Twelve-year-old Chrysalis didn't get it. She just didn't get it.

The young Changeling princess ran through the corridors of the Changeling Hive, her hoofsteps echoing through the mostly empty hallways. Her tangled mane was in her face, but she didn't care. Her eyes were filled with unshed tears waiting to fall. She kept running, running to the deepest, most secret part of the Hive.

Chrysalis came to a stop at the end of the last corridor. With a quick glance around to make sure that no Changeling was watching, she closed her eyes, and her horn glowed with jewel-green magic. A rippling portal, edged with glowing green, appeared on the wall. Chrysalis stepped through it without hesitation, and the portal closed behind her.

She emerged into a large crystal cavern. Jagged, faintly glowing crystals were everywhere. Chrysalis followed a pathway made of tiny, crushed crystals, and at the end of it was a circle of tall crystals that seemed to glow green. She entered the circle. At the center was a calm pool with clear, green-tinted water.

Sitting down at the edge of the pool, Chrysalis stared at her reflection in the still water. As the youngest of the Changeling princesses, she was also the smallest, about the size of a normal pony. Her long, ragged mane and tail were deep aqua blue, and her chitin armor was very, very dark, almost black. Her eyes had turquoise-tinted whites, and were greenish-turquoise with rounded black slits for pupils. Her hooves were riddled with holes up to her knees. The holey, transparent blue insect wings on her back fluttered slightly. She had a long, sharp, crooked Changeling horn and a small, emerald-studded crown that seemed to mean nothing at all to her family.

Chrysalis let out a sigh and closed her eyes, letting the tears fall. Each teardrop splashed, glistening like diamonds, into the pool, rippling the greenish water. Her mother, Queen Thysanura, and sisters, fifteen-year-old Princess Peridot and seventeen-year-old Princess Jade, didn't care about her. She didn't mean anything to her family. Except to Emerald, her sixteen-year-old sister. Sentimentality was considered a weakness in the Hive. Hard-hearted Queen Thysanura strongly disapproved of it, and some Changeling queens would even kill their own daughters for weakness. But Emerald didn't care.

Speaking of Emerald. . .

The tap, tap of her sister's hoofsteps sounded on the crystal path, but Chrysalis didn't turn. Instead, she continued to cry. One by one, her sparkling teardrops splashed into the clear pool. She felt Emerald's wing drape lightly over her shoulders. It tickled, and Chrysalis laughed a little through her tears. "Thanks, sis," Chrysalis whispered, leaning against her sister's shoulder. More tears streamed from her eyes. "Why? Why would they do that? Why does everyone here hate me?"

Peridot and Jade had destroyed Chrysalis's entire gemstone collection this morning. It had taken her years to find those gems! And now she would have to start all over again. What was even worse, Chrysalis's thirteenth birthday was in a week.

"Chin up, Chrysalis dear," Emerald said comfortingly. Her horn glowed green, and she levitated a silk hoof-kerchief to wipe the tears from Chrysalis's eyes. "Everything will be okay, you'll see. And do you know what I got you for your birthday?" Emerald made a wrapped box appear out of thin air.

"What? What is it?" Chrysalis asked excitedly, reaching for it.

Emerald's magic gently batted her sister's hoof away. "Nuh-uh-uh, you'll see next week on your birthday," she said with a playful smile. The present disappeared with a pop! and some green sparks.

Chrysalis giggled. Emerald could always make her laugh.

"Thank you," Chrysalis said to the Changeling drone. She levitated the covered bowl next to her. "You may go."

She watched as the drone bowed and scampered away, before closing her bedroom door. Chrysalis had never liked giving orders, so she often did everything on her own, but something as simple as asking a Changeling drone to get some sweet treats from the kitchen was easy.

Chrysalis sat down on her huge, entirely black, king-sized canopy bed in the middle of the room, enjoying the soft feel of the silk sheets, and used her magic to lift the lid off the bowl. She licked her lips. Piled in the crystal bowl were at least two dozen Emerald Honey eggs—small balls of crystallized honey with sweet green syrup inside. It was the cook's specialty and Chrysalis's favorite treat.

She popped an Emerald Honey egg into her mouth and sucked on it while she cleaned up her destroyed gemstone collection on the floor. Suddenly, watching her magic surround the shattered bits of jewel, Chrysalis had an idea. She closed her eyes and concentrated hard. The broken gems in the grasp of Chrysalis's magic flew together. There was a bright green flash. When Chrysalis opened her eyes, every jewel in her collection was good as new. "Yes! I did it!" she cried joyfully, nearly swallowing her entire Emerald Honey egg in the process. Ick. Okay, calm down, Chrysalis. It certainly wouldn't do for her to choke on a treat before she could show her new talent to Emerald.

Even though Emerald's room was right across the corridor from Chrysalis's, Chrysalis wanted to impress her sister. So she lit up her horn, concentrated again, and disappeared with a flash of green magic. She was gone, leaving a few stray green sparks drifting to the polished crystal floor.

Emerald was sitting at her desk, levitating a quill to write on a scroll, when there was a green flash behind her. She jumped, startled, and accidentally knocked over the crystal ink bottle that was sitting on the table. Dark green ink spilled all over the blank parchment. "Hey, what—" Emerald began indignantly, turning around.

"Hi, sis!" Chrysalis squealed happily. "Look what I can do!" In a flash (literally), she popped from the floor to the edge of Emerald's bed canopy, teetering there with a cheerful smile on her face. Woo-hoo!

"Princess Chrysalis, you get down here!" Emerald cried. "That's dangerous!" She rushed to stand under Chrysalis's position on the canopy, ready to catch her if her sister fell.

This time, Chrysalis fluttered her wings to lower herself to the floor. "That was great!" she exclaimed. "Ooh, I bet I could pop into Jade's room right now and give her a big shock! I should really do that." Princess Jade's bedroom was all the way in the other side of the Hive, probably because she wanted to get away from her sisters.

The older princess just shook her head with an indulgent smile, went over to her desk, and levitated the pooling green ink off her scroll with a simple spell, leaving the parchment clean and blank again. She watched the spilled ink trickle back into the crystal bottle. "Yes, Chrysalis, you certainly would shock Jade if you teleported into her room," she said, lifting the quill again. "But I wouldn't recommend it. She's working on an important project right now, and she won't be pleased if you just appear right there. She's a big grump."

"Oh, don't worry, sis," Chrysalis giggled. "I'll be fine!" Her horn lit up green, and she vanished again, this time in a sparkly green cloud, before Emerald could stop her.

Heartbeats later, there was a POOF! in the eldest Changeling princess's bedroom, and following that was a screech of pure fury: "WHAT! ARE! YOU! DOING! HERE!"

POOF!

On the way to the royal Hive dining hall with Emerald for dinner, Chrysalis couldn't stop giggling about the earlier episode—teleporting into Jade's room. Emerald tried to quiet her down. "Please stop the giggling, Chrysalis!" she hissed. "Mother won't be pleased, and you'll be cleaning the entire Hive for a moon before you know it."

The mention of cleaning the entire enormous Hive was enough to snap Chrysalis back into her quiet, shy, normal self. She and Emerald entered the dining hall silently, and they took their spots next to each other at the table. Queen Thysanura, Jade, and Peridot were already sitting at the table, but no one was eating yet. Royal Changeling etiquette stated that no one was allowed to eat until everyone was seated at the table. Neither Jade nor Peridot looked happy about that rule. Chrysalis and Emerald were late.

Tonight, dinner was: celestial salad (hey, Changelings do eat vegetables), a side of Emerald Honey eggs, bowls of colorful Jewel Fruit (real fruit with a jewel shell that had to be cracked open; the jewel shells would go to the royal treasury), and much, much more. Chrysalis loved celestial salad, so she heaped a lot of that on her plate, along with the sweeter-than-normal Jewel Fruit. She didn't take much Emerald Honey eggs, since she'd already eaten that today. She levitated a forkful of salad to her mouth while cracking open the hard gem shell of a ruby apple with her magic.

Jade, who was sitting across from Chrysalis, glowered at her little sister as she ate. Chrysalis hid her smile behind her glass of honey lemon tea and kept eating as if everything were normal.

However, Queen Thysanura was not a fool. She saw through her daughter's act instantly. "Princess Chrysalis, may I ask you why you are smiling?" It was not a question. The queen's voice was clear and cold. Unfair, Chrysalis thought. "I heard that you appeared in Princess Jade's bedroom and proceeded to distract her from her very important work. It is not something to laugh about." She frowned at Emerald, who was also hiding a smile behind her fancy cloth napkin. "It is unseemly for a future queen to look like that."

"I'm sorry, Mother," Emerald apologized. She shot a glance at Chrysalis.

The hesitation in Chrysalis's long silence was clear. "I'm sorry . . . Mother," she said finally, meeting Queen Thysanura's cold green gaze with a defiant glare.

The queen's eyes narrowed to slits. "Chrysalis and Emerald, you two will be cleaning the entire Hive, top to bottom, for a moon. Starting tonight," she declared.

Chrysalis's head shot up. "But—but next week's my birthday!" she protested. "Can't we at least get a break from the cleaning for that, Mother?"

"No, Princess Chrysalis," Queen Thysanura said flatly. "And I will assign some Changeling drones to keep an eye on you two while you do that." She stood up, her wings fluttering. "This dinner is over. Changelings, continue your daily and nightly routine. Daughters, go to your rooms and stay there."

A familiar stab of pain pierced Chrysalis's heart, but her eyes narrowed and her expression hardened. Do what you want, Mother. You can't stop me from doing what I want. I'm a princess, heir to the throne. And who are you? An old queen who's going to meet her end soon?

But as quickly as the thought had come into her mind, it was gone. A Changeling drone gave Chrysalis and Emerald lots of cleaning supplies. Wings drooping, head down, cracked heart aching, Chrysalis levitated the supplies with her magic and started toward the first part of the Hive that she would clean. She did not look up when Emerald went up to her and pressed her side against Chrysalis's to comfort and support her.

Chrysalis gave a sigh as her feather duster sent thick clouds of dust rolling in the air. She sneezed, and in an instant, Emerald was there, waving the clouds away with her wings. "You okay, Chrysalis?" asked the older sister, who was wiping a random green knickknack vase clean. After all, Queen Thysanura liked her decorative trinkets.

With a tired nod, Chrysalis went back to her dusting. She didn't have the energy to speak anymore, and was practically asleep on her hooves. It was well after midnight, and she and Emerald were still cleaning. They'd only gotten through about a third of the Hive, which was unbelievably huge. And then they'd have to do the same thing tomorrow, all over again, for a full moon. Queen Thysanura's punishments were severe and merciless. And there were two Changeling drones just standing there, ready to report to the queen if Chrysalis or Emerald used their magic to make the place spotless.

Chrysalis stumbled with exhaustion and sighed, glaring at the feather duster. Oh, Mother, why do you have to be so harsh? This is going to take forever. . .

Author's Note

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