Shining Armor's ear twitched at the loud, drawn out creak of a heavy wooden door as it opened. Blinded as he was in the near darkness of his cell, he couldn't see who had entered the dungeon, nor could he move to get a better look—the heavy chains firmly holding him in place against the back wall.

It didn't matter if he could see or not though, as he had a fairly good idea of who had entered the dungeon—it was only ever the one creature after all.

Hastened hoofsteps told him she was agitated about something, and he couldn't help but smile vindictively. His smile turned into a grimace as the anti-magic horn ring sent another bolt of pain through his horn, but he didn't cry out... he never cried out, not anymore.

The hurried hoofsteps drew nearer and a moment later, they stopped directly in front of his cell.

"We need to talk."

The battered stallion almost laughed out loud, but managed to reduce his incredulous laugh to a small incredulous snort instead. He looked up to see two predatory emerald eyes that seemed to glow in the dim light of the dungeon.

"Really, Chrysalis?" he replied, his tone dripping with disbelief, "you want to talk? Now?"

"Indeed, Shining Armor," Chrysalis, "there's been a new... development regarding your sister and her friends," she tilted her head and grinned at the suddenly wide eyed stallion, "I imagine that's a subject you'd be more than willing to discuss, no?"

"Twily," he muttered, a flicker of pain crossing his features before quickly changing to one of anger as he eyed the Queen, "what kind of development?"

Chrysalis smiled a toothy smile that would've made the stallion shiver had he not grown used to it by now.

"I promised you your sister was alive, and that you'd eventually get to see her again, did I not?"

"And I took that promise with a grain of salt," Shining retorted, "I don't even know why you bothered to feed me that lie," he sneered, "I know how you work, False Queen. I know what you've done in order to put that monster on my wife's thro—"

A pair of black hole riddled hooves slammed against the diamond bars of the cell, causing Shining to flinch slightly. He waited for the inevitable furious shout that alway arose when he called her by that title, but to his surprise, it never came.

He looked back over to Chrysalis and saw the fury smoldering in her eyes and the angry clench of her teeth, but she held her tongue. Rather, after a moment of silent fuming, she inhaled through her nose and stepped back from the bars as she exhaled through her mouth.

"This is far more important," she muttered to herself before looking back to Shining Armor—her features suddenly businesslike, "I have not told you what's become of the Elements because I felt it wasn't necessary, but things have changed."

Shining Armor furrowed his brows at Chrysalis' sudden change in demeanor, but otherwise said nothing in response, prompting Chrysalis to continue.

"The truth is, your sister and her friends were part of an experiment concocted by Sombra," she explained, "it was carried out by myself and several scientists in secret back when I first began posing as Luna over sixteen years ago."

Shining Armor's eyes widened in shock. Before he could say anything, Chrysalis' raised a hoof, cutting him off sharply.

"I'm not finished, foal," she interjected, "as you probably already guessed, the incident involving the missing Crystal Heart was part of Sombra's plan to take over the Crystal Empire... but what you don't know, is that his victory over you, Cadence, and the Elements was only the first part of another plan."

"And I'm assuming it had something to do with these experiments," Shining surmised, shooting Chrysalis a venomous glare, "am I right?"

"Indeed," Chrysalis confirmed with a nod, "you see, Sombra wasn't satisfied with simply taking over the Crystal Empire, he wanted more. He wanted to cement his power—make sure that no one would be able to oppose him."

She looked away, her eyes narrowing.

"The fool wanted the perfect soldiers," she scoffed, "absolutely unstoppable, infinitely loyal, and brutally proficient in what they were tasked to do. To that end he turned to science of all things to get the job done—though he did add a fair amount of his own dark magic into the mix."

"The perfect soldiers?" Shining asked, his face scrunching up in bewilderment, "what's that have to do... with... wait... no..."

Shining's eyes slowly widened in realization and Chrysalis gave a single grave nod of her head in response.

"He had planned to turn your sister and her friends into mindlessly loyal killing machines," she chuckled humorlessly, "he used a combination of science and dark magic to create a virus that would completely breakdown and remake the Elements into those perfect, unstoppable soldiers."

"And you... you helped him do it?!" Shining growled, "you helped him turn my sister into a monster?!"

"While it's true Sombra came up with the idea, his grasp of modern science is somewhat... lacking," Chrysalis smirked to herself, "so in reality it was actually myself and the scientists I had employed that did more or less all of the work."

Chrysalis' amused smirk became an annoyed frown as she watched Shining Armor struggle against his chains in order to get at her. She sighed and rolled her eyes at the stallion's angry grunts and pointless struggling.

"If it weren't for me, your sister would already be Sombra's little puppet soldier along with the other Elements."

That stopped Shining Armor short and he stared at the changeling queen in confusion and distrust.

"What are you talking about?" Shining asked, "you're telling me you rescued them after what you yourself—"

"I'm telling you," Chrysalis growled impatiently, "that had I not thought ahead and sabotaged Sombra's precious virus, he'd have your sister and her friends in his clutches, and we'd all be powerless to stop him. It was I that tweaked the virus so that they couldn't fall under Sombra's control."

"We'd all... wait," Shining furrowed his brow in confusion, "you're trying to overthrow Sombra?"

"I'm trying to save my children!"

Shining Armor winced, not at the volume of Chrysalis' voice, but at the earnest desperation in her words. It made him stop and really look at his captor. He was once more shocked by what he saw.

Chrysalis was thin and haggard looking—as though she would waste away at any moment. Behind all the arrogance and pride, he saw fear, sorrow, and... regret? But that couldn't have been the case. After all, she had wealth, power and control all the things Chrysalis had wanted in the first place... right?

"You want to know the real reason I came down here to talk to you, Shining Armor?" she growled, propping her hooves up on the bars, "I came down here because I... I need your help. I have a plan, but I can't do it alone, not with Sombra keeping such a close eye on me."

Her hooves slid down the bars and she lowered her gaze.

"I can't let him find out what I'm planning... not with what he's planning to do with what remains of my children."

There was a long moment of tense silence broken only by the steady drip of water falling from rusted old leaky pipes overhead. Shining Armor frowned thoughtfully before raising his head and giving Chrysalis a level stare.

"Why did you do it?" he asked, confusing the haggard queen, "why did you listen to him? Why did you go along with what he wanted if it was going to make you this miserable?"

"...Because I didn't know any better, alright?" Chrysalis admitted begrudgingly, "I thought he'd give me the power I needed to take my revenge on you, Cadence, Celestia, and those wretched Elements."

"But now?"

Chrysalis sighed and stepped away from the cell as she spoke.

"Now I realize the cost of such power wasn't worth it, and I realize just how much of a fool I really am," she replied morosely, "I tried to keep up appearances, tried to be the powerful queen I had always strived to be for my children and the peons I ruled over... but I can't do it anymore."

She lowered herself to the ground and turned to look back over to Shining Armor.

"I'm dying, Shining Armor, and my children will soon follow if I don't get them the love they need."

"You're... but wait," Shining Armor struggled to make sense of the changeling before him—to reconcile this broken creature with the proud, arrogant Queen he had become accustomed to for all these years, "you said you're changelings aren't getting enough love? You're the Queen of both the Crystal Empire and Equestria! Shouldn't you be—"

"Do you know how many changelings I have left, Shining Armor?"

The stallion shut his mouth at the look Chrysalis gave him and the changeling queen spoke again.

"One thousand, five-hundred and fifty three spread across the Crystal Empire, Griffonia, and Equestria," she continued, "and I'm far too weak to produce any more than that."

She stood back up and trotted back over to Shining's cell.

"The love that once washed over this place like a thick fog is no more," Chrysalis stared into Shining Armor's eyes, willing him to understand just how grave the situation was, "I may not be behind diamond bars like you, but make no mistake, Shining Armor, I'm just as much a prisoner as you are."

She stepped away and lit her horn.

"The biggest difference here... is that my own prison is slowly killing me."

Shining Armor simply stared at Chrysalis in stunned silence. He didn't even react at the sound of a lock clicking and the barred door of his cell swinging open. He finally came to his senses when the locks to his chains were undone and he fell to the floor.

"You're... you're letting me go?" Shining asked, rising to his hooves unsteadily, "but why? What's your plan?"

Chrysalis brought the key she had used to unlock the door and chains back over to herself. She turned to the side and nodded towards something Shining couldn't see from where he was standing.

He saw a bright flash of green light and two changelings trotted into view carrying an unconscious unicorn stallion in Crystal Guard armor. They quickly and silently brushed past a confused Shining and—using the key Chrysalis floated over to them—went about chaining up the stallion in Shining's place.

A quiet click and a sudden release of pressure in his horn caught Shining's attention. He reach up with a hoof, only to find the ring sealing his magic was gone. He looked over to see Chrysalis floating it onto the guards own horn.

"I don't have much more time to explain, so here's the short story," Chrysalis finally replied, lighting up her horn once again, "shortly after the Crystal Empire fell to Sombra, your sister and her friends were offered another chance to save the Crystal Empire and Equestria."

Shining tried to focus on Chrysalis' words as he watched the unconscious guard—now completely chained up against the wall as he was not too long ago—transformed, becoming an exact copy of Shining himself, right down to the dirty coat and mane, as well as the old bruises he had sustained from past interrogations.

"The guise should hold for at least a week," Chrysalis said, forestalling Shining's questions, "once he wakes up, he'll believe he's you to a fault. This should give us enough time to do what needs to be done."

She eyed the disguised stallion for a moment longer before turning back to Shining Armor.

"As I was saying, the Elements were all taken to Sky Talon Labs located on the Griffonian continent," she continued, "there, they were administered the virus and it's there that they've been kept detained for the last sixteen years... that is, until now."

Shining stepped out of the prison cell as the two changelings closed the cell door and locked it once more. As he watched the two return the key to Chrysalis, he silently took in her words, trying to get a handle on how he felt about the situation.

"Now they've awakened, and have no doubt already escaped the facility," Chrysalis said matter-of-factly, "they're most likely stranded somewhere in Griffonia. I have the changelings I posted in Griffonia searching for them as we speak, but that's not for you to worry about at the moment."

"What the buck do you mean 'that's not for me to worry about'?" Shining growled indignantly, "my sister is out there somewhere and—"

"And she'll be fine... trust me," Chrysalis assured with a knowing smirk, "she and the others can take care of themselves," her smirk fell away and she moved to a far wall in the back of the dungeon, motioning for Shining to follow, "more importantly I need you to do something else."

Shining, curious despite himself, watched as Chrysalis' horn lit up once more. The same green light enveloped a seemingly nondescript piece of the wall and pushed it forward, revealing a small squared tunnel leading to Shining didn't know where.

Chrysalis turned back to the surprised stallion with a grim frown.

"You will accompany these two changelings to a specific rendezvous point just outside the city," she explained, "there you'll meet the contact and discuss the plan I've put into place and how to accomplish it."

At Chrysalis' words, the two changelings saluted and one of them pushed Shining towards the tunnel. Shining stumbled a bit and gave the changeling a look before turning back to Chrysalis with an uncertain expression.

"So... you're really doing this then?" he asked, still somewhat wary, "you're really setting me free and going against Sombra?"

"I wouldn't have gone through all this trouble otherwise," Chrysalis replied impatiently, "I care not what happens to me in the end as long as my children stay safe. They don't need me to flourish. Once I'm gone, a new Queen will take my place."

"What? How?"

"That's not for you to worry about," Chrysalis hissed before pushing Shining into the tunnel—the changelings following in after him, "now go! I'm sure your wife has waited long enough!"

"Wait, what—"

The wall slid shut with a muffled bang.

Next Chapter: Plans Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 56 Minutes