Kingdom of Loving: Fear and Loving in the Crystal Empire

Chapter 13: Darkness, My Old Friend

It had been a decades-long project to dig tunnels beneath the Crystal Kingdom to facilitate the infiltration. Harvesting love in secret to keep the hive required guile and cunning, but that had been thrown to the wind. Everything they had once meant, everything they stood for, was now gone. Sunset coughed and pushed rough rocks from her back. Even with the shards of light cascading down from above she couldn’t see very well with her pony eyes, so she let them revert to her slitted green ones.

She was standing on the lip of a large chasm that fell away into more darkness. All around her broken tunnels spread out in a jumbled mess, spiraling into an endless labyrinth beneath the kingdom. The acid-etched earth and stone had once teemed with life, but the swarm was up above. Once she had considered the familiar buzz a comfort, a sign that she was in a safe place, among family. Now, she was alone, and that thought disturbed her.

But she was not afraid. Sunset swept the dark crevices with her glowing green eyes, her resolve still firm, her goal clear. It would not matter what happened to her. She had one pony and one pony alone to protect.

“When did you become so soft and weak, Nymphaedra?” a voice rumbled through the caverns.

“Weak?” Sunset spat back. “It isn’t weak to want love, without having to take it.”

“And you think they would give it to a thing like you? You have worn that face too long, Nymphaedra. You think it is what you are, but you know. I know. They will know, one day, when the hunger comes.”

Sunset turned in place, looking through the dimness. Even with her enhanced senses there were too many places where Chrysalis could hide, too many narrow passages, and so many, many shadows too deep for even a creature that dwelled in them.

“Did she beg you, I wonder? As she lay dying, did she plead for her miserable little life? Did you end her suffering, or did you drink deeply of her fear? Did you enjoy it, child?”

Sunset froze. Her memories drifted back to the darkness in the tunnels. When she’d first seen the face she now looked at every day in the mirror, it had been so happy and bright. The pony was beautiful, full of energy and passion. It hadn’t been her fault, but even still, she couldn’t save her. But she had known for the first time what fear felt like - not from stealing it, but because her own heart twisted to watch the life fade from the pony’s eyes, alone.

“You were weak, and you couldn’t save her. Just like you can’t save your friends now,” her mother hissed out, directly behind Sunset.

The impact of a clawed hand was like a log being dropped on her. If she hadn’t been able to redirect some of her magic to soften the blow it would have broken her spine instantly, but even still she knew a rib or two had finally given out. Pain lanced through Sunset’s side as she got her legs underneath her in midair and caught herself before she crashed into one of the many stone pillars supporting the cavern ceiling.

Chrysalis roared and lunged. In a quick dash Sunset sprang away and slid past her mother like she was playing some sport, skidding in home while the stone of the pillar crumbled effortlessly. She jumped back up to her hooves and reared up, ready to slam her crystal gauntlets into her mother’s body, but there was one small problem with that plan.

Her crystal gloves were gone.

Realizing that they’d likely shattered on impact, Sunset looked up to see the queen whirling on her. Another fast leap away saved her from being impaled by clawed hand. As soon as she landed she felt a tremor course through the cavern floor and walls.

The cave was unstable! Likely thanks to much of its structure simply collapsing in their fall, the cavern did not feel as steady as it should have. There were still stony pillars joining the ceiling and floor, but without her gauntlets she wouldn’t be able to break them. Luckily Sunset had a far more effective wrecking ball.

With a quick change of course Sunset darted to the nearest pillar. She couldn’t judge whether it would be a key support - Twilight might have known if she’d been down here, but for now, it was better safe than sorry. She’d just have to take down every one, but that meant evading her mother. If she knew anything about the queen to be true it was that she had never seen her so angry in all her life. Maybe she could used that.

“I realize now why I could never be like you,” Sunset taunted, spreading her arms wide in front of the stone. Chrysalis, as expected, snarled and raced in. Sunset was able to duck under her before it powdered the column into so much dust.

“I don’t have to steal to get what I need! I’m not some parasite, living off scraps of pony affection!” she shouted as Chrysalis thundered after her. The bolt of emerald lightning she wasn’t expecting. It grazed past her arm and seared off fur and flesh before exploding violently on the rock, hurling her back down to the floor.

Get up, she told herself. Don’t let her win. Sunset rolled quickly to avoid the green explosion of another bolt and hurried behind another pillar. Warm blood was seeping into her fur as it oozed from the partially-cauterized gash, but she couldn’t deal with that now.

“You’ll never be satisfied! You’ll never be better than them. You’ll never beat Cadance, or Celestia, or Twilight because they aren’t petty monsters!”

Chrysalis burst through the stone pillar with both arms outstretched. Sunset had been prepared for her as she focused her magic in her horn and let out a searing blast of green energy that caught Chrysalis right across the face. The queen shrieked as it seared off one side of her black carapace. Even without the power of her changelings it started to knit, but slowly.

One more pillar. Sunset approached it carefully, knowing that her mother was likely not as foolish to come after her after being so viciously scarred.

“What makes you think any of this matters, child? What makes you so confident that you can defeat me with your pitiful little magics?”

“Because I have something you can never have. I have somepony who loves me.” Sunset’s form shimmered with glowing green fire. It bathed her as it had many times before, revealing her changeling self. Her wounded arm dripped thick green ichor, its regeneration slowed. It was now or never. She was running out of time.

“And I am stronger than you.”

Sunset hissed out a guttural, singular cry and swung her clawed hand at the pillar. It shattered easily, and with it, the cavern began to groan and quake. Chrysalis roared out in fury as she lunged forward, but a titanic rock dislodged from the ceiling right into her path, plunging down into the dark cavern to start the avalanche of soil and stone.