Chrysalis rises from her bed before the night is over. The sun stays at rest outside, with the last slivers of the moon being all that light up the outside. In her home, there are no lights. She stays in the dark, her shining green eyes being the only thing that light up the black void. They're used to the dark. They take in the dark. Thrive in the dark.
Hate the dark.
She moves through the night, invisible to any who may want to hurt her as she moves. She is the predator though. She is the one hunting others, and they should fear her eyes. Now if only they weren't likely to give her away. A princess needed concealment, even if her magnificent pupils made her stand out as the royal she was.
Chrysalis stops as she hears something. A noise amongst the stillness. Danger for the predatory princess. The small figure dives into a trash heap, hiding within it as she tries to still her breath. They won't be able to find her so long as she makes sure she is nothing. Yes, she will be unstoppable, undetectable, and whatever comes to stop her shall fail.
Meanwhile, the two guards, making their rounds for the night, see the swishing of a confident, happy, green tail as it flicks back and forth. They both look at each other, happy that at least this time it's looking away from them. Last time the princess had managed to actually hide from them, and george still had a bandage over his ear from the assault.
"Should we-"
They both stop as their eyes glow a bright green, and they move past Chrysalis. Of course they do though. Chrysalis is the night. Is a shadow to them, though one day they'll learn how much more she is. How much greater she is then the night. She only needs to get out of here.
Once the obstacles are gone though, she moves, staying close to the ground as her eyes, almost a fourth of the size of her body still, creep along the floor. She can sense the time pass though as the night comes closer and closer to the end. It's a deadline. A promise.
A gift.
Behind her, another follows her, slipping between the shadows, its eyes shadowed by magic as it disappears. It is the night. It is the predator. It is the one after the princess, watching her always.
Chrysalis has even seen it before. Many times, but never knowing the threat that follows her. The plans in store for her, and the reasons why it follows her tonight. Why it finally lost sleep for its mission.
To the young, changeling foal, there are no other plans than its own though. All that matters is her mission. Her plan. Her dreams and excitement that lead to her creep breaking into a brisk trot. Her hooves are well trained though. They make almost no noise, and one day will manage to be no more than a gentle breeze along gravel one day. There is time for her to get there though.
Time, so long as the predator allows for it.
But Chrysalis does not need more time tonight. Not as she gallops out of the front gate. Speed is now her aid as she sprints past the front guards. They too remember the last time she managed to get past the other guards, and Bob's eye winced at the memory.
They didn't move though as the tall, graceful predator followed after, her tall legs making up the distance that the princess's faster hooves gave the small changeling. In fact, all the guards could do in the predator's presence was cower, especially as Chrysalis ran to the right, directly towards the cliffs that protected the grand, Changeling castle.
Chrysalis was free though, and that's what mattered. She was finally going to be able to watch what she had been wanting to for so long. What made her get up so early. What none of the sheltered windows could give justice to.
And as the sun rose, she let out a battle cry towards it, stomping on the ground as she pledged her war. Pledged her courage. Pledged that she would fight it, because one day, it would be where she belonged. Where she live, instead of the stupid night that suffocated her. Kept her in the shadows.
Kept her-
"Little one, why do you do this?"
Chrysalis turns to the predator. To the night. To the one who is never there, but always at the same time.
Her mother, the queen, who looks down upon her now.
Chrysalis looks down, pawing at the ground, before looking back at her mother. She would be proud of her goals. Of how much better she would be then her mother! "I face my enemy! I face the one I will trick! I face the one that shall let out people feed like never before! No more soft races. No more infa-infu- bad races! Ponies will finally be ours if I can beat that! If I can know it and trick it!"
The queen smiled at the words. Finally. Finally she heard the words she'd been waiting for.
The words she couldn't say when she was young, nor her last three children. Words that meant that her little girl would need to go through hells no other changeling had before. Taught harder, made smarter, faster, nimbler, everything that would make her the best of their race.
But for today, she deserved something, so for the first time outside of her birthdays, Chrysalis's mother came down, laying on her stomach as she beckoned her foal to her legs. Beckoned her to feed from the queen herself, not knowing that the lack of such actions would one day be her daughter's own downfall.
But today that didn't matter. Not as the small, changeling princess cuddled into her mother's forelegs. Today they could just be happy.
A feeling the princess wouldn't know until late into her adult life, when she would come so close to finally making the sun be her home.
Author's Note
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