whole table. As humble and as forgiving as she was then, she still took her usual place where she could see every inch of the room. She was more kind that day, but it wasn’t the occasion to drop her guard down, any of those changelings could’ve been a traitor.
Putting her hooves on the table, she pricked up her ears, hardened her back, and widened her eyes, waiting for answers.
The silence stood unshakeable. No one was brave enough to open their mouth or to even move. That was the Chrysalis afterall. The ruthless ruler that took over half of Equestria by sheer force and determination. The one who took over the changeling’s throne on her own and later defeated the general Shining Armour in a fight one-on-one.
So she sat there and waited, watching closely as the droplets of sweat fell down from their serious faces, as the tiny pieces of chitin fell down from their cowordy hooves, and how each one of them breathed deeper and deeper, trying to calm their nerves down, hoping for a salvation from their usually angry queen.
Disgusted by the whole situation, a changeling inside her head grew more tired and tired at the waiting. She was about to burst open the stash her anger disappeared into, but something else happened. The changeling inside her head was overthrown by a tall and fancy white pony. With a big banner representing both Equestria and The Hive, she stood there victorious, dictating to Chrysalis to make her move.
“Any suggestions on our current situation?” She finally broke the silence. The room lit up slightly as some sounds filled it. A few bodies moved slightly, taking more comfortable positions.
One body finally stood up, rising above the rest with its shaking hooves and wet face. One brave soldier who was recently promoted to a general, approached the big map on the wall and pointed towards the Canterlot mountain. “Ma’am!” He saluted her, his eyes full of fear, but his heart full of determination.
“Our troops surrounded the whole barrier around the Canterlot, and we have intensed our guards around all exit roads and any waypoints that may be interesting to Celestia,” he swiped his hoof around the giant Canterlot city on the map, around it was a big blue bubble — the only thing that kept the changelings from proceeding. Just one stupid strong magical barrier.
With a quick and confident move of his hooves, he changed the map. On it was a giant and confusing network of tunnels. They intertwined with each other, went up and down, circled around and genuinely didn’t make sense. Those were the Canterlot undergrounds, a relic of the past and the only thing that saved the capital of Equestria in the present.
With a spark of his horn, a few points on the map lit up in green light. “We put more guards in the tunnels following your plans. No reports from them yet, but as you can see all of them are alive. Which brings the problem that we need to solve — The city is still alive, without any food sources or any way of getting nutrition. Any suggestions, your majesty?”
Chrysalis tilted her head, thinking about the map, tunnels and what’s more importantly — the beautiful Princess behind all of that. All those letters telling her how easily she found the way arounds for her city to survive, all that teasing she wrote in every line, all that flirting that came out of nowhere.
“The answer is simple. Celestia.”
“Pardon?”
“She’s one of the most powerful creatures there are, alongside her sister, her little twinker of a student and whatever might be helping them. That power is enough to surpass any line of offence we may offer. Basically, they can teleport without any of us noticing,” She said, slightly sad, but at the same time impressed by her enemy and disappointed in herself.
The general flipped through some other maps, looking for a solution or any suggestions. Seconds later, his face showed disappointment and he turned to his queen for hope. “But that means that there is no point in the siege. We had failed before we even began!” His voice was full of panic; his mind scared, and he himself forgot who he was talking to.
Gasps and whispers began venturing around the room. Old and slightly more experienced generals were shocked at the audacity of the newbie and on how he was talking to the queen. Most of them were pretty certain that he was a goner.
But fate had other plans. Rolling her eyes and not giving attention to the table, she stood up and approached the newbie. His chitin was shaking around his body and his pupils shrink when his mind realised what was going on.
The queen passed him and stood on the other side of the map. “I’m going in,” she simply said, pointing towards a little cave shown on the map. “The last thing they would expect is a direct infiltration. With my abilities and magic, I might have enough to breach the barrier and take the Princess out. After I’ll take her disguise and the Canterlot will fall without even realising it.”
What followed next didn’t surprise anyone. It mostly was silence, a few surprised grunts and a quick suggestion from the newbie, but any arguing towards that plan was deflected by the Queen and her frightening nature. Which was more than perfect. What Chrysalis didn’t want there for sure was someone snooping around and figuring out what she was actually planning on doing.
But in reality, even she didn’t know what she would do. Usually, her plans are precise to every small detail, every single background pony. Every spike on a dragon's head and every creature in a city radius. This time it was different. She wasn’t acting in the good of her empire or Hive, nor she planned anything besides meeting her new lover.
The meeting ended, Chrysalis left in a hurry and only one thought lingered in her mind, “What did she write me in that new letter?”
Siege of Canterlot; Duality
The solar princess woke up with an agonising pain in her back. Her mane was messed up and reminded a bush of discord’s flowers. Her whole body - from hooves to horn — was covered in a weird layer of dirt unnatural to her majesty. The weird disgusting taste of acid lingered in her mouth and her eyes were sticking together, trying to force her to sleep more.
With a loud yawn she rose up from her bed and sat on it, looking into the window. The sun was closing in on noon, and the moon was nowhere to be seen. The sky was clear, and not a single cloud ruined the perfect picture, not even Everfree tried to mess it up. It was the perfection she enjoyed to see.
She stood up on the tiled floor of her tower, feeling the coldness touching her hooves, making its way to her bones and forcing her to shiver.
She quickly put on her little Luna-like slippers, which also were covered in a layer of dirt and approached the table.
The window above it was wide open and the cold air was threatening the health of the princess. She quickly closed it and found the reason why on such a perfect day such a small thing wanted to ruin everything.
A small velvet letter closed by a green seal that depicted Chrysalis’ crown. It smelt awful, Celestia almost threw up when she levitated it closer, yet, she didn’t throw it away.
With a brace and a gulp of fresh air, she opened the letter despite feeling that awful smell of sweat, dirt, chitin and blood.
Inside was a simple text written by her new friend. A really weird connection that happened against Celestia’s will. One day such a letter just appeared on her table and instead of burning it down or forcing guards to search how it got in there, she just wrote an answer and left it on the table. Ever since new letters were appearing every night.
For Celestia those letters were the escape from boring and annoying reality. In those quick moments when she read them, she forgot about all her subjects and everything she had to care about. She could just be free and enjoy her life, her love and her feelings. Those were the moments of peace and the moments of freedom.
She opened her nostrils wide and filled her lungs with that cacophony of smells. The blood, sweat, dirt, chitin and weird, but the pleasant fragrances of sunflowers and roses rushed into her brain, calming her down and making her forget everything. She brought the letter closer to her nose and sniffed again to feel even more.
The moment her eyes laid on the words, the door of her room burst open. A newbie soldier, dressed in the copper armour and barely holding his spear entered the room. He looked proud of himself, and he looked at the princess with eyes full of honour. He quickly took a report from behind his back and spread it open in front with his wings.
“Princess!” he said loudly, “Council is awaiting you in a few minutes. They are awaiting your decisions and answers about recent situations!”
Eyes full of anger lunged into his direction. All the fury, all the anger escaped Princess’ body and filled her sight. She despised him, hated him, wanted him to be gone. The one perfect moment of her perfect day was ruined by some kind of soldier wanna-be. No respect, no honour and no saluting as any soldier befits. He was no one thinking he was someone.
Taking a deep breath, trying to calm her wave of emotions, she said to him with the most fake voice possible, “Thank you! I’ll be there in a few moments!” She turned away to her letter, awaiting the sounds of door slamming. Second passed, two, three and only silence was filling the room.
She turned around to him and frowned. “Begone, soldier!”
“But Ma’am! Allow me to accompany you! Who knows what lingers just around the corner!” He said with full confidence in himself.
Celestia tilted her head. “You think I can’t protect myself? You think I’m weak?! That I won’t be able to navigate my own castle without defence?! DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!” The dam finally broke.
The soldier squeezed his head into his body and took a few steps away. “N-no Ma’am~”
“Get out of here and don’t let me see you again!” She said before throwing him from the room with her telekinesis and shutting it close.
Breathing out, she thought of what she just did and a little piece of her was hesitating about the whole situation, but the rest was only thinking about the letter and its contents. Besides, she’s the princess and the Council can wait.
***
Full of confidence, emotions and hope, she opened the doors to the Council room wide and entered with the nose turned up.
The room that was seconds ago alive, went silent. All the noises, distractions, creatures, everything stared at the Princess as she slowly approached her place in front of a table and loudly pushed and pulled out her throne. She sat down and her eyes ventured around the room, judging everything and everyone as one of the council members slowly got up.
It slightly tilted her anger, but she let him be for then.
“Good day, Princess! Shall we begin our meeting?” he asked the room. Princess let out an annoyed grunt and rolled her eyes. Her head leaned and laid on her hoof.
Awkwardly coughing, he continued, “Ahm. So. Your last plan worked as expected and we managed to make a way around changeling’s patrols in the caves. We managed to get a few dozen soldiers out of the siege, and they brought enough resources for the city to survive a few more days.” He pointed towards a board with a few papers on it. Maps, statistics, reserves.
Without letting him say anything else, the Princess got up and approached the board, reading the newest information. “Tolerable, but disappointing.” She said, surprising most of the room.
“Excuse me?” He asked her again.
“I said it is disappointing. The soldiers would have brought more food… and the amount of creatures injured by keeping the barrier around the city is too high! Are you sure they are trained for that?” She asked which put them all in a more awkward state. She flipped a map around. On the other side was another map that showed the latest pegasi patrols reports. “And what’s that?! Why are your soldiers letting changelings strengthen the ring around the barrier?!’
“B-but Princess!” He screamed out in shock.
She turned around and faced him. “Don’t ‘princess’ me! If you can’t fix the situation, you will lose not just your jobs, but something else, understood?”
A silent wave of gulps followed by another wave of nods rolled around the room.
“Good. Now. I’ll be in my tower, constructing some plans. Don’t disturb me unless it’s something really important.”
She left the room as gracefully as she entered it. The door shut behind her. But when she left the room didn’t come back to live, quite the opposite, it stayed dead. No whispers. No noises. Just thoughts and fears.
And the general who stood up at first, waiting to deliver happy news about a victory outside of the city stood there, thinking about what he did wrong and what was with their usually kind princess.
Celestia returned to her tower and laid down on her bed, closing her eyes and letting the sleep’s embrace to take over her.
Siege of Canterlot; Duality
Waking up unusually to her, Chrysalis rolled off her bed making as few noises as possible. The sun shone bright behind the window, and it blinded her nocturnally-adapted vision. Her tired body and mind were fighting against this whole plan, forcing her to go back to bed and sleep this all over, forgetting about her plan, duty and her love, but her heart was pushing on.
Quickly opening a window, she jumped out from the mobile base and plunged towards the bright green ground covered in colourful flowers. Seconds before her nose met the grass, her horn blinked and she appeared a few metres away, perfectly fine and slightly crouched to look less noticeable. Not like it helped her much, but it made her feel more stealthy.
Slowly moving, she crossed the field and approached the cave. The cave that led straight to the Canterlot palace. Usually it was more protected with a few guards and some powerful spells, but it seemed that the war and the siege made Celestia less attentive.
Quickly rolling into the cave, Chrysalis lit up her horn. The surrounding wet stone glistened as she passed it. Sounds of rocks hitting rocks and muffled roars were coming from somewhere deep, but she wasn’t scared by them.
Soon, she found the source of those sounds. A giant bear whose fur was decorated by all sorts of stars, constellations, planets and just celestial bodies. It was looking laying on the ground, uncomfortably scratching its neck from time-to-time.
“So I guess she did take care of this entrance…” she whispered under her breath.
At first Chrysalis wanted to pass it by, not make herself noticed, but then she heard rustling. She turned to the Ursa and saw a big chain going from its neck to the cave’s wall.
She took a step towards the bear, but accidentally, she pushed a rock that fell down and made some noise. The bear’s head rose up and rushed into Chrysalis’ direction with an angry and loud roaring.
The bear quickly stood up and launched into her direction.
Chrysalis squinted, her body didn’t move for an inch as her mind was submerged into fear. Death almost knocked into her door, but instead, fate opened the door.
The bear stopped a few inches from the queen, sitting down on the cold wet ground, restricted by the chain around its neck. Like a little dog, Ursa panted a few times, letting its tongue out and afterwards licked Chrysalis a few times.
Shocked by such an outcome, Chrysalis was stunned. Her mind trying to find an answer and her body trying to stop laughing while the barbed tongue of the beast was tickling her chitin. The slight disgust of the saliva she was covering now disappeared the exact moment when she saw the bear scratching its neck.
“Oh you poor thing,” Chrysalis said with something beautiful filling her voice, “Did Celestia do it to you?!” she spewed out, shocked by such possibility.
The bear growled at the latter.
“Don’t worry. I’ll talk to her about it. Now, let’s get this chain off!”
A few quick magical flicks and quick movements of her horn and the bear was free, chain and a collar laying on the ground a few metres away.
Seconds later, the bear ran away, happier than ever before.
Chrysalis shrugged it off and continued moving, all covered in Ursa’s saliva.
She passed the barrier with a bit of her magic and found herself on the other side, right in front of the palace. It wasn’t as big as she remembered, but it still was beautiful. The golden patterned roofs decorating the marble walls. Purple basalt clippings crossing the marble and emphasising the contrast of the whole building. And big Equestrian flags proudly hanging in the wind and telling Canterlot’s citizens that everything will be alright.
Chrysalis snuck into the building unnoticed via a small window on the second floor. She was in the hall, one of many in this castle. Chrysalis found it really uncomfortable and creepy that all halls were decorated with as much stuff as possible. Different plants hanging from all walls, armour standing still, watching her every move. Smell of lavender coming from the ceiling and giant columns receding from the walls. And those big red carpets with golden strings along its perimeter.
All of that was a nightmare for her. Too much detail and too little space to hide into. She was afraid of taking a guard’s disguise as her voice and her poor knowledge of this place would give her away, but taking the disguise of the princess was even worse.
So Chrysalis had to simply go along the corridor, hoping and praying that no one would see her.
But what was her plan? That question she asked herself a few times already. It was simply to find Celestia and hope that everything will work out, but what if all of that was just a cruel joke. But the thought of all of it being true calmed her down, weaked her emotions and made her happier.
Plus, even if it was a joke, she had the power to deal with the jokester.
She walked among those corridors, searching for her, and she finally found a clue — the throne room. Weirdly, like corridors like that room, it was empty and dark. No guards. No servants. Windows closed with some kind of fabric and pure silence all around the place.
Barely seeing anything, Chrysalis finally gave in and screamed, “Hello?!” It echoed all around the room a few times, making her cringe from her decision so stupidly to give away her position.
But seconds later her mistake gave fruit. A voice so familiar, yet so foreign, echoing in Chrysalis’ mind. It was so sweet and so tempting. She wanted more and more of it. “Hello, Chrysalis. Welcome to my home,” it said with equal affectionateness and indifference.
“C-celestia? Where are you?” Chrysalis asked in shock and got only giggles in reply. “What’s so funny?!”
“Nothing!” ‘Celestia’ said with even more laughter. “Celestia! Ehh. It's just… so funny.”
Chrysalis advanced in the darkness, following her instincts. She was trying to follow the voice of Celestia, but she couldn’t, it felt like that voice was coming from everywhere at the same time, but also from nowhere.
“Show yourself!” Chrysalis finally lost her patience. Her fears, anxiety of being rejected intensified.
Sighing, the voice answered, “Don’t worry. I can’t reject you, and you can’t reject me. You’ve got nothing to fear, my dear… Now come and take a look!” With a sudden flash of light, a sun beam came from the roof and hit Celestia’s throne which was covered in a weird fabric.
Chrysalis cautiously approached it, her mind was racing her heart. She threw the fabric away, revealing a big mirror.
“Wha~ What is that? Some kind of a joke?! Where are you?!” Chrysalis screamed again, trying to reach Celestia with her voice. But unfortunately, Celestia was too far away to hear it.
“I’m here,” came from the mirror. In reflections, Chrysalis spoke those words, in reality, her mouth stayed shut.
Chrysalis frowned. “Is that some kind of a joke?!”
Mirror Chrysalis rolled her eyes and in a flash of green magic, she took a disguise of Celestia. “Is this better? I don’t like liars, but if it suits you better I can stay like that.”
Chrysalis took a few steps back. “I. I don’t understand! Where~ Where is Celestia!”
Mirror Chrysalis shrugged. “She never was here. I bet she’s hiding in that bunker under the Canterlot. And I bet she got that devilish spawn of a student with her. But enough about them.”
“H~ How?! Those letters… Who was in charge of Canterlot all this time?! How is it still standing?!”
“We did all of it,” Mirror Chrysalis answered.
Chrysalis sat on the ground, holding her head with her hooves. “We? But. But… But…”
“Shhh. It’s fine! Everything is alright! We’ve got each other now. We’ll figure it all out together!” Mirror Chrysalis said with a cordial voice. A smile appeared on her face.
Chrysalis smiled back at her and approached the mirror. “So everything that happened is because of you?”
Mirror Chrysalis nodded.
Chrysalis came closer to the mirror and embraced it.
She took a few steps back and asked, “So… What’s now?”
“Take that little mirror on Luna’s throne and we’ll figure it out together!”
They both broke into laughter which echoed around the whole castle.