Dirt was in her mouth. It tasted foul and smelled loamy, like an upwelling of mushrooms after a rain. Memories, vague and ethereal, of nights spent dancing in the mushroom circles, lighting up like a star come to nest in the fields until some curious passing soul came to investigate, drifted out of the darkness. The memories, like those souls, were fleeting and fickle. Some came near, to in turn be investigated themselves, while others kept their distance and hovered right at the edge of her light, tantalizing but untouchable.
Chrysalis opened her eyes. She lifted her head, the soil falling away from her chitin to land in the same ditch she found herself in, the moon soaring high overhead surrounded by its own ring of tantalizing, ethereal light.
“You failed.”
Chrysalis blinked, turning her head slowly. Beside her ditch was a rutted country road, and beyond it there was a field of alfalfa in bloom, broken into orderly rows. The road was split by another dirt track, carving the fields into plots and forming a neat cross to be filled with silvery moonlight. There, in the middle of this crossroads, the night sky bowed as if pressed down by some immense hoof from the other side of reality. It pulled together, weaving itself into strands of hair made of nighttime, starlight, and the darkness between worlds. It was a mane worn long and flowing by a mare made of magic and terror.
Nightmare Moon stood in the crossroads, regal and horrific in equal measure. Wings draped around her like a cloak, the long primary feathers fading to nothing before touching the dirt in which Chrysalis wallowed. Hooves armored in cobalt plating floated above the soil, not so much as a shadow of the Mare in the Moon even touching the ground, but her gaze weighed heavily on Chrysalis nonetheless.
Chrysalis averted her eyes. She could not bear the disappointment in that look. She turned her multifaceted eyes on herself, and felt a hint of Nightmare Moon’s abject hatred of her weakness. No longer did her exoskeleton glisten. No longer did her mantle of spider-web hair grace her crown. Gone was the green tint along her abdomen, her wings small and their edges tattered. She was once again but a changeling and no longer a Queen.
Nightmare Moon’s blessing was revoked.
“You are pathetic.”
“I...I did not foresee the use of Mi Amore’s power to...to…” Chrysalis stopped, her excuse dying on her tongue as a midnight blue vise gripped her jaw.
“Unforeseen magical solutions is the bread and butter of these ponies.” Nightmare Moon hissed, the air around them growing cooler. “I expected more from you.”
Her army had suffered catastrophic defeat, thrown from Canterlot like common flies from a pony’s flank, swatted by some magical tail. Nightmare Moon released her and she hung her head, nodding in mute agreement, tears joining the dew at her hooves. “Can you forgive my failure? I am yours until the end of my days, O Darkest. Command me, or punish me; I will accept whatever you deem fitting.”
“Come, Chrysalis,” Nightmare Moon intoned slowly, voice cold as the darkest night, “if you still dare. Prove to me you are still mine, heart and soul.”
“How?” Chrysalis lifted her head, wet eyes wide and pleading. “How can I prove myself? I’ve lost everything...even your Mantle. I am a lowly bug before you, but I will do anything to have your blessing once again! But I am weak, O Darkest.”
Nightmare Moon’s hard eyes slid aside, gazing past Chrysalis, over the alfalfa blossoms. Beyond the orderly rows, where the dirt track bent away from sight to be swallowed by the fields and hedges, lay a neat farmhouse flanked by coops and cut piles of wood. The windows were dark, shuttered, and likely locked. But the front door was open, a pony standing there, staring back out into the night and unable to perceive the divinity that graced the nearby crossroads.
Those demanding eyes turned back Chrysalis’ way, their weight firmly upon her. Dew soaked into the ground and her chitin, ice cold and full of potential, as the smell of rain rose around her. No droplets fell, but the earth was moist all the same, and from the loam sprang mushrooms with ghostly white flesh sprinkled with flecks of dirt. Chrysalis rose with the stems, spreading her wings as the caps did the same.
“Dance. Feed, Changeling, if you can, and we shall speak of many things.”
So she danced. The ache of losing Nightmare Moon’s blessing tugged at her limbs. Her flesh felt sluggish, however a chance to do her goddess’ bidding granted her the strength to move with grace. Alighting her thorax took most of what Chrysalis had left in her, but still she danced. She allowed the memories to take her. Guide her. Like the stars above, she twinkled with tantalizing light. She drew the attention of their lone observer, the pony in his farmhouse with his eyes wide at the sight of a star come to rest in his fields. She drew him close, away from the safety of home and hearth -- drew him to her cold light the same way she’d been drawn to the dark goddess that watched over her, with promises of wonder and answers.
However, unlike her goddess’s promises, Chrysalis had no intention of fulfilling her own. Hers were only falsehoods. When the pony -- a stallion in his prime, strong of heart and hoof -- came close enough, she spun one last time inside the fairy ring of fresh fungal flesh and extinguished his light with her own.
She fed.
The moon was low in the sky when she finished. Chrysalis felt hale and whole, full of nostalgia and emotional essence. It was like nectar to her, sating her more than any honey could hope to achieve. It had been a long time since she’d drunk so deep and so much. The sensation was heady. She stepped out of the ditch, leaving the mushrooms to feast upon the scraps. Nightmare Moon’s gaze remained on her, silent and judging, but she seemed pleased. Chrysalis felt she was once more the faithful servant, worthy of blessing.
Chrysalis supplicated herself at Nightmare Moon’s hooves, wings spread so that she might be the first thing touched if the goddess delighted the world with her physical presence. “I am yours.”
“As is right.” Nightmare Moon lifted her head slightly, turning her attention on the moon. “Just as my previous vessel, you failed to unseat the Sun from her dominion over the lands. Soon She will once more climb the firmament and I will be banished again.”
“No! O Darkest, take me! Let me house your great spirit and I will find a way to bend Celestia to your will, I swear it!” Chrysalis spat the name out to lay in the dirt where it belonged. “No matter how long it takes, I will see you take your rightful place as the goddess of all Equestria! Make me a Queen again, and I will birth you an army to blacken the skies so that the ponies will never know the touch of sunlight again!”
“I shall require much of you, but not another army. Subterfuge and cunning are the weapons you excel with most.” Nightmare Moon narrowed her eyes, lips pulling back to reveal regolith white fangs. She twisted. Yanked at the air like a griffon set upon a fresh kill, tearing away a wet hank of meat. Above them, stars began to fall, streaking across the sky. “I will level the playing field. No longer shall the Sun and Her followers enjoy their magical prowess.”
One falling star lagged behind the others. It grew brighter, flickering as celestial embers broke off and died, swallowed by the night. Nightmare Moon snapped her jaws, sending off sparks in perfect imitation of the fireworks display in the sky. She turned back to Chrysalis, eyes sly voids under her helm. “Go to the badlands. There you will find my gift, Changeling. Build another hive and send your spies back into the Sun’s domain. Then when the time is right, the Sun will be forcibly set for the final time.”
“As you command.” Chrysalis tracked the falling star, now a white hot fireball, as it streaked toward the distant horizon. “The badlands are far from here, there will be no ponies to feed on.”
“Are you questioning my logic?”
Chrysalis pressed her body into the dirt, trying to lower herself even more. “No! It’s just...how can I succeed, O Darkest? I am just one changeling. Even if others of the horde survived...they do not serve you as I do! They would not listen me...not like this.”
Nightmare Moon loomed over her in silence for a time, the falling star passing out of sight to the distant south. Chrysalis worked her jaw, chewing at the soil she lay in as she tried to stammer out something that wasn’t another excuse for her weakness. “I-I ne-need you! O Darkest Night, the Night Bringer, make me a Queen again! I beg you!”
“My vessel must be strong. Unassailable. I thought my previous host to be strong. Her guilt and desperation was powerful and kept her heart from the Sun’s affection. She was an alicorn of near limitless might. You are an insect.” Nightmare Moon lowered her head, the blackness in her eyes filling Chrysalis’ vision. “I may foil their magic, but what assurance do you give me that your heart will not falter? The Sun and Her ilk will use every trick to see Me defeated, even friendship.”
“They cannot take my heart, O Darkest.” Chrysalis lifted her head, tilting to the side with her lips parted. “It beats only for you.”
Nightmare Moon’s lips pressed into Chrysalis’, manifesting like the dew and tasting as ambrosia. Chrysalis gasped as her body spasmed, twisting and folding as the plates of her exoskeleton shifted and slid about. The pain was exquisite and shocking. Her eyes teared up before going blind and the Night whispered sweetly in the remains of one ear. “As is right.”
She smiled.
When she could do so, Queen Chrysalis rose to her hooves. She brushed spider’s web locks out of her eyes and flicked out her broad gossamer wings. To the east, there was a hint of pink in the purple black of the night sky outlining the mountains where the pony capital city perched. Soon she would conquer it and all the love and power of the pony nations would be hers to give to her goddess. For now, she had a long flight ahead of her to the south. With a laugh her two voices eased into sync, echoing over the pre-dawn fields as she took to the air and left the mushrooms and maggots to their meal among the alfalfa blossoms.
Author's Note
Special thanks to Pearple Prose for proofreading and some editing!
