She Who Holds The Crown

Chapters

The Linking
Transformation
A Council Fit For a Queen

The Linking

Changelings have excellent perception, it's in their nature to be able to see through a ruse. Only the most adept and skilled of changelings can actually fool another one. The average drone can see an arrow whizzing through the air before it's even had time to hit its mark, or a bolt of lightning striking before it reaches the ground.

None of this stopped Chrysalis from being unable to prevent the arrow that struck his queen. Or the next three.

The throne room was in turmoil for only a moment, and then silence. Chrysalis panicked, rising up from his station behind the throne room's opened door and holding his spear with a shaky grip, searching for the assailants. His beloved queen had been struck, and it was his duty to defend her.

All of the senior guards were dead, the praetorians that were put in place to protect her. Chrysalis saw their bodies littered on the ground like bugs, and the grip around his spear only tightened. The night was silent—the windows unshattered, the queen's throne still active as she sat atop it, bleeding profusely.

"C-come out!" Chrysalis shouted, running to the centre of the room and brandishing his spear in a manner that rang of inexperience. His eyes were watering, his body tremulous, but he stood guard all the same. He would do anything to run then, to hide, to desert and forget his allegiance, but the love for his queen and country ran too strong in his mind, his blood. He couldn't leave her now. "I'm going to... I'm going to kill all of you!" He pushed down his forelegs before taking flight, a heavy spear linked in his forehooves.

In truth, he didn't know if he'd even be able to defeat more than a single enemy in physical combat. He was only one drone, a simple guard on door duty. The queen coughed behind him, her esophagus rupturing as she spat out a thin trail of blood. Chrysalis attempted to pay attention to the two open doors at the entrance to the throne room, but he was stricken by the sight of his queen in such a state. Queen Clavus had always appeared as impenetrable, immortal, almost godly...

Yet there she was, spitting up blood. Chrysalis could feel an ache in his wings, and it wasn't of exertion. He clutched the spear tighter before it could fall from his grip.

"Calm, my child," the queen spoke in a soft, soothing voice. Chrysalis still held the spear steady, as steady as he could, eyes shifting in each direction in an attempt to find the attackers who had so quickly fallen upon them. "They have accomplished what they meant to do. They are already gone."

She spoke with certainty, but how could she know for sure? Was it confidence, or... Chrysalis' eyes widened as he realised where Clavus had been struck. Right in the centre of her brilliant abdomen, and once again in the chest. Whatever words he might have had, they died in his throat, as there was little more room for life in that room.

It slowly began to dawn on Chrysalis that he'd reacted too late. Even remaining inert for a moment, gasping, not immediately springing from the ground and hunting down the attackers... he should have done more.

"Do you see now that there is no more fighting to be had?" the queen asked, her words sounding wisened beyond her years. She was a young, beautiful bastion of changeling civilisation, as timeless as art yet as revered as a God. Yet she bled. She bled and she wheezed, and her voice carried a rasp that told of her age, perhaps for the first time.

And it was Chrysalis that she spoke to. Plain, simple Chrysalis. The only other in the room that had been left alive, that had been unharmed. Had he simply not been noticed from his position behind the door, or had he been too insignificant to waste a bolt on? Chrysalis cast the thought from his mind, running to the door and screaming as loud as possible. "Healer! I need a healer here, now! The queen has been wounded!"

When the queen spoke again, her voice carried across the large room as if she was right next to Chrysalis. "I fear it is too late for that..." With a grim tone, she added: "More so, I fear there is no one in proximity that can hear you. I sense no life from the hive nearby."

Chrysalis wouldn't have believed it if she hadn't heard it from the queen herself. He finally dropped to the floor, fetlocks shaking and threatening to collapse in on themselves. "How... how could something like this have happened?" He wiped the gathering tears away, standing and walking to his queen with a dutiful gait. "No, it isn't too late. We can heal you. I... I don't know powerful magic, but I can try."

"The poison from this bolt has already set into my veins," Clavus said, tapping at her chest and wincing slightly. "There is nothing that can be done now." She wore a face not of fear, but of sympathy, and it both perplexed and moved Chrysalis at the same time. "I am sorry that you have to see me like this, my child."

Chrysalis had never spoken to the queen, not directly, but in her voice, her eyes, he felt a connection that quelled the fear in his chest, one that told him that despite the fact that all might feel as if it was lost, there was still some tiny scrap of hope, something that might curtail the rising hysteria. "Did you know that this would happen?"

"Creatures have been attempting to kill me for a very long time..." The queen smirked wickedly, beckoning Chrysalis closer with a slowly moving hoof. "It was only to be expected that one might eventually succeed... mourn the fallen around you, but do not mourn me only. Your loyalty must be to the hive, Chrysalis, always." Chrysalis stared at the queen, wide eyed, attempting to parse what very well might be her final words. "There is not much time, I am afraid..."

Chrysalis nodded frantically. "I can still find someone. I'll fly as fast as I can. A-a healer, a magician, anything! Please, Your Majesty, please let me try."

"You misunderstand me, child." The queen said with a voice that didn't scold, but gently directed, motherly and caring. "There is not much time for what must come next. The linking will begin soon, but it must happen before I am dead."

"Dead..." Chrysalis said the word slowly, as if he'd never heard it before. Truly, it was difficult attributing the concept to his queen. The idea of her dying was still so ridiculous in his mind that he was having trouble believing it. "What is the linking?"

"Ah, suppose the tales aren't spread as often now." The queen coughed, again motioning for Chrysalis to come forth. He did so hesitantly, placing his spear on his back. "Do you know how the hive has survived and prospered for as long as it has?"

"You," Chrysalis instantly responded. "You've been here to guide us for as long as any changeling remembers."

"But once, I was like you!" Clavus laughed, pointing directly at Chrysalis. "I was a drone like any other, and before me there was a queen, and before her, another... All wore the crown that sits upon my head."

"The crown..." Chrysalis didn't understand it. To think that there had been other queens wasn't ludicrous, but to imagine how long ago it must have been, how many ages might have passed since Clavus took the throne, how nations would have risen and fallen in the interim... One detail managed to stick in his head, bringing a question to his lips. "You weren't born this way?"

"I was born to serve the hive, as were you." Clavus answered, a smile about her. "Tell me, why did you not run when my praetorians fell? Each of them is ten times the warrior you are."

It wasn't offensive if it was true, and even if it was, Clavus made a good point. "I..."

"You valued the hive more than your own life. It is admirable, verily so. Not all changelings are so selfless, nor courageous."

Chrysalis shook his head. The conversation was so natural that the pant in his tone was beginning to vanish. It felt as if he was talking to another he had known his entire life, a mother he'd always had, not a ruler on her deathbed. "I'm not courageous. I was scared for my life when you were struck... I still am, even if you say they're gone. I'm scared that you will pass, I'm scared that I'll die soon after... I'm scared of a lot of things."

"And yet you stay with the fragile, dying queen." Clavus wore a smile that told Chrysalis that he had lost. "It is the fear that makes you courageous, and that is a quality I value above most others." For a moment, the queen was silent, and Chrysalis could only watch with awe as the crown on her head began to glow. The four green orbs on the end became bright and filled with colour, and a magical throb discharged and emanated across the queen's entire body. "Oh my, it has begun already. Chrysalis, my dear, my child... when I remove the crown, you must take it. You are to take my place, it is the only way."

Chrysalis could have swore he misheard. His heart rate doubled, his eyes bugged, and he looked at the queen as if she had gone mad. "M-me?! But I don't know the first thing about being a ruler! I... I can't be like you!"

"You will learn..." Clavus leaned forwards in her throne, placing a hoof on Chrysalis' wither, still warm with the breath of fleeting life. "I can see now, you will make an excellent ruler. The hive has always had a queen..."

"B-but there are others more experienced!" Chrysalis protested, waving his hooves around. "There are leaders and warriors that would bring our people to glory! Not me!"

"The crown has chosen you," the queen stated simply. Her sentences were becoming shorter, her breaths deeper. "Others there may be... but they are not here." A hollow breath, a cough. "You are the only one who can bear this burden. The crown must have a link..."

Chrysalis felt on the verge of hyperventilation. He felt a presence touch his withers, and he knew from Clavus' glow that it came from her horn. The magic calmed him, brought him to focus, and spent the last of the queen's energy.

She removed the crown, placing it in Chrysalis' hooves, who took it wordlessly, stunned from speech. Chrysalis stared down at the thing. It was simple, innocuous, only grand for what it symbolised, sitting at the head of the most important changeling in Equus. And now it stood freely, cold and metallic to the touch, like polished chitin.

"Use the crown... Save our people..." The voice was old and gravelly. Chrysalis looked up, and to his horror, he found the queen to be no longer young, no longer beautiful, but ancient and wasting. Her body looked as if it had seen a million moons, her voice was as rough as sandpaper, and she'd halved in size. The old changeling matriarch held out a hoof, and Chrysalis took it wordlessly. "Thank you for being here in the end, Chrysalis... I place my trust in you. I place the hive's trust in you."

She spoke no more after that. Her breaths grew shorter, and eventually, they ceased.

Chrysalis may have cried, but he did so softly. He may have screamed, but he clutched the queen's hoof all the while. He may have dropped the crown in his anguish, but it remained beside him throughout his mourning, as brief and as transient as it could be.

And when he touched the crown again, it glowed and resonated against his hoof.

The next couple of days were a blur for Chrysalis.

He'd gone for help as soon as he felt able, but he was listless, weak. By the time he'd found other changelings, they already realised that something was wrong. Despite them not knowing of the events that had transpired, some intrinsic connection that they'd had their whole lives, that they'd always taken for granted but never truly acknowledged, was gone.

Calamity gripped the hive as high council members bled every piece of information they could regarding the attack from Chrysalis, the only surviving witness. When the queen was discovered, it was assumed that the poison in the bolt had disfigured her body alongside killing her. None of them seemed aware of what had kept her young.

And Chrysalis knew. Yet for some reason that escaped him, he said nothing. The queen had entrusted him with the crown. She had told him that it was linked to him now, that he was the one that had to rule. Yet, in the throes of confusion and chaos, he could bring himself neither to divulge this fact and reveal that he had it in his possession, nor to put on the damned thing and attempt to rule, out of fear of being called a liar or told he was otherwise unfit.

He'd believe it. He still couldn't come to grips with the fact that he of any had been chosen, whether it was a necessity of circumstance or not.

An extremely inquisitive changeling grilled him above all others. She was Fascia, a renowned general that had been combating pony forces towards the northern side of changeling borders for over a year now. She was seen by many as a great hero.

"You saw no faces?" she asked once again, eyes firmly on Chrysalis, who squirmed in his seat, eyes long dried.

"I didn't see anything. One minute, everything was normal. The next, it was crazy. The queen had been hit, her guards were dead. I think I only survived on a fluke." Chrysalis had explained this multiple times already, but still Fascia had found multiple ways to rephrase the question, as if she was looking to trip him up.

"And the crown? How has it come to be missing if you saw no one?"

"It crumbled," Chrysalis lied. "When the queen died, it fell apart. No one took it, no one even came into the room." He'd stashed it in his room already, hidden it as best he could, and he could only hope that no one would come to check. Should they, he could only imagine the punishment he'd receive for lying in such a delicate situation, even if he believed himself to be doing the right thing.

"I see..." Fascia hung her head, showing the first sign of emotion since she'd sat down. She rubbed a hoof at her eyes, stalling her speech before looking at each of the other council members present. "The hive will soon realise that the queen is dead. I can already feel the upset in my body, I'm sure you all can too."

And she was right. Chrysalis could feel an emptiness gnawing at him, like hunger but more transparent, an absence of mind where there had once been sanity and fluid grace of thought. It felt as if it would eat him from the inside out, as if spiders crawled along his brain.

"What if one of our more skilled infiltrators were to take her place?" an old, gnarled changeling asked. "We could attribute the mental unease to some external element, a scapegoat, if only to mitigate the upset that is sure to ensue."

"You would have us lie to our people?" Fascia spat, reeling around to face him. "We do not deceive our own, that we reserve for the prey." She shook her head once. "Your plan, Pedicel, as rashly thought out as it is, would never work. The moment that a single changeling figured out what was wrong, even if it took months, they could alert the entire hive, and then who would they turn on? The false queen, and us, the changelings that put her there."

"If it was indeed a skilled infiltrator, it could take a very long time for another to realise," Pedicel responded plainly. "And if they did, we would discredit them, eliminate them if necessary. Whatever it takes to uphold the illusion, to prevent Celestia from marching her armies through our borders and kicking the castle's doors down."

"How twisted are you, old one, that you would even consider slandering and murdering our people for the sakes of upholding a shaky lie?!" Fascia advanced on him, and he instantly shrunk back. "We will do no such thing. If a solution does not arise in short order, then we will have to be honest with our people. As much of the truth as we can afford to give without inciting a full-blown panic. No matter what, the changelings will survive."

Chrysalis sat and listened as the two of them dueled with their words, and the entire time, it continued to remind him of just how dire the current situation was. While he was withholding information, these changelings, the hundreds of thousands of others in their kingdom? They were all being affected by what had transpired, all of them would be. The coming days would change the entire kingdom in ways that Chrysalis couldn't even fathom.

And while he sat, quiet and unassuming, he realised that he might be the centre of it all.

Chrysalis was incredibly tired by the time he returned to his room after questioning. The whole time, no one had even thought to accuse him of having done the deed himself. And why would they? They could see him for just what he was, a simple drone entrusted with mid-level tasks. A benefit to the hive, but no great warrior or trickster, no assassin. There was no way in hell that he would have been able to thwart the queen's guards, let alone her. Whoever had done this, they were incredibly skilled, that hadn't been a question from the beginning.

And there had been much debate over who might have been the killer.

Many suspected the pony princess, Celestia, but many still defended her. The changeling nation had had its conflicts with ponykind for many generations, but under the rules of Celestia and Clavus alike, ceasefires had been established over an extremely long period of time. Talks had begun, and for a fair amount of time, it had seemed as if peace might have been a possibility.

The problem was that not all ponies embraced peace. While many sided with their ruler, a faction to the north of Equestria formed with no trust for changelings as their common philosophy, patrolling Clavus' borders tightly and inciting occasional skirmishes. The changelings responded in kind, and for over two years now, a small war has been fought between these dissidents and the changelings of Clavus' empire.

Celestia claims to have no involvement in their actions, yet has done nothing to forcefully prevent their raids either. It's said by some that while she doesn't care for the attacks, that she doesn't wish to end Equestrian lives in order to save changelings. Others say she's convinced that the changelings on Chrysalis' side of the border attack just as often.

And so no changeling truly knows her stance. Does that make her capable of assassination, even indirectly? Potentially. Does it make the ponies that choose to attack freely far more capable? In Chrysalis' mind, certainly.

But that still made no sense to him. Clavus' throne was designed to detect and prevent pony magic, yet if the assailants had indeed been ponies, they'd clearly been unaffected. The notion of betrayal from within her own kingdom was a possibility, but wouldn't Clavus have had a suspicion?

Her words travelled back to Chrysalis hauntingly. When asked if she knew that this would happen, Clavus had answered so indirectly... Had she meant for this to happen? Did she simply know it was unavoidable, or was there something bigger in play?

Every time Chrysalis attempted to wrap his head around the situation, he became more stuck than before. He was tired, he was upset, his mind ached with the lack of his queen's presence... He needed to sleep, but it escaped him. For a day and a night he laid in his bed, drifting into stagnant dreams and waking to a world the same as before, save the shifting of the sun in the darkened sky. It didn't hit this part of the world like it did Equestria, which many said was Celestia's doing.

Changelings said a lot of things.

Conspiracies and worries began to bleed into reality for Chrysalis, and all the while, he was intimately aware of the crown under his bed. It glowed with an ethereal presence, one that he could feel even when he was sure he shouldn't have. It called to him, almost, and once he couldn't take the pressure of its whines any longer, he finally unwrapped the thing from its hiding place and held it in his hooves once more.

And again, it glowed. The orbs at the end of its tendril-like points shone bright green, a healing, radiant colour, and Chrysalis found it difficult to take his eyes away. He wondered if it would do the same for any other changeling, but he was sure he was the only one that could feel the crown. There were many that slept in rooms adjacent to him, after all, above, below, and to the sides. If he could feel it from fifty paces away, surely they could all as well, and someone would have come to look by now if that was the case.

But it wasn't. For whatever reason, it seemed that fate had been strange enough to land him with this burden, a royal crown that was inexplicably tied to him.

And he had no clue what he was meant to do with it.

"Use the crown, save our people." Chrysalis repeated the words as if they were meant to accomplish something, but besides its glow, the crown remained perfectly inert. Annoyingly so, even. Suppose the queen hadn't had time to explain its use, considering how close to death she was, but Chrysalis could only assume he was meant to take up her mantle, to be a ruler as she was.

But he didn't have her powers, her longevity, her knowledge or wisdom. She only said that he would learn, but how? Even the council seemed completely divided, and as if most of them had no clue how to deal with the queen's death, doubtful they could teach him. The rest of the hive was worse. There was unrest already, and many of Chrysalis' brothers and sisters seemed disturbed, almost ravenous. He feared what might happen if the issue wasn't quelled quickly.

And he knew he was meant to do something about it. He'd been entrusted with it by Clavus after all. He'd been told that he was the only one who could do it now. And the only clue he had was this crown, which he'd been studying in his hooves for minutes now.

He tried to cast a spell on it, to detect the magic that resided within. No luck. Not even a slight indication as to its power, its purpose. Was it just meant to serve as a glorified lamp for him? Was he meant to swing it at his attackers like some sort of misshapen club and dominate the rest of the hive in that manner?

Unfortunately, magical crowns didn't come with instruction manuals.

The only thing he hadn't tried yet was the most obvious, but by process of elimination, it was beginning to seem as if it was what he'd have to do. He was reluctant to put the crown on. The thought of it alone seemed to besmirch the queen's memory, to even think that he was worthy of placing it upon his head. It would also confirm to him that he was considering going down this path, a leap he didn't yet feel ready to take.

Yet nothing else would work, it seemed, and time was short. Chrysalis took the crown in hoof, ignoring the glow, and slowly began to place it upon his head. He felt silly doing so, as if he was playing at being a ruler in some kind of personal fantasy, but as he finally let go, the crown resting firmly atop him, he realised once again that everything that was occurring was completely and utterly real.

The transformation was swift and fucking terrifying.

Chrysalis only realised that anything had changed when he saw how far he now stood from the floor. At least twice as far, his legs were much longer. In fact, his... everything was larger. Stumbling over to a mirror, adjusting to the slender legs, which felt almost eerily natural to him almost instantly, he took in his appearance with a shock that parted his lips and refused to let them shut.

He looked like Queen Clavus. The youth, the flowing mane, the height, and the... female attributes. Holy... he was female. He was a goddess damned female. A really beautiful one, reminiscent of the queen, with the same height and stature, the regal poise, the subtle curves...

It freaked Chrysalis out immensely. He—no, she took a step back in shock, spreading her wings, and only then did she realise that they too had grown in size to a magnificent span. She checked her door in a haste, being sure that it was firmly closed, then went back to marvelling at herself in the mirror.

To think that the crown had the capability to transform a changeling in such a way... this must have been why Clavus looked so different when she died! That was... harrowing, to say the least, but fascinating all the same!

The longer she admired her reflection, intrigue mixing with fear, the more she began to notice that something else was beginning to occur... a dormant part of her mind was waking up. It was filled with questions, but posed answers. It held knowledge and intuition that she'd never dreamt of. It separated her from the hive, put her a step above them.

Chrysalis felt... individual. No, more than that, she felt as if she was brushing against the apex of her mind, something she'd never even realised was there until she managed to dip a hoof into the water, and now she only felt encouraged to drink. But there was more there. Her thoughts drifted as she attempted to become at least basically acquainted with the particulars of her own mind, and in her search, she found something that terrified and amazed her more than anything had before.

She could feel them. All of them. Every single changeling in the hive held a presence in her mind, yet she could barely tap into it, she didn't know how. She felt as if they completed her, as if a small part of her shared in their struggles, their triumphs. She felt love for them...

But she also felt their pain, and the further she dived, the more she attempted to parse the individual thoughts of each changeling, the more they swirled and spiraled out of control, becoming hotter and more powerful with each passing moment until her head began to sear from the contact.

She attempted to withdraw from them, but she didn't know how. Panting, desperate, she closed her eyes, firing up her horn and flinging the crown from her head, causing it to land on the bed behind her. The voices stopped, finally.

And Chrysalis was a normal, male drone again. He stared at the crown in utter disbelief. To think that this had been what Clavus had meant when she said to use the crown, that it held such transformative properties...

Would she too be able to tap into its power? Is that what Clavus had done? She only wished she could ask more questions, but she knew it to be an impossibility. All that Chrysalis understood was that he had somehow awakened a part of him that was more than just him, yet the moment he took the crown off, it ceased to be.

When he wore it, something inside of him made him feel as if he was a ruler, a queen. Not an experienced queen, and definitely not one that understood the intricacies of the crown they wore, nor the world they were faced with, but a queen nonetheless.

The hive needed a queen. Chrysalis had been told this. He'd seen his people, he believed it.

But the pounding of his heart told him that he wasn't ready to be that queen, not yet. If he failed, if he made a mistake, he could only make things worse for the entire hive, and any trust that had been placed in him would be for nothing.

But by that same notion, could he sit idly by either? If he was faced between the options of doing nothing and hoping that things would improve without him or attempting to rise to the task only to potentially make things worse, which was the most selfish option? Was it only his fear that was preventing him from taking the plunge?

And if he was to wear the crown, what would he do? He knew nothing of how to rule... would the crown, would that part of his female, queenly mind help him? Would it show him how to rule, and who to trust? Would it teach him the rights and wrongs of the world, or lead him down a dark path?

Chrysalis only had an inkling of the world's state of affairs. He'd lived in a bubble for so long that the thought of waking up now was alarming, scary. If he was to rule, he'd have to arm himself with both a knowledge and understanding of the world around him. Only then could he truly lead his people.

That, and he'd have to get used to having a vagina. That was going to be weird.

Transformation

The state of the hive only got worse over the following days. Changelings began to wonder why they hadn't seen their queen, some vocally, and there was a high level of unrest between various denizens of the hive, from high elites to lowly drones. Theories and ideas were spun, some wildly inaccurate and others scarily close to what might have been the truth.

Through it all, Chrysalis was a silent bystander. He walked through the hive, he avoided conversing with others for fear of letting anything slip, he fed sparingly. A quick excursion to a nearby forest, he drained a doe of its love until it felt tired, then left it to sleep with its young. The image of the family sleeping so contently stayed in Chrysalis' mind for a little while, a momentary escape from the craziness of home, but he soon shrugged it off.

He shouldn't admire the prey, nor their simplistic, benevolent way of life.

Many questions had gripped him in the last few days, and they were only exasperated by the fact that he now knew what Clavus' crown could do to him, what it made him... Fears of being called a liar had been lessened once he had realised that he truly looked a queen when he wore it, that he became mentally linked with the entire hive and took place at the head of it. There would be little doubt amongst changelings that he was in charge, the new queen.

But what then? Would they be happy about the change? Surely not, there would be many that rejected his rule, perhaps some that accused him of scheming or otherwise cheating his way to the top. How else would a drone like any other achieve such status?

He hadn't worn the crown again since, but kept it with him always. He wore saddlebags that it was stashed away deeply in, worried to leave it in his room. He'd considered burying it in the forest, but there was the possibility that it would be found by another there, or that it would be needed in future only for him to forget where it was hidden.

It was a dilemma that pulled his mind in two directions, one that brought a growl to his lips and made his wing buzz in irritation. He hadn't wanted such responsibility thrusted onto him, he'd do anything to be rid of it.

But Chrysalis had no idea how the linking worked. Would he have to die in order for another changeling to become linked? And if so, not only was that not an option—he rather enjoyed living—but there was also the worry if which changeling the crown might become linked with following his death. What if they were evil and powerhungry, and their actions plunged the hive into darkness? Would it be Chrysalis' fault?

Part of him knew that it would, that no matter what, he was fated to keep this crown. To use it, perhaps. He walked through the forest in the glow of dusk, silence broken occasionally by the chime of cicadas or the sound of frogs by a nearby pond. Chrysalis decided that a drink wouldn't hurt, so he followed the glow of the setting sun until he found that it rippled against the water before him.

Stooping down, Chrysalis took a long drink. The water was warm, almost unpleasantly so, but it soothed his body nonetheless, relaxing him until he sat on his haunches, looking down at his reflection.

Then, an idea occurred to him. He focussed, focussed hard, attempting to recreate the visage of what he had been only days before. He'd had a good long time to take it in, and he was skilled enough in disguise that he'd been able to perfectly recreate the image of creatures he'd viewed for only a second. If anything, it was the only area of magic he was anywhere above competent in.

With the thought perfectly summoned in his head, he attempted to transform. A flicker, a green light over his body, and there he was again, with the slender, feminine physique. But he was still him. No change of mental faculties, no greater connection to his people, no crown. The water looked back at him curiously, though the local wildlife seemed disinterested.

It was with no small measure of shock that he realised his transformation was botched. His eyes were smaller than they should've been, his teeth too angular, his body's curves misproportioned, legs too short... This wasn't a usual occurrence.

He tried again, this time as Clavus. Impersonating a high class changeling was punishable by death, so to do so as a queen was punishable by a comparably slow death... but Chrysalis had seen Clavus many times in his life. In fact, in her final moments, he figured he saw her better than anyone else ever had. Again, he tried, and again, the transformation was a failure. Features were off, parts of the queen didn't look as they should've. Even the colouration of her eyes was wrong.

Sighing, Chrysalis changed into any other changeling he could think of. An elite, the general from the other day, Fascia, one of the more nimble scouts. Every transformation was perfect and without flaw, right down to the voices, when he tested them.

What did that mean? Both his and Clavus' looks were products of the crown, could they not be replicated?

He could feel the weight in his bag. He'd been looking for any excuse not to put the crown back on, but this recent discovery spurred him on. He just wanted another glance at the form, to see if his mind was playing tricks on him, if he had or hadn't in fact got things wrong. He took it out from his bags, and hesitantly, he slipped it on his head.

Chrysalis looked down at the reflection again, and this time, the water rippled. Not only that, but the wildlife around actually paused in its activity, all looking to her. She looked back, and the surrounding creatures began to move again, faster.

She knew what it meant without having to think. They respected her, feared her. They knew a predator when they saw one.

Chrysalis stretched out a long leg, pushing the tip of her hoof into the water and beginning to swish it back and forth. Again, her mind felt alive, but this time, she was a tiny bit more prepared. It was still daunting, to say the least, and what surprised her most was the fact that even here, a couple of miles from home, she could feel the presence of the hive just as strongly as she had the first time.

She imagined if she really focussed, if she learnt to do so, she'd be able to feel changelings all over equus.

Did this form make her a queen? Her mind decided to answer yes. It was an impulsive, confident action, and it didn't entirely feel like Chrysalis, but she enjoyed it all the same. "Queen..." she muttered to herself, again surprised by the softness of her voice, which had risen several octaves. "Queen Chrysalis of the Changelings."

They say that words have power, and while these ones didn't encourage an explosion or light show, they did make Chrysalis tense and bite her lip, blinking curiously at herself. She wasn't asking in that moment, she was asserting. As a male, as a drone, she never would've, and she knew it, but in this form... she felt the part.

She was a queen, as Clavus had wanted her to be. The only question was whether she could remain one.

Chrysalis still didn't feel comfortable in this body of hers. She stood, albeit slowly, walking around the pond and back towards the forest. She decided that she wished she could get there faster, and through a burst of magic she could scarcely even comprehend, she was teleported not to, but way past her mark, fifty feet further than she'd intended to walk.

Okay, random bursts of really powerful magic? That was new. A little scary, too.

But Chrysalis wasn't taking the crown off yet. She wasn't sure where her newfound confidence was coming from, but she suspected it was her female self that possessed it, that was willing to test its own boundaries rather than simply run away. It almost felt like being in a dream, being the self that she'd always imagined, but never thought could be truly real.

There was so much to do, so much to consider, but she didn't even know how her damn body worked yet. She had to be careful. To expose herself early could be grounds to be exploited, to be used by the council or some other party in order to further their goals, and she wouldn't be a figurehead, nor would she allow another to seize power in her name.

...whoa, that was a lot of quick thought. This crown really sped up her faculties.

Continuing in her walk, she came across a large bear. Bears were often hostile towards changelings if they got too close, choosing to engage and fight, and as such, changelings avoided them when they weren't hunting in packs.

This bear took one look at Chrysalis and started to back away. Chrysalis smiled with the sadistic glee of a hunter. Perhaps this would be a chance to test her new abilities.

She took a single step forwards, and the bear bolted, its bulky form hardly seeming to slow it down as it bounded through the woods. Chrysalis gave chase with a single flap of her wings for speed, opting to stay grounded and gallop after him out of fear that she wouldn't be able to control her new wings. In truth, she wasn't even hungry. She would capture this bear to prove a point, and then she would let it go.

It was keeping level with her pace, not managing to outrun her, but not losing momentum either, and it didn't seem to be growing tired any time soon. It was with a small measure of shock that Chrysalis realised she wasn't even going half as fast as she could've been. She'd have been maxed out by now, usually.

And so she sped up, faster than she'd ever seen a changeling run before. She caught up to the bear in a moment, and not trusting her horn for fear of obliterating half a mile of forest in the process, she instead opted to pounce on the bear, hoping to knock it off balance.

Again, she severely underestimated her abilities. So much so that when she jumped, she didn't only knock the bear clean over, but she sailed right past it from her momentum, crashing into a nearby tree and cracking the bark with the force of impact. She stood slowly, but realised soon after that she barely felt any pain. Her body was oddly resilient in this form, and within seconds, any notion of pain was gone.

The bear looked up at her glumly, defeated. It struck her as odd that it didn't try to fight at all. For a moment, she simply looked at it, watching to see if it would get up or try to walk away.

And then she realised that she had just taken down a bear. It dawned on her that she, Chrysalis, had just beaten a bear into submission with a single leap, and she didn't have a scratch to show for it.

That kind of accomplishment deserved some kind of reward. She barely felt herself lick her lips as she looked the bear over. She'd never tasted a bear's love before, she wondered what it was like. Just a small sip, she told herself. This one didn't need to be drained.

By the time she thought again, she realised that the bear looked to be on the edge of unconsciousness. What had happened? Why did she only feel barely sated, yet feel completely full at the same time? Why wasn't she stopping? A part of her mind was telling her that this was fine, that it was the natural order of things, that she could simply let this prey slip into sleep, perhaps death, that this was the new order of things now...

She silenced those thoughts with an angry snarl, cutting off the flow of magic and shaking her head manically. When she went to wipe her face of sweat, she realised that she had tears in her eyes.

The bear looked pathetic, curled up and ready to accept death. With a burst of magic, Chrysalis rejuvenated as much of the bear's energy as she could, and it stood again. She knew something would be missing from it for a good while, though, the capacity to feel for another.

She had gone too far. Simple creature or not, there was no need for such gluttony, and yet she had scarcely realised what she was doing until it was too late, even tried to justify it to herself!

With a snarl, she placed a hoof to her head, then hesitated. Her mind was changing, her body too. She simply needed to come to grips with these new instincts and emotions, like she imagined Clavus had done before her. She was a benevolent and loving queen, and all knew it. There was no way that the crown automatically made its user more cold, more ruthless.

Perhaps it was something that had resided in Chrysalis all along, something she had neglected to see until she had the power to utilise it. Or perhaps she was worrying too much about something that she would not let happen again.

Either way, it was becoming dark. Necessity won out in the end, forcing Chrysalis to take the crown off and place it in her saddlebags again.

He almost missed the feeling when it was gone, that of truly knowing who he was. Not only that, but the crown had been a tad difficult to take off this time.

Chrysalis' walk home was filled with confusing thoughts that swirled in circles and refused to stop. His mind was muddled without the crown, and once again, he found it increasingly difficult to make sense of things. That said, where he'd first held fear of the crown, that feeling was beginning to lessen with each moment he spent considering it.

He was broken from his concentration by the sight of a tall pillar of fire in the distance, near the hive.

Shocked and worried, he began to rush towards it without a second thought. What if a fight had broken out? What if it was another attack, like before? Fear was forgotten in the presence of duty, and he almost felt as if he was spurred on by thoughts from earlier, qualities he'd managed to retain from his previous transformations.

As the scene came closer into view and the fire continued to rage, he saw a large congregation of changelings surrounding it, not running and screaming, but shouting and raving arguing amongst one another. Whatever this meant, there was no chance that it was good.

When he was close enough, Chrysalis saw exactly what was burning. It was a large effigy of an equine shape, crafted from wood, it seemed. Standing at the front of it were a small group of changelings offset from the rest of the group, shouting to all that would listen. "The queen is dead!" one of them bellowed, and Chrysalis imagined it wasn't for the first time.

Oh. Oh, shit. How had the changelings discovered the truth so quickly? Chrysalis looked about wherever she could, but didn't see a single council member in sight, though their presence might have been obscured by the sheer number of changelings present.

A changeling in the crowd didn't seem convinced. "How do you know that she is dead?" he shouted back, and was met with a good deal of cheering. Patriotic to the end, it seemed. Or fearful, and hoping that it was a lie only for their own sakes. It was hard to be sure.

"We know she is dead because the pony that burns before us has claimed responsibility for it!" the loud one on the makeshift podium replied, essentially hissing the word pony. "Angel Strongheart says that it was her own agents that crept into the heart of the hive and destroyed our queen where she stood! That there were no survivors, that it took days for her to be discovered!"

Chrysalis audibly gasped at this revelation. Angel was said to be the leader of the New Equestrian Republic, the ponies to the north that had relentlessly thought the changelings for years. Was it possible that they had truly been the killers, that they had found some way around the throne's anti-magic wards?

"If this is true, then why hasn't the hive been informed?" another onlooker shouted, clearly skeptical.

"That's simple! It's because they're scared, and they don't know what to do! I'm scared!" the changeling said, his fangs showing. "It makes me shudder to think that our beloved queen could be murdered like cattle, stripped of her life and laughed at by these swine who so proudly proclaim it was their doing!"

"Don't speak about the queen that way! This is a pack of lies!" That call was met with jeers and cheers alike, angry shouts and shoving in the crowd.

"If it is a lie, then why has no one seen her in over a week, even as rumours continue to fly around! This is only confirmation of what we all feared! Whether you choose to believe it or not, it is truth, and there is nothing we can do to change that!" The changeling's fangs met in a growl. "The only thing we can do is take revenge on the pony bitch that took our queen away!"

More cheers. The place was becoming hot, and it wasn't from the fire. Chrysalis was sweating, feeling as if he was about to hyperventilate.

"What would you have us do?" One of the voices from earlier sounded. "Call us to arms, lead us as if you're a warrior? What do you know of tactics or battle strategy?"

"Nothing! I am a carpenter, but I would sooner die fighting than sit at home and wait to starve! Without the queen we have no leadership, and we are nothing if we do not act as a hive! If you don't trust me to lead a fight, bring me a fighter, and we'll have him lead us. We will lay the republic to waste for what they have done here!"

His silhouette was backed by roaring flames. The warring shouts and cheers on every side of Chrysalis only grew and grew. This could lead to war, Chrysalis knew, or worse, division. The changelings didn't seem ready to agree on anything, it was almost as if the queen's death was causing a huge schism between them.

They needed someone to rule them, to keep them under control and stop the coming conflict that threatened to consume all of them. Chrysalis brushed his hoof against his saddlebags, considering the inevitable. Could he really hold it off now?

"We will burn their homes to the ground and feast on their love, and then Equestria will be next!"

More cheers, more hungry, angry changelings.

Yeah, this had gone far enough.

With a steeling breath, Chrysalis reached into his saddlebags and placed the crown on his head. With the transformation this time being instant, she walked through the crowd, all of them parting of their own accord, stunned, gasping, whispering.

"...Queen Clavus... Queen Clavus is here!"

"No, it isn't the queen! She looks different!"

"It's an impostor!" one shouted, rushing forwards from the podium to attack Chrysalis. She lifted the changeling up in her magic, gently, and then placed him down elsewhere. For her, it had been the most simple, fluid movement. For him, it had been a freezing action that he couldn't hope to stop.

When she finally reached the centre of the crowd, rising up to the top of the podium, she looked out to the gathered crowd, all of whom stared at her with a mixture of shock and awe. The usual Chrysalis wouldn't have had a clue what to say in this situtation. The new, improved Chrysalis wasn't entirely sure either, so she took her time clearing her throat.

"Changelings!" she shouted, albeit a little too loudly, and a bunch of them flinched back. "No, ah... Subjects! Yes, that's better. Subjects! I am not Queen Clavus, and I do not claim to be!" That sounded good, she thought. She wasn't an impostor, at least.

"Th-then..." Chrysalis turned, and saw that it was the pony that was so confidently bellowing earlier. Funny how her presence changed that. "Then who are you, your grace?" He said it loud enough that some might have heard.

But Chrysalis wanted to be sure that every Changeling in the area would hear her word, and then spread it. "Glad you should ask. I am Clavus' successor, named so on her deathbed. My name... is Chrysalis." She took her time to look over the crowd, who looked back at her in wonder. In truth, she felt the same, but she couldn't show it publicly, no signs of weakness could be displayed. "Who heard the message from Strongheart?"

A helmed changeling stepped forwards. He too was hesitant to speak. "I did... I received it from the north, I spent all day flying back here with the news."

"There will be no war declared in the queen's name today." Chrysalis stated, ignoring the want in the eyes of each changeling that clearly desired some form of retribution. "First I must speak to Celestia, then the queen's ambassadors and advisers. We must piece together a full picture of this situation. Only then can we act."

"False queen!" A warrior shouted, flying to the podium. "You would dare to converse with our enemies when Clavus has just been murdered?!"

"I watched Clavus die," Chrysalis stated, a bite in her tone. "You will talk to your new queen with some respect, or I will see you're put behind enemy lines wrapped in a little bow. Do I make myself clear?"

"You probably killed her yourself! You have no claim to that crown, nor the throne, you scheming, conniving—"

The last word of that insult was lost from the sound of Chrysalis' hoof striking the warrior's face, sending him tumbling to the ground. "The only reason you aren't being put in chains right now is that I admire your loyalty to Clavus, but do not speak ill of me again. The next strike will not be a warning, and I've yet to discover my own strength."

The warrior stared at her, hatred in his eyes, but he relented nonetheless, crawling backwards. Well, one subject almost knocked unconscious and threats of a civil war brewing? Not a bad start.

Chrysalis could only hope her time of queen would get a little easier from here.

A Council Fit For a Queen

Chrysalis left the podium and the gathered changelings behind once she felt that their voices had been calmed, at least a little. She knew that she hadn't assuaged their concerns completely, but even still, they continued to look at her with shock and appreciation. Perhaps to them, she was the small piece of fortune they had been granted in such confusing times.

Chrysalis, however, was growing more and more confused by the second. She'd not meant to out herself, not so quickly either. Now that she had in such a public setting, news would travel like wildfire. It had seemed the right thing to do at the time, but now?

She didn't take the crown off. She walked through the hive wearing it, changelings stopping to stare, calling after her, bowing... but none got too close. Whether they'd heard what she did to the warrior with a single strike or were simply wary considering her stature, she was unsure. The thing that she hated was the small feeling of pleasure she received from the respect she was being granted. She didn't feel as if she had earnt it.

That, and the pleasant buzz that had rocked through her body after striking down a powerful warrior for disrespecting her. She never would have been able to do that in her usual form. And something told her that she simply never would.

Her movements were slow, graceful, and in the sight of her new eyes, everything stretched further, seemed more vibrant and easy to differentiate. She took in her surroundings with a newfound interest, as if she was looking at the hive for the first time, the interconnecting pathways, the large caverns and halls that made up its structure, the lower levels where drones buzzed and ran about going about their days, many of them seemingly on edge just from the rush of their movements...

Chrysalis had never known changelings to be particularly divided in opinion. While they might argue over small things, like who received the lion's share of a meal, or whose turn it was to do a task, the argument she witnessed earlier felt... wrong. It was as if without their queen, the link that anchored them all to the hive, changelings had started to not only think more as individuals, but not known how to go about doing so. None of them seemed trusting of one another, all of them were looking for a leader to show them the way, either an old one, or a new.

They were looking for a new queen.

Chrysalis felt the presence of another before she saw it, and was shocked upon turning to find that a changeling had come up behind her. It wasn't the proximity that shocked her, nor the speed, more so the fact that one had approached her without fear. She recognised the changeling as soon as she turned. It was Fascia, the general from the interrogation, with her green eyes and polished scales. She had an eyebrow quirked as she looked Chrysalis over, and her mouth was twisted into something resembling a smirk.

"I thought the crown had crumbled to dust?" Fascia asked, eyes wide, more curious than scrutinising.

That didn't stop Chrysalis from rubbing the back of her neck. Even amongst the smaller changeling, it was the first time she had actually felt nervous since assuming this form. "I didn't know how you would react upon knowing. I had to work out how all of this worked first... I assume you saw me by the effigy?"

"I did indeed. I wanted to wait for a quiet moment to approach you." Fascia sat on her haunches, inviting Chrysalis to do the same. "You realise what this means, I hope?"

"It means that I'm to be queen," she replied bluntly, not knowing what else to say.

"Exactly," Fascia replied, pointing a hoof at her. "You, barely a hatchling no longer, are to rule our people now, perhaps for generations to come. You have no experience, you have no knowledge of what it is to be a ruler..." A moment passed, and she smirked. "You apparently know how to silence those that would challenge you, however."

Chrysalis blushed as she realised what she was referring to, shaking her head. "I didn't mean to knock him to the floor. In the heat of the moment, it just kind of happened, and I knew I'd look weak if I didn't run with it..."

"Try not to get a reputation for abusing your subjects," Fascia responded with a pointed nod. "Though I understand your reaction. You clearly have no clue what you're doing right now." Her eyes drifted upwards for a moment, focussing on the crown. "It's funny how much a single object can change you. Even for us shape-shifters, this is something else entirely."

Chrysalis could only nod, biting her lip. Did she recognise that the changes had gone beyond physical? Had her earlier interrogation been enough to determine that?

Fascia's eyes hit the floor for a moment, and she looked back up to Chrysalis with a softer expression than she'd imagined possible on that battle-hardened face. "I'm... sorry if I was too harsh with you the other day. You have to understand, tensions were running incredibly high, and the death of the queen, it—I still haven't come to terms with it. But I can see that you aren't a liar, despite what you might have said then. You said what you did for good reason, I understand."

Chrysalis considered her carefully. She seemed to be genuinely upset about the whole ordeal, more than Chrysalis would've expected from a commander that regularly fought and likely grilled soldiers constantly. Perhaps the general was more compassionate than Chrysalis realised. "Thank you, and I'm sorry for what I did." It was genuine, too.

"Me and Queen Clavus..." Fascia continued, her words coming slowly, "we were... I wouldn't purport to call her a friend, but I loved the queen with all of my heart. She always seemed to trust me as her military leader, and..." She looked up to Chrysalis, and Fascia had tears in her eyes. "I failed her. I failed my queen. I know this is a lot for you to take in, and that you're awfully confused right now, but if she entrusted the crown to you, then perhaps all hope isn't lost. I only wish to help set things right, and atone for not being there when Clavus needed me."

The emotion in her voice was strong, moving. Chrysalis had heard stories of Fascia, the general that had saved many changeling lives in her skirmishes in the north, defending against Angel and her forces. To think that such a legend was stood before her now, on the edge of tears... it didn't feel right. It didn't feel fair, on her or anyone else. "How would you wish to help?" Chrysalis asked, her voice softer than she'd expected.

"Allow me to advise you," Fascia said, standing while Chrysalis still sat, body straight and rigid in a soldier's pose. "Dark times are ahead, and you need experienced changelings behind you that understand the political climate, that will help to see our people through the darkness." She bowed her head, a show of respect, and Chrysalis fought the urge to ask her to rise. "I'll fight dutifully as always, but I'll serve you with my wisdom, too. I learnt a lot beside Clavus, and I feel as if I'm the right changeling to teach. I imagine she would have been proud to see me serve you, also."

Chrysalis didn't feel the need to stop and think about this too much. Having Fascia offer help was a godsend, when she could just as easily have shunned her for lying and obscuring the true version of events. "I'd like to have you by my side," Chrysalis smiled, nodding her head. "I'm scared I might become lost otherwise."

"Not just me," Fascia answered, "but the entire council, all of the forces of the hive. I'll show you how to command each of them, what their jobs entail, and how they can help us all. You were right to say to the crowd that you'd convene with Celestia, it's better that she hear of the current state of affairs from us directly before she has the chance to receive too many stories from elsewhere. The fanatics in the north will do anything to drag our names through the dirt."

Chrysalis stood herself, noticing that Fascia was beginning to walk on. "How did you know the truth of the crown?" she asked.

"Queen Clavus never explained all of the specifics to me, but she told me of its power. When I heard that the crown had crumbled from you, I feared we might never have another queen..." A look back, a small smile. "But luckily, that notion no longer holds true. I'm very relieved to see that the crown still rests on a changeling's head."

Chrysalis was silent for a moment, and after consideration, decided not to say what she was about to next. She wanted to remark that the crown belonged on the head of a changeling like Fascia. Still, sentiments couldn't change anything. Instead, she chose something more relevant to the here and now. "Where can I go to find out more about the crown? Natrually, Clavus didn't have much time to share its intricacies with me..."

Fascia 'hmm'd for a moment as she walked, not seemingly with a destination in mind, but more so looking to stay active. "The archives on the lower levels are extensive, and there are many sections that you wouldn't have had access to when you were only a drone. Perhaps you can find something that might shed some light there, maybe even help you to understand the changes you're going through. Look for a changeling named Vertex, when you've a chance. He runs the archives, and might be able to help you."

Chrysalis mentally noted the information. She couldn't help but feel the length of time which she'd been wearing the crown for now. She could barely feel the conflict right then between her usual self and her current self. It was almost as if they were one. "I'll keep that in mind. Do you think that I'll have time soon?"

"You are queen now. By all standards, you should choose exactly what you do and when you do it, and no one should be able to tell you otherwise." The pause at the end of Fascia's sentence indicated there was to be more, and Chrysalis motioned her along with a hoof. "That said, it would be wise to address the council first. Many of them will need speaking to following this development, and explaining your perjury will be a delicate issue. That said, I hold a lot of sway there, I should be able to bring many of them over to your side with little issue."

"They have no choice but to be on my side, there isn't another for them to choose." Chrysalis almost covered her mouth following the words, but she knew them to be true. She'd lost her filter with the crown on her head, it seemed, but there was no escaping the gravity of what she said. She nodded to Fascia, grateful that she was there. "We'll go to see them immediately. The sooner that's done, the sooner we can begin to clean up this mess."

"That's the spirit," Fascia smiled, turning a corner as Chrysalis followed. "We'll go now, and I'll whip all the members until they're present. I'm sure a lot of them have already heard about the commotion with the effigy, it's best we hit them before they have time to discuss matters too much."

"Why, you think they're planning to oppose me?"

"I think it's wise to assume that not every changeling is glad to see a young, inexperienced drone as their new queen."

Chrysalis had to silence a growl at the thought, rather than any feeling of self-doubt. What was happening to her? The sooner she got through the coming meetings and out of her new subjects' eyes, the sooner she could take that damn crown off and feel herself again.

Because this? This felt too good. Like an insatiable addiction slowly tightening its grip and refusing to let go.