Queen Chrysalis

"(laughing) Right you are, Princess. And as queen of the changelings, it is up to me to find food for my subjects. Equestria has more love than any place I've ever encountered. My fellow changelings will be able to devour so much of it that we will gain more power than we have ever dreamed of!"

- Chrysalis explaining her true plot

Queen Chrysalis is the changeling Queen. She appears in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and serves as the main antagonist of Season 2's two-part finale "A Canterlot Wedding", as well as the comic series The Return of Queen Chrysalis set after Season 2. She is a shapeshifter who took on the form of Princess Cadance in order to invade Canterlot by taking Cadance's place and render her husband-to-be, Shining Armor, unable to perform his duties as Captain of the Royal Guard.

Appearance
Queen Chrysalis is a changeling and thus a shapeshifter capable of taking many forms. She spends the entirety of "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1" and the beginning of "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2" in the form of Princess Cadance.

Only the occasional flashes of her own green eyes and the color of her magic differ from that of Cadance's own. Her true form looks like a pony with a twisted and gnarled unicorn horn, a pair of insectoid wings, and stands as tall as Princess Celestia herself. Unlike a pony however, she has black skin, a sharp pair of fangs, dark green eyes with vertical, dragon-like pupils and no visible cutie mark. Interestingly, her eyes have a double pupil: a vertical, dragon-like one within a normal round one.

She has a teal mane and tail, and also seems to have a greenish saddle, blue-green rib plate, and a small, black crown tipped with blue circles. Her voice has a layered quality, as if two people were speaking in sync. All of her hooves are full of holes in them, yet she can stand firmly on the ground. Her limbs, along with her torso, are extremely skinny.

Role
Chrysalis first makes an appearance in "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1," disguised as Princess Cadance. Sometime before the episode takes place, when the Princess was going to marry Twilight's brother Shining Armor, Queen Chrysalis imprisoned her and took her form, becoming more powerful by feeding off Shining Armor's love for her, and making him unable to perform his duties as a royal guard.

When the main six arrive from Ponyville to help with the wedding plans, she shows disinterest both in Twilight and everything else set up for the wedding. When Twilight figured out that she was evil, and confronted her, she secretly imprisoned Twilight in the caves below Canterlot.

The next episode "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2," begins with Chrysalis, still in Cadance's form, taunting Twilight and telling her that she's using Shining Armor for her own ends. Twilight and the real Cadance, also imprisoned by the Changeling Queen, find each other. Eventually, they escaped and confronted Chrysalis, who then revealed her true form, for the first time.

She then tells everyone of her intentions and plan to siege Canterlot, and managed to defeat Celestia, thanks to the power of Shining Armor's love and imprison her in a cocoon. Her minions, the changelings, were then able to break through the barrier (which Shining Armor projected due to Chrysalis's earlier threats) and invade Canterlot, with plans to invade the rest of Equestria afterwards.

Twilight and her friends tried to get to the Elements of Harmony, but were captured by the changelings before reaching them. The episode ends with Shining Armor, no longer under the Queen's control, using the power of Cadance's love to unleash an energy explosion that sent all the changelings, including Chrysalis, flying into the distance.

She has yet to be seen again in the show after this.

Depiction in the comics


In the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic comic, The Return of Queen Chrysalis, Chrysalis is shown to survive her fall, landing in a town of cat people, although she and her changelings were weakened from it. So they drained the cats of their love to regain their strength, transforming it into a Changeling Kingdom, and Chrysalis decided to become powerful enough to invade Canterlot again by draining Twilight of her magic at the time of the Secretariat Comet.

In Issue #1, the changelings imprisoned the ponies of Ponyville in cocoons and replaced them with changelings, but the Mane 6 defeated the changelings and rescued all the ponies except the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Chrysalis had them imprisoned at the changeling kingdom, but would often get annoyed by them. She contacted the Mane 6 and told them to come to her kingdom to rescue them, but cut off her transmission after Scootaloo commented on her monologuing and about to reveal her plan.

In Issue #2, Chrysalis sent changelings to cause a cave-in when the ponies were traveling under the Appleloosan Mountains, separating them into pairs, then the changelings impersonated the other ponies and each insulted one of the other pairs within earshot, turning them against each other. Chrysalis found this amusing, but the Cutie Mark Crusaders continued to annoy her.

In Issue #3, she told the Cutie Mark Crusaders about how she took over the cats' town (which is apparently called Wuvy-Dovey Smoochy Land), and when asked what she did to the cats, she told them she'd show them if they didn't shut up, hinting she did something horrible to them. She watched Twilight and Fluttershy through her crystal ball while having changelings report on what the other four were up to. When the ponies looked like they were going to get back together, Chrysalis revealed to them that it wasn't part of her evil plan to turn them against one another, but an added bonus. She intended to destroy Twilight after draining her magic, causing her friends' emotions to spike and making them a big meal for the changelings. While taunting the Cutie Mark Crusaders for their innocence, Chrysalis violently killed one of the cats (who was holding up a heart saying "Love Conquers All"). Note that the comic does not actually show Chrysalis killing the cat, only implying something bad happened to it, so it is truly unknown what she did. Eventually the Mane 6 got back together and continued to the changeling kingdom.

In Issue #4, Chrysalis decided she was done with the Cutie Mark Crusaders and wanted to be rid of them; it is unknown whether it was to banish them, kill them, or use them as food.. She told the Mane 6 to find her behind one of many doors, from which Mola Ram, Pennywise, the twins from The Shining, and the Phantom of the Opera appeared in pony form, before Chrysalis asked them a riddle, which Pinkie Pie answered, and Chrysalis opened the door. Twilight fought Chrysalis while her changelings imprisoned her friends in cocoons, and when Twilight unleashed a powerful magic beam on Chrysalis, she decided to make Twilight her apprentice instead of draining her magic, and got her to accept by threatening to drain her friends if she didn't. When Chrysalis revealed her intent to drain Twilight of her love and have her drain her friends instead, Twilight refused, and when the Secretariat Comet flew by, Twilight was powered up and defeated Chrysalis and her army with a magic beam. Chrysalis and her changelings survived, but were imprisoned in their castle by Pinkie Pie, who annoyed them by having her costume in the doorway asking riddles and singing the song that never ends. Twilight said she wouldn't be able to break out "for a while".

Recently, on page 11 of Friends Forever Issue #8, a sign under the Mount Monument observation deck reads "Sign the petition to add Queen Chrysalis to the monument" and bears Chrysalis' fresh signature, which in turn strongly suggests they have since recovered and are back to plotting and causing trouble for Equestria.

In Issue 5 of Fiendship is Magic, which is in continuity with The Return of Queen Chrysalis, the Mane 6 visit the imprisoned Chrysalis in her castle, which is under guard by royal guards, to make sure that her imprisonment is going according to plan, as she is to receive a thousand-year punishment for her crimes (which includes being banned from cake). By now she is in an extremely weakened state, as she and her minions barely eat any of their food. It is mentioned that a thousand years ago she destroyed the city of Timbucktu.

''Note: It is up for debate whether the comics are canon. Andy Price has said that the fans can decide for themselves. Also of note, none of the comic-exclusive locations are shown on the official map of Equestria, although this is because they are south of Macintosh Hills, which is the farthest point south on the map.''

Reception
Chrysalis was once regarded as "best villain", alongside Discord, by many, who loved her for being darker and having more epic battles than her two predecessors (as well as some praising her appearance and song). Chrysalis gained more popularity when Discord lost some due to his redemption, although Discord has since regained much of his popularity. She has appeared in some fan videos.

Despite her taking a fall over a mountain and seeming unable to use her wings, a scenario she is unlikely to survive, most fans refused to even consider the possibility of Chrysalis's death out of love for the character. This was later repeated with King Sombra even though he was disintegrated onscreen. Meghan has been silent about Chrysalis but confirmed Sombra's death. It was because of this that the IDW comics (which may or may not be canon) brought her back in their first arc, both because fans wanted her to return and because many of the writers themselves are bronies and pegasisters.

Chrysalis has since been outshined by Tirek, whose battle is more epic than hers, although in a complete reversal of the Chrysalis and Sombra scenario, many were disappointed that he wasn't killed, and some, out of hate for the character, have speculated that Cerberus eats him as punishment for sending the princesses to Tartarus, or that he was killed either the first time or second time he was sent to Tartarus (as it is the pony equivalent to Hell).

Some have written fanfics that depict her as more sympathetic than depicted in the show, saying that she only did what she had to do to survive (although Cadance and Chrysalis state that she consumes love to gain power, and the Elements of Harmony book says that she and her subjects crave destruction).

Fate and speculation
There are several possibilites of Chrysalis's fate after her defeat in A Canterlot Wedding, largely dependent upon whether fans choose to take the comics as canon as described above. Despite confirming the death of King Sombra, Meghan McCarthy has not addressed the fate of Chrysalis. It is believed this was done to give everyone the freedom to decide for themselves what they think happened with her, given the various interpretations and the comics.
 * Chrysalis was killed from the fall, as she seemed unable to use her wings (which is touched upon in the comic) and had quite a long way to fall seeing how high up Canterlot is.
 * Chrysalis was banished from Equestria by the attack and has no means of returning, mainly for fear of a similar defeat.
 * As depicted in the comics, Chrysalis survives her fall, attempts revenge with the help of the Secretariat Comet, but is defeated and imprisoned in a room in her castle, where she will not get out "for a while", which is up for interpretation (presumably done to temporarily put her out of commission until she is brought back for another issue). On page 11 of Friends Forever Issue #8, a sign under the Mount Monument observation deck reads "Sign the petition to add Queen Chrysalis to the monument" and bears Chrysalis' fresh signature, which in turn strongly suggests she and her minions have since recovered and are back to plotting and causing trouble for Equestria.
 * Chrysalis could possibly return in a later episode. Lately fans have said that her return would be either repetitive, ruin her character, or not be long enough as four princesses and Discord could easily defeat her. It was also speculated she might be the series' final antagonist to crash the Equestria games and be defeated by whatever's inside the box (which was proven wrong as the Equestria Games episode has no villain and the Season 4 finale featured Tirek), but others have thought that her returns will likely be restricted to the comics.
 * When asked whether Chrysalis would return in Season 5, the SDCC panel said "In spirit, and maybe".

Personality
Her actions in in "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1" and "2" shows Chrysalis to be a talented trickster and a master of deceit. She fools Twilight's friends, Shining Armor, and even Cadance's aunt, Princess Celestia to believe that she was the real Princess Cadance.

She is manipulative and unempathetic as she turns Twlight's family and friends against her after been confronted about her rude and strange behavior. She also enjoys seeing others suffer and making fun of her victims, as she enjoyed telling Twilight that she saw through her and no one believed her. While capable to mimic Cadance well enough to fool most, she was unable to fool Twilight Sparkle for long due to the demanding and insincere behavior she displays thoughout the first episode. When Twilight attempts to do a special handshake of her and Cadance's, she doesn't recognize Twilight at all, alerting her of "Cadance"'s changed nature. She also acted rude and demanding toward Twilight's friends, in stark contrast to the real Cadance who Twilight describes as "caring" and "kind". Queen Chrysalis, on the other hand, is cruel, uncaring and manipulative.

She is also shown to be very fierce and ruthless, as she ordered her minions to attack the main six and everyone in Canterlot, as well as dueling and even defeating Celestia (due to Shining Armor's "love").

In "A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2", she reveals that her motivation for trying to take over Equestria stems from changelings' source of nourishment being true love and that Equestria has "more love than [she has] ever encountered [before]" and plans to have her minions and herself devour it to make themselves more powerful.

Powers and abilities
Like other changelings, Chrysalis can take the form of another, although it is unclear if she can transform into any pony that isn't an alicorn (her minions are only shown to turn into earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi), as the only pony she has taken the form of onscreen is Princess Cadance. She gains power by feeding off a pony's love by taking the form of one he loves. By consuming Shining Armor's love for Cadance she became even more powerful than Princess Celestia.

Like unicorns, Chrysalis can use magic with her horn. Her magic is green and resembles fire. Her magic stays green even when transformed into another pony, as witnessed when she took Cadance's form. Over time she is able to brainwash Shining Armor. She also brainwashes Lyra, Twinkleshine, and Minuette.

In the comics, Chrysalis also seems to be immune to long falls (as well as the other changelings), as she survives a fall over the edge of Canterlot, which exceeds two separate falls which would have been fatal to Twilight if she had not been saved from one and cushioned from the other. Issue 3 confirms that she did not catch herself in midair with her wings, as she landed face first on the ground. This immunity is shared by Team Rocket and The Joker. Although as it weakened her this could have been because she increased her power from feeding off Shining Armor's love, but the other changelings survived the fall as well. (This is only if the comics are canon, which Andy Price has said he'll let the fans decide for themselves.)

Chrysalis also has the power to trap ponies inside cocoons. Whether this is for the purpose of transforming them into a demonic pony or merely a way of imprisoning them is unknown. Princess Celestia was released shortly after imprisonment when Shining Armor and Cadance defeated Chrysalis, and in the comics, all the ponies captured by the changelings, except the Cutie Mark Crusaders, were quickly rescued by the Mane 6. The Cutie Mark Crusaders are imprisoned for what will likely be three days, and Chrysalis threatened that "bad things" would happen to them if the Mane 6 did not arrive in time.

In the comics Chrysalis is also shown to send a crystal ball to the Mane 6 through Spike, similar to how Princess Celestia sends letters to Twilight. She is also depicted with the power to drain magic, which she intended to do to Twilight.

Trivia

 * She shares some similarites with a few Disney villains:
 * Ursula: Both hypnotized the male protagonist (Prince Eric for Ursula and Shining Armor for Chrysalis) and impersonated someone they love (Vanessa for Ursula and Princess Cadance for Chrysalis) so they could take over a certain location and usurp their rulers (The oceans ruled by King Neptune for Ursula and Equestria ruled by Princess Celestia for Chrysalis).
 * Maleficent: Both have similar transformation sequences (When Chrysalis is revealing her true form in front of everybody at the wedding and when Maleficent transforms into a dragon). Also, they're both associated with green fire magic.
 * Prince Hans: Both seem good at first, but are later to reveal that they are the main antagonists; while later, she also confesses that she never loved Shining Armor, just as Hans never loved Anna.
 * Constantine: Both imprison a protaganist, and take thier place (Constatine imprisons Kermit and takes his place, and Chrysalis impisons Cadance and takes her place) and fools every one until the end.
 * Judge Claude Frollo: Both hate a certain group (Frollo hates gypsies while Chrysalis hates ponies), both control an army (Frollo controls the Notre Dame soldiers and Chrysalis commands the Changelings), both have a song that is considered to be dark (Heaven's Light/Hellfire for Frollo and This Day Aria for Chrysalis), both have a grudge to kill someone (Frollo urges to kill Esmeralda and Quasimodo and Chrysalis ugres to kill Twilight in the comcs), and both have fallen to their deaths (but it's unknown if Chrysalis survived or not).
 * Zira: Like Frollo, they both hate a certain group, they both have control over an army, and they both have dark villain songs. Also, both Chrysalis and Zira fell from large heights and have been presumed dead, but not fully confirmed.
 * King Candy/Turbo: Both at first look nice and good, but are later revealed to be evil monarchs wanting to take over the places they both come from (Game Central Station for King Candy and Equestria for Chrysalis). Also, both have control over an army (Cy-bugs for King Candy and the Changelings for Chrysalis) and they both have insectoid appearances.
 * Doctor Doom: Both wanted to take over the world, but they still really care for their country, and their people.
 * She is the first major villain in the series to have a song (though the Flim Flam Brothers had a song before her, they were minor villains). To date, she is the only singing major villain aside from the Dazzlings and Discord (who is reformed when he gets his first song).
 * Queen Chrysalis is regarded (along with King Sombra and Tirek) as one of the most evil and cruel My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic villains. However, Nightmare Moon is shown to be just as evil as them in the Season 4 premier.
 * Queen Chrysalis is often tied with Discord as the most popular villain in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. However, more recently Discord is regaining popularity while Tirek is outshining Chrysalis.
 * Queen Chrysalis and the Changelings may be based off of Sinisteeds, dark, horse-like creatures who thrive on feeding off of love and emotion in the novel Gossamer by Lois Lowry.
 * Chrysalis is slightly similar to the Harry Potter antagonist, Lord Voldemort, whose final duel with Harry Potter inspired that of Chrysalis and Celestia. Voldemort's inability to love may be mirrored by Chrysalis's line about "not having any room for love in her heart".
 * Her name is never mentioned in the show, but was given by one of the show's creators and mentioned on the episode's script. She is also named in media such as the Elements of Harmony book. Outside of the title, her name was first mentioned in the comic by Fluttershy, although it is unclear how the ponies know her name. Twilight does not refer to her by name when she mentions "the changeling queen" in the Friendship Journal.
 * Chrysalis's defeat by an energy explosion caused by the power of love mirrors the defeat of Wiseman from Sailor Moon and Lamia from Stardust, although unlike them she is not disintegrated but sent flying into the distance in a similar style to Team Rocket.
 * The fiery dome she creates around Twilight looks similar to the one created by Zelda from The Swan Princess 3.
 * Like Ogron, Anagan, and Gantlos, Chrysalis comes from a series with a set of six female protagonists, deceives the main characters, and most likely falls to her death while many believe she survived. Their partner, Duman, is also a shapeshifter like Chrysalis.
 * Also, the way fans prefer to believe that Chrysalis and Sombra survived (though Sombra's death was confirmed) is similar to Winx fans being disappointed that Lord Darkar (who was based off Sauron like Sombra was) and the above mentioned Duman were killed off, although they are at least willing to accept Darkar and Duman's deaths.
 * Not only do the above mentioned Voldemort and Lamia possess similar green magic and other slight similarities to Chrysalis, but both have also killed a unicorn in their respective series. Chrysalis nearly kills Twilight by trapping her in the forgotten caves, and manipulates Twilight's brother, although in a role reversal, he is one of the two who defeats her (possibly even killing her for those who believe the comics are non-canon), and in the comics she is defeated by Twilight.
 * Ironically the character Chrysalis impersonates kills an evil unicorn.
 * One of her voice actors, Kathleen Barr, also voices another villain from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, The Great and Powerful Trixie. She also voiced the minor antagonist Hoops, when he's an adult.
 * Prior to the release of the episode, there was speculation that "Cadance" would turn out to be Trixie in disguise, out for revenge on Twilight.
 * She also does the voice of Roodaka from Bionicle, who is often compared to Chrysalis as the sinister queen of an insectoid race. Her voice is nearly the same.
 * So far, Chrysalis is the only main villain in the show to neither be referenced nor return in a later episode, beyond Rarity mentioning the fate of Equestria "hanging in the balance" during most of Twilight's visits with Princess Cadance. Nightmare Moon appears in flashbacks and is mentioned a few times, Discord returns and reforms, Twilight uses King Sombra's dark magic while Spike mentions saving the Crystal Empire and Rainbow Dash says the crystal ponies "lost a thousand years to an evil king's curse", and although Season 5 has not been released yet, an animatic for the Season 5 premier mentions the defeat of Tirek.
 * Chrysalis has, however, been referenced by Twilight Sparkle in the Friendship Journal; In the book Journal of the Two Sisters, in the section that documents the Mane 6's entries in the Friendship Journal, Twilight's entry for Three's A Crowd mentions Cadance being trapped and impersonated by "the changeling queen". She does not refer to Chrysalis by name, presumably because her name was never mentioned to her (although the ponies somehow know Chrysalis's name in the comics).
 * It has been revealed that Queen Chrysalis will appear in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Journey of the Spark (the fan-made movie of the series).
 * Some fans speculate that Queen Chrysalis was once a special breed of pony (possibly a flutterpony from Generation 1)  who was cursed to turn into a Changeling.
 * Queen Chrysalis is currently the only major villain who wasn't outcasted before their actual appearing (Nightmare Moon was sent to the moon, Discord was turned into stone, King Sombra was trapped in the ice, Sunset Shimmer went to the human world, the Plunderseeds were held by the Tree of Harmony, Lord Tirek was imprisoned in Tartarus and the Dazzlings were banished to the human world)
 * Chrysalis is the second and last female main villain to be featured in an episode, as both female villains that came after her, Sunset Shimmer and Adagio Dazzle, appeared in the films.
 * Chrysalis is one of two major villains not to be defeated by Twilight Sparkle by means of a rainbow, other being King Sombra. Both are defeated by Princess Cadance instead, with assistance from Shining Armor for Chrysalis and the crystal ponies for Sombra. It is also worth noting that, if Chrysalis did not survive her fall, both are also the only main villains to die (not counting the Plunderseeds).