Hunger

Hunger.

We changelings are all too familiar with it. The Hunger. The insatiable pain in our very core that can never be satisfied. Ponies live a happy life, never knowing famine, while we lived with the constant dread of it finally taking us into the long night.

My mother, and hers before that. The past queens tried their best to collect love to feed us. Pure love is the only thing that can feed us; compared to any other emotion, it’s simply unmatched in its intensity. Or so they thought.

Tales of the crystal empire and its princess of love are the most well-known legends among the changelings. A single being capable of giving out so much love they could feed the entire hive. When faced with her arrival, we sent drones after drones, only to find a normal pony turned alicorn by sheer luck. Her love for her husband was unusually profound, but nothing strong enough to feed a Queen.

For years we looked at Equestria as our only source of love, but even it was far from rich enough for the hive, which only grew hungrier each day. Choices—no, changes had to be made. It wasn’t an easy decision, but once I… adjusted… the entire hive, and then meddled in Equestria’s business, just enough to plant the seeds of war, hunger swiftly became an old, unpleasant memory.

I sat on my throne deep within the hive, looking down on my council of drones. The idiots couldn’t be more useless, but I liked the idea of having punching bags around. Equestria was in disarray. Things changed for unknown reasons. The spirit of chaos never awakened from his stone prison. The dark mage’s prophecy didn’t come true and he never came back with his empire.

It’s wrong. Time is wrong. Destiny is wrong. Prophecies are never supposed to be wrong. And now that nothing could be predicted anymore, I needed to assure that my people, however lacking in intelligence they were, survived the unpredictable that was about to happen. It is my duty as Queen, after all.

“Capture more ponies!” Tried a high-pitched voice from the assembly of drones. “Enslave a village and milk their love like the animals they are!”

I glared at the moron who proposed this terrible idea and sighed deeply. “I can’t believe your small brain can’t understand that we need love. Good luck getting any good amount of it from enslaving them.” I groaned. “Take him out of my sight,” I ordered two other drones, who promptly removed the trash from my throne room.

“Any other dumb ideas?” I asked the hive.

“Uhm, my Queen,” tried another, younger, drone. I looked at him and faintly waved a hoof, permitting him to talk. “If we can’t feed on love this way, why not feed on something else?”

Nevermind the other one, this was the dumbest idea I’d ever heard. I glared at him, disappointed like only a changeling queen could be. Ready to order drones to take him away, I suddenly got the strangest of ideas.

I instead lifted him with my magic and yanked him closer so I could take a better look at his pathetic form. “And what would you propose then?” I asked, genuinely curious about his seemingly zany suggestion.

“Well, uh, anger—or b-better, hatred would w-work,” he began, an annoying undertone of fear seeping into his voice. “T-t-the po-ponies hate us already, but we know that d-d-despite their land of friendship, they can hate one another,” he stated, before gulping. I hate it when they stutter. “I-I-I’m sure you’ve heard of ‘Our Town’, our drones there t-t-t-t-t-tried to seek love, but they found only deep hatred in those ponies.” The last part of the sentence was blurted out in half a breath, making me want to slam him into the wall.

I hid my anger, but not my contempt. “Interesting. And tell me, drone, how would you suggest we change our diet like that?” I tested him. Of course I could do that, but he was asking for an awfully big change to our way of life.

He gulped as if to keep his breakfast in before speaking up again. “With all respect, can’t you do that, my Queen?”

I suppressed a smile. There it is, a drone with some guts. “You dare demand something from your Queen, who already gave you everything?”

“What? No, no no no no, my Q-Queen. I swear I didn’t mean any disrespect, my Queen. It’s just a s-suggestion, my Queen,” he babbled anxiously. Oh how I love hearing them panic.

“A suggestion, you say? Well, why don’t I try to change you first?” I asked menacingly, while preparing myself to alter the drone at his most fundamental level. “Tell me, what is your name?”

“My Queen, I’m a d-d-drone, we don’t have a name, and I’m sure you can test it on someone more worthy, there’s no need to choose m-me!” he pleaded.

“Now that won’t do it indeed. I can’t use you like that as if you were a simple bug. That would make me a monster,” I said, smiling just wide enough to bare my fangs. I paused to think for a moment. I’m almost nine hundred years old, I think it is time that I get a successor. “I shall name you Lilium, and from now on, you’ll be my daughter and heir to the throne. That is, should you survive what comes next…”

The fear in his eyes changed into pure, unfiltered terror as my horn glowed with its vibrant green color. I wasn’t using magic per se, I was using something much more powerful. With my royal voice, I declare: “By my Authority as a changeling Queen, I, Chrysalis, daughter of Queen Cerebrum, will change the drone before my royal self. He will now become my daughter and be named Lilium. Let the hive know and remember her name. Additionally, from now on, she shall feed not on love, but on hatred!”

A pulse of energy burst from my horn as my command was applied to this world. Lilium screeched in agony as waves of green fire forcefully altered her body, ripping old cells to shreds as it replaced them with new, better ones. Each time a tide of balefire washed over her, she changed ever so slightly. A pony would have described her screaming as soul scarring. Soon enough, her desperate howling stopped. From experience, I knew it was only because the pain had overtaken her mind completely. Finally, the magic stopped and she fell on the ground, spasming and seizing uncontrollably, until it slowed down to twitches, then stopped entirely, her body completely limp.

Then she took a breath.

When I thought about everything ponies do wrong, what came to mind immediately was Celestia’s reluctance to use her innate power. Since alicorns’ separation into three tribes, she’d refused to use her Authority on her subject, not even once. Us, however, have never hesitated to use it to better ourselves, which is why we are called changelings.

I looked at my new daughter as she rose from the ground. The transformation probably overrode a number of memories from her old life as but a mere drone. Not that I mind, I’ll have to redo her whole education anyway. But before that, let’s see if it even worked. As Queen, I could not afford to feed my hive and give out love freely, so I was used to hating every single one of my offspring. Now though, we had a changeling that would feed on this hatred, and I would learn to love her if this trick worked.

Once Lilium was up on all four hooves, she took a look at her new body. Slightly taller. A much longer horn. A red, flowing mane, tattered like my own. A bit thin, likely from our lack of food. She looked in my direction with defiance, and I returned her glare. All drones in attendance simultaneously hissed at her, having become aware that she was different from us all.

“Well, has it worked, or was it as terrible of an idea as I first thought?” I ask.

No response came.

I sighed. “Looks like you made me use my powers for nothing,” I said, disappointed and angry. “Your death will be quick.” I charged my horn once again, but this time with regular magic. I was about to release a light spear when I felt something cold pierce my ribcage.

I looked down, curious yet shocked, and noticed blood gushing out of me. Right above my heart was a black stake—no, a jagged horn protruded from my side, with no changeling attached to it. I tried to reach for my magic to defend myself but nothing seemed to happen. Scalding blood was flowing down my forehead, down the sides of my muzzle, and was dripping onto my own horn.

Lilium walked up to the throne and looked at me with a sadistic smile. “Don’t worry, Mother, your death will be quick,” she said, charging magic from her horn.

The last thing I saw was my headless body being pushed aside like an old rug, leaving room on the throne for the new Queen. I was so proud.