Queen Chrysalis

The queen of the changelings, Chrysalis, is the primary antagonist featured in A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1 and Part 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.

Development
While on-screen she is only introduced as "queen of the changelings", she is named Chrysalis in the episode's script. 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 artist Hideshi Hino after reading the name "Chrysalis", and "figured she should be insect-like."

Impersonating Princess Cadance
Queen Chrysalis first appears as 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 don't buy Twilight's story. Chrysalis walks on-screen right after Twilight's flashback and description of her memory of Cadance as a beautiful, loving, and kind pony, from when she foal-sat Twilight. Chrysalis doesn't recognize Twilight, which unsettles her and raises her suspicions. When Chrysalis comes to check the menu for the wedding, she insists on being called "Princess Mi Amore Cadenza", and even though she politely compliments Applejack on her baking, she throws away the food Applejack offers her, again raising the ire of Twilight. When she comes to inspect the dresses Rarity is sewing for the wedding, she sneers at her bridesmaids who praise the dresses and asks Rarity to make the dresses a different color. She sarcastically remarks on Pinkie Pie's party plans that they're "perfect... if you were celebrating a six-year-old's birthday party." Twilight sums up Chrysalis's behavior to her friends as "an awful pony who doesn't deserve to even know Shining Armor let alone marry him." When Twilight tries to broach the matter with Shining Armor, Chrysalis interrupts them before Twilight has a chance to say anything; Twilight comments that "she sure has a way of sneaking up on people." Chrysalis asks Shining Armor into the other room, where she casts a spell on him that makes his eyes roll. Twilight spies on them through the door and runs out after seeing Chrysalis cast the spell.

At the wedding rehearsal, Twilight accuses Chrysalis of being evil and levies some accusations on her. Chrysalis tears up and and runs away, and Shining Armor confronts Twilight and dispels her accusations, saying "Cadance" is using her magic to heal the migraines he gets from his protection spell. All the ponies leave the room, and after a short reprise of B.B.B.F.F Chrysalis returns and stomps on the figure of Twilight that's left over from the song. At first she gently strokes Twilight's mane, but then her eyes glow green and she engulfs Twilight in green flames that sink with her into the ground down to the tunnels beneath Canterlot.

The next episode, A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2, begins with Chrysalis, still looking and sounding like Cadance, taunting Twilight through apparitions in an underground cavern's crystals, and telling her that she's using Shining Armor for her own ends. Twilight shatters the crystals and uncovers a path to the real Cadance, also imprisoned by the Changeling Queen. A song sequence follows, This Day Aria, 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.

Queen of the changelings
Princess Cadance proclaims that the impostor is "a changeling. She takes the form of somepony you love and gains power by feeding off your love for them." After that, the impostor transforms and introduces herself as queen of the changelings, who is named Chrysalis in the episode's script but not on-screen. She 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, which weakens his protection spell that keeps the changelings out of Canterlot. Princess Celestia confronts her and attacks her with a beam from her horn, but Chrysalis fires back and, thanks to the power of Shining Armor's love, overpowers Celestia, who gets knocked to the ground. Celestia urges Twilight and her friends to get the Elements of Harmony and use them to defeat the queen.

The changelings break through the magical barrier protecting Canterlot and capture Twilight and her friends, bringing them back to the wedding hall, where Celestia finds herself encased in a chrysalis hanging from the ceiling. The queen sends her subjects to feed, and sings a reprise of This Day Aria, which allows Twilight to free Cadance when Chrysalis is distracted. Cadance's magic breaks the spell over Shining Armor, and gives him strength. The queen mocks this sentiment but quickly finds that Shining Armor's spell repels her and all of the changelings out of Canterlot, flying into the distance.

Physical appearance
Queen Chrysalis spends the entirety of A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1 and the beginning of Part 2 looking and sounding like Princess Cadance, with her eyes occasionally flashing green and her magic glowing green instead of Cadance's blue.

After she is confronted by the real Cadance, she transforms into a creature that looks like a pony with a twisted unicorn horn, a pair of insectoid wings, and stands as tall as Princess Celestia herself. Unlike a pony however, she has a sharp pair of fangs and dark green eyes with elongated oval pupils. She has a teal mane and tail, a blue-green insect-like body 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 are full of holes, and her limbs and torso are extremely skinny.

Personality
Chrysalis comes off as a master of manipulation and a skilled trickster, as seen in A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1 when she fools Twilight's friends, Shining Armor, and even Cadance's aunt, Princess Celestia, into believing that she is the real Princess Cadance. She unintentionally turns Twilight's friends and family against her when she confronts them with possible explanations for her strange behavior. Chrysalis also enjoys seeing others suffer, as seen when she tells Twilight that she saw through her and no one believed her. She, like the other villians of the series, is overconfident and underestimates her enemies, which ultimately leads to her downfall. Her overconfidence is seen more strongly when she turns her back on Twilight and her friends, believing they are no longer a threat, and doubts Shining Armor and Cadance's love without any thought that it might be able to defeat her.

While capable of mimicing Cadance well enough to fool most, she is unable to fool Twilight Sparkle for long due to the demanding and insincere behavior she displays throughout the first episode. When Twilight attempts to do a special greeting of her and Cadance's, she doesn't recognize Twilight at all, alerting Twilight of "Cadance's" changed nature. She also acts rude and demanding toward Twilight's friends, in stark contrast to the real Cadance, who Twilight describes as "caring" and "kind".

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. She notes 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".

Quotes
"You will be."

- A Canterlot Wedding - Part 1

"[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!"

- A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2

"Ah! Shining Armor's love for you is even stronger than I thought! Consuming him has made me even more powerful than Celestia!"

- A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2

"It's funny, really, Twilight here was suspicious of my behaviour all along. Too bad the rest of you were too caught up in your wedding planning to realize the suspicions were correct!"

- A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2



Gallery

 * Queen Chrysalis image gallery