Queen Chrysalis

By Sazama Ichida

• March 7, 2015




Age: Unknown

Gender: Female

Species: Non-Pony

Appearance: Meghan McCarthy, Rob Renzetti, and Lauren Faust came up with Chrysalis together. While on-screen the character is only introduced as "queen of the changelings", she is named Chrysalis in the episode's script and iTunes and Netflix summaries, as well as in merchandise, including toys, trading cards, and various books. She also introduces herself as "Queen Chrysalis" in the Japanese version of the episode. The episode's script describes her as "QUEEN CHRYSALIS, a GANGLY BLACK PEGACORN with a gnarled black horn." She and the other changelings were designed by Rebecca Dart, the main character designer for season two. Rebecca was inspired by the work of manga artists Junko Mizuno and Hideshi Hino after reading the name "Chrysalis", and "figured she should be insect-like."<br /><br />Queen Chrysalis spends the entirety of A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1 and the beginning of Part 2 disguised as Princess Cadance, with her eyes occasionally flashing green and her magic glowing green instead of Cadance's blue.<br /><br />Once she is confronted by the real Cadance, she transforms into a pony-like creature with a twisted unicorn horn, a pair of tattered insectoid wings, and stands as tall as Princess Celestia. In addition, she has a sharp pair of fangs and dark green eyes with elongated oval pupils. She has a teal mane and tail, blue-green chitinous plating over her midsection, and she wears a small, black crown tipped with blue orbs. Her voice has a distorted echoed quality, as if two voices are speaking slightly out of sync. Her legs, mane, and tail are full of holes, and her limbs and torso are very slender. Like other non-pony characters, she has no cutie mark. Her wings, full of holes like her other body parts, end in sharp points rather then curves (like those of actual insects); when they flap, they generate a buzzing sound.

Cutie Mark: Variable

Personality: Queen Chrysalis is a scheming, cruel, fierce, and manipulative individual whose primary concerns are gaining power and feeding her changeling subjects. Upon perceiving Twilight Sparkle as a potential threat to her plans, she turns her family and friends against her and enjoys mocking her both during and after Twilight's imprisonment in Canterlot's crystal caves. While capable of mimicking Cadance well enough to fool most, she is unable to fool Twilight due to their close bond and her demanding and insincere behavior displayed in A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1. "A lot of her personality is revealed" in the comics.​ Comic artist Andy Price stated on February 28, 2014 that "Chrysalis is beyond villain- she's a monster"

Backstory: Queen Chrysalis is a female changeling and the main antagonist of the season two finale and the Friendship is Magic IDW comics' first four-issue story arc. She is the queen of the changelings and a shapeshifter who appears as Princess Cadance in order to hypnotize her fiancé Shining Armor, invade Canterlot, and eventually take over Equestria. After Chrysalis and her subjects are expelled from Canterlot, she fillynaps the Cutie Mark Crusaders in The Return of Queen Chrysalis in order to lure the Mane Six to her so she can absorb Twilight Sparkle's magic with the power of the Secretariat Comet. Queen Chrysalis first appears impersonating Princess Cadance in A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1, looking and sounding like her but acting different enough to raise Twilight Sparkle's suspicions, though Twilight's friends, Shining Armor, and Princess Celestia are oblivious. When Chrysalis appears before Twilight for the first time, she doesn't recognize Twilight, unsettling her and raising her suspicions. Throughout the wedding preparations, Chrysalis directly or indirectly insults each of Twilight's friends: she throws away the food Applejack offers her after giving insincere praise, she piles demands on Rarity about her and her bridesmaids' dresses, and compares Pinkie Pie's party to that of a six-year-old's birthday. Her friends passing off this behavior as wedding stress, Twilight tries to discuss the matter with Shining Armor, only for Chrysalis to interrupt. She drags Shining Armor into another room, where Twilight witnesses her cast a spell on him that makes his eyes roll. At the wedding rehearsal, Twilight accuses Chrysalis of being evil and levies accusations on her, causing Chrysalis to tear up and run away. Shining Armor confronts Twilight and contradicts her accusations, saying "Cadance" is using her magic to heal the migraines he suffers from due to his protection spell. When Twilight's friends abandon her because of her paranoia, Chrysalis returns. She looks down at Twilight compassionately at first, but her eyes glow green as she casts a spell that drags Twilight into the ground down to the caves beneath Canterlot. In A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2, Chrysalis, still under the guise of Cadance, taunts Twilight through reflections in an underground cavern's crystal walls and tells her that she's using Shining Armor for her own benefit. Twilight shatters the crystals and uncovers a path to the real Cadance, also imprisoned by the changeling queen. A song sequence follows featuring Chrysalis and Cadance singing about the wedding. After outwitting Chrysalis's three bridesmaids who were guarding the cave, Cadance and Twilight manage to confront Chrysalis right before Princess Celestia weds her to Shining Armor. Princess Cadance proclaims that the imposter is a changeling, a creature that takes the form of those that are loved and gains power by feeding off the love for them. Enraged, the imposter suddenly transforms and introduces herself as queen of the changelings (named Chrysalis in the episode's script but not on-screen). Chrysalis keeps Cadance at bay by threatening to send her back to the caves and explains that she's been feeding on Shining Armor's love for Cadance, weakening his protection spell that keeps the changelings out of Canterlot. Princess Celestia confronts her and attacks her with a magic blast from her horn, but Chrysalis fires back and, thanks to the power of Shining Armor's love, overpowers Celestia and knocks her to the ground, much to the surprise of everyone, including Chrysalis herself. Celestia weakly urges Twilight and her friends to get the Elements of Harmony and use them to defeat the queen. he changelings break through the magical barrier around Canterlot and capture Twilight and her friends, bringing them back to the wedding hall, where Celestia is encased in a chrysalis hanging from the ceiling. The queen sends her subjects to feed and sings a reprise of This Day Aria, distracting her long enough for Twilight to free Cadance. Cadance's magic breaks the spell over Shining Armor and gives him strength. Chrysalis mocks the sentiment, but the power of Shining Armor and Cadance's joint spell repels her and all of the changelings out of Canterlot, flying into the distance in the direction of the Badlands. <br /><br />While the show does not specify whether or not Chrysalis survives the expulsion from Canterlot at the end of A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2, last showing her still high in the air, the comics specify that she survives, explicitly depicting her survival of the fall in a flashback in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Issue #3. Comic writer Katie Cook stated on June 30, 2013 "I'm going to come out and say that Hasbro would NEVER have let us kill Chrysalis at the end of the arc. It just wouldn't have been allowed. The best we could do was entomb her for a while. Also, with the personality we gave her in the comics, Andy and I would prefer the option to bring her back at some point. So, overall, I'm glad she's not gone. We'd love to explore her more."