Four hours later some extent of the disaster had become clearer. Canterlot hadn’t just been broken. The city had been leveled by those titanic blasts. There was scarcely a building standing anywhere and fires were rampant across the city. Or, what was left of the city.

“Rogue,” Chrysalis said, turning to her adviser, “How many ponies have we recovered so far?"

“812,” Rogue replied. “About two thirds of them Earth ponies, the remainder split between unicorns and pegasi. We were losing every unicorn we revived, but then one of our drones had an idea and since then we haven’t lost any.”

“Explain,” said Chrysalis tersely. The past four hours had not been good for her mood.

“The only unicorns we’ve been finding alive are the unconscious ones,” Rogue began. “All the others are dead or, when they see us, poison themselves with the taint, by channeling as soon as they see us.”

“I see,” said Chrysalis, “and the recovered, unconscious, ones instinctively channel as soon as they wake up.”

“Exactly, Your Majesty,” said Rogue. “We were losing them left and right, but then one of my drones got the idea of going to the Canterlot dungeons and getting their supply of inhibitor rings. Now, as soon as we find a live unicorn we slap a ring on them, cutting them off from the taint.”

“Well done,” said Chrysalis. “Where are we keeping the ponies?”

“We’ve walled off a section of the cavern with resin,” said Rogue. “There's a spring for water and we’ve been leaving them be, other than to drop off new ponies.”

“You IDIOT,” Chrysalis suddenly roared. “They need food and medical care. We need them alive and healthy. We need to be interacting with them.”

“But...but,” stuttered the suddenly shocked Rogue. “Why? They are ponies. We feed off ponies, we don’t take care of them.”

“Do I have to do all the thinking around here?” yelled Chrysalis. “If only three out of every hundred ponies are surviving this catastrophe how many ponies are left to feed off of?”

Rogue stared at her Queen, beginning to understand, “You mean we have to become...”

“Herders,” finished Chrysalis. “With ponies as our herd. We have to feed them, cloth them, tend them. We have to bind up their wounds and care for them like they were our own. Because if they die, we die. Only slowly.”

“Yes! Yes, Your Majesty,” sputtered Rogue. “I will get right on it. I’ll send out parties to scavenge food stuffs right now.” Rogue quickly left to make her arrangements, but as she did another pair of changelings came up to Chrysalis.

“Your Majesty,” said the pair. “We’ve brought in a badly wounded unicorn who is asking to speak to you.”

“Later,” she said, turning away. “I have to contact our main hive and-”

“Your Majesty,” interrupted the changeling. “The unicorn...is very badly hurt...he doesn’t have long.”

“Then why bring him here at all?” said Chrysalis, pausing. “Give him a clean death and let him escape from his pain.”

“Your Majesty,” insisted the changeling. “We found him in the ruins of the palace. Maybe a hundred yards from throne room.”

“What?” exclaimed Chrysalis. “Why didn’t you say so in the first place? Take me to him immediately.” The pair nodded and led their queen through the hive. Near the new entrance to the hive, a horrifically-wounded unicorn lay on the ground. Both of his eyes were gone, a bandage covering the sockets. His horn had been snapped off partway along its length, and both of his front legs had been burned away to the knees. Despite all that, despite being covered in blood and dust, Chrysalis recognized him.

“Kibitz?”, she asked. “Is that you?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” groaned the unicorn. “I...I am honored you remember me.”

“How could I forget Celestia’s right hoof,” she assured Kibitz tenderly. Her changelings looked askance at each other at the kindness in their Queen’s voice. “Do you know know what happened?”

Kibitz coughed to clear some dust from his lungs. A little blood came up with it. “First, I need to know, did you do this? Were you behind it?”

“No, Kibitz,” said Chrysalis. “I had nothing to do with it, nor did any of my changelings.”

“Swear it!” demanded Kibitz in a sudden, fierce, weak whisper. “Swear it on your name and your power.”

Bending close to the dying pony Chrysalis said, “By name, by my horn, by my power and the Egg that bore me, I swear to you neither I, nor any I command had anything to do with what has befallen Equestria.”

The unicorn seemed to deflate a bit and nodded, “I’m sorry Your Majesty, I had to be sure. Celestia…is she...”

“She and Luna now graze in the Summer Lands,“ said Chrysalis. “Twilight lives, but badly wounded and in a coma. Her life is sustained only by her presence in one of our pods. Now, tell me what happened. What caused this?”

“I don’t know,” said Kibitz. “Discord came into the throne room, right in the middle of court, too. He was...pulsing. His body kept getting bigger and smaller, and he was screaming.”

“Screaming?” asked Chrysalis. “Was he injured?”

“Not that I could see,” said Kibitz. “But he kept screaming, ‘she’s dead, she’s dead’. Celestia was trying to calm him down. It wasn’t working. That’s when she sent me to get some help from the Unicorn College. The walls came down on me a little bit after I left the throne room.”

“Thank you, Kibitz,” said Chrysalis. “It’s not much, but it’s more than I had before.”

“Your welcome, Your Majesty,” Kibitz answered. Chrysalis could see he was weakening. Celestia’s majordomo was about to follow his mistress into death.

“Kibitz, I want you to know something,” she quietly said to the dying unicorn. “Most of Equestria has been killed, but Celestia asked me to save her ponies and I intend to do just that.”

“Give...give them a symbol,” Kibitz whispered. “Give them something or somepony to rally around. Give them a way to identify with the new reality. Give them...” But whatever Kibitz had been about to add faded, as he breathed his last.

“Rest, thou good and faithful servant,” said Chrysalis, and even the other changelings bowed their heads in respect. “Go to where your mistress awaits, in the Summer Lands.”

“Bury him by Celestia,” commanded Chrysalis. “No, wait. Bury him in the throne room. Bring Celestia’s body here. We are going to set up a shrine to her.” The changelings around her looked at her as if she had just asked them to dance ballet on the ceiling.

“Kibitz told me that the ponies would need a symbol, to accept the necessity of our dominion over them,” said Chrysalis to her changelings. “By showing respect to Celestia’s body, we give them that symbol.” Changelings nodded in understanding and flew off to do her bidding.

Chrysalis found herself alone for a moment. Everyling was in motion, things were being taken care of. It would be some time yet before she received any messages from her main hive or the scouts near the Crystal Empire. She decided to walk and relax for a few minutes. Her wandering took her by the chamber holding the pod bank. The only occupant at the moment was Twilight Sparkle.

Chrysalis found herself talking to the unconscious alicorn, “Twilight, I don’t know if you can hear me. But...I’ve always needed a peer, an equal, someling or somepony I could respect. Somepony I could test myself against. Somepony whose steel, whose resolve and determination were a match for my own. You, Twilight Sparkle, are my match, my peer, my equal. You are the light to my dark. The sweet to my sour. You give me boundaries, definition. I cannot be what I am without you. You complete me, Twilight. That is why I saved you. Not because it was the right thing to do, not because ponies will obey because I have you, not even because Celestia begged me to with her dying breath. I saved you...because I need you.”

Chrysalis stopped and stared at Twilight’s Sparkle’s face, looking for any hint that the alicorn had heard her words. The green tint that the pod cast on the alicorn’s equine features almost made her look a little like a changeling. “I can’t be this soft,” Chrysalis said to herself. “Changelings and ponies are both depending on me.” She walked out of the chamber to plan her next moves.

Lost in reverie and calculation, Chrysalis failed to see the cold, calculating gaze of Rogue, as she stood hidden behind some pods. Rogue waited until her Queen had left, and then went off to talk to some other changelings. If Chrysalis was becoming soft and weak, it might be time for the hive to have a new queen.

Author's Note

Thanks to Cross Lament who helped with the editing.

As always, thanks to my wife, DJ Mooncheeks, who lets me spend hours at writing.