Witchweed. There was witchweed in Tiatarta, and it was being used to make false love. Liquid death to the Hive. Images of the innocuous flower hidden among its grass-like leaves plagued Chrysalis' mind. Visions of a cauldron somewhere boiling with the glowing pink liquid death. In her mind she saw dozens, hundreds of drones laying on the ground, eyes wide and yet barely seeing the world around them, giggling as they moved only to guzzle down more of the false love...curling on themselves and laughing as they starved, and Chrysalis in her mind saw it at eye-level with those drones because she was on the ground too, her own laughter echoed in her mind, her hoof reached out for more of the false love that was so sweet, so cloying, so delicious and filling and yet the hoof trembled and was weak because she was starving...
The worst part of it all was that this wasn't her imagination. This was a memory. An old one, even for her...but just as vivid as ever.
The witchweed had to be found, eradicated, now.
Chrysalis hurried the two teenagers off and away from the town hall, out onto the beach. They were standing out in the open, easily observed by any skyclad officers that may have been sent by the mayor to keep an eye on them, but the same openness meant that they could easily ensure that nopony - or any other creature - was nearby to listen in on them. “Alright,” she said, “here's what we'll do. Tonight, Ocellus and I will disguise ourselves and - ”
“Nope,” Smolder interrupted, crossing her arms. “We have a curfew.”
Chrysalis stopped talking. She glanced to the drone, then the dragon, then back to the drone, then to the dragon once more. “...and...?“ she eventually managed to ask, feeling her anger abate just a tiny bit as some confusion broke through.
Ocellus shifted. “W-well...Prince-General Pharynx was nervous about me coming here if there was trouble...so the deal was that Smolder would stay beside me the entire time we're in Tiatarta, and also that we'd follow an 8 o'clock curfew to be back to the Nook.”
“Look, if it was me, I'd play hookie,” Smolder said with a shrug. “Ember doesn't have to know.”
“But King Thorax would,” Ocellus said. She shook her head. “A-and he said that if I broke the rules he'd have to...well...do something about it. Something we'd all regret.”
Chrysalis felt her eyes flutter as her brain struggled to process the idea that the drone seemed to be genuinely intimidated by Thorax. Thorax. “What, he'll put you in a time-out?“ She spat. “What could that giant green eyesore possibly threaten you with that would mean a single thing to you?“
Ocellus shivered, and stepped a little closer to Smolder. “Take me out of the School of Friendship,” she answered. “I...I've already run away twice before in the past, first when we first joined, almost caused a war...and then when the Tree of Harmony was destroyed, King Thorax came after me personally when that happened and I ran away. I don't want to push my luck.”
Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Are you serious? We have a creature poisoning changelings and you’re worried about your bedtime?”
Smolder had moved closer to Ocellus herself, putting a hand on her withers and lightly rubbing at the base of Ocellus’ neck where her fuzzy chitin was thin, trying to soothe her. “Look, Thorax seems great and all, but even he’s got to have his limits, and Ocellus doesn’t need to find them. Plus Pharynx threatened to do some pretty creative things to me if anything happened to Ocellus, and that probably includes convincing her to play hookie.”
Chrysalis was pressing her hooves against her temples, millennia-old intellect still trying to wrap around what the two were saying. Thorax? Really? “Fine!” She exclaimed. “Fine. Fine. Plan still works in broad daylight, we’ll just be doing it in broad daylight. We track down Catrina and make her reveal the location of her witchweed, and destroy it. No witchweed, no false love, problem solved.”
“Make her...?” Ocellus began to ask, though her eyes swiftly widened as what Chrysalis was implying hit her. “N-no! I won’t! No matter what Catrina might have done, we can’t hurt her!”
Chrysalis’ eyes narrowed as she leaned down towards the drone. Smolder tried to get in her way, but one outstretched hoof with the strength of an earth pony inside of it held her back. “And what do you suppose we do, then?” She demanded. “Catrina attacked the Swarm. She’s an enemy of the changelings - your enemy, my enemy.”
Ocellus wilted under Chrysalis’ gaze, at least for a moment. But when Chrysalis narrowed her eyes further, instead of driving her point home, it seemed to spark some inner resistance from the tiny drone. She swallowed, but leaned forward. “We can still try and learn more about Catrina,” she said, “but we can just ask her. Talk to her - ”
“Talk to a creature who’s been poisoning us? Poisoned me?!”
Ocellus didn’t back away. “Y...you didn’t let me finish! Smolder can’t leave my side, so I can’t disguise myself effectively. B-but...but you can. So - ”
“So you and the dragon can find out where she is staying and then I can investigate it, yes, I know your plan. It's a stupid plan!”
”N-no it isn't! If we find out where Catrina is getting her witchweed, we can show Mayor Dusk. You can tell her everything you know about it. And if we find where Catrina is making the false love, if we find more than just a few vials, proof that she's been making it for weeks - ”
Chrysalis snarled. ”If I find out where the witchweed is, I'm not going to show any creature. I'm going to burn it! Burn it and salt the land where it grew! And Catrina...she shouldn't be turned over to the ponies, she didn't do anything to ponies, she should be dragged back to the Nook and consumed!”
Ocellus and Smolder both backed away in shock at Chrysalis' outburst. She realized she was breathing heavily, eyes wide, legs far apart and unicorn horn glowing - she was letting her fear of false love show. Snarling again, Chrysalis put a hoof to her chest, taking in a deep breath and letting it out as slowly a she could manage. Control. She needed control. She was letting her...her concern towards the false love get under her carapace. Concern, that's all it was. Deep concern. She had every right to be concerned, but she shouldn't be letting it control her.
Ocellus shifted from one hoof to another herself, then stepped forward. She was trembling a little, but she was also looking straight on into Chrysalis' disguised eyes. ”We can't do it your way,” the drone said, her voice quiet and calm and steady. ”The Nook is trying to live alongside ponies. I...I know you don't care about that idea, but the changelings in the Nook do. We can't just take justice into our own hooves. It would ruin everything.”
Chrysalis shot the best withering glare her unicorn body could manage at the drone - and was nonplussed when Ocellus didn't even flinch. She pressed on anyway. ”What do I care?” she demanded. ”Why should any bug care?”
Ocellus looked down, closing her eyes. ”I...” she began. ”I want to tell you because it's better this way...but I don't think you think that. You...you said you missed the way things used to be, this morning. That you were good at it.”
”The best,” Chrysalis confirmed without hesitation. She couldn't believe she was explaining herself to a drone, but Ocellus only knew her as a drone. And besides, it demonstrated her control. ”But it's not just that. We used to be strong. Catrina shouldn't be a threat like this. Ecdysis has five hundred changelings under her command. She was an infiltrator, there must be other former infiltrators in the Nook as well. She should have come into Tiatarta weeks ago, found the culprit and removed the threat. These ponies couldn't have stopped her. It's what would have happened under Chrysalis. How can you tell me that this, the Nook quivering in fear and despair and doing nothing to defend itself, is better?”
Ocellus didn't respond at first, instead biting her lip, her head still downcast and her eyes still closed. At length, however, she set her horn glowing. It was blue at first, but the drone grimaced and forced the magic to turn green. Jade fire consumed her for a few moments. When it faded, Chrysalis had to stifle a gasp and suppress a pang of recognition and nostalgia that went straight to her heart at what Ocellus had become: black chitin lacking in any fuzz. Legs full of holes. Exposed wings with no elytra. A short horn, and long fangs. A solid, spined, pointed frill down the back of her neck.
A true changeling.
Ocellus opened her eyes - the only part of her that stayed the same - and looked at her holed hooves as she sat back on her haunches, poking at a hole in one leg with the opposite hoof even as her wings flickered and buzzed against her back, a completely different sound than they normally produced. ”This...this was me,” Ocellus said at length as she finally lifted her head, looking at Chrysalis straight on. Even her voice had changed: a little higher and drier, with a slight warble to it. She looked at Chrysalis through a hole in her hoof before finally lowering it. ”This was me, and it was you, and it was every changeling. I don't miss it, even if you do...” she flicked out her tongue a little and turned to look at Smolder, ”and even if you think it looks cool.”
Smolder opened her mouth, considered, but then shrugged. ”I like the real you better, though,” she said.
”I know.” Ocellus smiled at the reassurance, then turned back to Chrysalis. ”So this was me...but it's not me anymore. If I wanted to I could look like this all the time, be this all the time. And if you wanted to, you could do it too. Pretend to be the old you. But that's all either of us would be doing.” She shook her head. ”Pretending. I can't go back to the way I used to be, and no matter how much you want, Nonchalant, you can't either.”
Blue fire traced its way across Ocellus, revealing her true blue form. She breathed a sigh of relief, rubbing her legs as though checking for holes, then standing and walking up to Chrysalis, looking up into her disguised eyes. ”And...we can't. Changelings, the Hive, the Swarm...we can't go back to what we used to be. Not just in looks, I mean, things will never be the same again. Chrysalis exposed us at Canterlot - ” Chrysalis opened her mouth to begin objecting, to exclaim that she had won at Canterlot if not for the ponies and their cheating magic, but Ocellus was somehow faster, reaching up and putting a hoof to Chrysalis' lips, ” - and it doesn't matter why she did it and it doesn't matter why it didn't work. The other races know about us now, know where we live and what we can do. We can't go back to the way things used to be. So we have to move forward and try and find a way to get along with the other races. We have to change.”
Chrysalis stared down the length of the hoof and leg at her mouth, changing back into her Reformed drone form - because it had sharper teeth and she wanted to bite Ocellus for her impertinence. But the moment she did, restoring her full changeling senses in the process, she was hit by the emotions coming off of Ocellus. She'd expected a smug sense of superiority for the new paradigm. She had not expected remorse. Ocellus felt genuine sorrow for Chrysalis-as-Nonchalant. It wasn't pity, for it lacked the tinge of disappointment. It was just sadness, and a touch of desperation - a desire to be able to reach Chrysalis.
And then Ocellus leaned forward and hugged her. Chrysalis went rigid - had she been frozen as a block of stone she would have been more mobile. She didn't know how long she stood there with the tiny changeling pressed against her, hugging her, begging her to see things her way, smelling and tasting of remorse and sorrow and empathy and compassion...stirring something inside of Chrysalis herself...
Chrysalis suppressed a shiver as she fought a three-front mental battle against the insipid, soft emotions trying to find purchase within her, the outpouring of empathy from Ocellus trying to worm its way inside of her, and most insidious of all, the reasoning Ocellus had given her, the argument she had made. She extricated herself from Ocellus' grasp with some effort, pushing her fellow changeling away - though she left one hoof on Ocellus' withers as she took in a deep, steadying breath, then exhaled. She crushed the emotions inside of her. She brushed aside the outpouring of others from Ocellus. But the words...
The teenage bug...
...she...
...had a point.
She wasn't right, exactly. Of course she wasn't right, she was only a fraction of Chrysalis' age and experience. But she raised a good point. Changelings had...changed, not just in body, but their entire situation. Thinking it through, if Ecdysis had swarmed Tiatarta...well, the ponies would know, and know exactly where to strike. And even if Ecdysis and her five hundred bugs abandoned the Nook...ponies knew about changelings now, knew them as more than myth and legend. They were facts. They could look for, and find, any new hive that Ecdysis tried to establish, and they could also turn on the Badlands Hive because they knew where that was too, and it was no longer protected by Chrysalis' throne. So Ecdysis and Thorax would have to take the changelings and flee far to escape the ponies' wrath. Was it worth it, when what prompted it was just a few dozen love-drunk bugs who would recover on their own in a matter of days?
”...fine,” Chrysalis said slowly. ”Fine. You may be right. Even...even if Catrina simply disappeared without evidence, the ponies would blame the Nook. It's not prepared to defend itself. And the situation could...escalate.”
Ocellus let out another relieved sigh, and smiled at Chrysalis. She reached up and put a hoof on Chrysalis' own, gripping it slightly in her pastern. ”Right. That's the reason.”
”Don't patronize me, bug.” Chrysalis snapped, withdrawing her hoof quickly. She felt the loss of Ocellus' own hoof on her own unusually keenly. It annoyed her. She reinforced her emotional defenses with that annoyance, glaring at Ocellus. It continued to lack the desired effect of cowing her into submission.
Off to the side, Smolder cleared her throat, reminding the two changelings that she was there. Or Chrysalis, at least, she doubted Ocellus forgot about her friend's presence.. ”Okay, so we're going with Ocellus' plan,” Smolder said, ”but I think we should probably wait a day in either case. If Mayor Dusk is going to have skyclad officers following us the last thing they're gonna want to see is us having this little meeting and then going straight for Catrina.”
Ocellus looked back to her friend. ”W-well, no, we should deal with Catrina as soon as possible - ”
”No, the dragon's right,” Chrysalis said, and almost immediately gagged - an action that was about one-fifth authentic and four-fifths a distraction from what had just happened. She put a hoof to her mouth, going through the motions. ”Ugh, saying that has an aftertaste...but she's right. If we're not just going to disappear Catrina then we have to move slowly.”
”But - ”
”But nothing!” Chrysalis snapped. ”I'm not even supposed to be dealing with this. I'm supposed to be on vacation! Getting away from everything!” She used a hind hoof to kick sand away from her. ”The Nook can survive another day without me.”
She didn't wait to hear if Ocellus or Smolder had any objections, and would have ignored them anyway. She turned around and launched herself into the air, transforming into a pegasus for extra speed and getting away from...
...from whatever had just happened on the beach.
Chrysalis returned to her hotel room, adopting her Nonchalant disguise before entering the lobby and heading straight for her room, then assuming her true form once she was safely within and placing the shadow's home on her bed. She'd been carrying the shadow's home and the room key within her elytra and within herself when she transformed, a neat trick she'd learned centuries ago. She was fairly certain she remained the only changeling capable of such selective shape-shifting.
The hotel room inside was silent. Not quiet. Quiet was what the Nook had been last night in the depths of night. Quiet was a whispered conversation, the sound of breathing, the shifting and rustling of life making tiny noises that filled the air. Silence was no words at all. A held breath. Utter stillness.
Chrysalis hated silence. She turned on her room's overhead fan. The tiny mechanical whirring and the gentle whoosh of air was something to fill the room with just a tiny bit of noise. It helped...a little.
Alright, so she'd gotten away from the teenagers. She was leaving the Nook behind for now as well, focusing on herself, because that was the entire point of the vacation she was supposed to be on. And...and the Nook was full of traitors anyway, she reminded herself. Traitors and betrayers and mutineers and any other synonym she could think of for what they'd done. Turned on her. Abandoned her! Why did she even care if it came under attack? Shouldn't she just leave it to its fate?
She felt the shadow's eyes on the back of her neck keenly. One wall in the hotel had a mirror, and she glanced at it, and saw the shadow sitting on its barrel upon the bed, staring at her. ”Oh...read a book or something!” Chrysalis snapped, using magic to tear open her suitcase and throw some train-station jangle dreadful at the shadow. It landed atop the bed, and the shadow glanced down at it, but then back up.
“What?”
The shadow’s head titled to the side. Her horn glowed blue and she pushed the book away from her, then resumed looking at Chrysalis.
“If you have something to say,” Chrysalis growled, “then just say it!” She stomped up to the bed, glaring down at the shadow, looking it straight in the eye. “I tolerate your silence because you’re normally easy to read. But if you’re just going to stare at me then speak!”
The shadow was silent.
“I may have lost my form, my home, and all my changelings, but I haven’t lost you! I am still your Queen! I created you! So speak!”
The shadow’s head tilted to the other side, but its lips didn’t move.
Chrysalis felt herself snarling. She lashed out with a hoof, but it passed harmlessly through the shadow. Eyes that looked like Twilight Sparkle’s bore into her.
“What do you want?!” Chrysalis screamed.
The shadow regarded her outburst. It tapped a hoof on the jangle-dreadful novel, while it’s other hoof tapped Chrysalis’ chest, her heart.
“How...I’m feeling? You want to know how I’m feeling?”
The shadow nodded.
“Idiot! I’m angry! Can’t you tell?”
The shadow pressed both its front hooves against Chrysalis’ heart, leaning forward a little.
“I have every right to be angry! Furious! I had everything! I had a throne, I had legions of servants. I had Equestria itself in my grasp twice! I ruled the changelings for a thousand years. I brought Celestia herself low. I had power! I had control! I had focus and purpose and now look at me, LOOK AT ME!”
Chrysalis whirled around, glaring at the full-length mirror as magic consumes her body. Blue fire burned away her orange mantle of fur and her too-big mane and her cream, fuzzy carapace and showed black chitin and green eyes and a mouth that sported a pair of needle-like fangs. She tromped up to the mirror, glaring at her old self.
“You had everything!” she screamed at her reflection, her old self. “But you failed! You’re an utter failure! I should shove you in a pod. I should drain you of love for this...this incompetence! You failed! You FAILED! I FAILED!”
Chrysalis took in deep breaths as she stared at herself in the mirror, eyes wide. “I failed before,” she said to herself. Defended herself. “I’m old. Failures happen. But there was always...always another way. The failure was never this...this total.”
Blue fire consumed Chrysalis. She was looking at her new true self again. She ran a hoof through the orange mantle of fur. Her long purple wings buzzed. She keenly felt the tiny fuzz that covered her carapace. Finally, she turned around and looked back to the shadow.
“I don’t have a throne. I don’t have subjects. I don’t have my own body. I don’t even have my hunger, the one thing I thought I could never lose. And...a-and...Ocellus...is right. Things...h-have changed. And there’s no way to change them back. All I'd be doing is pretending. But if I don't pretend, then what do I have left?”
The shadow got up from the bed and came over to Chrysalis, sitting beside her, looking into the mirror. The shadow’s horn glowed blue and carried over the jangle-dreadful. She put a hoof in it again, opened it to the very first page, then tapped a hoof against Chrysalis.
Chrysalis understood. “A very, very long time ago,” she explained, “I was smaller. Smaller than you, only a little bigger than a normal changeling. And I woke up for the very first time. I was trapped in fluid, drowning. I pounded and bit and tore my way from my prison and found that the world was a cave and I had been trapped in a rotting tree, and that cave was full of creatures that almost looked like me...but I had two things they didn’t.” She lifted a hoof and pointed to her eyes. “I could focus. See one thing at a time, remove distractions.” She tapped her snout, breathed in, “and I had this. I’m the only changeling with a nose. Isn’t that strange? But it’s not just for show. I can smell normal scents as well as a pony. And I can scent emotions at a much longer distance, and parse them better, then any changeling.”
Chrysalis shook her head. “We were born starving. The other changelings were already attacking each other, trying to consume each other, but didn’t know how, and changelings couldn’t feed on other changelings. But me...I could smell food somewhere else. I flew out of the cave. There was a traveling pony, an earth pony. I drained her. I saw she was traveling on a path and I followed the path back to a small village of unicorns. I lurked in the shadows for the next few days, ate my fill...then returned to the cave. The changelings there had never thought to leave. They hadn’t noticed me leaving and couldn’t smell the food outside of it. They were weak. Could barely move.
“So...I went back to the unicorn village. i seized one of them, an old stallion, and dragged him back to the cave. Threw him to the others. They fed. I fed them. I was the reason they had food. I’d been followed, though. The unicorns came after their missing pony. We fought back...and lost. Of course we lost. We didn’t know anything about ourselves yet. Didn’t know how to shapeshift or how to use magic. Didn’t even know how to speak. So the unicorns overpowered us easily and drove us into the wilderness.
“But they didn’t destroy us. In the wilderness we learned. We learned how to use magic like the unicorns had. How to change our bodies. How to create cocoons. We lurked in that forest for months, feeding on animals, on pony caravans...”
Chrysalis drifted off. She could barely remember those days, because they’d been a blur of instinct and hunger and misery punctuated by bare moments of success and gluttony when things had gone right. Pure survival, and nothing more. Slowly learning how to imitate ponies, first their forms, then the sounds they made. Gradually understanding the sounds, learning what they meant, learning language. Learning reproduction, how to grow the tiny swarm. Learning mortality, that the other changelings died and she didn’t. Individual bugs were transitory. She was eternal. And everything that changelings were, she had made them.
The shadow regarded her. It reached out with both hooves, pressing them to Chrysalis. “What?” She demanded. “What do you want?”
The shadow shook its head, then nodded at Chrysalis.
“What do I want?”
The shadow nodded.
Chrysalis' reaction was immediate, visceral, pure. “Revenge! It’s all that’s left to me. I want to take Starlight Glimmer and wrap her in a cocoon and drain her by inches. A little more every day until she’s nothing more than a husk!”
The shadow waved a hoof, as if to ask, what do you want?
“I want to take Thorax and pull his stupid antlers from his head. Make him watch as I drain the love of every single traitor in the Badlands and leave their meat for carrion birds! Leave him with just enough so he feels it when the vultures start to tear open his carapace!”
What do you want?
“I’ll go to Canterlot. The love and power of the Hive will make me more than capable of obliterating Celestia. Brushing aside Twilight Sparkle. I’ll destroy every one of her friends! Then I’ll do the same to The Crystal Empire, to Cadance and Shining Armor and Flurry Heart!”
And then what?
“I’ll burn the fields of Equestria so the ponies starve! Salt their land so nothing grows here again! They’ll starve like I’ve starved! They’ll wither before me and I will laugh!”
And then?
“Then! Then...” Chrysalis' mouth opened and closed on its own a few times, but no sound came out until she forced herself to keep speaking. “Then...my revenge will be complete,” she said. Even to her ears, it sounded lame. She pressed on anyway. “Then I’ll have taken everything from every creature that’s wronged me. Then I’ll...”
Chrysalis fell silent. Then she’d...what? Take a vacation? Go to some tropical paradise and lounge around for the rest of eternity? Spend her days sitting in a hotel room with nothing but the shadow for company?
The shadow shrugged. Yes, probably.
Chrysalis glared at the shadow. “Then I’ll rule the ponies instead.”
You had the absolute loyalty of a race you molded yourself for a thousand years, and they turned on you in an instant once another creature offered them more and better food. You think the ponies won’t turn on you?
“Then what else is there?”
The shadow was silent. Chrysalis wasn’t even sure if it had spoken at all, or if that was just her own mind. Before Chrysalis could speak again, the shadow shrugged, then disappeared back into its home.
Chrysalis stared at it for several long minutes, because she knew what she’d see if she looked back to the mirror. But eventually, she had to look...and in the mirror, just as expected, she saw her old self. Black, smooth chitin. Green eyes. Holed legs. Thin hair that behaved itself rather than poofing around her. Blue wings without elytra.
Chrysalis stared at her old self’s face, which stared back with the same expression, one that was impossible to read. Finally, Chrysalis looked at her old self’s wings, then back at her own. She stretched them and buzzed them. “Mine are longer,” she informed her old self.
Queen Chrysalis - the real one and the one in the mirror - scowled. But she couldn’t deny the truth.
Chrysalis spent a few hours reading from the jangle-dreadful novel, trying to ignore the sight of her old self in the mirror, and the faint ringing in her ears from a nearly silent room save for the mechanical whirring of the fan overhead. By the time she left, “afternoon” had transitioned into “evening”, with the sun sinking down towards the horizon. She wandered from the hotel and out into TIatarta's streets almost in a daze. She wasn’t sure where she was going. She was hungry - physically - but she had no way of knowing what was love poisoned and what wasn’t. She eventually solved the problem by going to the beach, wading out into the water, and transforming herself into a seal. She caught several fish. That was cathartic, at least a little.
After an hour of this she left the water and returned to her Nonchalant disguise, hunger satiated and yet having no idea what to do. It was supposed to be “nothing”. That was what a vacation was for, after all. But really, was that any different than what she’d do once she got back to Grogar’s little Legion of Doom? Conquer Equestria...and then?
Taking over the Nook had lost its appeal too. Those bugs were conditioned to despise her, and even if they could get over that...she could take it over, become a Queen again. Wrest control of it from Ecdysis and spit in Thorax's eye, take the changelings there and...fly somewhere else...and make a new Hive, probably in a worse location than the Nook but isolated...and then?
Chrysalis hadn’t known that she could hate two words more than “Starlight Glimmer”, but, here she was.
She went to a club and tried to lose herself in music. Something called salsa. That worked for an hour, or at least she spent an hour telling herself it was working. But while her body went through the motions and she even smiled and winked at a handsome stallion and got him to dance with her, inside, it was just empty. Eventually she just stopped pretending and walked away, ignoring the stallion’s protestations.
It was, frankly, a relief when she spotted a certain Abyssinian entering a large building done up to look like an ice cream sunday bowl, calling itself the Chill Spot, carrying a large satchel that looked somehow familiar as she entered it. Catrina...Chrysalis pushed the cursed words and then from her mind as her eyes narrowed. Right now, she had something she could focus on: the destruction of the witchweed. She could not allow the plant to exist, a way for false love to be created. She could resist its scent better than any changeling, but if she tasted it...
Of course, her relief gave way when she noticed another pair entering the Chill Spot: Ocellus and Smolder, moving with all the clandestine grace they could muster...which was to say, with the grace hippopotamus having a stroke in a maternity ward. It was simply not possible for any being to look more like they were trying to follow a creature without being noticed.
The annoyance that welled up inside of Chrysalis at least broke her malaise finally. She ducked into an alley long enough to transform, emerging as a gray-coated unicorn teenager with a yellow mane, tail, and eyes. Then she headed towards the Chill Spot, grumbling to herself as she did.
I take back everything I thought about Ocellus' capabilities as an infiltrator, she groused to herself. She could have turned herself into a hat for Smolder to wear. Or a pony and just remain within ten feet of Smolder or whatever is the minimum distance. Idiot. Speaking of - Smolder, you moron, waiting until tomorrow was your idea! I should have known Ocellus would try and butter you up and of course you fell for it...
The image of Ocellus trying to “butter up“ Smolder was at least amusing, given the changeling's apparent lack of subtlety, and helped put a smile on Chrysalis' disguised face as she entered the Chill Spot. She wasn't exactly sure what she had been expecting. The ice cream wasn't a surprise; there were booths along the wall near the entrance, and a counter where ponies were ordering it. But the fact that the building also made room for a huge public, heated bath threw off Chrysalis, plus a wall further back contained directions towards a massage parlor, sauna, mud baths...the Chill Spot was a joint ice cream parlor and day spa. A Sun-day spa, one might say.
Chrysalis had spent a thousand years eating ponies, and yet she still didn't get them.
The changeling queen pushed her thoughts aside as she scanned the spa for signs of her quarry. She just managed to see an orange, scaled tail turn down a hallway that led to the sauna, and grunted as she set off after it. “I really hate that dragon,” she mumbled to herself, throwing an arbitrarily large amount of bits at a desk-pony who sat near the entrance to the day spa section of the Chill Spot. She ignored his asking if she wanted any change and instead headed straight for the sauna, reaching it just as the door closed.
“Idiots,” Chrysalis hissed, walking up to the door and opening it. “Morons, foals, waste of chitin and scales...”
The heat and humidity of the room hit Chrysalis instantly, of course. Stepping into the sauna presented Chrysalis with a wood-walled room, but the steam made it hard to tell how big it was or who else was in here - she couldn't see the opposite wall, nor even either side one. Chrysalis wasn't entirely certain but she was pretty sure that meant that too much steam was being used. Maybe the Chill Spot should stick to ice cream.
She walked into the sauna, peering against the steam. Eventually she saw a trio of dark spots, figures, and headed towards them. She found herself looking at Smolder and Ocellus facing Catrina, who had disrobed and was sitting on a bench with her arms up and over the side and legs crossed, tail swishing casually...and already looking directly at Chrysalis as she came in through the steam. Chrysalis had retained her natural scent receptors, and breathed in deep. From Catrina, she got the exact same smug superiority that she's scented in Mayor Dusk's office, while from the teenagers, she could smell...
...Nothing? What? The two were clearly there, they were too real to be illusions or dummies...so where were their emotions?
“Good evening,” Catrina said, “your majesty.”
Chrysalis recovered from the lack of emotional scent coming from the teenagers, focusing on Catrina, or starting to. But then what the Abyssinian said hit her. “What did you call me?“
Catrina glanced at her claws, checking them for dirt. “Attack.”
Aggression filled the air as Smolder and Ocellus whirled on her, the dragon exhaling bright magenta flames. Despite Chrysalis' dual shocks, one thousand years of survival instinct meant that it wasn't the slightest impediment as she ducked down under the gout of flame. With her disguise useless, she sloughed it off, taking on her true form and rising with her horn glowing blue. “Betrayal!” She exclaimed, stepping forward and smacking Smolder away from her.
She heard hooves on the floor and spun around, seeing Ocellus charge at her while letting out a war-hiss, aggression that Chrysalis didn't think the tiny changeling had even been capable of pouring off of her. Chrysalis' reach was longer and she had something to the effect of fifty or sixty times the teenager's years worth of experience in reacting to surprises, though. Her horn glowed and she seized the changeling. Ocellus continued to scrabble and hiss, however...
...no, not Ocellus, not really at least. Ocellus wasn't capable of this level of vitriol. Catrina had done something to her, and to Smolder as well. Poisoned them in some new way. Turned them against her - forced them against her. “Hhhzzzkkk!” Chrysalis exclaimed, throwing Ocellus into Smolder as she tried to stand, though with her new realization she made sure to hold back her full force. They didn't deserve her full wrath.
Catrina did. Chrysalis' telekinesis was already reaching out behind her. She hadn't seen Catrina leap, but she knew it was coming, and a glance behind her confirmed that, indeed, she had the Abyssinian held in her blue aura. She squeezed. “You are an idiot,” Chrysalis growled, pulling Catrina towards her but making sure her claws remained out of reach. “Two charmed teenagers and a middle-aged Abyssinian? You knew who I was and you thought that would stand the slightest chance against the Queen of the Changelings?!”
Catrina didn't look perturbed at all. Instead, she her chest heaved, and she spat at Chrysalis...but it wasn't saliva. It wasn't a hairball, either. It was a glob of greenish-black ooze, and that shocked Chrysalis enough that she didn't move in time as the glob struck her right front hoof and splattered across it and the ground, the glob instantly cementing itself in place and clinging to Chrysalis' chitin.
Chrysalis' jaw dropped as she looked to Catrina. The aroma of smugness had given way to naked agression. “You're a changeling?!” She demanded.
Ocellus emerged from the steam then, heaving and spitting out ooze at Chrysalis. The queen deflected it with telekinesis, but Smolder then leapt out from behind Ocellus - spitting ooze of her own, splattering it across Chrysalis' right hind leg. Chrysalis let out a hiss as she threw Catrina at the imposter teenagers just as the three were readying more ooze, slamming them into one another with much less gentleness than she had managed previously, She set her horn glowing, blasting at the rapidly calcifying ooze. But the three were made of sturdier stuff than Chrysalis had anticipated and had recovered quickly, charging back through the steam, horking up more ooze. Chrysalis telekinetically caught the ooze in the air and lobbed it back at the trio, striking them in their chests with enough force to send them away once more...
...but then she felt something tap on her withers, and the odor of smug superiority was back in full force. She turned with one of her free hooves sweeping out, but the creature, another Catrina, slipped out of her reach and held a palm that was full of yellow powder, exhaling and blowing the stuff into Chrysalis' face. Chrysalis sputtered and coughed as she inhaled it, falling awkwardly as her legs suddenly gave out, her horn's magic flickered and died. Her eyelids suddenly felt like lead as darkness crept at the edge of her vision.
“By the way, no, I'm not a changeling,” Catrina said, as she was joined by her doppelganger. Catrina looked her up and down. “And no, they're not...entirely. Not bad, though, hmmm?“
The false Catrina, Ocellus, and Smolder all glowed with pinkish flames - but blackness claimed Chrysalis's sight before those flames cleared. The last thing she heard was Catrina clapping her paws together. “Take her to the mirror.”
Jesus shit is complicated in Tiatarta.
To make it absolutely clear: Catrina is who she says she is (and who I'm saying she is and led you to believe she is), a cat-lady. I am not pulling an Iron Man 3 on y'all.
This chapter went through like three rewrites, since it's entirely from Chrysalis' perspective and was one I felt I really had to get right, or at least specifically her bit in the hotel. There is a lot of competing thoughts and emotions going on inside of Chrysalis right now, and I went a few different directions with it but none of them felt exactly "right" since a lot of them amounted to Chrysalis sort of "picking a side". Figuring stuff out too early. As well I really struggled with trying to balance the fact that while she is now more capable of recognizing those around her as being more than tools or food (on the basis of her hunger, the thing that principally prevented her from really feeling empathy, no longer getting in the way), she's still selfish and self-centered and evil, with no real regrets other than having been caught and lost things.
Ultimately I realized that the scene actually works just fine if Chrysalis doesn't figure things out in the hotel, and more just realizes that there is something that needs to be figured out. She knows she lost a lot, but she's starting to understand that even she has no idea just how much she lost.
Or how to get it back - or maybe something else.
...oh, by the way, yes, totally, G'Kar and Morden, you are absolutely correct if you get a sense of familiarity.
Conditioning and habit make for excellent levers, and the best way to deceive is to let your enemy deceive themselves.
"Pretty sure I just lost an argument. What happens now?"
"What do ponies do when they lose ARGUMENTS?"
I have SEVERAL questions...
9937244
This, this right here.
On the other hoof, Chrysalis took an important first personal step there in the hotel. Plus one point for the shadow, it did a good job. It does end up with the line
, which is gold, so there's that too.
And now we see there are even more layers to this town than an onion. When do we get to the middle?
So... are we talking Mirror Pool, Equestria Girls portal, the comic alternate universe Sombra mirror, or just a regular mirror?
9937192
But we do love it so!
Also, you must love the name because I only just realized after re-reading "For A Few Bits More" that you mentioned it there.
So this really nicely upped the WTF factor a bit, especially at the end. This was a great, GREAT chapter look at Chrysalis (and an awesome moment for Ocellus) and I loved plumbing her character depths, though my primary interest remains Smolder and Ocellus and their relationship (I do hope they visit the spa...to find Chrysalis, of course. That's totally why). I suppose the next chapter will be focusing on them and what they get up now that Chrysalis is out of commission. This should be fun...
9937287
Yes...no...yes...perhaps
I'm sorry, how exactly did Catrina get the drop on Chrysalis? She's had 1000+ years of experience sensing emotions, no amount of steam should allow a surprise attack to work. Every time she lost in canon, she was outsmarted or outmuscled.
Oh crap.. they are from beyond one of Starswirls mirrors aren't they?
This brings a certain message spread across a certain fictional city, after libel was spread about an important character. To paraphrase...
9937337
Hmm, you...may have a point. My thought process was Chrysalis' general mental and emotional state right now plus a rapid-fire series of surprises all at once ("Catrina" knowing who she is, the teenagers seeming to turn on her, "Catrina" and the two teenagers being
changelings) left her off-balance enough for this to work, but I perhaps should have done a better job getting that across. May have been eager to hit that "publish" button after going through three different versions of this chapter.I'll go back in any make some edits to emphasize Chrysalis not really being at her A-game right now.
9937387
You don't have to go that far, man. I basically assumed that was the reason, given the tone of the rest of the chapter, but it's still weird that some surprising new information and a shift in her mindset was enough to dull centuries of combat training.
Always sucks to lose after gloating.
9937192
I think I missed the Babylon 5 reference in this chapter you're making.
Morden's guilty visions during his near death experience perhaps? Is that what the Shadow Twilight scene is supposed to represent? Edit: Nope, I guess it's been a while lol. Morden is the little bastard who whispered in Londo's ear. Anyway, Catrina definitely needs a queen sized hoof up her furry ass for this attack. Did she really orchestrate these love poisonings on the off chance it would draw out Chrysalis? For what possible reason? Looking forward to more!(Supposition:) Sirens.
...and now I'm questioning whether shadow Twiggles is shadow Twiggles or a line to the Tree. That's surprisingly positive advice...
Twilight was the only person who knew Cadance that hung out around Chryssi, and she got it in a couple hours. Chrysalis is shoutier Invader Zim.
... we, if it’s the kind of mirror I think it is, then are only going to get worse for our “reform” cheese Queen, dragon on denial and cutesy changeling, but well, that usually what happens when you add dimensional travel to the cake mix that is any good story on the making
By the way, I’m liking what you are doing with chrysalis, her accidental reformation might had been the source of laughs at the beginning, but now things are getting serious, I can’t wait to see where will you take her next
The scene in the hotel was utterly perfect.
God dammit, Star Swirl!
Okay this was great. Especially Chrysallis breaking down at the mirror, and her talking with the shadow. Not to mention her memories, which really do make her so much more understandable. Like, okay, she's pretty awful most of the time, but you can see how she got there. I wonder if the shadow is Chrissi's better nature or the Tree of Harmony playing shoulder angel. Though really the difference is academic. Bringing out your better nature is what Harmony does.
And I also loved how Ocellus is actually getting through to her. She doesn't know how to deal with sincerity.
So Catrina has her minions, I haven't seen G1 but I THINK she comes with shapeshifting reptoids yeah? Not Changelings, but a passable substitute.
And I wouldn't worry too much about Chrissi's experience. While she may have a lot of practice, she's extremely arrogant and prone to assuming she knows more about what is going on than she does. And reading emotions in a combat situation is an exercise that seems doomed to failure. A lot of fights you won't get anything but a general haze of anger and concentration.
The Spa/Ice Cream Place is such a pony thing.
9937192
I don't know if I'd really call her...evil. She was a obligate 'carnivore'/parasite. Is it wrong for the predator/parasite to do the natural thing its done for however long it has been alive when that's the only way it knows how to survive? Your Chrysalis is not the one like in a LOT of other fics where she spares no thought or has no pride or sees no value in her fellow Changelings and throws their lives away enmasse. In fact in this story we see that she cares about them and legit wanted them well fed and not starving. And even after what she thinks, and honestly sort of is however good the reasons, a complete betrayal against her leadership she still cares about them enough to intervene here. So shes more...complicated. She's protecting her hive. Its probably more brutal then she has to be. But its kept the Changelings safe for how long? Alternatives to that were likely never even considered possible.
Obviously she cares about a wide chunk of them and until Starlight Glimmer came along and her revenge plan you could argue she just wanted her people not to slowly starve to death. Absolutely became evil later...but Canterlot wedding invasion and all? Not really all that evil from the perspective you’ve established here. I mean if you added in her mourning the dead from that failed invasion and that's what drove her down a darker revenge path she's instantly even more sympathetic. Not actually suggesting you do that, in fact it'd be a massive mistake for the narrative. Just saying isn't a big leap with only like one scene so perhaps Chrysalis could do with some more venom. She just seems too easily pushed into a tragic anti-hero type then any sort of reforming villian type.
Anyway beyond that discussion quite liked the scene of Ocellus standing up for the new way of doing things and scoring points. And the shifting to their old bodies and it seeming to cause Ocellus such a feeling of psychological pain really added a lot to the feeling of this story. Great work on that scene there. Wish that Chrysalis had been annoyed by that though. Their old form is not something to have hatred of. She should be proud of their race and heritage! Only for Ocellus to say she isn't. Would've slotted in nicely to her discussion with herself later. And the whole lack of constant overpowering hunger thing and maybe realizing she feels the same way a bit.
As to the ending of the chapter on the surface of it not very excited by that. Rather you spent more time with the fascinating character development you had going then had a more serious antagonist. But you're a very solid writer and I'm sure you have a good plan on where you're taking things. Thanks very much for sharing.
And that was her downfall, every time. I have her final downfall penciled in as being chewed out by her human-world counterpart for not understanding changelings either; it's the drones of a hive who decide when it's time for a new queen, and with Thorax they did. There was no betrayal in the way she saw it, simply biology working as intended and her time having come. In order to have survived, that human-world counterpart had to be much smarter, because she was up against something far more dangerous than ponies, and was still never caught.
9937192
Shadow better be careful it doesn't suffer Mister Morden's fate...
Anyway, great work with Chrysalis. I see you're using the comic origin... I always hated that, not gonna lie. But beyond that, thank you for no Fakedarin. That too I hated. Sense a pattern? :p But yeah, great chapter overall. I don't know what's going on there at the end, but methinks Canterlot High is coming into play.
Ungrateful traitorlings, they wouldn't even be alive without her, but I bet they'd easily twist that origin story around to picture her as evil.
Nuuu, fight it, Chryssie, don't let that fleabag best you!
That Shadow needs to watch its smug mouth.
Kinda late on that ready , sorry , but I blame you and timezones for posting it at literally 2am .
Anyway , that chapter was REALLY good , that plot twist was oddly unexpected (it was obvious that there would be a plot twist yet my idiot self thought there wouldn't be one) and I am getting a slight "Recall the Time of no Return" (DeviantArt MLP comics , very good , go read it) vibe from it where they aren't actually changelings or normal ponies but something from another world .
Can't wait for the next one !
Has a side note , I think I found two small faults :
That sentence should be "If we're not just going to make Catrina disappear" .
And
The "mine" is missing an S , I could be wrong on that one but I am almost sure of myself .
Edit: I am just an illiterate , those apparently are not faults , sorry !
9938481
I'm pretty sure neither of those are faults. The second one definitely isn't; the correction offered is simply false, and the variant in the story itself is correct. The first one, I could go either way on, but I've definitely encountered this exact usage before and consider it grammatically proper.
9938777
Well then curse me and my non English native language because I could have SWORN those where false .
End me.
Excellent chapter once more. Particularly enjoyed Chrysallis coming to realize she doesn't have much going for her beyond the immediate satisfaction revenge can bring. Also enjoyed the little glimpse into her trauma's at the start of her life as they make the apparent betrayal she faced at the hooves of the changelings have more impact.
9937776
It is when the recipients are sapient.
9938978
Who was constantly starving to death. I don't know. Don't think that's that black and white a morality issue. It would be if they had a second option. She didn't at the time.
Before I begin this big ol’ reply post, I want to take a moment to point something out: Trouble in Tiatarta is, at the moment, the 990th ranked fic on this site. While that's a long way from being all that significant - and I think the ranking system is kinda' borked anyway since, for example, Past Sins is ranked somewhere in the 3000s - this is still a personal milestone for me, as I've never had a story breach the top 1000 before.
And I couldn't have done it without all of you! Thank you all so much!
9937284
Pretty soon, to be honest. Probably not next chapter, but soon.
9937287
Huh, there have actually been a lot of mirror-related things in G4, haven't there?
9937300
I do have a tendency to re-use names I like. Probably the biggest one that pops up is "The Skyshaper Peaks" as a name for a mountain range. I first used it for a Digimon fanfiction waaaaaay back in 2000 or so, and have used it in a number of fantasy settings since then, including the Lunaverse.
9937376 9937762
That old coot really needs to stop building portals to other dimensions and then throwing his problems into them.
9937397
Let's see, a diplomatic way of phrasing this...after certain events of five or so months ago vis-a-vis a fic series about which my opinions are well known, I feel like it would be hypocritical of me if someone came into one of my stories, pointed out a narrative problem that was feasible for me to correct, and I didn't make an attempt at correcting it. If I'm gonna talk the talk, then I should walk the walk.
Besides, it's no trouble, it was just a few dozen words of editing to get something I think plays up Chrysalis' mental state a little better; having her actually react to the teenagers' apparent betrayal, for example.
9937428 9938171
Morden's most remembered for his interactions with Mollari (and Vir), of course, but the scene is actually based on when he asked G'Kar "what do you want?", and kept egging G'Kar on as G'Kar described everything he wanted to do to the Centauri. The Shadows almost sided with the Narn over the Centauri...but G'Kar "failed" the Shadow's test because his anger and aggression ended with the Centauri. Aside from that, G'Kar wanted Narn to be safe and prosperous, but not at the expense of anyone else. He had no ambition beyond destroying the Centauri, and that was disappointing to the Shadows.
Here we seem to sort of get the opposite, in that the shadow is using "what do you want" as a form of Socratic irony to expose something it seems to have already known; just how shallow Chrysalis' revenge desire is.
By the way, the fact that I've been calling Twiggles "the shadow" and then had her keep pressing "what do you want"? Coincidence. Wasn't planned, it just worked out that way.
9937478
Or Chrysalis' conscience. Or just a delusion. Or...
9937525
Technically Celestia should probably have known Cadance pretty well as well, especially if we go by the comics.
9937764
Catrina had a...I think he was her boyfriend, actually...named Rep (sometimes spelled Rex in some sources), who, yes, could shapeshift. And was the frequent target of abuse from Catrina 'cause she needed her fix and he was trying to get her to cut back.
9937776
Hmm...I've been trying to get it across that while Chrysalis did some to have a degree of attachment and affection for the Swarm, changelings as a whole, she didn't really care about any individual changeling. Sort of the same thing that Pharynx had, although she additionally has the problem of seeing herself as the Swarm, on the grounds of having created literally everything about it herself. So Chrysalis actually probably would use Drone Wave tactics and not feel any particular loss as long as the Swarm triumphed by the end of it.
9938134
...full-sized horses?
Horses actually scare me in real life.
9938333
The shadow stared at Razzy
9938481 9938777
As was pointed out, the "mine" is definitely correct. The use of "disappear" as a verb technically is not, but it's somewhat common slang, often used in the spy business (or at least in movies about the spy business) to refer to the act of making someone disappear without a trace, which is how it's being used here.
9938943
I did say we'd deal with the fact that the very first thing Chrysalis ever saw was changelings fighting one another at the bottom of a spooky cave after having to force her way free from the innards of a dead tree...oh, also, soft "retcon", you may have noticed, or more retconning a retcon. The panel in the comic I referenced technically doesn't show Chrysalis, just her eyes and fangs and hoof. So I had her mention that she was smaller, thereby allowing her line from "This Day Aria" ("It's a day of which I've dreamed since I was small") to work.
9938978 9939140
I'd say that Chrysalis definitely wasn't evil in the beginning, her first actions. It's made pretty clear in the narrative that she was basically working with (admittedly clever) animal intelligence, so her stalking and draining ponies and bringing them back to other changelings isn't any different from what any pack animals might do.
As both her intellect and that of other changelings grew, however, that excuse became flimsier and harder to justify. By the time of the Canterlot Invasion there were probably plenty of options available to her, at least in theory, although in practice there's a lot of competing factors. The point she made to Ocellus earlier - "what if they'd said no?" - is probably the strongest argument for acting as she did.
9937224 9937211 9937244 9937307 9937383 9937422 9937532
Thanks for the responses!
9939375
That's quite fair. What are we without principles, after all?
9938333
What evil lurks with the heart of Razzi?
The Shadow knows...
9939375
I was under the impression that chrysalis threatened the city to keep Celestia occupied so that they wouldn't interact before the wedding.
9939140
I was likewise under the impression that chrysalis kept her hive starving to hold onto power, which reafing more carefully isn't cannon here. I feel like it's supported in the show though.
9939375
My take on everything that goes wrong in Equestria can be summarized effectively with five words: "Everything is Star Swirl's fault."
Seriously, you can pick anything, or at least just about anything, that goes wrong and it will be Star Swirl's fault. Go ahead; try it!
9939518
Cutie Mark Crusaders 'Anything Goes Martial Artists'.
(And you thought the Nerima Wrecking Crew were bad enough...)
9939518 Discord, Sombra, and Cozy Glow.
The first and last have no origin story and the middle one never interacted with him.
In fact, in the case of Discord, Starswirl gave ponies the only means of containing him.
And then there's Tirek. Starswirl made friends with Scorpan, thus thwarting Tirek's first attack on Equestria, which we know for a fact was based on nothing but Tirek's lust for more power.
9937192 This is a Catrina from one of the previous shows!
No, not G1... not G2....
She is from... G3.5!! HER DESIGN IS NIGHTMARISH AND UNCANNY!!!
I quite like "skyclad" as the local equivalent of "plainclothes."
That's the question, isn't it? Chrysalis has never been one for long-term vision. Long-term plans, sure, but she never thought about what might happen after the next scheme. As Ocellus said, she has to change. And more than a millennium is a long time to be set in her ways.
As for that ending... that's genuinely brilliant. Chrysalis made sure there wasn't a trace of witchweed left in the world. This world. We're clearly going by the comics given her early memories, and that means Star Swirl made a downright irresponsible number of mirror portals. This opens up a wide variety of intriguing possibilities. Looking forward to more.
9940243
I actually had written “plainclothes” at first, but then I suddenly had Applejack giving me an annoyed look in my mind’s eye. We can just imagine that skyclad officers keep their badges in their manes or something.
9939927
A nightmarish and uncanny cat person, you say? I think you know where I’m going with this.
9939518
Six degrees of Star Swirl. I can buy it.
9940267 This was my greatest fear... now we're all doomed.
*reaches for the Apocalypse button to release Harvey Cthulhu* It's the only way...
This is a version of Catrina I thought would work well in G4.
images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/c11a5c84-95c9-4dd8-bd96-8068e26e93a0/daupvdv-f5ee66c9-ec8b-47cb-a96f-539a6496f260.png/v1/fill/w_1024,h_817,strp/katrina_and_bliss_by_greycat_rademenes_daupvdv-fullview.png?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.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.ZoI7Z0jCV-aUvQuqhggmCAcV508txwNz48T_XEwWwRs
Maker her some type of Sphinx, maybe ancient Babylonian to fit that one land of ponies who showed up for the Equestria Games.
9939375
Oh, yes. I remember that. It's just, Shadow still doesn't want to end up like Mister Morden. :p
Also, I've always found past Sins overrated at best.
I adore your Chrysalis characterization, and the connection she's making to Ocellus despite her best efforts.
Also, kinda getting some major Count of Monte Cristo vibes here.
e: come to think of it, that'd make a good story.
The Count of Monte Chrysalis.
9941952
I’ve seen a miniseries version of it, but never read it.
9941965
Well, I'm especially reminded from it from the story theme pointed out in this song from the Russian musical (and the un-recorded 'Hell to your Doorstep (reprise) from the English one).
Tsundere Chrysalis continues to be adorable and hilarious. Thank you for writing this.
Two things I forgot to mention slash didn't notice on the first run through: the overt operatives pretending to be covert to lure a competent spy into a trap. That's an old trick.
9940243
Sonuva... I didn't even notice that part of the twist. And given that wherever she's from is far from the only mirror portal lying around to say nothing of all the universes that could be accessed through other means... Yeah, this isn't good news.
9940319
I mean, Abyssinians are blatantly there so that Catrina would have a species and then they went and didn't actually have Catrina... *grumbles in DGD Davidson, does anyone even remember him anymore?*
9939375
... STOP MOCKING ME, SHADOW!