Taking the Queen

Chrysalis walked up the road, her hooves dragging behind her as she went. Eight days. Seven insufferable nights and eight blazing days since she'd had anything to eat. She was always hungry; that was true of all changelings all the time. This was starving. The first five days, she'd wasted so much energy being shifted, only to find that there was no reason to.

This road looked to be decently traveled. There were scores on the ground clearly marking the compaction of wagon wheels, meaning that the grass hadn't grown back due to too much activity. The median to this road was trimmed down and not very overgrown, meaning that somepony was tending to it. Somepony was cutting this grass and keeping it decently trimmed, and free of weeds. It was a single lane road, meaning that there wouldn't be too many ponies at once crossing paths, and likely no more than three at a time, which she would have little trouble taking down without backup. It was the perfect road for her to feed off of while she recovered from her unfortunate situation.

So why was the road so very empty? It can't have been because of her. She'd been careful to not be seen or heard from by anypony, and she hadn't come close enough to either of the two towns this lonesome road connected. This stretch of path did not intersect with another street, was not paved due to heavy traffic, but was clearly in regular use, so why was it so empty?

To make matters worse, it was clouding over, meaning rain was imminent. Nopony would be out in this weather. Changelings were perfectly fine with water, especially cold water, so if she were to run into anything out here after it started, it would no doubt be another changeling, and she'd burnt her bridges with all of them. All she could do in that scenario would be to consume all of the love they had on them at the time, condemning them to death in her place.

Not that she wouldn't do that, but then she'd have to hide the body and hope that they wouldn't recover. Even then, she'd only feel comfortable doing that with one of the changedlings. They were basically the same as ponies, anyway, with their feelings circles and group therapies, feeding each other their own excretions. It was sickening, though it was at least edible, but she didn't mind as much disposing of traitors.

As the first few drops fell from the sky, her vision began to blur, and she began to wobble a bit. The likelihood that she'd find somepony to feed from was dropping by the second, and even if she did find a changedling, did she even have the power to pin them down and devour them? They liked to travel in groups, and if they were more than two, she couldn't handle them all on her own. Could she even handle one right now?

A strong gust pushed her off to the side of the road, and a root sticking out of the ground tripped her. She rolled down into the ditch, collapsing into the ravine amidst the tall grass. She was uninjured, but exhausted. She could no longer see the road from here, lending credence to the idea that she could rest. Her stomach was growling, but there was nothing she could do about that right now.

What a pony would do in this situation would just be to eat the grass. Unfortunately, that was not an option for her. She could only eat pony food if it had been prepared with love, and even then, most of the foodstuffs would just pass through her digestive system without actually being digested. Only the love would be absorbed. This grass was not made with love, and provided no nutritional benefit to her.

There was no sense in complaining about it now. For the time being, this was a safe place to sleep. Nopony was on the road, anyway, or she'd have eaten something in the last week. She wouldn't miss anything if she just closed her eyes for a second...

Starlight rushed along the path, glad that she had the foresight to prepare an umbrella hat. Well, actually, Pinkie had shoved it into her bag when she wasn't looking, along with a sticky note that said "Trust me!" with a smiling picture of her face at the bottom. It had been sunny the last two weeks, and she had expected that the friendship problem in Morgandale would be solved faster. For whatever reason, Pinkie had known that she would be walking back in the rain, and had prepared her.

She was surprised at the problem, itself, actually. A large freight wagon had snapped an axle, which was not a big problem, but the two towing yards in Morgandale had made a big fuss over who was going to fix it, and at every turn, had been causing problems to make the other look incompetent, but had only served to make the problem persist. In the end, it had been her decision that influenced the mayor to let a third citizen, a vehicle repair shop owner, tow it himself. The next course of action had been to draw a line on main street to determine jurisdiction between the two towing yards, thus freeing up the road so that it could once more be travelled.

The road was in a surprisingly good condition, despite not being in use for two weeks. Nopony had been able to use it with the massive blockage, and traffic had been redirected along a detour route, which had caused its own problems, but was much more easily fixed, as it just required some road maintenance crews to clean up. It was just paperwork for her, and that was not a big deal.

This was perhaps not the shortest route back to Ponyville, but it would take her through Whimsyshire, and that was important. She had told the Morgandale mayor that she would take down the detour sign from the other side, freeing up the freight road for both towns. If she didn't volunteer, it'd just be some messenger.

But then she spied something. On the road, there were fresh hoofprints in the light mud, and a few bits of broken grass. Had something fallen off the road? She went over and peered into the ditch. Her heart began to beat faster as she saw a changeling. And not just any changeling. It was the queen of the changelings, Queen Chrysalis.