Cadance gasped, her eyes blinking away after images from a sudden bright green flash. Half blind, she backed up a step, bumping into the crib that held her infant daughter. Inside and unaware, little Flurry Heart slept soundly. Cadance grit her teeth, charging her horn, and pointed it at the intruder.
“Leave, or I will unleash my full power against you.”
“An empty threat.” Chrysalis, queen of all changelings, sneered and stepped forward from the dying green flames of her teleport. “We both know you can’t stop me. Not at the wedding, not now. I’ve come for what is mine.”
Cadance stood her ground, brows narrowing as she sight returned. She suspected the Queen was correct, but Shining Armor and the legion of Imperial guard were but a shout away, and Chrysalis could not stand against them all. “What do you mean?”
Chrysalis smiled wickedly, her gaze lingering on the cradle behind Cadance.
The Empress lowered her ears and pawed at the carpeting, her horn starting to sizzle with the force of its arcane charge. “No. Nonononono! I don’t know what delusions you’re operating under, but you are not laying a hoof on my daughter!”
“She’s just as much mine as yours.” Chrysalis purred, gliding closer with graceful steps. “Were it not for my...aid...she would not have been born. Or have you forgotten our little deal? My magic to help you provide an heir in return for payment rendered when I saw fit.” She stepped closer, Cadance’s horn glow reflected in her eyes. “Now...I see fit. I see what I want. And you will give it to me.”
“I will not!” Cadance shot a beam of energy at the changeling for emphasis, forcing Chrysalis to dodge to the side. The blast left a smoking hole in the floor, and left the alicorn struggling to catch her breath.
Chrysalis tsk’ed, chiding and shaking her head. “Now now, that won’t do at all. I can’t have you hurting yourself, my pretty little pony. I wish my prize to be one that does that.” She smiled again, her large eyes almost closing to sly slits. “I’ll leave it to you. For now.”
And like that, in another burst of emerald fire, she was gone.
And so Chrysalis, that wicked witch, settled in to wait and to watch her prize grow. Waiting for the day she’d reclaim it. She watched Flurry Heart grow into a foal, reaching out to the child now and then, guiding her toward new ways to control her magic. She silently cheered at Flurry Heart’s achievements, her prize becoming all the more rich and succulent for them. She watched the filly in school, at home, when she slept, when she played.
For many years, Flurry Heart’s parents were vigilant, ever watchful for Chrysalis’ presence or her baleful influence. But it was too subtle. Too slow for them to notice. Each passing year, they grew lacks, their grip on their daughter loosening inch by inch. Until, on Flurry Heart’s seventeenth summer, it faded away entirely.
Like all young mares, especially young princesses, Flurry Heart had a wild side. A sense of wonder about the world and the parts of it hidden from her. At times, whispers, half-heard echos in her mind would call to her, pulling her away from the watchful eyes of her parents and guardians. Teasing her to give chase into the dark places of the castle, into the archives and storerooms below the courtyard. Like a fairy’s promise, it led her to explore, to seek out knowledge, to crave the unknown.
Then one day, in the fateful heat of summer, it led her into the gardens. Under the shade of the willows, near the far wall with its clinging ivy. Near the pond where koi played coy with the dappled light of evening. It lead her to a shadow, to her very own fairy godmother. Chrysalis waited for her there, lounging against the willow bark, a koi caught in the openings of her chitin where she let a hoof linger under the water’s surface. Green eyes welcomed Flurry Heart, a smile played across black lips revealing white fangs.
“Who are you?”
“Who would you like me to be?” Chrysalis idly turned her foreleg, large eyes watching the koi struggle. “Do you want me to be a snitch? To tell your parents where you are? Tell them where you’ve been? Or would you rather I be your friend? Somepony special to you, little Heart of the Empire?”
“Nopony calls me that any more. Not since I was little.” Flurry Heart raised an eyebrow. She didn’t know a pony could have a coat so dark, or eyes the color of dragonfly wings. She glanced back at the main castle behind her. The bell for dinner would sound soon. “I would like it if you didn’t tell my parents I was out wandering around again.”
“But would you like it if I were your friend?”
“Um...I guess so. Who...who are you?”
Chrysalis looked up at the princess, blinking slowly, her voice rich as chocolate. “An old friend of the family. I visit time to time. Like now, but I’m very happy to meet you, little Heart.”
“Why?” Flurry Heart smiled carefully. Her heart seemed to want to race. Those eyes were breath-taking, that voice loving. Slowly, she found herself taking a seat near the charming mare with the interesting coat. “Haven’t we...met before?”
“Once, yes. Long ago. I wanted to give you a gift, but your mother said you were not ready.”
Flury Heart huffed, rolling her eyes at mention of her mother’s controlling ways. Her whole life was one lecture to another about where not to go, what not to do and who not to speak to. It drove her to fits. “Well, I’m an adult now. I can handle it, whatever it is.”
“Can you?” Chrysalis’s eyes glittered like the captured koi’s scales. “I offer you power, little Heart. Control over land and ponies and more. I offer wealth and luxury.”
“But...I already have those things.” Flurry Heart looked around them, waving her hoof at the gardens, the castle and the lands beyond. “Your offer seems lacking.”
“But I offer you more than this.”
“What do you mean?”
Chrysalis turned, releasing the little fish in her grasp, her body stretching across the soft grass. “I also offer me. Come with me, little Heart, and all that your mind and soul desires is yours. Come with me, rule with me, and be my Heart. I can give you so much more than a simple Empire. With you at my side, I could offer you the world.”
“B-but…” The young pony blushed, the honey trap walls closing in. Her dreams were spent chasing voices and fairies. Dark shapes and green lights. She wanted to catch them. Make them hers. She never thought they would catch her instead.
“Or don’t.” Chrysalis pulled herself up, rising her her hooves like a dark cloud on the horizon. “But think about it...won’t you, my little Heart?” The changeling reached up, pushing aside some of the ivy, the bright green revealing a interior green so dark it was almost black.
“How will I find you again when I’ve made up my mind?”
“Don’t worry, little Heart. I’ll find you.” Fangs flashed in a sly smile before the Queen stepped into the ivy that clung to the palace’s rear wall and vanished, the curtain of plant life swaying the only indication of her passing.
“Does this not bother you?” Chrysalis asked wearily, eyeing the mare cuddled up to her. “Why don’t you find a proper mare be with? One that does not feel like a rock?”
Flurry Heart, heir to the throne of the Crystal Empire, daughter of the alicorn of love, looked up from her hoof, which she’d been running up and down the changeling queen’s neck. They’d been sitting here for a while now, a grassy knoll a couple of miles from the capital of the Crystal Capital. Close enough for a short flight to- and from the castle, but far enough to be safe from prying eyes, aside from the occasional wanderer.
“But you’re the one I love, so why should I cuddle anyone else?” The young -- well, not so young anymore -- alicorn craned her neck upwards to reach Chrysalis’ cheek with her own. “If you are still referring to my mother’s complaints… I’ve been an adult for three years now. She doesn’t get a say in whom I date.”
“Did you even listen to her when she told you about changelings? Did you ask your aunt and great-aunts about my kind? About what destruction we have brought to you ponies over the years?” She stood up, leaving Flurry Heart pouting behind her, and took a few steps toward the slight downward slope.
“Yes, but you left all of that behind, didn’t you? You’re a good gal now.”
Chrysalis snorted. “A good gal? Like your goody-goody princesses, who spend their day waving to crowds and listening to their pathetic request?” She turned around, a small smile on her muzzle. “No. If I am playing nice with someone, chances are it’s an act.”
She leaned in. “Did you know I have brought down no less than three empires from within, little Flurry?” she stage-whispered. “Kings and queens, Princesses and princes… they all were delighted when a mysterious mare showed up, poor and neglected, and yet so beautiful.” Chrysalis reached her hoof out, reaching for a look of Flurry’s mane. “Oh, I stole hearts. Ponies are so easy to control.”
Flurry Heart looked at her in confusion. She got to her hooves, standing before Chrysalis. The changeling queen, however, had the height advantage, with her head proudly raised above the young alicorn.
“Tell me, little Flurry… Wouldn’t you agree that you’d be a tasty prize? A nice bargaining chip, a useful tool for someone who is after the Princess of Love and the Crystal Heart?” Chrysalis lifted her chin now, staring into Flurry Heart’s amazingly unconcerned eyes. “All of this I am telling you, those charming little words I’ve told you before… Oh, you want them to be true, don’t you? You’d lie to yourself to believe them.
“So ask yourself: Am I playing with you? Or am I just pretending to, in order to cover up the vulnerable heart that is beating inside?” She said those words in a mock-baby voice. “Or do you actually believe that I am telling you the truth?”
“Yes, you are.”
Chrysalis chuckled. “Oh really? Would you really bet your life on it? And that of the ponies of the Crystal Empire?”
“Yes, I would.” Flurry Heart did not hesitate. She looked Chrysalis square in the eye. She swiped the hoof under her chin away and took a step forward, crossing necks with Chrysalis. “You know, I’ve always been good with seeing love. Maybe I got it from mom,” she added. “But I truly believe you have changed, Chrysalis. And you’ll never be like great-aunt Tia, or like aunt Twilight, that’s true. But I love you, and I know you… care about me too.”
Chrysalis sighed deeply. Leave it to a mare barely into her third decade to shake the queen of the changelings. “Have you ever considered that it is a less sinister plot, and I am using this to get back at your mother? She’ll have an aneurysm once you tell her about… this.”
Flurry Heart smiled. There’d be trouble later, surely. But for now, she’d just enjoy the feeling of Chrysalis nuzzling her.
