Chapter forty nine

The lights around are dimmed out as the lavender mare’s eyes slowly start to crack open, looking about, everything seems to be in an odd green haze as she tries to adjust her pupils now to the change. Though as she peeks around there seems to be an eerie floating sensation around her body, “Wh-Mpppll!” she starts to gargle as fluid fills her mouth.

Quickly closing it, Twilight swallows the nasty and putrid mix, the fowl taste running across her tongue as she starts to realize what is holding her. A cocoon… a changeling cocoon imprisons her as she looks down through the haze to see her hooves bound up tight in chain, and even her wings strapped to her sides. Looking atop her horn though, nothing seems to be there. Taking solace in that, the mare slowly starts to build up a spell to bust out of here so she can tend to the chains then. Allowing the magic to build up in her horn, before aiming it at the membrane.

Until the enchantment back fires and hurtles her in to the thin layer behind her. A slight tear appears as it start to leak out along the side, and Twi turns around just in time to see it tear open entirely and spill her out on the floor as if she was just birthed all over again.

“Ack!” she gags as starts to finally smell the liquid, and even has some pour out of her nose while trying her best to clear the airway as she coughs. “Ugh…” the princess rolls over and tries her best to clench her stomach, feeling the bit that she swallowed not agreeing with her entirely as it tosses and turns. “Where… where am I?” she asks herself, not fully expecting to get an answer. It’s clear this is some sort of cell, a dungeon almost, somewhere deep, dark and cold.

“Don’t worry now Twilight, I’m here for you, dear…” a voice calls out.

Twilight starts to look around, the new hue to the room causing her eyes to dilate again at the change from greenish haze, to normal. Picking out only small details at first, a pair of wings, clean bright orange coat, and to top it all off… some of the most caring and lovely blue eyes she has ever seen. “F…Flash? Is that you?” she asks the guard as he steps in closer, lifting her up in his hooves as the princess remains sure that her eyes are fooling her.

“The one and only, sweet heart…” he nuzzles his nose against his princess’s.

“B-b-b-but…But, how?” she can’t believe it, the guard she loves is standing before her in probably what has to be one of the worst moments she had gone through. “Last time I saw you we were fighting Sombra in my home… he had me pinned, and threw my sword at…” her eyes widen as she looks at the guard.

Looking over his body, she can’t see a single scar or bruise on him. Not from the wound to his wing from the assassin, the broken ribs from Chrysalis, or even the sword in his gut from Sombra. None that he showed her before hoof either, from his past exploits.

The princess brings her chained hooves back and clocks the guard in his lower jaw as the metal weights add to the force, now trying to muster what strength she can to land another hit in on him. Though before she can, a green aura encapsulates her hoof, and soon her whole body, as she is lifted off the ground now while Flash stands there snickering to himself. The warm, caring and sweet blue eyes replaced with a pair of cold green irises as they glow in the absence of a horn.

“Now is that any way to treat your coltfriend…” he almost growls, “unless of course you’re in to that sort of thing… though that would be rather kinky of you.”

“What have you done with Flash?!” Twi snaps back at the imposter, ignoring every word that was said to her.

“Oh fine… you’re no fun,” in a ball of green light, the guard is changed out for the one at his core. Queen Chrysalis stands there now before Twilight as the monarch brushes back her mane with a hoof, “though I will say that it is kind of cute how you two hooked up with one another… really? The princess falling for her own guard, that’s just so… cliché, and kind of corny.”

“Where’s Flash?!” she screeches at the queen, so much so Twi doesn’t realize the black mist around her feet forming.

“Calm down now princess, I didn’t do a thing to him…” Chrysalis rolls her eyes, leaving her off with a smirk as she takes note of the haze, “though that’s nothing to say of what my king did to him…”

“Surprise!” a hoof comes out of the mist and gets sent in to Twilight’s jaw, knocking her to the ground as she lays defenseless.

Stars like her cutie mark start to twinkle in her mind and dance around her head as Twi tries to come to again. Looking up to see Sombra standing there now beside the queen as they both watch the Princess roll over, attempting to make herself somewhat decent at the time. The thoughts of Flash pouring in to her mind, after the image of seeing the blade, her blade! Go in to his gut and his life fluids leach out of him over the floor. Even with her magic, which has only grown more and more potent over time, the young alicorn is still unsure of her lover’s fate. Foolishly letting a single tear come to her eye, she shakes her head in an attempt to get rid of it.

“Awe… is some pony crying?” Sombra mocks the broken and sore princess below.

“You… both of you, are just…” she looks at them both, “Awful… Disgusting, vile creatures!”

“Nicest thing you’ve said to us so far, besides, that’s why we both get along just so well,” The queen grins, shooting her lover a glance for a second, “Well unless we are trying to kill one another…”

“We both know how that turned out last time,” The king cocks back a hoof and smacks the rump of the changeling, making Chrysalis jump at first as she tries to compose herself for the moment.

“Oh… you two are going to make me puke,” Twilight feels a rise in her stomach. The thought of these two together is too much to think about, but actually seeing it is a whole new level.

“Grow up, Princess… We’ll save that for later, King,” Chrysalis coos at him, “Besides there are other things that should be on your mind besides your precious Flash…”

Six spots on the ground light up, as each element is brought through the little portals. Each of them almost unrecognizable to the young princess from when she saw them so many times before. The colorful luster of each draining away as it’s replaced with a combination of black, red, and green filling up the spots as they are held in the queen’s green aura.

“The Elements…” Twilight mumbles under her breath.

“No dip…” the queen tuts back at her without missing a beat, “Ever sense Sombra so lovingly retrieved them for me. I’ve been working my magic on them, well actually his spell, but you get the point. In the end they will be corrupted and put to a much better use then you, your friends, or Princess Celestia could have ever imagined…Oh speaking of the princess… how does she like to be a tripod?” the wicked mare is reminded of her past exploits yet again, “I never got to see her try and flop around all that much after I K.O.ed her, though the look on her face after seeing her son die is priceless none the less.”

“YOU MONSTER!” Twilight roars out as she tries to use her horn yet again, a simple spell, nothing more than an energy bolt. Still backfiring in to her and knocking her in to the ground.

“Oh please, you can try as you might to cast whatever spell you’d like,” Sombra explains to her what she should have already put together, “though you won’t get through the Spell lock enchantment on you that I cast.”

Knowing full well that he is right, the princess sits back on her rump. Not like there is much more she can do in her predicament, she is tied up, and magic locked down. Even if the princess could make use of her horn. What would she do? Try and get out of her on her own, with these two, and an army chasing after her… not liable to survive that one very long.

“Why…” Twilight looks back up at the queen in the eye, a single tear falling down her face now unashamed, “…why did you do this? Havoc, he was nothing but a child… just as sweet as can be, and you snuffed the life out of him like he was some…some…pest! What had he ever done, what did any of us ever do other than defend ourselves???”

A mild smirk can be seen on Chrysalis’s face as she watches the confused mind of Twilight bear forth. The princess surely has no idea the mindset of the two in front of her, no clue as to why they would go to all the trouble to claim Equestria for their own. “You see Twilight Sparkle, my reason is simple…” she grabs the princess by the throat and brings a knee in to her gut. Hearing the sound of the breath being knocked clean out of her in an instant, as she crumples back to the floor.

“You see I wanted something in Equestria. I wanted all the love I could get… after all as the leader of my army I have to keep them fed. And what better way to do that than to rule over a country of my own, and let them harvest all the love and other petty emotions that you ponies so much enjoy to share with one another,” Chrysalis leans down now to get on her level, only to bring back her own hoof and clip Twilight in the cheek as pay back for the hit when she was impersonating Flash.

“There lies the problem, when I tried to take it, it was taken from me instead…” Twi grumbles after the hit from the queen. Feeling herself being pulled up by her own hair now as another hoof meets her in the ribs and causes her to skip across the ground. “I’m a Queen!” she roars out from the deepest part of her throat, “you do not hold back, or hold out on me when I want something, and I always get…what…I…want,” Chrysalis drags the princess back by her feet in front of her, quickly returning with a straight forward head butt. Leaving a cut across Twilight’s precious face as the skin splits open and she hits the ground once again.

The punishment she is getting from the queen is starting to take its toll on the princess, which is nothing to say about the beating from the king. Sombra steps over the twitching mare on the ground, “You see…” Sombra starts off, “While Chrysalis here wanted all of Equestria under her rule so she and her changelings can feed. My desire is much, much simpler,” he stomps a hoof down on the chain links around the princesses fore hooves.

The added metal scrapes in to her skin as the mare lets out a foalish yelp in response from feeling the rusted links dig in to the tissue. Quickly biting her own tongue so as to keep her own dignity to some degree though and not give in, the king can see it across her face as she holds back a dam of tears. “Well you managed to hold yourself together for a bit longer, congrats… though my turn. The Crystal Empire was mine to begin with, well sort of…” he mulls a hoof over in the air, “I took it over fair and square, and after it was taken from me by none other than Celestia and Luna themselves, I obviously would want it back…” he uses his own magic to lift her by around the neck, listening to the soft choking gags coming from the lavender pony, “…after all, I’m their king,” he choke slams her in to the ground. The sound of a distinct crack coming from her shoulder as the joint itself pops out, leaving her limb limp there to tangle against the tug of the chains.

“Agrh!” she mutters, quickly biting down on her lip.

“Go on, let it out…” Sombra grabs her now floppy limp limb. Wrapping it around and around just to see how much it can go.

“Agh! Please!” she manages to get out, before feeling another pop as the king surprisingly puts the joint back in to place. Though for motives much different than she would have hoped. “You both have reason to hate Equestria for what has happened…” Twilight tries to reason with them, while doing her best to stay still and not do any more harm to herself, “… but we did only what you would have expected. If your kingdoms were attacked, wouldn’t you defend them?”

“How right you are…” Sombra puts her in a head lock, choking the life out of her once again, “… but it’s a different story when you are the one that is trying to attack,” he lifts her up over top of his head and hurtles the princess in to the wall. Watching as a few pieces of brick from the structure drop and land about her, leaving a coat of grey dust in some spots on her body, “you see that just allows one to hold a grudge against a kingdom then, or a pony, or whatever it may be.”

“Why… why don’t you just kill me already?” Twilight finally asks the magic question. She has grown tired from them playing with her, toying with their prey for some time now like a pair of raved Timberwolves enjoying themselves like it’s a sport. “If you’re just going to do it in the end, then why not do it now?”

“Oh that answer we can both share in our reasons…” Chrysalis jumps in on the conversation. Levitating Twi over to them as she holds both she and the elements in her grasps as she continues to pump them full of magic, “our down falls may have been somewhat our fault by underestimating those around us…”

“Me, for the crystal ponies that inhabit my empire,” Sombra answers with a regal hoof held to his chest.

“And myself, forgetting to study more on the princess of loves own past of ponies she was close to,” Chrysalis admits her own faults, “though they could have still worked it if hadn’t been for a particular mare also…” she points to Twi as she floats there in her grasp, “You…”

“You were the reason the Chrystal Heart was found, and I got cast back in to the darkness!” Sombra simply upper cuts her in the jaw and sends the princess spinning back as she feels blood start to fill her mouth after the hit. Coming to a stop as the queen cracks her own neck, and holds Twilight right where she wants her. Drops of blood fall down and out of her mouth now as she tries to lift her head to see the Queen eye to eye.

“And you are the reason, I was found out in the first place at the wedding!” Chrysalis jumps up in the air and manages to spin kick the mare with enough force in the blow to almost make her lose consciousness again.

Instead, Twi spins about until she is brought back under control from the magic, and dropped to the floor in a limp pile of a pitiful excuse for a princess. Sombra adds insult to injury as he leans down and spits on the mare, right in her face, while the queen can only chuckle at the gesture.

“You see, Twilight, we don’t want to kill you…” Chrysalis explains as she steps right up next to the motionless princess and flips her over to make sure she is still alive. Watching only the half opened eyes, barely even look at her while they remain almost hidden behind blood, tears, sweat, and swollen tissue.

“We want you to suffer…” King Sombra grins as he looks at the mare laying there on the ground after their toying with her.

“If we wanted you to die we could have done it by now… with nothing more than the flick of the wrist.”

“But there is so much more in store for you when my queen is done…” Sombra and Chrysalis start to play off of one another.

“…the use of the elements against Canterlot and the remaining royal family…”

“…the burning of town after town when all are brought to their knees…”

“…My king will retake his empire and have all the slaves he could need…” she winks at him.

“…While my Queen has her fun out in Equestria, slicing and killing all those that oppose us both as I come in for her back up,” Sombra grins at the malevolent mare across from him, getting closer and closer to one another until they meet in the middle in an act of pure wicked attraction.

Their lips lock while the heat from them both starts to pass between themselves, the lust feeding them both, all the while Twilight lays there still. Although she has taken a beating from the two, she is still not out for the count… so far. The evil lover’s lips finally part as Chrysalis laps up his wonderful taste on her lips, “now isn’t it just a wonderful sight to picture…”

“The burning of Equestria… and soon the other nations to follow,” Sombra begins to imagine the legions of soldiers marching off to war in the name of the new nation to be born from this hell. “Absolutely glorious…” he gasps and almost even starts to get a hard on from just the thought of the blood to be spilled, “Though for now… I will take the fall of Canterlot while the Elements charge,” he looks back at the door to the room leading out, “I will send a changeling in here to patch her up so she doesn’t die…well to soon at least…” Sombra states, turning back to his lover “I trust you can keep yourself from killing her until then?”

“Would you like me to use these on you?” Chrysalis mocks him while she still remains attached to the Elements as they draw from her energy.

“Not a chance, my Queen…” he gives her a quick peck on the cheek that she wasn’t even expecting from him.

Much less seeing the fact that he leans down more and nibbles a bit on her neck, hearing the slight pant escape from her chest as her heart rate jumps. Though as she is about to grab him and give the king something else to think about, Sombra surprisingly almost skips off out of the cell with an extra pep in his step then she is used to.

“That’s such a tease!” Chrysalis yells back at him, knowing that it’s doubtful that he can even hear her in his bliss. The queen quickly turns back in to the room and her guest, “Ugh… he can be such a pain sometimes… and I like it,” she starts to fiddle with her hooves without even realizing it.

“I know…” Twilight mumbles weakly out from under her breath, “I know…everything.”

“Oh do you now?” Chrysalis answers sarcastically.

“I know you wanted to convert the Elements of Harmony to your own use… I also know, you intended on getting Sombra to fall for you… it was your plan all along,” Twilight manages to raise her head slightly, seeing the somewhat surprised look on the queen’s face. That is until it turns flat once again.

“One of my changelings didn’t off themselves, did they?”

“Nope…” the slight glimmer of a smile cracks on Twilight’s face, paying attention to the obvious sign that the queen didn’t see this coming from her, “…you never wanted him like he thinks you do. You are leading him on, and allowing Sombra to dig his own grave around you. All you are using him for is as a battery, to recharge yourself.”

Even the queen is taken back from the blatant response from the normally composed princess, every one of her words holds a sting to it, though she should have expected this at some point. After all Twilight did the same thing at Shining and Cadances wedding when she herself was exposed.

“You are the clever one aren’t you?” Chrysalis tires to hide the blush in her face, “Though you don’t know the half of it…” she glances away in an attempt to hide the expression.

“I know enough… you are a heartless witch!” Twilight snaps back at her, even in her broken state. “You kill foals, destroy entire families, and try to overthrow kingdoms! You are nothing but a rotting mare with holes in her legs. Who can’t and never will, understand the meaning of the word love!”

“You don’t think I understand love!” the queen cracks her neck as she turns her head back to the mare, “I feed off of it, I crave it, I desire all of it… it’s what gives me strength!” her head starts to lower a bit as she still comes to terms with the next part, “And gives me, weakness…” she mumbles out, not catching the slight flicker in the princess’s ear. “Feeding on pure Anger and Rage can get you far, but falters in time. Lust is sporadic and is hard for a changeling to feed from, because it barley even has any meaning to it. But Love?” Chrysalis doesn’t even realize that her own lips start to quiver at the thought from when they met Sombra’s for the first time. It was only a plan at first, but it started to change, the more she was around him.

“That emotion is nothing but pure ecstasy to my kind, hence why I crave it so much… you have no idea what it’s like to crave something, and never be able to have it, other than from stealing it away. But to feel love from another, given to you not because of a mask, but for who you are?”

The queen even starts to shake as her legs wobble in place at the thought shooting through her head, “I am one who would understand it, more than any pony could ever hope!” Twilight holds her head back, as the queen gets closer and closer to her own face. The slight trace of something more in her dark green eyes, shows something she has desired more than ever before in the past, and what she has now. Displayed in a single tear escaping her eye, as it runs down her bashful cheek.

“…True…Love?” Twilight mutters to herself slowly, trying to make sense of what she just heard. “You… you’re really starting to, love him?”

“Shouldn’t it have been obvious by now?” Chrysalis takes a step or two back from Twi, as the princess puts it together now.

“I didn’t know changelings could even feel for that matter,” Twilight spills, truly not having many books on changelings in her library, sadly, “I thought they just were a parasite, and fed off of others.”

“It’s one thing to feed from it, dear…” the queen remarks as she steps towards the door, “…it’s a whole new thing, to feel it… I’m starting to learn that one, Princess Twilight,” Chrysalis manages to hide the color in her cheeks, and some more water works falling down her face. With that the leader of the changelings leaves the young alicorn’s presence as she is all alone once more now in chains. Though now, with something more to think about.

‘She is actually starting to love another…’ Twilight ponders, ‘and it just so happens to be the once king of another empire, and they both have their own grudges against Equestria… how great,’ sarcasm flows freely at that last thought. Chrysalis and Sombra, who would have thought? Though it is a match made in Tartarus for those that have to deal with it.

Twilight wouldn’t have expected it, but right now on top of this she has her own thoughts as well. Flash is back in Pony Ville, she doesn’t know if any pony has gotten to him or not, and the spell may have worked…

“But it may have not…” she lets the thought enter her mind as she shakes her head trying to get rid of it, “…no… he has to be okay… he just has to…” a few tears start to fall down around her face at the thought of losing her guard, her Flash, “Flash Sentry…” Twilight looks up from her sad little spot on the ground to the empty air above, hoping that even in her mind that she is heard. It brings some sort of comfort to her to say, “…Flash… I love you, please, be safe.”