Least Said, Soonest Mended
It was not an orphanage. Nor was it a "boarding house" or "shelter", or other similar euphemism. It was simply the Crystal Heart Foal Center, run by its headmare, Chestnut Falls. And all students of the Crystal Empire were welcome, no matter what their background. If there were some fillies and colts who never actually left the Center, and essentially called it home, they were treated no different than any others.
They were not called "orphans", or "wards of the state", "disadvantaged youths", or similar blunt and heartless categorizations. They were simply citizens of the Empire, with full rights and respect according thereto. So said Princess Amore herself, at the Center's founding. And no one was about to question the Princess's word.
Amore was a kind, generous, and loving ruler, and insanely powerful for a unicorn. And if she'd once had a Minister of Revenue hung for lack of attention to proper customer service, it only went to show how infrequently such extreme measures were necessary in her dominion. Of course, she'd really only had the old fool hung up by his hind-hooves until he became dizzy, then reduced two pay grades and put on administrative leave. Yet if she'd somehow failed to mention that little detail during his sentencing... well, as Amore herself put it afterward, he'd only himself to blame. He hadn't submitted the appropriate pre-trial discovery request form first.
It was the kind of Princess that Amore was.
And her subjects loved her for it.
This story is not about Princess Amore -- at least, not directly. Instead it concerns three unusual students at the Center. One was there already. Two arrived by chance. And ultimately, all three were critically important to the eventual downfall of the Empire.
Behind the Crystal Heart Foal Center was a broad playground filled with swings, slides, a climbing tower, a sandbox, and other play equipment. And it was separated only by a small ornamental gate from the Royal Gardens itself, with its endless landscaped paths, shady trees, and trickling fountains, which the older students were encouraged to explore freely.
With the sounding of the class bell a small flood of fillies and colts exploded into the yard, laughing and yelling. Behind them, slowly and haltingly, came a smoke-gray colt with a jet-black mane and tail. His eyes were wide, green, and nervously eager.
He trotted towards a group of foals playing kick-ball, bowed his head in formal greeting just as he'd been taught, and addressed them.
"Greetings, friends. May Sombra play, too?"
They stared back at him in amused disgust.
"Why does he talk like that?" Agate Star said. "It's so weird!"
"Get away from us, Sombrero," Rose Lotus jeered. "We don't want anypony thinking we're playing with the weird pony."
"Yeah!" agreed Diamond Viola. "They might think we're weird too, just like you!"
Laughing dismissively, the foals turned and ran off, kicking the ball between them as they went.
Distressed, Sombra sat down, right where he was, and thought hard. He'd done everything as he'd been told. He'd performed the greeting just as required. Why hadn't it worked? What did he do wrong?
He shook his head, utterly baffled.
Ever since he'd been found in the icy Northern Wastes, out beyond the protective barrier projected by the Crystal Heart, he'd felt like an outsider here. Nothing seemed to work right. The words, when he tried to speak them, they were like peanut-brittle in his mouth. The little social rituals and habits everyone took for granted, none of it made sense. He felt like he just didn't belong here.
Yet he desperately needed to belong. It was all that mattered. He might not be a Crystal Pony like the rest, his coat might be matte and gray and not sparkling like theirs were, but he was a pony. So he had to fit in here somehow. It only made sense.
If only, he thought, scuffing the ground with a hoof, if only I knew --
"Don't let them bother you," said a friendly voice behind him. "They called me weird, too."
Sombra turned and looked. It was an amethyst-hued filly with a light-blue mane. But what really caught Sombra's attention was her smile: it was the kind of warm, open smile that reached out, grabbed you by the hoof, and hauled you straight into another world... one where you were instantly welcome, instantly at home, and always had been.
"If you want," the filly said hesitantly, "you can be weird with me. And then we'll be weird together. Would that be okay?"
She smiled again, and Sombra winced. For a moment, it had felt like the Sun itself was positioned right behind her, shining straight into his eyes. Glancing upward in confusion, he saw the Sun still in its rightful place, directly overhead.
Shaking his head to clear it, Sombra got up, turned to face her, and bowed formally.
"Sombra would like that," he said. "May Sombra ask your name, miss?"
"Oh! I'm sorry! I'm Radiant Hope," she said. "But you can just call me Hope, for short." She giggled. "Really, nopony calls me Radiant! That would be silly!"
"Sombra thinks you are very nice." He presented the compliment woodenly, automatically, as if buying a train ticket. But Hope beamed in response.
"Aw! That's so sweet of you, Sombra!"
Again Sombra winced, feeling the painfully blinding glare stabbing into his eyes. But Hope didn't seem to notice it. Turning, she nodded towards the playground.
"Come on! I was just going to check on my fairy friends!"
"Uh... fairy friends?"
"Yeah! They're all around here. Just be careful not to step on them," she advised. "They get grouchy real easy!"
"Oh... okay." Sombra willingly trotted along after Hope, wondering as he went what exactly he'd gotten himself into.
In short order, the two of them were running around the playground together, playing a game Hope had invented on the spot involving dragons and knights in shining armor. Although somehow it was Sombra who wound up trapped, high in the playground's climbing tower, waiting to be rescued by Hope.
"Good King Sombra!" Hope called up, with a stick in her teeth in lieu of a sword, "I have come to rescue you from your tower!"
Trying to be helpful, Sombra pointed a hoof. "Look out, Sir Lady of Hope," he called down. "The dragon, he is right behind you."
Hope immediately swung round and did furious battle with the invisible dragon, swinging her stick and grunting with every blow... and momentarily forgetting all about Sombra.
But Sombra didn't mind. It was incredibly reassuring to him, having at least one playmate who simply accepted him, without question. It let him know he was doing something right.
And if he did have to steel himself against that painful, near-blinding glare in his eyes, every time Hope smiled up at him, it was more than worth it.
Not surprisingly, after that the two of them became the closest of friends. They sat next to each other in class, played together outside during the free periods. They invented little codes to use for writing messages back and forth to each other. And with Hope acting as willing guinea-pig, Sombra found his lessons on language and deportment much easier. Whenever Hope laughed at some mistake he'd made, it didn't trouble him at all. He felt able to laugh at himself, at his own clumsiness, and so was better able to pick up on how to do things the right way.
And if Hope did insist, now and then, on wandering around the playground looking for her "fairy friends", as she called them, Sombra went along with her, and helped look for them. It was the least he could do to pay her back for her kindness. He never actually saw anything himself, so he assumed it was simply another of her strange, imaginative games.
Then one afternoon, Hope dashed into the bunkroom, very excited. "Sombra! I've actually found one of my fairy friends! I've been talking with her. She's out in the Park. You wanna come meet her?"
Intrigued by this new wrinkle, Sombra willingly pushed aside the reader he'd been working through, and followed along behind Hope as she led the way down to the playground, then through the gate leading out into the Park.
Beyond, she led the way along one of the Park's many paths to a clearing in the middle of a small spinney of trees. Here she stopped, and looked round worriedly.
"She was right here, a few minutes ago. Maybe she's just nervous. It's okay!" she called out, to the apparently empty clearing. "This is Sombra! He's friendly, just like me. You don't have to be afraid of him."
Sombra was startled when, from behind a bush across the clearing, a unicorn filly suddenly rose up to stare at them. She had a pale green coat and a brilliant white mane, and a general meek-and-helpless look about her. Yet her eyes, which were of startling emerald green... once they latched onto you, they didn't shift or blink for an instant.
They were the eyes of a predator, ready to strike.
"Hmph!" the filly snarled back. "I fear no one!"
Radiant Hope trotted forward, gesturing encouragingly with a forehoof. "It's all right, Chryssy. It's just us. You can go back to your real form now."
The pony glared at Sombra a moment longer, doubtful and suspicious. Then she shrugged, and tossed her head.
In a brilliant flare of poisonous green magic, the filly was transformed. Her body became jet-black and chitinous. Her mane and tail were a sickly blue-green. She had gossamer wings like an insect. Her horn was large, curved, and distorted. Her jaw was lined with needle-sharp, glistening fangs.
And her eyes... they were the same piercing emerald green, with slit-like irises. They held the same unblinking, predatorial glare, as the creature stared across at Sombra, apparently gauging his reaction.
Sombra's mouth fell open. He'd thought Hope was just pretending about her imaginary "friends". He hadn't expected them to be real.
"May Sombra ask..." he ventured cautiously, "what are you?"
The creature looked from him to Radiant Hope with a slightly miffed expression. Is he really this thick? her look seemed to say.
"She's a changeling," Hope told Sombra. "It's a kind of elfin spirit. We read about them in school. They have illusion magic, so they can look like anypony they want to. They were common before the Mage Wars, but not anymore. Now they're really rare."
"I prefer to believe," the creature sneered dryly, "that we've merely passed momentarily out of fashion."
Puzzled, but willing to be friendly, Sombra stepped forward and bowed respectfully.
"May Sombra ask your name... miss?"
The creature looked surprised, but also rather pleased, by the formality. She nodded toward Hope. "She calls me Chrysalis. It'll do, I suppose."
"I named her after a kind of wasp," Hope explained. "The Chrys-a-li-dae," she enunciated with proud care. "Because she kinda looks like a wasp."
Chrysalis scowled. "And does she call you Sombra," she asked him, acidly, "because you look so dour all the time?"
Sombra shook his head. "Sombra was found in the Northern Wastes, all by himself."
"Really." Chrysalis eyed him strangely, but said nothing more.
"At first Sombra could say only his name," he went on, "so they called him that. Since then, Sombra has learned much." His head fell, sadly. "But it is not enough."
Chrysalis sniffed.
"It never is," she commiserated. "Even with my abilities, blending in amongst these... ponies is not easy." She said ponies as if it was somehow offensive to her.
Hope put a hoof on Sombra's withers. "Sombra's new here too. I was thinking, maybe we could all be friends together? That way we could help each other to fit in better." Hope turned to look at Sombra, and smiled. Out of habit Sombra tensed and gritted his teeth, expecting the painful, sun-like glare in his eyes...
... but this time, it didn't happen. It was merely a pleasant warmth touching his face.
The changeling eyed the two of them distrustingly.
"Not sure I do 'friends'," she muttered. "And why would you want to be friends with someone like me, anyway? You hardly know me."
Hope shrugged. "I just... didn't like thinking about you living out here, all on your own, with no one to talk to. You could come live at the Center, you know. They'll take in any filly or colt who needs a home. Then we could all play together, and we can help each other out with lessons and stuff." Hope grinned at Sombra. "Chryssy's real smart! Even though she's not much older than you or me."
The changeling preened at that, examining a forehoof idly. "Racial memory, I believe they call it," she said. "Or perhaps I'm just the reconstituted form of a changeling who was killed off in the Mage Wars." She grinned toothily. "Or maybe, I'm just naturally brilliant, as well as being stunningly beautiful. What do you think, Sombra?"
Her heavy-lidded gaze made Sombra distinctly uneasy. He felt like some reaction was expected of him, but wasn't sure what.
"Sombra would like to be friends," he offered flatly.
Chrysalis gave him a look. Is that all? the look seemed to say.
Then she fixed Hope with a cold, angry glare. "You tell anyone here about me... anyone..."
Hope shook her head. "Not a word, Chryssy. I promise."
Chrysalis looked at Sombra, who silently nodded his agreement as well.
Then the changeling looked back at Hope again.
"Hmph. Are long manes back in style, do you think?"
Just as Hope had said, when a sad-eyed filly with a pale green coat and white mane presented herself to Miss Falls for admission to the Center, Emerald "Chryssy" Chrysanthemum was welcomed with open hooves. With a little careful wrangling, the three of them wound up seated next to each other in class. And Hope hadn't been exaggerating about Chrysalis's intelligence. The changeling handled any question put to her, whether about her own past or about schoolroom subjects, with a disturbingly effortless, well-spoken ease. She didn't so much lie, as present artfully crafted, completely acceptable non-truth, prompting no questions.
Yet Chrysalis clearly felt uneasy, surrounded by so many strangers. Having to keep up the pretense of being a pony, constantly, watchfully... it was an effort. It made her tense and snappish, and the other students swiftly learned to steer clear of her sharp tongue. They readily consigned her to the same "weird" category as they did Hope and Sombra -- with whom she preferred associating, in any case.
Sombra found it strange, that someone with exactly the skills he wished he had -- the capacity to blend in, instantly and totally -- would find it just as difficult.
Unlike Sombra, however, the changeling had no difficulty with her lessons. Once in particular, when Sombra was struggling futilely with a word problem, he noticed "Chryssy" discreetly motioning a hoof towards the cutie-mark on her flank. Or where it would have been. She'd used the illusion spell to replace it with the solution that he'd been trying to work out. She sneered at him, openly contemptuous, as he hurriedly copied it down on his own paper.
Over time, she mellowed a little, became guardedly sociable. Yet even so, Chrysalis was still very much the cat who walked by herself. Unwilling to stay at the Center overnight she claimed instead to be living at a boarding-house over in the Peridot district, just north of the city center. She would depart through the rear gate every evening, and return in the morning, calm and collected, as if spending all night in the dark forest of the Park was nothing at all to her.
And while the three of them did study and play games together, Sombra found Chrysalis decidedly prickly and stand-offish, likely to take offense at the least little thing he said. It didn't seem to be from malice or spite, though. She simply didn't give trust willingly, instead demanding that others come to her, on her terms.
Radiant Hope, of course, didn't mind in the slightest. She'd have put up with anything just to have one of her imaginary friends to play with. During the free periods, she dragged Chrysalis right into her wildly creative playground games, just as readily as she did Sombra, and the two of them often found themselves unexpected allies, facing the furious onslaught of her irrepressible imagination.
But throughout it all, Sombra often found Chrysalis eying him with that unnervingly cold, predatorial glare. Almost as if she viewed him as some kind of threat, to be dealt with one way or another.
And one sunny weekend morning, he found out why.
The three of them were finishing up a reading assignment for class together, seated amidst the spinney of trees in the Park, so that Chrysalis could let down her illusion spell and just be herself for a while.
Hope suddenly put down her book and looked up at Chrysalis and Sombra, with the dazzling smile that said an idea was in the offing. "Let's have a picnic!" she said. "Yeah! We're all here together, and it's gotta be close to lunchtime. I can go ask the kitchen ponies if we can borrow a blanket and have our lunch right out here."
Chrysalis glanced at Sombra. And then scowled.
"Well," she snarled, "that might be all right for him. But it's going to be a little difficult for me."
"Why?"
Chrysalis ground her teeth. And then suddenly exploded in rage. "Because, you idiotic little pony! Do you have any idea what changelings eat?"
Hope stared at her, suddenly terrified. "Um... it's not... ponies, is it?"
The changeling looked astonished. And then she laughed, cackling hysterically.
"Oh, that is just too rich! No, my dear... we don't eat you weak, soft, flabby little creatures! That would be as foolish as a wheat farmer torching her crop because she wanted a plate of hay-fries."
"Then..." Sombra hesitantly asked, "what --"
"I eat LOVE!" Chrysalis glared at Hope. "Your need for one other, your desire for one another, your deepest, most lasting attachments and bonds to one another... they are food to me!" She licked her jaws hungrily. "I take love, I harvest it, I consume it, gorge on it! Did you never stop to wonder where it is I go at night, what it is I do out here?" She cackled slyly. "Best not to think about it, really..."
She sniffed haughtily.
"So... now that you know the horrid truth, do you still think you want to be friends? What will you do if I --"
And then she stopped, brought up short. Hope had trotted up to her, grabbed hold with her forehooves, and was hugging her tightly.
"Ahem..." Chrysalis muttered after a moment. "What are you doing, you silly little thing?"
"Hoping that friendship tastes as good as love," Hope replied softly. "Because you're my friend, Chryssy. And I want to help if I can. If you can live on friendship instead of love, then... you can have some of mine."
Sombra nodded supportively. "Mine too, if it will serve."
Chrysalis looked astonished at that, and thoughtful.
Then she smirked.
"Well... its not exactly filling, is it? But I suppose it'll have to do."
Hope sat back, smiling up at her. "Great! I'll go get something for Sombra and me. And we'll have a real picnic together. Be right back!" Before either of the others could speak, Hope had darted away, and was hurrying up the path towards the Foal Center.
Chrysalis watched her go, an eyebrow raised. "Quite the little brush-fire, isn't she?" she muttered. "You never know which way you're going to get burnt next."
"She's very kind-hearted," Sombra offered, uneasy at the sarcasm in the changeling's tone.
"They all are," Chrysalis sneered. "Ponies believe it's their purpose to spread caring and kindness, love and hope, to all other creatures, wherever they go. That it's somehow their manifest destiny, ordained by the very creative force of the Universe itself!"
"And... you don't feel like that?"
Chrysalis gave him a disgusted look.
"I am the product," she snarled, "of the unholy union of a rusty roofing nail and a mutated oak tree, growing in a cesspit of magical toxic waste... which was used to bury the decaying corpses of my predecessors!"
Sombra drew back, frightened by the vicious, maddened glare in the changeling's eyes.
But then Chrysalis's expression suddenly softened, becoming sardonically amused. "So I'm under no illusions about the sanctity of my origins. But," she added, "that's as nothing compared to what you are."
"What do you mean?"
The changeling didn't answer immediately. She leaned closer to him, and sniffed. She looked thoughtful for a long moment, as if trying to recall... and then suddenly wrinkled her snout in disgust.
"Umbrum!" she snarled at him.
And it was like the distant roll of thunder that foretells a night of killing winds and pounding, relentless rains. Chrysalis glared at Sombra.
"We are old enemies, you and I," she growled, "from long before the Mage Wars. But whereas my kind, the changelings, simply harvested and feasted on love, your kind... the Umbrum, the shadow-folk -- you destroy it! The Umbrum seek to destroy all love, all hope, all emotion of any kind... save for one: despair!"
Sombra shook his head.
"That can't be... I'm... I'm a pony!"
She gave him a look. "I deal in lies on a daily basis, so don't think to deceive me. With ponies like Radiant Hope, it's all I can do to keep from drowning in a sickeningly sweet tide of kindness and caring! And even the worst of them cannot help but have something that they care about. But you?" She chuckled coldly. "I get nothing from you, Sombra! There's a thin veneer, a vessel, a shape, that walks and talks and thinks it's a pony. And underneath, inside... nothing! Darkness! Shadows!"
Sombra shook his head. "No. No. That can't be right!"
She eyed him narrowly. "When Hope looks at you, Sombra, smiles at you, opens her heart to you... it hurts, doesn't it?"
Sombra's eyes went wide. "How... how do you..."
"Because that's why Umbrum wish to destroy emotion! It hurts them! Might even kill them, if it's strong enough."
"But... it doesn't hurt anymore," Sombra objected. "Not since we found you, since you've been around..."
He halted, mouth open, eyes wide.
Chrysalis nodded. "Because I feed on love! So be thankful, Sombra! That little pony cares so deeply for you, you might be writhing in agony if it weren't for me absorbing the backwash." She eyed him darkly. "And I wonder if that might not be for the best, really, just leaving you to your fate?" She grimaced. "Understand me clearly, Sombra. I have nothing against you personally. But we changelings have known nothing from your kind, save bitter conflict and privation. Why should I help you? Why should I even care?"
Sombra stared back at her, wordlessly, unable to even think of a reply.
And then he heard Hope returning. "Here we go!" she called. She was toting a basket in her magic, and there was a blanket on her back. "Lend a hoof, and we'll get things set out!"
Sombra moved to help her spread the blanket. Even Chrysalis pitched in after a moment, though she continued to eye him tensely. Hope paused, looking from one of them to the other.
"Um... did I miss something? Are you two angry with each other? Oh, is it me? I'm so sorry! Did I say something wrong?"
Sombra thought quickly. He knew he was a pony. He was not one of these... Umbrum that Chrysalis had talked about. So... what did ponies do? They cared about each other. They looked after each other. They...
He nodded, knowing exactly what to do. He trotted forward to sit down on the blanket. He held out a forehoof to Hope, the other to Chrysalis. "Let's make a promise," he said. "The three of us, together."
Thinking it was a game, Hope sat down opposite him and put up a forehoof to touch his. "Okay, Sombra!"
Both of them looked to Chrysalis, and she scowled darkly, distrustfully.
Then her head tilted, a look of curiosity on her face. Curiosity finally won out, and she sat herself down facing them, reaching out her chitinous forehooves to touch theirs.
"Let's promise," Sombra said, seriously, "to always be friends. To always look out for each other, help each other, no matter what. And to never, ever hurt each other. No matter where we go, no matter what we do."
"Wow!" Hope said. "You mean, even if we became really, really powerful? Like Princess Amore herself?"
Sombra nodded. "Especially then. We'll remember that we're friends. And if we do end up rulers over a dominion, like the Princess..."
"... we should be so lucky..." Chrysalis muttered sourly.
"... we'll rule it together, all three of us, as equals."
Chrysalis looked amused. "Tripartite rule?" she said. "You really think that would work? Between ponies... and changelings... and --"
"Friends," Sombra interrupted quickly. "Like ponies try to be. I want to be friends, Chrysalis. I promise!"
"Oooh! You sound just like a king, Sombra!" Hope grinned. "Making a grand treaty proclamation! So okay, you can be King. And Chrysalis... she can be Queen. And I can be... uh..."
"You can be Princess," Chrysalis told her flatly. "Pony rulers are always Princesses." She rolled her eyes. "We never really understood why."
"All right," Hope agreed. "I'll be Princess. And as Princess... I promise, too." She nodded firmly.
Chrysalis looked sour, glaring doubtfully at Sombra. Then she shrugged.
"Queen Chrysalis?" she said, thoughtfully. "I guess I like the sound of that. All right, I promise too. For whatever it's worth."
"Friends?" Sombra persisted.
Chrysalis looked disgusted, but nodded. "Friends."
"Friends!" Hope tossed her hooves in the air. "Hooray!" And then she dug into the basket. "I brought jelly sandwiches, Sombra. I hope you like them." She hoofed one over to him, beaming happily.
Sombra smiled back, comforted by the gentle warmth of her kindness... and knowing all the while that if it wasn't for Chrysalis seated right beside him, it might well have been like the incinerating blast of a raging dragon.
The Changeling grinned at him. She knew it too.
"Let's just see," she whispered, "how long you can make this last..."
For a while though, it did seem to be working. Chrysalis even began staying over at the Center some evenings, whenever she didn't feel the need to wander at night. Hope was overjoyed at this, and made certain that her friend was comfortably tucked into her bed, on the fillies' side of the bunkroom, each and every night she stayed over. The changeling tolerated the attention with barely concealed scorn... although it was clear she privately approved of being treated so indulgently.
Yet Sombra couldn't help but notice that Chrysalis's watchful, emerald-eyed stare was the last thing he saw every evening, and the first thing he saw in the morning. He wasn't certain the changeling even slept inbetween. She seemed determined nopony would catch her unawares, least of all him.
He tried not to let it worry him. Eventually he simply told himself it meant that nothing really bad could sneak up on Hope and himself. After all, there were few things Sombra could think of that would be more terrifying than a vengeful changeling in a dark room.
The days passed, Spring giving way to early Summer, and Chrysalis likewise gradually became more easy-going. She even took to displaying a puckish, mischievous sense of humor... like the time Sombra came back to the dorm room, with Miss Falls right behind him, coming by to do a spot-check. He opened the door and found the changeling standing square in the middle of the room, her illusion spell down... and grinning at him. Sombra hurriedly turned round, nearly colliding with the headmare in an effort to keep her from trotting straight in after him. And when he finally swung round again, "Chryssy" was seated over on her bed, innocently paging through a reader. She didn't even look up as Miss Falls checked around the room, then walked out again, completely unaware of why it was that Sombra felt like passing out, right where he was standing.
Or there was the time the three of them were having their quarterly magic checkups. The mage physic was just asking Sombra to say "ah" and fire up his horn at the same time. Glancing over the elderly pony's shoulder, Sombra nearly choked in wide-eyed horror. Chrysalis's poisonous green magic was juggling a table and two chairs, in easy, massive throws. Then she landed them neatly and quietly on the floor again, just as the mage turned round in puzzlement to see why Hope was giggling uncontrollably.
Chrysalis seemed to want to goad Sombra, to upset him, to embarrass him. And above all else, to flaunt the strength and sophistication of her magic compared with his own, which barely qualified even as normal for a young unicorn. When Sombra, inevitably, failed to rise to the bait, the changeling would merely sniff dismissively, and turn her attention to something else as if he was beneath her notice.
She never forgot about their agreement, however.
She might tease Sombra, and scorn Hope's friendliness. But the changeling did nothing that would damage or endanger their friendship together. For some reason she seemed as determined to make the unusual alliance work as he was, determined that it would not be she who broke their implicit truce first.
And it came to a head, as midsummer arrived, and the day of the Crystal Faire drew near.
The Faire had been almost all that Hope could think about for weeks. She vaguely remembered the last one she'd been to, with her parents: the fairground games and jousting tournaments, the buttery crystal corn, and the merry braying of fluglehorns. And, most of all, she remembered the Crystal Heart itself: spinning in its sconce at the base of Princess Amore's castle, shimmering with the love and hope of her people, shielding the entire Empire from the chill winds and ice of the Northern Wastes.
Every gem Hope could spare, from the small allowance Miss Falls gave them, went right in her toy dragon bank, to spend at the Faire. With them went many of Sombra's too. He had little else he wanted to spend them on, and it made him inexpressibly happy to see Hope's eyes light up, as they put the gems in the bank one by one and she talked breathlessly about the Faire and her plans for everything they'd do to enjoy it to the full.
"You'll see, Sombra!" Hope said, one afternoon when they were studying together in the dorm room. "It'll be so much fun! And the best part is the Charging Ceremony, right at the very end. The Princess is there, and all her subjects gather round her, and the love and hope and light of all of them charge up the Crystal Heart, protecting us all for another year!"
"Sounds positively thrilling," Chrysalis muttered icily. "Just like the last half-dozen times you've told us. Can we get back to the lesson now?"
They'd been going over the week's history lesson, on the era leading up to the Mage Wars. And Chrysalis had been indulging in one of her favorite games: making use of her racial memory of the actual historical events to critique the text, sneeringly and authoritatively, ridiculing the historical figures it described with even-hoofed irreverence.
"The Battle of Scalded Rock? Oh, please!" She laughed. "A minor skirmish! The Disgruntlement of Warmed-Over Rock, more like! And oh, look! It's Star Swirl the Bearded, to the rescue again! Huzzah!" Her teeth ground. "Half-witted dilettante with good press! You know, if it weren't for trotting around after Her Celestial Highness as Court Mage, he'd be lucky to be a hoofnote to history, at best!"
Her form suddenly shifted, becoming a long-bearded old pony, wearing a hat and robe with bells on their fringes. The pony wiggled his forehooves comically and made faces. "Oh, looky-looka-me! I'm Star Swirl! I can count to three! And everyone calls me a serious mage because I'm so lovably eccentric! Ha ha!"
Hope exploded with laughter. She loved it whenever Chrysalis used her illusion spell to lampoon historical figures.
Chrysalis shifted back to her pony form, grunting in amusement. "At least the death-toll of the Mage Wars finally sobered him up a bit, made him take things more seriously." She suddenly jabbed a hoof at the text. "Ah! Now here's a mage worthy of note... Sacanas! The last and greatest, most influential sorceror of the entire Mage War era!"
"I'm related to Sacanas!" Hope said, proudly. "Or that's what they say anyway, from looking at the records."
Chrysalis glared at her, hotly and furiously. And then she suddenly grinned -- even in her pony form, you could almost see the fangs glistening...
"You might actually be, at that..." she allowed. "Perhaps a grand-daughter, or great-grand-daughter. Which," she warned, "would make us mortal enemies, you silly thing. After all, Sacanas was no kindly court wizard! Sacanas was one of the worst of racists, in fact... the kind who know exactly what they are and don't mind in the slightest, so long as it buys them the power they seek!"
She paused, and looked distant and troubled for a moment. "Power enough," she added quietly, "to take down a changeling Hive..."
She looked sour, staring at the text.
"And of course, they say nothing about the real conflict, on Storm Island! Which decided the last of the Wars, once and for all." She waved a hoof indifferently. "The rest was just mopping-up exercises. Restoration of the old boundary lines, so the various species could claim nothing had happened, and so there was no need when it was all over, to change one jot of how they went about their tiny, worthless little lives..."
Her voice grated, her eyes glared at the page as if she wanted to set it on fire.
Hope came over to sit beside her, putting a hoof on her shoulder. "You don't have to worry, Chryssy," she said. "You're safe here, now. You've got us, and we're friends, right?"
"For how long?" Chrysalis retorted crossly. "Until you decide it's not to your advantage, being allied with a changeling?"
"We promised," Hope insisted. "We're friends."
"Yes." Chrysalis said. "So we did." And then she gazed up past Sombra, at the poster Hope had stuck up on the wall. It was a stylized representation of the Crystal Heart Ceremony, with ponies gathered around the Crystal Heart, lending their love and light and strength and hope in support of Princess Amore, the symbol of the Empire's benevolent rule.
Chrysalis hissed, unhappily.
"And if I'm to keep that promise," she said, softly and definitively. "I can't stay here."
Slamming the book shut, she hopped up from the bed and ran out of the room, leaving Hope staring after her forlornly.
The changeling didn't return that evening. She did show up in the morning for class, just as if nothing had happened. But after that, her nightly visits became less and less frequent. And finally, they stopped altogether.
Hope was heartbroken, feeling like it was her fault, somehow, for having brought up her possible relation to Chrysalis's old enemy. She tried apologizing, more than once, but Chrysalis would simply change the subject, refusing to be drawn out about it.
Only the thought of the approaching Crystal Faire kept Hope from moping entirely. She was determined that they'd all go see it together, all three of them. "Once Chryssy sees how wonderful the Faire is," she told Sombra, "once she sees how happy everyone is, how welcome everyone is, everything will be just fine. You'll see!"
Sombra nodded, uncertainly. He had a feeling it might not be that easy.
And he had no idea how right he was.
"Wake up, Sombra! It's time for the Faire!"
Jolted out of troubled dreams by the slam of the dorm-room door against the wall, Sombra became helplessly entangled in the bedsheets and half-slid, half-tumbled heavily to the floor, upside-down.
"You scared me, Hope," he whispered.
Hope trotted over and helped him up. "C'mon, sleepyhead!" she shouted. "Let's get ready! Then we'll go find Chryssy, and we'll get out there. I don't wanna to be the only pony without a flugelhorn. They ran out last year, you know!"
"All right, Hope," Sombra said, smiling a little. He moved to gather up the bedclothes, and remake the bed.
And then froze, suddenly chilled. "Hope..." he whispered. "I can't... I can't move my legs!"
"What?" Hope reached out a hoof to touch his shoulder.
And Sombra suddenly winced, feeling a sharp, tearing pain in his limbs. His legs shivered, wobbled... and then folded under his weight. His chin landed heavily and painfully on the floor.
"Ow! Hope! I can't move! I don't know what's wrong with me!"
Hope was terrified, too. But she put a comforting hoof to his shoulder.
"Don't try to move, Sombra! I'll go get Miss Falls, and be right back!"
"Please..." Sombra gasped. But Hope was already out of the room, galloping like a madpony down the hallway outside.
She and Miss Falls returned quickly. Together they got Sombra comfortably re-settled on the bed. Then Miss Falls sent for the mage physic, who arrived and checked over Sombra's health and magic thoroughly. And in the end, pronounced there was nothing he could see wrong with the young colt, although he did admit it was a condition he wasn't familiar with.
Lacking better guidance, the physic suggested bed-rest and observation, to see if Sombra's condition improved or worsened. And then he went on about his rounds, promising he'd stop by later.
Hope's heart fell, watching him go. She sat beside the bed, looking at Sombra, who was shivering and sweating nervously. She wished there was something she could do to help, even just to help him feel less scared. But every time she reached out a comforting hoof to touch him, he flinched painfully, and seemed to become worse.
She could see as well how anxious Miss Falls looked. The headmare kept glancing over her shoulder, out through the window at the Crystal Palace, at the crowds gathering near its base.
"Hope," Miss Falls finally said, "you know the last thing I want is to have to leave you and Sombra here alone, but... well, I do need to take the other students down to the Faire, and --"
"I'll stay with him, Miss Falls," Hope said, quickly and seriously. "And if he gets any worse, I'll come find you, let you know."
"Thank you, Hope!" the headmare said, smiling. "You're a very responsible young filly."
"Would you...um..." Hope bit her lip, nervously. "Would you wait with him just a little longer? I just want to go find a book that we like reading together, to help pass the time."
"Of course, my dear!" Miss Falls nodded.
Hope smiled in reply. And then tore out of the room as fast as she could.
She raced downstairs and out through the playground, smacking painfully through the gate. Galloping along the paths in the Park, she came at last to the little spinney that Chrysalis often hid herself in, whenever she wanted to be by herself. "Chryssy!" she called. "Chryssy, I need your help! There's something wrong with Sombra! Nopony knows what it is, and I'm scared! Chrysalis? Are you here? Do you know what it might be?"
From the shadows behind a large elm, a voice called back... cold, cynical, and very angry.
"Well of course I know what it is, you idiotic little pony!"
Shocked, Hope trotted over towards the tree, then edged nervously around it.
She found Chrysalis on the far side, huddled amidst its roots, her illusion spell down and her chitinous forelimbs wrapped around herself, shuddering with barely-contained tension.
"Chrysalis?" Hope asked, reaching out a hoof toward her.
The changeling bared needle-like teeth, and hissed at her, enraged. "Don't touch me! Not if you want to live!"
Hope drew back hurriedly. "Chrysalis, what is it?"
"Oh, what do you think it is?" Chrysalis waved a hoof, bitterly. "The Crystal Heart! It's already charging up, already exuding love, spilling it out in all directions! I can feel it..." She licked her fangs, convulsively. "I can taste it! Waves and waves of pure, sustaining, delicious love!"
Then she hunched, gritting her teeth and shuddering again.
"But... you feed on love, right?" Hope asked. "What's wrong with that?"
Chrysalis shook her head. "This much love? So much I can barely think straight, from wanting it all?" She laughed humorlessly. "You wouldn't like it, what this much love does to a changeling. You wouldn't like the kind of creature it turns me into. You wouldn't like me at all..."
Hope shook her head. "That's not true, Chryssy. You're my friend. I promised I'd look out for you, and help you if I can."
Chrysalis glanced sideways at her, sadly.
And then smirked, with a hint of her old sardonic humor. "You're a bold little lunatic, I'll give you that," she said. Then sniffed disgustedly. "And as rough as this is for me, I imagine it's no picnic for Sombra, either."
"He's really sick!" Hope said. "The physic didn't know what it is! Would you please come take a look at him? Just to see if there's anything we can do for him?"
Chrysalis eyed her, resignedly. "The dorm room, it faces the square itself, doesn't it?"
Hope nodded. "You can see the castle and everything, right through the window."
"Of course you can," Chrysalis rolled her eyes. "That figures." She shut her eyes tightly, drew into herself and sighed helplessly. "I'm not sure..." she whispered, "I'm not sure I can control myself. And I promised..." Her voice grated. "I promised I wouldn't hurt you two..."
Her eyes snapped open and she glared at Hope. "And unlike my murderers, I keep my promises!"
Hope's face fell, and she nodded sadly.
"I know, Chryssy. And it's okay."
Chrysalis said nothing, and looked away.
Hope grimaced sadly. "I need to get back. Miss Falls is looking after Sombra for me. And she'll --"
"And if we're going to help him," Chrysalis suddenly said, sharply and viciously, "we'll need Miss Falls out of the way, as fast as possible." Unfolding her limbs, she got to her hooves, resettling her wings and hissing through her teeth, her eyes wide and glaring.
Then she tilted her head, amused by Hope's worried look.
"Oh, I am sorry! That came out all wrong, didn't it? I meant we'll need to be alone for this. Just the three of us, if we can manage it."
"Everyone else is going to the Faire," Hope said. "It'll only be us left."
Chrysalis looked sour. "Lucky them," she said coldly. "All right... let's go."
They returned to the dorm room. And "Chryssy" stood in the corner, tense and silent, while Miss Falls thanked both of them profusely, and then left to escort the other students to the Faire.
Sombra was even worse. Eyes shut, he tossed and turned, moaning in pain. Hope wanted to comfort him, but Chrysalis shook her head, and nodded instead towards the window. Hope moved to it, and watched the student group departing downstairs. When she was certain the last of them had left, she nodded.
And Chrysalis strode towards the bed, flinging off the illusion spell with a fierce toss of her head. "Watch the door," she snapped at Hope. "I can't do this properly, not while I'm wearing that ridiculous pony shape!"
She reached out with her black, chitinous forehooves, resting one across Sombra's brow, the other across his chest. She bent down, her fanged snout inches from his face. She opened her mouth wide, her eyes tight shut.
And from her post by the door, Hope stared, amazed. From all over Sombra's body, green tendrils of light swirled up, like poisonous steam. They swept together, coalesced into a shimmering emerald vortex, swirling between Chrysalis's jaws, and then drained away, straight down her throat.
And the changeling sighed, enraptured.
Sombra's struggles quieted, his body relaxed. He opened his eyes.
And stared at the hideous, fanged visage looking back at him, practically eye-to-eye.
"Well now," Chrysalis said. "This is a switch, isn't it? Not like the last time your kind and mine met, hmm?"
His voice was weak, almost ghostly. "You... uh... how...?"
"Don't talk," Chrysalis warned. "It's not over yet. In fact," she added with cynical glee, "it's going to get worse... a lot worse!"
Sombra stared up at her, fearfully.
"Oh, but don't worry!" she assured him, grinning. "You've got your friendly, helpful, slavering, love-devouring nightmare by your side to help keep you alive!"
Sombra nodded, and managed a small smile. "Thank you," he said, softly.
"Thanks, Chryssy," Hope added, softly.
"Thank me when it's over," she retorted, disgustedly.
The day passed, endless and wearying. The sounds of the Faire drifted up through the open window: the music, the singing, the clash of lance and shield from the jousting lanes. And above all else, the happy laughter and cheering of ponies who were celebrating the greatest holiday of the Empire's calendar without a care in the world. While Chrysalis and Hope struggled just to keep Sombra from fading away altogether.
Whenever Miss Falls came back to check on them, and too when the mage physic dropped by as promised, on his afternoon rounds, Sombra tossed and turned on the bed, moaning in agony. Hope stood by the bedside, helpless and weeping. And "Chryssy" stood quietly in the far corner, teeth gritted, barely able to contain herself. She wanting to yell, to scream, to shriek at the useless idiot ponies -- to command them to leave the room at once, so she might return to work, and try to undo the damage they were causing, simply by being there.
And in between, when the three of them were alone, Chrysalis crouched over the struggling colt, drawing in and consuming the seething, overwhelming storm of love that threatened to shred the parchment-thin shell of existence that thought it was a pony named Sombra.
And in the process, the changeling's thoughts likewise became just as paper-thin, just as tenuous.
She felt herself a hair's breadth away from simply giving herself over, simply yielding to the hunger, the desire to feed... becoming a raging, all-consuming, implacable demon, unrestrained and unconcerned with who or what got in her way.
I probably look a sight, she thought at one point with grim humor. Glancing up at Hope, she saw she was right. She could see it, reflected in the pony's terrified eyes, staring back at her.
Chrysalis laughed, sneering at the weak, snivelling, defenseless creature huddled before her.
"Be thankful, my dear!" she snarled, "that the ambient love here is more than enough to slake my hunger, my thirst. Otherwise, you wouldn't be even an appetizer for me, you silly little pony!"
Hope just nodded uneasily, and turned away, to keep listening at the door.
Chrysalis smirked proudly, totally unrepentant. She'd apologize to Hope later, just for form's sake... if she even troubled herself to remember it...
Late in the afternoon, a cheer went up from outside. The Charging Ceremony itself was beginning. Through the window, they could hear the rising, pulsing thrum as the Crystal Heart absorbed the love and light being offered by the assembled crowds. The thrumming, palpable force built to a peak, like the beating of an immense, loving heart.
And Sombra cried out, his eyes squeezed tight shut. "Hope! It's tearing me to pieces!"
Hope nervously approached the bedside, reached out towards him.
In response, Sombra shrieked, as if stabbed, as if roasted alive.
"Sombra!" Hope looked up at Chrysalis, tears in her eyes. "What's wrong with him? Why can't I help him?"
Chrysalis somehow managed to get control of herself, somehow managed to shut her jaws against the typhoon of love vanishing down her throat. "He's an Umbrum, you stupid pony!" she growled. "Love is painful to him. Especially the close, personal love of a silly little equine who doesn't realize what she does, every time she even smiles at him!"
Hope gasped, and stared at her, horrified.
"He... he never said anything. He never told me!"
Chrysalis snorted. "Why should he? It'd be like telling a fish that water was bad."
Hope shut her eyes, heartbroken. "I should go. I shouldn't be here..."
She started to turn away.
A black, chitinous forehoof smacked down onto one of hers, pinning it to the bedclothes.
"Ouch!" Hope winced.
"Sorry," Chrysalis said dryly. "But he needs you, as well. I can only drain away and consume the love that threatens his life. He needs kindness also, to hold him together. And," she added icily, "you may have noticed I don't do kindness very well."
Gripping Hope's hoof, Chrysalis brought it over, placed it on Sombra's shoulder. And with Chrysalis absorbing the greater part of Hope's love, it did seem to help this time, a little. Wincing and sweating, Sombra nevertheless managed to smile up at Hope, ever so slightly.
Chrysalis, her maw gaping, her breath rasping, her teeth dripping with saliva, drew in and guzzled down the tide of love that thudded and crashed in all around them from the square outside, as the Crystal Heart continued charging up. And Hope, with her gentle, comforting smile... she held Sombra together, reminded him of the pony he so desperately wanted to be.
A tremendous explosion sounded outside. The Crystal Heart had reached its capacity, and was launching a blast of renewing force upwards and outwards, to reinforce the shield protecting the entire dominion. A volley of cheers went up from the crowd, accompanied by a thundering of hooves and chants of honor and loyalty for Amore, the Princess of Love and Light.
And with that, the Ceremony was concluded.
Feeling the tide of love finally slackening, finally falling off toward the normal background level of the Empire, Chrysalis turned from the bed, her eyes tight shut, her jaws gaping wide, drawing in a last few gulps of the nourishing tide.
She sighed, her thoughts whirling. She'd rarely felt like this before. She'd rarely had an opportunity to be this close to the Crystal Heart, and just eat, and eat, and eat... sating her hunger, endlessly and unrestrainedly!
She didn't want it to end, didn't want to go back to being hungry, to being weak and powerless... to being alone. She felt a sudden need, a need she'd felt so long ago, and barely remembered in this new life she'd been granted.
A need... for a Hive of her own.
"Chrysalis!" Hope whispered urgently.
The changeling nodded to herself. A Hive, to rule. A dominion of her very own...
"Chrysalis! There's someone coming!" Hope hurried to the door, peered through it, then slammed it shut. "It's Miss Falls, Chrysalis! You've got to hide yourself again! Chryssy!"
And she would be Queen, a Queen once more, with hundreds of children serving her, willingly...
Queen Chrysalis spread her wings, spread her limbs, raised her head exultantly, hissed in delight at the glorious future she could feel lay before her...
"Chrysalis!"
All at once, as if suddenly remembering herself, the changeling shook her head and turned to look at Hope.
And grinned, hideously.
Then she turned and dove straight through the open window, vanishing completely from sight, although her cackling laughter could be heard for a time fading away in the distance.
Miss Falls pushed open the door, and looked in.
She saw only Hope, seated beside Sombra's bed with a hoof resting on the bedcovers, a book spread open beside her. And Sombra was apparently asleep, and -- thank Her Highness -- resting comfortably.
"Everything all right, my dear?" Miss Falls asked.
Hope nodded. "Yes, ma'am. Everything's fine now."
They found Chrysalis the next day, sitting amongst her spinney of trees out in the Park. And nursing a monstrous headache.
"Are you all right, Chryssy?" Hope asked, concerned.
"Urghh," the changeling muttered, pressing a hoof to her head. "I have occasionally wondered what it would feel like to be too full. Hmph! I'm going to have to learn to pace myself, from now on."
She held up her forelimbs. They seemed longer, thicker... almost bloated with the nourishment she'd absorbed. "I may have to molt soon, as well," she muttered. "That's not going to be pleasant..."
She looked up at Hope. And at Sombra, leaning against Hope's shoulder, still somewhat weak but definitely on the mend.
"The words should burn in my mouth," she told him, "but... you're looking well."
"Thank you," Sombra said, nodding formally. "I owe you my life."
"You owe me," she shot back, "what you promised me, Sombra! We are friends. We will help one another. And we will never, ever harm one another!"
He nodded. "I remember. And I promise," he said, soberly.
"I promise too," Hope said. "Thanks so much, Chryssy!"
Chrysalis ignored her. Her cold, unswerving, predatorial gaze was focused on Sombra alone. "You had better promise," she snarled at him. "Because one day, when I come into my own, and rule as Queen over a Hive of thousands of changelings... I will hold you to that promise!"
Sombra looked thoughtful. And then he nodded.
"I will keep my word. I will not forget, Chrysalis."
Chrysalis fell silent. For a moment, she actually looked regretful.
"Sorry," she muttered. "The old instincts are difficult to shake. We're natural enemies, you and I. Competitors, in a conflict forged over centuries."
"I don't feel that way," Sombra told her. "I want to be friends."
"Yes. So you do," Chrysalis muttered scornfully. "How pony of you. And perhaps... after hundreds of years of bitter fighting, of starvation, of endless, pointless conflict..." She sighed. "Maybe I do, too. I may have been restored to life by accident, by a careless mage hammering a notice into a tree he hadn't properly examined first. But I have been granted another chance at life. So... perhaps it's time I did things differently." She shook her head. "It's not going to be easy," she growled. "It's so hard getting used to having... friends..." She glared at them, her eyes narrowed.
Hope shrugged. "You'll get used to it. And we won't mind, if you need to be a little cross with us now and then."
"Whenever we do something foolish," Sombra said, with a smile. "Something silly. Something... pony..."
Chrysalis snorted.
Then she put up her forehooves. After a moment, the others did likewise, touching hers.
"We shall speak no more of it," Chrysalis declared firmly, imperiously. "From hereon, we shall behave as friends."
"You mean it, Chryssy?" Hope asked eagerly.
"Mm hmm." Chrysalis nodded. "After all..."
She grinned, evilly.
"Least said," she told them, "soonest mended..."
The End
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, its characters and indicia are the property of Hasbro.
No infringement is intended. This story is a work of fan fiction, written by fans for fans of the series.
Author's Note
In case you're wondering: my take in this story is that the Queen Chrysalis we know is -- as she says here -- the reconstitution of the corpse(s) of changelings killed off during a prior conflict (the "Mage Wars" is my name for it). Which means the backstory presented in the "Fiendship is Magic" comics, with Star Swirl the Bearded and the mutated oak tree, is more of a resurrection story for Chrysalis than an origin. As a result, "Chryssy" has to deal with memories and experience from prior conflicts between the changelings and the Umbrum, even though in terms of age she's contemporaneous with Sombra and Hope.
It's complicated. But it seemed an interesting way to have two old enemies essentially starting out anew together, with each of them feeling inclined to put the past behind them. For as long as it lasts...
Let me know what you think in the comments -- and thanks for reading!
