“Have you brought the egg?” Chrysalis turns towards the archway leading into her room. Her lips curve upward when she sees Ditto balancing an it on his back. With a rapid pulse of magic, it’s levitated off of him to the front of the Queen’s face. She casts a sudden glance over the changelings finishing up their part of the rune currently being drawn on the floor.

The sigil itself is unique in design. Intricate circles fused with double helixes make up the exterior of it, while the interior has nothing more than a lone square surrounded by rhombuses on all sides. The gap between both is filled with symbols that represent a language long since abandoned by the living creatures of this day and age. Only beings like Chrysalis, or Celestia could remember such a complex collection.

Every single bit of furniture has been removed from the area, leaving only Chrysalis, Ditto, the egg, and a dozen changelings standing at certain points at the edge of the circle. One could see that the last tenant of this particular castle spared no expense when it came to having space. The Queen could easily fit three dozen of her subjects in this place alone. As the egg floats over to the single opening in the center, she looks to her group of changelings one last time.

“Have you properly cleaned this space before putting down the chalk?” The changelings stand at attention, and then he nods. “Good, we don’t need to dirty her blood. Now, bring her over.” Ditto bows then leaves the room. He comes back a few seconds later carrying the bag containing Duplicate’s remains. Chrysalis motions towards the center, where the egg has been placed.

With his objective in front of him, Ditto carefully makes his way over, and dumps the contents of the bag on the egg. Coagulated green blood mixes with the almost translucent egg, giving it a rather sickly appearance; the silhouette of the embryo within quivers from the sudden contact upon its shell.

Chrysalis looks over her egg with remorse from a distance. Duplicate needed to live so that the hive may thrive if Chrysalis were to pass on. They wouldn’t survive waiting for another heir. This desperate move had to be done.

With a final sigh, Chrysalis closes her eyes; soon her horn starts to glow. Ditto is quick to leave the chalky symbol’s area, lest he meet the same fate as the egg. The other changelings around the rune mimic their Queen, and combine their magic with hers. Twelve translucent tendrils of green aura snake over the top of the sigil, creating a sort of dome, encasing the two objects within.

Each ethereal snake of green meets at the highest point of the dome, and soon a thirteenth joins it. Chrysalis herself is taking part in this ritual. As soon as hers joins the others a single, thick beam is fired at the corpse and egg lighting up the room in a pale green light. Any sources of light other than the spell being cast are immediately put out by the following gust of wind.

Ditto, who is now standing outside the circle, takes a few more steps back to watch the spectacle unfold in front of his very eyes. He sports a gaping jaw and a look of both horror all the while. A gasp escapes him when the egg slowly starts to sink into the carapace of Duplicate. The more the egg fuses with the corpse, the more the body starts to regenerate the parts lost to it. It almost looks as if the life stolen from the egg was being forcibly transferred to the corpse it was near.

Within a few minutes the potential life slowly fades from view. Duplicate’s body finishes growing and mending any injury she was put through. When the transition completes, the magic spreads to the rest of the rune, where any white remains of the chalk are converted to the same sickly green.

The next moment caused a shiver to travel down his insectoid spine. A few seconds after the symbol began to glow, Duplicate’s icy blue eyes shot open. Her jaw seemed to dislocate as she took in a very noisy breath. It was almost as if she’d gone much too long without air. Now her body is desperately trying to take in as much as it could.

With each intake of air, the green light began to shudder, inching its way towards the now revived changeling. When she takes in a breath that would have popped a normal changeling’s lungs, the magic infused with her resting area travels towards her gaping maw, and down her throat. When every last bit has been consumed, Chrysalis and the other changelings are able to finally relax.

The dozen that took part in the ritual either collapse from exhaustion, or are forced to sit and catch their second wind. The Queen however, is capable of not only standing, but is able to make her way over to the little bug. As she looks over the revived Duplicate, the changeling looks back up at her ruler, and when her breathing calms only one thing escapes her lips.

“I am going to kill that human…” her hissing is cut off when Chrysalis puts a hoof to her lips.

“Shush, you’re in no condition to even think about something like that. Besides, we still need him for my plans to follow through.” She removes her hoof from Duplicate’s mouth, and instead uses it to help her tilt her chin up. “For now, rest is what’s important. Anonymous will get what’s coming to him regardless, but you will have to wait.” Duplicate grits her teeth, and her frown deepens.

“I was eaten by that damned mutt Cerberus, left there to be digested for a full day. It would have been for eternity if I wasn’t from that disgusting prison.” Her voice starts to rise in volume and intensity. “You can’t expect me to just lie down and sleep while the thing that put me there stays free!”

Duplicate coughs violently at the end of her outburst, causing a bit of dribble to slide past her mouth and down her chin. It takes that moment for her to realize just how bad her circumstances truly are. It angers her greatly, but her queen is right, Duplicate can’t do anything right now. Chrysalis can feel the fury radiating off of her, causing her stomach to churn, and the bile to rise in her throat. But, she maintains her composure and tries to remedy the situation so it won’t get worse.

“I know you aren’t happy with the way things are, but when you recover, and when the time is right, you can fill Anonymous with as much despair as you desire.” She flashes Duplicate that sickly sweet smile of hers and continues, “Patience my precious subject, you’ll get your chance.” A rather dastardly idea comes to fruit attention, one that would not only remedy her subject’s irritation, but help secure your loyalty for what’s to come. “And don’t forget, we do have his dear Zebra friend in the dungeon. Maybe she can be your sponge for the anger you have towards him.” Duplicate manages a smile despite being in a weakened state.

“You’re right your highness. If I can’t get him, hurting someone he knows is the next best thing. When I’m better I think I’ll pay Zecora a little visit. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind some company.” She manages a weak laugh before erupting into another fit of hacking.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~

“Gr, not again,” Eris mumbles while sitting up in your bed. She manages to remove her limbs from you without stirring you. The throbbing associated with her string of headaches has increased in intensity, and she’s using her claws in a vain attempt at relieving it. It’ll take more than rubbing her temples to get rid of this one. With each wave of pain, the Draconequus sucks in air through her teeth and whimpers.

Being unable to stand it any longer, she swiftly gets out of your bed, and flies over to your door. Her magic allows her to phase through it, that way you can stay asleep. She wastes no time in doing the same thing to her bathroom door. Within seconds she’s face to face with her reflection.

“Sweet Celestia,” she groans before laying her head on the white porcelain sink. Another whimper escaped her lips as she goes to look back up at the mirror. What she sees next shocks her. Staring back at her from within is a culmination of stretched greens, purples, and reds. The way the colors moved about in her mirror image matched the heat waves one would see on an incredibly hot day.

She shakes her head rapidly, trying to dispel the hallucination in front of her, only to find that it did no good. With a quiet groan she shakes her head, turning her gaze to the ceiling.

“Sorry Sunbutt, but it looks like I can’t make it a day.” With a snap of her talons, an incredible amount of magic is sucked from her body, and the migraine quickly recedes. Ah, that’s better. But I wonder how long it’s gonna be before I gotta do that again.

Eris looks over her now normal reflection one more time. At least I can focus on other things now. To accentuate her thoughts, she flips her hair and gives her image a sensual gaze, and then she follows up with a wink. Yeah he won’t last a day with my charm.

Satisfied with what she’s seen in her mirror, she nods, turns to the door, and leaves. But, what she didn’t notice is that even though she left, her image didn’t. The Eris in the mirror giggles madly while her shape begins to change. Color’s blend and the form melds, soon what lies behind the mirror isn’t Eris, but a certain purple pony with swirling irises…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*~~~

“Is everything alright, Luna?” you ask the obviously frightened alicorn. Your conversation with Luna was cut short when her eyes widened. Your eyes match hers when you watch one of the thousands of stars making up her mane shine with multiple colors and hues. The horrified gasp that followed did little to put you at ease.

“Yes Anonymous, I’m fine,” she finally says when she gets to her hooves, “but one of my red giants has… has...” she can’t bring herself to finish as she stares at her hair in horror.

“Has what?” You’re sitting on the edge of your seat. Luna peers into her mane to make sure she’s really seeing what she thinks she is.

“Turned into a Disco Ball, what?”

“What?” you echo.

“That’s not supposed to happen, ever!” Her frantic tone has you taken aback, despite her seemingly being fine.

“It’s not gonna affect us is it?” You release a breath of relief when she shakes her head.

“No, the star is much too far. I can’t say the same for the planets orbiting it. I’m sorry, but I must cut our conversation short. I need to look into this; we’ll pick this up another time.” She grimaces as the ever-changing light seems to spread. “I need to get this out of my hair.” You aren’t even able to say goodbye before you’re blinded by bright blue light.

Suddenly, you find yourself sitting up in your bed, covered in a cold sweat. It seems like Luna’s mood affected you more than you realized, your heart is beating a mile a minute. You wipe the perspiration away and throw off the covers.

Your mind is alight with various possibilities, but only one seems to persist over the others. Discord, it had to have been him. There’s nothing else you can think of that’d be capable of doing something like that to a star, unless there are other reality bending aliens in existence. You hope Luna will be able to find out why that Draconequus would do such a random thing if he’s the culprit.

You’re not even sure they can reach him for answers. For all you know, he and Eris are the only ones capable of traveling across the universe, or between dimensions. They never specified, and if he is easily capable of doing that, what else could he have done? What does Earth look like now?

Not a single thought passed your mind about your planet while you were adjusting. But now that you’re thinking about it, it just doesn’t seem to leave your mind. You were so quick to condemn Earth, to force everyone to deal with Discord and his daughters.

There’s no telling what he’s done. He could have flooded it, or crashed it into the sun. He might have made humans try to live with chocolate milk raining clouds. You envision Earth as a mess; various islands now float in the skies, residents now afraid for their lives. People run in fear or confusion as animals start to dance around, and as buildings begin to bend and twist.

And in the middle of all the chaos, is Discord sitting on his throne. His two daughters are at his side, and all of them are laughing at the mayhem. But there’s no evil intent, it’s just those three having a good time at the expense of others… you hope that at least your family is alright. Even after everything that’s happened, they don’t deserve to have something like him ruining everything.

But, you can’t allow yourself to dwell on this. You made your decision, and you’re stuck with it. There’s no changing it now. So, with a sigh and a shake of your head you try to force those thoughts from your mind in order to focus on something else. Like the situation you’re in now.

Leaving your little home would be against your better judgment, so that means you have to find a way to keep yourself and Eris entertained. You can’t help but let loose a chuckle at the thought of keeping Eris cooped up in here.

There’s no way she’d do that. It’d be like expecting Discord not to use his magic. You’ve got a bad feeling that after an hour or so she’ll be trying to convince you to sneak out using her chaotic spells. Then, you’ll have to remind her that you’ve still got around three days left. But, you’re sure Eris will figure out a way to get around that.

That reminds you, where did she even go? You noticed an incredible lack of warmth and comfort. As surprising as it may be, you didn’t mind her being in your bed after a while. So, you get up, get dressed, and make your way out of your room. Your ears twitch when you hear Eris talking with someone in the living room. You’re sure to shut your door quietly so as to not arouse suspicion.

Curious as to what’s being talked about you sneak your way down the hall, you stop at the threshold separating it from the living room. From there you see that the owner of the second voice is Screwball. Although she looks happy to see Eris, the same can’t be said of her. Both are talking back and forth on the now checkerboard patterned couch.

“What are you doing here?! You’re gonna ruin everything!” Eris angrily exclaims. She growls when Screwball snuggles into her side.

“What, didn’t you miss me sis? And what are you talking about?”

“Anon and I are togeth—“Eris is cut short when Screwball wraps her hooves around her neck.

“Aw congratulations sissy, I knew you’d get em.” Screwball as soon as she lets her go she waggles her eyebrows. Then she nudges Eris with a hoof. “So, did you fuck his brains out?” Screwball’s bluntness would have made you do a spit take had you been drinking. Eris grumbles, crossing her arms, shaking her head as she does so.

“No, I was going to try today, tomorrow, then next day, but with you here that’s not gonna happen.” Screwball pouts at the venom Eris seems to be spewing.

“Oh come on Eris, don’t be like that.” A sickly sweet smile graces her lips. “In fact I’ll help you!” Eris scoffs while rolling her eyes. She’s sure to lay the sarcasm on thick.

“Thank you Screwball, but how are ya gonna do that?”

“Oh I’ve got a few plans up my sleeve.”

“You’re not even wearing a shirt.” Screwball’s grin leaves her face rather quickly.

“Sh-shut up, you know what I meant.”

“Whatever,” she shrugs, “so, what can you do to help me?”

“Well, I did what you did, but with different videos.” Eris lets out an exasperated sigh.

“So all you did was watch human porn?” As Eris’ frown deepens, Screwball’s smile widens.

“No, I took notes too,” she answers without skipping a beat. It’s at this point you can’t hold it in any longer. You burst out into a fit of laughter and collapse on the ground, holding your sides.

“I can’t,” you inhale sharply;” I can’t hold it in oh my God!” Tears are starting to collect in your eyes. Both Eris and Screwball snap to attention and look over as you roll onto your back. “That’s too much!”

Screwball’s once happy expression quickly turns to anger, “Hey! Stop laughing! My ideas are totally fool-proof, just you wait Anon!” She points to you before adding, “I bet we’ll have your pants off in a week.”

“Screwball, please, I can’t breathe!” You manage to get to your knees, but your body refuses to let you get to your feet, at least not until you stop laughing. Her response is to scowl and turn her back to you.

While you recover Eris looks to the wristwatch she’s created just for the impatient gag. After a minute or two, you’re finally provided with relief as your laughter dies down. When you’re back on your feet you find Screwball giving you a deadpan glare, Eris is busy looking at the wall, disinterested.

“Okay guys, I’m done,” you breathe a sigh of relief before looking down at Screwball. Something in the pit of your chest hated seeing her in such a state. So you aimed to not only solve the problem, but to get them to forget trying to get you in bed. “And it’s nice to see you Screwball. I didn’t think you’d follow your sister out here.”

When you pat her mane, her attitude does a complete turnaround. Thankfully, you were able to change the subject to something that didn’t involve you. Though, that friendly contact forces you to be subjugated to a pearly white smile and a near neck breaking hug.

“It’s great to see you too, Anon! Did you miss me huh huh huh?!” You try to pull away, but you end up bringing her with you. Now you’re forced to hold her to keep from strangling yourself on her hooves.

“A little,” you strain to speak through her death grip of an embrace. As soon as you’re able to balance her with one hand you motion to Eris for help. All you get in return is a smirk and a shake of the head.

“You’re on your own with that one.” Frantically you tap on Screwball’s hoof in a feeble attempt to get her attention. Sadly, she’s too busy nuzzling your cheek. It isn’t until you’re pulling on Screwball’s coat does she realize what she’s doing. You can feel the pressure intensifying in your cheeks and head, your vision starts to blur.

“Oh my goodness!” she exclaims before finally releasing her death grip of a hug. With the path clear you open your mouth wide and take a lungful of air. Over and over again you breathe; your lungs have become desperate for relief. It takes another minute of this repetition until you’re able to speak again. “I’m so sorry, are you okay?” You manage to nod, when you do Screwball leaps from your arm and back to the couch.

“Y-yeah I’m fine,” you rub your now sore neck. I’m just glad you have a one track mind. “But, what brings you to out here? Did Earth get boring or something?” Screwball shakes her head.

“Nope, Earth is so much fun! President Daddy got me this—” you hold up your hand to stop her. You had to confirm what you’ve just heard.

“Did you just say President Daddy? Not Daddy Discord, or Pops?” You can feel sweat start to form upon your brow. Imagining Discord as the leader of any nation sounds absolutely horrible to you. When she shakes her head you swear you feel a weight in your stomach.

“Nope, President Daddy, he won an election! Fair and square too,” Screwball pauses, “Well, not really fair and square. He got really into it, and made a persona, and then he convinced a bunch of guys in suits to trick people into thinking he was a senator or primes minster or something for like ten years. But that’s beside the point! Daddy told me that I needed to check up on Eris cause of her headaches, and that’s why I’m here.” Eris growls nearby.

“You weren’t supposed to tell dad about that,” Screwball shoots her a sympathetic glance.

“I’m sorry sis, but daddy got worried when I told him. He thinks you might need to come home if they get worse.” This information is a lot to take in, so you decide to take a seat on the couch with them. They move so you have the room to do so.

“This is kind of hard to swallow. I thought the headache was a one-time thing. I didn’t know they were reoccurring.” You shift your gaze between the two, “And your father is the president of what country now?”

“Sweden!” Screwball says with a smile. You sigh as an image of Discord in a suit being sworn into office plays in your mind. They have no idea what they’re in for.

“I-I think I’m going to put that in the back of my head and forget about it.” You turn your attention to Eris, “Now tell me about these migraines, and why would Discord have to bring Screwball here? Aren’t they a common thing?” She shakes her head.

“Not for us they’re not.” With a snap of her talons a pair of reading glasses appears on her face, and a rather thick book is brought to her lap. She licks a claw and flicks through a few pages. “When a young Draconequus like me gets them that means we’re backed up. I would have gone through this a thousand years ago, but being turned to stone put a stop to that. My body is catching up on the time missed.”

“What do you mean by ‘backed up’ Eris?” She sighs before shutting her book.

“Basically means I need to cause chaos with my magic, or else they’ll get worse, and worse, and worse until,” she trails off, going silent.

“Until what?” Screwball answers for Eris.

“None of us know, all of the others cracked and went on a spell spree until the pain went away.”

“So, I’m guessing you’re here to make sure she doesn’t do that?” She nods.

“Yup.”

“Hm, I figured Discord would want something like that to happen.”

“Nope, not at all. He knows how it can get since he went through the same thing when he was her age. He doesn’t wanna drag you, or Celestia, or anyone else into it if it gets that bad.”

“That’s kind of him. But why, he doesn’t seem like he’d be one to stop anyone from causing chaos. Figured he’d do the opposite.”

“The reason he’s like that is cause our magic is supposed to be fun, not bad. Draconequus can’t tell the difference if their heads are hurting.” She knocks a hoof against her skull for emphasis, causing her swirling eyes to roll about. You take this time to go over what you’ve been told.

If what Screwball said is true, then Eris agreeing to Celestia’s terms will only make things worse. But, if Eris uses her magic, and if Celestia finds out, she’ll be banished. She really put herself into quite a pickle for your sake. Though, there is one question that plagues your mind at this very moment.

“Were you the one who messed with that star?”

Author's Note

And here's the second part to chapter eight. Finally I got it done! Now, on to the next one. After a week I'll be combining these two chapters to save space. Peace out guys.