The oppressive presence of Shroud makes Chrysalis' gasp for air.
This is the first time Chrysalis can get a proper look at the first queen. Unlike Chrysalis' sharply contrasting black and teal scheme, Shroud is almost monochromatically grey, although her smooth mane and tail are more silvery white compared to her dusty grey coat. In the memory where Haze easily defeated her, Shroud was desperate, at the end of her rope, and facing the pinnacle of changeling power. Now, despite the two queens looking eye to eye, Shroud feels as if she's towering over Chrysalis.
"Look," Chrysalis steadies her voice as she lowers herself into a combat stance, "You had the opportunity to see where your meddling led us. We are a species near extinction-"
Chrysalis barely catches the silvery white blur of Shroud's eyes and mane as the ancient queen attacks, and manages to raise her forelegs to block the presumed blow.
The attack connects, its loud crack spreading through the hive mind, forcing Chrysalis to stumble backwards, and a few things cross her mind at once. One - Shroud isn't physically strong. Two - she is quick, but not warrior levels of quick. Three - she simply tried to punch Chrysalis, not spear her or hack her head off using any transformation.
Burning off her love to create her own prison must have worked.
Chrysalis mentally lashes out in response, curious how the strength of her mind would match against Shroud...
...and hits nothing as if the old queen wasn't even right in front of her.
That moment of surprise is enough, and Chrysalis' world goes pitch black, leaving two glowing, white eyes the only visible thing like two moons in the night sky.
***
A member of a crowd under a podium in the center of their forest village, Star Seer is standing next to his wife, between whose forelegs sits their colt in his early teens. Nearly the entire tribe, over three thousand heads, gathered here in anticipation to listen to what their leader has to say.
Of course, they all heard the rumors that a war was coming and despite their location deep in the woods they wouldn't be spared. The young, barely united nation of Equestria already attracted terrifying enemies from overseas.
While the central plaza is completely silent, Star Seer's mind is crowded with voices of everypony gathered here, all anxious but ready to play their part for the safety of their new nation despite not knowing what the role would be.
The voices go silent, and Star Seer nuzzles his wife as their visibly nervous chieftain walks onto the dais and up to the podium, followed by his two guards, one of them giving a ride to Misty, the chieftain's little daughter, and the other a unicorn wearing full plate armor decorated with golden symbols of the sun.
The chieftain clears his throat. Clearly, there are more foreign pony guests watching so he's about to speak out loud instead of normal telepathy.
"Ahem, I, umm-" he pauses, "Can everypony hear me?" he turns towards the armored unicorn when he sees almost half of the gathered ponies exchange confused looks, "Hey, I don't think they can all hear me. Can you magic something up?"
The unicorn's horn flashes and he nods.
"Let's try- whoah!" the chieftain leans backwards in surprise at his newly amplified voice.
"Think we can all hear you now, Wistful!" somepony calls out.
"Yeah! I think even the yaks in the north heard you this time!" somepony adds to the laughter of the crowd.
YOU ARE READING
They're EVERYWHERE!
FanfictionNo one really knows how many changelings were present during the invasion of Canterlot. Unfortunately for the rest of the world, it also means that the love explosion scattered them all over the surface of Equus. These are stories of their Queen and...
