Richard Smith’s hands were shaking. Teardrops were forming in his eyes. “Jesus Christ,” he said softly, as his ears drank in the beauty of Love in Bloom. “Jesus. H. Christ.”

Richard Smith had just finished watching A Canterlot Wedding.

“That was the best thing I have ever seen,” he declared. “I am in awe.”

He turned off his TV, got up from his couch, and went straight to his desktop computer. “Damn work of art, that’s what it was,” he muttered as Windows booted up. “A masterpiece in motion.”

He had loved everything about the two-part finale to the second season. Princess Cadence, Shining Armor, the songs — and most of all, that Changeling Queen. She was, in Richard’s humble opinion, the greatest Disney Villain since Disney had stopped making Disney villains. From her fangs to her manners, everything about her simply screamed evil. A wonderful, tingly, “God, this is such a great villain,” evil. She was all shades of Ursula, Witch, and Cruella de Vil, and she’d given Richard such a case of the fuzzy nostalgias that he doubted he’d ever recover.

“C’mooon, Google,” said Richard as he opened up Firefox. “Work for me.”

In response to the query of “Changeling Queen, My Little Pony,” Google gave Richard a wealth of material. Fanart, fanfiction, comics, blogs — it was all there already. Not thirty minutes after the episode aired, and bronies worldwide had already poured out their souls in homage to the Changeling Queen.

“Chrysalis, huh?” said Richard, as he happened upon the Queen’s canon name. “Me gusta.”  

He downloaded all of the fanart into his hard drive, filed the stories away to read later, and immediately began questing for further resources. They were out there, Richard knew. The MLP fandom was notoriously quick on the draw. Well, so was he. He would be there to like, favorite, and comment on all that bore the name “Chrysalis.” Every story, every drawing, everything.

And of course, he knew he'd have to find videos for This Day Aria, and maybe a few Princess Cadence stories, but for the moment, Queen Chrysalis held his undivided attention.

She was simply too fantastic a character to leave at a single episode. Her design, her cunning, her voice! All of that perfectly done. Richard hadn’t been so excited over a villain since... well... Discord. Probably. He knew he needed more of her.

And thanks to thousands of fans of My Little Pony, he knew just where he could get more.

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“Ooooooh.” Queen Chrysalis shivered. “I felt that. Did you feel that?”

A changeling looked up. One of the dozen or so that had landed with her when she'd been... forcibly expelled from Canterlot. "Felt what, my Queen?" it hissed.

"The love, of course," said Chrysalis. "And there's so much of it! Delicious! Delightful!"

Her escort of changelings all exchanged confused glances. "What love, my Queen?" asked one of them. "We are the only ones here."

"Not from here," Chrysalis said. "Out there." She waved a hole-pocked hoof out into the distance.

The changelings saw nothing but wide-open prairie.

"In another world," she explained. "Legions and legions of these... Humans, they call themselves. I can feel them." She shuddered again. "Oh, I think one of them just wrote a story about how I'm sooo misunderstood." She laughed. "Ha! They love it! And they love me!"

Chrysalis basked for a moment in the sheer magnitude of the love she was receiving. If that fool Shining Armor had been an affection buffet, what then was this? A seven-course meal? A lifetime supply of canned adoration? Whatever it was, it made her feel powerful. Very powerful indeed.

Her minions, meanwhile, were starting to get just a little concerned. "Another world" and "Humans" sounded suspiciously of madness. That was not good. It would not bode well for them if the Queen had suddenly gone bonkers.

"You know," said Queen Chrysalis, "I think all this attention has made me good as new." It was true. With all the love she'd been feasting on, the injuries of being launched a few miles through the air felt pitifully trivial. She could barely even feel the bruise where she'd landed on one of her loyal changelings. Instead, she felt charged. Energized. Like she could do just about anything. "No," she said. "I'm better than new. I've been improved."

"My Queen..." a changeling began hesitantly.

"Assemble our forces," Chrysalis commanded. "We will march again on Canterlot."

"It will be... very difficult, my Queen," said the changeling who'd just spoken. "We are scattered and broken, and this time they will be ready for us..."

Chrysalis sighed. Disobedient servants were no good to anyone, and it seems that she'd had the misfortune of being saddled with a changeling who thought he knew better than his Queen. Well, she knew how to fix that. Focusing her immense new power, she willed him right out of existence.

And so he disappeared.

She looked at the rest of her entourage, now thoroughly cowed by her terrifying display, and convinced all the more of her insanity. "Any more dissenters?" she asked them.

The changelings quickly shook their heads. "No, Queen," they said, bowing in unison. "We are but servants of your will!"

"Yeah, uh-huh," said Chrysalis, not entirely satisfied with their complete sincerity. "But here's a thought: what's the use of you now? With this much love, I could conquer Equestria all by myself."

The changelings pressed themselves into the ground, trying to make their bows look as submissive and pitiable as possible.

"Yes," mused the Queen. "And I wouldn't even have to share it with you lot."

"But—" said the changelings.

That was all they said. They did not have the chance to expand on it before they were removed from reality.

"More for me, as they say!" Chrysalis laughed. She flapped her wings — which, incidentally, felt stronger than ever — and shot into the air. The outline of Canterlot was just barely visible in the distance. "There it is," she said. "There's my prize!"

Her train of thought was briefly interrupted by the realization that a human had just drawn her in a rather... compromising position. Lots of unnecessary bodily fluids everywhere. Her stomach churned at the very thought of it, but she accepted the love regardless. First she would conquer Equestria, then the world, and finally that place called Earth. Then, and only then, could she afford to be picky about the sort of love she received. Sick creatures, these humans were, but their love would sustain her until she could get around to outlawing such behavior.

But everything in its time. Chrysalis set her sights once more on the city of Canterlot, and imagined just how easy it would be for her to take control now. "It's not quite how I'd dreamed it," she said to herself, "But I'll take it anyway."

And with that, she flew off toward Canterlot, laughing all the way there.

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Richard Smith's jaw dropped as he read the news on his screen. The impossible had happened: My Little Pony had been cancelled. There would be no third season.

It had happened so suddenly that nobody quite knew what to make of the news. No explanation, official or otherwise, had been given, though the phrase "Reasons beyond our capacity to explain" had been thrown around. Brony communities had formulated some interesting conspiracy theories of their own — in between death threats to Hasbro, of course — but the way talk was going, they'd never be confirmed.

Richard, for his part, simply gave a depressed sort of moan and decided that he might as well read all those Queen Chrysalis stories he'd been stowing away.