Queen Chrysalis could only look on in abject horror as, one by one, her subjects, her children, shared the love within them. As she watched her kingdom slip through her hooves, Chrysalis felt the build-up of magical energy from the changeling's transformations. She looked down to see cracks of shimmering energy travelling up her throne. The crescendo of magical energy was about to reveal its terrible explosive glory.

Oh no-

The explosion of magic could be heard in every corner of the Badlands. Chrysalis, her throne, and the great dome of her throne room were blasted away from its epicenter.

Great chunks of rock hurled themselves into the lands surrounding the hive. Smaller fragments were blasted clear across the Badlands. The great throne was obliterated into tiny chunks and Chrysalis found herself violently thrown from the blast, travelling at speeds she had never felt before.

She had no choice but to close her eyes. The pain of the explosion and the speed of her travel left her with no recourse but to curl up reflexively in agony. She could only feel as she smashed into something hard and unyielding. She imagined it was one of the hive walls. After a seemingly endless moment, she began to fall, still unable to open her eyes. She slammed hard into the floor of the hive.

Before she could even begin to think about trying to right herself, Chrysalis felt a great weight smash into her from above, settling on top of her and pinning her down. Followed by another and another.

Chrysalis waited until the sensation of crushing weight had finally decided enough was enough, she took in a deep shuddering breath. She tried to shift her body, finding only the smallest amounts of give in any direction. The pressing darkness didn't help her rapidly cracking composure.

Ow...

She drew in what was meant to be a calming breath and tried to take stock of her condition. A sharp pain coursed through her left leg and she was fairly certain that her wings had been crushed against her back. She tried once again to shift the weight pressing against her, only to be rewarded with a lance of pain and the discovery of yet more injuries.

Chrysalis gave a frustrated cry and forced her eyes open.

Oh.

The darkness abated, Chrysalis was able to see shafts of light filtering into her stony prison. Her breathing quickened, she was used to tight spaces but being trapped in them was an entirely different sensation. Her eyes darted around what little she could see. Clearly, that explosion had decimated her hive; honestly, she was amazed that she hadn't been killed outright; or launched directly into the Badlands.

Several large slabs of rock were pinning her down, the cause of most of the pressure pressing down on her. Surprisingly the bigger problem was the smaller stones that were pinned under those rocks and on top of her. The unyielding stones pressed down on her body, scratching her carapace with every shift and squeezing her painfully against the floor.

The worst of it seemed to be her left leg, the rear appendage was completely immobilised. The pain radiating from it told her that her carapace was severely cracked, or the limb might be entirely crushed...

Chrysalis tried once more to shift the rocks around her, for a moment it seemed like she would succeed before several smaller shards of stone collapsed down on top of her. She gave a strangled gasp of pain before settling down again. Her diminished strength was wiped out in the attempt.

Is this what I've come to...?

Trapped in this cramped and torturous prison, Chrysalis retreated into her own thoughts. Her own subjects had abandoned her at her moment of triumph. All too easily swayed by the promise of a unicorn who could provide them what she could not.

Her kingdom and power, undone, in an instant...

There was a time once when the Changelings thrived, silent hunters; effortlessly blending into society and taking what was needed.

Then it all started to decline... What was taken was never enough, the hive started to suffer; Changelings becoming more and more ravenous. Her own powers fading. There simply wasn't enough to go around during the fear and anxiety caused by Nightmare Moon, Discord, and Sombra...

And of course the wedding...

That wedding...

Another moment of triumph, salvation for her children. Snatched away, her hive devastated once more.

Now, once again she lay battered, bleeding, and broken. Defeated by those she had sought to conquer.

We were never meant for this...

I did this...

Every decision she had made had led them from bad to worse. Yet what had happened now? She hadn't been killed in the explosion, but it had been absolutely massive; her subjects were not Queens. They were small, resilient, and...

Gone?

She couldn't sense them in the hivemind, the connection that let her hold sway over all of her subjects... It was empty... Was it only herself and the Alicorns who survived?

It-it wasn't over. Even if she had lost her children, she could start again. Establish a new hive!

But to what end?

She had nothing and no one. Except for a world that knew of her existence and would never provide her with what she needed to take back what she had lost.

Chrysalis let her head sink to the stone floor, a scraping along the rock above told her that at least her horn was intact.

Are those voices?

Muffled by the debris atop of her, Chrysalis could swear that she could hear just the slightest snatch of conversation.

"Starlight? What happened?"

So she survived too...

Did that mean some of her children survived also? Then why couldn't she sense them? Why hadn't they come to her aid?

I wouldn't if I were them...

If they had all become like Thorax, then they no longer needed to prey on the love of ponies when they could feed on each other. They no longer needed her, the Queen who had led them to starvation and ruin... Who allowed them to suffer.

I never wanted this... I don't even know what I want anymore...

But it isn't this...

"Well done, Starlight Glimmer. It seems as though you've learned a great deal since we last spoke."

As loathe as Chrysalis was to try again, she felt as though this were her last chance. That if she were to lay down and accept this fate, she might not try anything again. Chrysalis set her teeth, braced her body, and dragged out every scrap of strength she could call upon.

On shaking legs she began to rise, rocks fell and bounced off of her carapace, but she paid them no mind. Agony beyond her imagining surged up her leg, forcing a cry of pain from her lips. With an insufferable slowness, the slabs parted and sunlight kissed Chrysalis' carapace. She could see the sky.

With a final shove, pushed on by the primal need to survive. Chrysalis threw off the foundations of her prison, giving a loud, drawn-out hiss of pain as her leg threatened to give out beneath her.

She refused to show weakness to the eyes of those watching her. She didn't look at them but she could feel their collective gaze. Some vestige of her pride dragged itself up from the depths of her mind. She would not collapse from pain in front of them.

Exhaustion, however, was perfectly acceptable.

She stumbled forward, finding herself once again prone on the floor. The fatigue coursing through her muscles finding the change in circumstances most agreeable. To add insult to injury she had landed heavily on her injured leg. Biting down a pained groan, she could at least admire the silver lining that her breathing was now unobstructed.

She turned her neck, glancing back at her body, and immediately regretted the decision.

The carapace of her rear leg was completely split open.

No wonder that hurts so much.

It would take months to heal properly, assuming it would be permitted to do so. She winced as she saw the blood dripping down from it; starting to form a small pool underneath her leg.

Her second suspicion was also proved correct, her wings were crushed beyond use and recognition. She'd need to shed her carapace to have them grow back functional. But that would have to wait until her leg had healed enough.

Her ears perked at the sound of hoof steps.

Finally pulling herself away from her own thoughts, Chrysalis looked up to behold the approaching form of Starlight Glimmer. She tilted her head to look past the unicorn, every eye was set on her, expressions stern and magic readied.

Even the foal wants to blast me?

Chrysalis looked once more at Starlight Glimmer, steadying her breathing as Starlight stood over her. She looked down on Chrysalis with a small frown.

"When Twilight and her friends defeated me, I chose to run away and seek revenge. You don't have to! You can be the leader your subjects deserve."

The leader they deserve...

Chrysalis smirked as Starlight extended her hoof, the Changeling Queen putting her head in her own hoof and chuckling. A slow, sad laugh. Rooted in despair.

Chrysalis composed herself and reached out to take Starlight's hoof. Starlight pulled herself backwards, expecting Chrysalis to stand with her. She gave a yelp of surprise as she pulled herself forward, Chrysalis remained as she was. Starlight and Chrysalis bumped heads.

Chrysalis briefly saw those who stayed behind take a step forward, horns glowed brighter and the Elements of Harmony seemed as though nothing would hold them back. Chrysalis' hoof held Starlight firm as her gaze fell back down.

Her eyes found Starlight's, Chrysalis let her head droop forward and meet Starlight's once more. She closed her eyes.

Laughter, Loyalty, Honesty... Could she be honest, if even for a moment?

...Even with herself?

I don't want-

"-to do this anymore."

Chrysalis opened her eyes, the spike of worry and anxiety from Starlight had hit her before she looked into Starlight's shrunken pupils.

"D-don't want to do what anymore?" Starlight stammered, Chrysalis sighed, closing her eyes once again.

"Starving... Struggling, hiding, running, fighting... Fighting ponies... I just don't want to do it anymore..."

"Then don't," Starlight offered her a hopeful grin.

Even after all I've done to you? You can look at me like that?

There was a crack, a short, sharp, crack.

Chrysalis felt her body tumble downwards as the rock beneath her fell away. She gave a shocked cry as she was dragged back over the newly formed cliff edge, her forelegs scrabbling for purchase.

Her upper body smacked into the rock beneath, only her forelegs and head staying above the ledge. Her rear legs scrabbled uselessly against empty air.

"I've got you!" Starlight hurled herself forward, throwing herself onto Chrysalis' forelegs. She pinned them down and used her weight to keep Chrysalis in place.

Chrysalis swallowed, unable to help herself, she looked down at the abyss. Blood dripped from her injured leg and fell silently toward the ground that may as well have been miles below for all the good her fatigue and crushed wings would do her.

Chrysalis became still, her efforts to stay clinging to the cliff face halting as she looked down.

Could I-

"Don't you dare! Don't even think about it!" Chrysalis' head snapped forward, meeting Starlight's angry gaze. Chrysalis released a breath she didn't realise she had been holding. She managed to free one of her hooves and wrapped it around Starlight.

For one horrifying second, Starlight thought the Changeling Queen meant to drag her down with her. But as she felt herself being pinned down to the cliff, Chrysalis used her as an anchor, getting a firmer grip on the cliff edge with her free hoof. Starlight's fear ebbed away as she wrapped her hooves tightly around Chrysalis.

Suddenly Chrysalis found herself rising upwards, suspended in a maelstrom of magic. Starlight scurried backwards, following as Chrysalis was settled well away from the unstable ground. Released from the magic of three alicorns and one changeling.

...Thank you.

Chrysalis stood on three hooves, her left leg twitching just above the floor. She looked up at her rescuers, managing to glimpse sight of Twilight, Celestia, Cadence, and Thorax through the veil of her mane. Her eyes settling on Thorax, the young changeling-

Prince? King?

-flinched under her gaze. Chrysalis threw her head back and shook her mane from her face; she still had her pride after all. As her eyes tracked between the five creatures in front of her, they fell between the gaps; affording her the first real chance to see her children. All of them alive, whole, transformed...

She felt a hoof press on her shoulder, following it back to its owner she saw only a shaking Thorax. She smirked but didn't shrug him off.

"...Where shall we go from here?"

"We were hoping you would tell us," Celestia regarded Chrysalis quietly, the others remaining silent for Chrysalis' response.

She looked once more between them, spotting a hoof full of changelings approaching from behind Thorax.

The leader they deserve...

The words echoed in her mind. She had failed them, her leadership had set them on the path to destruction time and time again.

I am no leader...

Her gaze fell to the changelings, her children, she held eyes only for them.

But perhaps something more, something I always should have been...

Chrysalis closed her eyes, letting her thoughts dwell on her children. Despite all she had done, her malice, her cruelty, her incompetence... She had only ever wanted one thing for them.

Those assembled watched in stunned silence as Chrysalis began to rise into the air. Her forehooves held close to her chest, her left leg dangling limply beneath her. Between her hooves, a pink light began to coalesce on her carapace.

Chrysalis held onto only one thought, one feeling that resonated within her very being.

Her love for her children-

I am Chrysalis.

Mother of the Hive.

-and she let it flow.

Author's Note

This idea is brought to you by the question: "Do I rely too much on dialogue in my story telling?" and is sponsored by the trope "~~Talking~~ Self-reflection is a free action."

Another exercise I had a lot of fun with, it was written quickly but I don't think the quality suffers too much for it. Any and all feedback is always appreciated!

This story was partially inspired by Inherited Crown, Obligatory Trauma by TundraStanza a short story but one I enjoyed immensely.