Shining stared in disbelief at Chrysalis, his eyes not wanting to accept what he saw before him. The markings that had appeared on Twilight when she had become one with the element of magic now covered Chrysalis’s body, mimicking Twilight’s markings to the slightest detail, down to the streaks in her hair.
“You…you stole my sister's…”
“We stole nothing,” said Chrysalis, her voice carrying the echo of Twilights as she glared at him. “We have simply borrowed her power, so that we may help you.”
“Help me,” spat Shining, “you don’t want to help me; you just want to enslave me, again!”
“We never wanted to enslave you Shining Armor,” said Chrysalis, “and we are sorry for what we did to you. But we were starving, and were not in control of our actions when we…”
“Do you really think I am going to buy that bullshit?” spat Shining, shooting out a dark magic blast which was deftly blocked, which made him growl.
“We don’t expect you to believe our words,” said Chrysalis plainly, “But from what we know of what Twilight has shown us, this is not you…so we shall help you, whether you want it or not.”
Shining made to blast her again, but before he could, Chrysalis spread her wings wide, rainbow light blasting from her form and washing over the stallion, rendering him unconscious.
After he fell, Chrysalis dispelled her magic, letting Twilights magic leave her with a slight sigh of relief as she turned to see said alicorn getting up. “Check him, I’ll go see if I can help your friend not slip away from us.”
Twilight nodded, running past Chrysalis as she moved over to where the others where crowding around Rainbow, ignoring the shouts as the crystal guard began thawing out the raiders one by one and locking them in irons.
When she finally got a good look at Rainbow, she had to lift a hoof to keep herself from gasping in despair. There was a gaping hole in Rainbow’s chest, blood oozing from it slowly as her damaged heart kept on pumping. The only thing keeping her alive was a green glow radiating around the wound, which was being caused by the changeling who Chrysalis had asked to be the voice of the hive.
“Teacher,” she said, wrapping the weakened drone in her forelegs and nuzzling her, “why does it always have to be you?”
“Because I am a stubborn ass…” said Teacher with a cough, before turning away from Chrysalis to look at Rainbow. "…She’s dying.”
“I know…but so are you,” said Chrysalis, before sighing as she petted the changelings mane. "You know what needs to be done…right?”
The changeling nodded, “Of course…do you really think I would…would shirk the responsibility owed to those we…we open to our power. Just…just please don’t cry for me mother, you have shed enough tear for us already.”
“I shall try my child,” said Chrysalis before kissing her between the eyes, “now go, join your sisters in paradise…”
Teacher nodded, and then closed her eyes, breathing out her last breath in a slow, determined manner. When at last the breath left her body; Chrysalis watched as the life left her child’s body, watching it float over to Rainbow’s gaping wound and merging with it, erasing it from existence.
When she finally managed to look up, she was greeted with the horror struck faces of Twilight’s friends, all of them looking at the changeling with tears in their eyes, till one of them finally spoke, “She…did she just…?”
“Chrysalis,” said a voice behind them, causing the former queen to look up, seeing Twilight looking at her with concern as she held her brother in her forelegs.
Chrysalis got up, passing the body of her now dead child into the care of Twilight’s friends, walking over to her and sitting down, before looking at Shining and seeing what had caused Twilight’s concern.
“What is…?”
“Let me see it child.”
Both Chrysalis and Twilight looked up, and Twilight had to suppress a gasp, for the being standing behind her was like none she had ever seen. The being was certainly a changeling, for like all changelings, her belly was segmented and covered in a kind of transparent carapace, and wings were hidden underneath two protective coverings which kept them safe. However, the rest of her body was covered in a very shaggy white coat, complimenting her flowing pink main and tail quite well.
But what shocked Twilight most was her eyes, for they looked exactly like Celestia’s, which meant she could only be one being.
“Mother,” cried Chrysalis, getting up and walking over to hug her, only to start giggling when she made contact with the mare’s coat. “By Equi’ mother, did you forget to shed your winter coat?”
“Neigh my sweet bairn,” said the large changeling, “but your grandmother and I have been living in the polar region for these past few years, and so we have ha’ to keep our winter coats.”
The furred changeling then looked past her daughter to Twilight, smiling at her before speaking in a calm voice. “And ye young one must be Twilight Sparkle, ruler of this fair town.”
“Ye…yes,” said Twilight, still in shock over the being before her.
“My name is Celestine, daughter o’ Celestia an’ former queen o’ the changelings. If ye can give me your permission, I would like to see if I can help your brother.”
Twilight hesitated for a moment, and then nodded her head, allowing the large pony to sit down next to her and examine her brother.
Celestine examined Shining closely, not finding anything till she saw his eyes, and immediately she lifted her head and glared at Chrysalis. “Daughter, will ye please come here?”
She approached cautiously, standing next to her mother and looking down to see what had caused her to glare, and looking horrified.
“Tell me my bairn,” said Celestine coldly, “what methods did ye use on the prince to make him believe ye were his betrothed?”
“I…mother I wasn’t myself when…”
“What method did ye use!?”
“C…compulsion…I used compulsion on him…”
The moment the words had left her mouth Celestine’s face became livid, the larger changeling getting up and beginning to pace as she fumed. “Compulsion! By Equi’ ye daft little…do ye realize wha’ kind o’ trouble ye could have been in if we had been a full coven o’ queens?”
The word coven caught Twilight’s attention, for she had never heard that word used to reference anything besides the earth pony witches of the Shetland Islands, and to hear it now used in conjunction with the changeling queens got her really curious, but she managed to stave it, knowing answers would most likely come later.
“I know what would have happened mother, but I was starving and saw no other way to get what I needed, for he didn’t believe that I was Cadance.”
“That be no excuse my bairn, compulsion is dangerous to ponies and ye ken it.”
“Dangerous?”
Celestine looked at Twilight a moment, smiling the same way Celestia would when she had realized she had not told Twilight something important. “I be sorry Twilight, I shall try and explain as best I can. Our form of compulsion, unlike the magical version I know you unicorns can use, is a special kind of poison which is excreted from our lips. Over a short period of time, and I mean short, it is not dangerous. But over a long period, as in days, it builds up in a ponies system and can cause…dangerous side effects.”
“Dangerous…you mean he could…could die?”
“No nothing like that,” said Celestine, knowing where Twilights mind was going and stopping her before she reached that conclusion. “However, it does cause a pony to lose certain inhibitions, making them act upon certain thoughts that they would otherwise grudgingly ignore.”
Twilight stared at her a moment, then looked down at Shining, his eyes closed and his chest rising and falling gently, till she finally opened her mouth to speak. “Will…will you be able to help him?”
Celestine nodded, “O’ course, but it will take some time. For now though, ye have your own kingdom to be looking after, so ye best get to it.”
It had been two hours since the battle had finally been stopped, and everypony was setting about the task of assessing the damage that had been done to their home. The raiders had all been finally thawed out, and were now being guarded by a combination of Changeling drones and Crystal guard, who had used their regained abilities to encase the unicorns horns in crystal, as well as binding the pegasi’s wings so they couldn’t get away.
In regards to Rainbow, she had recently woken up, and much to the surprise of all her friends, had become extremely distraught upon the sight of Teacher lying dead nearby. She had wrapped up the changeling in her wings, and then without saying anything she grabbed the changeling and flew into the sky, leaving a trail of tears behind.
Chrysalis had kept the others from chasing her, saying that she would need to be alone for a time, so that she could grieve. When asked why, Chrysalis equated it to when a unicorn mage lost their familiar, which immediately humbled both Twilight and Rarity, who explained to the others to simply imagine if they had lost their own foal.
Now everypony was getting to work trying to repair everything, but for once in Twilights life, she did not feel optimistic about what they had to do. Many of the spells Shining’s raiders had sent against the wall had been reflected, getting flung into the surrounding buildings and causing massive damage, resulting in many buildings being beyond normal repair, and in some cases even magical repair.
Oddly though, Chrysalis’s mother didn’t look concerned, and when asked why, she simply smiled. “This can be easily fixed, but firs’ I need to ask, be there any breezies left in this land?”
Twilight nodded, revealing that there was a group of breezies had taken up residence in the forest, which caused Celestine to smile, before she lifted her head and began to whistle, the sound carrying out beyond the town, till she finally stopped as a swarm of breezies surrounded her.
“Hello little ones,” said Celestine sweetly, giggling a bit as the breezies flew around her and occasionally nuzzled her, all of them knowing what she was due to tales that had been passed down through the ages. “I can assume you know what I called you here for?”
They all nodded, causing her to smile, “Then link with me little ones, and let us show these ponies the lost art of tree forging.”
The breezies all giggled happily, and then glowed brightly, linking with the old changeling before zooming off as they began to sing.
As they flew over the ruins of Ponyville they began flinging seeds onto the ground as their voices filled the air. When they flew back, they moved to where the seeds had spread, and, much to the surprise of everypony watching, caused them to begin to grow at a rapid pace.
As the ponies watched, the breezies began to make the now forming trees take shape, forming them into houses similar to the one Twilight had lived in before it got destroyed, but with unique differences that set them apart from the old library.
“Holy hayseed…” said Applejack, watching with the others as all the damaged homes were replaced with literal tree houses as the breezies continued to sing, before gasping in shock when the breezies moved to the center of town, and caused a massive tree to spring from where the old town hall once stood, before flying back to rest within Celestine’s fur.
“I…” started Twilight, “…how is this possible?”
“All will be explained in time young one, but for now I think it is best ye get your people settled in their new homes, for I expect today’s events will have scared them greatly.”
Twilight hesitated at this, and then nodded her head, gathering the citizens and then leading them to their new homes, many of the residents staring in wonder at their new homes, especially Rarity, who found that the tree which made her new home magically produced silk for her use. “This….this is amazing, I never knew breezies could do things like this, this is extraordinary.”
She wasn’t the only one who found their house was fitted to their needs, and after a quick magical scan, Twilight found out why. Her palace had spread long roots under the entire town of Ponyville, and contained a great deal of knowledge from its ruler, Twilight herself. During her scan, she had seen that the roots of the tree houses had merged with the roots of her great palace, and her palace had imparted knowledge to each of the trees, tailoring them to each citizens needs so that they would feel right at home.
It was simply…magical, and it had cost them nothing, all because of the being who was now resting outside in the open grass, her body wrapped protectively around the breezies who had come to her call, which made Twilight wonder. If with changeling magic breezies could form such great structures like her old tree home of old, and the crystal ponies could erect various structures on command, as well as pegasi gaining an even higher mastery over the weather…what could the other races do?
“I’m sure I’ll get my answers later,” she thought, “for now though I need some sleep…something tells me tomorrow is not going to go horribly.”
Shining has more than one sister?
Normally this comma would be correct, you explain 'how' Shining said it (Spat), however question marks and exclamation marks override that. Also, buy instead of by.
Whether.
you mean form?
your
damaged
the wound
Did you mean two?
This is rather Deux-Ex-Machina esque. 'A god shows up and fixes everything'.
So... now you're saying it wasn't dark magic? But then why else would it only flare up NOW? Why would Shining be perfectly find after the wedding but only get worse over time? That is literally the opposite of what you'd expect from a poison source being shut off, but just in line for dark magic.
unicorns'
Gotta say... I didn't like this chapter, for the aforementioned Deus Ex Machina. The ponies don't have to fix anything, they don't have to actually struggle to come back from the damage, Celestine just shows up from out of fucking nowhere and makes everything all right for them. And the introduction of Teacher was too quick for us to build any emotional attachment to her, either.
I think it was meant as "You... you stole my sister's..." as in stealing his sisters magic or something like that.
should be buy.
that should whether, you had the stuff that the pegasi control.
Rainbow reaction seemed a bit out of character for me, I think she might do that if she were alone but not in a public place like that, she'd more likely just say thanks or something and do everything in her power to help the changelings, but what you had happen was not impossible.
edit: *looks down* Oh, just listen to the bottom guy, he's got more than me.
so love this hope there is more soon
Yeah, see... the problem is not that this is 100% headcanon... the problem is that it's really shoddily-constructed headcanon.
Its not dead! Yes!
5086766 HUGE run-on sentence.
so wait....is RD dead? Or not!? I am really confused on what happened to her!!
5315354 She was, but Teacher sacrificed himself for RD, and now RD is grieving for Teacher. Teacher was a changeling, in case you don't know.
So, he was suffering residual side from Chrysalis's attempt to control him? I'm with Twilight!
5314878
Gotta love the changelings magic link and willingness to die for others, or something.
amazing chapter!!!! why did it take so long? When is the next one?
wow... I did feel bad at the lost of Teacher, but the Perma Death I can understand. Since changling kinda have a rebirth cycle going on. I'm sad that Rainbow lost Teacher. And Celestie I hope you go more into detail on her. Has she always been around in that sparkle form like when she spoke to Chrysalis? Just wondering. When this showed up o my updates list. I was ESTATIC I still hate Shining. hate him to bits, but still I can't wait to read more. Loved it I really did.
im sorry but what a cop-out on punishing shining armor LAME!!!!
5314878
Um...you already knew teacher, you just didn't know her name at the time, for she was the speaker for the changelings. as for the deus ex machina, I could see how it would be seen as such, but it was used to for more then just repairing the town, it was used to show Twilight the potential of Chageling magic, and make her curious to explore it more thoroughly.
5314878
Also, as to Celestine showing up to help, I A.) had always planned her to show up to help fix Shining and B.) Kinda figured people would know she was coming into the story due to her appearance two chapters ago. Also, I see I didn't explain the poison well enough, so I will go back and provide a better explanation on it, but I will go into more detail here just so you don't get confused any-longer. While exposed to a changelings magic, the building poison remains inert, but once cut off from its source of magic, the poison begins taking effect, and the amount of poison inside the ponies system determines how fast a pony begins acting out of character, which in Shining's case, wasn't that much due to how short a time Shining was under Chrysalis's spell, which I would factor a guess as two-four days at most.
5318366
He'll be punished next chapter.
I hope that this teaches RD not to be impulsive in the future but I have my doubts.
5318550 Yeah but the breezies too? That's what really went over the top for me, but apparently it's a plot point for you.
5318551 cool but still i feel you missed a lot of opertunitys by saying it wasnt realy all him doing it would have been better having him start out in control then saying the dark magic corrupted him along the line instead of OH it was side effects of the failed invasion
5320886
Problem with that is Dark magic has been used a lot by this fandom to explain away certain characters outing out of character, and I did not want to go down that rout because of how much it had been used. So instead, I created this method, which while it was more complex, at least it wasn't the generic "oh, dark magic made him act that way, that explains everything!" excuse.
5321520 but but dark magic made him do it is canon
5321546
I believe that's the alicorn amulet, unless your pulling your information from a source I have not looked at yet.
5321751 1 word SOMBRA
5321914
well you see, I don't buy that. You see, we don't get a good enough look into his character to figure out whether or not it was the dark magic making him act the way he was, or if it was because he himself was evil. After all, all magic can be used for both good or evil, despite the origin points certain magic comes from. Now yes, Sombra did use dark magic, but we never got a conformation on whether or not it was the cause of him being evil, all we got was just that he was evil, that's it.
5321950 really i swear the same episode celestia states that "due to the darkness in his heart" or something like that, that the dark magic corrupted him further. Also your alicorn amulet argument is invalid because it is a 'dark magic' artifact it dosnt mater if it is in an object the magic is what corrupts the user not the object itself take the magic out of the amulet and you are left with a very pretty necklace
yes but a saying used a lot in this fandom comes to mind "the road to tartarus is paved with good intentions"
despite your plot involiving compulsion from the venom i bet shining armour would despise changelings none the less and in doing so let the seeds of corruption enter his mind you know hateful thought here changeling hunt there all leading him down the darker path with him none the wiser and then the thing with twilight is what sets him over the edge i felt it more believable than oh changeling venom made him do it
also hell changeling venom has been over used as well at least dark magic is cannon to the show no where other than fan fiction have i heard changeling's have venom in the show shings compulsion comes from a spell cast on him IE: Dark magic!!!
anyway it dosnt really mater that much its your story you write what you want i enjoyed it even though i felt it a cop out (not the worst one ive seen in a story either) but none the less it has been fun having the enjoyable debate with you but i fear we shall have to end it for we are taking up the comment section
yours truly
Darklight Deflix
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ANOTHER!
5322124
Will do good sir, will do.
5322007
You are so lucky I have every episode of MLP on my portable hardrive.
Celestia stated that Sombra's heart was black as night, implying that he was evil long before he took over the crystal empire, and in no way implying that it was dark magic which turned his heart to dark. As for the Alicorn Amulet argument not being vallid, I shall turn your attention to this section from the official Friendship Is Magic wiki, and I quote.
Nowhere in that description is it ever stated that the magic of the alicorn amulet is dark magic, and before you say it corrupting Trixie means its dark magic, well to that I have to disagree, because there are many artifacts across many different books, movies, tv shows, and comics which corrupt their user, despite whether they be of light or dark origin.
Now as to the poison being the reason he was acting this way, I think you are misinterpreting something here. The poison isn't making him do any of this, instead, as I have hinted, he already, all be it secretly, wanted to do these things to the changelings, and by extension changeling sympathizers. However, due to his military training and moral code, he knew it would be wrong to act on the emotions, so he didn't, till the poison began wearing at his resolve and cause him to start acting on his darker emotions, leading him to start having changelings tortured and eventually killed, all for what he saw as the greater good of Equestria. So as you can see, while yes he was helped along by the poison in his veins, it was still all him, and it will still be him when he shows up in the next chapter.
And i quote a headsman
when is the next chapter coming?????????!!!!!!!!!!!
5338352
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how soon??????!!!!!!!!
5349503
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I want to like this story, but it's just so difficult. I'm fine with the explanations, they work, but it's all just happening too fast. This had almost no build up, the appearance of Celestine (ugggggh) and the death of Teacher were just out of nowhere, and don't even get me started on the Breezies. There wasn't any emotional impact, nothing to make me feel for the characters outside of just plain disappointment on Shining's behalf.
Not to mention the constant misuse of homonyms (they're, their, there, we're, were, to, too, two). It's infinitely frustrating when it's almost every instance, so I'd advise taking a few reads to revise that specifically.
I should mention that the idea is definitely interesting, but the lack of buildup is just murder.
5377416
you have an excellent point, but it's still enjoyable is it not? That's mostly what I look for. I don't really care for pacing, buildup, etc. As long as it's captivating, and has good spelling.
heeey, loose ends here, snip snip, stop the fraying and all that.
'tears' you want it plural, unless she actually only ever sheds a single tear for each of the dead.
'mane'
Coil the ropes, tie the knots, and all that business with threading the needle.
Stitch it up, ship it out, keep smiling
Everything in this chapter came so far out of left field that I don't know what to feel.
1) When did Chrysalis's mother's name change from Pupa to Celestine?
2) The removed inhibition thing doesn't absolve Shining Armor of guilt... like at all. Simply saying he was stripped of inhibition means that deep down he is a murderous bloodthirsty monster. When your inhibitions are lost is when your true self is revealed.
6829932 Name change may have come about by coming of age or when taking over role of queen i suppose.
5377416 Tend to agree too many things out of nowhere & be warned the Grammar Nazi's are about to invade this story.
Awww i wanted to watch twily beat the ever loving shit out of shiny.
Also conpulsion influence such a copout.
Chryssie's mother's accent is simply epic. I can just imagine her in a tartan and drinking ale from a tankard.
Ouch, so Chryssie will feel guilty for the deaths Shining caused too. At least get mind seems to be fine.
I love how changelings seem to be the ultimate support class on this verse.
Poor Teacher. And her healing her like that made sense, she simply took the wound back along with the power she granted.
after this Shining can never be trusted, the reason behind it does not matter, simply put remove his horn.