“Chryssy...” whispered a voice in her ear. “Wake up. I need a drink.”
Princess Chrysalis of the Badlands Hive stifled a yawn and pushed her round head out of the cozy warmth of her cocoon. The pale tubular shape of her sister Pupa, partly emerged from her own cell, leaned over Chrysalis. She raised a stubby leg to her lips and then pointed at their two sisters, each gently snoring in her own cell. Her expression made it clear that she didn’t want to risk waking the elder princesses.
Chryssy sighed. Pupa was the last to hatch of this clutch of grubs. As the youngest she bore the brunt of the elder sisters’ incessant picking and bullying. It made Chryssy’s blood boil just thinking about it. Nevertheless, she agreed with Pupa’s sentiment, if only because a fuss would be likely to wake Big Sister Nana, speaking of which... a quick glance around the cave showed noling about.
“Where’s Nana?” whispered Chryssy.
Pupa’s huge eyes glowed with concern. “I don’t know. Big Sister wasn’t here when I woke up, but I’m really thirsty!”
It was unusual for the nursemaid to leave the infant grubs all alone, but not unheard of. Chrysalis smiled. This is an opportunity!
“You want a drink of water?”
Pupa nodded.
“Me too! Let’s go!”
A careful wriggle let Chrysalis slither out from her cell. With a smirk she inched her way past the two slumbering elder sisters without waking them, and moved towards the only entrance into the hive’s nursery.
Pupa’s eyes somehow grew even larger, even as she followed along.
“Chryssy! We aren’t supposed to leave the nursery!” she whispered.
Chrysalis turned and crossed her tiny legs over her puffy white chest. “Well I have, –” she retorted with a raised eyebrow, “– when everyling else was asleep...” She slithered a few segments towards the door and grinned over her shoulder at Pupa. “Twice!”
Either in shock from the admission, or just because she was used to Chryssy taking the lead, Pupa followed in her wake. Upon reaching the doorway, the younger princess hesitated.
“Maybe we should just call out to Big Sis,” suggested Pupa tremulously.
Chrysalis paused in the corridor and turned.
“Maybe we shouldn’t bother her, Pupa. Big Sister Nana would just make a fuss about us not getting enough sleep and get all worried.” The grin on her face faded. “She wouldn’t have left us alone unless it was something important, and,” the smug look on her face from earlier returned, “we aren’t tiny helpless grubs anymore! We’re big enough to get a drink on our own!” Chrysalis faced back into the tunnel and started off at a determined wriggle.
Pupa cautiously moved one segment reluctantly forward at a time until her entire length had exited the nursery cave and she was fully in the tunnel that gave access to the rest of the hive.
“Wow!” she exclaimed in wonder. The tunnel curved to the right and left further than she had ever seen in her short life. “Look at all the doors! Do you know where they lead?” she asked.
“Most of the ones nearby lead to empty caverns.” Chrysalis shrugged. “I wonder why they dug them if they didn’t have anything or anyling to put inside them.” She pointed far up the corridor. “Down that way is the entrance to the Queen’s chamber. That’s where all the 'lings come to pay homage to Mother and deliver gifts of belly food and heart food!”
Warm feelings washed over Chrysalis as she thought about her mother the Queen. Everyling knew how beautiful and kind and just she was, making sure everyling in the hive got everything they needed to survive and be happy. That of course included the heart food, usually love, collected from the fabled other beings of the world, and also the mushrooms, molds and mosses that were the fruit of all the hive’s farms. Chrysalis’s stomach growled loudly at the thought.
Sound echoed down the corridor. Both grubs hunkered down as low a their pudgy shapes allowed, which wasn't very low at all. The corridor stayed quiet. After a tense moment, Chryssy rose slowly erect, looking furtively left then right.
“I don’t think anyling heard that.” She rubbed her belly segment. “Sorry! Lately my greedy tummy always wants more food than Nana gives me.”
“Me too,” replied Pupa. “But right now, I’ll settle for a drink of water.”
Chrysalis nodded. Pupa being thirsty was something that she could do something about. She indicated an entrance down the corridor.
“C’mon! In the cave next-door there’s a spring right in the floor. We can drink all the water we want!”
A minute's stealthy creeping later revealed the well and both grubs drank their fill. Inching around, they turned back to the entrance and froze as a shadow blocked the way out.
The shape moved forward, revealing a tall bundle of thin sticks of the deepest black, topped by a narrow muzzle and two huge cyan eyes. A kind smile split the muzzle, showing a single sharp fang. "I know somelings who should be soundly asleep at this hour!"
"Big Sister Nana!" Chryssy and Pupa scooted forwards as fast as their stubby segments allowed. Long limbs pulled them both up into a warm embrace. Chryssy shoved her still-wet muzzle against the old 'ling’s eagerly. "Pupa wanted a drink, and we’re big now! We can get it ourselves, see!"
Nana chuckled, a deep resonance in her throat that Chryssy clearly felt through the old changeling’s smooth carapace.
“Big enough to disobey their elders and leave the nursery, it would seem!” she reproached.
Chrysalis grinned. “Pupa was scared, but I took care of her! You don’t have to worry so much about us anymore.”
Chryssy wasn’t sure, but immediately after she had said the words she thought she saw something flicker in the old 'ling’s eye and a brief dimming in the bright fount of emotions that was Big Sister's heart. The perception was immediately echoed by a tightening of the thin foreleg around her.
“I guess I don’t, do I?” said Nana in a low voice as she looked away for a moment. Her smiled had returned when she turned her gaze back to the grubs in her embrace. “But, young princesses still need their sleep! It’s off to your chambers, you little late-night rapscallions!”
“Yes, Big Sister Nana,” they whispered in unison as the adult changeling brought them back into the nursery. As the youngsters slipped into their sleeping spaces, Chrysalis couldn’t help but wonder about Nana’s smile. For just a moment it had somehow seemed so sad. With that thought, she drifted into troubled sleep.
“And this is why changelings must never reveal themselves to the other creatures of the world,” concluded Big Sister Nana.
Chryssy truly enjoyed the nursemaid’s lessons, but she often felt that the conclusions weren’t particularly fair, such as this time.
“But maybe if we just talked with them they would be willing to share their love,” said Pupa, who also seemed to harbour some of the same concerns, another reason why Chryssy liked her much better than their other two sisters.
Elytra burst out laughing. “You are so naïve! The prey never give willingingly to the predators, and that’s us” – she thumped her chest segment, – “the predators!”
Mandible of course had to add to Elytra’s babbles. “Besides which, that would be playing with your food.” Elytra laughed with her as if this was the best joke ever told. Chryssy and Pupa looked at each other and rolled their eyes at the display.
“My little princesses,” said Nana seriously, “every changeling who’s ever tried has been beaten up, chased out of town, or worse. Even by the beings they were close to. Trust the changelings who go out. Many of them go missing every year.”
Chryssy sensed an opportunity to get at some deeper truth, in particular regarding something that had been bothering her for weeks. “Is that why there are so few changelings around?”
The other grubs grew quiet, and Nana got that look on her face when the questions became difficult for her to answer.
Chrysalis screwed up her couraged and pressed on. “I mean, I used to see other changelings going up and down the corridor all the time, but now there’s noling for hours at a time. Where did they go?”
Nana looked down at her forehooves for a moment. “I guess it’s time my little princesses learned about what happens when a Hive Queen gets old.” Sensing the delicate nature of this lesson, the grubs settled down.
Nana took a deep breath. “Our mother is old.”
“How old?” asked Pupa, eyes wide.
“Very old,” replied Nana. “So old in fact, that she can no longer lay eggs.” Young faces looked up at her in shock.
“But,” added Chrysalis, “how can the hive survive without new changelings to replace the ones who die or don’t come back?”
The nursemaid smiled warmly at each of them in turn.
“You four are the last clutch of eggs from Queen Enap, and when that happens, we feed the grubs royal jelly so they become little princesses, just like you, who will grow up to be queens themselves. Usually princesses are sent out to start new hives, but in this case one of you will grow to take Mother’s place and become the new queen of the Badlands hive.”
“I knew it!” said Elytra triumphantly. “I’m going to be the new queen!”
“Huh!? Why you and not one of us?” Chrysalis turned a disdainful eye to her elder sister. “You may be older and bigger, but you’re also dumber and slower than any of the rest of us, lardbutt!”
Elytra growled and launched herself at Chrysalis, who, half-expecting the elder princess’ attack, had been ready and pulled an unsuspecting Mandible into her place, effectively swapping places with the slightly older princess. Elytra crashed into Mandible, and the two of them went rolling off to the side as they clutched each other close.
Nana stomped a hoof. “Princesses, behave!”
Glaring daggers at Chrysalis, Elytra and Mandible resumed their former positions.
“Yes, it is Princess Elytra’s honour to become the new Queen of this hive as Mother chose her for this, and for you three to go out and create new colonies of this hive, if you so choose.”
“Sweet!” enthused Chrysalis. “I’ll get to be queen and start a hive of my own!”
“Does this mean our hive has other colonies?” asked Pupa breathlessly.
Nana’s smile wavered. “Unfortunately, the princesses we sent out had to go very far away, and we’ve never heard anything back from them, so, to be honest we just don’t know.”
The only princess who had not shown enthusiasm at the prospect was Mandible. “But,” she blubbered, “I want to stay here with Elytra!”
“Well,” Nana resumed her lecture, “you can do that if you want, but you’ll have to give up being a princess and become a worker. There can only be one queen in a hive, and any other princess who wishes to stay must give up her crown to avoid confusing the workers.”
Chrysalis looked at Mandible in disbelief. “You might be willing to give up being a queen, but I’m not. I’ll travel to the ends of the world to found my hive! And Pupa can come with me, if she wants!”
“Ha!” Elytra exclaimed. “Any hive built by runts like you two would be a sorry excuse for an anthill!”
Chrysalis raised her in defiance. “I am going to be queen, and mark my words, my hive is going to be perfect!”
“I’ll teach you perfect!” Elytra again lunged at Chrysalis, who had again vacated her spot before the elder princess was able to get her stubby arms on her.
Nana watched with patient affection as the two grubs slowly chased each other around the nursery. Whenever Elytra’s energies flagged, Chrysalis would stop to hurl insults or stick out her tongue and make faces, egging the older princess to re-engage the pursuit. So it had been for so many days since these grubs had hatched.
They are such good little princesses, all of them, she thought. I hope at least one survives the coming year. The old changeling slowly rose to her legs and shambled out of the nursery. She had to go harvest the day’s mushroom crop. There wasn’t anyling other left alive in the hive to do it.
“Leave her alone!” Chrysalis raised her head as far as she dared from the hard earth of the nursery cave.
“Mind your own business!” hissed Elytra, inching closer to Pupa.
The younger princess trembling as she hunched over a small plate of belly food, her share of the tiny repast Big Sister Nana had delivered that morning, before running off in a hurry. Like the elder two princesses, Chryssy had bolted down the meager repast in a blink. She was licking her plate while wondering why Nana rarely stayed in the nursery for very long anymore, when Elytra made her move on Pupa. As usual, Pupa was slow to do anything, even eating.
Chryssy surged forward and wasn’t surprised when the second eldest princess, Mandible, moved to block her path to the struggling pair.
“Buzz off!” called Mandible with a cackle.
Chryssy had other ideas. She fainted to the left, and when Mandible shifted to block her she pulled suddenly to the right, pushing the older and bigger grub aside. Chryssy wasn’t as big as either of the two elder princesses, but she made up for it in wiry strength. With a screech, Mandible was forced away, rolling to a stop only when she bumped up against the nursery wall.
Elytra’s eyes narrowed. “Feeding that runt is a waste of food!”
“This is the food that Mother gave Pupa!” retorted Chryssy. “Who are you to say what’s a waste and what isn’t?!”
“I’m hungry, and I’m bigger and stronger than you are. I’ll take what I need and you can’t do anything about it.” She shoved Pupa hard, and grabbed her plate while the smallest grub rolled away helplessly.
Chryssy charged head-first into Elytra’s bulging sides, and felt satisfaction as Pupa’s plate flew off, food and all, to shatter on the floor between them and Pupa, who lay on her back looking horrified. Glancing up, she saw surprised shock turn into a superior smirk on Elytra’s face. She felt Mandible’s thick body press her tightly against Elytra’s.
“You’re going to suffer for that!” growled the eldest princess, just as a voice called loudly from the nursery entrance.
“That’s enough!” shouted Big Sister Nana. The grubs all froze. The old 'ling never shouted.
Nana strode in and pulled the three grubs firmly but gently apart. “Mother wishes to speak with you all,” she said, avoiding the wide-eyed gazes of the princesses.
Chryssy attempted to muster the words to denounce the elder princesses, but the words died in her mouth when through her fading anger she felt dismay and deep heartbreak leaking from the normally very well contained Big Sister Nana. No doubt the other grubs felt it as well.
“Follow me, my little princesses.” said Nana. Without a word they formed a line in order of seniority, and followed the adult changeling out for their first ever official departure from the nursery.
The Queen’s chamber was huge, but what struck Chryssy the most was the lack of other changelings. Despite Big Sister Nana's admission that the hive population was declining, she had expected to see at least workers coming and going, farmers bringing in belly food from the mushroom farms, collectors bringing in love from far, exotic locals. At the very least there should have been armor bedecked guards, sworn to protect Mother and the hive from any and all harm. That was what all those wonderful stories Nana told led her and the other princesses of the nursery to expect.
There was nothing of that. Not even a lone guard or drone. All there was was the husk of a dead worker, fallen down next a bed where an ancient changeling rested.
Chryssy knew at once this was her mother, the queen. Her heart beat so fast she thought it might erupt from her chest segment. She slid forward in a daze as all of her senses drew her attention inexorably to the changeling on the bed, to that face, those eyes that looked out balefully at the approaching grubs. Chrysalis could not have looked away, even if she had wanted.
Before she knew it she and her sisters were lined up at the foot of the bed, with Big Sister Nana just to their right.
“Bow to your mother, the queen,” said Nana, head lowered in her own reverence.
The princesses complied.
When Chrysalis’ gaze rose to again look at Mother’s visage she was shocked to see a look of disdain on those aged features. She hadn’t known what to expect, meeting Mother for the first time. Interest perhaps, affection maybe, but she would never have imagined to see the bitterness of contempt in those eyes that rocked her to her very foundation, eyes stared into her very soul, and that judged it wanting. Chrysalis felt smaller than even on the day she first hatched from her egg.
“I am dying,” said the queen, as if it were an accusation. She drew a pained breath. “Except for one insignificant nursemaid, all those that had sworn to feed and protect me are dead. They have failed me now for the last time. You miserable grubs are all that remain of this once mighty hive, a hive that spanned hundreds of leagues in every directions.” She took a halting breath, and seemed to lose herself in memories for a moment.
The respite didn’t last long. “I only need one.” Rheum eyes turned spitefully back to the princesses at the foot of her bed. “The rest of you are a wasted investment, an insurance policy I no longer need.”
Chryssy heard Big Sister Nana drew in a shocked breath at the words. This set the queen rasping in a cold parody of a laugh.
“Your... Your Majesty!” Nana voice cracked. “How can you say these things in front of your heirs, our hope for the next generation?”
The queen afforded her only a glance. “I’ll say whatever I wish to say! Next generation, indeed! There are more than I need, and I have better use for the resources I invested in them. That is just... the way of things.”
“What... do... you... mean, Majesty?” Nana voice wavered, as if she needed to tear the words from her mouth one-by-one.
The queen humphed in contempt. “It means that I will take what I can from the three unneeded grubs, and maybe live another day before it all comes to an end.” She waved a dark hoof, more porous than solid. “Go away if you can’t bear to watch.”
Big Sister Nana took a step back, staggering under the compulsion of the queen’s direct order. And then she took another step back, which removed her completely from Chryssy’s narrowed field of vision.
The princesses stood transfixed, their attention centered fully on the queen.
Chrysalis felt her breath leave her body. She began to tremble, the few mouthfuls of her meal a cold lump in her heaving stomach. She felt her heart go cold, as love drained away. How can this be happening? she thought, as unbearable cold spread through her body. There was a ringing in her ears and she felt herself beginning to sway as her energy drained away. Despair threatened to crush her when a small shred of warmth lit her deep inside. Paralyzed though she was by the vision on the bed, Chryssy felt Pupa projecting a bit of love her way. Its heat lit her heart but for a moment when it too was torn from her. A single thought dominated her dwindling consciousness. I’m... unneeded?
There was a sudden flash of white hot emotion, strong and deep, and tasting of copper. And then Chryssy felt the world tilt around her and everything went black.
“Chrysalis, get up!”
Even with her eyes closed, she could tell it was Big Sister Nana’s voice, although there was something... off, something strange and flat in the emotional baseline that underlay her words, something other than the cheerful warmth and reassurance that had always been the immutable foundation of the adult changeling’s aura.
Chryssy fought to open her eyes, grown so incredibly heavy. The familiar ceiling of the nursery greeted her. She was back in her cocoon. Something smelled good.
“Open up,” said Nana in her ear. “You need to eat as much as you can. And soon, you won’t be a grub anymore. Maybe, you’ll even be the one.”
Chrysalis felt an odd resonance when Nana said the word. However, she was ravenously hungry, and the idea of food was so enticing. She opened her mouth and was rewarded with morsels of pure ecstasy. She chewed, and swallowed, and to her surprise she soon felt something she could not remember ever feeling before: she felt full.
“That’s enough, Big Sis. Please.” A huge yawn threatened to dislocate her jaw. She felt that something wasn’t quite right. But then she was just too tired to think much about it. It only took a moment, and she happily fell asleep, secure in her cozy cell.
Some time later she awoke again.
“Open up,” said Nana. Chryssy fed until she was full, and again was lulled back into sleep. She had lost count of the number of days this had been going on. Besides which she was distracted. Something was happening to her body. Everything itched. It almost drove her crazy, but she endured it as best she could. After all, it was the hunger and the need for sleep which filled most of her awareness. The rest was just a distraction.
The itching was horrible. Immobile in her cocoon, Chryssy wept in frustration as waves of compulsion wracked her body. She surged and pulled in vain, until one day she heard a popping sound and the cool of air on... something near the top of her head. The coolness washed down into her forehead, providing a huge contrast to the confined heat and discomfort that was everything lower down.
Chryssy pushed upwards. Limbs that she didn’t know she had strained, and she felt her head breach the membrane of her cocoon. The sense of relief was simply incredible. To her confusion, her eyes only provided blurred images of her surroundings.
Her emotional senses, however, were fully functional. They told her of another being nearby going through the similar emotions. Me first! she thought, and pressed first one shoulder, and then the other out from her confinement. Awareness grew of still more newer limbs further down her body, and along with the awareness a burning desire to flex their muscles. She pushed and pushed again, and suddenly tumbled out of her cocoon onto the floor of the nursery.
Her every sense tingled as the air dried and hardened her chitinous carapace. Her vision slowly swam into focus, revealing two faces: Big Sister Nana, and another, smaller 'ling. Hope surged in her chest.
“Pupa?”, she asked.
The other smaller 'ling laughed out loud. “You wish, runt!”
Chryssy closed her eyes and focus her emotional sense on the other youngster, revealing a familiar aura. Elytra.
The elder princess laughed. “Hah! The only part of that runt left are the mushrooms she helped push out of the ground to feed us!”
Pupa... dead? “You lie!” Chrysalis desperately extended her emotional sense as far as she could. She still could not detect Pupa’s gentle, familiar aura.
She turned to Big Sister Nana. “Where are Pupa and Mandible?”
The old nursemaid looked away. “The queen grew... confused at the end of her reign. She wasn’t herself anymore. She tried to take the life from three of my little princesses.” Tears tracked down her dark muzzle and plopped as they struck the cavern floor between her hooves. “But I was too late! Only you survive because Pupa gave you her love before I...”
She turned her head away, and mumbling under her breath.
Chrysalis was not going to leave things unresolved. “Before what?” she growled.
Elytra raised an eyebrow. “Before dear old Nana here chose to end Mother’s reign a day or two early, and save your little royal carcasses in the process.” She smirked in mock sympathy. “Poor old thing! She just couldn’t bear to see her precious little princesses turned into mushroom food. It’s a pity she could only save one out of the three.”
“Three?” She glanced up at Elytra.
“Mother chose me as her successor!” Elytra raised her chin high. “Only the three of you were unneeded,” she added with a sneer.
Chryssy turned her gaze back to Big Sister Nana. It struck her how much smaller the old 'ling seemed, now that Chryssy's head was raised high by legs and a neck. Taking a few cautious steps on her new hooves, she moved close to Nana and gently placed a forehoof on her withers.
Her emotional sense was immediately assaulted by images: green blood splashing on the bedsheets, huge accusing eyes that bored into hers until a bloodied hoof came down and...
Chrysalis found herself kneeling on the floor, her sides heaving to expel the contents of her empty stomach. It was a long minute of dry heaves before she could speak.
“You killed her!” she wailed. “Our queen. Our mother!” She found herself trembling with rage. “How could you do this, Nana?”
Feeling suddenly weary, she dropped heavily onto her haunches, and looked up at the nursemaid through her tears. “How could you?”
Big Sister Nana gave no answer, save her own cries of anguish as she sobbed into her hooves.
“Hah!” Elytra raised her snout high. “Look at the brave changelings, masters of their fate, crying over the fates of their lessers!”
Chrysalis jumped to all fours. “How can you say that about our mother and our sisters?” she shouted at the young mare.
Elytra shrugged. “I am alive. They are dead. The world does not play favourites, sister dear, and those who die deserve their fate.” Her eyes narrowed, and she lowered her head until her horn pointed directly at Chrysalis. “And as for you, renounce your status as princess and swear upon your life that you will obey me and only me, Queen Elytra, in all that I command, now and forever.”
By a massive effort of will, Chrysalis forced her mouth closed and regarded her sister coldly. “And if I refuse?”
Elytra’s horn began to glow. “If you refuse, you will die,” she spat through clenched teeth.
Chryssy had had enough. Elytra was certainly physically bigger than she was. And she seemed to have hatched a bit earlier than Chryssy, so her Chitin armor was had had more time to harden. Her emotional sense told her that the elder princess had received the lion’s share of the meager heart food the grubs were fed. She was at a major disadvantage, no matter that she had bested Elytra before by guile and wit. This time, it would be a magical power duel, one in which Chryssy was heavily outmatched.
She thought of Pupa. She thought of Mother, and then she thought about how Mother had declared them unneeded. In the end, none of that mattered. In the end, she felt her rage blossom and the heat of it rise from her heart to her head. Her ears folded back, she ground her teeth, and her lips pulled back into a sneer.
“Then I will enjoy hurting you before I die!” she snarled.
Elytra’s eyes grew wide in amazement then in glee. “Hah, ha, ha, ha!” she chortled and pointed a hoof at Chryssy. “You see Nana, she’s nothing but a bad seed to the end! I’m so going to have so much fun looking at you cut up her body and bury the pieces in the mushroom farm.”
Nana lowered her forehooves from her face, dread and despair in her eyes. “Please, no, princess –”
“– That’s Your Majesty Queen Elytra, nursemaid!” spat Elytra angrily. She glanced over at the old 'ling – and that’s when Chrysalis chose to attack.
Chrysalis galloped head on into Elytra. She hit the larger changeling and bounced off of her chest as if she had hit a wall. She fell down onto her back, limbs splayed, and felt Elytra’s much greater weight descend, trapping her beneath.
Chrysalis struggled in vain as the sneer on Elytra’s muzzle hovered inches above her own bared fangs.
“Say goodnight, Chryssy!” Elytra raised a forehoof much larger and heavier than Chrysalis’ high, leering in anticipation of the head crushing blow. Then her eyes grew wide as her hoof refused to descend.
“Don’t do it, Queen Elytra,” begged Nana through her tears as she held on to Elytra’s raised limb with both of her forelegs. “Please!”
A shadow darkened Elytra’s face as she stared back at the old 'ling wearing a look of pure hate.
“I guess you haven’t finished betraying your queens, Nana. I figured I couldn’t long bear a confirmed matricide to live in my hive.”
Elytra’s horn began to glow again as she turned it towards the weeping nursemaid. It’s glow intensified, building up for the fatal blast, up until the moment when Chryssy’s small dark hoof struck the horn so hard it cracked audibly.
Elytra screamed, and then her horn exploded.
The detonation was so loud that Chryssy blacked out for a moment. When she returned to her senses she felt Elytra’s unconscious form crushing her. With several great shoves of her legs, she managed to push herself out from underneath.
As she breathed heavily, she glanced over Elytra’s supine body to see how the old nursemaid had fared. She could only see the tip of Nana’s horn on the other side. Rising awkwardly to all fours, Chrysalis carefully strode around the elder princess, and froze as dead eyes stared up from that beloved face.
“No,” she said. “It isn’t supposed to happen this way.”
Tears began to track down her face and fall from her muzzle.
“IT ISN’T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN THIS WAY!” she shouted through sobs, her breath heaving.
She dropped to her haunches and covered her face.
“It’s too much... just too much...”
Elytra groaned and raised her head. Where her horn had been was now just a jagged mess of bone fragments, blood, and sporadic sparks of magical energy.
“Hah!” she laughed weakly. “It is too much, for a grub like you. Just face it. You don’t have what it takes to be a queen.”
“Shut up,” cried Chrysalis from between her hooves.
Elytra snickered. She gestured weakly to Nana’s body. “Just like her and all those other grubs.”
“Shut up!” said Chrysalis, rising back to all fours, face wet with her tears.
“Shut up, or else what?” Elytra sneered. “You’re weak. Just like them.” She struck Nana’s body disdainfully with a hoof. “Only good for mushroom food!”
Chrysalis heard a scream. Then all was heat, and rage and... darkness.
When Chrysalis awoke, she looked down at the two bodies on the floor. One was mangled beyond recognition. The smell indicated that the bodies were certainly not fresh ones, as decomposition had obviously begun some time ago.
“Good!” she mumbled to noling in particular. “It’ll be easier to cut up for the mushroom farm.”
Her horn glowed. Chrysalis had a very large store of magical energy, though she had no clue from where she had gotten it.
“Nana must have collected for me,” she whispered with a fond smile.
She looked around the cave in which she stood. “You’ve got a lot to do, Queen Chrysalis.” She sniffed. “And you can’t trust anyling to help you, no you can’t.”
Shaping her magic into a blade, she began to cut chitin, sinew and flesh. She smiled as she worked.
“This hive is going to be perfect!” she told herself in satisfaction.
She just knew it would.
