I hate you all. I always will. You'll all pay.
"Hello there. What do you want?" asked an elderly stallion.
"I'm here to see if the rumors are true. I'm here to see if you really raised Chrysalis: The Queen of changelings." asked a mare.
The two ponies were in a white, sterile room surrounded by medical instruments that kept a read on a heartbeat. The signal waves rising up and down like waves on a beach. The boxy instruments held themselves on flimsy wooden poles with wheeled stands that seemed to fill the room more-so than the large bed right in its middle. An elderly, gray stallion lay upon it, cables strapped into his skin. He had definitely seen rough times. There were patches of his fur that hadn't seem to have grown back well. They were extremely rough and straw-like in consistency. His right eye was missing, the skin around the socket seemingly showing signs of a sharp object trying to claw through the stallion's skull. Next to the elderly stallion sat a pegasus mare of turquoise color. Her mane was white but had yellow highlights streaking through it and held a hair pin resembling a pink tube. She had sat down next to the stallion's bed with a feather in her mouth and a notebook lying on her wings folded in front of her to serve as a temporary desk.
"Oh? Since when have you heard these rumors?"
"A few weeks ago. Ever since that incident with the crazy stallion and Chrysalis' attempts at killing the princesses."
"Ah, yes. He was from something called 'The non-understandable'?"
"The Illogic. We don't know much about them, but that's not why I'm here."
"So you aren't. Say, could you help me up? I've slid into a rather uncomfortable position."
"Can't you get the nurses to do that?" the mare asked in frustration.
The stallion simply raised a fluffy eyebrow.
"Yes. Whilst we wait for them to come, I'll have been able to die and turn into dust for the fields."
"...Fine." she said reluctantly.
The pegasus put her things down and righted the stallion up with much difficulty. She stomped back to her things and asked violently:
"Can we PLEASE get onto how you know Chrysalis...and how you got those wounds?"
"Before you ask, the eye was done long before I met her, but it's not important. Well then. Mmmm. Very comfy now. Let's see, when I found her, I lived in the mountains..."
The day was rather cloudy and winds were very chilly, but living in the mountains, that was rather normal. I lived in a little wooden cabin near the town of Ardal. I didn't live apart from them because I hated society or something other hermits like that might do, but because I was a lumberjack and was the main wood supplier of the region. My cabin was built just next to the mountain side with a slight slope a few meters in front of it. I guess I should be grateful that I never got caught in a landslide. So, I was in my cabin, cutting logs like usual, when I heard the roaring of timberwolves and the screams of a young filly. At first, I thought it was just the sounds of an animal with a similar pitch, so I remained in my workshop to carve and smooth out the wooden planks, but then I heard it again. My heart pounded and I began to sweat a cold drop from my forehead. I couldn't take it. I burst through my workshop outside, axe in hoof, and galloped left along the dry dirt trail, hugging the side of the mountain as I did so.
Once I reached the end, a few minutes later, I jumped off the ledge and galloped through the tree lines. I nearly tripped over a few rocks to smash, face first, into trees, but my hooves were holding me well that day. After awhile, I couldn't hear anything anymore. I was huffing and panting, trying to see where the source might have been from, but those clouds would never let more that a slight beam of light pierce through the canopy above. I thought that the source had been killed, but I heard the yell again. The difference, this time, was that it came from one of the timber wolves, and I distinctly remember seeing a lower jaw from one fly past my muzzle. I ran in the opposite direction to see this weird, black thing with its dangly horn glowing a bright lime green. Three other wolves were about to pounce on her when I yelled at them. They turned around to see me charging in and chopping one of them to pieces. The other two were going to prepare to fight, but seeing the weapon I had in hoof and the damage it did, they turned tail and fled.
I made sure they were gone, but I turned to look at this tiny black thing hunched against a fallen tree log. She was trying to push herself away when she saw me. You see, as a lumberjack, I had a rather impressive build, as others had told me at the time. I simply never smiled and the wound of my eye socket often kept others scared and distant from me. I suppose she was scared of me as well. As to what she was doing there that day, I do not know. Perhaps she fled from her own mother? Perhaps it is a rite of passage for changeling queens? Unless she tells you herself, you'll never know. Now then, as for the story, I reached out to grab her, but she began to swat at my foreleg. It was funny to see such a tiny creature trying to hurt me. She was bleeding all over her body, and she seemed drained. I suppose the magic she had used before left her tuckered out. She had turned her head away and clenched her fangs as she batted at my legs, but that's just how it is. I grabbed her and dragged her screaming body to my cabin. Hoowee! She was a loud one. Like a young colt being taken away from a toy he really wanted. She was kicking and screaming like crazy. I think I might still have the bruises on my flank.
I pushed the door to my house open and made sure to lock the doors and windows so that she couldn't escape. In retrospect, that wouldn't sound right in our times, but if she escaped, she would have certainly died. My cabin had simple carpets of shed lion fur threaded together, with black couches made from synthetic leather and filled with cotton. I had trophies of beasts I killed in the forest on my walls as well. Nothing as extravagant as a manticore, but there were timberwolves here and there, mainly. She immediately galloped behind my couch and hid there. She very much reminded me of a cat, what with her unhealthy obsession of poking her little head from around the corner of it and staring at me with them big 'ol eyes.
"C'mere. I need to help clean your wounds." I told her.
She was still very hesitant and preferred not to get close to me anyways. Sometimes, I had to trap predators and haul them off somewhere else during my time in the woods. It gave an extra bit when needed, so I did the same with her. I put a glue bomb on the floor, where there was no chance of the stuff getting on my furniture. It's easy enough to clean that gray substance from wood, but anything else and you can toss it. So I waited for her to avert her gaze, and I quickly took a glue bomb from a nearby table and placed it on the floor, letting it pop open quietly and letting its contents ooze on the ground. Slowly, I sneaked my way around the couch, and scared the tiny creature, causing her to run in the opposite direction. I ran after her and pushed the two couches together so she would have no choice but to run around the second one and land in the trap, which she did, I must say. I gave a proud smirk and said:
"Now you can't get away. I don't know what you are and I don't truly care. You are too tiny and weak to be running around the forest. You're also in need of a bath and healing."
She tried to get away again, but I just plucked her out of that puddle and took her to the bathtub, where I put her in right away. Once more, she tried to get away, but I held her in there, mainly because of all the glue she still had on her coat. She was really like a cat. Luckily for me, though, she didn't have claws, but she did have those accursed sharp teeth and she took every moment she could to chomp into my skin. Oh, did I mention my bathtub was in the same area as my main room? It had a wooden slide made to bring water from my stock higher in the mountains. I opened the slide and let the cold water splash all over. She didn't like that. Not one bit, but I didn't care. I just took some soap from the cupboard nearby and threw it all over her. I took her out, dried her, and put ointment on her wounds, then I just wrapped her back up like a little baby and held her in my foreleg. She was, for lack of a better term, extremely cute. She was coiled up in the towel and shaking like crazy. It didn't help my floor getting soaked by her weird hair. As I held her, I went towards my cobble-stone fireplace and tossed some of the logs I kept on the side in there. I remember face hoofing internally when I realized I should have just put her on the couch and done the rest with both hooves. I took some silex and scraped them together, starting a fire. A bit of churning and the fire erupted upon the wood.
I had expected the tiny filly to have tried to flee once more when I turned around, but she was still shaking in her little cocoon. The split second I put her in front of the fireplace, she had stopped shaking and slowly opened her big 'ol eyes. I must say that she was painfully adorable at that moment when she looked up at me. I think they sparkled for just a moment, but she still didn't fully trust me. She seemed to understand that, if I wanted her dead, I would have been more than capable of delivering it. Nonetheless; there was a lengthy moment of silence before I asked:
"Who are you and what were you doing in the forest?"
She didn't answer.
"You either answer me or you will never leave this cabin again."
At this threat, she pulled back and showed a cringe.
"You seem fully aware that I can execute these threats. I have to deal daily with timberwolves. A tiny black changeling isn't a threat."
"You...You know I'm a changeling?" the tiny changeling asked with a high-pitched voice.
"Yes."
"But...we've been hidden for so--"
"We all know what changelings are up here. I'm the only one who ignores them and they do such with me as well. What are they supposed to do? Steal the sugar I don't have?"
"But--"
"There are no butts. What were you doing out there anyways? Changeling foals always stay with the hive, as far as I know."
I recall looking around a bit, then having that great sensation of realization smash me in the skull.
"...But you aren't a normal changeling, are you? No. You have special traits that seem to fit only you."
"I don't know why I'm out here. I just woke up here and have been trying to survive since, but a pony wouldn't know what hard is." the tiny changeling crossed her forelegs and lift her head up in disgust.
I grabbed her by her skull and held her between both hooves, watching her struggle to get free.
"I know more than you think. Tell me your name, and I'll make sure nothing gets for a short duration. Don't expect much distance. I have wood to cut."
"...Fine. I guess I can trust you. You've made your point anyways. My name is Chrysalis."
"Tiny Chrysalis?" I mocked.
"No! Just Chrysalis! I'm not tiny!" she pouted.
I smirked and stood right in front of her. I bet I looked enormous compared to her.
"You barely reach further than my knees."
"Haha! And then stuff happened and you know everything now." the stallion smiled nervously.
The reporter simply glared at the elderly pony with eyes that would even freeze a cockatrice.
"Yeesh. Fine. Why don't you freeze my bones as well as my soul?"
"One thing I don't get. You're rather kind hearted here compared to...well...you know?"
"I was cruel as I explained my encounter with the filly?"
"Yes."
"I was very solitary back then, and the only large village nearby was...awful. It made me a separatist, in a way."
"And you mentioned something about changelings stealing sugar? Is it like what the minotaurs use to conserve their fish? You know, with salt? Do they use it to conserve the love they harvest?"
"Changelings eat love?"
The reporter was taken aback by the question of the wide-eyed elderly stallion. She thought he was messing with her again, but his face showed nothing but sincerity in it. The mare passed a hoof through her mane and took a deep breath.
"How did you not know?"
"Because the changelings we knew in that mountain fed on sugar. How could you feed on an emotion?"
"You should ask them, then."
"Ugh. So you want the whole story? I'll give you a run down because my memory isn't too good with accuracy."
She was very hesitant at the start, frequently running away back into the forest before coming back covered in bruises and wounds. Thanks to her, though, I managed to get several more trophies for my wall. She was a hoof full, but I loved her like a daughter. In the end, after helping her more times than the big heads at Canterlot university could count, she became... attached to me and ended up helping me out with my necessary chores. She had even started to ask me to tell her stories before she went to sleep. That Chrysalis really showed me that changelings were more than just scavenger insects. She was...very joyful, shall I say. She would even try and cut the logs like I did, but she would constantly topple over due to the axe's weight. It was bigger than her. Heh. Anyways, over the months, she started to become curious about the folks living in the village, and she got to see them up close as winter began to circle around. They would often come to my cabin to buy wood. I remember one day in particular.
It was a weird couple with foals still innocent to the adults' paranoid prattling. I don't remember the colors, but I do remember they were wearing old cotton clothing and were very depressed looking. Their manes and tail were coiffed back to flatten on their skulls, the stallion had a scarf tuft in his shirt to give that strange royal appearance, and the mare wore a dress that covered her whole body, save for her head. They even had bags under their eyes and spoke with a dark tone. Their two foals, a filly and colt, had been playing outside in the snow. Oh yes! I forgot to mention it had snowed that day. The whole forest was just a slide of snow and sleeping trees.
"We would require forty logs of wood for our sheltered home. It has become quite chilly and the darkness prevents our own enlightment and approach with the Transcended One." the stallion said with a monotone and raspy voice.
"Riiiiight. Enlightened one..." I answered with skepticism.
The mare's eye twitched.
"You dare to question our faith in the transcended one? YOU MEAN TO CAST US ASTRAY OF THE ONE TRUE PATH?! HERESY! THIS BLASPHEMER MUST--"
"QUIET, Marie-Jolie. He has not spoken ill-will of our faith. He simply does not believe in it, but he will, for it is the will of the Transcended One to call upon all his children in their end days."
"Yeah yeah. You certainly aren't here to preach to me about your beliefs to which I do not care."
I remembered even the stallion tensing up at that point.
"Ah ah. I'm the only one in this whole mountain who supplies you with much needed wood. None of you have the capability to survive out here. Now, for forty pieces of wood...big or small?"
"...Small." The stallion answered with disgust.
"Then that'll be twenty bits."
When he took out his purse, he tossed it slightly in front of me then looked at me with the corner of his eye. You know, thinking I would steal his full bag 'o coins. I simply stared at him with ambivalence and waited the payment. In the end, he just tossed the money to me. I think he was trying a 'greed' speech and thought I would be staring at his bag, but he didn't leave it at that. He had to go chest-to-chest with me and look at me straight in the eyes to say:
"Mark my words, lumberjack. We'll get you for your heresy. There is only one true belief, and you'll be sorry when the end of days comes."
"I hope it comes at this exact moment so I don't have to listen to you anymore. The Abyss would be paradise to listening to all your pritter pratter."
I just created a deadlock at that moment, but then we heard a scream. When the two fanatics turned around to see what the problem was, I caught sight of it. Chrysalis had sneaked onto the children in hopes of jump-scaring them and making friends. Poor thing. She had backed up in shock and put a hoof out to try and apologize to the two foals, but there was no point. Sometimes, I regret not telling her about those fools in the town.
"A changeling! A creation of the Eldritch! I'll get the wood and burn it!" the stallion said.
In my panic, I took my axe and yelled:
"I'll take care of it!"
And that I did. I ran towards her with axe in hoof and yelled at her to go. She misunderstood me at first, but ran in the opposite direction down the hill. Her little stubby legs were too small to flee from me, so I grabbed her after dropping my axe and curved around a rock to plant her there.
"Shhh. Stay quiet."
"But why--"
"Be quiet. There's the reason why I didn't want you to see the other ponies. They're a psychotic bunch. Wait...What's that noise?"
"Over there." Chrysalis whispered.
Along the tree lines, far below, we could see a group of ponies carrying a tied-up mare and stallion that, evidently, were not from there. The villagers were holding up that weird symbol that looked like several letter Cs swung around like blades or crescent moons. They were all holding up torches and another group was pulling a cart full of hay. I vaguely remember them stopping within earshot of us and mumbling something about their religion. You know, the typical 'You've mocked our beliefs and your god so you must die' sort of thing. I don't remember the exact words, but I do remember what happened to the two ponies. They were chucked onto the wagon and were trying to get loose, then one of the fanatics poured a weird liquid all over them as the others began to chant.
"No! Please! Let us go! We have children! We need to care for them!" the mare yelled.
"Then we will raise them for you. They do not deserve such unfaithful parents who do not teach them of the Transcended One."
"Then we'll change! We'll change!" the stallion replied.
"You will once you are purified by the holy flames."
"No!"
And the fires were lit. The two were yelling in atrocious pains as their skin cooked and boiled. This lasted for quite some time until the screaming finally stopped. They had died, and the others were still chanting. Knowing foals, I looked down, expecting see Chrysalis all pale and shaking in fear. She was unphased by the whole ordeal. I had cringed internally that day, and I still do when I think of that moment.
"Come on, Chrysalis. You go in the cabin from behind and I'll get the folks their wood."
She nodded and went around a trail in the forest that I told her about. Yes, I knew about many different hidden trails in the forest that would help one get around in secret. Of course, like I mentioned earlier in this story, the fanatics were too stupid to venture out of their homes and, thus, knew nothing about it. So I went back to the place, took the clients' bag, put the wood in it after assuring them the changeling was dead, and watched them leave. If I know myself, because I can't properly remember this portion either, is that I had told Chrysalis that she should remain hidden whenever they come around. Eventually, she began to help me more around the house. I even carved her a little medallion out of leftover wood and hooked it to a chain. I was never much for extravagance, so I didn't have any special materials. She loved it and wore it every day. It warmed my heart to see that. Even though the whole ordeal was over, more and more of these fanatics started to burn "heretics" in the forest, and they began to snoop around my cabin. It seemed the couple I met back when had shared their tales.
It's funny how they would check the cabin when I wasn't there. Sometimes I would go to the village myself because I needed food and whatnot or some furniture. Chrysalis would stay behind and, well, she got talented with tricks and traps. Sometimes I would find the fanatics trapped in a mud hole yelling for their Transcended One to help them out. They were usually harmless...but Chrysalis didn't seem to like how they treated those who didn't share their beliefs, so she seemed to get her later traps with...horrid things. I managed to dissuade her, but it took quite a long time. When she grew a little more, I decided to teach her how to survive in the forests and pass unseen. She was still a tiny filly, mind you, but I knew how changelings worked. She would eventually leave soon, so I thought giving her basic survivability skills would help her find her way back to whatever hive she came from.
It was hard at first. I had to explain to her what plants were safe and how to distinguish good from bad. She ended up using poison ivy and brambles the first few times. Scratched herself life crazy. Then, finally, she did it, and we played a hide-and-seek type of game. She was always grumpy and pouted because I could distinguish her easily from the surroundings. Funny little thing.
"There's one thing that bothers me, though, about your story so far." the reporter asked.
"And what's that?"
"She's a changeling. How come she never simply took the shape of another pony?"
"Hm." the stallion rubbed his chin."You're right. I never did think about that. She probably needed adults to teach her how to perform such abilities. I could ask her, but I guess it's too late now. Heheh."
"Well then, back to the story." the mare said as she looked back down to her notes."
"Right. Let me see...Oh! There was this one time when we had to fight a pourpros and--"
"A pourpros?! I...never mind. I'd prefer to learn about the moment that 'broke' her, for lack of a better word. I already have all the pieces leading to how you raised her."
"Yes. I had to teach her virtues and whatnot. Changelings have a very drastic difference in social expectancy than with our own society. Back to the story." the stallion muffled as he right himself on his bed.
So, one day after finishing teaching the filly about basic climbing skills, I heard noise outside. It turned out that, that day, I had to buy some more provisions. They dwindled faster because I had to feed sugar to the changeling. The townsfolk were suspicious of me because of the amount of sugar I was buying along with my usual provisions. They only knew of my outdoor activities, so telling them I used them to bait changelings because of the one that recently appeared in the misty forest was a good enough excuse for simpletons like them. That day, though, there were quite a few lurking about, so I was forced to take Chrysalis to the village with me. She used the skills I taught her to paint herself a believable white and put a cloak over her to hide the rest of her body. Even paint couldn't hide her traits.
So, be it as it may, we went to the large village. Now, don't be surprised about it. Any stone can be painted gold. The village looked beautiful, although slightly in disrepair due to the coloration the frequent fogs gave off. It had a gothic architecture about it, but I never really cared much for it or its paved roads. We simply went to the marketplace and to the usual stall to get my things in the wagon I had been pulling since we left the house. I didn't mention that? Oh. I'm sorry. Things didn't go as planned. The merchant started small talk about his beliefs and asked me how it was like to live a sedentary life in the forest. If only I didn't talk to him, I would've seen! Chrysalis was distracted by a few foals that had been playing in the center of the markets and she somehow joined in. I don't know what they were playing, but it had involved a lot of jumping and swearing from the merchants. As we continued to talk, I heard screams and immediately turned around to see that one of the villagers had thrown water over Chrysalis and tore her cloak off. She was soaking wet and shaking like when I first picked her up, but there, she had true terror in her eyes.
"Look! The demon that the lumberjack said he killed remains, and it came with him! He has signed a pact with the Evil Entity to raise his young and bring our downfall!"
"But I--"
"SILENCE, DEMON!" the stallion yelled as he punched Chrysalis across the face.
She was literally thrown away, and that enraged me. I talked the stallion into the nearby stand, throwing fruits everywhere and taken advantage of his daze to break his forelegs. This scared the others, giving me precious seconds of respite. I grabbed a sobbing Chrysalis and tried to get out of town, but other villagers had trapped me within. Doing the best I could, I backed us towards a thick row of hedges that would lead to the forest. If I couldn't live, I was going to ensure that she would.
Many of those disgusting monsters left to get their pitchforks and others came towards me, thinking they could defeat my strength that I developed through years of hard labor. I recall breaking the muzzles of several of the attackers and trapping the forelegs of others and snapping them like the little twigs they were.
"Chrysalis, run! Now! Do as I say!"
It was no use, though. She was still dazed by the strike and in fear, so I tried to stall for time until she recovered her senses. To my utmost 'joy', one of the villagers had thrown a pitchfork into my side. I managed to pull it out, but I was stabbed by two more and fell to the ground. Luckily, my screams gave the changeling a return to reality, but she wanted to stay with me. I don't know what it was, because I couldn't convince her to leave or even let go of me, but she eventually went through the bushes and into the forest. The villagers only began their chants of 'purification' and doused me with that weird liquid, then set me on fire. The last thing I remember hearing from Chrysalis was a voice so filled with anger and desire for revenge that it made me forget the pain I was in for just a brief moment:
"I hate you! I hate you all! I hate all you ponies! You're all evil! I'll get you one day. I will! You'll all pay for this! EVIL PONIES! THEY. MUST. BE. PURIFIED!" she shouted in threat.
"And...well...that's the short version of our story." the stallion smiled.
"I see...You know...You forgot to mention one thing."
"And what is that?"
"How you survived the burning. There was no way anypony could have saved you unless the arvory helped you again."
"Well, I...Wait...arvory? But I didn't tell you the name of their..."
A chilling thought struck the dying stallion as he looked up to the so called 'reporter'. She was looking at him with the same eyes full of disdain and disinterest that those disgusting fanatics have. His stress was short lived as he immediately laughed under his breath.
"Haha! So it took you so long to find me, and now it's too late?"
"Hmph. I didn't mean to say it. To be honest, it was only recently that we learned about your continued existence, and it's not too late."
"Hm?"
The mare took her hair pin out of her mane and pulled the pink tube out and fiddled with it a bit.
"Do you know what this is?"
"First class champagne?" the stallion chuckled.
"No, you idiot! It's arsenic. Even if you are going to die, you'll still suffer through your sins of harboring a demon."
"..."
"All I have to do is pour its contents into your 'nutrient bowl' and let the liquids seep through the tubes and into your body."
The reporter casually walked towards the huge wooden bowl holding all the magically maintained nutrients and peel off the thin membrane covering it, but as she was about to pour the substance into the pool, she remembered something.
"I didn't let you give me an answer for who saved you, heretic."
"Well, mare-who-follows-a-false-god, I don't know what saved me. I recall being pulled into the ground before any of you got to me by something pink. That was the only color. Pink. I don't know who or what it was, but that pony saved me."
"Hmmm. No matter. You'll die in pain and I'll go back to report this to the Evéque. Good bye, heretic."
"At least I'll see true gods now."
The mare constantly twitched whenever he mocked her beliefs, something that he was apparently known to do even back then, and it took every fiber of her being to resist killing him there and then. When the job was done, she waited until the arsenic seeped into the stallion's veins and muffled his screams of pain. After several long minutes for the stallion, silence was finally reached. No more sounds were heard at all. Pure silence, and the mare loved it.
"Hmmm. I best leave now. What's this?" she wondered aloud as she looked outside."You old fool. You talked until night. Another one of your tricks, I am sure. Nevertheless, I shall be leaving you. Goodbye forever, lumberjack." she spat the last word as if it were poison.
Once she opened the doors to reach the comforting smell of grass, the mare immediately stopped dead in her tracks. She didn't even have time to properly scope out the environnement.
"How did you find--"
"I had my changelings spy on you since you left your village. I finally had a chance to meet with my mentor and only friend, but you filthy ponies had to get to him again."
"What are you going to do to me, demon?"
There was no sound coming from the ones the reporter encountered, but her voice still filled the air of whatever city she was in. Her blood curdling screams of pain were met by pure horror when she was found burnt to a strange symbol of Cs with her members torn and nailed to the effigy. The city of this fanatic was next for Chrysalis. Her scouts had finally located the city several months ago but only reported its existence a few days prior. She was ready to have her revenge. She waited at the base of the mountain with her two most trusted swarm leaders standing next to her.
"How shall we harvest these ones, my queen?"
"We won't harvest them. Drain them of their life then burn the whole town to the ground. This puss-filled skin blemish should not be allowed a continued existence."
"But, my queen! These fanatics, as you have called them, could provide an immense source of nourishment. Their love could be grown with their love for this false idol and--"
"ENOUGH!" Chrysalis shouted.
Her voice echoed through the forest.
"I will NOT be questioned."
"But your personal vendetta against these fools has already cost us much. You have forced us all to feed on love just so that you could make them feel what you did. No love, all of it torn away in the blink of an eye and--"
The changeling found itself being crushed by its queen's magic in just an instant. It quickly shut up.
"Send them in. I need to arrange...other things to remedy my mind."
"Yes, my queen."
An immense black chitinous cloud immediately rose from the ground and swarmed towards the village, crashing down onto it like a tidal wave of death. Screams and roars were the only things being heard aside from the loud buzzing if the changelings' wings.
Chrysalis, though, walked along a path she thought she remembered in the forest, and continued through it until she reached a small opening amongst the leafless trees. There was no cabin, though. Try as she may, she couldn't find it, so she tried another path several times and discovered that she had actually found the cabin. The fanatics had burnt it down, but that didn't stop her search for whatever she aimed to find. The queen immediately began to remove the ashes and rotten wood to rummage through the piles. She found a few things, such as dishes and broken tools, but soon, her will began to falter.
"I'll never find it. It was wood, after all."
In the end, the changeling gave up, until she saw something sparkle. The canal that the lumberjack had made so long ago had also rotted without any maintenance, but water still trickled down. It apparently kept the ashes from singing the metal and wood of the desired object.
"I found it!" the queen announced with pure joy.
She took the medallion out of the moss-filled puddle of water and raised the wood to her face. It had rotted as well, but with a little magic it would be fixed and just like new.
"I didn't think it would have survived. I forgot to take it that day thinking we would return home without any troubles, but..."
Chrysalis ran through the forest in search of the buzzing sound that called to her before the villagers could attack her and soon found herself tired out. The ponies were now after her, and the burning torches moving down below were proof of this.
"Oh no...How am I going to--"
"Up here, my queen."
"Huh?"
It was a changeling in a tunnel that called to the changeling queen, and he was panicked.
"We must leave this place before the ponies find you."
"But...but..." chrysalis gasped."My medallion! I forgot it at--"
"No time. They have already swarmed the house of your servant. It is too late."
"But I can't...I...I will return to the hive, but I swear, by this day and all others that these ponies will die. They will pay for their barbarism. Our kind will feast on all their love until they have none left. They will be nothing but dried husks of sadness and loneliness, and I will then burn them all to ashes as they lay helpless. I swear by my first and last friend that this shall be accomplished. They will feel what I feel."
Author's Note
Wow. Never made a chapter this huge. Hopefully it gave the perspective I was hoping for and pleases you. And before you say it, yes. This was meant to feel rushed.
