"It's my birthday!" Chrysalis squealed, bouncing on Emerald's bed and nearly flattening her sister. Suddenly she stopped, dropping like a stone and landing squarely on Emerald's back. "Aaaand we're stuck cleaning again." Her green eyes became large and dewy, and her lip stuck out in a pout. Aww, my little sister's just adorable, Emerald thought, rubbing her painful back.

"Don't worry, I've got a present ready for you," she said with a wink. "Let's go to the crystal cavern when we clean that part of the Hive. Bring the presents from Peridot, Jade, and Mother, and you can open them there."

"But what about the drones?" Chrysalis objected, finally sitting down on the bed. "They'll go straight to Mother, and the crystal cave won't be a secret anymore. And we'll be cleaning the Hive for another full moon."

"I can get rid of them, now stop fretting," Emerald said, stretching. She got out of bed and used her magic to straighten her black silk sheets, causing Chrysalis to fall off with a squeak. "We have to get cleaning. Mother will have our hides if we're not finished by midnight. She was angry enough that we weren't done cleaning by midnight yesterday."

Once again, the sisters obtained their cleaning tools from a few Changeling drones and went back to work. Chrysalis swept and dusted and mopped and swept again, cleaning with renewed energy, looking forward to opening her birthday presents. She wondered what Emerald had gotten for her. Silks? Cake? Magic potions?

Getting to the crystal-cavern portal was quick and easy. Emerald managed to lure the watchful Changeling drones away with the promise of free Emerald Honey eggs and caramel apples if they left the princesses alone; the Changelings obeyed. Chrysalis opened the portal with the three presents from her mother and sisters in her magical grasp, and they stepped into the crystal cave, stopping at the pool.

"What did they give you?" Emerald asked, flapping her wings to hover above her sister, who was opening her gifts.

Jade had given Chrysalis a corked glass bottle filled with a sloshy, bright green liquid, obviously meant for Chrysalis to drink. Chrysalis, who dabbled a lot in magic potion-making, took one sniff of the potion and determined that it was made from the poisonous leaves of the Verderia plant. A single drop of this magic plant's liquid could put a pony—or a changeling—to sleep for at least a couple of years. Ruefully, Chrysalis figured that Jade had wanted her to drink this and then fall asleep for a long, long time. Come on! Chrysalis wasn't stupid, regardless of what Jade thought of her. She set it aside. Maybe she'd find a use for the poison sometime.

Next, she opened Peridot's gift. It was an effortlessly plain rock from outside the Hive. Completely expected. Chrysalis frowned at the rock, as if it were its fault that Peridot was such a terrible sister and gift-giver, and tossed it into the pool. The highly acidic pool, which dissolved the solid matter as soon as the rock touched it. Only Changelings were immune to this acid, which was only found deep underground in the Changeling Wastelands.

Queen Thysanura's present was a small crown of jade and emeralds, exactly like the last twelve crowns she'd given Chrysalis. The Changeling princess used her magic to teleport the crown into the silk-lined crown box in her room.

Finally, it was time to open Emerald's gift. Emerald's horn glowed green, and the same wrapped present from before floated down to rest at Chrysalis's hooves. Chrysalis opened it eagerly, and her jaw dropped when she saw what it was.

It was an array of not one, but fifty new gemstones to add to Chrysalis's collection. Her eyes filled with tears of gratitude and happiness. "Emerald, it's exactly what I wanted! Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"You're welcome, little sister," Emerald said with a smile. "But . . . it was nothing. They were pretty easy to find."

Emerald huffed and puffed as she walked through the underground tunnel in the rock, levitating a shovel and a pair of saddlebags with her magic. Her aching hooves were covered in dirt and rock dust. Must . . . keep . . . going, her mind whispered. I must do this for my sister.

She'd been digging for hours deep underground beneath the Changeling Hive, trying to find the gemstones and crystals for Chrysalis's birthday, which was in less than a week. Her wings were stiff and coated with rock dust, almost so that she couldn't fly. Although, she was too tired to fly anyway. Her aqua blue mane was limp and dirty, in need of a good washing. In her exhaustion, her bright green magic faltered slightly. Once, the shovel nearly dropped onto Emerald's head, but luckily, she regained control of her magic. The saddlebags, half-filled with jewels and crystals, were heavy, even though they were grasped in her magic and not carried on her back.

Her horn flared brighter, a sure sign that a gemstone was near. Emerald let her magic show the way. Temporarily, a group of crystals became visible underneath the hard rock-dirt. She used a stick to mark the spot, and then started to dig with the shovel. Emerald had cast a gem-finding spell that eliminated the gems she'd already found. So she was delighted when she saw that the crystals she dug up were amethyst quartz. Tucking the prettiest piece into her saddlebags, she moved on, pointing her glowing horn every which way to get a better range.

After several more hours, Emerald finally found every gemstone and crystal she was looking for. When she finally returned to her bedroom in the Hive, her dirty hooves were cracked and very close to bleeding, and she'd cut herself on many sharp bits of rock. These cuts bled. But it was worth it. Flopping down onto her bed unceremoniously, Emerald took a soft cloth dipped in soapy water and began to polish every crystal and jewel to the point where they glowed luminously.

At one point, Queen Thysanura walked in while Emerald was still polishing. The queen had a tendency to do that, and who would stop her? Emerald did some quick thinking and shoved the jewels under her bed, levitating her jewelry box to her instead. She pretended to be polishing her collection of royal jewelry. It was good acting, because Queen Thysanura seemed to buy it. With a nod to her daughter, the Changeling queen walked out the door.

Oh, I hope Chrysalis likes my gift, Emerald fretted as she polished the last crystal. There, done!

Then she allowed herself to collapse in relief.

"What do you think you're doing?" demanded a voice from the portal that led back into the Hive.

"Uh-oh," Emerald muttered under her breath to Chrysalis. She turned, stood up, and bowed. "M-Mother."

Chrysalis scrambled to her hooves. "W-what are you doing here, Mother?" she cried.

"I see you've found my old potion lab," Queen Thysanura remarked, fluttering her wings to fly over and land next to the acidic pool. She studied her reflection in it, primping her long mane. "Did you know that, daughters? This was where I used to make my own highly poisonous potions. I made them from plants, crystals, anything you can imagine. Of course, all of them worked successfully. Quite a few ponies and Changelings died or went into a coma or stupor on the days I tested them out." She smirked, showing off her razor-sharp white fangs.

Chrysalis thought back to the day she and Emerald had found the crystal cavern.

"Hey, Emerald!" A six-year-old Chrysalis ran through the halls of the Changeling Hive, calling for her sister. "Come and see what I found! It's amazing!"

Emerald, who had been writing at her desk, came out of her room and smiled at her little sister. "All right. What is it?" she asked as she followed Chrysalis through the long corridors of the Hive.

"A portal to the crystal caverns under the Hive!" Chrysalis squealed excitedly. "Come on, it's this way!"

They stopped at the end of a seemingly empty corridor. "But . . . there's nothing here," Emerald said, bewildered. She peered around, as if the portal would suddenly leap out in front of her. "Are you sure?"

Chrysalis laughed, and her horn glowed green. She squinted, concentrating, and a ball of green magic grew steadily on the wall until it blossomed into a full portal. "I was practicing my invisibility spell when I ran into this wall," she explained. "The portal was right there, and I fell through it and into this cave. Maybe somepony just left it open or something. Anyway, I explored it a bit, and it's totally amazing! Come on, it's perfectly safe."

Doubtfully, Emerald followed Chrysalis's lead and stepped through the swirling green portal.

Crystal gravel crunched underneath their hooves as the two Changeling princesses walked along the path, which spanned the width of a huge lake of watery liquid that was bright green and bubbling. Emerald identified it as acid. She wasn't afraid, though, because Changelings were immune to such things. All acid did to them was make their chitin armor feel all tingly and ticklish.

"Why would the portal be open just like that?" Emerald wondered aloud.

"I don't know, sis," Chrysalis said cheerfully, bouncing on the path. "Whoever it is, thank you for showing us this cave!" she shouted at the air.

Though Emerald was amused at this, she couldn't help but think that somepony had been here before them.

"That was you!" Emerald cried, pointing at the queen. "You were in the crystal caverns that day."

"Correct as always, Emerald," Queen Thysanura purred smoothly, her green eyes narrowed. Her voice hardened. "What are you two doing here? You're supposed to clean the entire Hive for the whole day, are you not?"

"We are, Mother," Emerald said, lifting her chin coolly. "And we were cleaning. We're just taking a small break for Chrysalis's birthday." She nodded at the presents at her sister's hooves.

"No breaks are allowed here," Queen Thysanura said coldly. "Princess Chrysalis, get out of here and go back to your cleaning. Emerald, you're coming with me." She turned and walked away on the crystal gravel path.

Her head bowed, Emerald followed their mother up the path.

Chrysalis scurried after them, after using her magic to teleport her new birthday gifts back to her bedroom. She obeyed her mother's instructions this time, and returned to cleaning, while Emerald and the queen went to Thysanura's private rooms.

Tears filled Chrysalis's eyes as she stared after Emerald. And she couldn't help but worry, Will I ever see my sister again? Please, fate, have mercy on me – and my sister – this time.

Little did she know that fate was not as merciful as some believe it to be.

And she was partly right about one thing: She was not going to see her sister again for a long, long, long time.

Fate . . . is a curious and powerful thing.

It can bring ponies together. It can break them apart. It can bring them to life, give life . . . or suddenly, unfairly take away what it has given.

It can send them the courage they need to see this through. It can take away this bravery at any moment.

Or it can remain still and silent, waiting for the moment to pounce.

This is what fate did to a certain Changeling princess. Or rather, two certain Changeling princesses.

One of them expected it. She accepted it. The other was devastated. She wanted vengeance, and that's perfectly understandable. She didn't know she wanted it at the time.

But this is simply the way of fate. It is natural.

Good or evil? No one will ever truly know. They pretend to know. But they don't.

Fate will even things out at the end. You must believe that, even in the hardest of times.

The two princesses were the only ones who ever understood it.

Author's Note

So, are you pleased with the way this story is going? Do you think the chapters are too short? Please, please comment! Your criticism is very welcome.