“This is Professor Eventide of Canterlot University-”

“How did you access this radio line?” the voice on the other side demanded.

“I, along with my partner Lightbulb and the train driver of the Canterlot-Crystal Empire line have been kidnapped by Queen Chrysalis of the changelings. We’re under threat of death right now and we're being held on the train, which is currently heading south,” Eventide said. He didn’t even hesitate as he lied. Chrysalis had seen changeling soldiers less capable of selling it.

There were several seconds of silence on the other side of the phone line, before a different, much more serious voice started speaking. “Professor Eventide, this is Controller Grand Central, calling you from Canterlot Train Station. We hear your report of being hijacked. What are the hijacker’s demands?”

“Queen Chrysalis is demanding safe passage by train to the unexplored west. According to the maps I’ve been looking at, the minor stop at Whitetail Wood is the closest place to where she wants to go,” Eventide said. “I would like to stress that I have been a captive of Queen Chrysalis for some weeks now, Controller, and she will make good on her threats. I strongly recommend you do what she wants.”

Chrysalis grinned. It felt good to have some leverage and power again, even if it would be temporary.

Eventide began describing what she wanted to have happen at Canterlot Station, and Chrysalis focused again on settling her grubs.

“I’ve done all of this for you,” she said to them. She looked at the window at the scenery passing by; it was already transitioning from endless snow to the temperate pastures of Equestria. “Soon you all will be free to grow up and help me rebuild, and we will thrive together in our new hive.”

The grubs eased a little. Chrysalis realised she had managed to feed them with her own affection again. It certainly was convenient.

She wondered if she would transform into one of Eventide’s described ‘pacifist’ changelings if she kept this up, like Thorax had. She hoped not.

The pride of changelings was their ability to survive by feeding on others, tricking and sneaking their way into pony’s lives. Chrysalis had always been proud of her abilities, and she hoped to pass them on to her new hive, not join Thorax in befriending ponies and becoming an embarrassment.

Thorax had willingly changed to become the new queen. Chrysalis would not let it happen to her, and she hoped that this conviction was a strong enough ward to keep this fate away.

Eventide put the radio away. “Alright, looks like we have clear passage through Canterlot Station. He said a lot of things about a hostage exchange or setting up negotiations with you, but I fobbed him off. Said you were too unstable and I was afraid for my life.”

“Excellent,” Chrysalis said. “There is still a chance we may be waylaid at the Canterlot Station, perhaps by the royal guards attempting to stop us from continuing.”

“Honestly, I doubt it. Too risky to try to slow down a speeding train with hostages onboard, and they don’t have any way of communicating with our driver, unless he has a second hidden radio, which I don’t think he does,” Eventide said.

Chrysalis could see a mountain range in the far distance, to the west. On the east side a vast series of canyons and gorges opened the ground like clawmarks. She recognised none of the terrain, aside from snippets caught through these same windows when she had traveled to Canterlot as Amethyst.

The train was traveling faster this time around. No doubt the driver was prepared to take her threats literally and wanted to get her to her destination as fast as possible. It was already getting later in the afternoon now; perhaps he thought if he didn’t get her there by midnight she would appear in the driver’s cabin and make good on her promise.

“Do queens normally take an active role in raising larvae, or is this just the result of exceptional circumstances?” Eventide asked.

“The queen’s duty is to produce eggs and lead feeding missions,” Chrysalis said. “But more importantly it is her job to do whatever it takes to keep the hive at its strongest. And if that means I spend my time caring for grubs, then so be it. No task is beneath me if there is no changeling else who could do it.”

Chrysalis had not always thought of things this way, she could admit. When she had taken control of the hive from Tarsus, she had been the recipient of a healthy, hungry hive that wanted nothing more than to follow her orders. It was easy to take these things for granted, and her series of easy victories against foolish pony leaders had only added to her feeling of untouchability.

She could still remember the moment she had turned from a confident young changeling princess into a fear-inspiring queen; she would never forget the feeling of Celestia’s spell tearing through her body as she tried to push through the spell and finally slay the pony ruler.

The smell of ichor sprayed around her body, her changelings in a state of shock as they dealt with their wounds, and her legs faltering while she tried to keep advancing on Celestia.

What had made her stop was seeing her own guts bulging out one of the holes in her side and realising that pushing forward would lead to her defeat.

Well, she had eventually been defeated, and it was from the creeping influence of friendship, not an honourable loss on the battlefield.

One of her grubs nudged her hoof, rubbing its little legs against one of the holes Celestia had blasted. These grubs would grow up without them.

The radio crackled to life as they approached Canterlot. Chrysalis had been watching the mountain with the city perched on the side grow larger out the train window, and she thought they had at most a quarter of an hour before they arrived.

“We see your train approaching the city,” the radio said.

“Yes, that’s us. Are we all good for the switcher to the west line?” Eventide said.

“We’ve cancelled incoming trains to make way for you. Can you verify your safety?” Grand Central said.

“Yes, Lightbulb and myself are safe. I can’t see the driver since he’s in the train cabin, but since the train is still going, I’m guessing he’s okay,” Eventide said.

“The current plan is to have you stop and let Queen Chrysalis and her changelings off the train at Whitetail Woods and then have you and the other hostages proceed forward to Los Pegasus Station,” Grand said. “Is that acceptable to Chrysalis?”

Eventide shot a look at Chrysalis, who gave a disinterested shrug. Exactly what happened to this train after she left it was of no interest to her. She was hoping that she could make sufficient headway to the west before the ponies came looking for her for reprisal.

Would they chase her down if she didn’t have any hostages left? No doubt they would want her imprisoned, no matter that her hive could not survive without her there.

If there was anything changelings could do, it was hide.

The station was approaching. Chrysalis could feel the train slowing down as they approached the tunnel under the mountain; she thought for a moment that it was just slowing to take the turn safely, but the slowing continued until they crawled into the station and came to a stop at a platform.

Excerpt: Princess Celestia’s Diary, 2nd Moon, 15th Day

Although I am most delighted that the threat posed by Queen Chrysalis and her changelings has been vanquished for the time being, one mystery still remains. The spell that I prepared to combat Chrysalis was intended to remove the love she had drained and banish her back to her own lands, but instead it peppered her and her subjects’ bodies with holes.

I have never seen this reaction before. The changelings fled shortly afterwards, seemingly unaffected by these perforations, so I did not have the chance to look more closely at what my magic had wrought.

My current theory as to why this might have happened is that Chrysalis’s desire to attack me was stronger than the love-draining spell she had used, and so instead of being banished the love was simply ripped piecemeal from her body.

None of the trains were moving. The platforms closest to where they were coming through were deserted. Chrysalis could see ponies hiding away from the platforms, inside the ticket booths and behind other trains. She could have heard a pin fall as their train rolled to a stop.

“Why are we stopping?” Chrysalis snarled.

The elderly train driver pulled himself out of the cabin. Chrysalis whirled out of the train car door and in a moment was standing in front of him while he trembled in fear.

“Why are we stopping?” Chrysalis repeated in his face.

“It’s the train, ma’am. We need to refill the tender with water, or we won’t have enough steam to make it to Whitetail Woods,” he said, shrinking away.

Chrysalis didn’t know enough about trains to know if this was true. She whirled around and poked her head through the carriage doors.

“The driver says we need to put water in the train. Is this true?” Chrysalis asked.

“Yes, probably. Do you want me to come supervise?” Eventide said.

Chrysalis squinted for a moment. “No. I will monitor the situation from here.”

She took up a position standing stiffly next to the train, her eyes fixed on the driver, while he called for help refilling the train. From inside a workshop, another unicorn carefully levitated the water hose into the tender.

The driver’s eyes were flickering back to her every few seconds. Chrysalis was glad to see it.

She was surprised that Twilight or another Canterlot official or guard hadn’t come down to supervise, but then again, this stop was unexpected. The last thing she needed was another tussle with a fully powered up alicorn, especially one as magically capable as Twilight.

The enormous station was completely silent aside from the train hissing and the water gurgling. It was like a hive, with tunnels emerging from the station in all directions and ponies creeping between walls and structures to monitor her.

“It’s ready,” the train driver said, his voice weak.

“Good. Get us going again,” Chrysalis said. She watched as he climbed back into the cabin and started preparing the train to move again. Once she was sure he wasn’t about to scarper, she got back into the train.

Eventide was in there trying to corral her grubs into not following her out the door. Chrysalis spoke a few sharp words to the grubs and they immediately stopped resisting and got back to minding their own business.

The train started to move. Chrysalis locked eyes with a few of the hiding ponies for just a moment before the train was out on the other side of the mountain, approaching Ponyville.

Yes, she had seen this on the map. This line would go through Ponyville on its way to Whitetail Woods. She had wondered for a moment if Twilight Sparkle’s friends might decide to involve themselves in her journey; she wouldn’t put it past them.

They thought that she had Eventide at knifepoint; Twilight was a friend or at least acquaintance of his, and no doubt she was involving herself in this series of events.

“I will return Lightbulb to you after I have arrived. Once freed from his cocoon he should regain consciousness quickly; the cocoon extends my stasis spell, and will cease functioning when the cocoon is broken,” Chrysalis told Eventide.

“Oh, good. I’d ask if we can wake him up now, but I’m not sure he’ll be calm when he wakes up,” Eventide said.

“Do as you wish,” Chrysalis said. She was confident she could overpower Lightbulb again if need be.

Eventide dithered, and Chrysalis went back to looking out the window.

They were approaching Ponyville now. The station was small, and was also deserted, aside from the orange pony - Applejack? - standing on the platform.

The train whooshed past Applejack too without hesitation. Chrysalis wondered what she was planning, if she had some intention of trying to lasso the train to rescue her captives, but all she did was stare Chrysalis down through the train window, implicitly threatening.

Chrysalis was becoming more certain that even when she reached the west, she would not be safe.

The grubs were already fussing enough to want to move around the train. Chrysalis wished she had some kind of enclosure to keep them in, but this would have to do. She ensured that the windows were closed and the doors firmly latched before helping them down from the bench seats and letting them crawl all over the floor. They immediately began trying to fight each other and chase each other around, and Chrysalis allowed herself a rare smile.

A sharp impact slammed her in the back and sent her sprawling. She moved her legs as quickly as possible to avoid landing on any of her grubs, bouncing off her hooves and flapping her wings to pull herself into the air and turn around.

Lightbulb lunged at her, wings flared and mouth open to bite, while Eventide yelled behind him to get him to stop.

“Lightbulb! It’s okay! You don’t understand!” Eventide said.

Lightbulb froze mid-lunge while Chrysalis charged magic to try and fight him off. She was still not at her strongest after her fight with Cadance earlier in the day - and it felt like this day had taken forever - but she was strong enough to duel a pegasus.

“You don’t want to fight me,” Chrysalis hissed.

“Where am I?” Lightbulb said. “What did you do to me?”

“Eventide. You let Lightbulb out of his cage; you deal with the consequences,” Chrysalis said.

“Sweetie. We’re helping Chrysalis get her larvae to safety in exchange for your freedom. There’s nothing to get worked up about, we’re going to be fine,” Eventide said.

“We’re helping her?” Lightbulb said. He backed up a couple of steps, taking his hooves away from the grubs, and Chrysalis relaxed.

“Yeah. Look, we’re going to the unexplored west on this train. We’ll be there in a few hours and then it will all be sorted. I thought you’d want to be awake to see it all played out,” Eventide said.

“I … would rather I was awake,” Lightbulb admitted. “How long have I been out?”

“A couple of weeks,” Eventide said.

“Weeks?” Lightbulb said, his voice strangled.

“Yes. You should be happy; I’m saving you from getting eaten right now,” Eventide said happily.

“You’re insane,” Lightbulb said. Eventide gave a benign shrug, and Lightbulb frowned. “And you’re not doing this just for your scholarly interests, of course.”

Eventide smiled. “Of course. I’d never do something crazy like this just to satisfy my curiosity.”

Lightbulb barely reacted to this, turning his attention back to Chrysalis. “The backroom of the library,” he said. A statement, not a question.

“Amethyst Maresbury made a most perfect disguise, and you walked right into my clutches. I must thank you; your disappearance gave me the perfect disguise with which to lure in Professor Eventide,” Chrysalis said.

Lightbulb ignored this, peering past her. Chrysalis had put her body between Lightbulb and her grubs, who were continuing to obliviously play with each other on the floor.

“Well, obviously I’m not going to hurt a bunch of babies,” Lightbulb huffed, finally fully disengaging with Chrysalis and walking to the other end of the passenger car to aggressively sit down on the bench. Eventide followed him and the pair started talking quietly enough that Chrysalis didn’t care to listen.

Chrysalis watched Ponyville recede from their view as they headed towards the last switching station of their ride. This one was remote, with no passenger station attached to it.

Night was rapidly falling. The train line wasn’t lit all the way out here in the middle of nowhere, and sunset orange blazed across the fields.

The open crop fields of Ponyville had transformed into a temperate forest regrowing its leaves for spring. There was a slight shudder as they were directed south at the switch, and the trees grew thicker as they headed into Whitetail Woods. They were almost there.

She felt the train begin to slow a long time before the station. At the high speed they had been traveling, it would take a long time for them to come to a complete stop.

“I will transport my brood out of here the way I brought them in here,” Chrysalis told Eventide. “You will go ahead and inform the train driver that he is safe and needs to head forward to that city that the radio pony mentioned. Then we will part ways.”

“Wait! I’ve got the documents I said I would prep for you,” Eventide said, levitating off his saddlebag and handing it over to Chrysalis.

“Ah, yes. The plans for my new and most beautiful hive,” Chrysalis said.

Eventide nodded. “Thank you for letting me study you,” he said. “It’s my life’s dearest wish.”

Chrysalis let out an indifferent grunt. “I appreciate your loyalty, pony. You would make a good changeling if you were born in a better body.”

Eventide laughed at that, but Chrysalis hadn’t been joking.

The train finally came to a stop. Chrysalis instructed her brood on what to do, climbed out of the train, and turned back into the giant cragadile, the saddlebag now laying around her vast neck. She saw Lightbulb jump in terror, to her delight. Then she opened her mouth and felt her brood carefully climb in, and once she was sure they were all in her mouth, she retreated from the train and began withdrawing towards the dying light of the setting sun.

Eventide waved goodbye with a hoof and called, “I’ll come visit you!” at her retreating back.

Chrysalis did not respond. But she made a mental note to let her changelings know to not kill grey unicorns on sight.

Author's Note

Last chapter will be posted tomorrow!