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!"

- Queen Chrysalis explaining her true plot.

Queen Chrysalis (simply known as Chrysalis) is one of the main antagonists of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. She is the (former) queen of the Changelings who seeks to feed her subjects' hunger for love and later expand her rule across Equestria in the process. She is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Discord) in Season 2, the main antagonist in Season 6, and will return as one of the main antagonists in Season 8 (alongside Lord Tirek).

She first appears in Season 2's two-part finale "A Canterlot Wedding" and reappears in Season 6's two-part finale "To Where and Back Again" and then returns in Season 8 as a major villain. She was also featured as the main antagonist in IDW's first comic arc, The Return of Queen Chrysalis, as an antagonist in the ninth comic arc, Siege of the Crystal Empire and was the main antagonist of The Guardians of Harmony in the IDW specials.

She was voiced by Kathleen Barr, who also voiced Trixie, as well as Britt McKillip in her Princess Cadance disguise and Ashleigh Ball in her Applejack disguise.

Appearance
Queen Chrysalis is a changeling and thus a shapeshifter who is 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 a tail, and also seems to have a greenish saddle, bluish-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.

Personality
Her actions 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, disingenuous, and unsympathetic as she turns Twlight's family and friends against her after been confronted about her disrespectful 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 sanctimonious 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 acts rude, demanding, and vituperative towards Twilight's friends, in stark contrast to the real Cadance who Twilight describes as "caring" and "kind". On the other hand, Queen Chrysalis, is cruel, uncaring, heartless, and materialistic.

She is also shown to be very fierce, ruthless, selfish and aggressive, 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.

In the comics, she is even more evil, as she is implied to violently kill a cat, and threatens to kill the Cutie Mark Crusaders when they are no longer of use to her. She is also manipulative enough to orchestrate her escape from imprisonment on two separate occasions.

In "To Where and Back Again - Part 2", Chrysalis bears resentment toward Thorax for abandoning the hive, considering him a "traitor". She also shows little regard for her subjects, believing that she alone knows what's best for them, and that her leadership is absolute.

Powers and Abilities

 * Changeling Biology: As a Changeling, Chrysalis in naturally imbued with various different abilities.
 * Shapeshifting: Like other changelings, Chrysalis can take the form of anybody she desires, perfectly mimicking their voices and appearances, although her personality and magic color will still remain the same.
 * Love Draining: Chrysalis can naturally drain the love and affection out of a pony or animal, both feeding her and leaving her victim weak and frail. Additionally, unlike most Changelings, the love she drains also enhances her own abilities as well, draining Shining Armor's love for Cadence alone making her powerful enough to defeat Celestia. In the comics, Chrysalis' love draining can also expand to magic as well.
 * Enhanced Durability: As shown in both the television and comic continuities, Chrysalis and her Changelings can survive being blasted away thousands of feet and landing directly on the ground. With other characters, it is heavily implied that a fall of said magnitude, if much less, would be fatal, meaning that the Changelings can endure far more punishment than regular ponies.
 * Flight: Chrysalis can fly for long distances without tiring.
 * Magic: Chrysalis possesses some of the most powerful magic in the entire series, rivaling the likes of Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Twilight Sparkle.
 * Magical Blasts: Chrysalis, like almost all other unicorns and alicorns, can fire extremely powerful magic blasts at her opponents.
 * Pyrokinesis: Chrysalis can summon magic green fire.
 * Mind Control: Chrysalis can influence the mind and thoughts of anyone around her by use of a mind control spell, which she used on Shining Armor, Lyra Heartstrings, Minuette and Twinkleshine.
 * Biological Manipulation: Chrysalis is implied to have the ability to either manipulate her body in ways other than her shapeshifting or have little to no bones, as she can bend her limbs in ways impossible for other ponies and turn her neck a full 360 degrees.
 * Immortality: In the comics, Chrysalis is stated to have been alive for hundreds, if not thousands of years without showing any signs of aging, making her one of the oldest characters in the series.

Season 2
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.

Alternate timeline
In the second altered timeline created by Starlight Glimmer, in "The Cutie Re-Mark - Part 2", Chrysalis and her changelings are in power and Zecora is leading jungle ponies (Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie among them) in a war against her. Chrysalis arrives initially disguised as Applejack and tells Zecora to surrender, but Zecora fights her. This is the first time Chrysalis's name is mentioned in the show. The timeline is eventually restored.

Season 6
In "Times are a Changeling", Chrysalis briefly appears in Thorax's flashback to the Changeling kingdom. It was later implied that Chrysalis and the changelings all survived their fall from both Thorax having taken part in the invasion and his plans to reform the Changelings in their kingdom.

Chrysalis returns in the Season 6 finale "To Where and Back Again", with her changelings capturing the Mane 6, Spike, Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Shining Armor, and Flurry Heart and taking over Equestria. She is seen communicating with the changelings impersonating the Mane 6, and Starlight Glimmer, Trixie, Thorax, and Discord travel to the Changeling kingdom to stop her.

In Part 2, Starlight and her team go through the Changeling hive to destroy Chrysalis's throne, which blocks all magic but Changeling magic. Discord and Trixie are captured and imprisoned in a chrysalis in Chrysalis's throne room, along with every other pony that was captured. Thorax distracts Chrysalis disguised as Starlight while Starlight tries to destroy the throne. Starlight attempts to convince Chrysalis that giving love to others is better for her subjects, however, Chrysalis denies this, stating that she knows what is best for her people. Chrysalis starts to drain Thorax of his love as punishment for betraying her, however, he willingly gives all his love to her, blasting her into the throne and obtaining a new transformation. All the other Changelings, realizing that there is a better option to stealing love, do the same, destroying Chrysalis' throne and releasing those imprisoned, also transforming. Chrysalis survives, and, outnumbered by the Mane 6, Starlight, the princesses, Discord, and those with them, including the entire changeling army, she is unable to do anything. Starlight offers her the chance of redemption, but Chrysalis turns her down, swears revenge on Starlight, and flies away.

Season 8
In the 2017 HASCON animatic, it is revealed that Queen Chrysalis is set to return in Season 8. In the animatic, Chrysalis, disguised as a photographer for the Canterlot Historical Society, arrives at Twilight's castle to take the photos of the Mane 6. Chrysalis then plucks a single hair out of each of them in order to supposedly make them look good for the photos, although, when she begins taking them, she somewhat deliberately doesn't do a very good job. As she prepares to leave, Pinkie Pie reminds her that she didn't take a photo of Starlight, resulting in her doing so with clear disinterest. Outside the castle, Chrysalis looks at the hairs and the photos and states that she now has everything she needs before transforming back into her original form.

Return of Queen Chrysalis Arc
In the first arc of the comics, 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".

FIENDship is Magic Mini-Series
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. As more of her exploits are told and shown, she offers her origin in exchange for the newest Daring Do novel, which Rainbow Dash possesses. When Twilight is about to exchange it, she becomes trapped in the prison by the Changelings as it is revealed that the weakened Chrysalis was a Changeling and the true Chrysalis was hiding and she ambushes Twilight and she explains her origin. She came from a swamp where a rotten acorn was dropped into an eerie lake which grew into a tree that fed on insects and Starswirl the Bearded appeared and upon seeing the lake, he put a sign on the tree to keep ponies from entering the lake, but the nail releases the bugs, which have evolved into equine beings along with Chrysalis. She and her subjects then proceed to attack Twilight and before the ponies can stop them, the Changeling overpower them and escape the jail, leaving the defeated ponies and Spike wounded.

Siege of the Crystal Empire Arc
In Siege of the Crystal Empire, Issue 34 of the comics, Chrysalis is recruited by Radiant Hope along with the Flim Flam Brothers, Lightning Dust, and Iron Will to attack the Crystal Empire as a diversion to keep every pony out of the castle so Radiant Hope could revive King Sombra. Chrysalis duels Twilight, but is defeated when Rarity blasts Iron Will and his goat into her with a cannon, and is captured with her fellow conspirators.

In Issue 35, once Sombra is revived, he releases Chrysalis and helps her defeat Twilight. Celestia and Luna arrive and fight Sombra and Chrysalis, respectively; when Luna gains the upper hand on Chrysalis, Sombra turns both princesses to stone.

In Issue 36, when Chrysalis finds out Sombra plans to release the Umbrum, she is against it, having witnessed the Umbrum attacking the Crystal Empire and causing despair, which changelings cannot feed off of, but when Sombra threatens to turn her to stone, she says she'll help him. This was merely to buy her enough time to escape, knowing she and her changelings could be killed by the Umbrum. She taunts the powerless Twilight and throws her out of her cage so she can be attacked by the Umbrum, and then flies with her changelings across the sea to parts unknown, leaving Lightning Dust, Iron Will, and the Flim Flam Brothers behind.

My Little Pony: Guardians of Harmony Annual 2017
In The Shadow Bolts, Chrysalis is mentioned to be attacking the Crystal Empire, she sent two of her changelings to distract Rainbow Dash from reaching the Canterlot.

In Big Spike, Chrysalis and her changelings are said to be seen heading for the Mane Six and Spike. After Shining Armor arrives with a potion he'd found in castle of the Crystal Empire. Spike is the only one who knows that the potion is for him but Twilight uses a bit of the potion and armors herself, her friends and Shining Armor and still doesn't listen to Spike. When Chrysalis and her changelings arrive, The Mane Six and Shining Armor battle them but are outnumbered and overpowered by the changelings quickly. When Twilight finally grants Spike's wish to have the potion used on him, he grows into a giant armored dragon and he drives Chrysalis and her changelings away with his dragon breath.

''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.''

''While Hasbro and some crew members think of the comics as canon, they have a few inconsistencies, such as a dragon in Chrysalis's Fiendship is Magic issue suffering pain from lava when in the show dragons are clearly established to be immune to lava, and the changelings landing in the same place in The Return of Queen Chrysalis while in the show they were scattered in all directions. Meghan McCarthy has said that the comics are a separate universe from the show, implying a My Little Pony multiverse.''

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.

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). In Season 6, it is confirmed that the changelings do need the love energy to survive, or are at least severely weakened without it, but it's also established that there are ways of getting love energy without hurting anyone.

The reception to Chrysalis is likely the reason she returned in the Season 6 finale, when the creators seemed to decide against it for several seasons. In the end she survives and escapes while swearing revenge making her the only returning major villain not to be reformed and becomes a recurring villain in the later seasons which made her more popular.

Trivia

 * 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 not the only singing major villain, as this trait was taken by Dazzlings, Starlight Glimmer, Principal Cinch and Shadowbolts.
 * 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 premiere and the Season 5 Finale.
 * Fans of the show often tied Queen Chrysalis with Discord as the most popular villain in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic back in Season 2. But when Lord Tirek arrived in Season 4 and the Dazzlings in Rainbow Rocks, they outshine them both. But both Discord and Chrysalis remained popular to fans.
 * 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 was never mentioned in her main episodes "A Canterlot Wedding", 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. In "The Cutie Remark: Part 1", Her named was finally mentioned in the show.
 * In both the comics and the show, Fluttershy is the first pony to mention her name.
 * 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 (though her survival is later confirmed). Their partner, Duman, is also a shapeshifter like Chrysalis.
 * 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, and in the comics she is defeated once by Twilight, and once by Rarity. The protagonist of the second episode in which she is the villain is also a unicorn.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Queen Chrysalis is one of the two major villains who weren'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), the other being Starlight Glimmer.
 * In her FIENDship is Magic debut, she becomes the second antagonist that physically attacks Twilight, the first being Tirek.
 * Also, in her FIENDship is Magic comic, she becomes the second villain to appear victorious over the main characters, the first being the human versions of the Flim Flam Brothers.
 * Chrysalis is the second villain to be the main antagonist of two two-part episodes, other being Starlight Glimmer.
 * Queen Chrysalis is the only recurring major villain to not reform.