How It Could Have Been

by Crystal Wishes

Rating: everyone
Tags: Alternate Universe
Length: 422

Queen Chrysalis has been defeated, and the changeling race is no more... but did it have to turn out this way? What if she could turn back time and try it all over again?

When Queen Chrysalis ascended the throne, the changelings rejoiced, for she was the kind of queen they had long waited for: one whose love for them was just enough to sustain them. After years of her kingdom barely surviving, the queen decided it was time for her people to truly thrive.

However, things did not go to according to her plan. She took a risky, aggressive move and everything has fallen apart. Her people are no more, and she knows she is following closely behind them as she falls to the ground. A mysterious voice fills her mind and asks a simple question…

"Would you like to try again?"

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-07-26 21:28:32 UTC

Prologue

Love.

The sheer sight of it, manifesting in a visual form, was truly awe-inspiring.  A bright pink, so bright that it was almost white, began to surround the alicorn princess and her beloved.  Chrysalis watched with wide eyes as it shot forth from the couple and hit her with such force that she was flung through the nearest window.

Chrysalis cried out in terror as she was pushed up and over Canterlot.  She watched helplessly as the other changelings were pushed back by the power of love.

Pure love.

She needed love to survive, as did all of her subjects, but there was too much of it.  It was past the point of overwhelming.

Tears blurred her vision as she heard hundreds of cries fill the air that was previously humming with their happily buzzing wings.  They were being torn through the air along with her.  Some had their journey cut short by being slammed into buildings.  Others missed the obstacles and had to suffer the longer route, knowing that there was nothing but the impending force of hitting the ground to follow.

Chrysalis fought with all of her might to regain control of her body, but she and the others were paralyzed by the pink, love-fueled force field.  Some of the changelings were already arcing down to the ground.  She watched as she continued to sail through the air while they fell, one by one, toward the ground.

She knew that none would survive the impact, and she wept for them.

Because she had been so close to the initial blast, the force pushed her much further than the others.  Soon, she was alone, and she started to feel gravity beginning to pull her back down to the earth.

All of her subjects were dead, and she would soon join them.

"Why is this happening to me?"

The question repeated over and over in her mind, soon replaced by a soft, trembling whimper:  "I just wanted to provide for my people."

The selfless whimper echoed until it drowned out the selfish question.  She had chosen this path, and it had led to the ruin of changelings.

Gravity gripped her completely and she closed her eyes and waited for the end.

"Would you like to try again?"

The voice was distinctly not hers.  It boomed not in her ears, but in her mind.  She gasped, terrified, confused.

"Would you like to try again?" the voice repeated, more urgently this time.

"Y..."  Chrysalis choked.  "Yes, of course- but-"

"Then do not make the same mistakes."

She hit the ground and before she could scream, everything went black.