Crystal Pond always saw things clearly. She saw the unicorn filly reflected back at her from the classroom window. She saw the mottled black and white fur, she saw the horn that wasn't quite straight. She saw that she didn't really belong in Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, was her parents had left her here with the promise that she would grow to be as gifted as themselves.
Her bare flank in the reflection told her she still didn't know what her purpose in life was. Maybe it was seeing the ugly truth in things? Nobody had told her your cutie mark would make you happy. Seeing things as they are certainly didn't make her happy, because the ugly truth was that nobody liked her.
She was out of place here. She was untalented and awkward. Glancing around, she saw a couple of the more popular fillies giggling quietly at her. As usual. The youngest colt had been staring at her too. At least he didn't laugh, but the look was enough. Everyone was always judging her and she wasn't measuring up.
It wasn't like she hadn't tried. She had read book after book, hoping that the more she knew the better her chances were of becoming useful. She read everything. The teacher at the head of the class was talking about caterpillars and how they metamorphosed into butterflies. She knew all that from something she read last month. The author had thought the transformation inspiring, but it just depressed her further. She was no caterpillar to transform into a butterfly. Ponies stayed ponies, that was the way of things. She saw that clearly.
Returning to her dorm room that night, exhausted, she nursed a headache from overexerting herself in magic practice. It was no use, she could strain until her head throbbed, but she would never match up to the other students. She flopped down on her bed, but banged her head on something hard she hadn't noticed sitting there.
Angry with herself for being so clumsy, she lifted the object up. Was it a tablet? No, a book, but made of stone. She'd never noticed this one in the library before, and it was really unique. Maybe one of the teachers had taken pity on her and lent her a book from their private collection in the vain hope that she'd finally learn a spell or two. Opening it up, it appeared to only contain one spell: Inspiration Manifestation. "Instantly brings ideas to life" she quietly read to herself. Tomorrow there was no class in the morning, so after some rest it might be worth a try.
The next morning she opened up the book again. She concentrated like she'd been taught, focused what meager magic she had into her horn.
"From in the head to out in the world" she intoned, "every thought to action. Hold close this book and through it's spell you'll start a chain reaction. Projecting forth whatever beauty you see, only when true words are spoken will you finally be set free."
She certainly felt something when she said the words, she felt more magic inside her than ever before. She hid the book under her bed for now. "From in the head to out in the world..." she thought, "projecting forth whatever beauty you see..." Flush with power, she turned to the mirror, inspired. "Beauty..."
She closed her eyes tight, imagining herself with a tall, straight horn. With pure white fur and a rainbow mane. She strained to make the image go from in her head to out in the world like the spell said. Her headache came back tenfold and her skin crawled and itched. It felt like the magic from the spell was too much for her feeble unicorn powers, that she would pass out without succeeding.
She stopped, gulping air, woozy. She opened her eyes, expecting to be disappointed. It was far, far worse. Her horn had lengthened and twisted. Her fur had been replaced by something black and green like an insect's body. Her mane and tail were papery like insect wings. Horrified, she tried to steady herself, to clear her mind so she could try to put things right. The strain of the spell and the shock were to much though. She stumbled, fell, slipped into unconsciousness.
"Crystal? Are you in there? You're late for afternoon class" the muffled voice of Celestia creeped into her awareness, causing her to start awake and wobble to her feet. "It's not like you, so I came myself. I was a little concerned..." her voice becoming clearer as she opened the door. "I hope you're- Crystal! Oh my, what have you done?"
Tears welling up in her eyes, she stuttered without being able to answer.
Celestia took on a stern demeanor, "I'm very flattered that you want to look more like me, but spells that alter the body are very advanced. It was dangerous to even attempt it."
Confused, Crystal turned to the mirror, "it worked?" But no, the mirror only showed her the insect thing. Or did it? Looking closer, she saw what Princess Celestia saw. Hazily, less real than the insect, was the image she had held in her mind when she cast the spell. Celestia was seeing the beautiful Crystal. Only Crystal saw the other. Only Crystal saw clearly.
"It may have worked, but that's no excuse. You'll be attending classes young lady, but no attempting magic until I say so. You look like you'll need time to recover your strength after this one."
The afternoon was a pleasant haze. Everyone was shocked and excited by the change in her appearance. The popular fillies nodded their approval: If any spell were to succeed, it's a good thing that it was one that made her prettier. They wanted to know how she'd done it, but all she could do was lie, "I don't know, it's like all that magic my parents were supposed to pass on to me finally burst out and did this. I don't know how I did it." That young colt who always stared actually smiled for once before quickly looking away. It was wonderful.
Days passed and the illusion seemed to hold. She saw the insect in the mirror, but she didn't care. Ponies liked her now and that was enough, she didn't care as long as everyone else was nice to her now. She felt it was thanks to more than just looking pretty though, that the magic went further. Was it making people around her like her more? Maybe it could do more than that. It was time for a test.
The fillies were at at an age where they were starting to get interested in colts. There was one in particular that had convinced them that colts were worth spending time with. Caleb Chord, a bay roan unicorn. He was growing into an athlete's body, muscular in a way that made you think he would be a track and field star some day. But what really impressed the fillies was his new cutie mark. A triad of notes, which he gained when he realized that his hobby of playing the guitar was really his passion.
Crystal decided that Caleb would be the test. If the magic could make everyone her friends, could it take Caleb's attention away from the other fillies, make him hers alone? She had to try.
She followed him at a distance for a few days before she finally found him alone, where her magic's little light show wouldn't make anyone suspicious. A strange feeling of confidence welled up in her. The spell that resided in her was trying to tell her that this was right, that she can and should do this. "Oh Caleeeb~! Can I talk to you for a second?" she sang as she trotted up to him.
"Only for a second, like I told the other fillies I have to go-"
She lost no time, tapping her horn against his, the magic surging forth. It made her dizzy, but she knew she was succeeding.
His eyes turned momentarily green and confused, but then they cleared and he smiled. "Sorry for trying to brush you off. I can make time for you."
She would have danced for joy had her head not been spinning. It worked! She could feel it, the love radiating off of him! It filled a void in her she hadn't know existed, made her feel sated like a hungry pony after a wonderful meal. She basked in the feeling, barely noticing Caleb himself as he played his guitar for her. This was what she had always wanted.
Caleb spent all his time with her now. She had to recast the spell sometimes, though it was easy to get him alone. The princess kept a wary eye on her, but since she grew stronger as time went by, Celestia believed her that she hadn't been using any magic. He played her songs, brought her gifts, took her to all the nicest places around Canterlot. She spent days and days beside him, soaking up his love.
While he still had love to give, that is.
It happened slowly at first, sped up as the days passed. His love became weaker as he himself weakened. There was some part of him that couldn't take the strain of her magic, couldn't keep up the level of adoration she needed from him. It was getting to the point where ponies noticed his weakness, asked if he was ill. She tried to relax her hold on him, but couldn't bring herself to do it. She needed this. She couldn't go back to before. She felt strong and whole now. Her new magic would solve this though. It had made her life so much better. It could fix this.
She asked him to sneak into her room that night when everypony else was asleep. When he arrived, she asked him to stand by the wall. She pointed her horn at him and called up that magic the book had given her. Tired, agitated by the situation she had gotten herself into, she couldn't even form a coherent thought as to what she wanted. She could only will this power to make things right somehow. Green energy enveloped him, and when it cleared he was encased in some strange cocoon. She panicked for a moment, but that feeling of confidence and power welled up in her. She needed to trust this magic of hers. It would make things right. She flopped onto her bed. Yes, she would wake up early and send him back to his room a healthy colt again. She comforted herself with this thought as she drifted to sleep.
When she awoke the next morning, she felt it. The power his love had given her was half gone. Back into him maybe? She sat up and came face to face with the creature.
Stifling a scream, she looked at it. It was another insect thing like her! It had been so long since she had looked in a mirror, it took a moment to register how much it looked like the her. Her magic did this, she knew it. She had created this. But then what happened to...?
The pony in the cocoon radiated no love. She could feel nothing from him. Was he alive or dead? She didn't know, but if he was alive she had done something horrible to him, she had broke him. Panicking, she turned to the creature again. It would listen to her, she just knew this. "Hide him somewhere! Quickly!"
The insect-like creature picked up the cocoon, stuck it to it's back and clambered out the large castle window.
She paced, her thoughts racing. "What do I do? What will the princess do to me if she finds out?" She had no choice. She would have to run. Throwing a few possessions into a saddle bag, she checked under the mattress for the book. Gone! No time to wonder where. She snuck downstairs past the castle guards, who were inattentive since it was almost dawn and nothing had happened all night. Searching the grounds for the thing she had created, she found it without the cocoon. Blocking the obvious question from her mind, the pair of them raced down empty streets to the nearest castle gate.
At the gate were more guards. Inattentive and ready to go home maybe, but there was no way to get past without them seeing her. Calling up any power she had left, she could only think "Don't stop us please don't stop us."
Walking towards the guards, they saluted her. She saluted back and just kept walking through the gate, hoping her luck would hold.
It did! They had escaped! Looking at her new companion, she could see why. That faint image she had perceived around herself of a beautiful filly was here, but as a guard. She looked down at her hooves and could faintly see the armour on herself. She unhurriedly turned once through the gate and marched along the wall as if patrolling. Once out of sight of the guards, she and the creature left the wall and made their way carefully to the road.
Now knowing that she could turn into all sorts of ponies, she and the creature she had begun to think of as her child traveled out of Equestria by the shortest route they could. They needed to get outside of Celestia's influence before she found them and punished them for... whatever she had done to Caleb. But it was getting harder and harder. That void that Caleb's love had filled was back. Worse than it had ever been in her life. It gnawed at her, made her weak, made her magic weak. She could feel this... hunger in her child as well. She had put the thought out of her mind for a long time, but she was starting to wonder if she would have to find someone else and make them love her. If it was just her, she may have had the strength of will to lay down and die. To never hurt anyone else.
But her child. She couldn't do that to her child. She had to find love for them both.
Outside a city beyond Equestria's borders, she used the last of her magic to craft a disguise she hoped would serve her well. She willed her limbs to lengthen and wings to sprout from her back. Her limbs stretched, but holes appeared in them as the magic couldn't create enough new flesh to fill them. Wings peeled up from her insectoid skin, flimsy and with holes as well. They worked well enough though. The transformation hurt, but to all others she would appear a visiting Princess, an alicorn on a goodwill mission. She looked at her child, who had similarly grown wings so that it might fly with it's mother. She smiled. A pang of regret was felt, but her child was more important than any concerns over what might happen to the next pony she drew love from. She was no longer little Crystal the filly who had no control over her own life. She smiled again at her child. "It's like I was a helpless bug clinging to a plant," she looked back, "but now I have my wings and can fly free.
"From now on, I'll be Princess Chrysalis. It seems fitting."
Years passed, then decades. She had many children in this manner. Formed whole from the love she had absorbed, but incapable of producing love themselves. Her children had to feed as she did. In the lands they passed through, people began to call them Changelings, and she their queen. She thought only of her children, ignored the past, put it out of her mind until she it ceased to be for her. She was Queen Chrysalis now, that's all that mattered. One thing she did remember though was Equestria. Canterlot. The place where she first experienced love. With her many children, they were practically an army. No, they were an army. They were strong. The time for skulking in the shadows was over. She would conquer the place that had driven her out, feed her and her children on it's many inhabitants...
