Monster or Mother?

Chapters

Ditto
Feel Like Me
Desperation
Captive
Source
Solitude
Acceptance
Alarm
Panic
Flight
Terror
Security
Memory Lane
Formless: Part 1
Formless: Part 2
Become
Disconnected
Ruin
Jericho
Haste

Ditto

I trust that you will keep this a secret among the others, cerebrate?

Of course, my queen. The others won’t hear a word about this.

Good. Now, until…the day comes, I am placing you within command of the entire changeling army.

B-but my queen! We are so few! Leadership needs--

My decision is final. Seek out as much love as you can and feast upon it. In my current state, I will provide for myself. Let that be the end of it.

~~~~~

The queen of the changelings sighed with heavy feeling. The burden placed upon her was one she had hoped to never experience again. Five-hundred years have passed since she last felt such misery. Her muscles ached, and her mind was groggy, clouded with the results of countless, sleepless nights.

She hungered for nourishment, but alas, she had an entire species to feed, and with security at nearby towns and settlements higher than ever before, she could only imagine the painstaking tasks she and her precious children would have to face in order to survive.

Why me? she thought to herself.

The rogue, grey clouds above the Everfree forest parted aside, revealing the moon’s dazzling white glow. Its tantalizing, eye-catching rays shone down from on high, illuminating the queen’s open-roofed bedchamber of grass, weeds, and ivy. Dew drops formed on the walls of overgrown cudzoo vines, sparkling in the midst of the cold, still night like little beads of silver, decorating her green, floral sleeping space with a mock sense of luxury.

Why me? She thought to herself again.

It was a beautiful sight to behold, but all it succeeded in doing was insulting her outright. Her half-sisters in the city of jewels and riches were probably mocking her right now as she lay in such desolation, sipping from fancy, bejeweled teacups and stuffing themselves with all sorts of delicious fancies.

In this dark, scary world, the hidden force of nature was cruel to her. It forced her to live out a life of shame and regret, where the harmless feelings of love and companionship were her only means of sustenance. Was injuring dozens of ponies and frightening little foals really worth her daily meal? Was she truly forced to suffer in silence, knowing that all she had done in the past thousand years had left nothing but hated, spiteful marks on the face of her lengthy memory?

Her train of thought was interrupted by the sound of soft crying nearby. She still had so much on her mind, but she also knew that she had new duties to tend to. Her changelings had been fed already, though many have starved to death, while others were either captured or killed in previous raids, but nopony cared, not even in the slightest. All they saw were spiteful, vile creatures. Death was a natural part of life, yet the lives of the changelings were short enough as it is, living only to feed off of the love in the souls of others before passing away quietly in a ditch, or even more tragic, while they slept.

Chrysalis rose to her aching hooves, wincing in pain as she did. Her eyelids felt heavy, with days-old grey bags setting beneath the black, flaky skin under her eyes. She hissed with exhaustion as she dragged her hooves over to a tiny bed of scrap cloth and ivy, which she assembled herself to shelter its new occupant.

Ditto, as she plainly named it, lay fast asleep in the crude, makeshift crib of her design, shrouded in a thin, purple blanket that barely held back the bone-chilling cold of the night as the lunar light shone upon its forehead. It squirmed as it slept, squeaking at varied intervals.

Maybe it is having a bad dream. Thought Chrysalis as she picked up the little one with her hooves and gently rocked it back and forth in her embrace. Her gentle musings worked, and before long, the little one returned to its peaceful slumber.

But we cannot dream…so what could it be?

The changeling she held was a newborn, and that term was used lightly, but for now, it was considered a special occurrence, for this was the first changeling ever born directly from the queen herself in over five-hundred years. Every changeling since the first had reproduced like cells, devouring love and splitting in two. When she was informed of her pregnancy by the high changeling general, she had no idea what to make of it.

How would she go about raising it, or more importantly, how could she go about raising it? She felt scared, and alone. She had next to no experience in raising a newborn, and she feared this knowledge rightfully so. When the first changeling was conceived, it knew its directive to feed automatically, but this one acted like a newborn pony, not like a changeling. It knew of no such directive, which only brought her doubts about her ability to keep up with her new life as a different type of parent even higher. Before Ditto, she only gave birth to only one changeling and one changeling only, which fended for itself as she knew it would and expanded the population as it did.

This one had to be fed, bathed, taught, and cared for, all by her own two hooves. Feeding an entire species that was growing each day was difficult enough, but how was she to feed this one? It barely knew how to walk, much less survive on its own.

She would have to figure all of that out later. Right now, she was in a desperate need of sleep. She looked down at the sleeping bundle in her embrace with worried eyes, fearful for the future and what challenges and hardships it may bring, yet despite the problems that came with it, she adored the cute smile on the little changeling’s face whenever she held it in her grip. It made her smile, both on the inside and the outside. She lowered her neck and kissed the little changeling’s forehead before setting it back into its crib.

Sleep well, little one…

In the distance of her forest home, she could hear the baying cries of the other changelings, moaning with hunger and pain. She knew these sounds all too well. It was practically her own, personal white noise, the background clamor that she was forced to fall asleep to every night. Even for one as barren-hearted as she, sadness and remorse still succeeded in overtaking her being.

I am sorry, my children, but you are on your own, for now…

Feel Like Me

“Enter.”

On the queen’s word, a tall changeling, armored with shiny bug plating and robed with a red velvet cape as well as a helmet that bore him as a commander, stepped through the open doorway into her floriated bedchamber. Once inside, the entrance was sealed, closed off completely as an entanglement of thorny vines remade the gap into a patch of wall.

The changeling commander lowered to its knees and bowed its head in respect.

“My queen,” it spoke, keeping its head low to the ground.

“You may rise,” Chrysalis hissed in reply.

The changeling rose to its holed hooves, keeping its head held high in the presence of its insectoid mother. Chrysalis always admired the commander’s superb sense of loyalty, which is what lead to its promotion in the first place. She raised a hoof and waved it daintily, signaling the commander to speak.

“My queen, I come bearing extraordinary news!”

Chrysalis looked down at the ground in front of her, where her newborn lay fast asleep before her, curled up in a little ball. She frowned slightly, still deeply worried for the little one, but quickly regained her proper demeanor when she remembered hearing of the commander's report.

“What is this news?” she asked with a modestly interested eyebrow raised.

“I...as strange as it seems, I can barely describe it, my queen. When the feeling came to me, I was at a los for words all through the night! It was unreal, a feeling unlike any other!"

"Go on..."

"How could I, my queen? Such feelings do not come lightly, nor in such great force as this one has!"

“Hurry up.” Chrysalis hasted, grunting, becoming more annoyed by the minute.

“It’s…well, the newborn. It’s like…you are the only one out of all of us who seems to resemble—“

“Stop wasting my time!” shouted Chrysalis with the booming force of a titanic thundercloud.

A frightened squeak was heard from below. Wide-eyed, Chrysalis looked down at the newborn, who was now shivering, hugging itself to try and stay warm or maybe to try and hide itself from whatever startled it so. Her prickled ears fell flat against her face. She frowned slightly, feeling downright terrible for what she had just done. Her strange, new, motherly instincts kicked in, moving her to gently lift the quivering infant and keep it held tight against her scaly, but surprisingly feather-soft chest, a surprise feature that arrived with Ditto’s birth. Maybe her frontal scales softened during her obscure gravidity. Within seconds, the little one ceased its distressed squirming and fell asleep once again, smiling as it did. Chrysalis smiled back, unknowingly allowing her new, caring emotions to wrap around her like a warm covering.

“My…apologies,” Chrysalis sighed, not even realizing what she had just said, an addition to her original shrewd, forceful vocabulary that arrived in the same fashion as her new set of careful instincts. “You may continue.”

The dumbstruck commander could hardly believe what it had just witnessed, but quickly shook its head to rid itself of distracting hysteria.

“This little one--”

“Ditto. I named this one Ditto…”

The bold commander was struck with even more astonishment. It wanted to ask why, but questioning the will of the queen was a death sentence in itself. Only the highest ranking changelings are ever given real names. Generals, commanders, and other varieties of important changelings were all assigned their own unique form of identification, issued by the queen herself of course. Every other changeling, the drones, the workers, and the soldiers, were only given the pleasure of possessing a simple number code, which was then shared among the others, but such a system seemed highly inefficient, as nearly every changeling looked exactly the same, but as it had been for centuries, the inner workings of the natural changeling hive mind solved all of that and more.

“Stop giving me that look, commander,” ordered Chrysalis to the openmouthed commander, who immediately snapped back to attention. “Now, quit your stalling and just let it out, short and simple.”

“…Ditto, as I now know, is, I say once again, not like the others. Ditto is so unique in fact, that even the other children are beginning to act strange, as if they sense its presence within the hive!”

“Are you saying you told them?!” Chrysalis flared her jagged horn with fluorescent green magic, displaying another one of her common, but often deadly outbursts of anger.

“N-no, my queen! I did no such thing! I swear it!”

“Then just tell me what’s wrong! What news have you brought before me that is so dramatically important that you see fit to drag it out for such long whiles and with such ear-piercing displeasure? Speak what must be spoken, or I will see you sent to the stars!”

Ditto squeaked again, but was not awakened by the loud noises outside of its peaceful unconsciousness. Chrysalis backed down slightly, her angry expression remaining stagnant as she kept the little changeling pressed firmly against her upper chest.

“My queen,” the commander started, taking a deep breath to calm itself. “Your newbo--…Ditto, is male."

Her jaw could not have dropped any harder. With her eyes as wide as dinner plates, Chrysalis slowly lowered onto her stomach with a baffled, stupefied expression. She gasped quietly, releasing deep breaths soon after in silent, stunted wisps of disbelief. She looked down at the black, winged bundle in her hold as it slept soundly with a smile on his face and with his head resting against her chest. If there was an epitome for speechlessness, then Chrysalis has just struck it.

“I do not know what to make of it, my queen,” spoke the commander. “But when I felt the presence of something other than pure, changeling blood in the hive, I knew the answer would be clear.”

Chrysalis continued to stare down at the smiling bundle in her embrace with eyes filled to the brim and then some with masses of incredulity.

“How…” she murmured, her emerald eyes quivering with several mixed variances of sadness and confusion.

“Forgive me, my queen, but even to one such as I it remains unclear.”

Chrysalis looked away from her…son, for a few moments as she continued to take it all in. Ever since her own mother before her, never before has there been born a changeling of a factual gender. A changeling being born straight from the queen herself was an occasion rare enough to have its own special day created in its honor, but a changeling not only born of the queen herself, but born with a true gender as well?

It didn’t seem right. Was it a curse or a gift; an ill omen or a consecration? She was not sure, but whatever it was, she was sure of it that such a incredibly rare event possessed a divine importance of some kind.

“Leave us,” spoke Chrysalis, turning her head back to keep an eye on her sleeping son.

“Of course, my queen.”

The changeling commander took a loyal bow before turning around and departing from the queen’s presence as soon as the magical wall of thorns gave way to an exit, his azure, buggy eyes still spread wide in disbelief.

That night, Chrysalis lay still in her soft, verdant bed, her newly announced son's heart beating softly against her own as it slept in her warming hold. The bright moonlight shown down upon her slender form, making it shimmer beautifully like a polished black dress.

What am I going to do? the disturbed queen thought, keeping her glinting eyes focused on the peaceful face of her somnolent son.

A son…I can’t believe it. That means he will…feel things, just like me, and he will…know emotions, just like me…how did this happen? Why did this happen?

Whatever the reason for her untimely, unprepared parenthood, Chrysalis was certainly not ready to take on the responsibilities of raising a changeling who could feel as she could feel. It only made things worse. The rest of her children, save the commander, had no idea of what had been brought into this world. If the others saw what their queen was hiding…

Chrysalis shuddered in place as grim thoughts already began to fill her mind, but surprisingly, it wasn’t herself that she was concerned about for once. Her children mattered to her deeply, but this one was special to her, Ditto was special, and in many more ways than one, many of which she could not describe.

The air of tranquility was suddenly broken by a low growl. Chrysalis could feel it in her gut. It had been nearly three days since she last fed, and she imagined that her new son must have been quite hungry as well, though his changeling senses have not fully developed yet.

Oh well… thought Chrysalis as her eyelids became heavy. Tomorrow, she would have to find proper sustenance for both herself and her son. A simple dose of love, though hard to find, seemed like the proper meal for the average young changeling, but even she remembered her strange eating habits back when she was just a little one, where the sweet nectar of love wasn't always in the changeling diet. If Ditto was any more different, what was she to feed him, and how?

Desperation

Chrysalis hungered for the life-giving nourishment of love, but even as her own stomach growled, she knew she had to think about her son first. Ditto slept very much throughout the day, only rising for a short while when night came around before drifting off to sleep once again. As sad as she felt having received very little quality time with her son, she felt thankful knowing that such an innocent creature would not be exposed to the horrors of what she was forced to do for both herself and her children each and every day for their survival.

“My queen,” spoke the queen’s loyal commander at the entrance gap to her bedchamber.

Chrysalis looked away from her gentle infant who lay asleep in his crib and turned to face the commander.

“What is it?” she asked with a blank expression.

“We are ready to depart. The active guard at the nearby town of Velvetine is shorthoofed, so we expect little resistance.”

Chrysalis sighed. “Good. Is the swarm prepped and ready?”

The commander nodded. “Perhaps now most of us will survive.” said the commander with only a smidgen of encouragement in its voice.

“We have always found ways to survive when times are grim, commander,” said Chrysalis, staring up at the cloudy, blue sky above her. “Right from the beginning. We will find a way to keep going. I am sure of it.”

“Do you wish of us to return with love for you as well as…your son?”

“I will be leading this raid,” Chrysalis sternly proclaimed. “You will stay here with Ditto.”

“C…come a-again, my queen?”

“You heard me.” Chrysalis turned and walked past the commander, stopping when she reached the open doorway. She looked over her shoulder at the commander's dumbstruck face, feeling little clemency even for her most trusted general.

“But my queen! How am I to feed on this day?” the commander asked with distress in its dark blue eyes. It frowned, which tugged at the motherly queen’s delicate heartstrings with a strangely high feeling of sensitivity. She cared about all of her children, but she needed to do this on her own.

“Do not fear. I will have one of the drones return with a sustainable amount of love for your personal consumption.”

The changeling commander wiped its forehead, sighing deeply with relief.

“Thank you, my queen.” The commander lowered to its knees and bowed respectfully. “I am within your debt.”

“There is…no need, commander.” Chrysalis swallowed hard. She could barely believe how much her regally appalling terminology had changed over the course of just a few days. Now that she thought about it, her old, forceful methods of magically beating the sense into misbehaving changelings and the like was a thing of the past, replaced by kinder, more caring feelings for the hundreds of identicals she now felt proud to call her own. “You have done enough for me already, which is why I am now trusting you with the safety of my son.”

“Y-yes, my queen.” The commander bowed once again with its head slightly shaking.

“Guard him well, and don’t try anything...disagreeable. Understand?”

The commander nodded its head in approval.

Strangely, Chrysalis wanted to kiss her son goodbye before she departed on her deadly excursion, but she felt that doing so would only make her too attached to him to leave the forest. She needed to lead her children into battle so they could feed at long last, whatever the cost may be.

It was inevitable. Many of her own will suffer greatly, but with the way the world was changing, her precious changelings were simply not strong enough to combat those who guarded their only food source in the entire world. Of course, her presence would boost morale, but not enough to guarantee a safe return.

The changeling commander gave a firm salute as its dark, winged leader strolled out of the bedchamber, the enchanted vines of her private quarters sealing the entrance as she left with her head hung low in a troubled sulk.

~~~~~

“Retreat! Retreat!” shouted the defeated guards as they took flight down the nearest road with the last remaining remnants of those who had not evacuated. They carried on their backs and in their mouths all that they owned, or what was left of it anyway, while their once lively town was slowly torn to pieces by the invading insectoids.

Chrysalis watched with vexed eyes as the ponies fled in terror. She could see the sad, mournful looks they bore on their dirty faces as they ran away with their tears falling to the ground behind them.

There was no question. Their existence was a cruel one. What did they do to deserve to live in such unspeakable despair?

Before long, the ponies were far out of sight, fleeing wherever they were fleeing to now that they had nowhere else to go. Chrysalis turned away from their general direction and slowly walked back into the ravaged town, where her many children had already begun to feast.

The smell of love was thick in the cool air. Whoever those ponies were, they most certainly loved their humble way of life. All around, her changelings greedily absorbed it, sucking it up into their frail bodies like ethereal sponges, but the love did not last forever, and there was certainly not enough to go around. The largest portion of love was always saved for the queen to consume, but not even the meager masses of life-giving energy could stop the others from fighting over it. As she walked through the remains of the trifling town, Chrysalis had to break up several bouts over leftovers of the precious foodstuff. Many fought for it, while others suffered serious injuries trying to obtain it for themselves.

Many of her precious children were either killed or went missing during the early morning raid. Apparently, fear over the changeling species was so high that some guards had resorted to striking them down for good rather than repelling them with a magical knockback. Chrysalis gave a short, passing glance to each corpse she passed. Even for one such as her, not a single tear fell from her eyes. She was used to seeing things like this. Nopony cared for their deaths but her, leading them to become a hated, but deeply misunderstood species.

Eventually, all love was drained from the town, leaving behind a grey, desolate ruin filled with nothing but hopeless and gloomy, grey skies, but one place out of them all remained untouched by the hungry swarm: The queen’s share, the biggest concentration of love remaining in the small town, located in a boarded up schoolhouse near the collapsed town hall.

But the biggest remaining keep of love was just barely enough for even one of her changelings to live on. One whole side of the schoolhouse had a roof that was caved in, while the other suffered harshly from the brutal effects of the raid. Chrysalis stood in the splintered doorway, taking a good, long look inside as the common realizations started towards her.

Foalhood drawings, overturned desks, and other personal, heartwarming variables were strewn about the room as if an earthquake had just hit. It was deeply upsetting to say the least, but there was nothing she could do about it. Nature was cruel to the changelings. She knew this wholly and truly.

Will it ever end?

Chrysalis bowed her neck and lowered her horn towards the tiny classroom. A bluish green aura illuminated her jagged headpiece as long strands of loving energy seeped out from the broken walls and floorboards and began streamlining towards it before flowing directly into the tip. In just a few minor seconds, the room was completely devoid of all loving pleasure. With a disappointed sigh, Chrysalis turned around and left the schoolhouse just as a dreary, grey fog began rolling in over the decrepit streets.

~~~~~

“My queen!” hissed the changeling commander, quickly lowering to its knees as Chrysalis strolled back into her bedchamber. “You have returned!”

Chrysalis turned her head to look at the commander, giving it nothing more than a calm, blank stare.

“Did anything happen while I was gone?” she asked after signaling the commander to rise.

“Nothing at all, my queen,” replied the commander. “Your son has done nothing but sleep. He has not roused since you left.”

Chrysalis strolled past the commander and walked up to the lianic crib. Ditto still lay fast asleep within, exactly as she had left him. He had not budged an inch for several hours, putting her maternal mind at rest.

“Your share of the spoils is being kept with number eighty-six,” stated Chrysalis, keeping her emerald eyes planted firmly on Ditto’s smiling face. “Leave me, then seek it out.”

“Thank you, my queen.” The commander bowed with gratitude.

“Leave.”

“As you wish, my queen.”

The living walls parted aside to make way for the commander’s leave. When she was alone at last, Chrysalis lifted Ditto from his crib and gently placed him on the ground in front of her. Her stomach growled and bayed mournfully, reminding the queen of her unfortunate fasting. With a worried frown on her face, Chrysalis lowered herself onto her stomach, only inches away from Ditto’s tranquil face. The nourishing love she carried would not be enough for both of them, but like any good mother, she knew she had to make the right choice.

Chrysalis lowered her horn to Ditto’s tiny forehead and transferred each and every bit of love she had gathered from today’s raid into her snoozing infant. When it was all depleted, she felt incredibly weak and lightheaded, but her loving sacrifice made it all worth it in the end.

From his tiny mouth, Ditto cooed with delight and slowly opened his eyes, revealing two of the biggest, most beautiful eyes Chrysalis had ever seen in her life. They sparkled in the fading daylight like polished river stones, sapphiric in color and stunning beyond comparison. Before Ditto, such positive feelings were unknown to her, and often considered a blight upon her name should she feel any other emotion other than scorn and distaste, but every time she got a look at his adorable smile, it sent the queen’s near-vacant heart skyrocketing.

Chrysalis felt like a true mother for once. Where her other children simply doubled in both number and similarity, this one fell out of line, but in a good way. Everything about him was nearly perfect in every way. The entirety of his being, from his cute, button nose, to his seamlessly straight, wispy tail successfully released paroxysms of affectionate squeals straight from the grinning queen’s mouth.

Ditto craned his neck upward and booped noses with his mother. The adoring squeak Chrysalis let out was shrill enough to break glass, but Ditto did not seem to mind. He just continued to smile away. Chrysalis scooped her son into her hooves and hugged him tightly, feeling happier than she had ever felt before, and that was saying a lot.

But as the intimate moment carried on, a deep, recognizable growl broke through the positivity of the family bonding. Chrysalis’s eyes went wide with sudden apprehension. She had forgotten to eat that day, remembering now that she gave all that she had to her son.

What could she do? It has been over three days and her belly was still completely empty. She needed food, fast, lest she become too weak to care for Ditto, but what love was there to be had? She was sure of it that her changelings had already devoured their negligible stocks, and risking her life by eating one of the many strange looking wild fruits that grew in the Everfree forest was not on her menu of options.

Chrysalis could feel Ditto rustling in her grip. She looked down, where her son was shuffling into the most comfortable position he could find. The little one let out a tiny squeak in the form of a yawn before closing his eyes, keeping his tiny hooves wrapped around one of his mother’s own as he silently drifted into serene unconsciousness. The motherly queen planted a kiss on her son’s forehead before carrying him back to his crib of vines for the night, remembering to shroud him in his blanket afterwards.

As she stared down at her son, new thoughts of worry began to wander through her mind.

I can’t keep this up forever. Thought Chrysalis. The love is running out fast…what can we do? There are hundreds of us, but few of them. We need a new home, or a new source of love, but how could we find something that is so rare and so essential to our lives?

Suddenly, Chrysalis was hit with a jarring sensation. A lit candle popped up in her head, stimulating the exciting feeling of an ingenious, new plan, but only moments after it came to her, the candle’s flame was quickly doused, not out of difficulty, but out of the enormous emotional toll it would have in the end.

No! I can’t do that! Never! Chrysalis could hardly believe what she was hearing in her own mind, but she ignored her own baffled hysterics and continued with her mental rant.

I can’t do it! I won’t do it! It’s too dangerous! If my children discover it, then my reign as queen would be done, and if Ditto were to find in the future that I had committed such a heinous act…

Chrysalis shuddered and frowned, turning away from her sleeping son as to not stir her away from her hour of desperation.

No…it pains me deeply, but it must be done, for…for Ditto.

The bright, yellow sun slowly sank beneath the horizon, bringing on the starry night. The changeling commander burst through the partially open gap of a doorway into the queen’s bedchamber at the words of the queen’s summon, panting like a dog and covered from head to hoof in an array of stinging thorns.

“Yes…my queen?” asked the commander, trying its best to regain its breath.

Chrysalis rose from her floral bed and trotted up to the commander.

“I have a task for you, commander, but you must listen closely and do exactly as I say…”

Captive

The luxurious scents of roses and other exotic flowers wafted through Roseluck’s darkened bedroom. The flower sister lay in a peaceful rest, wrapped in a red velvet blanket with rose petals strewn all over its surface, their incredible aromas acting a stimulant to aid her in sleeping better. She mumbled in her sleep, dreaming pleasant dreams of all things beautiful and floral.

Deep within her subconscious, the mare frolicked in a field of thorn-less roses, spanning for miles in every direction with no end in sight. She laughed and danced in the sweet-smelling expanse for as long as she desired. Eventually, she came across a tall dogwood, bearing a fresh plume of her second-favorite flower. She lowered onto the grass beneath it and leaned against the tall tree’s trunk, sighing with delight as her vision scanned across the vast fields of crimson perfection that mixed with the clear skies above.

The rose: a delicate, but painful token of love symbolized both her body and mind. Ever since she was young and small, the cerise flower played a key role in helping her realize who she truly was. They weren’t the most pleasant memories she possessed, but even to this day she couldn’t help but look back on those times in her life and smile knowing that she had come so far from where she once was.

Roseluck smiled. Her life was in its period of exactness. She had friends, family, and a very special talent to fit them all.

Thanks, dad…

The thoughts of the flower-bid mare suddenly cut to black. The field, the tree, the warm sun, and even the ground beneath her feet suddenly vanished into nothing, leaving her surrounded in darkness with a pitch black dropout. With no ground beneath to hold her up, Roseluck fell into the pit of emptyness, screaming all the way as her dream-state being fell into the black oblivion.

Roseluck’s screams carried into the real world, serving as a frightening and quite literal wake up call. She hurled herself off her pillow, her cream-colored body covered in cold sweat. She snatched her pillow and hid her face behind it, keeping her teary eyes peeked over it as she scanned her bedroom for the things that go bump in the night. Thankfully, not an eye or ear of a potential intruder cut through the silence, save her own rapid panting.

Roseluck sighed, wiping her perspiring brow. Thank Celestia it wasn’t a monster, otherwise she would be up all night crying horror until sunrise. With her mind now at rest, she replaced her pillow and fell back onto it, pulling her blankets over her icy body. Such a terrifying ordeal would not allow her to sleep easily. Her recent lucid dream had to have been the best one she’s had so far, and getting back into the mood wasn’t going to be easy. A quick glance to her alarm clock nearby revealed that dawn was just a few hours away. Such much for the good old eight hours…

Just as she shut her eyes in readiness for sleep, her ears caught the sounds of low mumbles coming from somewhere in the room. Her fear of intruders in the house was reactivated, and instead of choosing to investigate, she kept her eyes shut, forcing them to stay closed even tighter as the mumbling steadily grew louder, soon evolving into a strange, slurred hissing like a pack of cobras had slithered into her room.

Soon enough, her fears got the better of her, and she dared herself to open her eyes for just a quick peek, but she soon came to regret that decision when her eyes fell upon five, blackened silhouettes clinging to the ceiling above her head. She screamed, bolting out of her bed and making a bee line for the door. When she was only within mere inches of freedom and sanctuary, an intense pain caught her on the back of head, sending her sprawling to the hardwood floor in a daze. Her vision turned cloudy and bleak, soon fading to black altogether as three bug-like pairs of eyes slowly approached her battered form.

~~~~~

An intense coldness washed over her face. Roseluck slowly opened her eyes, rising from her untimely nightmare. Her vision was cloudy, everything that came to her showing up as mere indescribable blobs of dreary colors.

What a horrible dream… she thought to herself.

Her stomach growled, begging for a much-needed breakfast. After last night’s three-times-over ordeal of frights, her body most certainly needed a bit of relaxation. The pastel mare released a garbled, lazy yawn as she reached for her pair of morning glasses on her bedside nightstand, but strangely, about halfway in, her movement was halted. Confused, she tried harder, but soon found that her hoof was pressing against something tough and damp. Did her bedroom shrink in size?

As her brain gradually regained a sense of its surroundings, Roseluck couldn’t help but feel that her bedroom was suddenly a lot…colder than it was before. And were those the sounds of…toads?

“Splash her again. More water this time.”

A double dose of bone-chilling liquid splashing on her face sent Roseluck into a panic. Her eyesight refocused itself, the first clear images of her rude awakening coming into view at last.

Roseluck found herself in a cage of tightened, dripping vines, staring face to face with what only her mind could believe was the insectoid queen herself, Queen Chrysalis. From what she heard about a year ago, this was the creature responsible for nearly taking over all of Equestria by defeating Princess Celestia and sucking the love out of the many citizens of Canterlot. Her hyperventilation ran in direct proportion with her rapidly increasing heartbeat.

“She is awake. Leave us,” spoke the queen, who refused to take her eyes off Roseluck’s pale face.

A hefty weight was lifted from the top of the cage. A winged creature, carrying a rusty, empty bucket between its teeth flew up and away, leaving the mare and the monster to continue their stare down. Roseluck dare not make a sound louder than her owns fleeting breaths.

“Who…you’re that monster who attacked Canterlot just last year!” stammered Roseluck. “I’ve seen you, in all the newspapers! You were--”

Roseluck held her tongue when the dark-coated being rose to her jagged hooves and began approaching the cage. The red-maned mare feared for her life and slowly began to shuffle backwards, but there was only so far she could go before her flank bumped into the back side. She resorted to shrinking into herself, shifting into the furthest corner of the cage and curling into a ball.

The queen stopped, keeping a regal pose while she continued to hold her blank expression.

“Do you fear me?” hissed Chrysalis.

“W-w-what?” stammered Roseluck, shivering. “What do you mean? Where am I?”

“Do you fear me?” Chrysalis spiked in a more stern tone of voice. “Answer the question.”

“…yes?” Roseluck fearfully squeaked, retreating deeper into herself.

“…fine.”

Chrysalis plopped down onto her rump before slowly slouching to the ground. Shame filled the expressionless gaps on her face as she ogled meaninglessly at the cold dirt beneath her. Roseluck watched the queen sulk with eyes spooling a mixture of both worry and deep confusion. She uncoiled herself and rose to lie on her stomach. She hadn’t the slightest as to what to make of it, seeing an evil being openly express a feeling other than pure hate for whoever crossed their path.

Chrysalis looked up and stared at the mare, and the mare stared back at her. The queen’s emerald eyes twinkled with what Roseluck could only describe as something along the line of remorse with a touch of guilt, but for what? Not too long ago, she was at home laying…almost comfortably in her soft, warm bed, until those horrid creatures showed up out of nowhere and knocked her senseless. Something so terrifying had to have been nothing more than a dream. Sadly, she was wrong. Has the whole world been turned upside down? Was there some sort of magical equinox that caused all the world’s evil to take a few steps towards the lighter side?

Wait a minute… thought Roseluck. That…thing sitting on top of this cage. Was that what I think it was?

“Forgive me,” hissed the queen.

Hearing such words coming from such an evil being baffled Roseluck in every way possible. Before she could even open her mouth to respond, Roseluck’s body was engulfed in a veil of green, stinging magic, bringing with it a torrent of pain. The young mare writhed back and forth, moaning in excruciating agony. It was like a great conflagration had erupted inside of her body, comparable only to the biggest wildfires.

“Don’t try to resist. It will only get worse if you do,” stated the queen, continuing her assault on her prisoner’s contorting form.

From underneath Roseluck’s white-colored coat, there seeped a smooth, streamline wisp of pink energy. At first, the wisps resisted the queen’s power, trying their hardest to break free. Chrysalis pressed on, doubling the strength of her magic to act as a potent magnet. Her added efforts prevailed, and the wisps were caught and focused into her jagged horn.

Exhausted, the queen rested her head on the ground, profusely venting her raspy breaths.

Roseluck felt incredibly weak, as if a giant leech from Froggy Bottom Bog had sucked her body free of blood in a single gulp. She was so drained that she could not keep her head up, and her body went limp as a result.

What she had just experienced was so mind-bogglingly strange that putting it into words would be next to nigh impossible. A quiet ‘thank you’ was all she heard before her body caved in to its weakness, and with a final, slated breath, the mare slipped into unconsciousness.

Source

Keep her?!

Do you question my judgment, commander?

N-no, my queen! It’s just that—

Just what, commander?

…nothing, your highness.

I understand your worry, but this is the only way I can provide for him. Now, take the swarm and search for love. I will stay here and tend to Ditto. No one is to enter my chambers, save you. Is that understood?

Yes, my queen.

~~~~~

She could recall no dreams as Roseluck was reawakened by a rogue beam of sunlight shining down upon her face. She yawned and moaned lazily, for her body still felt weak and frail, but an enticing scent wafted through the air and into her open nostrils, coaxing her to rise from the hard ground she lay on.

The mare rubbed the tension out of her eyes and did a quick look around for the source of the alluring smell, but her search turned out to be a short one when she discovered that it was right in front of her, in the form of a platter of a small loaf of warm bread and a few bruised apples. A large, metal cup of fresh water stood next to the platter, combining her strong hunger and thirst into one.

She dared not question whether or not she was still within a dream. After all that she had been through, she felt that questioning things would only lead her to more bad luck. Her stomach growled fiercely and she dove straight for the food, greedily stuffing the loaf into her mouth and flushing it down with a swig of water, which was surprisingly cold, which thankfully aided in holding back the skin-tingling humidity that surrounded her.

“Ah. You’re awake…” hissed an eerily familiar voice nearby. “That’s good…”

Roseluck went wide-eyed. She dropped the apple she was about to take a hefty bite out of and slowed her chewing to a halt. She looked up from the platter, and almost gasped when she saw Queen Chrysalis once again staring at her with worried eyes from outside her chamber of confinement. She swallowed hard, but soon discovered the consequences of not chewing your food properly first. She coughed repeatedly, gagging on the pastry stuck in her throat.

Chrysalis sighed. “Here. Let me help you.”

The queen’s horn lit up with magic, and Roseluck’s water cup was lifted from the ground and up to her lips. Desperate, the mare snatched the cup out of the air and drained it of its precious liquid. Her forced food went down, and her raspy coughing slowed to a stop.

“Are you alright?” asked Chrysalis.

“Alright?” Roseluck looked back at Chrysalis and scowled. “Alright?! What am I doing here? What’s going on?”

“P…please, just listen for a moment.”

“Listen? You want me to listen?! Where am I, how did I get here, and what did you do to me last night?!”

“I will explain everything. Just—“

“Yeah yeah. ‘Just listen.’” Roseluck mimicked the queen’s words with a goofy face and her tongue flapping about like a child. “Well you’d better start talking, or else I’m gonna—“

Roseluck was interrupted by the sudden sounds of soft crying coming from outside her damp cell. She could hear squeaking, as if a newborn foal was somewhere in the room.

“Oh great,” Chrysalis huffed, rolling her eyes. “Now you’ve woken him up!” Chrysalis rose from the ground and walked with haste across the room to a small bed of green ivy. The queen reached into the bed and lifted a small bundle out of it, swaddled in a purple blanket that looked like it has seen better days.

“What the…” Roseluck breathed as the queen stubbornly walked back to her place with the squeaking bundle resting on her back. “Who did I wake up?”

“Give me a moment,” Chrysalis sternly ordered as she carefully unwrapped the bundle. Roseluck watched through one of the slits in her cage as the blanket was slowly peeled back, revealing the smooth, darkened face of what she could only guess was an infant. Whatever it was, it was certainly not a foal.

“What on earth is that?” asked Roseluck.

Chrysalis stubbornly ignored the mare’s question, keeping her irritated scowl. The queen then lowered her nose to the squeaking infant and gently began to rub it against its forehead. Her strange caresses had some effect, and the infant’s squeaking was silenced. Roseluck was stunned.

“This is my son,” Chrysalis announced, turning her attention back to Roseluck. “And I expect that you will keep your voice down from now on.”

“Y-your…son?”

Chrysalis nodded.

“Oh…” Roseluck sighed. “But that still doesn’t explain what I’m doing here!”

Chrysalis felt that a good, thunderous retort would silence the annoying mare, but quickly backed down from the idea, thinking about her son first.

“Well?” Roseluck continued, raising an eyebrow.

“Give me a few moments peace, and you will have your answers. Now, keep your voice down, and listen.”

Roseluck groaned and frowned, irately hunching her back.

“Fine.”

Chrysalis smiled weakly. She looked away from Roseluck, deciding on where she should begin.

“Several months ago, I was informed by one of my own that I was…pregnant, and thus I gave birth to my son only a week ago.”

“And that’s a surprise to you?” Roseluck looked confused. “You’ve got like hundreds of children, or whatever the hay they are.”

“That’s not how it works!”

“Oh really?”

“Yes, really. We changelings do not work like you ponies do,” Chrysalis guffawed. “This one is special…”

“Shouldn’t you feel that way about all of your children? You know, like a good mother should?”

“Well…yes, but this one is special in his own way.”

“How so?”

Chrysalis smiled again and lifted the bundle into her embrace. She completely unwrapped it and set the blanket off to the side. The infant opened his eyes and smiled up at his mother, whose smile grew even wider as she playfully nuzzled her son’s cheek.

“Erm…what was your name again?” asked Chrysalis.

“I never told you,” replied the mare, glaring. “Roseluck. It’s Roseluck.”

The infant reached up and brushed his tiny hooves against Chrysalis’s nose, causing her to giggle silently. To Roseluck, seeing the queen smile or even say she was sorry was a strange enough occurrence as it was, but hearing her giggle? There was no greater mystery.

“Well then, Roseluck, this is Ditto, the first changeling ever born in over five-hundred years.”

“I j-ju…what?! How is that possible? Are you things immortal or something?”

“Once again, that is not how it works. It would take too long for me to explain it, but even now it pains me knowing that my own burden is why you are here…” Chrysalis frowned.

“What…what do you mean?” Roseluck started to become worried.

“What I did to you last night…it was for him,” Chrysalis gestured a hoof towards Ditto. “As you may already know, love is our only source of food in this world, and it’s becoming scarcer each day…”

“I-I don’t follow.” Roseluck felt an uncomfortable pang in the pit of her gut.

“My changelings are dying. We raid towns and passersby for whatever love there is to be had, which is absorbed in the form of an exotic energy, but sadly, our hunger is never sated. It is simply not enough. We must have sustenance, or else we will wither away and die. What I did to you last night was…regrettable, but it was the only way I could provide for Ditto.”

“So you…drained me?”

“I did more than that. I had to. It took a great deal of my power, but know that what I am about to tell you I did only because I was desperate…”

Her knees began to quake and her mind felt on edge as fear surfaced in the mare’s heart.

“Roseluck, my newest emotions force me to give my greatest and most sincere of apologies, but a piece of your own soul is now bound with me. You can never leave this place.”

Roseluck’s eyes nearly popped out of her head with shock. Her breaths became ragged as she slowly backed into the cage’s south wall.

“W-what d-do you m-mean?” Roseluck shivered.

“I mean what I said, Roseluck. The love your body now generates is what feeds my son. You are his source of food. You may try to escape, but each time you will find it impossible.”

“L-Love doesn’t work that way!”

“You’d be amazed at what a little magic can do.”

“B-But I have friends! I have a family!” Roseluck broke down, letting tears fly loose from her eyes. “You can’t do this!”

“I have to do this! Don’t you get it?!” Chrysalis yelled, her own emerald eyes now quivering. “Without you, my son will die!”

“B-but you love him, right? Can’t you just feed him with your own love?”

“I’m afraid not. I have never transferred love from my own body before. The risks are too great,” Chrysalis sighed. “Besides, I need this love to feed myself. My changelings gather their own under a temporary leadership. What I did to you was in the form of a powerful spell of my own design. Your own heart now works like a factory. So long as it is nourished, it will continue to produce love.”

“Th-then I’ll just s-starve myself to death! Huh? How does that make you feel?”

“There are more ways than one to force feed a pony, Roseluck.”

Roseluck looked away, desperately searching for even the slightest glint of hope.

“Th-the guards! M-my friends! They’ll be worried sick about me! They’ll send out search parties, lots of them, and when they don’t find me in Ponyville, then even you can guess where they’ll look next!”

“Nopony would ever dare attack our homeland directly. Many will perish if they try.”

This isn’t happening! This isn’t happening! This is all just a dream! One big, horrible dream! thought Roseluck, biting her lower lip until it bled. I’m just going to shut my eyes, and wake up in bed! Safe and sound!

Roseluck followed her thoughts. Multiple times she closed her eyes and hoped of reawakening in her own bed, but each time she did, she only found herself in the same, unbelievable nightmare. She curled into the fetal position and buried her face between her knees, bawling.

Chrysalis wiped a tear from her eyes and flicked it off to the side. “Forgive me, Roseluck, but this is the only way…”

As disturbing as it was, all through the while, Ditto continued to smile away. He reached down and gnawed on one of his own, tiny hooves to entertain himself. Though cute, it brought no new smiles to his mother’s stricken face.

“I’m sorry, Roseluck. I’m sorry…”

A ten-ton deadweight of negative emotions pressed down hard on the queen’s motherly mind. Chrysalis rewrapped Ditto in his blanket before walking back across the room and placing him in his crib to rest. She turned to leave the room, but stopped at the exit and turned back to face Roseluck, whose shuttered eyes continued to flow with tears. She had nothing more to say. Something of this nature would weigh down on her memory for countless years, but she kept her conscience from collapsing completely with one, single thought.

Whatever she had to do, whatever risks she had to take, it was all for Ditto’s sake. With a hefty sigh, the queen left the room, leaving Roseluck to wallow in misery.

Solitude

I give thanks to my new editor, Serene Breeze for helping me out with these chapters! Go ahead. Hit up his page and stay for a little while.

Have they been kept separate from the others?

Yes, my queen. They are under my jurisdiction when I am around, and they remain under lock and key when I am not. The rest of the hive never even knew that they left.

Good. Make sure that they never breathe a word of what they did. I myself made it perfectly clear to them. Should they try…you know what to do.

~~~~~

The vibrant glows of the luminescent, multi-colored plants wisped against the motherly queen’s face like dim candles. They glowed in shades of red, blue, green, violet, and so many other eye-catching hues. Their thick leaves and beautiful petals smelled of all sorts of luxurious fancies, such as berry, ginger, and sweet smelling honey.

Of course, as Chrysalis had always known, these scents were only emitted by these viciously carnivorous plants to lure their unsuspecting prey to their deaths. The mesmerizing seduction would lead their prey into their sticky, gourd-like chambers where it was caught in an entanglement of hair-thin barbs before their acidic digestive juices finished them off. Had Chrysalis not stepped in earlier, Ditto would have been done for.

The dangers of the queen’s private hot springs were few and far between, but all the more harmful should one venture too close. It wasn’t exactly like a day at a fancy spa, but even the wilderness of the Everfree held its own special surprises. Where else in the world could one bathe in such natural luxury?

Ditto playfully splashed around in the spring’s steaming hot waters. Chrysalis had always enjoyed coming here in the past. It was one of the few places she knew of where she could go to wash her many troubles away in warm, soothing leisure. Only two changelings knew of its exact location within the hive, the queen of course and the changeling of the next highest rank: the commander. Only the queen herself was ever allowed to touch its waters, mostly out of respect for the sacred location, but usually out of fear of exile, or worse.

Now, it was Ditto’s turn to experience the pleasurable balminess of the springs. It was his bath time, his first bath time to be exact, and everything from his head to his hooves was in need of a good cleaning. Being only an infant, he managed to get himself quite messy sometimes when his mother was not around. Long rainfalls created small pools of mud for him to splash around in, and the elements of the forest became involved in the sullying as well when his mother would find the dry remains of dead bugs and clumps of dust and dirt in his short, streaking hair.

Chrysalis flinched in surprise when she was hit with a wave of hot water. Her mane fell limp over her eyes, obscuring her vision in a cracked veil of blue. Ditto found his mother’s new look to be quite silly, resulting in a fit of squeaky, joyful laughter.

The head-soaked queen sighed, spitting out a small trickle of the hot water. She raised a hoof to her forehead and parted her ruined mane aside. Ditto continued to giggle away while his mother looked down at him with a sheepish smile on her face.

What am I going to do with you? thought Chrysalis as she scratched the underside of Ditto’s chin.

Chrysalis sighed peacefully once again and returned to her caring drudgery. She placed one hoof on Ditto’s head, making him sit still while she gently scrubbed his forelegs and armpits. Ditto giggled softly with every move she made. She then went on to cleaning his wispy, blue mane, being sure to get behind the ears, which no doubt held a plethora of hidden muck. Eventually, the queen finished her work, leaving Ditto well and clean. She lifted her son out of the hot spring and moved him to a nearby steam vent to dry off.

“You summoned me, my queen?”

Chrysalis looked away from her smiling son, who was favorably enjoying himself in the heat of the vent, and turned to face the commander standing at the open entrance to the spring. She could hardly recall ever sending for the commander, but her earlier reasons for doing so soon reappeared in her mind after a moment of mental digging. The long distance communication system of the hive mind worked similar to that of the mythical mind power known to some as telepathy, but this slightly diverse, more integrated system had its own set of irreparable flaws. Sometimes, certain messages tended to “get lost” in the system, thus resulting in a delayed arrival to their recipient. Yes, it tended to get annoying, but neither unicorns, nor the princesses possessed or could ever hope to possess such a unique form of messaging.

“Yes, I did,” replied Chrysalis. “Roseluck. I wish to see her, but not where she lay now. Bring her to me at once.”

“What if she resists?” asked the commander.

“I’m sure you can find ways to improvise. Just don’t harm her.” Chrysalis added stress to her voice. “Understand?”

“Yes, my queen.”

~~~~~

Roseluck awoke several hours later in a daze. Her ears were ringing painfully and her skin felt pasty to the touch. She slowly opened her eyes and found her vision obscured by a soft, flat sheet of white that reeked of dampness and a smell so strange that she could only describe it as the smell of “vine juices.” It was only seconds later when she discovered that she was staring into her own unclean coat that became dirty as a result of being exposed to the harsh elements.

She lifted her head up to the sky and shook it back and forth to forcefully regain her senses. The sun had set long ago, with the moon claiming its place on the throne high in the dark blue sky, surrounded with countless stars.

Roseluck had cried herself to sleep long ago. Even now her eyes still stung with the salty remnants of her dried tears. Her eyes were thoroughly wrung out. She had no more sorrow to shed.

Mom…Dad… thought Roseluck, frowning. Lily…Daisy…I’ll never get to see them again…

The ringing in the mare’s ears stopped, bringing in the night’s many ambient clamors. Cicadas, crickets, frogs, and toads all sang the songs of their people, but Roseluck paid no mind to nature’s banter. Her heart lay heavy in her chest, weighed down with hopelessness. She put a hoof directly over it. She could feel it beating softly, pumping normally as usual, but just then, another feeling began to make itself known. It was a strange tingle of sorts that she had never felt before, like an invisible rope had a tight grip around her heart. It was the pure essence of love no doubt, her heart slaving away at the will of an evil queen.

She had already doubted it several times over, but the mare still deeply wished that this was all just a dream, or even a terrible nightmare. She didn’t care. Stuff like this only happened in fairy tales and old legends, never to occur in the real world.

Why me…why me of all ponies?

Roseluck stretched her legs and slid down to the soft, moist floor. She lay down on one side before rolling onto her back, staring up at the moon on high. Thankfully, the despicable empress responsible for her inner sorrow was nowhere to be seen, leaving her with some remotely quiet time to think.

If she could truly never leave this place, then what was going to happen to her in the future? Would she simply grow old and die alone? Would she be confined to this cage forever, slowly driving her to a point of madness? Or would she choose to travel down a much…darker path, leading to a more permanent way of ending her suffering for good?

She wanted to rid her mind of these murky contemplations, but as they came around, each one revealed itself to lead only to the inevitable, like a boomerang with serrated edges.

Roseluck was a hopeless prisoner, and the infant son of a malicious, coldhearted queen dangled the keys to her freedom in front of her face as if they were mere toys.

A part of her wanted to die, right there and then, while another part wanted to beg for clemency, to try its hardest to find another way out of this dreadful new reality, but what was the point in taking a side? She knew where she stood now. It was a place she had always feared, for it was a place without friends. The choices she made in her younger years had brought her here only once before. She had waded within its grim waters and experienced the prick of its spiteful ilk, and now she was right back where she began, in a place she had never hoped to see again so long as she lived.

Solitude.

The sound of rustling leaves and ivy caught the mare’s attention, but only for a short while. She brushed it off as a mere trick of the wind and returned to her lonesome sulking.

“My queen wishes to see you,” hissed an uncomfortably new voice from nearby. “Rise.”

“No,” Roseluck sternly retorted, rolling her eyes to look at the newcomer. A changeling no less, wearing a crude suit of armor that looked like it came out of a dumpster. Just what she needed in her moment of displeasure. “Your queen, and her son, can rot in Tartarus for all I care. They both deserve it…”

The changeling hissed with angered intimidation, but Roseluck kept her eyes focused on the nighttime sky above. It was clear that she wanted to be alone to soak up the heartbreak of her new reality, but the changeling would have none of it. It backed down, regaining only a minor sliver of formality to cool its high temper.

“Don’t make me drag you to her,” the changeling continued. “Because I know some really nice thorn bushes along the way.”

Roseluck was starting to become irritated. Her sadness contorted into anger, and she replied with thunder in her voice.

“Go ahead! See if I care,” Roseluck replied, huffing her breath. “Your queen already took my life away, and she knows it! If she wants it done twice, then be my guest.”

The changeling was abnormally taken aback, unsure of what to do next. The look on its face gave the impression that it expected the prisoner to fall to her knees and beg for forgiveness.

“Well?” Roseluck snapped, turning her head and glaring at her bug-eyed adversary.

With no viable persuasion methods left in mind, the armored changeling grunted in bitter defeat.

“Thought so!” Roseluck snapped again, returning her gaze to the stars.

“I do not wish to upset my queen, pony, but I was given strict orders to deliver you to the hot springs by any means necessary, and if that means dragging you there, then so be it!”

“Hot springs?” said Roseluck, turning her head back to the changeling with a confused look on her face. “What for?”

“How should I know? Maybe to clean your filthy pony body. Just look at you! Such a disgusting worm like you doesn’t even deserve to breath among us! I’ve seen swamp toads cleaner than you!”

“I-I j-ju…what?!” Roseluck bared her teeth, leaping to her hooves and stomping as close to the front of the cage as she could to meet her scaly opposer eye to eye. “Who are you calling filthy, pea-brain?!”

“Scum!”

“Creep!”

“Repugnant!”

“Wretch!”

“Enough!”

“Or what?” Roseluck guffawed. “You gonna go cry to your mommy? In that case, go right ahead! Some tough changeling you turned out to be.”

The armored nemesis looked as if it was on the verge of going ballistic. It bared its teeth, ready to lash out in fury, but was soon forced to regain a calm manner, remembering why it was here.

“You’re testing my patience, pony,” the changeling angrily groaned.

“And you’re bothering me, bug-eyes,” replied Roseluck. “So why don’t you do me a favor and buzz off!”

“You’re coming with me one way or another!” The grumpy changeling turned its neck and reached around its backside, poking its holey muzzle into a side pocket of its crude armor.

“Well, let’s take a short look at the facts here. I’m in here for the rest of my life, and you’re out there with that cold, heartless, vile creature you call a--!”

A sudden flash of light blinded Roseluck for a few short moments, taking her by surprise. Loud clangs of metal followed by a double repetition of swift, choppy gusts in the air made her flinch in fear, making her cover her eyes and cower low to the ground. Seconds later, the mare cautiously reopened her eyes, which immediately widened in shock when they fell upon the changeling looming above her, who now looked down upon her with an annoyed, angry look on its face. The front, vine bars of the cage were gone, cut down with ease by a slightly rusty sword held between the changeling’s sharp teeth.

The vicious warrior lowered the tip of its weapon to the mare’s forehead. Roseluck squeaked and bent lower to the cold floor.

“Get up, pony! My queen is expecting you…”

Acceptance

Thanks go out once again to Serene Breeze for taking time out of his schedule to edit this extra-long chapter!

Roseluck was led through an alternative path out of the room, with the tip of the commander’s rusty sword pricking into her backside. She swore under her breath as they walked through the open exit. The commander must have heard her insults, for it growled angrily and lightly jabbed her on the flank as a warning. The mare yelped in pain, but was forced to continue.

The path they took was a hidden tunnel of sorts, pitch black and reeking of foul rot. It was so dark that Roseluck could barely see her own hooves in front of her face. With a thick roof of black, dangling vines suspended above her head, there was no moonlight to guide her through the blackness. But the commander seemed to know exactly where they were going though, making left and right turns every so often.

Maybe that was how the changelings chose to live, or rather were forced to choose how to live. The changelings were hated by almost everypony in Equestria, and after their attack on the royal city of Canterlot, they must have come to fear for their very lives.

Now that she noticed it, the only light Roseluck had seen since her captivity was the light of the moon. Candles, torches, or other sources of light were nowhere to be seen, not even in the dimmest glows. Their species was already in a terrible state, and there was no doubt that some ponies wanted revenge against them. Of course, it would be a very, very stupid idea to attack their home directly, but with the right tactics put in play, a proper, aggressive force would be enough to at least match their slowly dwindling strength.

At first, the dark tunnel seemed to go on forever, but at long last, Roseluck could take reprieve. A thin, silvery light of salvation broke through at the far end. The grumpy warden and the ill-hearted prisoner stepped out of the tunnel and into the bright moonlight, but where they stepped out appeared to a tad too strange.

The tunnel seemed to have led them onto some kind of canopy bridge, suspended high above the forest floor. The bridge was tacked end to end, constructed of vines no less, and strained lightly under her weight. All around her, Roseluck could see the green, feathery treetops of the Everfree, expanding for miles in every direction. The size of the forbidden forest was a wonder to behold, but it did nothing to aid her hopeful thoughts about regaining her freedom.

“Keep moving!” snapped the commander, lightly jabbing Roseluck in the flank once again.

“Stop that!” Roseluck quietly yelped, flinching in pain. The commander sneered and reared its sword up again.

“I said--!”

“Ok, ok!” Roseluck cut in. “Plothole…” she muttered.

Roseluck turned ahead and began walking forward. Cold, icy winds blew through her mane and rustled the leaves of the many trees surrounding her. The unguided weather conditions in the Everfree were terrible. Not to the highest degree, but certainly deplorable enough to drive away any potential adventurers. When all of Ponyville learned that the newcomer Zecora lived in the Everfree forest, many were put in a position of disbelief. How could one live nearly freezing to death at night, or collapsing from such dreadful humidity in the daytime? Roseluck dared not think about how the winter months behaved. The very thought made her shudder.

As they continued across the bridge, a horrendously foul smell suddenly overtook the mare’s nostrils. At the same time, she could hear low, mournful baying, as if someone was crying. A hint of worry rose up deep within her, but was soon forced to bring it back down when she felt the painful sting of the commander’s sword once more.

Eventually they reached the end of the bridge, which dipped down into another dark tunnel. Large cobwebs and other unpleasant effects surrounded the entrance. It was like walking into a horror-themed attraction at an amusement park, only ten times worse and ten times as real.

But like many scary situations, there was always a light at the end of the tunnel, quite literally, but even with this chance at deliverance from the darkness, Roseluck managed to find hidden fear lurking at the exit.

Dim, but colorful rays of light shone inward through the gap, brushing across the floor and along the edges of the adjacent walls. Even through the miniscule amount of light, the red-maned mare could not see what lay beyond, for thick clouds of hot steam obscured her vision of the path ahead.

Yet as she stood there, staring into the hazy unknown, Roseluck realized that her armed and armored stickler of a keeper was not poking her anymore. She stalled for just a few moments more to see if it reacted. Nothing happened. Slowly, she turned around, keeping her guard up of course, but found that the changeling was no longer standing behind her. She looked back down the dark tunnel and caught a faint silhouette of the sword-wielding changeling as it departed. She took a dare and called out to it.

“Where are you going?” Roseluck asked, her words eerily echoing around the tunnel walls.

“My queen is expecting you,” replied the changeling, its voice growing fainter as it walked further away. “Don’t keep her waiting…”

Roseluck frowned shortly and turned to face the misty entryway. She possessed only a minor fear of stepping through to the other side. The rest of her emotional space was occupied with a combined sense of hatred and a burning desire to punch the queen’s lights out at long last. Yes, her endeavor would be fruitless, but well worth it. The brave mare took a deep breath and stepped quietly through the cloudy veil.

Immediately upon entering, the mare was taken aback by how warm the room was. The heated air wisped through her damp coat and brushed up against her skin. It made her sweat, but she still pressed onward.

Only a few steps in, Roseluck could hear what sounded like…singing? She could not make out any words, as the vocalizations were soft and barely audible, but as she continued to make snail’s pace inward, a thin, grey shadow became visible through the fluent fog. Its upper body swayed back and forth in tune with the faint melody.

Suddenly, Roseluck’s soft hoof landed on what felt like a twig, snapping it in half with a loud crack. She yelped in shock. The soothing airs ceased to flow and the shadow flinched where it stood, halting all movement.

“Who’s there?” a hissed a low, gentle voice. Though surprisingly different, Roseluck was easily able to make out the all too familiar voice of Chrysalis. The queen spoke in a strangely gentle voice, as if the insectoid mother was shy or frightened, though it did little to change Roseluck’s general outlook of the dark mistress.

“Take a guess,” Roseluck sternly replied. A few seconds went by before she received a response.

“Y-yes, Roseluck. I sent for you, didn’t I? Come to me, at once.”

Roseluck rolled her eyes before restarting her trek through the misty steam. As she drew closer to the shadow, the steam around her began to dissipate and drift away. Before long, she was free of the clouds.

As her vision returned to normal, she found herself overtaken by sheer, sudden beauty. Her eyes went wide at the sights of numerous, colorful glows radiating off the surfaces of gorgeous, but bizarre plant life. Their individual colors shimmered in the natural prisms of the surrounding, warm mist like stained glass.

As if the sights were not enough for her, her nose could not get enough of the smells either. As if on cue, each individual fragrance tickled the flower mare’s delicate smell receptors. The smell of roses was the first to arrive, portraying her all-time favorite flower with such hefty gusto. Daisy and lily came next as a pair, gracefully drifting into her nose as if the wind itself carried their weight. Last but not least, an unusually sweet, zesty scent made its presence known. It was difficult to describe exactly what it smelled like, but with some quick thinking, she resorted to using a few mental examples to further stimulate the pleasing aromas.

Sugar, spice, and everything nice boiled down to the smell of cupcakes, apple fritters, and other delicious pastries. They reminded her of someplace special, someplace unique and full of wonder. They…

They reminded her of…home.

“Roseluck?”

The sound of her name forced Roseluck out of her trance. She turned towards the source of the disturbance, where she locked eyes with Chrysalis. The queen was sitting on her haunches, cradling Ditto in her embrace near a small outcrop of the glowing plants partially obscured by the surrounding steam. Her infant son lay peacefully asleep, his head buried deep into his mother’s upper chest. As adorable as it was to look at, the angrier parts of Roseluck’s stunted even the shortest smile or happiest emotion.

“What do you want?” Roseluck grunted, huffing her breath.

“I—“

Ditto shifted in his mother’s hold. Chrysalis looked down at her son and frowned.

“What?!” Roseluck snapped, mildly annoyed, making Chrysalis rear back in fright.

Ditto squirmed even more, squeaking many times as he tossed and turned about.

“G-Give me a moment…”

Chrysalis lifted her wriggling son from her hold and lowered him onto her back as she walked briskly across the room to another outcrop of glowing plants where a small hammock, constructed from vines and anchored on the thick stems of the plants, sat still and unoccupied. Chrysalis daintily gripped her child and lowered him into the bed swing, covering him with his purple blanket before leaning down and planting a light kiss on his forehead. Appeased, Ditto smiled and ceased his rampant fidgeting.

“We need to talk,” said Chrysalis, turning around to face Roseluck. “But I feel things would go more smoothly if you were…comfortable, first.”

“Comfortable?” Roseluck groaned. “Oh, I’m far, far from comfortable, especially after feeling a sword stab into my backside the whole way over here.”

“What? A sword?” said Chrysalis, surprised.

“You changelings really are monsters, you know that?” stated Roseluck, feeling it more than right to add insult to injury. “Some mother you are. You let your own children run around and play with knives as if they weren’t brutish enough, because one of them tried to kill me!”

“Kill you?” Chrysalis went wide-eyed, cupping a hoof over her mouth in obscure disbelief.

“And you’re surprised by this? One of your little brats wearing a suit of armor went insane! He, she, it…whatever drew a sword, cut down the cage, and insulted me while I was held at blade point!”

“Suit of armor…”

Chrysalis leaned to the left to get a “better view” of Roseluck’s flank. Multiple scars and dotted red spots covered the mare’s cutie mark and thigh, and a thin, red streak ran down her back leg.

“What in the hay are you staring at?” asked Roseluck, stepping to the side to block Chrysalis’s view.

The commander… thought Chrysalis, sneering quizzically.

“You’re hurt,” said Chrysalis, slightly worried.

“Hurt?” Roseluck looked to her left charge and yelped with surprise. Hoping that she was just seeing things, the mare reached around and poked at one of the scars, immediately regretting her decision when she felt a harsh sting surge through her flank and leg, causing her to jolt in pain.

“Come to me. Let me help you,” offered Chrysalis.

“Help me?” Roseluck stepped back, appalled. Her sudden movement sent another spark of pain spearing through her body. She convulsed again, but refused to show signs of weakness. “No thanks!”

“…oh.”

“Just tell me what you want so I can go back to bed. I need to get used to sleeping on cold, wet ground for the rest of my life anyway.”

“I…” Chrysalis pointed a hoof off to her side. “Would you…care for a bath?”

“A…bath?” Confused, Roseluck followed the direction of Chrysalis’s hoof, which led her gaze to a large pool of steaming hot water, surrounded by tiny vents that billowed clouds of hot, white vapor that rose high up to the ceiling.

“Yes, a bath. Normally, only I am allowed to bath in the hot springs, but for you—“

“Do you think I’m a fool? A bath isn’t going to change what you did to me! It isn’t going to bring me back home where I belong! I had friends! I had a family, and the blink of an eye, you took it all away!”

“Plea…I…” Chrysalis stuttered. She bit her lower lip and looked away for a moment. She searched her mind blindly in hopes of stumbling upon the rights words, but was soon forced to give up her search. Her knowledge of speaking out in a forceful manner was slowly withering away, dumbing down to only a minor vocabulary of lesser insults and…kind words. Each tender word left her mouth riding on a wick of venom.

“…please,” Chrysalis continued, sighing. “I promise I will explain myself. There really is a true reason why you were brought here.”

“Then why not just get it out now? What was the point in mentioning a bath of all things?”

“Well…for two reasons, actually. The first being…your coat is getting rather dirty, being left to the elements and all.”

Roseluck raised a foreleg up to her nose and took a quick sniff, sneering in disgust when her nose was confronted by a combined assault of dust, dirt, and days of dampness.

“And the other,” Chrysalis continued. “Like I mentioned earlier, is comfort. I…want you to feel comfortable for a little while.”

“…what in Equestria happened to you?” Roseluck raised a quizzical eyebrow, but this did little to show just how baffled she really was on the inside. Did all the worlds evil become nicer overnight? Not that she was complaining, but where were all the evil plans? Where were all the plots to overthrow Equestria? Did somepony plant a few “herbal ingredients” in the brownies at the League of Evil’s last bake sale?

One day, she was sleeping in a cold, wet cage, but now she was being offered comfort? There was no greater mystery, unless Discord was behind some magical curtain, pulling the strings.

“I don’t know…” Chrysalis looked over her shoulder, staring meaningfully at her son’s serene visage. So much was happening so fast. Ever since his birth, there has been nothing but change, but she could only question if it was for better, or for worse. After living the life of a monster, the black-hearted empress hardly knew the difference anymore.

Roseluck rolled her eyes away from the queen and turned towards the neighboring hot spring. All the sights and smells she experienced since she walked in seemed to add to the enticing natural beauty surrounding it. The thought of wading into its waters was somewhat enjoyable compared to the bitter nights she was once bordered by.

“So, this…bath. No funny stuff, right?”

Chrysalis smiled and turned back to Roseluck, who had already begun to tread towards the spring’s edge.

“Of course,” replied Chrysalis, following in the mare’s hoofsteps as Roseluck tested the clear waters by wading one hoof in it. “Please, step in. I’ll explain everything when you’re ready.”

Roseluck shot Chrysalis a skeptical stare, but the queen just stood there and kept her smile sincere and full of assurance. Her doubts moderately lowered, the white mare lowered one hoof into the spring, allowing her body to take the full front of the high temperature before stepping in entirely. The scars on her flank stung fiercely, but to a somewhat tolerable degree. The waters went up as high as her upper neck, leaving her head floating above the surface. She felt relaxed as the balmy waves flowed across her delicate body, seeping underneath her coat and washing away nature’s grime. For only a second, she dipped her head under the water and rose up again, parting her wet, silky mane back behind her head before resting her head on the edge of the spring.

“Thank you…” Chrysalis whispered, sighing with relief.

“Just get it over with.” Roseluck replied, staring off to the side.

“R-right…” said Chrysalis. The queen took in a silent, deep breath before releasing it, prepped and ready to begin. “You know…who we are, yes?”

“Pff! Of course I do,” replied Roseluck. “Heck, all of Equestria knows who you are, or rather what you are. You’re hated by everypony!”

Though painfully true, the fact still made Chrysalis’s heart shrink. “But you do know why we do what we do, yes?”

“Ever thought of becoming a vegetarian?”

Chrysalis sighed. “No, though it is safe to say that we have searched for alternatives to our only food source, but they all faltered and failed. It has been centuries, and even to this day we still resort to raids, disguises, and other forms of surprise incursions to obtain what we need to survive, but it is never enough for us all. When Ditto was born, all I felt was misery. Yes, it’s cruel, but it brought no benefit knowing that there was another mouth to feed. My changelings are dwindling by the number each day, and years before, I could have cared less for who I hurt and why because we were so many and the ponies were so few, but now that I have a son, and the entire world knows of our presence, I’m starting to…feel things. They’re unknown to me, and I don’t know what to do. I…care for him, but in ways too strange for me to describe them.”

“I figured that someone like you would know what love is.”

“But it’s not love!” Chrysalis suddenly snapped, startling the white mare.

“Watch it with the volume!” Roseluck groaned, rubbing her ears. “Of course it’s love! How could you possibly not know what love feels like?”

“Ponies don’t regurgitate what they eat and slather it all over their bodies, right?”

“What? No!” said Roseluck while the unpleasant thought lingered in her head. “But you changelings are the only ones in the whole world who can actually feel love!”

“But—“

“But what?”

Chrysalis broke down, but not into tears. She collapsed to the ground, placing her hooves on top of her head and pressing down hard.

“I can’t take it anymore! It’s slowly tearing my mind to pieces! I knew you couldn’t provide the answer, but there simply had to be another way to find it!”

“Oh for Celestia’s sake, calm down! Just skip to the point. What answer are you talking about?”

“You were brought here to the hive because the love within you is almost identical to the love I feel for Ditto. I don’t know how, but…it just is! There is nothing I can do to explain it! While on a scouting mission, one of my spies in Ponyville informed me of a new, pure energy similar to that of pure love.”

“You have spies in Ponyville? I thought that Princess Celestia’s new guard protocols stopped that from happening?”

“Oh, believe me, I have spies in dozens of places, even after that ridiculous protocol was put into place. I have two spies in Ponyville that act as candy sellers that live together, but that isn’t important right now! What is important is that my spies almost confused the new energy with love. They thought it was food, but they thought wrong and nearly exposed themselves to the entire town trying to absorb it. Roseluck, the source of the energy was you.”

“M-m…me?” mumbled Roseluck, stunned.

“Yes, you! This isn’t how I wanted it to be, but I knew that with Ditto’s birth and with the news of this new energy, I figured that there would be a…connection of sorts. Every event that led up to this day just happened by chance! Ditto needed a food source, and you were the perfect match. The energy isn’t exactly love itself, but rather it takes the form of an untouched, untapped source, bleak on the outside, but rich on the inside! Think of it like a gold mine. My scouts could only faintly see through the veil, but when they got closer, the love disappeared before their very eyes. Truth be told, my spell would have had a great chance at failing were you not in possession on this energy. It could have deformed you horribly or worse…”

Roseluck swallowed hard. “So...you were only trying to take care of your son?”

“The energy acted a catalyst that allowed me to successfully perform the spell. Now do you see why I had to do it? Now do you see why it had to be you?”

“I-I never knew about any energy! There’s got to be more to this!”

“There is. It was a chance situation really, so I went with it. Ditto is only an infant, but if he continues to feed off your uniquely-enhanced love, then there might just be a chance for our survival.”

“So…you went on a hunch?”

“When he becomes old enough to rule, only one of two things will happen. He will either save us, or destroy us. Any other changeling that feeds off of normal love almost always turns out the same way, but if fate holds us right, the essence of love you possess will be the decisive factor between life and death. I could not bear to let go of him, so I kept him and chose to raise him in hopes that, in the future, he would help us find salvation from extinction. I don’t want to see my children wither away anymore, Roseluck…I can’t…”

The awestruck mare’s train of thought made tracks around her frozen memory. She went over everything she was told, over and over again until it stuck to her like glue. She did not want to admit it, but everything seemed to click in the right places, like an extraordinarily difficult puzzle.

The momentary silence was broken by the sound of loud, squeaky crying nearby.

“It’s Ditto,” said Chrysalis, looking over her shoulder. “And he’s hungry…”

“Hungry?” murmured Roseluck. “So, that must mean…”

“He must be fed.” Chrysalis looked back at Roseluck with sadness in her eyes.

“…oh.” Roseluck fell quiet, staring blankly at the warm, slightly murky spring water, allowing the heavy weight of their recent conversation freely compress her deepest-laid emotions.

“One moment…”

Chrysalis rose from the ground and backed away from the edge, moving at a brisk, hurried pace to aid her infant son, leaving Roseluck to stare pensively into the waters. She returned moments later with Ditto tossing and turning on her back, wrapped in his thin cover up. The queen lay down on her stomach near the edge of the spring closest to Roseluck, gently placing Ditto on the ground in front of her.

“Please, Roseluck,” Chrysalis beseeched with worried eyes. “You must understand that all I have done, all the pain I have caused, I did it all for him. He is the only son I have ever had and he may be the only hope for the survival of our species.”

Roseluck looked up from the waters and stared meaningfully at Ditto’s rowdy, uncovered face. With every second that passed, he continued to squirm, begging for his daily dose of life-giving sustenance.

“Please, Roseluck…” Chrysalis repeated herself as her emerald eyes began to quiver.

It was the moment that sealed her future, placing a permanent stamp on her memory. All retentions of happiness: her friends, her family, and her life once filled with joyful flowers; they would remain safe so long as she stayed. What she was about to do was for a true cause. She would miss her friends and relations dearly, but whether the changeling’s intentions were good or evil, Roseluck could not just stand by and watch a misunderstood species slowly rot away.

“…ok,” Roseluck whispered, looking up at Chrysalis. “I’ll do it.”

Chrysalis was at a loss for words. She struggled in her attempts to speak the words of thankfulness, but each of her breaths came out choppy and stuttered as they exited through her grinning lips, but at last, she managed to utter a simple ‘thank you’ and coaxed Roseluck to move closer.

“I…don’t believe you’ve felt the spell’s power directly, have you?” asked Chrysalis.

“No,” replied Roseluck. “But it can’t be that…bad, right?”

Ditto ceased his squirming and curled up into a ball, shivering like it was fifty below zero. Roseluck gasped with fright and urged that they continue immediately. Chrysalis nodded in reply and lowered her horn close to the mare’s forehead, where a bright green tingle of light sprouted from its tip and shrouded Roseluck’s whole upper body.

At first, all seemed well as Roseluck began to feel only a light tug on her factory of a heart as its artificial love was slowly drained away. It was practically painless and devoid of harmful side effects. If she could go through something as simple as this for Ditto, and his future, then who knows what she could do to help out ne--!

As if her wild expectations played by the troll handbook, Roseluck was slammed in the chest with the battering force of a freight train. Her head was knocked backwards, slamming into the spring edge behind her. She felt no significant pain, but rather an incredibly heavy sensation, like the weight of a fat rhino was sitting on top her ribcage. She felt weak and tapped out, and her eyelids became heavy as a result. As quick as it came, the heavy weight was lifted and the transfer was completed, but the sudden weakness still clung to her being.

In her final moments of consciousness, Roseluck glanced up at Chrysalis’s face, where a wide smile was firmly planted on its surface. As the conveyed love slowly seeped out her horn and into Ditto’s body, the happy, little changeling smiled in much of the same way as he was fed copious amounts of the precious foodstuff. With the contagious smile plastered to her face, Roseluck gave in to her unexpected feebleness and finally managed to pass out.

Alarm

Explain yourself at once, commander.

I-I didn’t know! I was just trying to get her to move forward! She continued to stall by stopping every now and then, but--!

Yet you felt it right to injure her? Do not try to fool me, commander. I could see the scars.

But my queen--!

She is cooperating now. She was never a threat to us in the first place, and yet you say you remained oblivious to what you were doing with your sword? Speak no more. Return to your post at once, and don’t let this happen again.

~~~~~

Cool, pleasing winds blew across Chrysalis’s face as she lay in her bed of soft creepers, its streamline forces eventually rousing her from her slumber. She stirred and rolled over, but refused to rise, keeping her eyes closed in hopes of falling asleep again. By the temperature alone, she could tell that the sun was not yet high in the sky. Instead, it peeked over the hidden horizon, bathing the land in the light of the early morning. The coolness of the air made her smile, for her body was used to waking up in the sticky, humid afternoons.

Suddenly, she felt a nudge on the back of her neck, but grogginess made her ignore it. She felt the nudge again, slightly harder this time. Again, she ignored it, furthering her efforts to fall asleep by placing her hooves over her head and curling into a tight ball.

Once again, the nudge came back, angering the tense queen. Who would dare awaken her at a time like this? She remembered nothing about requesting a wakeup call.

Much to her chagrin, the nudge came around yet again, followed by a low, gentle coo, like that of a dove.

Angry for having been awakened in such a bothersome manner, Chrysalis emitted a low growl and huffed through her nose before shooting up to her hooves and whirling around to face her intruder.

But as she barred her jagged teeth and readied her voice to unleash a battery of thunderous insults to whoever dared to disturb her, the queen found herself dumbstruck. The intruder was her own, precious son, who came around to simply awaken his mother, probably because he was hungry. Ditto sat on his haunches like a puppy in front of the queen, staring up at her with the biggest, cheekiest grin he could muster. Chrysalis had seen him smile like this several times before and such an adorable look always warmed her stump of a heart; a new feeling that she generously accepted into her life not too long ago.

Chrysalis lay down on her stomach and gently nuzzled the little changeling on the cheek. Ditto’s face felt very warm and surprisingly soft. The blue-eyed infant hummed blissfully and returned with a nuzzle of his own. The affection she put out for Ditto felt completely normal to her now. No longer did it give her a mildly disturbed feeling to gently caress another changeling, what with so much love now held within her.

But as the queen reached around to bring Ditto closer, one miraculously obscure detail finally caught her attention.

How was it that Ditto was on the ground? His crib, which was more of a wide, cradle-like hammock, was suspended above the ground, just high enough so Chrysalis could reach in and lift him out. It might not seem like much, but the height, if Ditto were to fall out of his crib, was enough to injure him quite badly for his young age, since he would be landing on cold, hard dirt. The thought alone made her body tingle with worry, and she made a mental note to fix the problem later.

The queen darted her eyes back and forth, measuring the distance from Ditto to his hanging crib, but could find no evidence as to how the little one managed to climb down from such a summit.

“How did you get out?” asked Chrysalis, turning to face Ditto. Of course, she felt silly for asking her own child, who could not even speak yet, for the answer to the puzzling dilemma. Ditto covered his mouth with one hoof as he snickered softly into it. The gesture was immensely adorable, but his mother’s worried look remained.

“There’s just no way…” Chrysalis continued, whispering. Just to be safe, she checked and double checked Ditto’s fragile body for any signs of damage, yet she could find no injuries that could lead to the results of a fall. She lightly poked and prodded Ditto’s hooves, neck, and sides, but all the infant did was squirm and giggle, which came out more as raspy squeaks than genuine laughter. The queen smiled, but continued her search.

Just then, when she thought that she could proclaim Ditto’s unscathed body a miracle, Chrysalis felt a thin, damp line running around Ditto’s chest and back. As she retracted her hoof over it, she was taken by surprise. From Ditto’s sides sprang two translucent wings that glistened in the early morning sun. The queen watched in awe as her son’s new features began to flap rapidly in the air. Moments later, before she knew it, Ditto was off the ground.

Off the ground.

Ditto was flying.

Chrysalis beamed with joy. Ditto’s wings finally came in, albeit a little earlier than most. Ditto himself was most certainly happy about it. He hovered back and forth before the dew covering on his wings forced him to land in his mother’s outstretched hooves. The queen smiled brightly and pulled him into a firm hug.

As they stood there, holding each other close, a soft growl erupted from Ditto. Chrysalis pulled her son away to find him rubbing his stomach with both hooves. He frowned and looked up at his mother, silently begging for his long-awaited nourishment.

“Oh…right,” murmured Chrysalis. “You’re hungry, aren’t you?” She sighed with ill content. She would need to pay Roseluck a visit. Even though she knew that the mare was now willing to provide love for the sake of her son’s survival, the thought of having to drain her once again continued to send cold chills down her spine.

Ditto’s stomach rumbled again, and the hungry infant sighed with sadness.

“Oh, don’t worry,” said Chrysalis, cooing gently into Ditto’s ear as she brought him close again. “I’ll get food for you. I’m sure Roseluck…won’t mind.”

~~~~~

She felt…relaxed, her body surrounded by an alien softness. All around her, she could hear booming, high-pitched echoes, like the tweet of a bird, or maybe even a frog. The blackness of her dream state slowly began to grow brighter, and Roseluck opened her eyes to the new reality she had accepted the night before. She was just barely ready to face her new life, but she hoped she would get used to it in time.

She pulled her blanket off her body, sat up, and straightened her back to release the morning’s yawn when the mare was suddenly struck by a jarring sensation.

A blanket? Roseluck thought, looking down at the clean, embroidered sheets that covered her whole upper body.

“When did I get a blanket?” asked Roseluck out loud, scratching her head.

“I gave it to you,” spoke the voice of Chrysalis nearby, causing Roseluck to jolt and whip around to face the phantom-like queen, who seemed to have just appeared out of nowhere.

“Oh, it’s you,” Roseluck sighed. “You scared me.”

“S-s…sorry.”

“It’s ok to say sorry, you know. There’s no harm to it.”

“I’m still getting used to it.”

Roseluck stretched her forelegs and rose up from the ground. She brushed her mane back as straight as she could with her hooves. With gracious assistance from Chrysalis, a bucket of gathered rainwater was floated over to her, which she used to wash her face. When everything was done, when her body and mind felt completely refreshed, Roseluck breathed in deeply and released all of her pent-up stress in one great sigh of relief.

For the first time in a long while, Roseluck felt revitalized; rejuvenated, as if she could do anything, as if she could take on the world!

…all thirty by thirty feet of it anyway, which even then was just a rough estimation. She was a botanist, not an architect. Being confined to a space no bigger than a living room for the entirety of her day was no picnic she was looking forward to.

“Thanks for that,” said Roseluck as she waited for the water on her face to dry. “And thanks for the blanket too. It’s nice to finally sleep with something that doesn’t feel like hard ice.” The mare chuckled.

“Sadly, I couldn’t provide a pillow for you. We’re used to sleeping on the ground, and getting the blanket was hard enough. I had my spies in Ponyville obtain it from some sort of tapestry store, but before they could ste--…acquire a pillow, they were caught and forced to flee.”

Chrysalis looked down. “That’s two more missing pony reports to add to the count…” she whispered.

“Say again?” asked Roseluck.

“N-nothing…” Chrysalis replied. “I suppose you’re hungry, yes?”

“Oh, like you wouldn’t believe!” exclaimed Roseluck, rolling her eyes. “I’m starving! N-no offence…”

“None taken,” said Chrysalis, smiling. “I can take you to a place where food is plentiful. The bread and apples that were given to you before were obtained from a farm in Ponyville, and took quite a bit of skill just to sneak inside. Not many of us venture to this place because we have no need for it, so, hopefully, it should be left untouched.”

“Great! When can we…leave…”

“Is something wrong?”

“Just how far away is this place? I thought you said I could never leave this place!”

“Exactly. You can never leave the hive, as a part of your own soul is bound to it. However, I remain the dominant link in the chain. So long as I accompany you, you’re still technically within the hive’s field of influence, which expands far into the forest.”

“…ok,” said Roseluck in a mildly disturbed tone of voice, kicking at the ground beneath her as awkwardness crawled into the conversation.

“It’s not as restricting as you may think. You will be fine.”

“So…when can we leave?”

“Whenever you’re ready, I suppose, but there’s…just one problem.”

“What’s that?”

Roseluck took a step forward, but nearly tripped over when her hoof became blocked by something small and tense. Surprised, she took a lazy step backward and looked down at her hooves to find Ditto standing before her, his neck craned upward like a long, vertical stalk and his cerulean eyes full of wonder.

“Oh…” murmured Roseluck, nervously staring back into the infant’s big, blue eyes, which, when viewed at the right angle, displayed the thousands of tiny, reflecting panels that make up a changeling’s vision.

“He’s…hungry as well,” said Chrysalis.

Ditto’s curious expression shifted into a cheerful smile at the faint mention of food, but his change of face could have just been the love radiating from Roseluck’s heart. Even Chrysalis could smell it from where she stood.

“Don’t I need food to…well, produce love?” asked Roseluck, looking up at Chrysalis. Down below, Ditto showed some likeness for the living food source in front of him by rubbing up against the mare’s front hooves. Roseluck cringed, biting her lower lip with anxiety as her eyes rolled back down to the changeling turned house cat.

“Don’t worry. He won’t bite.” Chrysalis giggled under her breath before stepping closer to Roseluck and lifting Ditto off the ground and onto her back. “He doesn’t even have his teeth yet.”

“How old is he anyway?”

Chrysalis smiled warmly as Ditto played with her wispy mane, pawing at it like a baby kitten amused by the enticing motions of a length of yarn dangling in the air.

“He’s just a little over one week old, but the way he’s been growing is outstanding.”

Ditto wrapped his forehooves around his mother’s mane, tugging on it like rope. Chrysalis flinched as the infant continued to pull it uncomfortably, but instead of stopping him, she powered through the pain and let Ditto have his fun.

“Like me, he can sense the love within you,” continued Chrysalis. “It’s not much, but he needs some, just enough to tide him over.”

Roseluck was quivering at “to tide him over.” For a moment, she felt like she was nothing more than endless buffet, being feasted upon night and day by a…parasite.

It’s for a good cause… thought Roseluck. It’s for a good cause…

“Alright,” Roseluck sighed. “But then can you take me to where I can eat?”

“Of course.” Chrysalis smiled. “It won’t hurt. I promise. Now, bow your head and look at the ground.”

Roseluck did as she was told, craning her neck downwards as the queen took another step forward and put the tip of her horn to Roseluck’s forehead.

The draining process began upon contact. The queen’s horn glowed a dim blue-ish green as the pink essence of love flowed out of Roseluck’s body. As Chrysalis had spoken the truth, the mare felt no pain from the transfer, though she did feel a little lightheaded. Curious, Roseluck decided to ask Chrysalis a question she had long since thought about.

“I’ve been wondering something,” started Roseluck, turning her eyes up to Chrysalis but keeping her head pointed down. “How can love be more than just an emotion? A food source is one thing, but I never knew it was like that until the Canterlot incident.”

“The mysteries of the world are few and far between,” said Chrysalis. “It’s terribly complicated to explain, but I can say this. Love, like magic, is its own unique energy, in more ways than one. Other emotions, such as anger and sadness, do not belong in the same place as love, because they themselves are not diverse enough to be counted as a physical, manipulative energy. It sounds absurd, doesn’t it? There’s more to love than meets the eye.”

Chrysalis ended the transfer of Ditto’s morning snack and turned her attention to her son, who seemed to be enjoying himself in his mother’s forest of wispy hair. When he looked away, Chrysalis touched her horn to his forehead, sending the magical breakfast flowing into the infant, who dawned a big smirk as the tingling sensations of love filled his body.

Roseluck lifted her head, rubbing her forehead to gently ease away the trifling nausea.

“But how can it be a source of food to you?” she asked. “There’s got to be an explanation for it, right?”

“I’m afraid that even I am deprived of such knowledge,” said Chrysalis, sighing as she finished transferring the love to Ditto’s body, ending it off with a tender kiss to his forehead. “The universe is cruel to us. It’s just the way we are. I never bothered to ask my mother either, so I’m just as clueless as you are.”

Chrysalis turned back to face Roseluck, flinching when she felt Ditto yank her mane much harder than before.

“Are you ready?” asked the queen.

“Definitely!” replied Roseluck. “Let’s go!”

~~~~~

The duo, minus Ditto, who was left with the commander for safety reasons, calmly strolled away from what Chrysalis called “the central hive” where the main bulk of the changelings were gathered. Roseluck found it astonishing as to how well hidden their home was. When they neared the outskirts, the black queen stated that the hive was still very much visible, but how? One look back and all Roseluck could see was endless stretches of forest that faded into the distance. Maybe that’s just how they built their home, camouflaging it with the whole of its surroundings. It was clear to her that the changelings were not only a cunning species, but a smart species as well.

The expansive surroundings of the Everfree forest were oddly quiet in all directions, save the occasional chirp of a bug or the distant roar of an animal, but when Chrysalis explained why it was so, Roseluck’s outlook on the changelings as a survivable species became greatly expanded.

She was no scientist, but from what she could conclude, she learned that the changeling hive, during the daytime, emits a high pitched sound wave that radiates to the forest around it. Audible only to animals, this ear-piecing racket, created by the combined bustle of changeling activity, wards away predators and other unwanted guests.

“Only at nighttime do the most dangerous of the Everfree’s hunters come out to hunt,” Chrysalis continued to explain as they neared the edge of what she claimed was the boundary of their territory. “Hydras, cockatrices, tarancha-sharkodiles, things like that.”

“Tarancha-what now?” asked Roseluck in disbelief.

“Strange name, isn’t it? Let it speak for the creature itself. Part sea shark, which only I have seen with my own eyes back when I was young, part swamp crocodile, and lastly, part spider, a big spider at that. It’s only been seen twice, and as you could probably tell, it is not friendly.”

“Wow…” uttered Roseluck, her mind now rampant with images of what she imagined such a creature would look like. “The Everfree isn’t a vacation spot, that’s for sure…”

“Oh really?” replied Chrysalis. “You haven’t seen, or heard, anything yet! The edge of the Everfree is almost a paradise compared to what we find out here.”

Chrysalis stopped in her tracks, Roseluck following in turn.

“This is the edge of our influential territory,” said Chrysalis. The queen lifted and pointed one of her hooves forward. “Look there, up ahead.”

Roseluck looked past Chrysalis at the area of forest further away. Immediately, she spotted a major difference in the scenery. All that surrounded her was colored in boring hues of green, brown, black, and grey; dreadful shades of a neglected world, but what she saw was like peering into a whole new world.

Large, leafy bushes surrounded by an outcrop of trees with twisted branches grew tall in a group from the cold soil. Their leaves were of a bright green, easily visible in the sunlight, and from them hung dozens of colorful, rounded objects, glistening like crystal with the remnants of morning dew. Patches of blue, red, and other such tints made the bundled crag look like something out of a colorful foalhood storybook.

“It’s fruit,” said Chrysalis, smiling. “Safe fruit at that, as far as we know, anyway.”

Roseluck started moving towards the colorful haven. Chrysalis followed behind her.

“This isn’t the only one, either,” Chrysalis continued. “Fruit patches like these have been found by my scouts all over the wood, so if this one is picked clean, I can have some delivered to you from other parts of the forest.”

When she arrived at the outcrop, Roseluck gently reached forward and cautiously poked one of the blue fruits growing on the bush, which appeared to be a giant blueberry of some sorts, about the size of a hoofball. Nothing happened, but its soft texture coaxed the mare to investigate further. She carefully plucked the fruit from its stem, turning it over and inspecting it with an observant, skeptical eye.

“They should be harmless,” stated Chrysalis, stepping up to Roseluck’s side. “Some of my changelings got curious one day and decided to try them out for themselves. They tasted bitter and foul to them, but nothing more.”

“So what’s there to say that I won’t like it?” asked Roseluck.

“There’s a chance, but the odds are slim at best. We dine on love, not plants.”

Roseluck looked over the fruit in her hooves for a few seconds more before putting it up to her lips and taking a very small, mouse-like bite out of it. Her reaction to its taste was immediate. Succulent, sweet, and as tender as a strawberry, her taste buds were overwhelmed to have been graced with such a marvelous sensation. Her eyes went wide and her smile even more so as she dove in for another enriching morsel. The blue fruit oozed with sugary juices as it was taken apart piece by piece. It was most delicious thing she had ever tasted, and that was saying a lot if she were to compare it to Pinkie Pie’s mouth-watering cupcakes. Before she knew it, the fruit was picked clean, leaving only a thin, glossy stem in the middle, which she tossed aside.

“I take it you enjoyed it?” asked Chrysalis, beaming.

“Are you kidding me?!” exclaimed Roseluck, exuberant. “It was so good I could eat the whole bush in one sitting!”

Chrysalis chuckled softly. “We must be careful though. I am uncertain as to how many of these bushes are within close proximity of the hive. I do not wish to send my own children out on a suicide mission out into the forest just to collect a few plants.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Roseluck plonked down onto her haunches and rubbed a hoof across her stomach. “That one alone was enough to fill me up!”

Chrysalis grinned. “I’m glad to hear that you’re full, but I’m sure that Ditto—“

Suddenly, there came a loud, shrill roll of noises, like the rapid chirping of a swarm of cicadas. Chrysalis had stopped talking. Her mouth remained open as her face shifted into a bewildered countenance.

“Chrysalis?” said Roseluck, waving a hoof in front of the queen’s face. She did not respond. Roseluck then tried poking her, but again, the changeling queen remained unresponsive. The queen’s eyes moved in tone, from green to cloudy grey. Her ears twitched a few times as the chirping grew louder, irritating Roseluck’s ears, but soon afterward, the chirping died down, and Chrysalis became active once again. The queen stumbled in place, nearly falling to the ground as if she was held in place for a moment by some mystical force.

“Oh my goodness! A-are you ok?” asked Roseluck, moving to help the queen rise to her hooves.

“S-something…something is wrong,” Chrysalis wheezed as her eyes returned to their normal color. She then looked over her shoulder, gazing back at her nigh invisible homeland in the forest thicket. “My changelings are restless…”

Chrysalis turned back to Roseluck.

“We must return to the hive at once,” urged Chrysalis with deep worry in her eyes.

“What’s going on?” asked Roseluck.

“Th-there’s no time!” exclaimed Chrysalis, turning tail and taking off in a brisk gallop towards the hive. “Follow me, quickly!”

After gathering her wits, Roseluck gave chase, taking off through the trees in hot pursuit of the frightened empress.

Panic

Roseluck’s ears rang harshly as she and the distressed empress re-entered the hive into the queen’s bedroom through a hidden passageway they had accessed from the outside. The hissing returned, very loudly this time, almost deafening, like listening to a massive swarm of invading locusts from the inside. The commander stood at the far end of the room, looking up towards the sky and spitting insults with an angry sneer on its face.

“Listen, you little nuisance! You get down from there at once!” hissed the commander.

Chrysalis and Roseluck looked above the commander’s head, where they caught sight of Ditto hovering high above the ground. The little changeling appeared greatly disturbed, scared out of his wits as he hid from the bigger changeling.

The fuming commander continued its rant while Ditto squeaked in fear.

“I swear it, if I have to--!”

“Commander!” Chrysalis barked, baring her teeth irately at her most trusted advisor. The commander turned, its barbaric expression immediately turning shocked when its eyes caught sight of the queen’s face.

“M-my queen!” gasped the changeling, bowing to Chrysalis. “You’ve returned at last!”

“Cease your groveling!” snapped Chrysalis as she walked past the commander. She looked up at her son in flight, proud but full of worry. The dampness on his wings had evaporated in a surprisingly short amount of time, giving him full flight capabilities. The queen frowned, worried for her son’s frightened outlook. Her attention immediately returned to the commander, her inner motherly instincts believing that her most loyal subject was the cause behind Ditto’s fear.

“What happened? What is going on? Speak at once!” Chrysalis barked her orders. The commander gathered itself and rose from the ground. The queen’s sudden, violent mood swing made Ditto ascend slightly higher.

“I’m not sure, my queen! The others! They suddenly became…alarmed and angry!” The commander sputtered.

“Why?”

The hissing began to grow louder. Of course, it had little to no effect on Chrysalis or the commander, but the increasing disturbance made Roseluck cover her ears.

“They’re coming,” the commander growled, looking to the sky. “They can feel it in the air. I’m afraid our obscurity won’t be withheld for long, my queen.”

“Explain.”

“Earlier this day, I sent two scouts to the outskirts of Ponyville. I told them the order was from you, and that they were not to question why. Ponyville is in a state of major distress. There are a total of three missing pony reports there, and guards, direct from the golden city, have been sent in the masses to search for them. All I can say is that we won’t last long if they find us.”

Chrysalis frowned shortly at the news, but soon regained her serious composure.

“It won’t be long before they start searching the Everfree,” the commander continued. “Action must be taken if our survival is to be assured!”

“Then take action!” exclaimed Chrysalis, rolling her eyes. “The others fall under your control. What is there to stop you?”

“The others need their queen! They haven’t sensed eye nor ear of your physical presence within the hive for days! You’ve become suspicious to them, and they demand to know why. I’ve tried everything to get them to follow orders, but they remain within their irritated state, unresponsive to any of my commands.”

Chrysalis stared at the floor. The answer to her changeling’s misbehavior was as clear as day to her, but what drove her to start thinking was the delicate mind of her infant son. She frowned and turned tail, looking up at Ditto who remained cowering in his own little space. She bore a smile, sat down, and held out her forehooves, coaxing Ditto to descend from the sky. Her motherly swoon worked, and Ditto slowly and carefully floated into his mother’s hooves, where she then turned around once more and cradled him gently.

Ditto had never seen his mother angry, until now. She did not wish to damage his delicate mind any further by continuing her furious tirade openly. She thought how she should address her changelings as Ditto buried his head into her soft chest, keeping his eyes closed tightly. She could not risk speaking out to her changelings with a soft tone of voice. Such a rapid change in behavior could cause them to think of her as spineless, frail…weak, and a weak leader builds no legacy.

“Roseluck?” said Chrysalis, looking to the wincing mare in the corner of the room. “Come here…please.”

Ignoring the chorus of shrillness around her, Roseluck trotted up to Chrysalis. The queen smiled and held out her forehooves, with Ditto held in between. The infant’s attachment to his mother kept his eyes shut, but then, his tiny nose began to twitch as the alluring scent of freshly brewed love within Roseluck’s heart filled his nostrils. He looked up and reopened his eyes, grinning at the disturbed appearance of his walking dinner.

“Here, take him,” said Chrysalis.

“H-huh?” stuttered Roseluck, nervous.

“It’s just for a little while, I assure you! I just need you to hold him. My changelings must not know of Ditto’s presence, and I need the commander with me when I address them.”

Growing excited, Ditto extend his short forelegs, signaling that he wished to be held by the mare. Roseluck cringed and took a step back. Upon seeing her denial, Ditto sighed and frowned, letting his tiny forelegs fall limp as he looked towards the ground with a heavy sulk. Roseluck frowned as well, feeling immensely guilty having upset the precious infant. She thought it through for a moment, putting to mind that a little one like Ditto would in no way possess a threat to her. It would be like holding any other foal, which of course she had never done before, but there’s a first time for everything right?

Slowly but confidently, Roseluck reached forward and lifted Ditto out of Chrysalis’s grasp. The infant looked up from his somber huff and smiled blissfully. He squeaked in a fit of shaky, raspy laughter as he was gently pulled into a cradle near the mare’s upper chest. The infant yawned peacefully and rubbed his head against her coat, making it somewhat difficult for the mare to determine if he was trying to show affection or show that he was just hungry. Odds are it was both.

“Thank you,” Chrysalis smiled.

“Your emotions have changed much since the others last saw you,” said the commander. “Can you stand to return to your old ways?”

“I have no choice…” replied Chrysalis.

“They await us outside, at the gathering hall near your mother’s old throne. They are kept far back from the main entrance to your chambers, so Roseluck, and Ditto, will be safe from discovery.”

Chrysalis nodded and turned, allowing the commander to escort her to the exit. Before they departed, Chrysalis looked over her shoulder, assuring her son, who frowned when he realized his mother would be leaving again, that everything was going to be alright.

“Take care of him, Roseluck,” said Chrysalis, turning to Ditto’s caretaker. “I assure you I won’t be long.”

Roseluck watched with worried eyes as the queen used her magic to create a sizable gap in the wall of vines before stepping through it to the other side with the commander following close behind her. When they were through, the wall was resealed, leaving Ditto and Roseluck to wait out the storm.

~~~~~

“My queen, you must bear some form of distaste! A scowl, a grimace, anything!” urged the commander as they neared the angry swarm.

“I…I can’t…It’s been too long since I last saw them.” murmured Chrysalis as worry weighted down on her head.

“But if you can’t express anger like you used to, then the others may lose favor in you! Not once has a changeling ever witnessed such a dramatic alteration! You express it to me, yet you say you can’t do it to the others? Your emotions have changed dramatically, but this has gone too far! Think of what would happen if they saw you like this! Think of the consequences! Treason, insolence—!”

“…rebellion.”

“Exactly.”

Chrysalis felt as if her stump of a heart skipped a beat.

Rebellion.

Every leader’s worst nightmare.

The hissing continued to grow in volume as the queen and the commander neared the place where her many changelings have gathered. Already she could smell their anger.

“I beseech you, my queen! You must appear angry and full of hatred! At least this once!” said the commander, growing more worried by the second as they began ascending a tall mound of covered shrubberies that lead to her mother’s old throne, which remained as her prominent seat of power ever since her passing.

“…alright,” sighed Chrysalis, giving in to the pressure.

The queen’s face twitched as she contorted her despondency into a hopefully decent-looking scowl of disgust, smiling as deviously as she could when she arrived at the top of the mound. She held her head high, feeling like the queen she once was again; full of energy and righteous power, ready and raring to take on all who opposed her rule, but of course, as she expected, all meaning to it was lost. She had a son to take care of, and she preferred not to fill her life as a mother with manic tyranny.

Sadly, however, her future, and the future of the changelings, was much worse than she ever imagined. Her eyes nearly burst from her skull after she looked down at the…horde before her. She could not believe her eyes. It was as if a massive chunk of the entire changeling swarm had suddenly disappeared over the course of a few days. An army that once numbered in the thousands was now only a fragment of what it once was. How did this happen? Chrysalis had never felt more nervous in her life.

“Commander, please don’t tell me that this is what I think it is!” Chrysalis fretfully whispered into the ear of her most loyal changeling sitting next to her. The changeling mob bared their teeth, spittle flying from their mouths as they continued to hiss like a pit of rattlesnakes. Their anger was surprisingly overwhelming. Never before has a changeling ever acted in such a manner when in the presence of their queen. Their loyalty was teetering on the brink of refutation.

“I’m afraid I can’t deny it, my queen. What you’re looking at silently speaks the truth. This is the last of the…normal swarm.”

“Th-the…normal swarm?”

“Those that are…still living are either too weak to move, or have been captured during recent raids in the past three days. My queen, our supply of love is dwindling, fast.“

Chrysalis looked back at the aggressive swarm, her mind racing like a swift antelope. Her scowl had long disappeared, overtaken by fear and the sheer, mental instability of uncertainty.

“My queen, you must take action!” exclaimed the commander. No response. “My queen!” Again, Chrysalis ignored the commander, her body and mind remaining still at the drive of an overpowering realization.

~~~~~

The strident hissing still worried Roseluck. It grew quieter shortly after Chrysalis left, but its shrillness alone was enough to show that the changelings were a force to be reckoned with, weakening or not.

Roseluck looked down at the black bundle in her hooves. Like she had seen with his mother, Roseluck had expected Ditto to have fallen asleep by now, but still he remained awake, keeping his beady eyes on the mare’s enriching heart, watching, waiting to be fed. It felt creepy having the sacred son of an insectoid empress practically stare into her very soul. Hesitant at first, she tried nuzzling him to get his attention, but nothing happened. Next, she tried rocking him to sleep, even though her beliefs about whether or not that actually worked in real life were somewhat ambivalent. Again, to her displeasure, he didn’t budge, and Ditto continued to eye his next meal kept behind the veil only inches away from his face. Good thing he didn’t have his teeth yet, or else dinner would have been served early.

Thankfully, Roseluck was able to look past the disturbing air of the moment and notice just how gentle a newborn changeling really was. It drove her to think, deeply. Maybe changelings have a better history than the one they possess now; the one that made them infamous and well-hated throughout Equestria. Maybe, just maybe, they could have been a lot gentler, like Ditto.

Roseluck looked away from Ditto, thinking back to the day when Zecora came to town. Everypony hated her guts, scorning her like she was a hideous outsider, but when it was discovered that she was merely misunderstood, the whole town had a change of heart, coming to respect the good brew maker rather than hate her outright. This was the way they should have been treated.

But then, there were…others, a few of which anypony would downright loath to the core. She thought back to the days when that spiteful griffon, Gilda, and that pompous unicorn, Trixie, came to town just to parade on and on about how much better they were than anypony else. A few sparkly magic tricks and a “natural” talent at “being awesome” most certainly won’t earn you new friends anytime soon.

Maybe a compromise could be made between the changelings and the ponies, but given their history, such a bold endeavor would prove to be foolish.

Suddenly, Roseluck felt a chilly…moist tingling sensation running up her chest. Grimacing with shock, she slowly looked down to find a rather…interesting sight. Ditto must have been very hungry, because when she took a closer look, she found the young, innocent changeling licking the area over her heart like a dog with a brand new chew bone. His black, forked tongue licked her coat twice before he recommenced his kitten-like gestures, rubbing his face against her coat as he continued to make himself comfortable. Roseluck winced, too disturbed to make any sudden movements.

Pleeease hurry, Chrysalis! Roseluck thought as she tried her best to remain calm as Ditto continued to play the role of the world’s most affectionate feline.

~~~~~

It had been long since she has showcased her righteous power over her changelings. The process was simple: show them that you’re in control, show them the true meaning of fear, threatening the consequences of disobedience and denial. Her control over what she did was at a minimum. Her body and mind calendared every move she made and every emotion she felt just so she would be molded into a fit mother for her son.

Everything was happening too fast for her to keep up. It hasn’t even been two weeks, and already herself, the hive, and the entire changeling species was on the brink of total disaster.

Desperation never felt closer. She had to make a choice. Show her might, or lose it all, and for a society she cared for so much, losing everything she had worked for was something she could not let come to pass. Her changelings continued to express their defiant attitude, and Chrysalis would have none of it.

Slowly, the queen recovered her will to stand strong among her changelings, taking in as much inner strength as she could. Her scowl returned, and she was ready and raring to once again show her changelings the righteous fury of their true leader.

But, just when she was ready to put her changelings in their places, their perturbed hissing ceased. It died down swiftly until all was quiet. Then, they all looked up, staring up at the blue sky above. What on earth could have caused them to go silent?

The queen’s question was answered. A shrill, distant whistling noise broke through the silence, and the changelings became uneasy, cowering low to the ground and backing up towards the shadows. Demanding answers, Chrysalis finally found the courage to speak.

“What are you doing?” Chrysalis spoke in her most serious tone of voice. Her changelings ignored her as if she wasn’t there. The whistle came around again, louder this time. “How dare you ignore your queen! I command you to listen to me! Stop!”

Her voice came out loud and strong, but the added vocal strength proved to be useless, and her changeling swarm continued to disperse.

“They’re not ignoring you, my queen…” whispered the commander, who also appeared to be frightened.

“Then why do they defy me?” asked Chrysalis. “Is this of your doing, commander?”

“N-no, my queen! This is much worse.”

“Speak!”

“It’s the search party I talked about earlier, my queen, and they’re looking for Roseluck…”

Chrysalis’s mind was suddenly flooded with hundreds of telepathic messages, too many for her to count. Warnings, pleas, and emotional responses all showed signs of the changeling’s inner terror.

The queen looked to the sky, eyeing a silver-colored speck streaming through the air. Moments later, four more specks appeared, following close behind the first in a bird-like formation. Royal guards without a doubt, and for them to be this far out in the Everfree, there had to have been more parties than just one.

Chrysalis looked back to her changelings, and they looked back at her, awaiting orders from their queen. Losing hundreds of changelings in such a short time weakened her morale and theirs, and they could no longer find the valor to act out and repel the invaders.

The cluster of pegasi soldiers stopped above the hive, surveying the area around them. In a quick decision, Chrysalis gave the order to scatter, and the commander emphasized her commands with a ferocious threat of banishment, hissing it as loud as it could.

The changelings immediately obeyed and made haste for the trees. Some dived into hidden tunnels and passageways, sealing themselves inside for protection, while others used their natural abilities to blend in with the foliage around them. The scene was like watching a colony of ants flee for their lives from the ruins of their recently destroyed knoll. The stamping of hooves and the sound of wingbeats only added to the organized chaos.

“Commander,” said Chrysalis, turning to face her most loyal changeling. “I must return to my son at once. Remain here with the others and make sure they are kept hidden. Do not engage anything unless absolutely necessary. Understand?”

“Yes, my queen! At once!” spoke the commander, nodding.

The commander leapt from the throne, landed on the gathering grounds, and sped off towards one of the passageways, running inside and disappearing from sight.

More worried for Ditto’s safety than ever, Chrysalis turned and fled back through the way she came, racing down the throne mound before speeding off through the hive, determined to reach her precious son in time.

~~~~~

Chrysalis burst through the front entrance of her bedroom, panting. Roseluck looked away from Ditto and smiled at the queen’s return.

“Thank goodness you’re back!” exclaimed Roseluck, pulling Ditto away from her heart and passing him to his mother. Ditto moaned and frowned, deeply upset. He then looked up at his reluctant mother’s face, rubbing his belly.

“I know, I know…” Chrysalis spoke in a soft voice, looking down at Ditto with a comforting smile. “I’ll feed you soon. Don’t worry.”

“You look tired,” said Roseluck. “Is everything alright, and where’s the comman--?”

“Th-there’s no time!” Chrysalis interrupted, placing Ditto on her back. “Quick. Follow me!”

Chrysalis led Roseluck to the back of the room and used her magic to part the foliage walls. The network of vines uncurled like snakes, revealing a sizable crawlspace big enough for two.

“Here, go inside,” said Chrysalis, waving the mare off.

“Aaand I need to do that…why?” asked Roseluck, raising an eyebrow.

“Just trust me!”

Just when she thought danger had never felt closer, the whistle she had heard before came back once again. Chrysalis looked up, gasping at the sight of the royal search party continuing its route over the hive. Have they been found out? Did the search party discover the hidden hiding place of the world’s most hated creatures? She hoped not, but such as cruelty was, the search party began descending from the sky. Four of the guards broke away and flew off in different directions, leaving just one to investigate the area below. Scared, Chrysalis pushed Roseluck into the hideaway before entering herself, quickly resealing the walls behind her.

Light poured in through tiny cracks in the dark enclosure. Ditto gripped his mother’s neck tightly, uncertain of what was happening.

“What was that for?!” asked Roseluck, groaning and rubbing her forehead as she rose from the hard ground.

“Shh! Quiet, or they’ll hear us!” hissed Chrysalis as she calmed Ditto’s nerves with a nuzzle to his forehead.

“Who’s going to hear us?”

Loud wing beats interrupted the queen’s next attempt to speak. She turned towards the entrance wall and peeked outside through tiny openings in the plant work. In her bedroom, an armored guard stood tall, looking as tough as usual. His coat, white, just like the many identical others that watch over the city of Canterlot. The commander wasn’t kidding when it said they were from the golden city, for on the guard’s midsection there sat a beautiful longsword, laced to straps on his armor and held down for easy accessibility.

The guard appeared confused as to why all the walls were made from vines. Cautiously, he strolled around the room, looking for anything out of the ordinary. He stepped up to Chrysalis’s bed area and found Roseluck’s blanket lying nearby. Curious, he picked it up and examined it before tossing it onto his back.

“What’s happening?” Roseluck whispered, trying her best to push past Chrysalis. “I can’t see anything!”

“It’s a royal guard...” said Chrysalis.

“A royal guard?!” Roseluck gasped. Shocked, Chrysalis quickly slammed a hoof over the mare’s mouth. Roseluck’s outburst jolted the guard a little, making him stop what he was doing and watchfully scan the area around him.

Slowly, Chrysalis uncovered the mare’s mouth, allowing her to speak again.

“What’s a royal guard doing out this far in the Everfree?” Roseluck asked, whispering.

“He’s…part of a search party…”

“A search party? Why would there be a search party out--?”

Remembering why she was here, Roseluck continued no further. She sighed gloomily, once again thinking back to memories of her old life in Ponyville. Of course, some part of her still wished to return, but seeing a queen cower in the fear when a single search party of royal guards comes to visit, she realized that the changeling’s situation must be have been graver than ever before. Why would a colossal army of shape-shifters hide from such a defenseless target? Because it’s in their nature, of course, but even then a few guards is nowhere near a strong enough force to defend themselves from such ferocious beings.

Outside, the royal guard shrugged his shoulders before leaping into the air and taking off into the skies. Moments later, the whistling Chrysalis had heard before could be heard fading into the distance, sending an all clear signal to the entire hive.

Chrysalis parted the walls once more and stepped out into the sunlit bedroom. Ditto, who had buried his face into his mother’s mane, revealed himself when Chrysalis nuzzled the side of his head.

“Roseluck?” said Chrysalis, turning around to face the red-maned mare as she stepped out into the sunlight.

“Yeah?” replied Roseluck.

“I need you to take care of Ditto for a little while. I must speak with the commander. Our situation is…bad, to say the least.”

“I-Is it serious?” asked Roseluck as she took gradually lifted Ditto off the queen’s back, trying to look as calm as possible while doing so.

“Oh, it’s very serious, Roseluck. Minutes ago, I saw my changelings for the first time in days, and the outlook of our very species is grim at best. I feel ashamed for having neglected them for so long, but I knew that this would happen someday, especially after the Canterlot incident.”

Chrysalis tickled the underside of Ditto’s chin, turning his frightful frown upside down and making happy as he found himself once again in the hooves of his source of love.

“I shouldn’t be long,” Chrysalis continued, stepping towards the front entrance. “Roseluck, what I’m about to do could be listed among the most idiotic, mule-brained ideas in history. The commander won’t like it, but I’ve no choice but to put the lives of each of my changelings in grave danger. I can only brace myself for the future ahead.”

Flight

It’s a simple plan. Divide them into groups and send them away, not in banishment…but in hope.

In hope? They don’t know what hope is! I don’t know what hope is! The technicalities are endless in number!

Enough, commander. I will not have this argument again. You are to stay with me, but before the others depart, I need you to assign leaders to--

This will only lead to more bad things than good! Our very species will only die off faster! I know that you know how the changelings came to live in the Everfree in the first place! You spoke of it to me personally!

And I…a-and I ordered you to never speak of it again! Do you hear me? Even you should know the price for defiance, commander. You, out of all my changelings, dare to disobey me? Do you beg for the most severe of punishments?

…no, my queen. Forgive me…

You make me feel like you hardly deserve it. Such a feeling sickens me. Now, rally the others and prepare to move out by sundown. The search parties will be less frequent then. You may go, commander. I must return to my son.

Yes, my queen. At once.

~~~~~

“You two appear to be getting along nicely,” said Chrysalis, bearing a short, reassuring smile as she re-entered the bedroom and found Roseluck laying on the ground in a rather uncomfortable-looking fetal position. Ditto however seemed to be having the time of his life, giggling uncontrollably as he sat on the mare’s back and batted at her rose-red mane.

Hearing his mother’s voice, Ditto turned towards the source and sped into the queen’s awaiting hooves.

“He’s…sweet, I guess,” said Roseluck as she nervously rose from the ground.

“He’s hungry as well,” Chrysalis added as Ditto rubbed his belly.

“Well, let’s get this over with…” Roseluck sighed, rolling her eyes as she hobbled up to the queen and bowed her head. In his mother’s hold, Ditto reached one hoof out to Roseluck to play with her mane some more. Chrysalis gently intercepted his hoof and pulled a length of her own mane around for him to play with while she began to transfer the life-giving love from the mare before her.

“So…what happened?” asked Roseluck, remaining calm as her heart was being tugged for its love.

“What do you mean?”

“You said you were meeting with the commander about something. What was it?”

“Oh…right.”

The transfer ended quickly, leaving only a few small morsels of love behind. Ditto was almost bouncing in his seat as the tip of his mother’s horn came down and graced his forehead, opening the valve to an overwhelming supply of tasty sensations. Chrysalis remained silent as she fed her child.

“Umm, Chrysalis?”

“I will tell you later, Roseluck.”

“But—“

“Later.”

The last scraps of his hearty dinner made Ditto feel like the happiest changeling in the world. His chest was slightly pudgy and his smile was as wide as a river. His tiny belly glowed a faint pink and appeared to be almost see-through. Chrysalis set her child on the ground and nudged him towards Roseluck. Ditto barely hesitated as he migrated from caretaker to cosseting cuisine, determined to do whatever he could to get the mare to like him more.

“I’m going to take a nap,” stated Chrysalis, turning away and walking towards her damp pit of a bed.

“The queen of the changelings takes naps?”

“I feel I will need at least one for the days ahead…do try to keep Ditto entertained, at least until he tires and falls asleep.”

The queen laid down in her coverless bed, curled into a ball, and fell asleep within seconds, releasing barely audible breaths that turned to mist as if they were struck by a sudden flash of cold.

Roseluck cautiously peered down at Ditto, who awaited the mare’s next move. Seeing a changeling act so harmless and so innocent felt completely out of place. It was as if Ditto wasn’t even a changeling at all; he was like a sheep in wolf’s clothing, a backwards version of the ages-old idiom. Though it felt uncomfortably bizarre, Roseluck did whatever she could to keep the infant occupied. Besides having him play with her mane, vines made great play ropes. Ditto would often become entangled within the mess of lengthy creepers, but still found amusement as he attempted to figure out how to untangle himself, giggling hoarsely as he kicked his hooves wildly in the air.

After what felt like an eternity, Ditto’s playtime was eventually over at long last. He let out a quiet, toothless yawn, tuckered out from playing for so long. His eyelids were heavy and his face was sagged with drowsiness. His older playmate carefully carried him to his crib and gently put him to bed. At the same time, Chrysalis awoke from her nap and acknowledged her presence with a slurred yawn.

“How long was I asleep?” asked Chrysalis as she stretched her legs getting up.

“I’m not sure. An hour maybe?” Roseluck replied.

Chrysalis looked to the sky. The clouds above were pink in color as they drew closer to the horizon with the onset of the blue night sky following close behind them.

“The sun has nearly set,” said Chrysalis.

“I…can see that.”

“When the last rays of sunlight are gone, the entire forest will shake, and the changeling species will forever be…well, changed.”

“What do you mean?”

Though Roseluck expected an answer, Chrysalis looked away as if she did not hear her and continued to ramble on.

“Nine-hundred years…I thought the changelings would never go far beyond the Everfree ever again. It’s been too long. I can hardly bear to see them go after so long.”

“I…still don’t follow,” said Roseluck, sheepish. “What are you talking about?”

Mere moments before Chrysalis could part her lips in readiness to reply, the last glimpses of the sun faded below the barely visible horizon. With its departure came a great rustling noise. The wind howled like a feral beast, shaking trees loose of their thick leaves and sending bone-chilling winds blowing against Roseluck’s face. The queen did not seem to mind it one bit as her breaths turned to frost, but her companion however was not gifted with such immunity to the cold. Her body shivered, and she hugged herself tightly to stay warm.

Seeing this, Chrysalis sought to do something about it. From behind the queen’s bed, a folded, purple blanket floated over to Roseluck, who snatched it out of the air as soon as it was within reach, wrapping as much of it around herself as she could. The blanket was quite small, and not exactly meant to be used as a suitable means of covering oneself at night.

“It’s a spare blanket I kept for Ditto, just in case he accidently ripped or tore his first one,” Chrysalis explained.

“Th-th-thanks…” said Roseluck, her quivering body slowly calming down.

With the coming of night on the Everfree came the awakening of its nocturnal population. Owls, swamp frogs, and many varieties of twittering creatures sang their songs for all to hear.

Joining its forest brethren, a loud discordance of crickets made themselves known with their excessive chirping, but something about their familiar routine felt…off. Chrysalis became uneasy, biting her lower lip as the sound of the crickets grew louder. Noticing this, Roseluck took to approaching the queen.

“Is something wrong, Chrysalis?” asked Roseluck.

“N-no!” Chrysalis quickly replied. “I-I need…where’s Ditto?”

“He’s in his—“

“Move. Move!” Chrysalis whirled around and pushed Roseluck aside, almost knocking her to the floor. The queen jogged to Ditto’s crib and carefully raised him out, pulling the infant into a hug almost immediately. This sudden embrace awoke him from his short slumber, but instead of crying like most foals, he smiled and hugged her back.

“What’s going on?” asked Roseluck, worried. “I know your emotions are changing, but this is getting pretty ridiculous.”

Chrysalis remained silent, instead shifting her gaze towards the dark sky just as the trees began to rustle again. The cricket noises seemed to have evolved into wing beats, like those of hummingbirds.

All of a sudden, everything was made clear. The moon’s light became dim and blotted, and Roseluck looked up to find the heavens swarming with winged, black figures. It was like watching a cloud of locusts surge towards their next target, never fleeting, never stopping. She didn’t need a book or an hour’s thinking time to figure out what matter of creature of was flying high above them.

“It has been nearly a thousand years since the last time the order was given,” said Chrysalis, frowning. “The entire changeling species is migrating…”

“Migrating?” asked Roseluck.

“To other safe havens in Equestria to seek out love. We can’t stay in this forest for long. The dangers are too great. My changelings have been reduced to a mere fragment of what they once were, and our situation is only getting worse. No one cares about us…so we had to act now or face total extinction.”

“Where are they going exactly?”

“Anywhere they can find love. The deserts, the mountains, the arctic regions…anywhere.”

“Anywhere?”

Chrysalis nodded, looking back down at Ditto’s face.

“W-well, what about you? Why aren’t you leaving?”

“We’re at a critical moment. We can’t keep our presence concealed anymore, at least not now. I’m staying here, and the commander is staying as well, right where it all began…”

Chrysalis began rocking her forehooves left and right, exchanging peaceful grins with her son as he closed his eyes and slowly drifted to sleep again.

“But what’s happening really?” Roseluck emphasized her thoughts. “And what do you mean by ‘where it all began?’”

As quickly as it came, the swarm high above disappeared into the distance, the sound of their wing beats fading along with them. Chrysalis sighed and took her time as she placed Ditto back into his crib. After kissing her son goodnight, she refocused her attention on Roseluck.

“I could explain it as simply as possible, but I feel that would not be enough,” stated Chrysalis. “There’s no point in keeping it locked up. You deserve to you know why we are hated. You deserve to know it all. Please, lay down. I’ll explain everything. Besides, the wind won’t blow onto you as much if you’re close to the ground.”

Roseluck did as she was told, mostly because she wanted to get away from the dreadfully chilly winds. The low cover offered little protection, but with such a small blanket for shelter, this was as comfortable as she was going to get.

“Nearly one-thousand years ago, my mother, the first queen of the changelings, held control over several massive forest regions in Equestria. Back then, we had the upper hoof. Armed with only pitchforks and meager courage, ponies in small towns and villages were next to completely defenseless against our power. We numbered in the tens of thousands, possibly even more. We drained everyone and everything in our sights of all of its love and happiness, leaving nothing behind but a cold, dull husk each time. All we were trying to do was feed ourselves, but no one saw it from our point of view. All they saw were thieves and bloodthirsty marauders.”

It’s for a good cause… Roseluck repeatedly spoke to herself in her mind, despite the numerous times she has done so before. The creepy description of their past was enough to give her nightmares.

“But, as time went on, the ponies became smarter and stronger,” Chrysalis continued. “They crafted better weapons and defenses, and they even used advanced levels of unicorn magic to keep us away. It was at this time my mother gave birth to…my sisters.”

“Your sisters?” said Roseluck, eyes wide.

“She gave birth to my sisters first, the queens to be. She gave birth to me last, when my sisters were much older. I never knew their names. I was the youngest and just barely older than Ditto is now when my older sisters left the central hive for other unoccupied lands to expand our empire and keep the changeling species alive and thriving. Even with their newfound strength, the ponies could not stop us from multiplying, and things ran smoothly for about a year. Our numbers doubled, then tripled, until we grew so large that we covered nearly a full quarter of the entire Equestrian continent, but then, when we least expected it, everything fell apart.”

“W-what happened?”

“Canterlot, or as we call it, the golden city, was being filled with thousands of loveless refugees and injured ponies from all over the land. Keep in mind that back then, we did whatever we could to obtain love, even if it meant bringing destruction to our victims. The royal princess, Celestia, who held rule over what was left of her kingdom, grew worried and angry. It took them some time, but with enough support, Celestia drafted hundreds of ponies until they had formed a small army. Of course, my mother could only laugh at the idea of such a miniscule force invading our lands, but they held with them a secret weapon. While we focused on expanding our numbers, the princess focused on developing an overwhelming, ancient magic derived from a city lost from time. My mother was frightened of this new magic, but retained enough courage to continue her rule. She and her changelings fought bravely, but in the end, the magic of the royal princess proved to be much stronger than she was. We could have won the war, but with the way our species was growing, our sources of love ran dry in a matter of days, starving us to death.”

Like parasites…

“My two sisters, including their hives, died off as well, and my mother was struck with grief. With nowhere else left to turn, and before the royal princess could finish off what was left of her empire, my mother and I, along with what was left of the central hive, fled to this forest, the Everfree, where we continued to live for many centuries…until now. When my mother passed, I took up her role as queen of the changelings, and I promised that I would do anything just to keep our species alive.”

Chrysalis sighed before going on.

“So, here I am, sending away as many of my changelings as possible in hopes that we will live to see another day. They will feed and divide as quickly as possible. It probably won’t work, but I am without additional options.”

Roseluck was hit severely with a juddering sensation. Never before had she heard such a tale of struggle and survival in all of her life. Chrysalis was right. It was as if all of creation despised them so greatly that they were born only to be forced to commit atrocious moral acts just to stay alive. What did they ever do to deserve this?

“My queen!”

Suddenly, the commander, clad in its battered soldier getup, burst into the room through the front entrance, covered in bits of wispy foliage. Though winded, it took a respectful bow.

“My queen,” the commander repeated. “Your orders are completed, though there is a slight problem. I have divided the others into groups and sent them away, but the final group was too small to go out on its own. I ordered them to stay here at the central hive.”

“Thank you, commander,” said Chrysalis.

“I alone cannot protect you, my queen. With your permission, I wish to take the idlers out each day for regular combat training. I have acquired junk swords and armor from a trash dump nearby, and will train them in the ways of using them.”

“You most certainly have my permission, commander. I knew I could trust you in a time like this.”

Instead of bringing itself to give its thanks, the commander humbly acknowledged the queen with a single nod of its head.

“Of course, my queen.”

“You may go.” Chrysalis smiled.

“Yes, my queen,”

Like the good little drone he was, the commander bowed and began walking towards the exit. Roseluck breathed a sigh of relief, wiping her forehead of cold sweat knowing that she would not have to see the commander’s stout, black face for most of the day from now on. Chrysalis chuckled for a brief moment, but changed her expression when she suddenly realized that she had forgotten something of the upmost importance.

“W-wait, commander,” Chrysalis stammered when the commander was only inches away from leaving the room.

“Yes, my queen?” said the commander, looking over its shoulder.

“Collect one of the special fruits from the trees at the edge of the hive’s boundaries and bring it here. Roseluck needs to eat.”

The commander rolled its eyes, grunting, openly showing its distaste for the mare.

“One more thing,” Chrysalis continued. “Search the borders, or at the same dump you visited earlier, for a blanket of some sort. The condition it’s in does not matter.”

The queen could feel the warmth of Roseluck’s smile beside her. If she was going to take care of her child, then she most certainly needed to take care of the source of his daily nourishment.

“…yes, my queen,” the commander sighed, doing a fairly miserable job of hiding its discontent as it left the room.

“Thanks,” whispered Roseluck, smiling softly.

“I cannot sleep knowing that you would remain cold and hungry through the night. Besides, I am going to need your help, for tomorrow is a big day.”

“A big day?”

“With…with the leave of my changelings for lands elsewhere, the hive will be empty for most of the day. As you heard before, the commander will be taking what is left of the changelings here and will be training them to defend their queen. This means it will be out of the hive. It will be just you, me, and Ditto, meaning that you will no longer be confined to this one room. With this new freedom, I can now begin to teach Ditto.”

“Teach him?” said Roseluck, confused. “Teach him what? He’s so young, though.”

“I was very young as well when my mother began teaching me. How to fly, how to blend in with your surroundings, how to change, of course, and most importantly, how to gather love from even the most ambiguous of places.”

“Don’t you think you should wait a little longer? It’ll be months before he can speak, and he’s only a few weeks old!”

“For changelings, an opportunity like this comes only once. If I don’t teach him now, then he won’t know how to take care of himself when I am away or worse…”

“So…how long will it be until he learns all this stuff?”

Chrysalis rose up and turned to face Ditto’s crib. She looked down at her sleeping ball of hope, brightening her smile every time his tiny, warm breaths turned to steam in the cold air.

“As long as it takes, Roseluck,” replied Chrysalis as she rubbed Ditto’s forehead. “As long as it takes…”

Terror

Just remember our rule of secrecy, commander.

I assure you, my queen. The others will remain under my watchful eye at all times. They will not catch sight of your son.

And?

Roseluck as well, though I insist that her time in the central hive be…limited.

Why is that, commander?

The connection she possesses, the connection that you gave to her. There is a possibility that it could be discovered.

I’ve already taken care of that. Keep the others occupied for as long as you can, keep them in training, and message me when you are returning. The future of the changelings depends on Ditto’s safety.

And what of any invaders?

…kill them, if you can, or I will do it myself.

~~~~~

Deep within the central changeling hive, only a single creature stirred; small in size, but big in bite. Its legs shifted by only mere inches with each silent step as it advanced towards its oblivious prey.

In the undergrowth, its eyes peered out a small opening in the dense vegetation. Its target was in sight. A pony, no larger than a small deer, stood silent and still like a bump on a log. The pony’s mane was dirty and disheveled, parted off to both sides like colorful lengths of forest weeds.

The creeping predator licked its lips, eager for the moment when its next meal would come. As it skulked along the soft ground, it came across an open exitway; big enough to pounce from, and big enough for it to make a quick escape should things take a turn for the worse. Astonishingly, its target was still standing there, completely oblivious as to what was about to happen to it.

Pride welling within its body, the creature kept its eyes glued to the target’s back and moved to take another step. So far so good. All it needed to do was keep its eyes on the prize and spring in for the--

Crack!

“Uggh! He did it again!” shouted Roseluck, groaning after she planted a hoof firmly on her face in irritation.

Feeling the bitter titillation of shame creeping up him once again, Ditto slowly stepped out of his makeshift training course with his head low to the ground. He knew he was in trouble again, though he could never figure out exactly why. His once-prodigious confidence that was meant to surprise his ancillary caretaker was swiftly overtaken by the weight of his new frown. He idly plonked down onto the ground, letting his wings droop down at his sides in conjunction with his ears.

Chrysalis stepped out of the darkness of her hiding place and into the light of the sun that illuminated the ceiling-less central hive gathering hall, moping at the news of yet another one of her son’s failures. She looked upon the long, elaborate tunnel of ropey flora she built as a miniature prowling ground for Ditto. All of her effort had gone into making it look as realistic as possible. Her disappointment could do nothing but escalate after seeing the results it produced.

“He just needs…practice,” said Chrysalis, her frown reforming into a hopeful, motherly smile. “These things take time to learn.”

“But we've been at this for hours! He’s stepped on that same twig at the exit dozens of times, and he still hasn't figured out that he’s supposed to avoid it!”

The sadness in Ditto’s tired sighs struck the queen deeply. She strolled over to her son and gently rubbed the back of his neck to comfort him. Even if it was against the nature of her species, she was more than willing to openly display her sympathy. She wasn't exactly a first time learner herself when her own mother began to teach her the ways of the changelings.

“It’s ok. We’ll try it again,” Chrysalis whispered to Ditto, lifting his spirits with an understanding smile.

Hearing this, Roseluck groaned, rolling her eyes as she rose to her hooves and strolled over to her pile of sweet, succulent forest fruits gathered by the commander earlier. After sitting out in the hot sun all day, she was in dire need of a refreshing snack. What better way to wash down the taste of absolute failure with something almost guaranteed to knock you flat on your flank?

“Can we take a break for a little while?” asked Roseluck.

Chrysalis looked at Roseluck and nodded, continuing to relieve her son with gentle motions.

Wasting no time, Roseluck lifted a plump, red fruit from the batch and bit down into it immediately. Her upper body quivered as the sugary juices flowed across her taste buds. She paused to absorb the essence of the moment, knowing that she would never tire of such a delightfully addicting sensation.

“M-maybe…maybe he just isn't ready for sneaking yet,” suggested Chrysalis, putting a hoof to her chin. “Maybe we should try something else…”

“Gee, I wonder what gave you that idea,” mumbled Roseluck, taking another bite.

“Maybe...we should practice flying.”

“After only a day since he actually learned how to get off the ground?”

“Oh? Are you saying you know how to raise my own son better than I do?”

“What? No!” Roseluck exclaimed after finishing off her not-so-healthy snack, tossing the remains of the thin core in with the others in an adjacent compost pile. “I’m just saying…well, you’re changelings aren't you? Aren't you supposed to…you know…change into something?”

Chrysalis frowned, looking down at her son.

“Ditto is far too young to be learning that now. Shape shifting was the last thing my mother taught me how to do before we were forced from our home. One year at the very least is what he needs. Like many other aspects of our lives, it is much harder than you think it is.”

“I thought changelings knew how to do that as soon as they were born?” questioned Roseluck with a puzzled face. “After the Canterlot invasion, when the Ponyville librarian returned, she told everypony in town about changelings and how—“

Chrysalis rolled her eyes and bared her teeth, releasing a riled hiss. Ditto smiled and tried to mimic his mother’s gesture, but without teeth all he managed to do was spit saliva everywhere while his tongue was left to dangle out of his mouth, which he quickly retracted. He looked to his mother for a reaction, but was left saddened to have received no response.

“Oh please!” Chrysalis started. “You ponies know next to nothing about us, except that we must feed off of love, among other trivial things. Since the Canterlot invasion, it would be completely foolish for anyone to imagine a future where professors and schoolteachers teach their students about the ways of the changelings with such useless prattle.”

Growing impatient, the queen magically lifted Ditto into the air and placed him back at the entrance of the training course. He looked back at his mother with confusion in his eyes, but a quick tap on his flank got him moving back inside. Chrysalis then plugged the entrance with a clump of leaves before walking away.

“Let’s keep practicing,” said Chrysalis, irately strolling back to her hiding spot. “I’m sure he will get better at it soon. All it takes is time.”

“Do I really need to remind Her Royal Highness that her own son is not even a month old?” asked Roseluck in heated disbelief.

For the ruler of a species on the verge of complete annihilation, any comeback would have been feasible, whether it be cruel punishment, a harsh, verbal outburst, or even a great spark of magic to keep the unruly in line. Chrysalis however, much to Roseluck's surprise, figured that the best response to such an insult was no response at all. The queen kept her chin up high as she crossed over into the shadow-graced areas of the gathering hall, concealing herself from view.

It was a snobby, upstart sentiment at its absolute best, leaving somepony to boil in a crock of their own anger. The queen’s constantly shifting attitude irked the red-maned mare to no end. As much as she wanted, there was nothing she could do about it. A steamy breath blew from her nostrils as she reluctantly trotted back to her place, dreading the next few hours of being forced to play the lamb in the face of an extremely dull wolf.

~~~~~

Its next meal was in sight, and it was as beautiful as it was abundant in love. A sight such as this in the deepest, darkest parts of the Everfree was something that could only be witnessed out of pure luck.

A yellow, winged pony with bright pink hair crept slowly through the forest under the thick cover of the bramble trees. The pony’s whole body shivered as it moved, stuttering its speech patterns. The commander could have never been happier as it crept through the bushes and the low-lying fog alongside its path, its trained hooves remaining completely silent as it eyed its prey’s movement through the cover of the natural darkness.

The pony spoke of angels as it walked along the forest floor, but it was going to take a lot more than a troop of mythical beings to keep the hungry commander from missing its chance at an effortless meal.

Suddenly, there was a disturbance in the forest. A powerful roar shook through the trees like a hurricane, sending the commander flying backward and landing on its back with a hard thud. Alarmed, it scrambled to rise up from the ground. After its senses quickly returned, the commander checked to make sure its prey was still there.

Surprisingly, it was, but the pony was in a situation that the commander had desperately hoped to avoid; across the forest path on which the pony walked, a manticore, considered by many to be the most fearsome creature to ever walk the earth, stood mean, tall, and at the ready to strike down the yellow creature before it. Its tail, dawned with the poison-tipped stinger of a scorpion, arched over its back like a viper ready to kill.

If they were still alive at this point, any sane creature would have turned tail and fled for miles, but the pony remained still, and…smiling?

The great beast took a step forward, bringing itself face to face with the winged trespasser. It belched another great roar directly into the pony’s face, blowing its mane back like helpless weeds in the wind.

There was no doubt in the commander’s mind that there would soon be bloodshed, and lots of it. This would completely ruin its plans. The whole forest was going to stink of rotting pony carcass. This whole section of the wood would be a battleground in less than an hour, with several varieties of sharp-toothed, sharp-clawed monstrosities battling it out over the remains slowly being turned into a stinking, bulging pulp by bloatflies and other insects.

This means that the central hive would require extra protection to keep the coming predators away, and the trainees the commander took under its wing barely knew how to swing a stick properly.

Angered by the fact that its whole day has been ruined, the commander turned around and started to walk away. At least it could take its leave with a bit of entertainment. After all, it was said that a manticore wanted to hear its victims scream in agony before it slaughtered them. The commander knew it would happen any moment now.

…

Any moment now…

Nothing.

It heard nothing. No screams, no cries, no snapping of bones or tearing of flesh.

In a state of disbelief deeper than the black pit of its own cold heart, the commander turned around and swiftly backtracked to where it once was.

From where there should have been a sight of death and decay stood a completely different scene. The ferocious beast of nightmares abundant was on its back, as helpless as a kitten as the yellow pony stood beside it and vigorously rubbed its soft underbelly.

“N’oh, who’s a good kitty? You are! Yes you are!” cooed the pony as it continued to rub the giant’s stomach, who purred like a freight train.

The commander could barely believe its ears. A powerful being brought down by the soft touch of a pony weakling? Such a thing was absurd! Underneath its cavernous emotional complex, the commander grew extremely angry.

How dare they, keeping its next, and possibly its only meal for days, held away from its lips by a measly thread. The ponies of Equestria were practically beloved by anything they came across, but why must the changelings suffer while they remain happy and free? It was completely unfair. Being of such high rank, the commander would have none of it.

In times such as these, survival was everything. The commander was an important figure; an icon of high ranking, far up the forest chain. It wasn't going to take starving for the night sitting down. Determined to get its next meal, the commander rose to its hooves and prepared itself to swoop in. Maybe it could stick around for just enough time to absorb enough love to last it for at least the rest of the night. Escaping the beast would be easy.

Boldly, the commander took a step forward.

Crack!

And just like that, its dinner plans fell flat.

Immediately, the manticore ceased its purring and bolted to its feet, growling fiercely in the commander’s direction. The faint shadows of the forest did little to nothing to completely conceal the commander’s position, especially not against the farsight vision of the manticore. The commander knew that it was in deep trouble. The enormous fiend was looking right at it, its sharp teeth bared wide and its claws at the ready.

Confused, the yellow pony followed its furry companion’s gaze, leading right up to the commander’s position. It took a few moments, but eventually, the pony caught eye of the silvery outline on the changeling's body. The pony, who by now the commander guessed was a female simply by its hot pink mane and slender body, leapt into the air and shrieked out with fright, kicking her hooves wildly in the air as she was already running away. Her hooves made contact with the ground and she took off like a rocket back down the path she came up from, not even bothering to use her wings.

The commander was furious, but the manticore even more so. It released a great roar, shaking the trees free of whatever small fauna that occupied it. The manticore then leaped forward and took off in a sprint, bounding straight for the commander.

No creature in the forest, if not the entire world, would ever dare take on an angry manticore, and the commander did not wish to stick around and try. It spun around and ran away, its mind full of fear. It longed to leap into the sky and fly away, but the thick tree canopy above prevented it from doing just that.

The commander did not dare look back. Its mind already had a clear idea of what it might witness.

A foaming mouth, a manic gaze, poison dripping from the tip of its stinging tail…and that’s all the commander would see before its body would be torn to shreds.

The commander could sense the beast’s presence only a few meters away. There was no time to try and make it to the nearest clearing. The superior changeling, the once daring form of power, would be dead and dismembered within seconds if it didn't think of a way out, and fast.

~~~~~

“Chrysalis, your taking things way too fast!” yelled Roseluck up towards the sky.

“That is none of your concern, Roseluck! I know how to raise my own son.” Chrysalis yelled back as she remained in mid-air, hovering high above the ground with her bug-like wings that beat against the wind like those of a hummingbird.

Roseluck could not even begin to fathom just how idiotic the queen’s next step in the learning process was. She guessed that after Ditto failed at sneaking several dozen times, Chrysalis must have thought that he needed to start out with something easier. Granted, Ditto already knew how to fly, which, for his age, is something completely unheard anywhere else.

Learning new flying techniques would be easier for him, and it wouldn't be long before he moved on to the more advanced stuff, whatever that was. Yes, he only learned how to use his wings not too long ago, but for someone who discovered their abilities far from even their first birthday put him a place of assurance few ever got to see. Just the thought of seeing Ditto soar through the skies made her think back to the days of seeing Ponyville’s own daredevil doing the exact same thing only ten times faster.

But something still didn't feel right.

Maybe it was the choice in training grounds. They could have just stayed inside the central hive where it was safe and worry-free, but no, the “professional” just had to go with the less sensible choice.

Now, Chrysalis, Ditto, and herself as well, were situated outside of the central hive in the hot, humid daytime air, and only a few hundred feet from its borders. Nothing like the smell of pure danger to get the adrenaline pumping, right? Her hooves were covered with dirt, flies buzzed around her ragged mane, and her coat was in desperate need of a good washing. She had every good reason to complain, yet here she was, helping a mother babysit her own prodigy, who sat quite comfortably in her hooves without a care in the world.

“I’m not getting any younger, Roseluck,” Chrysalis called out, freeing the mare of her insightful daze.

Roseluck rolled her eyes back up at Chrysalis.

“Just let go of him,” Chrysalis insisted, putting on a short smile. “He will be fine. He knows what he is doing.”

“You know I worry about him as much as you do,” said Roseluck, sighing. “If something bad happens to him…then what’s the point in me being here?”

Chrysalis shook her head.

“Nothing bad is going to happen to him. Look!” Chrysalis pointed a hoof at Ditto, who smiled back cheerfully at his mother. “Does he look worried to you?”

Roseluck returned her attention to Ditto. If there was anything in the world she would never tire of, besides the taste of those succulent forest fruits, it was that short, adorable smile spanning across the young one’s face. It was so cute it could cause Tartarus to freeze over, and it was more than enough to convince her to stay and provide as much aid as she could to a species in desperate need of it.

It represented hope, what little there actually was anyway, but hope nonetheless.

“I know I may not look like the motherly type, Roseluck. I doubt I will ever look like anything but a monster…” said Chrysalis, sighing. “But trust me; I know what I’m doing.” Chrysalis extended her forehooves, awaiting the moment when her son would fly up to her on the strength of his own wings.

Though with worry still heavy on the brain, Roseluck finally gave in to the queen’s cogent sermon. She gently lowered Ditto to the ground and released him from her hold.

“Well? Go on,” said Roseluck to Ditto, pointing up at his airborne mother.

“Come on, Ditto,” cooed Chrysalis, gesturing to herself. “Come on. Fly to me. Fly to...mommy.”

And fly he did. After he was free, Ditto unfolded his wings and began to hover. He went up about two feet before stopping and looking back up at his mother, who beckoned him to keep rising. Empowered by the sight of his mother’s wanting, the young changeling continued to ascend.

“That’s it, come on.” Chrysalis descended a few feet, hoping that her closer proximity would encourage Ditto to keep going. The young one continued to rise, climbing higher and higher until he made it past the halfway point.

The spectacle of watching a creature so young and so innocent ascend to the gentle hold of his awaiting mother could not have been any more outstanding, or more endearing, than this. And he was so young too! While most foals were either babbling nonsense or trying to impress their parents with a few new tricks, Ditto was performing feats that were far beyond the mundane traditions of natural learning. All Roseluck could do was stand back and wonder, taking in the vague resemblance of an angel learning how to use its wings.

“Just a little bit closer, that’s it!” the queen went on, spouting the usual uplifting jargon.

At long last, Ditto had reached his mother’s altitude, stabilizing himself in the full front of the winds. He smiled at Chrysalis and looked down below him, admiring how far he had come.

“Ok, good.” Chrysalis breathed a sigh of relief. She kept her hooves extended outward. “Now, come to me.”

Ditto continued to smile, but did not obey his mother.

“Come on, Ditto,” Chrysalis urged. “Come to me, please.”

Ditto looked back at his mother and chuckled. It was clear that he wished to take a break from learning and play around for a little while, and play around he did. He ascended up a few feet higher, causing Chrysalis to become uneasy. This was exactly what Ditto was hoping for. When his mother nervously bit her lower lip, he giggled again.

“N-no no,” said Chrysalis, smiling nervously. “To me, Ditto, to me.”

Ditto looked down at his mother, but only for a brief moment. With a cheeky grin, he turned his head skyward and took off, flying high up into cloudy blue, his tiny wings carrying his speeding weight in an incredible, seemingly impossible manner. The queen was in shock.

“No, Ditto! No!” Chrysalis gasped, taking off after her son.

His mother’s traumatized outburst did nothing to silence the infant’s excessive giggling. He continued to ascend, flying high into the cerulean air on a wild game of cat and mouse. Roseluck’s jaw could not have dropped any harder. What he was doing with his wings was preposterous in every form of the word.

Despite his enhanced flight capabilities, Ditto’s terrified mother finally caught up with him. Chrysalis dove in and swiped her son from the air, pulling him close to her chest as she quickly stretched out her wings, slamming on the brakes on the wild ride. She held him out and looked down, cringing when she realized how high up they were.

“What on earth were you thinking?!” Chrysalis angrily scolded her infant, using her most menacing of faces in order to fully state her emotions. His mother’s disposition was strong, but Ditto acted as if he had no idea what she was on about. He took it all as a game, smiling in the face of his mother like a troublesome puppy in the arms of its caretaker.

Chrysalis sighed, feeling very guilty for having yelled at her son like that, despite his unwavering, cheery temperament. She reformed her anger into a smile and pulled him into a firm hug.

“At least you didn't get hurt…” murmured Chrysalis, her mind finally at ease.

“Hey! Are you two just gonna stay up there and hug each other all day or do I have to go find some food myself?” Roseluck called out from down below.

“We’ll be down there soon,” said Chrysalis, smiling shortly. “Let me just—“

In the distance, sudden and thunderous, a mighty roar sounded out throughout the forest. Traumatized, the queen jolted in shock, swiftly turning towards the source of the noise. From afar, trees began to shake, freeing the branches of their avian occupants.

“W-what the? What was that!?” Roseluck cried out on the ground, her voice echoing.

Having spent nearly all her life under the thick roof of the Everfree, Chrysalis knew exactly what she heard.

But why? thought Chrysalis, bringing her son, who had fallen silent, closer to her upper chest for protection. It wouldn't dare go anywhere near the central hive!

Suddenly, it hit her. Without the presence of hundreds of changelings to keep the irritating sonic barrier up, the Everfree forest’s most dangerous creatures were free to roam about as they pleased. She and Roseluck were sitting ducks.

The distant trees began to shake violently. The beast of the queen’s fears was coming right for them.

Panicking, the queen flipped around in the air and made an immediate dive for the ground, landing roughly next to her pony companion, who started firing out questions like a panic-crazed filly.

“W-what’s going on? I heard a bunch of loud noises! What should we—!“

Roseluck’s worried ramblings were cut off when Chrysalis forced Ditto into her hooves.

“Take him and head back to the hive, now.” Chrysalis commanded with a stern voice and an equal expression.

“B-but what’s--?”

“Go!”

Ringing out on an eerie cue, a second roar, different from the first one, exploded through the forest like a great firework. Its effects were no different from the first. The trees shook in the path of its unnatural gust, forcing many small creatures to vacate their dens. Looking in the direction of the source, the queen’s breath escaped in a frightened gasp when her vision fell upon the sight of two, fast-approaching sets of glowing eyes, one a deep blue, and the other a fearsome yellow.

Chrysalis had no time to identify just what exactly was coming her way. Before she could get out of the way, two creatures burst out of the forest dark. A manticore, larger than any other she had ever seen, and the commander, its body covered in a mix of dark flora and scars, skid to a stop quite a ways from her position.

“My queen! Stay back!” yelled the commander, fear appearing more than apparent in its voice.

The manticore reared its massive head and snarled at the two figures behind it. Hot saliva dripped from its teeth, spattering on the ground as its claws extended from its large paws. It began turning in place to face Chrysalis directly, but was soon forced to stop when a large rock struck the top of its head. Gnash its teeth, the beast whirled around to face the commander once more, who held another rock in its hooves. The commander tossed the rock to the ground and withdrew its rusty sword from its scabbard.

There was no doubt in Chrysalis's mind that the commander aimed on killing the manticore, bringing her to remember their earlier conversation concerning just that. For as much harm as it might bring, that option was the best one they had, but her transformed feelings simply would not allow it.

The manticore raised its barbed tail and lunged it forward over its head. In the blink of an eye, the commander dodged the attack, rolling off to the side in hopes of striking a blow to its blind spot. The beast anticipated this and quickly swung its body around, staring down the commander once more. The manticore stroked its claws across the ground, menacingly taunting the lesser hunter before it.

“Roseluck, get back to the hive, now!” Chrysalis urged, nudging the mare hard. “Take Ditto back inside and hide! I’ll deal with the situation out here.”

The pastel mare opened her mouth to speak, but could find no comeback with which to respond. Thinking of the infant more than anything, Roseluck nodded and made for the walls of the hive. The sound of her rapid hoofsteps caught the manticore’s attention, its eyes glancing off to the side and catching the sight of the fleeing prey.

Yet again, the beast’s attention was redirected when another large rock struck the top of its head. Instead of staying back and taking chance shots with its tail, the manticore pounced, its built-in knives ready to tear its irritating aggressor apart.

But then, a new challenger stepped into the ring. Before it could take as much as a single swipe at the commander, the manticore was lifted into the air by a cloud of green magic before being thrown afar, slamming into the ground and tumbling right into the base of a tree, nearly splitting it in half. The commander was dumbstruck.

“My queen!” yelled the changeling warrior, scowling angrily. The queen looked at the commander, bearing an angry scowl of her own after the aura around her horn vanished into the air. “I nearly had it! I could have killed it if you hadn't--!”

“Stay out of this, commander!” Chrysalis interrupted.

“B-but, my queen!”

“I said stay out of this!” Chrysalis retorted, yelling fiercely.

Before they knew it, the manticore was back on its feet, shaken, but more than ready to strike down anything that came near it. Its eyes were bloodshot and its scorpion stinger dripped with green venom.

The commander stepped out in front of the queen, its sword still clenched between its teeth. Chrysalis couldn't tell if it was openly defying her or protecting her with its life. The manticore took the boast and readied itself to pounce again. What was to come could only be left to prediction, but already the future seemed to be as clear as day. No matter what, someone was going to die.

The ground started to shake.

...is it just me, or do I always feel like producing "results" is like going through my own personal crucible? Yes, writing is difficult in the most part, but...wow.

A full month of doing buckall anything involving writing took more out of me than I thought it would. It's like every time I write a new chapter I feel rusty, as if I've been away for years.

There is a sense of fear of course. I've been taught to write for myself and write whatever I choose to write, but I think about you guys too much, so much so that I often over-correct myself to the point of (almost) sleepless nights, like a chef trying to improve their decent dish with ingredients almost guaranteed to make it look like the fecal product of a night spent chugging Tabasco sauce. Sure, it may sound like a good idea and it may look like a good idea on paper, but no matter what happens your arse will still be burning by the end of the day.

Saucy ideas aside, I did have fun writing this chapter, which I should probably mention is one of the few times I have ever had genuine, pop rocks-e fun writing anything. I won't call it a grind, but hey, I like you guys, a lot, and before you break out the laced champagne I'd like to take the final few days of the year to thank each and every one of you for reading Monster or Mother, and any other stories I may have, thus far. Seriously, you guys rock.

I want to say exciting things are coming in the future, but I don't want to make empty promises ^.^

-Hivemind :twistnerd:

Security

Just a warning here. This chapter...maaay be the darkest chapter in the entire story. Hopefully so. Viewer discretion something something...sure.

Fear was all that seemed to be apparent upon the black, sullen face of the changeling queen, but within her dilated, emerald green eyes a whole new sentiment chose to reveal itself in the light. She did not know what to think of the situation; a manticore battling it out with her most trusted changeling warrior with the inevitable not too far away. It was a scene straight out of a fantasy novel.

Both sides had their strengths and weaknesses, though she doubted their abilities would make even the slightest difference. The commander was agile and quick on its hooves, especially in the heat of battle. This was made obvious during the Canterlot invasion when it subdued over twenty royal guards without the aid of other warriors. Its skill with a blade was remarkable, its contributions to the hive were innumerable, and its strength to lead was what drove it to the top of the changeling ranks.

Next, there was the manticore; a beast whose mental prowess was on par with that of a common housecat, but whose body made up for it with overwhelming strength and stamina. Its bite was most certainly bigger than its bark, with its teeth and claws known to rip right through nearly any substance like paper. No one ever dared to imagine what its menacing scorpion tail could do, what with its razor sharp hook tipped and dripping with acidic venom.

But then, there was Chrysalis, the stalemate with a weary soul.

Long before motherhood, even she was proud to call herself a fierce and diabolical creature, demanding to be feared and respected by all who crossed her. Since Ditto’s birth, her body, and her mind, has been twisted into something different; something nicer, and “nice” in the Everfree was a sarcastic term at best.

Chrysalis looked on at the sight in front of her, darting her eyes back and forth between the commander and the manticore as they prolonged their heated stare down. She needed to act, but what could she do to prevent the coming fate? A manticore would not allow its prey to get away so easily, even through the toughest of fights, making it one of the deadliest creatures in the Everfree, if not the whole world. If it was going to go down then it would go down fighting.

She had more than enough power to drive the manticore away, even kill it if she had to, but she could not. She would not. The old Chrysalis would not only have slain it, but would have made it suffer all the way through. The heart of gold beating within the new Chrysalis would not allow her to bring such harm to another living thing anywhere near that extreme. All she could do was make threats, shout fiercely, and stare menacingly at anyone who defied her, hoping that her trickery would win the day.

All of it was fake, ever since Ditto came into the world. She felt scared, a feeling common to her drone subjects, but a rarity to the queen herself. Ever since that fateful day, she could do nothing but ask questions and flood her heart with worry.

Was she cursed? Bewitched? Had that zebra near the forest edge inflicted her with a spiritual ill omen?

Had forces beyond life itself seen her as worthless?

Chrysalis had never felt so weak in all her life. She just wanted to crawl underneath a rock and die, just so she would not have to feel the pain of living a life of uncontrollable lies any longer. It was only when the ground started to shake did her fear of the future soar to new heights.

In the distant forest, trees began to part aside, their thick branches snapping like futile twigs against the bulk of something several times their size. A roar, one louder and shriller than any other, spread out over the treetops, sending the courier winds to deliver fair warning of the approaching force of destruction.

Suddenly, there came another roar, followed closely by a third. The ferocity of both was just as terrible as the first, and their tones seemed to match each other in a rather mysterious way. Chrysalis swallowed hard. It was exactly as she feared.

“What was that?!” yelled the commander, darting its eyes left and right in a panic.

The manticore appeared to be distressed as well; its beefy hind legs quivered, but there was nothing that could extinguish its fiery rage. In the confusion, the beast seized the open opportunity and pounced directly at the commander, holding back no portion of its seemingly boundless power.

“No!” Chrysalis screamed, quickly charging her horn until it flared a bright green. Using the best of her magical ability, she ripped the manticore from the air and threw it clear across the cool battleground. The beast spun head over heels in the air as it flew before slamming into the side of a dead tree, splitting its decaying trunk in half before tumbling to the ground in a heap of dead plant matter.

The ground stopped shaking, and the barbaric roars that accompanied them were silenced. The battle-softened manticore tossed and turned like a helpless animal as it lay in its decrepit state, moaning in agony in the middle of its weakest moment. All else seemed to be still. Even the habitual forest fauna had ceased their ambient tunes. The common crickets dared not make a sound.

“M-my queen!” the commander stuttered, laden with shock and awe when its eyes fell upon the queen’s disgusted face.

“I told you to stay out of this!” Chrysalis yelled, shooting a furious glance at her not-so-trustworthy advisor.

“B-but, my queen! There’s—!”

“How many times must I tell you?!” Chrysalis growled. “Put down your sword and stay--!”

The queen’s intense tirade was interrupted by the wistful sound of soft, young crying. After a brief, puzzling scan of her surroundings, she then felt something daintily tug at her front left leg. The touch was unmistakable. Looking down, she found nothing more than her own precious child, tears in his eyes and a miserable sulk beset upon his dark face. It was heartbreaking to say the least, enough to swathe sympathy over anyone vulnerable to the teary eyes of an infant, let alone its merciful whimpers.

“Ditto! Wait up!” cried out the distant voice of Roseluck. Surprised, Chrysalis looked up and saw her son’s subordinate caretaker speeding towards her.

“Roseluck?” said Chrysalis as the mare came to a hard stop in front of her.

“I-I’m sorry, Chrysalis! H-He just got away from me! I don’t know how!” Roseluck stammered. “One minute, he was there, then I heard crying, and the next minute h-he wasn’t there and--!”

“Apologize later!” exclaimed Chrysalis. “Just get him away from here!”

“R-right!”

Roseluck quickly bent down to meet Ditto’s level, putting on her best, most calming smile after he cautiously took a step back.

“C-come here, Ditto,” Roseluck held out both of her hooves. “Come to me. Come to Roseluck.”

Fearful and perplexed, Ditto furiously shook his head and backed away even further. When Roseluck made an attempt to grab him, he grasped one of his mother’s legs, holding on as tightly as he could. Still, Roseluck tried to reach for him, but it only made things worse. He held on to his mother even tighter, burying his tiny face into the skin of her leg and letting loose tears fall freely to the ground.

“Argh! He’s not moving!” grunted Roseluck, frowning. “I don’t get it. He practically clings to me and my mane every day, but now he’s afraid of me?”

Chrysalis sighed, bearing a frown of her own. Why Ditto was crying she did not know, but she was more concerned about his safety than what she was to do about it. She lacked the stomach to use force, and she did not have the heart to ignore him. She cared for him so much that it was more of a danger to her than an annual benefit of motherly love.

The commander silently watched the act of cat of mouse unfold. It was most irritating to observe the queen of the changelings, a raw symbol of limitless power, stand by and do nothing while a pony, a weakling, did everything for her. She was supposed to be working towards saving their entire species, but it seems to be that childcare was suddenly more important than the desperate lives of her own kind.

What good were children anyway? To a changeling, the answer could never be more apparent. All they ever do is disobey and suck the very life force straight from your body. Sleepless nights and the waste of good resources were the only outcomes brought about by the bite-sized sticklers.

Just the thought of caring for one, let alone touching one, sickened the commander to the core. They were rambunctious pests and nothing more, offering little reprieve from their outrageous antics.

However, what struck the commander with curiosity since day one was the very existence of a changeling infant. It had never seen any other besides Ditto, and the probability of seeing another in its lifetime was slim to none.

Born only from the queen, they were as rare as the alicorns, the dual-bodied ponies destined to rule from birth, whose lives for some reason were said to alter the course of history itself, but how? All they were “gifted with” was an extra set of body parts, a sight in the Everfree no more common than excrement-covered horseflies. The ponies of Equestria will never know fear until they bear witness to a quadruple-headed crocodile with spider fangs instead of teeth. The Everfree forest was truly nature’s biological garbage dump.

Ditto was most certainly different alright; a child unlike any other in the world. He wasn’t the luckiest, however, at least not how the commander saw it. Whether or not he was meant to exist was determined by a blind swing of fate, and fate, as it turned out, wasn’t on their side.

In fact, nothing was on their side. They were predestined to be miserable .

“Can’t you just lend me a hoof here?” asked Roseluck, annoyed.

“I-I…can’t,” replied Chrysalis, looking down at Ditto nervously. “I can’t just ignore him like that.”

“W-what? What do you mean? You’re his mother! Just…scold him, or something!”

Chrysalis gasped. “You’ve lost your mind! I will do no such thing!”

While the sitcom duo bickered amongst themselves, the commander’s sensitive ears perked up at the sound of the trees softly rustling nearby. Alert to the disturbance, it gripped its sword tighter between its teeth and moved into a defensive stance. When it senses were at its peak, it noticed that it could no longer hear the manticore’s painful gripes. Cautiously, the commander strolled over to the fragmented remains of the dead tree it slammed into earlier, remaining on the light side of the border where the darkness continued on into the forest.

The beast was nowhere to be seen, but in its place there lay a puddle of glistening liquid; blood without a doubt.

The commander couldn’t believe what it was seeing. It recounted every second of its minute of idiocy. While they stood around like buffoons in the middle of an open field practically begging to be ambushed, one of the most dangerous creatures alive managed to escape!

…or did it?

All of a sudden, another roar resounded around the clearing, one fiercer and more blood curdling than any other roar the commander had ever heard before. Straight out of the shadows, their torn and feisty opponent burst forth into the world once more, gnashing its teeth and snarling like a disease-ridden wild boar. The commander had little time to react or even look over the beast’s condition, for as soon as its paws touched the ground, it took off with lightning speed, heading straight for the queen and her pony counterpart.

“My queen!” yelled the commander through raspy breaths.

Jolting at the sound of the commander’s sudden cry of imminent distress, Chrysalis whirled around just as soon as the manticore leapt into the air in an attempt to deliver a killing blow. She reacted quickly, shoving Roseluck to the ground and moving to face the beast head on. Using a great sum of her energy, she focused a spell into the tip of her jagged horn as fast as her body would allow. She took quick aim and fired a shining beam of dark green magic at her speedy foe, who howled in anguish as it flew backward in the sky in another recounting of deja vu, and disappeared into the blackness of the forest, smashing through trees and braches before landing somewhere far away with an audible thud.

Stillness was the only thing that followed the moment of terror. Chrysalis had not noticed it before, but once she calmed down, she discovered that she was scowling, angrily. Her muscles were tense and her back was arched forward, providing protective cover for her precious son below. Her silky legs were still damp with his tears.

The fight wasn’t over yet. Not by a long shot. In the forest, the manticore, whose body must have been broken beyond belief, sent roar after roar echoing through the trees. The commander readied its sword while the queen recovered her strength, regardless of her countless orders to stand down.

A few minutes went by, and the distant manticore roared again, but as its voice climbed in volume its pitch climbed as well, rising as high as its vocal cords would allow, reaching unbelievably high tones as if it just inhaled a party balloon full of helium.

Then, there was a snap, the beast’s voice immediately cut off. Its unusual serenade still echoed through the tree line. Unsettling cracks, tearing noises, and the shrill clamping of what sounded like sharp teeth sent chills up the spines of everyone in the clearing. Roseluck even took to hiding behind Chrysalis.

Tensions rose as silence, as if in repetition, fell over the clearing once again. Neither Roseluck nor Chrysalis, despite the latter having full knowledge of the danger, kept their mouths shut and their bodies as still as trees. The eeriness robbed everyone of their inner peace, what was left of it, anyway. Even the commander appeared to be on edge.

Then, without warning, high up in the sky, a large, red mass soared in over the tall foliage, slamming into the hard ground with a sickening splatter before lazily tumbling right in front of the startled queen. Roseluck leapt back in horror, but Chrysalis remained standing before it, looking down at the gory chunk of manticore flesh at her hooves, mortified. Whatever fur remained on the bloody hunk was dyed a deep crimson, its once luxurious yellow form sealed away in a literal blood bath. She wished with all her heart that her eyes were deceiving her. The commander paid little mind to the inanimate newcomer, knowing better than to let its guard down in a moment like this.

Roseluck was by far the most affected. She had never witnessed such an appalling sight in all her life. Nopony had, save only the most twisted and vile of criminals.

With the manticore’s untimely death so close to home, its mighty executioner was by no means far away. Unfortunately for them, it was right in their backyard.

Stomping out of the shadows of the Everfree, one of the most powerful creatures on the planet made its daunting presence known with a trio of deafening roars. Chrysalis began to breathe heavily after she looked up from the shredded remains and laid her eyes upon a sight as rare and infrequent as the centurial passing of a comet.

A three-headed hydra, spawn of a magically unnatural event, and as tall as three-story building, plodded its massive girth out into the open. Its clay-colored scales glistened in the sunlight with each movement of its titanic thighs. Its three mouths were smeared with the blood of the manticore it tore apart only minutes prior, and a small chunk of red flesh hung from the overbite of the middle head. Upon noticing it moments later, the long-necked member slung its head upward and caught the morsel in its mouth, which it quickly swallowed before turning its attention forward again.

The commander looked on in awe as the beast trudged on towards the queen, not a single one of its heads turning its attention anywhere else. Its many sets of slivery eyes shot hungry glances at the lesser beings before it, whose bodies remained still, their legs frozen solid with pure fear.

It seemed like there was nothing Chrysalis could do to contend with the leviathan, but then, all of that changed when her ears perked up at the sound of Ditto’s soft cries below her belly. She tried to back away from the approaching danger, but found that her legs were constricted. Ditto’s unnatural physique somehow kept her hooves planted firmly to the ground, making moving without injuring him even in the slightest way impossible. Tearing him away from his mother was something Chrysalis would never dream of doing.

The great hydra was bearing down on the three who cowered at its boulder-sized feet. The faces of each head showed signs of many undesirable things: hunger, ferocity, and the need to exterminate just to name a few. Each head smiled a wicked smile as if it expected its victims to scream for mercy for the inevitable cruelty soon to come. Curiously, the hydra seemed to savor the same taste in music as the manticore, the shrieks of unspeakable pain and torment expelled from the racing body of their prey delivering anything but forgiveness and sympathy to their ringing ears.

While it wasn’t the genuine article, Ditto’s cries for his mother’s aid seemed to be doing just the trick. No matter how much her mind screamed at her to run away, the queen’s body refused to listen. Her entire emotional complex was simply too weak to risk bringing harm to her child.

Chrysalis took a quick look at Ditto down below, who still clung to her with a sweet sense of love. Her vision trailed across his small body, whatever she could see of it anyway. Every part of his being, from his head to his hooves, begged for salvation from whatever nightmarish visions that clouded his mind. He could keep his eyes closed for as long as he wanted to, but even behind the cover of his mother, while danger of any form remained in the vicinity, fear would continue to encircle him, torturing him.

For him to suffer with the loss of his loved ones…no, she would not allow that to happen.

Empowered with newly-obtained strength of the heart, Chrysalis dawned her most serious scowl, snapped her head back up at the slowly approaching Hydra, whose many heads grinned with a terrifying likeness of a cheshire cat. She was determined to do whatever it takes to protect the very future of the changelings, and losing that one chance at survival to the colossus of the ages before her would mean using all of her power to repel it as well as any other force that dare threaten their lives.

And use her power she did.

Several times over what she used on the manticore, Chrysalis concentrated as hard as she could, and pulled from every crevice of her frail form as much magical power as she could, drawing it all into the tip of her jagged horn. A sphere of bright and dark green aura formed around her entire horn. Long rays of white light occasionally escaped from the sphere, showcasing the power of her mystical changeling magic.

She bared her teeth, grinding them together like stones as she lifted her head high to keep the overwhelming amounts of energy contained for as long as possible. The hydra halted its advance and stared in confusion at the display, watching carefully as the ball of emerald light steadily increased in size. Realizing the danger it was in, the beast took two steps backward, expressing dual hints of astonishment and unwavering fear.

Then, cataclysm. Chrysalis let herself go, releasing control of her unnatural might in a streamline burst of off-white energy encased within an outline of bright green matter. The magical burst slammed into the hydra’s chest area and quickly spread to cover the rest of its body. Roseluck looked on in terror as bolts of magical lightning, carried over from the queen’s horn, continuously struck the tri-horned monstrosity, lighting up the entire clearing like a great fireworks display. Its cries for mercy were drowned out by the crackling of the lightning and the loud hum of the magic cooking its thick scales to a crisp.

Her energy expended, Chrysalis broke the stream and powered down her horn, sparks flying from the tip before vanishing into the air. Looking up at the still beast, she could see grey smoke lisping off its slightly charred skin. She gasped in disbelief at the shocking outcome of her magical might. The hydra began to teeter from side until it finally keeled over, taking a few hasty steps backward before falling back and crashing to the ground, shaking the ground beneath her and frightening several groups of birds out of their treeborn nests.

The battle was over. Exhausted and proud, yet horrified at what she had just done, Chrysalis collapsed onto the ground, breathing heavily with her eyes half closed. Slightly trapped underneath his mother, Ditto managed to squeeze out from underneath her soft body before quickly rushing to her head, prodding at her face with his muzzle in a panic.

“It’s ok…” Chrysalis weakly whispered to Ditto, smiling. “I’m fine…mommy’s still here.”

Nearby, after cowering low to the ground when Chrysalis unleashed her fury, Roseluck bolted to her hooves and moved to aid the queen. When she tried to get close however, Ditto swiftly turned around and shielded his mother’s face, shooting his caretaker an aggressive, defensive stare. The mare was taken aback, but decided that it would be best to just stay away for now.

“My queen!” shouted the voice of the commander nearby. “Where are you?!”

“We’re over here!” shouted Roseluck.

A few seconds later the commander appeared, scaling up the hydra’s side and standing upon its scaly belly. It looked down upon the queen from the high point before turning to the side and examining the titan’s body. It placed one hoof on the side of one of the legs and held it there. Moments later, it removed its hoof with a shocking jerk.

“I don’t believe it…” the commander hissed.

“Believe what? That we almost died?” exclaimed Roseluck, sitting on her haunches before the queen and trying her best not to look into Ditto’s little, angry eyes.

“No…” the commander continued, baffled. “It’s still alive.”

“H…huh?” murmured Chrysalis, weakly rising on one leg so she could see the commander better. “How is that possible?”

“I do not know…but it must die.”

The commander drew its sword, slow and terrifying. The sound of the blade scrapping against its rusty scabbard capitalized the intensity of the unexpected decision.

“W-What?!” Chrysalis shot up only to then moan loudly with pain as her aching muscles confined her to the ground.

“This monstrosity nearly killed all four of us!” The commander hissed angrily. “It has invaded our land and threatened to tear it apart. It knows where we live! It is too dangerous to be left alive!”

Through a strong drive, the queen powered through the pain that bound her and stood tall on her four hooves.

“No…” she whispered.

“B-but my queen! You’re not thinking clearly!”

“I said no!”

The anger in Chrysalis’s voice went out like a great horn, and she stamped her front right hoof in conjunction to reinstate her dominance over the situation. As usual, found within a position with no hope of coming through successfully, the commander huffed and begrudgingly leaped off the hydra’s body.

“It knows to stay away from us from now on,” explained Chrysalis, sighing. “Killing it will only make things worse than they already are.”

“…as you wish, my queen,” mumbled the commander, growling.

“Good. Now, stand aside.”

The ferocious warrior did as it was told, dragging its hooves off to the side and taking its frustration with it. The queen stared at it curiously, but eventually shook herself free and returned her attention to the task at hand.

There was no way in the world that Chrysalis had enough magic to levitate the hydra far away from the hive. Her previous super spell nearly drove her body to the brink of total collapse, though that wasn’t to say that her magical reserves were completely drained to the bottom of the barrel. The exhausted mother of her emotionally distraught son managed to gather the few remaining tidbits of potential energy from the far corners of her body, drawing it all into a pebble-sized sphere at the tip of her horn. At her commander, the trees started to rustle, and their discolored trunks began to glow an eerie green.

Slithering out of the forest like snakes, dozens, if not hundreds of lengthy clumps of jungle vines appeared in mass around the cataleptic predator and began to wrap around its various body parts in the same fashion as its fanged doppelganger. Its three, long necks were braced, while its upper torso and thick legs were completely covered and tightened. The vines cracked like whips as they were suddenly yanked on by an unseen force, and their payload was slowly dragged back into the wood, its scaly girth leaving behind a grassless impression of its humungous body.

The last of Chrysalis’s magic finally sparked away, leaving the tip of her horn smoking. She was immensely tired, and she nearly collapsed to the ground again only to be caught by Roseluck and stood back upright. Ditto did not seem to mind.

“We’re safe…but not for long,” whispered Chrysalis. “Nearly half the forest heard that battle. Scavengers will be here soon.”

“How badly are you hurt? Can you walk by yourself?” asked Roseluck.

“I-I should be fine,” Chrysalis replied, wincing. She then looked down at her son’s face and smiled, gripping the back of his neck with her teeth and hoisting him onto her back.

“Let’s get you back inside,” Roseluck suggested.

“O-of course…”

“Wait, my queen!” the commander suddenly urged. “Up in the sky, look there.”

Chrysalis followed the general direction of the commander’s hoof that lead up into the foggy eastern sky. Six winged creatures appeared over the treetop horizon, their faces silhouetted by their naturally dark skin.

“My warriors return at last,” the commander continued, smirking.

Chrysalis suddenly grew angry over the news. She had completely forgotten that the commander was training a temporary central hive security unit, but to see them appear now, so long after their time of need, raised questions abundant with partnering reservations that reeked of treachery.

“Why weren’t they here to protect us, commander?” asked Chrysalis through gritted teeth with a nasty disposition.

“I sent them out on a scouting mission,” the commander replied with unusual haste. “To the villages and royal guard encampments past the Dragon Mountains.”

“The villages? The guard encampments? What good will that information do us?”

“They’re…s-safe zones, you’re highness.”

“Safe zones?” said Roseluck, stepping into the conversation. “In case you haven’t noticed commander there are no safe zones! There’s no place to hide!”

“Argh! Will you just silence yourself, you impertinent cow!”

This sort of insult made Roseluck rear back and gasp, falling under the coat of disbelief usually associated with anypony who insulted a mare like that.

“Why you little--!” Roseluck was prepared to march forward and deliver unto the commander a vicious, burning hoof slap to the face. She was actually hoping it retaliated, thus giving her good reason to throw down with the creature that gave her nothing but hell since day one. Sadly, her chance at revenge would have to wait another day as her starting advance was cut short when the queen stepped out in front of her.

“Enough! Both of you!” yelled Chrysalis, exchanging glances between each side. “I’ve had up to here with this behavior!”

Roseluck frowned and looked away from the queen’s face, mumbling under her breath.

“Commander,” Chrysalis continued, turning towards the disorderly changeling. “You need to cease your childish attitude! Roseluck has done nothing wrong to you, nor has she ever in the entire time she’s been here! You’ve shown nothing but negativity towards one of the most vital links in the survival of our species. If you really wish to be a part of our own salvation then I suggest you straighten up and fly right!”

Both opposing parties were left in astonishment. The venom in the queen’s voice seemed to have come out of nowhere, her energy-starved body withholding her ruthless emotions until they were needed at the right moment, and the right moment this most certainly was. It was about time someone stepped in and did something about their unstable, yet forced affiliation.

Despite her hate for her companion’s tidal frames of mind, Roseluck at least felt proud for Chrysalis knowing that she could call upon her inner queen to handle a dangerous situation. Her words were just as powerful as her magic.

Satisfied, Chrysalis turned around and started back towards the central hive.

“Deal with your…security force, commander,” she ordered, nudging Roseluck as she passed her. “Come, Roseluck. Let’s go.”

Wasting no time, Roseluck turned and followed close behind the queen, glad that she will soon be away from the pitiful excuse for a royal protector, even if the equivocal irony no longer listed the queen, but rather her offspring, as the most important figure among their dwindling species. Either way, her opinion of the commander’s detestable figure remained barred and chained. If there was anyone here to blame for all the chaos up to this point, then the commander would most certainly be the first in line.

Memory Lane

The northern colony…is dead.

What?! How is that possible? They were multiplying so quickly!

It could have just been the cold that took them…but when we arrived we found weapons and stab wounds on most of the corpses in the hive. Some of them were ponies.

How could an insignificant village like the one up north have killed everyone in the entire hive?!

We don’t know…they outnumbered the villagers ten to one.

…this news is most disturbing.

There is something else you should know. We have had little luck in discovering the location of this...ancient monastery you spoke of. The directing spells you provided continue to fail us.

Try harder then! I won’t take failure for an answer. The longer we wait…the faster we die.

~~~~~

“I-I don’t know what came over me. I-I-It was like my mind just…took over all of a sudden!”

The queen’s ramblings had been going on ever since they left the clearing and returned to the central hive. Roseluck had begun to expect these sorts of uncomfortable conversations long before she bore witness to the power of the mysterious force that was changeling magic. She was no expert on the subject, but there was something about their ways in the magical arts that seemed…off.

Granted it was the queen herself who cast the spell, but even Roseluck knew that not even the most talented unicorns in Equestria could bring such harm to a behemoth like the hydra. Such a challenge could only be fit for one of the princesses, or even that famous student of Celestia’s that everypony kept talking about.

Sadly, there was nothing she could do about them. She was her love slave after all, and as dirty as that would sound in the heads of less sensible folk she had to constantly remind herself why she was here. It wasn’t because her heart felt that she should be sympathetic towards the outlandish insectoids, but because she knew what would happen if she was never there in the first place. Ironically, she knew that she should consider herself lucky rather than downtrodden by the forces of nature.

The young mare’s mind was filled with questions. Her brain could hardly keep up with them all. She needed answers, answers about the world around her, and sitting around all day munching on forest fruits and waiting for a miracle to happen was just downright moronic and possibly bad for her health.

She hated to admit it, but she was doing just that. Only an hour after the intense encounter in the clearing, the party of three was spending its time recuperating in the vast space of the central hive gathering hall. Chrysalis insisted that they all take a break to get their heads straight, but the queen of the changelings was doing anything but resting.

Pacing around the room at what seemed like a thousand miles per hour, the queen mumbled lowly to herself, stuttering every so often as her disturbed face continued to sag like a bowl of old oatmeal. It was as if she was looking through a two-way mirror into the cell of a madpony on display. Cruel, of course, but this was a special kind of cruel, like the bigger of two brothers forcing his younger sibling to walk barehoof over a sea of thousands of excruciatingly painful, wooden building blocks.

“I-I’ve never had this happen to me before…” Chrysalis continued on, still pacing as she went. “You saw what happened, right? Right?!”

“For the twentieth time, yes,” replied Roseluck, trying to enjoy her post-terror fruit snack. “Why do you keep beating yourself up over it?”

Chrysalis halted her pacing and turned to face Roseluck.

“Because I didn’t want to do it! I didn’t want to hurt it like that!”

Upon hearing this, Roseluck nearly gagged on her mouthful of fruity flesh. She swallowed what she could and directed her full attention to Chrysalis, who dropped to her haunches and sulked, hunched over like a sad puppy.

Deep down, she wanted to express just how perturbed she was in the nastiest way possible, but her usual pony ways barred her from doing so, especially in the presence of a young child, who lay curled up on the ground nearby, calmly sleeping away the terrors he had witnessed earlier.

“Maybe it was just out of self-defense,” Roseluck tried explaining, hoping that whatever she said would calm the queen. “Maybe it was…natural that you reacted like that, kind of like a grizzly bear with its cubs.”

“I doubt that a simple hunter like that could ever hold its own against a fully grown hydra. Let alone a hydra as rare and vicious as this one.”

“Yeah...” Roseluck looked away for a brief moment, thinking. “I’ve been meaning to ask this earlier, but…what was that thing anyway?“

“What was what?” asked Chrysalis, turning her head to face Roseluck.

“The hydra, the one with…three heads. That’s sort of weird, isn’t it? Aren’t hydras supposed to have four heads?”

“More if you count…uggh, decapitations,” Chrysalis added, shivering. “Cut off one head and two more shall take its place. It’s the same proverb we’ve lived by for centuries. As far as I know no one in the entire world has ever seen what a baby hydra looks like, let alone an active hydra nest. They’re most often seen with just four heads, which is why it’s been universally accepted that they’re born that way.”

“I…don’t remember being taught much about the Everfree when I was in school.”

“Be glad that you weren’t. They only make their nests in dangerous, hard to reach places such as deep caverns, swamps, and of course, the Everfree forest. We only know this based off the findings of withered or abandoned remains of their nests. This makes studying them almost impossible. They’re so ferocious and territorial that even most dragons would never go hoof to hoof with them. They can smell a drop of blood from miles away, and their strength is the stuff of fantasy! You and I both know that. “

“That makes…some sense,” implied Roseluck. “Pretty scary, though. Something as simple as getting a splinter here could mean life or death for anypony. You seem to be the quite the expert.”

“It was just an exaggeration…I-I hope. They’re just things my mother taught me before she passed. I never knew it before, but we changelings actually have our own, unique name for a three-headed hydra.”

“Really?”

Chrysalis nodded, turning her head up to the orange sky above. The evening sun’s light shone in beautifully from the shrouded distance over the ceiling-less chamber. At least the forest’s “natural” beauty was something they could admire, Roseluck thought. She was at least glad that Chrysalis had ceased her downhearted speech of remorse, for now anyway.

“We called them Varrens,” Chrysalis started, finding solace in her recollecting by occasionally shifting her gaze between Roseluck, Ditto, and the sky above. “The word itself is ancient, even older than I am. Much older! Whoever said the word is usually referring to a single Varren, as the chances of seeing another of its kind are as thin as a blade of grass,” Chrysalis sighed. “Sometimes, when I was younger, my mother would tell me stories, even though they weren’t always pleasant to hear; war stories and the like. She told me that the Varrens arrived into the world riding on the backs of shooting stars, and that they carried with them all the knowledge in the universe split into each of their three heads. And of course I believed her. I would have believed anything back then.”

Chrysalis giggled softly for a moment, then continued. “This led me to believe that they were symbols of good luck. Whenever my mother wasn’t around, I would wander off into the forest to search for one and ask it if it could grant my every wish. Oh how I was sorely wrong when I later discovered that they did anything but. It gave me nightmares for weeks.”

Roseluck could not help herself but to chuckle for a moment upon hearing the end result of the best days of Chrysalis’s childhood.

“How did you find out?” she asked, curious. Chrysalis smiled, delighted to hear that she was interested.

“I was alone when it happened. On a strangely warm summer day, my mother took her best warriors and set off to raid a small village situated along the western edge of the Everfree for its love to feed the rest of the hive. She left me in the care of one of the scouts, trusting that its watchful eyes would keep me out of trouble. Of course, I managed to sneak away, with little effort I might add, but only because its “watchful eyes” were focused more on another changeling who somehow managed to horde a great sum of love from everybody else.”

“Really? Is that even possible? Why would a changeling ever want to horde love? You guys need a constant supply of it to live, don’t you?”

“S-sort of,” Chrysalis replied, making light gestures. “If a changeling has love to feed on, and it doesn’t feed on it, then it won’t die. It will starve, but not to the brink of death. By carefully absorbing small quantities of love at different times it can keep what’s left stored up in its horn, or deep within its body, essentially giving it the ability to live for much, much longer than the others.”

“Whoa…” Roseluck cooed, amused.

“It sounds foolproof, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, this ability benefits no one…” Chrysalis shook her head, releasing the sadness in the form of a sigh like so many others before it whenever she would evoke upon the gloomy, depressing portions of their species’ existence. “We crave the essence of love. It is the force that keeps us bound to this world…and to our degrading curse.”

There she goes again, thought Roseluck. Another minute of mindless, selfless, public misery. As much as she’d rather plug her own ears with vinegar and sandpaper, Roseluck just decided to leave well enough alone. She found it useless to try to calm her down. The title was far from there but she figured that she would do the same for her own friends should they start acting like this. Everypony has their bad moments.

The queen sat back and put her hooves to work by smoothly rubbing the temples on her head, closing her eyes as she steadily gathered her mind.

“I-I’m sorry,” Chrysalis apologized, her speech coming out softer than usual. “I’m getting off track. What were we talking about before?”

“How you found out the truth behind the three-headed hydra,” Roseluck promptly responded. “The… Bear Ends? Air Sends? Something like that.”

Thankfully, no new spark of low key sympathy came as a response, and Chrysalis let out another soft giggle instead. “Vare-ens,” the queen corrected, also fortunate enough to find the strength to put on a smile. “And don’t worry. We don’t use that name anymore. We rarely used it to begin with, as the odds of encountering a Varren are just as slim as encountering another hydra in broad daylight. They’re big creatures, but they’re stealthier than you think.”

Chrysalis cleared her throat.

“Now then, where was I…” She continued to speak. “When the scout caught up with the traitorous love-hoarder, a fight broke out that caught the attention of nearly the entire hivemind, and the resulting distraction was what gave me the opportunity to escape. It was the first time I had ever been out on my own. It felt great, really!” The queen staggered in her breaths, becoming more excited. “I felt like I was my own mother, strong-hearted, courageous, and never afraid of anything! At the time, most of the creatures of the Everfree saw us as a serious force to be reckoned with, and usually stayed far away from our territory, but the bigger, more fearsome predators thought otherwise. They ignored our borders as if they were never there, and continued to hunt as they wished. I never knew that such threats were so close to us.”

“If they were invading your land why didn’t your mother do something about it?” asked Roseluck, who seemed to have become even more interested in the queen’s tales of old.

“We vastly outnumbered them, yes, but we rarely ventured into the forest. Why walk through it when we could just fly right over it?”

“Hmm…good point.”

“Thank you. Anyway, I wandered off into the forest to try and find a Varren. I searched high and low, knowing better than to stray from our territory. I found nothing. But then, just as I was about to give up, I heard a loud bang, followed by an even louder roaring sound. I was terrified at first, but I knew that if I was going to lead the changelings someday I would have to become fearless at one point or another. So, I followed the noises and discovered their source. In a treeless patch of grass I noticed a pack of manticores standing—“

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait! Those things travel in packs?!” exclaimed Roseluck, blitzed with disbelief.

Chrysalis nodded. “Usually they’re solitary predators. Challenge means nothing to them, but impossible odds are a different matter. I assumed that they banded together to bring down something much larger than themselves, but I couldn’t think of anything that would be so colossal as to present a major threat to even a single manticore…” Chrysalis swallowed hard. “Right until its massive head grabbed the nearest manticore and its razor-sharp teeth tore it in half.”

Roseluck was stunned. “S-so, what you found was…”

Chrysalis nodded.

“A hydra, or should I say, a Varren. It was playing dead right there on the ground, waiting for its next meal to wander by. A common form of trickery in the Everfree, but to see one of its most fearsome inhabitants do it was simply mind-blowing! It had no use for such a tactic,” Chrysalis shivered. “With a single move it just…tore that manticore apart! It never saw it coming! I was horrified. I couldn’t believe it was happening, seeing one of my dream idols wreak so much havoc. There were two other manticores in the area, and after seeing their companion get ripped to shreds they tried to escape into the forest. One of them got away, but the other one wasn’t so lucky. Just before it could leap into the trees, the Varren’s middle head lunged forward, and its jaws bit down onto the poor beast’s leg. I was in tears by that point. My dreams were just…crushed right there and then.”

Unknowingly, Roseluck’s senses had heightened over the course of the story after her curiosity, which used to be no more than a loaned pair of false ears, drove her to pay even closer attention to the queen. However, this proved to be only poorer for it when she caught sight of a silvery, glistening trickle running down the queen’s face. She focused her eyesight hard and discovered that it was a liquid substance; tears of the effects of a trip down memory lane, kept concealed in the absence of light when the sun above them shifted towards the calling horizon.

Despite the visitation of her younger years, Chrysalis somehow managed to smile all the way through. It must have had something to do with what she was currently keeping her vision fixed upon, which, at the time, was her little sleeping prince.

“I sat there and watched as the Varren tore its still-breathing prey limb from limb,” Chrysalis sighed. “I ran back to the hive in tears. My mother was already there, having returned from the raid, which was very unsuccessful and lead to the decimation of most of her elite forces. She banished the scout that was supposed to watch over me, and she kept me grounded in her sleeping chamber for days, preventing me from leaving by sealing it with a powerful spell.”

A light sniffle mistakenly escaped Chrysalis’s nostrils. Alarmed, she put a hoof to her face and wiped away the rogue moisture trails. Roseluck had nothing to say, thinking it best to let her finish.

“I wept for days…” Chrysalis continued, trying her best to sound as calm as possible. “Sadly, what happened next was forgotten with time. I never saw the outside of the central hive ever again...until the day my mother passed, that is.”

Chrysalis rose to her hooves and slowly ambled up to her slumbering son. She sat on her haunches in front of him and, using her magic, gently levitated him into her awaiting hooves, cradling the precious cargo. Roseluck decided not to follow, letting the queen have her moment in peace while reveling in the fact that she herself would get some peace and quiet for a short while.

Chrysalis sat as tall as she could in her perfect, motherly stance. The smile on her face meant that she deeply enjoyed the silence. She had to, for it may have been one of the last times she would be allowed to enjoy a moment like this.

From then on, she would be raising him, caring for him. These would not be her only duties, though. She still had the future of an entire species to think about. Roseluck could only imagine just what sort of mental impact this period of immeasurable disorder would have on the queen’s already-distorted mind. And some ponies thought that the princesses were the lazy ones.

Such as any careful mother would to her wondrous gift of the heavens, Chrysalis plainly decided to free herself of all doubts and blackened fears of the heart just for that one, special moment. She was in her own little world now, staring face to face with the unseen magician of fate and silently begging for safe passage in the future with a smile and unexpected attitude calmer than even the stillest waters.

“Roseluck?” Chrysalis spoke up softly.

“Yes?” the mare replied.

“Have you…ever thought about having children of your own?”

Such a question brought Roseluck to actually put some thought into it. It was a pretty bad ice breaker, though. As much as she tried to deviate from it, her mind only pushed the bar, forcing her to deliver a hastily thought-of answer.

“W-well, I…I thought about before, but…actually finding somepony to be with is just…” Roseluck was starting to sweat a little, and she wiped what she could from her brow. Chrysalis glanced at her and took a bit of pleasure from this, smiling warmly as a result.

“I was just curious,” Chrysalis admitted.

“Finding the right one would have been…difficult.”

Chrysalis’s smile suddenly faded slowly, and she looked up towards the gradually darkening sky.

“Huh? What’s wrong?” asked Roseluck.

“There’s…something that’s still troubles me,” replied Chrysalis.

“What is it?”

“That…Varren, the one that attacked us in the clearing.”

“Well…what about it?”

“Something about its presence disturbs me. Hydras and manticores are a bit of a common sight here, but seeing a Varren come this close to the edge of the Everfree…”

“You…said they can smell blood from miles away, right?”

“At least I think they can… oh how I pray that my mother was wrong…”

Formless: Part 1

Nevermore would Chrysalis question the barriers between reality and the plains beyond. In her current situation, she doubted that she would ever be able to question the true nature of anything that lay outside the walls of her home ever again.

Her body felt weightless, and the endless space that surrounded her was too strange to intricately describe. Expanding into the endless reaches was an amorphous stretch of white. All around her she could see nothing but the simple color. It surrounded her, encased her in this land of the unknown. She felt afraid, despite there ever being the presence of a danger she could neither see nor sense for many lengths around. The greenery of the Everfree Forest was a spectacle she now longed for. She hadn’t the slightest clue as to how she got where she was now, and the unfamiliar sensation of weightlessness deviated her mind from questioning why.

When her senses returned in full, she realized that she was floating in mid-air, suspended in the middle of nowhere by an invisible force of nothingness. No strings, no wires, nor taut vines held an uplifting grip around her body. Her thread-like lengths of hair floated alongside her head like reeds in a cold pond. She slowly moved her right hoof through them, feeling each strand glide over the dark skin of her cracked and chipped sole.

Suddenly, she heard an echo, a soft coo that carried on for dozens of miles into the boundless distance. Then, she felt something cold blow across her face and body. It circled around and blew through her mane as well, gently carrying it around the back of her head and neck like a gentle river current. It felt good basking in the bliss of winds cooler and more pleasant than those during a hot summer day in the Everfree.

With the coming of these alien winds, a new force, the all-too familiar force of gravity, made its entrance into the world. The queen looked up and noticed that her ghostly mane was slowly rising upwards. She felt a mysterious energy being directed down onto her body. She did not know what to make of it. She had only felt such a sensation whilst submerged in water, the few times in her life she had actually done so anyway.

Seconds later, her front hooves suddenly touched down onto an invisible bottom surface, startling her. She gasped and pulled them away, but became calmer once she finally realized that her body was being gradually lowered. Her hind legs touched down with the gentleness of a snowflake, and after calming her mind she extended her forelegs and let them touch down as well. Immediately afterward, gravity returned in full force. Her mane and tail dropped like dead weights. The sudden reintroduction to the laws of physics nearly caused Chrysalis to fall over, but with quick reflexes she regained her balance, wiggling her hooves to make sure that she could still feel them.

“…w-where am I?” Chrysalis whispered to herself, remaining still while turning her head to look in all four directions, only to be greeted by blankness at every bearing.

Follow the silver contrails…

A soft gasp escaped under the lonesome queen’s breath as a mystical voice ahead of her rang out in the world of white. It was one of the most soothing sounds she had ever heard in her life, and for her to make that assumption so quickly only forced her to further accept that her mind had escaped the fields of reality. It sounded feminine in tone, and each word echoed through the void accompanied by the numinous twinkling of bells.

“C-contrails?” whispered Chrysalis, continuing to nervously scan the plains around her. “W-what contrails? Hello? I-Is there someone there?”

My bearer of peace will show you the way…

“Bearer of peace?” mumbled Chrysalis in confusion.

Since the voice arose from somewhere up ahead, the queen redirected her gaze and narrowed her eyes, focusing hard on that one direction in hopes of catching sight of this “bearer of peace”, whatever their appearance may be. Seeing anything other than the mats of limbo right now would have been a great way to help set her mind at ease.

After a full minute of staring ahead, she still could find nothing but smooth, taunting emptiness. The endless backdrop made her eyes ache, forcing her to look away to rub away the discomfort.

In that moment, Chrysalis sensed a slight tingling sensation on the tip of her muzzle. She slowly removed her hooves from her face and opened her eyes to stumble upon something she had never seen before; something seemingly unique, but by no means a permit to let her guard down.

A very small, winged creature laid flat at the tip of her soft nose. It proudly displayed two, pointed wings sitting parallel on either side of its slender form. Behind these wings sat a smaller pair of winglets that mirrored its larger counterparts. Its body was of a silvery color, but its defining feature, the wings, was what caught her attention for the longest time. They were of a bright sapphire hue, more so than the bluest oceans, and they seemed to sparkle like rare crystals when viewed at the right angle.

Chrysalis was both baffled and vastly amazed at what she was looking at. Never in all her life had she seen such a stunning display. There was simply no way a creature as beautiful as this could ever exist in the real world, let alone in the Everfree Forest. The only part of the creature she recognized were two short, stubby antennae that jutted out from what she figured was the head. If anything, it was a pest of some sort, like one of the many lesser entities commonly found among the muddy dregs of the Everfree floor, but she did not wish to believe it. Its beauty alone was far too mesmerizing. This had to have been the bearer of peace the voice was telling her about. Besides it being the only other living thing for miles around, what could be more peaceful than splendor like this?

The eye-catching newcomer twitched impulsively before leaping off her muzzle and hovering above her head while beating its dual sets of wings rapidly against the air to showcase its prominence. The grace in the movement of its wings was another dazzling feature that Chrysalis could do nothing but continue to stare at. It darted around her head with the agility of a housefly, giving the queen’s wandering eyes an entertaining demonstration of its otherworldly capabilities.

Suddenly, it took off, speeding past the queen’s head and leaving behind a sparkling trail of dust that floated for a brief moment before vanishing into the ether.

“The silver contrail…” Chrysalis whispered, remembering what the voice told her. She wasted no time in starting her pursuit. She was relieved to find that she could still run, though she was very careful as not to take a too big of a step to either side, not wanting to risk falling off of some sort of invisible cliff or some other hidden pitfall beside her.

The winged being was abnormally fast for its small size. Such large wings should have made this kind of dexterity next to impossible. Eventually, it was no more than a single blue speck on the face of the sunless horizon. The trail it created began to dissipate entirely. Chrysalis panicked and tried desperately to pick up the pace. Still, there was something about the creature that struck a rather…odd note to her, but her mind was more focused on catching up to it than wondering what it was that bugged her.

“W-wait! Stop! Please!” she yelled, her spine tingling when she heard her own voice create a loud echo.

Her added effort was of no use. The creature had flown too far away to be seen at all, and its glistening tracer soon faded out altogether. She was left to wade in a pool of shock. She slowed her running down to a slow walking pace, feeling the bitterness of defeat slowly creep up her body.

You’ve made it this far…

The voice had returned again. This time, it sounded much closer than before. However, the ethereal bells chimes had been silenced.

“W-what? I-I…who are you?” Chrysalis stuttered, doing a miserable job at hiding her fear.

No one has ever made it this far…you must be the one that I seek.

“J-just show yourself!” Chrysalis shouted, swallowing hard afterward. “Please?”

Of course. Turn around.

Slowly, the changeling queen turned to face the opposite direction, taking in and releasing a deep, relaxing breath to aid her in confronting the unknown.

She felt confident in facing whoever had brought her here, but as soon as the corner of her eye caught sight of an eerie blue light she flinched and immediately turned away.

There is no part of me that you should fear. The voice spoke up again, keeping its calm tone of voice. I give you my word that no harm shall befall you here.

Chrysalis paused to build up the courage to try again. Slowly but surely she turned around. She reluctantly kept her head down the whole time, only bringing it up to duly note the visitor’s presence after preparing herself mentally.

Standing across from her just a stone’s throw away was the very recognizable figure of a pony, a very tall pony at that, whose body shape resembled that of a grown mare. Her mind went straight to the image of an alicorn, immediately thinking of the three princesses in the royal cities of Equestria, but her assumption was quickly overruled once she saw that the pony lacked the hefty, trademark wings of the regal species. It did however possess a long, white horn matching its shiny coat color; a simple clue but no stronger.

Its mane and tail were just as remarkable. Unlike the princesses, they did not flow in a way that made it appear as if they were caught in the flow of an invisible, gentle wind, but their luxurious colors of emerald and navy blue were two things that could very well give Celestia’s mane a run for its money. Its eyes were practically gemstones themselves. Everything about the mare resembled magnificence in its prime, but what did she want with someone as lowly as the much-hated queen of the changelings?

“Good,” the strange pony spoke with a smile, her voice losing its echoing properties. “Now I see what I have been waiting for.”

“W-who are you?” murmured Chrysalis, nervous.

The otherworldly pony lifted one of her hooves, revealing a golden slipper that was commonplace with the Equestrian monarchs. A shimmering blue pendant accented the face of the thin pantofle, crafted to appear as a near-mirror image of the creature Chrysalis had encountered only a mere minute ago. The mare’s posture appeared to be imitating some type of noble bow.

“I am Folia, the sole keeper of this paradise we now stand within.”

These words angered Chrysalis, a harsh upstart of feeling forcefully sent on its way. Just the mention of a “paradise” anywhere in the world drove her to speak out against it, denying its existence. It was in her blood. She had lived a hard life nearly all of her life, and she would not permit others to wave their superior hallmarks to the rest of the world, especially not to her face.

“Paradise?” replied Chrysalis with a furrowed brow, baffled. “This place is a wasteland! There’s nothing here. How did I even get here anyway?!” The queen raised her voice once her questions became more forceful. The bite in her voice was all but a sudden ruse.

“Calm yourself,” ordered Folia, lowering her hoof. “This is no place for anger.”

“No! I won’t calm myself!” Chrysalis shouted. She began taking several steps forward, forcing Folia, deeply confused, to begin stepping back. “I demand that you tell me how I got here! I want you to explain everything! Now!”

Chrysalis ceased her intimidating approach with Folia following suit. Not a single sign of incited fury was present on the pony’s face, though her welcoming smile had been driven out by the newcomer’s rant. Her mouth hung open slightly as she took a moment to gather herself after the brief introduction to the queen’s vicious demeanor.

“W-we…are nowhere.” Folia spoke nervously, nearly matching meeting the queen’s original manner of greeting.

“Oh? So now it’s nowhere now? Just tell me where I am!” Chrysalis stamped her right hoof in frustration.

“Why must you act so hostile? I bear no intentions of bringing harm to you in any way.”

Chrysalis’s frustration reformed into an anxious frown. In an instant, she began acting like a completely different changeling.

“Because I…” She began to stutter. “I-It’s mostly…well, entirely b-because I’m—“

“Deep breaths,” Folia cooed, cracking a smile once again to help calm the clearly-frightened queen. “Take deep breaths and release them slowly. They will help.”

Disinclined at first, Chrysalis did as the pony suggested. She closed her eyes and began a steady cycle of relaxation, taking in fresh, cool air through her nostrils and releasing it just as slowly. When she felt that she had enough, she returned her attention to the half-bodied equine.

“There…” Chrysalis sighed. Folia’s smile grew wider.

“Thank you,” the white mare responded. “Now, please. What is it you were trying to tell me?”

“I’d…rather not say now.”

“Keeping it held within your heart will not make you feel any better.”

“I’d really rather not…”

“Speak your mind and I will do what I can to help.” Folia leaned back and sat on her haunches, appearing quite interested in what the queen had to say, which lightened her up a bit. “You have nothing to fear here. Remember that.”

Chrysalis hardly felt like giving away information to a being she had only just recently met, let alone to a pony in a world that, unlike her own, left no trace of evidence that could maybe giver her new understanding. In the realm in which she lived in, reality was by far the most difficult entity to differ from anything else. The Everfree Forest was the stuff of nightmares from the very beginning. What the ponies had in their land of sunshine and rainbows the inhabitants of the Everfree had the exact opposite; literally. Was what controlled was natural, and what was contained was now next to unstoppable. Even the arcane forces of the miraculous and the mystic were victim to the backwards nature of this otherworldly plain.

“Wait,” started Chrysalis, giving Folia a stern look in the eyes. “Just…please, before anything, tell me where I am first. I need to know.”

Folia nodded a single time, returning Chrysalis’s stare with one of her own to remotely transmit her full, undivided attention as well as her notions of being a truthful ally, potential or otherwise, to establish a better, more trustworthy connection among strangers.

“What I have told you before was…not as accurate as I chose to portray this land. This is a paradise, to me anyway. To you it appears as a world of white in all directions, never ending, like a terrible disaster. My own mind bars me from describing what I truly see here. It would be…unbearably complicated just to begin! Even now my mind forces me to continue to communicate with only the goal of digressing even further away from the matter.”

“Can you put it in simple terms?”

Folia opened her mouth to speak, but then immediately closed it when no words would come to her. She tried again, and again her thought process failed her. She scanned the seemingly empty space around her, taking fleeting glances at whatever sort of areas interested her most like a cat observing the flight path of a mosquito. She tapped her chin with the tip of her hoof, reaching into the depths of her ostensibly delicate mind in search of the answer to put the queen’s poor soul at ease. Finally, after much searching, Folia spread a grin thin from cheek to cheek and nodded to confirm her inner judgment, returning her attention to her awaiting visitor.

“It’s…heavenly.”

The word slipped right off the mare’s tongue. It felt so warm and inviting, like a delusion of the same term. Chrysalis had difficulty imagining just what part of the world around her was like that, though she did not mind with not knowing the real answer. Ignorance is bliss, as the ponies once said. So long as she was safe she was happy, even if her alert sense of security was short-lived.

“Thank you,” She sighed, relieved. “But my earlier question still remains. How did I get here?”

“I’m afraid I have no answer for that.” Folia shrugged. “I’ve never met anyone who stayed long enough to ask that question.”

“What do you mean you don’t know? You’ve been talking to me ever since I arrived.”

“You and a thousand others…” Folia looked away, her expression suddenly sullen.

“What?” said Chrysalis. “Where? I don’t see—“

“Before you, many, many others that have passed through these lands. They just seemed to appear out of nowhere. I remember nothing but their faces. Their names are but lost breaths to me. They were terrified and alone, and some even resorted to crying upon arrival, begging for their “nightmares” to end. Before I could speak with nearly any of them, they ran off blindly into the new dominion they were inserted into. I do not know what became of them. I have no knowledge of what lies beyond my home, so leaving to search for them would have beared little success.”

Folia looked up to the pure white sky above, gazing up at its mystery.

“Many have come and gone, but not once have I seen someone like you. This…paradise…it seems to move with me. Should I take a step, the ground beneath me, and the sky above, follows. I-I can’t easily explain it. I awoke in this place in what felt like eons ago. I have no recollection of my past. All I was left with was my name and my soul that never seems to age. It truly is a paradise when you think about it. When I first arrived here, something, somewhere, told me to seek out a truly misfortunate being. The purpose of which I do not know. Are…are you that of which is misfortunate?”

Chrysalis sighed.

“Yes. I’ve had my fair share of hard times recently.”

“Good,” Folia suddenly jolted, realizing the harsh degree of her response. “I-I apologize. I meant it in my favor.”

“It’s alright,” replied Chrysalis. “The reasons for my misfortune are too tortuous to list. You see...I possess a rare, priceless gift…a son.”

“A son?” questioned Folia, intrigued. “You mean…this one?”

Chrysalis watched as a thin stream of blue energy twirled up and around Folia’s horn until it impacted the snowy tip, giving off a great flash of white. Folia remained as she was, which was good in a sense, but above the low ground before her hovered the translucent hologram-like image of the queen’s sleeping infant, displaying Ditto curled up like a kitten in his hanging crib of vines. His eyes were closed, and he occasionally rolled from side to side while he silently dreamed the hours away. Upon seeing his peaceful face, Chrysalis felt like crying tears of joy. Having spent this long in the world of white she longed to do nothing more than to feel his soft, playful touch again.

“Ditto…” Chrysalis whispered, her eyes gently quivering.

“That is its name?”

“Its?” Chrysalis gasped, feeling that the designation was a minor insult.

“Forgive me, but I must admit that it was quite difficult to determine your gender at first glance. I find it…strange that I couldn’t tell immediately, like there is a force of magic involved. There’s just something about you that I can’t put my mind on. Did you give birth to him? Do you care for him and treat him as your own?”

“Yes. I—“ Suddenly, it hit her, a late sense of reasoning previously left without a valid elucidation. Chrysalis paused to hoof through every part of their meeting up this very moment, and indeed something was out of place, and it frightened her more than she cared to admit. Being in the presence of what could may as well have been a wandering deity only abetted her rising tensions of fear.

“Is something wrong?” asked Folia.

Chrysalis swallowed hard.

“H-How did you know what he looked like? How did you know he was sleeping, and where? That’s impossible…unless…”

“I-It came so suddenly to me,” Folia admitted, quickly raising a voice of reason to explain. “It wasn’t long after you arrived. Your energy and his felt so similar, as if close by. I know no more. The rest is left to coincidence it seems.”

“None of this still explains why I’m here, though.”

“As I roam these lands I oft at times come across someone completely different, not in the same manner as the many that have arrived into this world before. Like the others, they seem to appear out of nowhere, wandering aimlessly in the same fearful manner as you did. I would call to them, but they would never listen, with you being the only exception I have ever known. Now that you’re here, my goal has been achieved. What is to come is a mystery. Maybe it was the forces of fate that have brought about this meeting.”

“I doubt that. Fate has…lost its favor in me,” Chrysalis whispered, frowning. “Even now I wonder why you have yet to contempt me…”

“Why would I ever do that? I have no quarrel with you.”

“You don’t know who I am?” Chrysalis was puzzled. This was the first time she had ever met someone who was clueless as to what a changeling was. “My kind has been hated for well over a millennia.”

“A millennia, you say?” Folia raised an eyebrow. “What sort of atrocities would ever hold a grudge against something for over a thousand years? I can see the good held within you.”

“Good? W-within me?” Chrysalis sighed. “No. That can’t be true. The things I have done are far from what could ever be considered good. I’m a monster…”

“No. You are a mother.” Folia pointed to the image of Ditto, smiling. “He is peaceful, is he not? You claim to be misfortunate, yet looking at him now I would most certainly say that your job of caring for him is far from over. You are a mother. Not a monster. A true mother would never act poorly to their young ones. Looking upon his face I see that you devote more of your time to him than anything else, especially in harsh times like the ones you speak of. You may prove to be an impeccable example to all who wish to bear a child of their own.”

“So…you’re saying that I’m the perfect mother?”

“No, but I can say this. Through good times and bad, through the worst life has to offer, you possess motherly qualities unlike anyone I have ever seen. You call yourself a monster based upon your experiences in the past, but here your heart grows warm.” Folia paused and giggled softly. “I can tell.”

The mare pointed a hoof at what Chrysalis guessed was her backside. The queen looked over her shoulder and nearly leaped up with fright upon seeing the winged creature she had tried so hard to chase earlier resting upon the edge of her tail. The pair stared at each other for few moments before the creature leaped off her tail, sailed towards Folia, and rested on the tip of her outstretched limb.

“Hello there, little one,” cooed Folia, placing the delicate creature on top of her head. “I’m glad you have returned.”

To the queen’s bewilderment, the creature began to glow softly, its body blooming brightly and blending in with the white background of the plain that surrounded it. Its light soon enveloped the head it was resting on. In moments, the glow vanished, blowing out like a candle, leaving in its place a shimmering blue circlet around the base of Folia’s horn. Chrysalis grew suspicious at first, but her thoughts were quickly put away by the prodigious impact of her surroundings of the same term that affected her mind long before.

“You bear a child during hard times,” Folia continued. “And yet you remain prosperous.”

“Well…what about…you?” asked Chrysalis, peaking a second insight.

“What do you mean? I never had a child before.”

Chrysalis took a moment to carefully choose the proper words to describe her recently-surfaced thoughts.

“Why…why are you here?”

At long last, it finally dawned upon the pony enigma, hitting her with the force of an unwilling truth.

“I-I…”

“You’ve…never thought about it before?”

“W-Well…”

“What about your family?”

A light gasp came from under Folia’s breath.

“My…family?”

An awkward pause ensued before the final question came across the queen’s mind.

“You…don’t know where you really are…do you?”

“…no,” Folia murmured, her mouth slightly agape.

“…do you even exist?”

The void around them began to displace itself, whatever mass that encircled them now rippling and splitting like breaks in a pond. Patch by patch, the whiteness that surrounded them began to turn dull and grey before eventually succumbing to blackness. Chrysalis stumbled backward in fearful awe. Folia, and the ground beneath her, then began to disappear. She could hear high-pitched echoes resonating in the void. She shut her eyes and covered her ears, frightful tears now lining her cheeks.

—ysalis?

—ysalis, come look!

~~~~~

“Chrysalis!”

The changeling queen awoke with a surprising start. Hot, humid air struck her pale face, intensifying the harshness of her rude awakening. She hastily rubbed the effects of the resident morning refuse from her eyes, opening them shortly afterward upon recounting hearing the sense of urgency in the voice of whom she recognized as Roseluck.

“N’oh, you missed it!” whined Roseluck, standing alert on the far side of the bedchamber and looking up into the sky. Though it was only for a measly second, Chrysalis could swear that she had seen something. Maybe it was just her imagination, she thought. Probably just the glisten of fog-deriving dew in the rays of the early morning sun.

Just then, Chrysalis felt a mild tingling sensation on her left side. Looking over, she discovered Ditto nuzzling her frail wings with his muzzle while emitting a low cooing noise common to many of her species when they experienced a long-awaited respite. As much as she wanted to embrace him in a hug, her recently-traumatized mind kept her soft hooves at bay. Though she felt deeply relieved to see him again, such feeling aiding her in containing her lingering mindset of recent events. She had been a victim to some truly terrible dreams in the past, but none more bizarre than this. Should she test her perception of reality just for safe measure? She inscribed a mental note, reminding her to go deeper into the subject later.

“It’s just you…” Chrysalis spoke softly, gently rubbing the side of his neck. “It’s just you…”

“Chrysalis! That was practically a once in a lifetime opportunity!” exclaimed Roseluck, stepping up to Chrysalis with a wide grin on her face.

Chrysalis remained silent, her ears having blocked out all noise in continued reverence of her return to reality.

“Err….Chrysalis?” asked Roseluck, cocking her head. Chrysalis turned her attention to the mare. “Are you feeling ok?”

“Y-Yes…” Chrysalis murmured in response, lacking even the slightest hint of guilt in her voice; a good preventative measure despite her hesitation.

“You don’t sound like it.”

“I assure you I’m fine.” Chrysalis rose to her hooves after pecking Ditto on the forehead. “There’s nothing you need to worry about, though you do recall what we are to continue today, yes?”

“Oh…right,” Roseluck grunted, taking on a grumpy, unamused frown when the iron-mailed boot of the realization fairy stomped firmly onto the face of her once trouble-free outlook. “More learning.”

“It helps him.”

“It nearly killed him yesterday.”

“No, nothing like that today. I planned ahead. I know of a better place where we may continue…uninterrupted.”

Formless: Part 2

The path Chrysalis had taken leading out of the central hive cut straight through manticore territory. Roseluck was terrified, her mind just barely capable of holding the weight of the disbelief that her latest thoughts so kindly provided knowing that she actually agreed to follow them on the road less traveled, and with very good reason. If the smell of rot and the absence of the sweet flowers she used to know and love weren’t enough to drive her away, then what sorcery was this that kept her pace steady and her shaking body turned toward their unknown destination?

*Squelch*

Oh, right…babysitting.

Rain had fallen upon the whole of the forest last night, softening the dirt and grass on the forest floor and dotting it with mud puddles everywhere she looked. Ditto, on the other hand, took no caution with the potential danger that surrounded them. Rather, he took the one chance he had and turned it into pure fun! The little one had seen the opportunities for excitement and decided to make use of them, leaping from puddle to brown puddle along the path they went and splashing through the murky waters like a young puppy with a thirst for discovery.

“Keep an eye on him, Roseluck,” Chrysalis directed over her shoulder ahead of the mare. “We’re almost there.”

“Keep an eye on him? What about me? Heck, what about all of us?” Roseluck raised her voice. “We’re the ones in danger here!”

“And you think I don’t know that? I know this way better than you ever will,” Chrysalis returned her gaze ahead.

“And where does this way lead exactly?” Roseluck huffed, growing tired of the queen’s apathy to her surroundings. “Somewhere safe, I hope.”

“Of course! Why else would I have taken this path?”

“Maybe because you fancied a game of chicken with a forest full of hungry manticores…” Roseluck grumbled.

“I heard that.”

From somewhere behind them, the travelling pair came to a stop upon hearing a soft, distressed squeak. Upon realizing that they could no longer hear the sound of tiny hooves trotting upon soft mud, they turned and glared at each other in shock. They then looked behind them, catching sight of Ditto, on the verge of tears, stuck in a mud puddle. Try as he might, he was unable to free himself, with most of his lower body and stomach caked with the mushy substance and weighing him down.

“Oh dear…” Roseluck murmured, looking on helplessly, her heart suddenly struck with empathy for the infant’s suffering. “Should I—“

“Out of the way!”

Chrysalis shoved Roseluck aside and rushed to her son’s aid. A green aura surrounded her horn and eventually Ditto himself, slowly pulling him out of the muck and into her awaiting embrace after rubbing away most of the grime that covered him from head to hoof.

“It’s ok, it’s ok…” Chrysalis whispered into his ear, her smile slowly calming him down. “Mommy’s here.”

With the way Chrysalis was attached to her son, it would take no less than an entire army to separate them. A three-headed hydra from a thousand-year old myth might have sufficed but a mother with a threatened or endangered child is anything but docile. Her transformation from intimidating creature to loving caretaker was progressing rather quickly, but Roseluck was far from siding with it. The queen of the changelings still lived on somewhere within her heart, a fearsome lioness just waiting to pounce.

“Are you two done back there?” asked Roseluck. “Surely I mustn’t remind you of where we stand right now?”

“I stand wherever I please,” Chrysalis sternly retorted, looking back at her while she gently rubbed Ditto’s forehead.

“Where we stand is in the middle of one of the most dangerous places in Equestria!”

“Again, don’t you think I know that? The Everfree is a much stranger place than you ponies think, Roseluck. After all, I’ve lived here for most of my life. It holds a…special place in my memory.”

Chrysalis planted a kiss upon Ditto’s cool, innocent forehead before levitating him onto her back, gently placing him just behind the back of her neck. His mother’s mane in his sights, he reached outward and grabbed hold of it, his raspy, childish giggling fueling his playtime as he tugged and pulled on it, occasionally burying his face within its opaque threads just for added fun. Roseluck marveled at such strategic placement despite how painful it appeared to her. The queen of the changelings was becoming more of a mother each day.

“Come, let’s go,” said Chrysalis, reclaiming her position at the head of the line.

The pair continued onward, the fears of a certain cream-coated mare steadily rising like flood waters. She knew…well, she hoped that Chrysalis was smarter than this, but was the queen really so blind? Maybe her age has finally caught up with her, relying on what Roseluck predicted was her gut feeling to lead her decision making. Were those the giggles of a young one at play or the jingle of dinner bells that erratically escaped the infant’s toothless mouth?

“Where exactly are we headed?” asked Roseluck, trying her best to keep her voice soft.

“To a place lost from history. A mystical edifice whose location is known only by few. It is a place where we will be safe, though it has been long since I last visited it.”

“And that would be?”

“You’ll recognize it when we get there.”

“You better be sure about this,” Roseluck spoke sternly. “I don’t plan my evenings around how close you bring us to certain death.”

“If I had wanted to dispose of you I would have done so in a heartbeat, but I don’t, now do I? I made that perfectly clear long ago.”

“Oh please…”

“You’re vital to our survival, Roseluck. Remember that, for without you Ditto…well, let’s just stray away from the worst.” An uninviting picture had formed in the queen’s mind, but a playful, instinctive nuzzle to her son’s cheek brought forth a smile and cast out her most sensitive fears.

Ever since they stepped outside the central hive, Roseluck had felt no onset of a calm demeanor. She had been going on for days with a secret, perpetual dread of everything around her. Surely it was natural, but nopony she knew had ever willingly stayed more than a day in the middle of the Everfree. The hills have eyes and the trees have ears, so they say. Out here they also happen to have mouths…and teeth…and stomachs that growled ferociously.

“Besides, you’ve seen my magic, and I won’t hesitate to strike down any dimwitted beast that would dare do us harm,” Chrysalis continued.

“As if you haven’t changed enough…” Roseluck rolled her eyes. “Makes me wonder why you haven’t already glassed the entire forest.”

“Hmm…not a bad idea actually.”

Roseluck had the strangest feeling that she just heard the black queen snicker. Her thoughts weren’t worth questioning and Roseluck chose to remain silent.

The path seemed to go on forever, as did the experience. She kept a fair distance, hoping that Ditto would eventually tire himself out from playing with his mother’s mane instead of suddenly being reinvigorated by even the tiniest glance of her own brightly-colored forest of long hair, reaching out with his tiny hooves and giggling even louder towards her with the desire to play with it instead. His laughter was squeaky and shrill but unavoidable, which, curiously enough, raised another question.

“How are we not dead yet?” Roseluck asked plainly having finally gotten it off her chest. “What’s so special about this stretch of dirt and mud that’s keeping us out of a manticore’s mouth?”

“The road itself,” Chrysalis replied, cracking a short smile. “It has remained unchanged for over a thousand years.”

“That’s impossible.” Roseluck stared ahead blankly at Chrysalis.

“Well…it’s half true, anyway.” Chrysalis corrected. “Centuries ago, this part of the forest used to rest at the top of small hill. When we fled our homeland, we crossed over it and encountered a brick road, worn, grey, and riddled with fractures. To this day, the ways of nature seemed to have taken their toll, slowly eroding the hill away and burying the path in several lengths of dirt and plant life. My mother was smarter than to follow it at the time, for she feared it lead to a royal guard outpost.”

“And…you suddenly think otherwise?”

“Yes, like how dimwitted the royal guard would have been to build any sort of encampment way out here in the Everfree. I’m not insulting my own mother’s tactics, but they would have been ambushed and torn apart within minutes of stepping into the forest.” Chrysalis sighed. “Though I was a curious young one, and while our new home was being constructed I snuck away and came back here. I followed it for quite a ways, unaware of what manner of creatures surrounded me, yet oblivious to what was keeping them at bay.”

“And that was…?” Roseluck spoke up, desperately eager to know while she looked off into the forest dark.

“Magic.”

Up ahead, something caught the attention of Chrysalis. She came to a halt, catching Roseluck off guard and causing her to collide with her right flank. The mare stumbled, but recovered quickly to rub her forehead. The mother and son pair looked over their shoulders at the scene, giggling in tandem as the mare’s eyes spun around in circles.

“Oooh…why did we stop?” asked Roseluck, finding it strangely difficult to refocus her vision.

“Why else would we stop in such a ‘dangerous, hostile place’?” Chrysalis joked before looking ahead. “We’re here.”

When she regained her proper eyesight, Roseluck found herself within a state of admirable awe after gazing upward towards the treetops where a break in the path was revealed. A decrepit stone structure stood tall within a muddy clearing, its grey bricks and featureless add-ons slowly crumbling away with the passing of time. Strangely, there were no trees on the other side. Just a clear, uninterrupted view of a level of the forest that dipped downward and spread out endlessly. Large chunks of rubble, coarse marble, and brick were strewn about the area, bathed in mud and dotted with damp moss. Holes as large as mountain boulders were knocked into the various, visible façades of the building, apertures that displayed little more than depressing emptiness. Only a single doorway was present at the front, a tall archway that beamed light outward through a thin sliver between an olden set of wooden doors, revealing centuries-worth of dust that cavorted like lazy moths through the humid air.

“The Austere Fortress,” Chrysalis smiled. “Soon to be gone, but never to be forgotten.”

“Uhh…the what?” Roseluck questioned the queen.

“That is the name my mother gave to it. You don’t need to call it that, but you ponies should know it’s true name quite well; The Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, once a home to those you ponies deem…’fair in rule.’”

Roseluck didn’t read many storybooks in her youth, let alone as an adult, but legends fit into a different category for her. She knew of a few rather interesting ones, a similar trait found within just about everypony who imagined that the world they lived in possessed an even more interesting past, but none of them ever expected one of these supposed fantasies to have actually been hailed into existence, even through the workings of magic.

“B-But…this place actually exists?” Roseluck spoke in a bewildered tone.

“What? They didn’t teach you about Equestrian history? About your own homeland?” said Chrysalis, unamused. “Typical.”

“Uggh! Would you knock it off?” Roseluck snapped at Chrysalis. “Do I look like somepony who knows everything there is to know?”

“No,” Chrysalis so plainly replied. Her mood then encountered another shift. From wise and happy to upstart and snooty the queen jerked her head off to the side and lifted her nose up high. “I just expected ponies to know a bit more about their own origins.”

“At least I know more about Equestria’s past than you do!”

“From studying flowers?”

“It’s botany…” Roseluck growled. “Everypony says that. I just didn’t believe it. I mean, come on! The forest has been here forever! Who in the right mind would be dumb enough to build something as big as a castle way out here?”

“My thoughts exactly. I could attempt to answer that, but we’ve wasted too much time just standing here. I’ve already counted out the number of predators that have been stalking us ever since we left the hive.”

“S-Stalking us?!” Roseluck gasped, spinning around to scan the area behind them. She peered cautiously into the thicket of trees on both sides, but could see nothing apart from the norm. Chrysalis could only roll her eyes and start forward, slowly walking towards the front of the aging structure. Ditto gazed up at the towering remnants with a twinkle of wonder in his eyes.

“I-I don’t see anything, Chrysalis,” Roseluck shivered, slowly backing up. “But that doesn’t mean they’re not there. Perhaps we should go back. Right, Chrysalis…Chrysalis?”

When she received no response the second time, the frightened mare glanced over her shoulder. With the black queen no longer behind her for protection, she threw herself into a panic. Chrysalis evidently sensed that Roseluck was no longer behind her, and turned to find her staring pathetically into the forest like a startled kitten.

“What are you doing…” Chrysalis sighed, her pointy ears going limp in disappointment.

“”Y-You just said we’re surrounded by—“

“Nothing!” Chrysalis yelled, stamping her hoof. “Well, nothing that can actually reach us, anyway. Firstly, I never said we were surrounded and secondly we’re completely safe!”

Roseluck looked back into the forest, unsure of whether or not she should believe the queen’s word for once.

“The path we were just on and this clearing are both protected by magic, like I said,” Chrysalis explained. “It’s some form of barrier that can be easily lifted by any being who can manipulate magic, sometimes without them even knowing it. It’s been there for over a thousand years and hasn’t changed since. I have no idea who put it there, and frankly, I don’t care who did. Now, are you coming or not?”

Her companion’s words were almost always words of chance. Roseluck couldn’t even trust her with even the most basic of information, but what other choice did she have? Besides running and screaming for “Help!” like a headless chicken, very little. Same as always. She turned and rejoined the queen at her side, lifting her pent-up tension and doubts in favor of the mother’s instinct. On their journey towards the ghostly doorway, her eyes wandered off towards what little figments of natural beauty the Everfree forest possessed.

Off to the far left of the clearing, she caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a wide gulley, with two parallel wooden posts on each side. Two of the posts were practically nothing but splintered husks, and their parallel siblings were black with decay. She assumed they use to be part of some sort of supporting structure, like a bridge, but eventual wayside boredom redirected her attention elsewhere, which happened to be the great twin monoliths that gave way to the castle entrance.

They ascended a short flight of stairs onto a stone promenade where the sun’s light shined warmly onto their faces. Chrysalis took hold of the doors with her magic and forced them open. Their aging hulks rubbed and rumbled along the stone floor in a rather unpleasant way, like the much-hated sound of a chair being dragged across an unpolished wooden floor. Roseluck took one final look outside before following the queen through the grey archway.

The interior of the runic monastery managed no better in any way. It felt just as empty. It was much smaller on the inside than Roseluck had expected, with the entrance giving way to an extensive grand hall. Whatever roof there used to be there had long since collapsed and merely patches of debris and dry vines furnished the place, with only fluttering moths acting as the evening’s royal guests. Holes for windows were carved out, but there was nothing worth seeing out of them, just like there was nothing worth seeing from the back of castle, which was shrouded by thick vegetation. Ditto marveled and Chrysalis wondered, but Roseluck was left to float her eyes about with a fleeting sense of terror, fearing that some giant, razor-winged bird or some other equally-shocking abomination would unexpectedly swoop down and snatch her clear off her hooves.

“This should be perfect,” said Chrysalis, taking a few steps forward after letting Ditto slide off her back. “It’s quiet, roomy, and above all, safe. We can practice whatever we like here.”

“Did it always look like this?” asked Roseluck, looking around. “It seems a bit…structurally unsound.”

In the time the two stood there, Ditto spent his first time ever on rock-solid ground exploring the somehow still-standing piece of history around him, scurrying from corner to corner on his tiny hooves poking and prodding at whatever sort of item of interest that came across his wide field of vision. On his tiny adventure he discovered quite a few things he had yet to interact with back home, like a patch of moss on a rock that made his face tickle ever so delightfully or watching inquisitively as an earthworm buried its face into a pile of dirt.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a something red and wavy. He turned and nearly burst with excitement at the sight of a long curtain of tattered red fabric wedged into a space between the floor and a broken column. To him and his spirited self it represented his mother’s mane perfectly, except for the color, but it didn’t matter either way. The world was his playground, and everything was a new toy just waiting to be played with! His little tail swished from left to right as he bounded over to his next plaything.

“Well, it was more…intact a long time ago. The forces of nature have taken their toll, but are far from utterly brutalizing it.”

Roseluck sighed.

“I hope you’re right about this…”

Over by the leaning column, Ditto was already hard at working attempting to pull the red fabric out of its wedge, with one end of the fabric clasped between the jaws of his toothless mouth. He was locked in a battle of strength and determination, jerking the fabric with all his might in a tight-edged game of tug of war. Who was to reign victorious? The crackling of stone and the shifting of heavy rock soon gave way to the silent cry of victory. After much work, the fabric came loose, and Ditto yanked it out completely only to tumble backward onto the ground. He quickly rose up and eyed his new treasure, hugging it like he would do with his mother’s mane.

“Alright, let’s get started. The sun may go down before we know it and wandering around aimlessly through the dead of night while predators are about is a risk I am far from willing to take.”

“Yeah. Just one question…” Roseluck started, looking around her. “Where’s Ditto?”

Suddenly, the pair was startled by a loud, wrenching cracking noise originating from somewhere nearby. They turned, looked, and nearly leapt out of their skin when they found Ditto giggling and snuggling with a ragged curtain next to a menacing stele of stone. A long, wide crack ran down its middle which widened and fractured with each passing second. It began to list dangerously in the infant’s direction, loosening stones the size of apples from crevices in the high walls above him. Chrysalis reacted immediately, pumping magic into her horn as fast as her veins could carry it and whisking Ditto straight off the ground and rendezvousing with his mother’s pillow-soft bosom just in time for the unforeseen mortars to land and shatter like glass.

What little was left of the supporting base was promptly crushed underneath the weight of the enormous pillar. Much like the spiritual vessel of a lumberjack’s sweat and blood, gravity finally forced it down to its demise. It slammed into the floor in the center of the room, throwing up a cloud of blinding dust and debris. A nasty coughing fit ensued, but Ditto was spared. The thick murk gently fell to the ground like dirty snowflakes, revealing the aftermath where the column lay flat on its side in the middle of the mid-sized crater, broken in two but not wholly destroyed.

“Is…is it over?” Roseluck murmured, covering her mouth and coughing between words.

Such famous last words these were, but the voyagers three were long from their end of troubles. To answer the mare’s question however was probably the most unlucky piece of earth in existence, the last stone to fall after its brethren, one that slipped off from its resting place, bounced up once off the ground and met its demise in the very same crater, where, by the most otherworldly means imaginable, shook the basin to its core. The floor around it began to split, widening the fissure. When the sharp cracks came within inches of them Roseluck screamed and took flight with Chrysalis as the ground behind them crumbled away. They ran as far back as the door before turning to assess the situation, where they discovered that most of the floor had been swallowed by a giant sinkhole, leaving only a stygian pit square in the center. No weight hung greater than their jaws in that moment, and Roseluck was left with only inquiry to go by.

“You call that safe?!” Roseluck yelled to Chrysalis’s face. “Are you out of your bug-brained mind?! We could have been killed, again!”

“That wasn’t my fault! Do you really think I could have ever expected that?!”

“Hellooo! We’re standing in the middle of some thousand-year old castle that probably shouldn’t have even existed in the first place for obvious reasons! What couldn’t you expect?!”

Ditto longed to see his new plaything again amidst the confusion and chaos that separated them. He feared that it was lost in the accident, and came close to tears when the realization nearly hit him, but just before the waterworks started he caught a glimpse of something colorful hanging on the edge of the colliery. He immediately recognized it as the red curtain. He wanted to run to it in a grateful reunion and envelop his tiny form within its silky folds, but the climb down his mother’s high back is what brought his hopes to a standstill. He looked to his tiny wings, but found them weighed down with a layer of dust. He whimpered mournfully, defeated.

Of course she could hear the pain in Ditto’s voice. Chrysalis’s ears were fine-tuned to pick up even his softest breaths. She was on the edge of escalating her current argument, but turned her attention to Ditto at the last minute. She slipped down to her haunches and swayed him gently in the cradle of her arms, turning away from Roseluck just so she could replace her sour disposition with a warm smile. Ditto however did not smile back much less look at her directly. Her gaze returned to the sinkhole, where she caught sight of the curtain he had been playing with only minutes before hanging on the edge. Getting the message, she set him down and walked over to the pit’s edge where she retrieved it and gladly returned it to him.

“Hmph! We went through all that trouble too. Now look where we are! “

Chrysalis paid no mind to the perturbed mare as her senses were focused on the unfiltered fun Ditto was having. His laughter was softened by the thick curtain he tossed about in, though she did do her part to make sure he wouldn’t roll right off the edge. Just for kicks, she nudged a small rock into the pit, wondering how far down it went. Despite the shrouding darkness, it landed rather quickly and resounded with a resonant echo. The queen was left puzzled.

“Did you even hear a word I said?!” Roseluck yelled as she stomped over to the queen. She received no response, unless you count the bitter silence she received in its place. “Hey!”

“Hush!” Chrysalis responded, staring down into the abyss. “Listen…”

She levitated another rock over the pit and dropped it. It fell and landed shortly after, peaking her curiosity.

“Great. You showed me how gravity works. Now, how does that help us get any closer to leaving before another bad thing happens?”

“There’s solid ground down there…” Chrysalis murmured. “Not dirt…but stone.”

“Is this really the time for a geology lesson?”

“If my instincts are right…hmm. I wonder…”

Chrysalis looked towards the lip of one of the pit’s edges, an area of fixated debris that made it possible to climb down, barring the foolish leap of faith. She made her way over to it, nuzzling Ditto’s snuggled neck along the way and him her attention.

“Uhh…what are you doing?”

“Watch him for me.”

With that, Chrysalis jumped. She leapt from the edge and touched down softly onto a segment of earth that jutted outward. When she felt that it was safe, she leapt again, and again, continually descending.

“Wait! Where are you going?!” Roseluck yelled from the surface.

“Watch him!”

“But--!”

Roseluck nervously bit her lip as she watched the queen descend. Her anxiety dripped down to the tips of her hooves, which she skipped upon in tune to her growing fears of being taken by surprise by one of the Everfree’s many horrors. She still didn’t believe all that nonsense about complete protection from danger by something as silly and unreliable as a thousand-year old spell from a kingdom as old as the soil beneath it. Faced with only one decision, she followed the sound of laughter to Ditto’s location, which happened to be right beside here, where Ditto now seemed to be wrestling with his own legs. She bent down low and quickly gained his attention with a nervous smile.

“C’mon, D-Ditto. Let’s go follow her. Come on, hehe…”

Ditto turned over onto his stomach and poked his head out fully from underneath the curtain, still brimming with foalish excitement. His gaze was no less absorbing, which made her next move slightly easier. She reached forward and carefully lifted the young one onto her back, taking the curtain with him and twitching when she felt a tinge of pain from her scalp.

“Wait for me!” Roseluck shouted, giving chase to the queen down the same path.

After traversing down a hard path similar to the fashion of a common mountain goat, Roseluck’s hooves made contact with solid ground. Her trek wasn’t the easiest, no thanks to the carelessness of a certain mother and her strange inability to care on and off about everything. She caught sight of a glowing green light at the end of a long passageway, as well as recognized the tall outline of Chrysalis’s body. She was careful to approach it as well as keep her nerves in check by resisting the urge to look behind her. Ditto had buried his head into her mane to hide from the shadow that surrounded them, but revealed himself with another toothless grin when he recaptured the sense of his mother’s presence nearby.

“You’ve finally arrived,” Chrysalis spoke, looking back over her shoulder and smiling.

“Finally arrived? You told me to watch Ditto!” Roseluck responded angrily, moving closer to the queen’s light.

Chrysalis levitated Ditto from the mare’s back and placed him on her own.

“And you did. I would thank you for doing so, but you don’t seem to be in the mood to be gratified.”

Roseluck sighed, rolling her eyes.

“Give me a break…”

Chrysalis brightened the light coming from her horn, revealing the walls to be set at a strange curve, like looking inside of a glass bottle, suggesting that the tunnel was bored rather than naturally formed.

“Strange…” Chrysalis whispered.

“What? This place just looks like some old wine cellar.”

“These walls were crafted by way of olden magic,” Chrysalis pressed a hoof against the even surface. “I can almost feel the vestige energy…it’s like an ancient crypt.”

“So…we’re in an old wine cellar.”

“It’s not a cellar!” Chrysalis retorted.

“Then what could be down here?”

Chrysalis turned and positioned her horn forward, shining her emerald lamp upon the face of a dead end. It wasn’t rounded like the rest of tunnel, though it did display a large number of brittle cracks and flaws that looked as if they’ve been there for ages, left undisturbed.

“Can we just go back before it gets dark? This place has creeped me out long enough!”

A thought came to the queen’s mind just then, and as a result Chrysalis moved her curious ears in close to one of the cracks. She listened in carefully, closing her eyes and blocking out as much background noise as possible. Then, like the tiniest, most gentle of events, she felt a light breeze snake through the gap and tickle her cheek ever so smoothly. It gained speed shortly after, blowing across her muzzle and leaving a faint scent of old musk in the air.

“What was that?!” Roseluck squeaked when she heard the spectral winds whistle overhead.

Chrysalis attempted to place her hoof on the shattered façade, but nearly tripped and fell when her delicate touch caused entire chunks of the timeworn shingles to break off and shatter onto the floor. What was revealed to them shocked both she and Roseluck, who walked up to her side and stared on with her in the presence of a mammoth stone disk. Most of its surface was featureless, but despite the centuries of dust that shrouded it traces of some sort of paint-like material ruled the outlying curves.

“What could this be?” she asked while looking over the unearthed relic.

“Beats me,” replied Roseluck, shrugging her shoulders.

Chrysalis stepped forward to get a better look. With nothing better to do, Roseluck joined her in searching for clues. Meanwhile, the queen was on the verge of an important discovery. While she brushed away ages of dust and flaky debris, Chrysalis uncovered a patch of long-faded tempera that appeared to be of symbolic importance. It most closely resembled a very short-winged bird with seemingly no feet or even a beak, but she could make no further sense of the image and was left to only stare and wonder.

“Hey, wait!” Roseluck spoke up, making Chrysalis look over to her. “This thing is a door!”

“A door?” Chrysalis turned and scanned her vision across the surface of the disk. “I had a suspicion…”

“Yeah! It’s like a giant treasury door, like in a bank or something. Look up there!”

Chrysalis complied, and she indeed discovered the proper signs. She directed her light onto a small directional channel carved into the ceiling in which the disk was inserted, like the wheels of a wall ladder in a fancy library.

“Why would there be a door all the way down here?” Chrysalis asked. “Could there be a second entrance? Even then, why is there a tunnel here to begin with?”

“I’m still holding my bet on this place just being a really big wine cellar…”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes, returning her attention to the theoretical door.

“Should we open it?”

“Haven’t we already been in one too many life-threatening situations?”

“Nothing could possibly live down here. I know nearly every inch of this forest and not once have I heard news of a hidden chamber beneath these lands. I must know.”

“Well, you have fun putting your precious life at risk.” Roseluck spun around and harrumphed with an uptight composure. She started walking away, but stopped and glanced over her shoulder to deliver another remark. “May I remind you that you’re endangering the future of your own—“

Roseluck was quickly cut off by the crackle and whirls of strong magic. Shocked by what she was hearing, she quickly spun around again and discovered the queen charging her horn for a spell. The mare ran to her side as quickly as her hooves could get her there.

“Are you crazy?! You have no idea what could be behind there!” Roseluck shouted in a panic next to the queen’s face.

Ditto was lifted from his mother’s back by the grip of levitation and suddenly tossed towards Roseluck, where he was caught out of the confusion. Roseluck was stunned, yet Ditto celebrated his revisiting with a big smile.

“Then watch him!” Chrysalis responded a stern look in the eyes before forcing a maelstrom of energy through the sharp tip of her horn. Her mystical power enveloped the stone blockage and began rolling it aside ever-so slowly. The unnerving grinding noise it produced sent shivers down Roseluck’s spine, and she backed away with the infant on her posterior.

A sliver of faint yellowish light shot out of an ever-widening crevice as the door continued to roll. When the length of the gap was sufficient enough, which revealed it to be the mouth of a smaller tunnel, Chrysalis powered down her magic and left it up to whatever light was coming in from beyond to illuminate the way. Fearless, she stepped closer to the new entrance and listened in carefully. Roseluck fell dead silent, anticipating the worst.

“The way is clear, or so it would seem.” Chrysalis spoke up.

Roseluck fell at ease while trotting to the queen’s side.

“That’s a…relief, I guess.”

“Right.” Chrysalis nodded. “Let’s head in.”

“Err…you first.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes in distaste when she observed the mare faking her attentiveness to the maw of the tunnel by staring elsewhere. She started forward, stepping into the breach where Roseluck then followed suit. After a rather brief stroll through the double-bended conduit, they stepped out of the tunnel at the other side and into a place unlike anything they had ever seen before.

Their navigational light source had led them to culmination of their recent series of unfortunate events. What started off as a simple goal in search of a new training ground had brought them into a roomy sanctum hidden deep underground, built entirely out of coarse stone and left barren to all but a single point in the ceiling; a square-shaped skylight that brought in light from the surface world above, bright enough to enliven the whole room. Slow winds made their entrance through this porthole, whistling as they descended. Dust and fettered cobwebs covered every surface save the floor, giving it a truly haunted feel. A stone basin occupied the far side, but all else was so much runic paraphernalia in the emerald eyes of the eldest. But, of course, Roseluck’s guess was as good as any.

“Hah! Wine cellar! I told you!” Roseluck berated the queen with a spirit of victory, seasoning it with a smug attitude like she deserved it for all that she had been through. “We just stumbled upon some super ancient wine cellar that the princesses must have used over a thousand years ago that nopony but them could have accessed. It aaall makes sense,” she giggled. “And you thought otherwise.”

Chrysalis rubbed her forehead to display her compelling sense of disapproval.

“Why do I even bother?” Chrysalis looked up and began stepping forward. “Use a better sense of insight for once. This can’t possibly be a wine cellar. There is only one entrance and no easy way to find it. Not only that, but the door was covered in strange insignias and markings, though I am left unsure as to why they are there. This must have been a simple vault, built so that no one could ever know about it let alone gain access to it.”

“Why build this place and put nothing in it?” Roseluck asked, looking around the room.

“I don’t know, but perhaps…perhaps something could be over there?” Chrysalis turned her head and gestured towards the still basin. Oddly, Roseluck was not reluctant in following her over to it. When they peered inside they discovered two ancient curios within: a marble tablet and the business end of a broken key, which Roseluck herself retrieved while the queen took up the tablet in her hold.

“Wow…some trinket,” Roseluck sighed, unamused. She tossed the fragment aside and fell to her haunches, yawning.

“Pick that up right now!” Chrysalis snapped. “It could be important!”

“Oh, and that slab of rock you’re holding suddenly is?”

“W-Well, not that I know of but…what a minute,” Chrysalis brought the tablet closer to her face, interest and fascination deriving from her eyes. “Something’s odd about the formation of these…by the stars! I-I can’t believe this!”

“Believe what?”

Chrysalis turned around, levitating the cairn by her head and exposing a lengthy filing of chiseled symbols.

“This tablet is written in an ancient Equestrian language, one commonly used by even our own species even long before we were driven from our homeland.”

“Well…ok? What’s it say?”

“No no, Roseluck,” Chrysalis shook her head before pointing a hoof towards the center of the relic. “Words as ancient as this aren’t really meant to…say anything, but show it. It’s a map.”

“A map. Really?”

Chrysalis nodded slowly, looking it over nervously.

“Well…any ideas on where it leads?”

Chrysalis took to translating again, shaking her head slowly with each new bit of information she uncovered.

“Th-This shouldn’t exist. This couldn’t exist!” Chrysalis murmured to herself rather loudly. “They were nothing but stories, legends! No land could have ever just disappeared like that, vanish into the ether like dust in the wind!”

Chrysalis turned once more.

“No…the evidence is right in front of you, you fool…you never look hard enough,” Chrysalis stared up at Roseluck.

“So?”

“Yes, it…really is a map, but it leads to someplace I never thought could have possibly existed. It was from an old story my mother told me when I was young. It was more of a horror story really, since she referred to its outcome often to get me to behave. It seemed like fantasy at its absolute best, but…it was my mother herself who signed this tablet, right here at the bottom. I’ve trusted her on everything before her passing. It can’t be a coincidence…it just…can’t.”

An unexpected sensation of pity crawling onto her shoulders, Roseluck frowned and took her next, most important question slowly.

“Where does it lead?”

The truth was then revealed after a long moment of silence.

“…Mariposa. The Butterfly Kingdom.”

Become

From her time as a young one, Chrysalis’s mother always reminded her that all life had a purpose. In her adolescence, it did not make much sense. Ponies were born as squishy, meaty love sponges in three different flavors with no other purpose but to waste their potential by being happy all the time. Where was the return? To what great, universal purpose did they belong to?

Tasty flavors they might be, but she knew there had to be more to life than just becoming the divine breakfast of something bigger and scarier than you.

Life was swift, cruel, and downright horrifying.

There was no denying it, and anyone who blatantly chose to do so could usually be found gurgling in the fresh, steamy excrement of some unseen horror they knew nothing about, the victim of their own idiocy.

Her mother was the one who taught her such a silly proverb, and, like her young, free-spirited self she laughed and at the same time felt sick at the thought of seeing herself submerged neck-deep in a mountain of manticore dung. Her memory of it was an ode to, theoretically, good parenting, for it taught her about the natural order of things. Play the fool and commence your downfall, but play the mastermind and complete the circle.

Perhaps, thought the queen on her return journey to the central hive, ponies really were meant to rule as the dominant order of Equestria. Their mastery of the earth, air, and mystics allowed them to play a better card above all the rest. They were dealt the better hand in life. They won fair and square.

Or, she mused with a following sigh of dread on the very same return journey, destiny could be, quite literally, a pain in the plot. Maybe it would be less of a jerk if it stopped crushing the dreams of young ones who hope and pray for brighter futures. Instead, they are stuck with wayside skill sets and nothing else for the rest of their lives all the while being slowly crushed beneath destiny’s mighty hammer of pettiness.

“Follow the silver contrails…” Chrysalis muttered in a low whisper, gently gliding a hoof over the surface of the tablet. This object had stood the test of time and she now handled it as delicately as one would handle a simple butterfly.

Through the open roof in the central hive, she looked to the clouds blanketing the sky; their seemingly boundless size resembled a form close to divinity and, she hoped, could portray the answers she sought for so hastily. The right one had to be somewhere among the vapory threads. “Folia… Such a strange name. What did she want with me?”

“I think you should be more concerned with what he wants with you,” Roseluck spoke up from the far side of the gathering hall where they stood. One of her hooves was pointed downward, indicating the base of the queen’s hooves. Chrysalis’s gaze turned downward, as did her expression when she frowned at the sight of Ditto signifying the face of an impoverished soul, with his imperfect cheeks having transformed into a faux coming of age.

“Oh…” Chrysalis sighed through her nose.

“Maybe you should…?” Roseluck rolled a hoof in the air, expecting the queen to understand what she was trying to get across.

“Oh!” Chrysalis gasped, finally getting the message. “Hungry…he’s hungry…right.”

“Yeah…right,” Roseluck rolled her eyes, and amidst the discomfiture Chrysalis put aside her tablet and took up Ditto in her hold. She managed to get him to giggle to revive his spirits by tickling his soft underbelly, but was swiftly reminded of her intermittent configuration when his joyous laughter was interrupted by the rumbling of his stomach. His pent-up hunger drove him to moan in pain.

For one of the few times over the past few days she paid special notice to his safety, his cries were actually starting to worry her a lot. She could easily relate to his pain, for when you’re in a dreadful famine for hundreds of years all you ever hear besides your own breath was the beating of your heart and the torturous grumbles of your weak stomach so helplessly deprived of what it so sorely needs.

“Come, Roseluck. Over here,” Chrysalis hurriedly waved the mare over.

Seeing Ditto’s face up close however only drove the mare to worry all the more. Roseluck cringed a little when Ditto began to writhe in the cradle of his mother’s arms, clutching his stomach like it was an unbearable sickness. She could recall herself once coming down with a terrible stomach virus that left her bedridden for a whole week. She especially remembered the cramps that tore at her digestive system, but she couldn’t for the life of her imagine what the experience must feel like at such a young age.

“He…doesn’t look so good…”

“It’s just hunger pains,” Chrysalis replied with a hint of uncertainty in her voice.

“That is what hunger pains look like?”

“Love is an energy, not of a solid substance. With every move we make, more of it is drained from our bodies. It’s simple. The smaller the changeling, the quicker they could starve.”

“That’s why you need so much of it, right?”

“Exactly.”

Roseluck sat down and bowed her head.

“Well…let’s get this over with.”

Chrysalis put a hoof gently to Ditto’s neck to keep him held still. Doing so, through the telepathic abilities she benefited from the now meager shadow of what once was the hive mind, her very touch granted her an inside look at the thoughts and emotions of his heart and soul. The views beyond the veil of the mind were dim at best, for his body was too weak to make much sense of anything.

Suddenly, Ditto’s pain intensified, and he openly began to cry. Roseluck could have never imagined seeing the teardrops of a spawn of a once great evil, but no matter how long Chrysalis tried to uphold it, the queen’s evil half was long gone, and it remained known to her only as a black-hearted specter. It could scare occasionally, but never again bring harm to the innocent.

“Hurry it up! Can’t you see what’s happening to him?!” Roseluck shouted.

“I know, I know!” Chrysalis hastily replied.

The transfer spell began immediately. From the flesh and bone of the forbearer of the key to Ditto’s life, the energy of love seeped out through Roseluck’s pale skin. Its power distorted the space around her and colored it a slight, pinkish hue. The energy was channeled through to Chrysalis’s horn before slowly being absorbed into Ditto’s soft chitin, passing through his thin carapace and seeping into his body. He calmed down in due time, but childcare wasn’t all that simple. Roseluck looked up just in time to see Chrysalis nuzzle the infant and rock him back and forth. Ditto welcomed his mother’s advances with open arms, his forehooves of which playfully grabbed at his mother’s nose.

The spell was broken just as the squeaky laughs arose from a certain young one. Ditto had returned to full health, his hunger subsided and his timely smiles remaining as something to relish.

Roseluck stood up and went through a checkup procedure to make sure she was alright and that the spell hadn’t taken more out of her than she would have preferred. Still breathing? Check. Skin still on? Check. No angry, hungry fire beast swooping down from the sky with sharp claws extended and eyes on the more bulbous parts of her unsullied backside? She needed to check that in gold ink. Some part of that Lyrish luck myth she heard from a fortune cookie had to be true, and when her life was on the line she needed as much of it as she could get every second of every day!

Though, silliness aside, the only thing she knew of that kept her sane on a base level, there was a serious concern she needed to get off her chest. It had plagued her for what felt like ages up to now. It all fell in line with this wretched forest. Never had she wanted anything to do with it, but as many times as she thought about fleeing she was always brought back to the fact that her captivity was wholly indefinite, at the mercy of the queen. If she was going to stay alive, she needed to lay down some ground rules for herself, but these rules would be all but useful if she didn’t clear up a few matters with the ever-so negligent queen of a hopeless future.

“Chrysalis?” Roseluck furrowed her brow. “We need to talk.”

“Not now, not now,” replied Chrysalis, waving her off.

“Yes. Now.”

Chrysalis looked at Roseluck as if she was crazy, but then, in that moment, she felt it. She quickly looked away, realizing what she had just done, and how uncomfortably real it felt to not backlash and harshly threaten anyone who dare disobey her even after she ordered them away.

“Th-Then talk. No one else can hear us. We are safe here.”

“Put him down first,” said Roseluck, gesturing to Ditto.

“Why?”

“You’re getting distracted. Uggh, this is serious!” Roseluck stamped her hoof.

“I’m not letting him out of my sight and that’s that!”

…no. Just…no.

Roseluck couldn’t take it anymore. She just couldn’t take it. What couldn’t she take, exactly? Who knows, because she hardly did anymore. She never thought she would see the day, but no.

This was the day.

Suddenly, the mare lunged forward, leaping ahead and grabbing the changeling queen by the skin of her neck. It happened so quickly that Chrysalis had no time to let out a gasp, let alone keep her footing. She nearly lost her grip on Ditto and yearned to scold and threaten the living daylights out of her companion.

“W-What the?!” Chrysalis stuttered as angrily flailed her body from side to side. “H-How…dare y—!”

Roseluck scowled and pressed her hooves harder against the queen’s neck, which was surprisingly pillow soft and as easy to squeeze as a wet sponge. It was dangerous in such a way that her actions, though lacking strength, could even choke Chrysalis to death given the situation. Chrysalis softly yelped at the first onset of stinging pain before Roseluck yanked her closer until they met each other eye to eye, horrified by the severity of it all. This was unlike her. Was she possesed? Crazed? Had she been set up? In any case, Chrysalis was in for a world of hurt.

Oh how the tables had turned.

“Shut. Up.” Roseluck grunted through clenched teeth, the daggers that were her bloodshot eyes staring deep into the queen’s newly reformed soul. “Listen carefully, Chrissy.” Roseluck squeezed the queen’s neck harder with each emphasis of her words. “I have never trusted you. I have never done so much as to like you in the slightest. You are the root of all my problems right now and the bane of my existence! You’re scum and you know it, and while you sit here and take frivolous risks just because you feel like it, your entire species, your subjects, your children, the ones you should be caring about are all starving to death!”

Chrysalis could hardly believe this was happening. She was supposed to be the vicious one, not Roseluck. Never Roseluck! No pony in all of Equestria could ever outmatch her the queen’s power in words. But every part of it was true, and denying it in any form would be pointless. It almost made her want to…cry; for the first time in hundreds of years. Not because they were…true facts…but because it reminded her of her mother.

Down below, Ditto was getting concerned. All of the shouting and angry voices he heard meant that something wasn't right between his mother and caretaker. At the first sight of the frown on his mother's face, he became restless and tried to gain her attention using the only few ways he knew how, most notably the sounds he made when sad or frightened. Roseluck glanced at him when she heard his nervous squeaks that broke the silence between them, her expression remaining stagnant.

“Put him down.” Roseluck commanded.

“B-But…” Chrysalis stuttered.

“Now.” Roseluck growled with the threatening brutality of a mighty lioness.

Apparently, Chrysalis wasn’t the only one who possessed a bad side kept hidden from the clueless, outside world. Her own hidden lioness looked more like a defenseless kitten compared to Roseluck’s rarely embodied spirit of anger. Swallowing hard, she complied with her demand once Roseluck released her grip on her throat, gently placing Ditto on the ground and tapping him softly on the rump to send him on his way towards a vacant corner in the room. He stepped forward only a few feet before looking back, disheartened that his methods for bringing joy to his mother's face failed. Wishing to resolve the situation quickly, she waved him off with a stern twitch of her hoof. He had no choice but to obey. He whimpered forlornly as he hobbled away, but he knew good and well that her decision was final.

“There,” Chrysalis hissed, retaliating Roseluck’s glaring ilk with the well-known hostility lain within a viper’s signature forewarning. “Are you satisfied, yet?”

“That…that wasn’t my intention,” replied Roseluck. She sighed dismally and sat down, closing her eyes and vigorously rubbing her temples. “Look, just…sit, please. I just need to discuss something with you.”

“You truly believe I’m going to listen to you after all that?!”

“I just needed to get your attention…sort of. It’s a little more complicated than that.”

“Oh, spare me the pleasantries…” Chrysalis grunted, rolling her eyes before sitting down in front of her. “Fine.”

“Thank you,” Roseluck replied in a singular, posh-like tone to reassert her role in the conversation. “I…ok, I'll admit. I went a little too far there with the whole calling you ‘scum’ thing…”

“What?” said Chrysalis, mildly annoyed but knowledgeable of the guilt she knew was wholly true. “What about your other insults, hmm? I demand a proper explanation!”

“That’s not what—“ Roseluck grunted, still unhappy with the way things were going. “Nevermind…” she continued, rolling her eyes. “There is a very, very serious issue concerning…well…you.”

“Me?” Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “What is this about?”

“Everything! Don’t you see? It’s all about you! Ever since you sent the rest of the changelings away, I’ve been doing some hard thinking, and it’s more than clear to me that you’re becoming too much of a liability!”

“A liability?!” Chrysalis scowled. “To whom?”

“Stop acting like you don’t believe me! You’re a liability to Ditto, myself, and, most embarrassingly, your own species! You’re bad news everywhere we go!”

Chrysalis snarled, deeply annoyed with Roseluck’s temper. “Must I remind you time and time again that the Everfree Forest--!”

“Is the most dangerous place in the world~! Oh no! So scary!” Roseluck mocked the queen through silly facial expressions and hoof gestures. “You know, that excuse is getting pretty old!”

“Excuse?!” Chrysalis growled in agitation, arching her back in a feign attempt to appear taller and thus stronger, but its once empowering rigor had been lost long ago. Roseluck didn’t even flinch as the temporary truce she had established just minutes ago crumbled to pieces.

“Look around you, Chrysalis! You don’t even remember where you are, do you? In your head, it’s just like any other forest. Full of trees, mud, and bugs, right? You know its dangers and how to get around them, but I don’t! Ditto doesn’t know either!” Roseluck turned and pointed to Ditto, who sat quietly in his corner of the room, idly gawking at whatever speck of reality his bug eyes could lead him to. “Just look at him! You say he’s cute, but cute isn’t going to cut it out here, sister! You need to learn that pretty quickly, otherwise we’re all going to end up as another manticore’s chew toy!”

“Oh, the nerve of you! You’re expecting me to forcibly change him? To torture him and scare him into line? Is that it!?”

“No!” Roseluck shouted. “But hey, if you want to be congratulated on something your majesty I’d be more than happy to oblige. I’d give your lack of compassion tens across the bucking board! Your attitude could use a little work, but I think you’ll get it down in…the next few centuries or so? That sounds about right. Don’t you agree?”

The truth hurts far more than any amount of physical pain could ever do. Guilt can linger, but reality stays forever. Chrysalis dejectedly lowered her haunches to the floor. She let the onset of another emotional whirlwind bring the rest of her down to the steadily cooling soil.

“Why can’t I fight you…” asked Chrysalis with a voice shook to the core with inner denial. She was too weary to combat the mare anymore.

“Because you don’t know how to fight anymore, Chrysalis! You’re so traumatized by how few of you there are left that you can’t think clearly anymore. You’re doing nothing to help the situation either, which only makes things even worse than they need to be!”

“I do all that I can to help…and yet that’s still not enough for you?”

“It’s because I worry about you!”

This new development surprised Chrysalis, her interest causing her to lift her head in attentiveness while her mind made its best efforts to cycle through her emotional range and choose a feeling less likely to result in a kickstart of wild accusations.

"You...do?" Chrysalis murmured.

"Chrysalis, listen and listen well." Roseluck sighed before bringing a stern expression to bare. "You are not, and I repeat, not the queen you once were anymore. You've changed! Just face the facts and move on with it!"

"But--"

"No buts! For Celestia's sake, no buts! That's all it's ever been with you. Your problems become my problems and you expect me to sympathize with you? To just "tolerate" them? That's not a solution at all! It's just cowardice! Blantant, in your face cowardice, and I won't put up with it anymore!"

Suddenly, Roseluck took hold of Chrysalis's shoulders and hoisted her upright in a single, strong motion.

"You need to get a grip on yourself right this instant," Roseluck continued with a low growl, keeping her hooves held with a firm grip to the queen's soft shoulders. "Because if you want to really go after this...Mariposa place you'll need a strong mind and a strong body to do it with. This is your responsibility and yours alone."

Just then, a familiar, gentle coo drifted through the conversation, lessening the tension and calming the mare's nerves for but a nearly fleeting, tender moment. It couldn't have come at a better time, for when she looked below her, she discovered Ditto once again at the base of his mother's hooves. His lonesome sitting posture and bold, blue eyes just begged for attention, yet his mother did nothing to resolve his sadness, be her reasons out of fear, shyness, or even the loss of will to care anymore.

Roseluck smiled having concocted the perfect remedy, lifting Ditto from the hard ground and cradling him in her hold. He displayed his thankfulness by rubbing his face into her chest, only to then have his eyes grow bigger and wider, glistening as if to threaten tears. He pulled his head out of the softness of the mare's fur and turned to look at the sullen face of his mother: two parts of a whole severed by the hooves of a mere pony.

"Speaking of responsibilities, I do believe this is yours," said Roseluck, leaning forward and exchanging the child to his mother.

Immediately, Chrysalis quickly made a grab for him, but suddenly stopped and pulled back before reaching in again, this time slowly and carefully as if some part of her clocked up mentality took in the words of Roseluck's counsel.

"I was...never usually one to take after my mother's advice, as you already know," Chrysalis started as she placed Ditto on her back with a smile. "The urgency to retain a strong, lasting figure came when our numbers began to dwell. I watched her body burn in the gathering hall, for she chose to go the way of cremation, and it was I who personally scooped her ashes into a dry gourd and scattered them high above the forest, her home. As I watched the high winds carry what was left of her away, piece by piece...I knew it was my duty to protect what she alone fostered, no matter the cost. I did what I could, and from the day of Ditto's birth onward I could see my guilty flaw. Fear cannot bring you strength. Only your actions will, and all that I did only led my species...my children...to the brink of extinction. Well...no more, I say."

Chrysalis triumphantly rose to her hooves, feeling victorious in some respects, and less of a coward in others. Ditto kept a firm grip on her mane, sitting up on her back in turn while holding on to the thin, green tassels like reins on a horse.

"The queen I once was is no longer with me. It is the queen I will become that shall take her place. Fear is no longer my tool of conquest, but rather my ambitions will be for a just cause. We will find this...Mariposa my mother must have known something about. Whatever we may find there, I can only hope it will help my changelings in our time of need, but...should we fail..."

"But we won't fail," Roseluck cut in, raising an eyebrow. "Will we?"

"I can only hope not..." Chrysalis sighed.

"Hey, I plan on actually staying alive by the end of all of this. I still have a garden to tend to, you know!"

Such a silly need to tend to delicate, pathetic plants with only an aesthetic value to their name brightened the queen's smile. She could only imagine the look on Roseluck's face should she be introduced to things like the pitcher plant or the corpse flower that commonly rooted the Everfree's cold, damp soil.

"You ponies and your hobbies..." Chrysalis chuckled, relocating to the entrance to a corridor that led to various sections of the central hive. "Feel free to study the map if you like."

"The map?" said Roseluck, looking towards the tablet which lay on the ground close by. "What for? It's still just a big rock with scribbles on it."

"Then study them should they pique your interest. Now, I go to rest. We leave for Smoky Mountain at nightfall."

"W-What?!" Roseluck stammered in fear. "Smoky Mountain? You mean that dreadful place with a dragon living in it? Why on earth would you want us to go there? Didn't you listen to anything I said?!"

"The dragon has long since moved away, leaving its resident cave abandoned. It is the first stop on our journey. The map claims to reveal Mariposa's location there. It's significance is mentioned rather well"

"O-Ok...but...why at night?" Roseluck shuddered. "Isn't that usually the time when the predators come out to...you know...hunt?"

"And you mocked me for harmlessly reminding you of the horrors of the Everfree." Chrysalis chuckled. "Because, at night, the manticores and timberwolves are the furthest away from their territory, allowing us to cut straight through the forest and use it as a shortcut."

"What makes you think that plan will work?"

"Oh, Roseluck..." Chrysalis turned to face her mare companion. "Surely you should know why you should trust me."

"...no?"

Chrysalis chuckled and threw a knowing, dependable wink.

"Mother knows best."

Disconnected

Evening came quicker than the queen had expected. The moon had risen high into the sky just before sunset, when only a fleeting chunk of twilight colors remained on the edge of the horizon. The timberwolves howled and the tooth-and-spear manticores left their dens and home territories in search of food as the night’s veil fell over the land. The adventurers three left for the mountain with haste.

It was a fierce trek through the Everfree's unnatural amenities. Many times Roseluck had found herself in a variety of sticky situations, sometimes quite literally, in a few uneasy and uncomfortable ways. From quicksand to hidden bogs and even the dank, unforgiving darkness beneath the undergrowth, the elements buffeted them and continuously impeded their progress, throwing the group off track too many times to count. Tinges of frustration and arrogance kept the mare in their clutches despite the queen's many warnings and subtle hints of nearby hazards, but it was through their suffering that, at long last, they reached the base of Smoky Mountain and began the arduous task of scaling up its spiral pass.

"Uggh, why does nature always have to be so cruel?" Roseluck pouted, looking up the face of the mountain they ascended in hopes of discovering the open mouth of the old cave, the end of their journey, leading to failure. An unnerving feeling constantly clung to her body, or rather her once so plush coat, where dollops of green muck and damp, dirty stains of bog water sullied it so that it would put the rear end of a backwoods mule to shame. The very much unwanted levels of filth felt inexpressibly foreign, for she was usually such a well-groomed mare, but she had a feeling that this wasn't going to be the first time she wished so desperately to be shaved bare.

"If you believe that was nature's worst..." Chrysalis chuckled while adjusting Ditto's position on her back, where the little prince peacefully napped away without so much as a care in the world. "You haven't seen anything yet."

"Yippee..." Roseluck groaned. "If it can't work with hydras, manticores, giant wasps, and killer flowers...uggh, and snakes of all things -the spiteful demons of any proper garden- then who knows what could be next. Are you sure that dragon's long gone? I haven't heard anything about it and the last thing I remember is that its smoke covered all of Ponyville!"

"Oh, I'm sure of it. I've taken your words to heart, Roseluck. That cave is but a cold, barren den. Not even the flies bother to pay it a visit."

The trail steadily grew shorter and thinner the further it went up, and after clambering over the remnants of a past rock slide and stepping over to an adjacent landing, their trek was soon coming to an end when the cave entrance came into view.

"Ah, there it is!" Chrysalis exclaimed, quickening her pace until she became the first to arrive. Roseluck nervously followed suit, eying the cave and the promenade it sat on as if it were a boneyard plucked straight out of the Griffin Kingdom. "A charming little place, isn't it?"

"Well..." Roseluck sighed, "It sure beats green, green, and more green..."

"I think it sticks out rather well from all that dreary foliage, but enough gawking at it. Now, the map..."

From within the timeless conundrum that was the laws of the mystic and the magical, Chrysalis reached out with her changeling magic and conjured her ancient tablet from the void, allowing it to float before her eyes suspended by her aura.

"And...how is going in there going to aid us on our little quest again?"

"I...don't know, to be honest, but the map definitely outlines its significance," the queen paused, taking occasional glances back and forth between the tablet and the gaping entrance.

"Great. The first spot on the map and we don't even know why we're here."

"Don't give up so easily, Roseluck. There's got to be more to this. In fact," Chrysalis started forward, slowly approaching the earthbound gullet. "Our answer may lie within."

"No." Roseluck sternly growled, "Not until we know it's completely and totally safe. Dragon or no dragon."

Knowing that she wasn't going to win Roseluck's brief little war on safety and all things unreliable, Chrysalis looked to the ground around her until she eyed a fairly large stone spared to the side. She lifted it into the air and took aim before chucking it forward. It soared gracefully into the cave's mouth, its bounces and clangs resounding outward into the night air. The pair put their ears to the alert, waiting and listening for any tell-tale signs of trouble, but none came to be when the rock made its last bounce onto the cold, dark floor. The sound woke Ditto from his slumber, cooing and purring as he opened his eyes.

Expecting the calm before the storm, Roseluck remained on alert, but only just so, lifting her guard up for just a few proverbial seconds when all seemed as quiet as could be.

Chrysalis on the other hoof couldn't have looked happier. She felt as if she accomplished something big after taking caution for the first time in a while too long ago needed.

"There," Chrysalis poshly retorted, smirking. "There's your bid of reassurance that you will live to see another day. Now then--"

From within the cave's dark reaches, shrill squeaks and chirps echoed into the night, catching the queen off guard. She along with Roseluck looked to the entrance with shock in their eyes, catching sight of two red, glowing eyes peering menacingly at their own, followed by another, then followed by dozens, leading up to hundreds of devilish glares with roots known only to horror movies.

Only moments after Roseluck's heart slowed to a crawl, the beasts within charged into the night, hundreds upon hundreds of tiny brown bats screeching as they barreled en mass out of the cave and headed straight for the intruders.

"Bats!" Roseluck screamed, turning tail and fleeing from the horde with her tail between her legs as they engulfed the standstill bodies of endangered royalty. A short while later, the mistakenly bothered staple wave of horror reached its end, and while Roseluck ran about like a chicken with its head cut off, Chrysalis remained where she stood with the addition of an unamused and tireless glare.

Just then, she felt something strange moving about in her tangled mess of a mane, her curiosity to be fulfilled by the head of a small bat left behind of its ascending party peeking out of it. They stared at each other in confusion until Ditto got his tiny hooves on him, pulling it into a neck hug so tight that would make even a stuffed teddy bear cry uncle. Still, Chrysalis could only roll her eyes elatedly at his antics and politely free the bat from his clutches, letting it soar off to catch up with its brethren.

Finding the appearance of a shaking boulder to be as common as a timberwolf with lipstick, Chrysalis casually strolled over to said boulder and magically lifted it into the air with ease. To no surprise, Roseluck lay curled up into a ball, shaking like a leaf, mortified.

"Feeling safe enough, Roseluck?" Chrysalis joked smugly, snickering along with Ditto who pointed and laughed at her in jest.

"Shut up! I wasn't scared! Stop accusing me!" Roseluck hastily spat out her words like venom with cheeks full of blush, darting her eyes left and right.

"I never said you were scared." Chrysalis chuckled, stepping behind her. "But, seeing how you're so very spry when it comes to our future safety, perhaps you would like to go ahead of us."

Chrysalis gave a soft, but sudden kick to Roseluck's flanks. The mare yelped in astonishment after being forced closer to the cave entrance, her hooves practically digging trenches into the ground as she backpedaled only to bump into the queen's spongy frontal carapace.

"Well? Go on!" Chrysalis jokingly encouraged her whilst trying her best to hold back a grin.

"W-Well, hehe... Y-You! Yes, you!" Roseluck exclaimed, darting around Chrysalis and nudging her ahead. "You have the map! You know where to go so...lead on!" Roseluck grinned sheepishly, hoping that the queen would take the bait.

"Surely one can't get lost in a bowl can they, Roseluck?" Chrysalis smarmed, giggling. "But, if you insist...and are that afraid of a few flying rodents..."

"I'm not afraid of them!" Roseluck snapped, haughtily pulling back from her remark to explain. "I just think they're some of the vilest creatures in the world, getting into other pony's gardens and scaring the living daylights out of anypony they come across." Roseluck then whinnied, shivering for a moment.

"Oh, you poor, sensitive ponies. How devastated your world would be without proper gardens," Chrysalis snorted once more, starting forward into the cave. Roseluck soon trailed behind her, crossing the threshold between light and shadow after keeping a constant field of vision trained hard on the moonlit skies above.

The interior of the once-hoarded cave of a dragon so large and daunting wasn't much to look forward to. Granted, a few piles of rocks weren't much in the ways of Grade A entertainment, but it certainly wasn't up there with the fictional route of Daring Do. No golden temples or mystical shrines here. Just trickling stalactites and the sticky, smelly excess of hundreds upon hundreds of the once-resident bats that speckled the cave floor.

A soft, but vivid glow from the tip of the queen's horn bathed the dark and damp walls in an eerie green light, but it wasn't long before they hit a back wall. Their foray into the den of many mights and strong-jawed powers had reached its end with nothing but dampness and rot to permeate their senses. A quick look over the shoulder revealed that the entrance wasn't far behind. To Roseluck, the open, vulnerable air appeared more merciful by this point.

"Ack! It smells like a pigsty in here!" Roseluck exclaimed, looked around with her nose scrunched up. "Well, at least we're finally here, and what better sight than a dead end..."

Chrysalis bowed her head and furthered her magical drive, strengthening her magic and brightening up the cavern, covering everything in her glow whose reach extended far up the monolithic rise.

"Quit your whining and help me look," Chrysalis ordered, staring at her tablet and what little hope for aid it gave her while Ditto gazed up in wonder toward the ceiling. "There's bound to be something here that will aid us in revealing Mariposa's location...I hope."

"Yeah, it's just a stone's throw away..." Not even a dry chuckle escaped Roseluck after her wide-open shot at a clever pun. Even Chrysalis was unfazed by her words, though she doubted the medieval insectoid to even have a mind as to what a pun was or its significance to humor.

"I hope you're not being serious." Chrysalis furrowed her brow at the blatant misinformation, turning and trotting over to a varied grouping of stalagmites and inspecting them closely, circling them. "Just look everywhere you can. Up or down - it doesn't matter. If you see anything out of the ordinary then let me know."

"'Admiring the decor' isn't going to help us. There's got to be a something secretive here..." Roseluck stepped up to the wall, standing on her hind legs and feeling around the cold, hard surface with her fore hooves. "Maybe a pressure plate? A hidden door or a button or...anything? Jeez, at least that's how the movies do it. If the floor of a one-thousand year old castle just collapsed right under our hooves before then what could be next?"

It was in that moment that Ditto started to become restless. He wiggled around on his mother's back and even tugged her hair a few times to garner her attention. Chrysalis happily responded by nuzzling the crook behind his closest ear and allowing him to slide backward off of her posterior and onto the floor.

"Don't stray too far, little one..." Chrysalis whispered into his ear, pecking it lovingly and inciting a soft giggle from him.

"Would you give me a hoof over here and stop staring at those spiky rock things or whatever they're called?" asked Roseluck with a sigh. "I think I may be on to something here..."

Chrysalis looked up and happily trotted over, delighted by the news of a potential discovery.

Once again Ditto was left to his own ventures, and rightfully so. There was much to see and do in this strange, new environment, dirt to roll around in and whatnot. All he needed was a place to begin, and the cursory glance of a seemingly tasty morsel in a shape similar to that of a fat, green worm slowly crawling its way along the hard ground put a devious smile, and a slimy forked tongue, on his lips.

Like the fearsome predator he was, the forecoming prince of the changelings dug deep into the roots of his species' past, emerging with spirit of a tiger, the hunting ability of a tree-bound panther, and the acute likeness of a beady-eyed filly snuggling with a teddy bear in a blanket. No more perfect of a definition existed.

His drive to hunt for prey was primed and set, and it was with a mighty butt wiggle that he took his first majestic pounce high into the air, landing with a soft thump crouched low and on all fours just shy of the chubby crawler's equally chubby hindquarters. From what his instincts told him as he watched it slowly inch its way forward, it was now time for patience, for a perfect predator needed the perfect moment to strike. It was with a pair of sharp eyes and a tiny rear end raised that Ditto's breaths naturally slowed to a crawl, for the intensity of a hunt so thrilling and heart-pumping was too much to take in all at once.

"I...fail to see what you're trying to do," Chrysalis admitted after having observed Roseluck push and pull on a thin but tall stalagmite only to see her give up and let go of it.

"Great, no levers either." Roseluck panted, wiping her brow. "Are you sure we're on the right mountain?"

"Yes, I'm certain!" Chrysalis floated the stone tablet out in front of her. "It says it right here in--"

"Gimme' that!" Roseluck snapped, swiping the slab from the air and falling onto her plot. Chrysalis rolled her eyes incredulously, disliking how she was the only one forced to change for the better of things. As if she was the only one with "issues" around here that didn't require a stern, hopefully verbally violent intervention.

The mare studied the otherworldly glyphs as if she were a scientist of great merit. Or perhaps less impressively, Roseluck was a scientist to what a grouchy, drunken, one-eyed mule was in deciphering a doctor's name by use of their signature: fruitless, unclever, and not in the least bit academical. She turned the precious stone plaque about in her hooves like a wheel in well wishes that she would be able to make out some form of recognizable calligraphy amidst all the clutter.

She muttered to herself constantly as if her bare bones knowledge were completely life-changing. Such disuse of an ancient relic from a prosperous past was an embarrassment to the changelings themselves, unless anything lesser could be said beforehand, like her dishonorable but necessary place in the hivemind. A few laughable moments passed by when an interested hum, a raised eyebrow, or an old-fashioned rubbing of the chin came around, but it ultimately left the mare floored.

"Yeah... I've got nothing." Roseluck huffed in irritation, looking up and tossing the tablet above her head as to allow the queen to catch it with her magic. "Really? Is there really nothing here besides a few piles of rocks and bat poop?! What does the tablet say, Chrysalis? What are its exact words? Just give em' to me for Celestia's sake!"

"I told you. They're not words...but they’re not images either," Chrysalis started with nervousness and confusion in her voice. "Truly, it's too complicated to explain in a one-off manner. You must understand Roseluck that I can perceive them only because my mother taught me about them centuries ago."

Through manipulation of wisps formed out of the very essence of her magic, Chrysalis began to stroke alien markings and swatches in the air in front of them of a darker shade of green than her aural lamp, utilizing the tip of her jagged horn as a tool. The way they were formed did not differ as much as a pony would write in normal Equestrian. It appeared as if most of what made up the markings was purely aesthetic. She drafted them swiftly, and the resulting motifs floated aimlessly where they were created. It was then she went at ease, continuing immediately.

"Think of them as real, embodied thoughts, bit by bit assembled so that only a select group of individuals can interpret them through gestures that only our linked minds could distinguish. They are very much unique. Long ago, when we were of greater number and far better connected to one another, this used to serve as our own written language of sorts, according to my mother anyway. As the lifespan of an average changeling declined it became pointless, and our wants, needs, and ruthless desires were communicated through either primal means or direct messages through a brittle, but unified hivemind...but it all came down to nothing but cries of hunger, pain, and the gnashing of tooth and fang."

"...wow." Roseluck murmured, feeling as if she was actually touched by such a vivid recollection of what may have been the most gratifying age in changeling history. Thoughts of tribal-like merriment and even togetherness appeared in her imagination, but that was it. Thoughts they were and so they shall remain. No happiness could be pulled up when one’s life is measured by the weight of each breath you take. "That's really sad, Chry-- Hey look!"

Perhaps "touched" needed to be reiterated in a similar manner as well. It was more of a gentle poke than anything, and it was with another poke, this one of abrupt interest, derived from a large, flat rock that caused Roseluck to dash up to it, leaving Chrysalis behind to stare daggers into the back of her head.

"Oh, how could I have been so foolish?" Roseluck bonked herself on the side of the head, chuckling. "I've seen this in the movies all the time! There's almost always a button or a trapdoor hidden underneath a fake rock with a flat bottom! This has to be it!"

Standing on her hind legs again, Roseluck gripped an exposed lip near the bottom of the stone, putting all of her strength into lifting it upward. She felt confused by the need for such weight to be applied to a fake piece of scenery. She grunted and groaned, grinding her teeth together slightly as her meager strength finally heaved it onto its side. When it was sufficiently out of the way, Roseluck took a break and sighed peacefully with a smile, keeping the rock held up as she took a peak through her legs.

Her pupils caved in, and the hairs on her coat poked out and upward. Before her eyes were a multitude of cave beetles scampering out from beneath their hidey home. It sounded as if the whole world was coming down around their ears when Roseluck let out an intense shriek. She slammed the rock down and turned tail, running in blind, rampant circles.

"Aaah! Get them off me! Get them off me!" Roseluck yelled and screamed repeatedly.

She bucked and kicked into the air like a rodeo pony, only instead a rider upon her back there sat many beetles and various insects being violently thrown off and landing next to scattered havens of shadow where they hastily retreated to.

Meanwhile, opposite the terror, a terrifyingly dramatic buildup was taking place. This lowly creature, this powerless being had just taken its last breath and slinked its last inch forward before the fearsomely adorable warrior prince of the Everfree, for this would be his first true kill.

It was easily admitted that, for its size, it was rather...uninspiring for the likes of future generations, but he hath defeated many a foe before the few times his mother wasn't around, like the daunting Elephant Ear leaf, stomping its titanic exterior into the cold, hard dirt, and the ruthless pine cones! Oh, the horror of that day! Nettles and fragments everywhere! The big and the small, all slain, they're once heavily fortified interior curb-stomped into twisted, mangled husks and thrown off to the side like the worthless shells they were. Never again will he trek through that no man's land. The risk for needly boo-boos was too great, and kisses and warm huggies healed all scars...save the mental. Both of these were only unforeseen ambushes, falling from the sky and surrounding him with a yearning for blood. He just knew that was what they were after, which is why it had to come to such a strenuous outcome.

This was to be his first and greatest true kill, for now it was he who was on the hunt.

Ditto's tail flicked to the side, and then suddenly, he leapt! Assisted by his underpowered yet maneuverable wings he rose a few good feet off the ground and prepared to bring the thunder with a capital T.

But it can't be too loud. Thunder scared him.

Yet, with as mighty of a strike as he could deliver, he swooped down from the air and slammed his hooves onto the ground, crushing his prey like a grape under the weight of his right forehoof with a light squelch. He had done it! With a grin oh so wide with pride, he lifted his hoof and gauged his performance, finding a small glob of sticky green goop to indicate a critical success.

But just then, from somewhere up ahead, came the gnarling growls of an unseen force. And, for a moment, the warrior did not feel so brave.

"Wait, did you hear that?" asked Chrysalis, looking past her shoulder and back towards the cave entrance, where a soft, but shrill whirring noise came in from the outside.

Still in the heat of a battle of her own, Roseluck hurriedly swiped the last of the creepy crawlies from her vaguely cream-colored coat.

"Oof! Get off of me!" Roseluck whined, flicking a cockroach off of her tail like a whip and watching it sail off into the distance. "Filthy, filthy wretches! Every one of you! Just look what you brutes did to my mane!"

"Roseluck! Silence!" Chrysalis exclaimed with a sharp whisper. "Listen..."

It soon became evident that the heightening noise was that of wind. It bellowed as it entered the cave, as if a sudden, aimless spirit had wandered its way in with the current to then arrive at a most peculiar of places, almost as if it had been here before. It soon found its way to the cavern's end, hitting them dead on and sending light plumes of dust and old soot into the air, through their manes, and along the back wall. They were forced into an abrupt fit of coughing, for the dust began to settle as quickly as the winds did.

"Well, that was...uneventful." Roseluck commented, wiping some excess dust from her shoulder after having settled down. "Or does your tablet say otherwise, Chrysalis?"

"No..." Chrysalis replied, looking away and putting a hoof to her forehead. "I...I-I don't feel well..."

"Huh?" Roseluck came closer, frowning worriedly. "What's wrong?"

The queen looked back towards the entrance, rising to her hooves whilst rubbing her forehead some more. Roseluck could tell she was in pain when her eyes caught sight of her slender legs and tail twitching with even a faint hint of wobbling.

"Roseluck...get Ditto...hurry." said Chrysalis, starting forward after securing the tablet on her back.

"Hey, wait! What about--!" Roseluck stopped speaking when she noticed the dark of the cave lapping at her hooves as her only light source began to move away. She took a tertiary glance at the wall behind her, but could see nothing. It was then she hurriedly trotted after her, reaching Ditto's side in seconds and lifting him onto her back. Thankfully, she spotted the remains of his kill and side-stepped them, sickeningly staring at them for a moment on her way to catch up with Chrysalis. "So...what? We're gonna leave just like that? What happened?"

"N-No...this is...the winds came and I suddenly feel so lightheaded. B-But there was something in there and..." Chrysalis stopped for a moment, shaking her head in self-disgust before continuing forward at a much quicker pace.

"W-Wait! And what? And what?!" Roseluck called out as she gave chase, only to be left without an answer until they reached the entrance and stepped out into the night. The air was cold and dry, and the nocturnal bards of the forest, those that chirped, squeaked, and whistled had fallen eerily silent.

Chrysalis looked to the cloudless skies above, gazing up high at an enlarged full moon nestled among the stars. Her face told a story of some inner sorrow that could not be purged, not even through Ditto's cheerful smiles.

"Are you...ok, Chrysalis?" Roseluck calmly asked, stepping up to her side.

"...no." Chrysalis responded with a voice just barely audible. Then, she strolled over to the edge of the cave's rocky balcony, looking down over the edge where she noticed that a thick layer of grey fog had settled over the whole of the forest, treetops and all, with only a few exceptions poking out just shy of the shrouded landscape. "Something isn't right...I...Roseluck...my children...I can't sense my children anymore..."

"Your...children?"

"The ones I sent away in hopes of saving our species... Before, I could hear them. They called to each other through me, through the central hive, but now it's as if they were suddenly...silenced." Chrysalis pulled herself away from the edge, trotting towards the opposite edge of the adjacent promenade. "Something has gone terribly wrong. We must return to the central hive at once!"

"As much as I like the sound of heading back, what if the manticores are back from hunting? We'll be torn to shreds for sure unless we take the long way around!"

"Then we'll have to move quickly. They're excellent predators, that's for sure, but we can outmaneuver them in the dense groupings of trees. I know a few shortcuts as well. We'll just follow those until we reach the hive. Understand?"

"Then...maybe you should take Ditto," Roseluck gestured to the infant on her back. "You're much faster than I am anyway."

"No. Keep him for now. I don't want him to get hurt should we run into trouble. Just stay behind me and all will be well."

Much to her displeasure, Roseluck nodded in agreement, though her thoughts misplaced themselves and formed into a terrible ambush scenario. What if the manticores could track their scent even through all of the smelly bogs they would traverse through again? They would be overwhelmed for sure. Even so, it was their best option, and she could only prepare herself mentally for the worst of what the Everfree had to throw at her. She made sure of it that Ditto was secure atop her back and even gave him a short length of her mane to hold on to.

"Th-There we go...we're ready."

"Wait..." said Chrysalis, looking away with eyes bulging, a cold, beaming stare directed straight into her very soul. "I sense...something else. One of my children is still linked. They're in pain...pain like they've never felt before. But I sense their presence within the central hive itself. That can't be right! They can't return on their own, not without a great deal of sustenance to carry their weight through great distances."

"Maybe they got...I don't know. Homesick? What if they reconsidered migrating?"

"No. All of my children knew what was at stake. Returning would only be a show of cowardice...wait...Roseluck."

Chrysalis turned to face the clueless mare, speaking lowly with a voice so very petrified when an impromptu realization reared its ugly head.

"Where is the commander?"

Author's Note

Well, as the story stands so far, this has been one roller coaster with a few too many turns and not enough WHEEEEE! moments. But, then again, seeing how far we've come, through help of both the mental and the social, who am I to complain?

So, here it is, fellas. Another chapter done and another batch of well-wishing readers who I can't get enough of raring to tear into it. I'm sure I (or my lovely editor) have missed a few things grammar-wise so just let nature take its course should you will it to and point out whatever you can!

"ASHDJHGKLASDH" -Zaphod/Serene Breeze, 2013

"quatation marks" - Hivemind, 2013

That should give you a good idea of how profitable the revision/editing process was.

Oh? What's this you say? Likes, you call them? We're nearing 1,000 of them and I never noticed?

(he lied)

Well, skin me alive because this is just wonderful! Heck, seeing story views hit the roof at over 2,500 on the previous chapter update was staggeringly amazing enough, but this? I almost had to check if the stars were aligned properly. As much as it pains me to say it, while I do very, very much appreciate the thought of seeing this story skyrocket into those four digit ranks, I may be unavailable to do/create anything special for the lot of you as much as you deeply deserve it, for my ability to reward is limited by a crushing mixture of implanted morals that not a soul outside of my friendly circle gives a toss about, but know that it is the mere sight of your bright, cheery, and colorful profile picture faces that aid me in the keep-on throughout the many days and nights!

Strap yourselves in, boys, because where we're goin' there's no such thing as down.

Well, then again... *cough* No big promises.

-Hivemind :twistnerd:

Ruin

It was a mad dash down the winding spiral of Smokey Mountain. Chrysalis ran on an injected flurry mix where panic and guilt fueled her drive to return to the home. While her long legs continued thundering down the treacherous pass, kicking up a hell-storm of frigid dirt, she attempted time and time again to establish contact with her children of the swarm. Even one-on-one telepathy, a method of private communication she had used only with her most trusted loyalists in the past, failed her.

There was no answer.

Chrysalis could find nary a rogue signal floating on the winds to ease her terrified self, save one. The voice of the commander still rang through her head, but it was only mere minutes ago that the sense of its presence had returned to her at long last. She never noticed that it had left in the first place until she tapped into her previous memories of recent events and scoured them like a starving plague rat. What was going on over there? Why did she feel that the commander was in such unbearable pain? Where did it go? Why was it not responding to her telepathic hails? Even worse, why did she lose her connection with it to begin with, and what of her other children?

Chrysalis shook her head in denial of the worst and quickened her pace, her hooves becoming but a blur at the speed with which they carried her. This only made things even more difficult for Roseluck, who was just barely able to keep up with her even at sight distance. She took her time to swiftly but carefully stride over piles of mountain rubble and wide cracks in the way, but Chrysalis simply leapt right over each of these obstacles with the finesse of a gazelle. Never once did she falter, and the way she kept her footing could have been the envy of athletes everywhere.

Though it was a very bumpy and uneven ride upon Roseluck’s back, Ditto seemed to be enjoying himself immensely, waving his hooves high above his head and giggling profusely as his personal rollercoaster did her best to keep pace with his mother. Despite her earth pony roots, Roseluck just wasn't built for this level of maneuverability. Her chest burned like a pit of hot embers similar to her fireplace in the wintertime, and her breaths turned to hot steam that bit harshly at her blazing red gullet. Even more tortuously, her body lacked the will to sweat in the cold, leaving her helpless as she tore through the fray with cold air flowing into her open mouth and fanning the flames that scorched her insides.

It felt as if all the hours in the world had passed by the time they reached the base of the mountain at the point from which they started. Chrysalis came to rest atop a mossy boulder while she waited for Roseluck to catch her breath. Attentively, she stood at full height on the boulder with her ears perked and attuned to pick up even the faintest of sounds. They twitched and flickered, and her head turned in response to their signals. Then, she picked up something strange that seemed to be coming from everywhere at once.

"Roseluck," Chrysalis spoke, her ears drooping to the side of her head as she looked to the exhausted mare behind her. "Put your ears to the wind and listen."

After unpleasantly indulging in a bitterly sore swallow, Roseluck perked up her ears and stood in silence with Chrysalis, unsure of what she was supposed to be listening for.

"Do you hear that?" asked Chrysalis, scanning the foggy tree line ahead of them.

"No..." Roseluck raises an eyebrow, confused. "I don't hear...anything, actually."

"Exactly."

All alone they stood, enveloped by a silence. Damp fog lapped at their shoulders and obscured their vision, and the leaves upon the forest's twisted trees were of green and gray, but the forest bards had been silenced. No night owl cooed, no insect chirped, and the wind was reduced to but a low level of white noise. More frightening than eerie, Roseluck even succumbed to subtly approaching Chrysalis for shelter less she be bushwhacked by the workaday unseen terror compliments of the Everfree's dark reaches.

"W-Well, what does that mean?" Roseluck nervously glanced over her shoulders.

"It means there is something very much wrong in the world..." Chrysalis was shook to the core. Her children had stopped calling to her, and now, on a day more fit for an alignment of the stars themselves, the Everfree forest was silent. Her keen sense of smell failed to breach the misty veil, leaving them with but one foolhardy choice for all the dangerous incertitude that surrounded it. "Roseluck, make sure Ditto is well-secured upon your back." Chrysalis sighed, bringing a brave, determined composure to bear. "We're cutting straight through the forest again."

"W-What!?" Roseluck sharply exclaimed with a hushed voice, afraid of raising the awareness of any creature among the hidden. "You're out of your big bug mind! We're supposed to be going around the danger zone, remember?"

"...no? When did I say we were doing that?"

"You didn't..." Roseluck groaned in a bout of crusty disappointment, annoyed that the bait wasn't taken before retorting straightforward. "But I still think it's the far safer option than just waltzing through manticore territory again!"

"We won't have to worry so long as you don't scream at first sight of them. Just keep close and follow my lead. I don't like the look of this any more than you do." Chrysalis tossed her mane behind her head and stepped down from her perch, exchanging a reassuring nuzzle with Ditto at Roseluck's side as he pulled down two locks of the mare's long, flowing mane around his ears, his tiny horn left to cutely stick out. "Stay safe, little one..." She whispered to him, turning and coaxing Roseluck to follow.

The journey through the cold, fog-laden wilds was one plotted by uncertainty at its end, and stillness accompanied. Life in the forest was nowhere to be found. Even the trees and their otherworldly ilk seemed to have just...given up for whatever reason, and a simple glance and brush against the bark revealed this to be true.

The gloom of desolation was everywhere, a devious courtesy of the thick fog and the absence of life it shrouded. Chrysalis led Roseluck through the shortcuts she had mentioned earlier, itching with anxiety to uncover the reasoning behind the disappearance of every animal, but found it pointless to hide and stray away when nothing was round to bring them harm. They carried on with timid breaths, not a word spoken between each other. It was if a wandering specter had enraptured everything that walked the earth.

There wasn’t a trace of any creature to be found. The tree-dwellers were gone, and every nest they passed, be it of bird, reptile, or insect was left withered and abandoned, gray like the decaying flora they stood near as though they had been that way for months. Utilizing his vantage point, Ditto reached for a flower growing out of a crevice in one of the trees, but its wilting petals and stalk immediately bent forward and broke off just as his hoof tips brushed against them. Disappointed whimpers followed.

They continued along a straight path, passing through swamps with idle waters and vacant lily pads. Even the trademark stench of murk was almost nonexistent. The winged insects had vanished as well, leaving, for the first time, something that was once a nuisance to be desired as so it could at least be called a part of home again. It left a hole in Chrysalis' heavy heart upon seeing her homeland so bare and inert.

It was as they neared the central hive that Roseluck finally understood the meaning of 'untamed'. If one was able to look past its hideous frontal features, they would find that the Everfree was a diverse biosphere with all manner of life nestled within its many rich habitats. Presently, they would have no such luck. Oasis pockets and even small, scattered meadows were just as dull and uncaring as everything else.

Through her secret entrance connected to her bedchamber, Chrysalis rushed Roseluck through the vine-linked tunnel, growing steadily more uneasy. The greenery of the thick foliage was a welcoming sight, but even as they treaded familiar ground it looked as if it was all dying already. What disease could have brought about such a strange, unnerving catastrophe?

"What happened while we were gone?" Chrysalis spoke softly. Obviously, her question was left without an answer; for now, anyway.

A disaster of this scale would leave just about anyone dumbstruck. Besides Chrysalis, Roseluck was by far the one most affected. What she committed to the future of the changeling species was far more valuable than even the ruling of an appraiser. For her efforts to all crumble and fall around her now would be a tragedy too costly for even the princesses to redeem. Her love and devotion was all that was carrying them. Beyond that, there was little left worth hanging onto.

They exited the tunnel and appeared back in Chrysalis’ bedchamber, including Ditto's cradle and the new "blanket" he recovered from the castle earlier hung over its side. The sight of it excited him and brought about new light to his eyes after having wandered through such a grim version of the home he once, albeit barely, knew. Chrysalis picked up on his smile and levitated the shredded tapestry towards him, which he snatched from her magical grip next to Roseluck’s head and hugged as if it were a carnival teddy bear.

He then stuffed one end of it into his tiny maw and proceeded to chew on it, his incoming fangs biting through the fabric and soaking it with his saliva. He gleefully cooed and chirped with all the cute and lovability of a puppy, or was it a kitten? The difference didn't matter since Ditto was having fun either way. Joy could be found in all sorts of places, it seemed. It made Chrysalis question what she had been doing wrong all this time.

The time for pondering was not now, and she retreated to that intuitive mindset. Then, the lowest of whines, sorrowful in tone, echoed from somewhere within the central hive's cavernous reaches. Roseluck detected it too, faintly gasping and perking her ears up and on the alert in the same fashion as Chrysalis. To get a better understanding of what they had just heard, Chrysalis shut her eyes and tapped into a very weak, very unstable hivemind connection.

The link was worsening by the minute. The entire neural net was on the verge of collapse. The strands of energy that kept it bound together were analyzed and appeared to be far too fragile to support even a simple spell. She knew that the hivemind relied on the strength of the mentalities of those connected to keep it functional. But, even then, the magic that kept it together as a whole was nearly a millennium old. What modern day sorcery could weaken such a tightly woven bond?

Her affinity for peering through the blurry network of the changelings paid off, yet still all she could sense was the commander's wavering presence. Beyond that, all else was still. It reminded her of the swamps they passed by, leaving nothing but the barest hints of life in its wake.

"It's coming from the gathering hall," Chrysalis spoke up, breaking the lengthy silence, though at the price of startling Roseluck again. "The commander's got to be in there. Only it knows what happened. We must confront it at once and discover how this all came to be! If I had a right mind...even I am willing to say that it must have something to do with this."

"Took you long enough to start thinking that..." Roseluck responded dejectedly, which rewarded her with a pair of angry eyes and an uptight expression from Chrysalis. "What? Don't get me wrong, Chrysalis, but I never trusted the commander in the first place. I made it clear enough already, didn't I? And, based on the way it was acting in the past few days, all I can smell is trouble!"

"Well...you're not wrong." Chrysalis huffed and hissed respectively. "I've had my suspicions as well, but we will never know what has become of my home until we confront the commander first. Watch your back. I doubt that anything was brave enough to follow us here, if anything still lives out there, but I still feel as though something lurks in the shadows...remain wary."

The forest fog had now migrated into the central hive, seeping through and shrouding its corridors. It all felt so dead inside; so empty that it could put a tree husk to shame. It never even had a roof to begin with! The potential for danger to just swoop right in had been there all this time, yet nothing ever came before, and now nothing would ever come again. Their walk through Chrysalis' personal passageway to the gathering hall was a silent one, their hoofsteps muffled by the damp earth beneath their hooves. A steady sequence of deep, lowly wails matching that of the one they heard before came from their destination a short way ahead.

Through the veil they stepped, and they arrived onto a strange scene, where there was a break in the fog that allowed part of the night sky above them to be seen through the open-roofed ceiling. The bright crater of the eye of the former Mare in the Moon peeking in as the clouds rolled by and over it. A stream of moonlight beamed down into the lethargic chamber, leading the group's attention to encounter an all-too familiar scum of the earth: The commander, its back turned towards them as it sat bent forward in a slouch.

The answer to the mystery of the bellows heard before had its answer tacked on at last. They were coming straight from the commander's mouth, as demonstrated when the changeling's black carapace heaved upward as it took in breath before steadily falling, exhaling in a mournful tone.

Chrysalis and Roseluck exchanged glances with each other, some disturbed, others plastered with fear of the unknown. It ultimately resulted in Chrysalis making the first move, signaling for Roseluck to keep her distance as she approached the commander from the rear, taking short, brief steps towards it. Chrysalis then made her presence known in the place of her court with one final step, slamming a front hoof into the dirt and twisting it ever so slightly just to let the dirt crinkle and crack to purposefully reinstate her presence with further force.

Did she really have to make her entrance in such an aggressive, uninviting manner? Her most elite comrade was suffering before her eyes and broadcasting the scale of its ailments through her mind, and yet providing aid to one of her own was the last thing on her list. Though, in reality, it wasn't too far off, but the smell of deception in the air was so thick that a timberwolf with a stuffy nose could smell it from miles away. She swallowed her pride and stood firm before the old raid leader with an angry grimace to accompany an audacious, commanding voice that had not been tapped into for what felt like an eternity after her introduction into motherhood.

"Commander." Chrysalis gnarled in a serious tone of voice. "What has become of my home?"

"...Chrysalis?" The commander spoke, lifting its head. "You've returned..."

"Answer. Me." Chrysalis hissed, swiping her tail to one side.

"You've killed us, my queen...all of us...so swiftly and unforgiving you were in doing so, and now you demand an answer to a question only you can provide a truthful answer for?"

Chrysalis was taken aback, devolving her expression to one of open misunderstanding, staring at the commander like it had lost its mind. "W-What?"

"What have I been to you, my queen? Where was my place in our world? Were my origins forged among the steel of which crafted another link in this chain built on the foundations of culture and togetherness?“ The commander's voice made it out as if the authoritarian figure within it had sank into a deep depression. Each breath it took was furthered and shaken like minute gasps for air; they were feeble endeavors to hold on to whatever meaning for existence it could fathom.

"To protect the future of the changeling species" was going to be Chrysalis' answer to its second question, but it was seen as too much of a digression and she would continue to berate it with questions of her own until she got what she wanted.

"Enough, commander! I was touched by a spirit wind this night, and with it...silence...the others have stopped speaking. Their connection to the hivemind is gone! Severed! The bonds that keep us all together are on the verge of total collapse! The hivemind is on the verge of total collapse! Surely you've noticed all of this?"

"I have...it's heartbreaking, isn't it?"

Place in the world? Heartbreaking? The commander was experiencing these thoughts and prevailing emotions with little to no reaction? The latter put a tinge of fearful concern in Chrysalis’ heart. In the hivemind's favor, emotions were far more powerful than thoughts and ideas. They influenced the body in ways that, even more so, boggled the mind, making decision-making sloppy and unorganized, and thus ideas pointless. Empathy was a weakness, and one poorly placed sentiment could send the whole connection into a tail-spin.

"I understand your concern, commander," Chrysalis spoke more calmly, yet the potency of the venom in her tongue was relentless in broadcasting her spite. "But you have yet to answer my question. I say again...what has become of my home?"

"...has it ever occurred to you that somewhere, somehow, things could get better? All you'd have to do is try to find it." The commander rose to its hooves, hanging its head low while still facing the opposite direction. "On the eve I was spawned, my mind was already set...unwillingly. My future was shaped, stretched, broken, and reshaped all in the name of survival. We never saw salvation from our crisis, and it was on the day of your son's conception that I was granted new knowledge...and bleak tellings of our future. Long ago, Chrysalis, I had faith in our people, but now...my faith has been lost."

The commander slowly turned, lifting its head and revealing a battle-scarred face with nearly every pore coated in dried blood and cringe-worthy burn marks and gashes. Aside from its cheeks, a different material stained its deep blue eyes and ran down its face in streams. They were twin rivers of icy tears.

The commander was crying.

Roseluck gasped and jolted backward, startled by its hideous appearance. Ditto was far from able to handle the sight of such an atrocity. He whimpered and hid his face, burying his head deep into Roseluck's neck fur.

"W-What...what happened to you?" murmured Chrysalis, her anger having evaporated in an instant.

"You happened to me, you gutless excuse for a leader!" The commander shouted, bearing its teeth and fangs which were revealed to be completely coated with blood. One of its fangs were missing, a jagged stump next to the other one indicating that it must have broken off a short while ago, possibly even shattered. "You brought about the fate of every one of us!"

"W-What?!" Chrysalis's jaw dropped. “Is your tongue as brittle as your resolve, commander? What's going on!?"

"Couldn't you feel it, my queen? The tremors of your lost children? The hundreds of which now lay dead far from home?!" The commander reared back before lashing out verbally, the sheer force of its anger reaching its cold heart and causing it to shed a few loose tears, most of which streamed down its face. "Nearly all of which I cared for is now dead!"

The commander snarled and pounced forward, landing just a few feet away from Chrysalis and her entourage. Chrysalis leapt back and positioned herself defensively in front of Roseluck. What she expected to be a surprise offensive turned out to be the opposite. The commander went silent. Then, it smirked deviously and looked away as raspy chuckles and snickers escaped its lips. Was the frightening appearance and state of the world as they knew it affecting the commander? Had it been driven to madness somehow?

But just like that, moments later, the commander ceased its vile laughter, turning and pacing left and right before them with a few trailing snickers descending into sheer detestation.

“You’ve led us to our deaths…” It continued, staring Chrysalis down. “You’ve brought our reckoning to our front door, and yet you only stand there while our species, your kin, and our very existence fade into the miasma of time! Your pitiful efforts to restore us to our former way of life were doomed to failure from the very beginning!”

“S-Stand down, commander! Stand down, I said!” Chrysalis herself lashed out, attempting to reassert her dominance by making her eyes and horn glow vividly with her aura. “You repeatedly questioned my rule in the past. This is the last straw. I will not tolerate--!”

“You have no power here!” The commander interrupted, foaming at the mouth a little. “Do you hear me? Who do you have left to rule over? Your subjects? The ones you cast out and left to fend for themselves? Listen and listen well, Chrysalis. You once ruled an army of ill-fated demons. Have you ever cared so much as to attest those ‘colonies’ you established?”

The colonies… thought Chrysalis with a soft gasp. I…

“Yes, Chrysalis. The colonies.” The commander started with a low growl, its weak link to the hivemind hardly inhibiting its ability to read the thoughts of its significant others. “I paid a visit to two of the four. The Northern Hive was the first…and I learned that all were dead within three days. Everyone was slaughtered, by both the blade…and the cold.”

Suddenly, hurtling straight out of nowhere, a tattered length of blue fabric and a jagged piece of metal were thrown towards them. The fabric landed to left of Chrysalis in a heap, its wrinkled surface riddled with slash marks. She assumed it was once part of a banner, for on its surface the Equestrian Royal Seal was sewn in golden thread. She recognized it instantly, courtesy of memories of past raids on neighboring villages and caravans. The jagged metal object was the next to land at her right. It was the bruised hilt of a scimitar, a commonly-used weapon among low-ranking royal guards, most of the actual blade having been broken off by some great physical force. Its gold-plated quillons were dented and speckled red. Whatever it fought against must have put up more a struggle, but Chrysalis already knew who its unfortunate combatants were. For each second the thought of her children fighting and dying by the dozens remained in her mind, their screams piercing the air, the more distraught she became. Her jaw shuddered, and her eyes twinkled as though to threaten tears of her own.

“You’re…Y-You’re wrong! You lie!” Chrysalis retorted with a voice wracked with angry grief.

“The Southern Colony never lived past the first day! That was the second place I chose to investigate. You sent them to a wasteland! There wasn’t a sign of civilization within a hundred miles! They turned on each other for survival, cannibalizing one another just to suck whatever love was left from their weary bones!”

“That’s impossible! I knew there were villages close by. At least three of them. That would have been enough to last them for months!” She knew that it had been some time since she had last visited the southern edge of Equestria; a few years in fact. Her facts did little to shift the outcome of the truth to be revealed.

“Abandoned! Every one of them! There’s nothing but shacks and rotten woodwork there now!” The commander sighed, its anger dying down as it hung its head low, dismal. “The other two colonies weren’t so lucky. They actually survived. Can you believe it? It’s a miracle in itself...”

The other two colonies survived? To speak truthfully, she had never even visited the east or west portions of Equestria, though she knew from post-invasion espionage that there were the cities of Trottingham and Manehatten in those directions, both of which were ripe for the leeching of love. Even after hearing what the commander told her, why did she feel so surprised? Those are her children, yet she’s left in awe wondering how they are actually alive? Her heart was far too heavy to take all of this in at once. She was ashamed of herself, and she couldn’t tell whether her reasons were right or wrong.

Over half of the original colony was dead. Her children died without honor, and even a name. Not even she could imagine how the last two colonies had suffered so in the few days they were away, but they had reliable food sources, so did the commander bring it up just to make her feel like even more of a monster than she already was?

No.

She was a mother. She had always been a mother.

“Tell me.” Chrysalis deadpanned, scanning her eyes across the thick walls around her. She was tired of being treated this way. She needed to know right there and then. “Tell me where they are! I will kill you if you don’t!”

“You are not a savior. You never were. Our entire species is doomed, and it is all because of you.”

A breeze blew through the chamber, and the walls of vine began to rattle. Not swaying, but actually rattling as though they were being shaken. She could easily tell that something was nearby. Chrysalis tapped into the hivemind again to check in on it, hoping to use its supreme sensory abilities to see what she could not.

Suddenly, there came a break; a literal fracture within her own mind. Chrysalis’ vision went black. She kicked back and bayed loudly, hissing as pain shot through her spine and up to her head. Ditto watched on in horror as his mother’s body twisted like a snake with each sharp grunt. She grinded her sharp teeth together in a desperate effort to end her misery. It failed, and her fangs slipped and pierced her bottom lip, drawing blood.

Then, just as quickly as they came, the contortions ceased, and Chrysalis was left anything but a spitting image of her title. She wheezed as though she was out of breath, her forked tongue left to hang out of her maw as she recovered.

That was the most painful torment she had ever been through. She reflected on this, and found that she could compare it to no other experience in her life, yet it all vanished in an instant, leaving her as dumbfounded as she was aching all over. Childbirth felt as trivial as obtaining a bruise from falling down compared to the scope of what afflicted her body so. What had happened to her? What sort of invisible force could have been pressing down on her entire body all at once?

“Chrysalis!” Roseluck shouted just as tears began to flow down Ditto’s cheeks, his glossy face buried in the pillow that was her pale neck.

Chrysalis struggled to right herself. Her knees wobbled as she arched her spine and stood upright, the pain from her ordeal dying down at a maddeningly slow pace. Something was definitely close by, and drawing closer to them specifically. She could almost hear its breaths being carried by the wind amidst the miserable backdrop. They were in great danger of being ambushed, and she wasted no time in tapping into the hivemind to find out where it was coming from, failing immediately on the first try.

Something wasn’t right. The hivemind wasn’t responding like it should. Figuring that her being in shock was affecting her connection, she took a deep, calming breath before trying again. Silence failed to do her reply justice. In fact, there was no silence to take in; only nothing. Only the void.

“The hivemind is no more,” The commander spoke in a proud, daunting tone. “I have severed my link with that hopeless excuse for a means of communication!” Then, the commander began snickering, shifting its tone whilst baring its one and half fangs in a way all too intimidating. “Your feeble mind has failed to carry its weight, and now you’ve paid the price; a debt you’ve held on your shoulders since the failed invasion of Canterlot! Can you feel it? Your precious hivemind has crumbled all around you, and there is only one being to blame...yourself.”

Chrysalis was speechless, and years of pent-up remorse seemed to break through the floodgates of her memory and wash over her like a tsunami. She was in tears now, and the reality of the moment made her regret everything she had ever done in her time as ruler. She began beating her temples with her hooves, her lips quivering as she so desperately wished for none of this to be real. A throbbing headache and stinging, bloodshot eyes told her otherwise. The commander just looked on and laughed, reveling in the beauty of the sweet anguish it was seeing.

The list was endless, the torturing of captured village ponies, the cruelty inflicted upon disobedient minions, and the banishment of the weakest links of what was once the hivemind were just a few to name, but it was the connection itself that tore her heart to pieces. It was a part of her, and a part of her mother's legacy.

“What have you done...what have you done?!”

Jericho

“I have achieved what you failed to do so very long ago!” The commander vented its fury, slamming its hooves into the dirt floor. “You refused to save us. You did nothing as you wallowed in self-pity like the blubbering coward you are. What could you have hoped for? A better home? A better life? Is it that you so greedily desire for no one but yourself, so you can flee from all your troubles and leave us all to suffer?”

“I desire nothing more than the safest of futures for my children!” Chrysalis shouted back, an angry hiss erupting from between her fangs and forked tongue. “Their...deaths...they won’t be in vain. We will find a better life, and we will find peace in Equestria!”

The commander took these claims as though they were from the mouth of a hopeless infant boasting its meager strength to its superiors. However, its expression did not wane. A clear scoff escaped its lips, mocking and distasteful in tone.

“You’re right...We will find a better life, but you will not be joining us.”

Why was all of this happening? Dissension among the ranks, the deaths of hundreds of her most beloved. Chrysalis was still faced with a difficult time believing the hivemind had actually been brought down. Again and again she torturously tried to reestablish connection, burning through memories for emotional fuel to power her magic. The seven stages of loss flashed through in her head, begging and pleading to no one but herself for none of this to be real. Throbbing headaches and unnerving silence weren’t the responses she was hoping for. Though her tears had dissolved, she felt like crying even more, but she knew another open display of anguish for the deceased would only add more fuel to the fire.

“Look at yourself. You try and you try so desperately, so pathetically, to feel the hearts of your so-called children. You dishonor their being,” The commander boldly asserted. “disgraceful...”

Though she had been doing a well-enough job to stay out of the heat of the action, Roseluck bore a scowl on her face that could pierce the thickest steel. Her sympathy for Chrysalis was stronger than before, albeit ironic, including the day she realized just how dire the changeling’s situation was to begin with. That night in the hot springs really changed her. But she yearned to get her hooves on the black-hearted menace just as much as she knew to hold herself back. The changelings were nearly extinct by this point, meaning that, maybe even sooner than she feared, all that she had done to help would have been for nothing.

The commander’s gaze twitched once before turning full-facedly to Roseluck. It saw the scorn presently visible on her face as a joke well-deserved of mockery.

“And you,” said the commander with a low, equally-hateful snarl. “You never had a place among us. I should have had your head the moment you first defied me. The blade was in my grasp and your body is spongy and worthless. You signed on as a feed-bearing mule to nourish only a hopelessly lost cause!”

Of course she never “signed on” to live amongst Equestria’s most despised organisms, but when she first saw the light and understood the severity of the situation, she wished she could have done so in the first place. For anypony to hear the changeling’s story and still label them as vermin was despicable. You can drive away rats and other pests for as long as you like, but they will always be there, and they will always return as soon as you let your guard down. Changelings, on the other hoof, had only ever been beaten back once, and that one event had brought them to their knees.

“But none of that matters now,” the commander went on, shaking its head as it returned its gaze to Chrysalis. “None of it...we are all doomed, do you hear me?”

“No, we are not. Listen and listen well,” Chrysalis spoke softly, taking a step forward and lifting one forehoof to intently display her modest reserve, which was exactly what she preferred not to do. Her desire to do more than just stand there was growing. The hivemind had just been obliterated, and the commander was lacking the punishment it deserved. “There is hope for us yet, commander. Some time ago, Roseluck and I uncovered an ancient crypt, one buried beneath the castle of old and, within it—“

“A treasure worth more than all of Canterlot...were those going to be your next words?”

Chrysalis recoiled in shock. This was not what she was expecting to hear, though the way the commander spoke, with a calm demeanor and a distinct addition of an authoritarian tone to follow its first words, shook her to the core and made her fear the worst.

The commander rose from its haunches, its wings buzzing.

“Had you remained as you once were, feared by all, you would have seen it coming,” the commander continued. “But no, you were weak, and your mind was clouded with worthless bids of hope that our salvation would come through peace treaties and begging. I’ve watched you from the beginning, when the news of your pregnancy spread all throughout the hive. It was one of the few times in our short lives that we were truly ecstatic, and we were anxious to befall under a new leadership.”

Their vivid rejoicing remained in Chrysalis’s mind from that day, and though she was a much different ruler back then, she let them step out of line for a brief while to keep their morale up in favor of an invasion of large village she had planned that very night. Though physical expression was lacking at best, the hivemind was abuzz with activity back then. It’s often crowded neural lanes irked her to an extent, and now she was miserable, silently mourning its impromptu passing and wanting little else but its return. She never knew what she had until it was gone...but it was taken from her, and this angered her more than any pony could ever know.

“But when I saw what sort of an excuse you had given birth to, my hopes were crushed.” The commander spoke again, stomping the ground once with a growl under its breath. “It was so innocent and harmless...and frail. It disgusted me. I was skeptical at first however, and awaited eagerly to see what manner of glorious strain you would put it under so that it may one day usurp you and lead us on the path to conquest. But when you began catering to it as if it were a godsend and, furthermore, had me drag one of our enemy into our homeland, I knew there and then that your road to rule had reached an early end.”

“For the last time, we are not monsters!” Chrysalis shouted in anger. “Our way of survival is not for desire to harm, but desire to live. My mother knew that we are merely misunderstood.”

“You forget your place as a ruler.”

“And you as a commander.”

“You’ve led us to our deaths!”

“And you have led no one!”

At last, the commander was silenced, those final, truthful words getting through the changeling’s thick shell of a head. It backed down, lowering itself to its haunches again, its eyes piercing those of the hermit ruler before averting its gaze toward the ground. Chrysalis felt proud that she had won this battle of wit, but retracted the thought in the blink of an eye. Evil was still afoot.

So many questions have gone unanswered, and the only source of information left for miles around was the commander, who even then was perhaps the greatest traitor in the history of the changelings. All signs pointed to the commander. The moment for questioning was over. It was time for action.

Chrysalis stepped forward, ready to speak and deliver her judgment upon the traitor, but the commander moved at the last moment. It lifted its wings and reached into an apparent crevice in the wing joint, withdrawing a small object no bigger than a skipping stone and riddled with imperfections.

“I lead no one...yet.”

Then, from all around them, the walls of trees and vines began to tremble. The leaves were suddenly speckled with radiant blue orbs. These orbs advanced closer and closer until entire moving bodies began skulking out into the open, dissolving through the thicket and stepping out into the darkness. This was happening all around them. Roseluck yelped when she heard the noises behind her and backpedaled to Chrysalis’s rear, underneath which Ditto took cover, clutching his mother’s closest leg and never letting go.

Chrysalis was in awe. Were her eyes deceiving her? Sounds of hissing and chirruping, not to mention the way their bodies appeared glossy in the moonlight, told her otherwise. They were really here. Her children had returned home. It was bittersweet to say the absolute least.

But what had happened to them? They looked terrible, battered with numerous injuries. Saying they appeared worse for wear didn’t do the situation justice. Scars and bite marks now covered them from horn to hoof, and cracks were visible on the small of their back atop their hard chitin shells. It was as if they had been through a warzone.

It was a beautiful moment seeing her children again. She could almost feel the love within them, and she wanted to spread hers too. No anger, only mercy. She didn’t want to admit it, but she very much wanted to embrace them, to hug and hold them close in their most desperate hours and exchange energy in the most unique way known in Equestria. Alas, love did not work that way. Her children could not feel it as she could; they could only take what life it offered and hoped that it lasted them through the night.

“Why must the fates spread their cruelty so?” Chrysalis asked herself, scanning the horde. Behind them, one changeling became anxious and snapped at Roseluck, who screamed and promptly recoiled, bumping into Chrysalis as a result and finding herself with nowhere else to go.

“’The fates are not at fault. All that has happened to our once great civilization is of your own doing, Chrysalis,” the commander calmly retorted. “All of this was the direct result of your foolish decisions and careless calls to action. Your former children—“

“Former children!?” Chrysalis lashed out with a growl, her fangs gleaming. The encircling force responded immediately, hissing and snarling defensively. Chrysalis was appalled, but was far from surrendering her stance. “How dare you speak of them like that, traitor!”

“You are as dead to them as you are to me,” the commander proclaimed. “You abandoned them and their kin in their darkest hour and paid no mind to the agony they endured without the guidance of their ‘loving’ queen. Do you even feel sympathy for what they have been through? They felt the souls of their kin in the North and South pass on and wallowed in miserable grief. What weakness, this was. Was this your idea of a better future?”

The commander gestured to the object it held, holding it up a little higher. A small ray of the moon’s light cast upon it, giving bits and pieces of its coarse surface a silvery, metallic glow.

“Our future ranks will not be under your command. Rather, they will be under my own. It is what must be done, and will ensure that the hidden power of Mariposa will be put to good use.”

Chrysalis’s eyes shot open at the mention of the great city of legend. Things were far worse than she thought. She herself may have held little information on the long lost kingdom, but, what with the trinkets they uncovered and how they were found beneath the crumbling bulk of the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters in play, she had a feeling that the kingdom had to have been “lost” for a good reason, especially for its age to surpass even her own mother.

The commander took notice of her confusion and surprise in the matter. It refused to wane its expression, matters such as these being all-too important to take in the pride of its personal returns.

From within another crevice beneath its wing, the commander withdrew a familiar-looking item. It was slender and pronged, but was unrecognizable amidst the shadows.

“You were never very clever in the ways of covering your tracks,” the commander continued, bringing forth the object into the moonlight and revealing it to be...a key, or at least part of one.

’The key!’ thought Chrysalis with a flinch, her mind racing as she looked back at Roseluck in shock, who only returned an equally mortified stare. It was the same key they found in the ancient castle crypt not too long ago, the same place where they found the tablet along with it.

“B-But...I-I...” Chrysalis stammered, swallowing hard as she tried to make sense of the situation. Without that key, their future will be held away from them. “How did you--”

“I had my elite guard follow you for days,” the commander cut in. “What I learned was shocking, but I expected nothing more. It was just what I needed. I have known of Mariposa’s existence for longer than you think. Every cold, bone-chilling night as you carelessly slumbered in privacy while your subjects howled and yearned for deliverance from their nightmares you left your mind open to knowledge. Anyone could enter, but everyone feared doing so, save me. Thousands of years worth of thought and valuable memory...”

The commander continued on with its speech, but not before stepping out from behind its wall of minions and further exposing itself. It sat down and held out the two pieces, their broken ends pointed towards each other. A light breeze came forth, and something strange began to happen. A thin, glowing strand of blue magic shot out from both stumps of the objects, meeting in the middle like a grapple and enveloping most of the chamber with its light as an unknown force began to draw them closer.

“A once mighty kingdom brought down by way of simply vanishing off the map. Its ruler was powerful and wise, and its inhabitants were more skillful than all the world’s masons. They were stronger than any mere pony could ever hope to be...and we need it. We need their power to rebuild, but you hold something from us, something that we require to complete a vital connection. You withhold our brighter future by resting it on some ambition for that worthless spawn you call a prince! Now, before you anger me further, where is the tablet you found?”

The link of energy between the key stumps withered and faded out just before the two pieces came together. Chrysalis was awe-struck. Where did the commander find the piece they had found, along with what was apparently the other half of it? She entrusted Roseluck with concealing the former until the time was right, but changelings had always proved themselves to be the ultimate form of spy. They could be hiding amongst anyone, as anything, at anytime.

“N-No.You will not have that tablet. Your intentions are unjust. You only desire to repopulate just so you can lead them headlong into a war that they could never win!” Chrysalis stood tall and looked to and over her children en-masse, her eyes radiating with a combination of fearlessness and fret. “Listen to me, all of you! Do you really desire to throw your lives away in favor of inciting more death for a cause you may never win? I hold a love for each and every one of you that is too difficult to explain beyond what is obvious. I am your...mother...” She swallowed hard, teetering on the brink of collapse. “Please...you just have to trust me.”

Her final words caused the crowd to stir for a few moments. Some exchanged inquisitive glances at one another, but not one of them believable. Chrysalis hoped for a sign that at least one of her children would take to heart her plea, but alas, her soul was crushed when every one of them turned to her and snarled like wild cats, some foaming at the mouth only furthered in their mindless drive of hatred.

“I grow tired of waiting,” the commander stated with a grunt. “Look around you, Chrysalis. You’ve done enough. Your unwillingness to aid your children in need only propagates the end of your rule, and with it, your dynasty.”

‘No...no no no! Please, no! Chrysalis inwardly whined, biting her lower lip as she darted her eyes around the room as the enemy of her own people.

“Force the tablet’s location from her, and when it is done...” The commander backed away, retreating behind its minions. “...bring me her head.”

The whole chamber exploded.

The horde of shapeshifters darted forward, but Chrysalis was ready to retaliate, albeit with a moment’s sickening hesitation. A bright green flash of energy flared up from her horn, blowing the swarm back and sending them tumbling over one another in a daze. Roseluck and Ditto were lucky enough to be standing in just the right spot behind her, for they were left unscathed and only shivering in fear struck by the sudden charge.

“Run, Roseluck! We need to run!” Chrysalis shouted as her horn lost its glow.

“R-Right, right!” Roseluck responded in a hurry, taking off with Chrysalis just as the knockback spell’s effect started to wear off.

The changelings bayed and moaned in pain as they slowly rose to their hooves again. The commander was untouched having braced itself in readiness for the impact. When it looked up, its captives were long gone, but Ditto’s wails still echoed through the forest. It bared its razor sharp fangs and let out a great hiss, its wings buzzing at its sides as it spun around to face its weakened army.

“After them! After them, you foals!” The commander barked, spreading its excited wings as if preparing to take the skies. As the distance between them grew longer, Ditto’s cries grew sharper and more voluminous. This only angered the commander further, leading it to spout death threats and insults as it floated above the writhing pile, kicking them up one by one. “Make them pay for what they’ve done to us! Go! Now! Show them the error of their ways!”

With enough “encouragement,” the changelings were up in no time. Their bodies were battered but their longing for justice held true. They spread their wings and swarmed out of the central hive, the moonlight streaking across their smooth, yet fractured shells. The commander watched them as they left, embodying a ruthless spirit thirsty for vengeance. The hunt was on.

Through the Everfree Roseluck and Chrysalis sprinted, leaping high and ducking low to avoid the pits of green and brown muck and decaying limbs of trees familiar to the comical escapee. The stench of death intensified as they went, their tails trailing behind them and the buzzing of dozens of changeling wings closing in on them like wasps. Ditto kept his tear-laden face buried in Roseluck’s neck.

Chrysalis’ heart was racing like a stallion. She broke free from the trepidation of slowing to look behind her, whereupon several drones broke off from the flying swarm and took a screaming fast dive towards her. She yelped and quickened her pace just as they came to a hard landing behind her. To her misfortune, they did not falter and somehow managed to land on their hooves only to then give chase. They were hot on her hooves, occasionally snapping at her tail as it flailed about in the fog-drenched wind, their feral hisses only advising their victim to sprint faster and faster until she nearly outran Roseluck, a pony whose body was actually fit for this particular brand of torture.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Their future was supposed to be bright and abundant with understanding.

Her own children turned against her...the ones she cared for on the inside were now these bloodthirsty dregs of the underworld-turned-Everfree forest whose fractured loyalty belonged to the commander with an obsessive guarantee to accomplish what she never had a chance at doing in the first place. She felt guilty agreeing with it though. An alliance, or even a partnership with their sworn enemy was extremely risky. The risks far outweighed any manner of benefit. Diplomacy would do little to change that.

She needed to do something, and fast. The typical hive drone may be weak, but their endurance was staggering. They would chase her to the ends of the earth if they had to. Another batch of drones landed and gave chase, perhaps hoping to overwhelm her.

She looked ahead to the dense foliage as it whizzed past her head. She formed an idea quickly, one as helpful as it was dangerous. She thought not of her own safety, but for that of her children. Some lingering part of her wholly opposed harming them, knowing that they were merely misguided. Yet, disquieted, she gave in, taking to plan her next moves carefully before executing them with precision.

Chrysalis fired powerful bolts of green magic from the tip of her horn into a sidelining tree up ahead. Several missed, and one only managed to graze the tree on its side, disintegrating a large chunk of it on contact. However, this was enough to bring the goliath husk crashing down onto the pathway.

Chrysalis berated herself under her breath for her mistake and darted around the obstacle with a surprised Roseluck in tow. It gave them some short distance ahead of the pursuing ground forces, but the chase quickly resumed when another squad descended from the swarm up high. Their hooves trampled through grasses and withering shrubs in their advance as the rest of the party caught up. She knew what she had to do, but her timing had to be impeccable.

After waiting for her next targets to come closer, Chrysalis fired salvo after salvo of bolts at the trees as they whizzed by her head, cutting them down like twigs and toppling them to the ground just a few hoof-lengths apart from she and her pursuers. Her plan was working, succeeding in stalling the changelings as they continued to flee.

The last of the aerial swarm joined their brethren on the ground after the rooftop vegetation of the forest grew too dense to see through and resumed the chase just as before. Chrysalis knew this was coming and acted quickly. She repeatedly fired her barrage of magical bolts into the treeline and soon blanketed their means of escape with great hulks of wood. As each one fell, their resilient branches ripped away bundles of overhead vines and made the chase even more of a spectacular mess. Any changeling to maneuver over or around the fallen trees would then be forced to the ground as they tripped over their own hooves, left to writhe about in the pileup as they attempted to free themselves.

Their prey gained distance from them, leaving them in the cold dust if only for a few seconds as those lucky enough to foresee and avoid these hazards caught up with the rest of the pack. By then they were too late. Chrysalis and Roseluck were clear out of sight. They saw their targets’ disappearance as only a minor setback and went full speed ahead, charging into the unknown and instinctively splitting off into separate search parties.

Lady Luck had fallen into Chrysalis’s favor. After her plan had proven to be successful, she and Roseluck quickly came upon a dense thicket of brush tucked away just below the lip of a ditch off to the wayside. They wasted no time in diving into it and waiting out the passing storm. A quick look through a hole in their hiding place revealed the coast to be clear much to the relief of a certain young mare.

“Whew...that was too close...” Roseluck whispered, timidly exhaling a sigh of sweet, sweet relief, taking a minor chance by wiping her forehead clean of sweat. The sounds of the changelings at last grew distant before fading out. They were alone, but there was still no telling how safe they were, or for how long it would remain that way. Fortunately, Ditto had calmed down albeit remaining traumatized and teary-eyed after such a frightening ordeal.

“I nearly hurt them...” Chrysalis murmured as she lay on her belly, shivering. “Nearly killed them even...”

“You’re worried over them and not us?” asked Roseluck in disbelief. “Whose side are you--”

All it took was a single, venomous glare to silence her, the queen’s eyes glowing a dim green. She looked away promptly, turning her gaze back to the hole in the shrub and checking to make sure they were still alone. It was then and there she felt the eeriness of the silent forest creep up on her again, reminding her of how empty this once luscious and otherworldly land once was.

“No matter what happens...they’re still my children,” spoke Chrysalis, breaking the silence with her gaze to the ground, her forehooves idly shifting the grainy soot. “They may be tired, angry, confused, and cursed with hunger...and though I have failed to provide for them, my children they will remain. That is a fact I choose to stand by.”

At least Roseluck could take heart knowing Chrysalis withheld some of her bright side optimism. Sadly, it was far from sufficient to draw the queen’s mind away from worst of it. Her mourning will be eternal. For comfort’s sake, she removed Ditto from Roseluck’s back and placed him on her own, letting the inviting warmth of his small form aid in her recovery.

Just then, Roseluck perked up, her ears standing to attention and her nose twitching about as it sniffed the air.

“Eeugh!” Roseluck recoiled, her ears folding back against her skull. “What’s that stench? It’s worse than this place usually smells like.”

Chrysalis did not notice it at first, but it slowly lingered on to reach her nostrils and, ultimately, her throat. It was thick in the air and made her cough and gag profusely. Ditto whined lowly and covered his muzzle with both hooves. It was worse than the inside of a manticore’s den and smelled heavily of some sulfuric substance. For as bad as it smelled, it reminded her of her home and how muck-ridden it was, a short-lived wanting now thankfully sated, if only for a while. Its whereabouts were quickly discovered when Chrysalis turned around and gave a frightful gasp.

Behind her lay a mass of animal remains; a large animal at that, one brutally ripped apart as though it were a foal’s plaything. It lay in a ditch on its back and its legs splayed in the air. It had a coat of fur that was mostly hidden from view by its lacerated skin and a gaping hole in its belly, the sight further complemented by its exposed entrails that glistened in the moonlight. Chrysalis shivered where she stood. How did she not notice it before? Ditto refused to look.

Roseluck turned about and nearly shrieked out with fright. Thankfully, her mind took over and slammed a hoof over her mouth to suppress it.

“Shh! Remember, stay quiet!” Chrysalis snapped with a shrill whisper before stepping towards the mess, a squeamish cringe crawling onto her face as she gently poked the closest unsullied spot. “It’s dead. Nothing to fear.”

Roseluck felt as if she were going to be sick. Her cheeks ballooned in readiness to release the contents of her stomach, but she instinctively gulped it back down, wincing.

There was everything to fear about this. The first animal they had seen in hours and it’s been cut down like something out of a horror movie? What’s even stranger was that the smell wasn’t coming from any rot, as the kill was too fresh for decomposition to set in, but from the body itself. Even the Everfree’s once abundant population of flies were absent. Something wasn’t right here.

Chrysalis anxiously circled the corpse around to the place where its head...would have been. One of its legs was completely missing too, and the ground around its tail section was lightly charred as though licked by some kind of corrosive substance.

“Even in my recent years I haven’t seen such carnage,” she spoke as she looked it over. “Whatever killed the poor thing must have been very strong, like a manticore or an alpha timberwolf.”

“Whatever it is, I’m glad it’s not going to kill us,” Roseluck spoke up after regaining control of her gag reflex. The smell was too great even for her, but she rested on a hope that she would only have to linger around it for a short time. “And considering that this is the Everfree, that might just be a good thing, for us anyway.” She shrugged. “But we still need to figure out what to do. The entire colony is after us, for Celestia’s sake!”

Chrysalis did not respond. Rather, she warily poked and prodded at certain areas of the creature’s body in examination. There was a puzzle to be pieced together here, but of what sort? A few things here looked familiar to her, but she just couldn’t get across them. A scan of the area around her revealed there to be no other evidence save for signs of an intense struggle, and with that she gave up and returned her attention to her companion.

“I agree. My home is tainted, and no longer safe. There is only one option.” Chrysalis scanned her surroundings cautiously before speaking again with a sigh. “We have to search for and uncover the secrets of this...Mariposa. I am unsure of what my mother had to do with it, what with her inscription on the tablet, but I pray that whatever awaits us there will help us to grow and rebuild once more. The right way.”

“But what about the key? Doesn’t it have anything to do with Mariposa? What’ll happen now that the commander not only has part of it, but the whole thing?”

“We will just have to endure, wait, and see.” Chrysalis responded with a bow of her head.

“But what if they--?”

Suddenly, from within the forest deep, the sounds of the changelings returned, and were getting closer every tense second.

“...follow us?” Roseluck whimpered, her knees shaking.

Chrysalis reared up and placed one hoof on the trunk of a nearby tree, supporting herself in her standing position and looking over the cover of the bushes. Her ears shot up, then, her alertness when she spotted the silhouette of a changeling followed by many more dart to and from the shadows a good ways away. It wouldn’t be long before they would be right on top of them.

“Let’s hope not...” said Chrysalis, lowering herself to the ground again and turning to face Roseluck. “With all that has happened, all the death and decay, it is unlikely we will encounter anything hostile for miles. And yet the forest is still no place to linger. Come...” Chrysalis nudged Roseluck along towards a thicket of undergrowth behind them. “There is no time to lose.”

Roseluck carefully circled around the corpse, accidentally glancing at it even after forcing herself to look away before. She gulped with a shudder and soon trotted after Chrysalis.

Haste

Biting, chilly winds nipped at the back of the adventurers’ necks as they made their escape. At least one thing remained very much alive and kicking in the Everfree: the weather, gloomy at all hours of the day and drenched of the feelings of emptiness one might experience when they find themselves sheltered by the husks of dead, shadowy trees. Periods of snow, freezing rain, and even hail came down hard, fast, and went away like flies, falling around them in extremely discomforting formations.

Minutes added up into hours as they trekked through the remains of a once-luscious range of forest undergrowth, traveling at a pace so cautious Roseluck took to counting her own hoof steps; a great way to pass the time especially if one is being hunted by the most cunning predators on the planet. Their level of alertness was on par with that of rabbits. The slightest misstep and the ears go up. Chrysalis would halt their progress with each impromptu snap of a twig, and it was only after several lengthy intervals that she decided it was safe to walk normally, so long as they kept their guard up. Their journey would then resume immediately, marred only by the untimely elements ahead of them.

Ditto was somehow spared from the brunt of the more fierce winds that peppered his carrier’s face with ice crystals. His fearful whimpers of being stalked evolved into gentle, almost inaudible coos of wonder. His wide eyes scanned the rolling grey clouds that floated above the forest, and he stuck out his tongue with each period of snowfall. Every snowflake that landed on his tongue made his whole body tingle and his wings buzz about at his sides with foalish delight. It made Chrysalis wish she were a filly again, but those were memories best left buried.

In time, their flight from her tainted homeland reached its end. They took their final steps out of the Everfree Forest and found themselves looking out onto a grassy plain sparkling with dew drops. The air had taken a warmer shift in temperature now that they were finally free from the clutches of the dank undergrowth. The moon remained high in the sky, but Roseluck could tell by its position that its time was due soon. She found it difficult to believe that her body had the energy to stay awake thus far. The sight of Canterlot far off in the distance reminded her of home, especially her old bed back home.

“Thank goodness...” said Roseluck with a heavy sigh, resting on her aching haunches. Her forehead burned as she wiped a length of cold sweat from her brow. She winced, remembering how she had a few unfortunate run-ins with prickly tree branches that whipped her senseless on their way down. There was little else she could do that didn’t involve accepting the pain of her injuries. After all, it could have been much worse than just a few bumps and scrapes here and there. “We made it...finally. How are you holding up, Chrysalis?”

There came no answer.

“...Chrysalis?” Roseluck repeated, peering behind her from over her shoulder.

Chrysalis stood turned towards the forest at its edge, staring forlornly into the blackness with her ears drooping just as low as the sorrowful frown on her face. She thought about calling to her a third time, but chose to remain as she was, silent and still out of respect. What did it feel like to lose it all so quickly, was the biggest question on Roseluck’s mind. And yet, how did it feel to have one’s seat of power suddenly swept up from underneath them and thrown in amongst the fire and burning embers that used to be their kingdom? This was the way of the anarchist, but the tyrannical powerhouse behind her undoing made sure of it that the legacy of the changeling’s old faith was mythologized in the future. If there ever was to be a future.

Chrysalis retained her silence for a few seconds more before moving, turning to look at Roseluck over her shoulder.

“I’m...ready to continue,” spoke the queen, gifting herself with another glance at the trees behind her.

“Are you sure you don’t you want to spend just a little more time here? Maybe take a...leaf or something as a keepsake?”

“No.” Chrysalis was quick to respond, shaking her head before lifting it in favor of building the courage need to bolster her emotions. “I mustn't linger in a pool of my own grief, and removing even the thinnest blade of grass, or the smallest seed of life’s greatest gift from these lands would do me no better. I will honor the dead and the astray, wherever they may have fled to. Should I lean on old memories...I will surely fall again.”

Chrysalis ambled forward at a sluggish pace, seemingly hesitating with some meaning on her first step and uprooting a tuft of damp, green grass. This soft and rich earth beneath her hooves felt new and inviting. On another note, it was the first step she had taken outside of her home ever since the Canterlot invasion. A far cry from the more stable, albeit rock-hard soil of the Everfree she was used to traversing, but she would get used to it. She then nudged Roseluck in the side as she passed her by, her tail swaying.

“Come now,” she spoke. “We must seek refuge elsewhere.”

Roseluck took to mulling over Chrysalis’s words in her head, silently weighing the value of good versus evil for, oddly enough, one of the few times since she arrived in the Everfree. Maybe there was something more to be understood here. For whose lives was she really fighting for?

Their continued journey was one followed by a blessing neither of them had seen coming. Granted, they never exactly planned their escape route in the first place. Ponyville was many miles away, and the plains they traversed through were hilly and pocked with broad depressions between each hill crest. Any creature that took to patrolling the edge of the now-distant Everfree Forest would come up short on their list of defenseless morsels to prey on.

These “bowls” of the hills gave them free range of movement. They could move however they pleased and enjoy themselves for a bit. The soft terra firma amazed Chrysalis. Life was simply teeming above and below it. This was virgin soil left unexploited for what may have been thousands of years. The air she breathed in was perfectly clean too. Not a single whiff would ever bear the misfortune of being unwillingly graced with the scent of rot and animal dung. Take in the deepest of breaths...close your eyes...hold it in, nurture it...and revel; in that order.

His little savior was having no difficulty relieving himself of his excitement. It was a whole new world, his new and fantastic point of view. He hobbled away from his caretakers and had some fun rolling about in the long grass, getting a feel for this new environment, and evidently loving it. Roseluck was starting to regret just letting him go off on his own after he managed to smoothly transition into a hover on his own and land on the ground a few hoof-lengths away without her noticing; quite the early bloomer. Admittedly, her attention was more focused on the fact that they actually made it out of the Everfree with their tails between their legs, or what most of them was left as she found out when she examined her dirt-covered backside which looked akin to Her-Majesty’s. Chrysalis stifled a giggle, but was forced to soften them up when she was met with a glaring stare.

It was many miles and several hours later that they soon found themselves traversing alongside a swift and coursing river. The sun was on the rise, and the moon was retreating to its cozy position on the other side of the world. Both the queen and her aid were exhausted, but had chosen not to risk sleeping out in the open, for the river cut through the plains and onwards to the snow-capped mountains. Ditto, however, was slumbering peacefully atop Chrysalis’s back, tuckered out from too much play.

As the sun was lifted over the horizon, they came to an agreement on helping themselves to a rest stop next to a calm riverbank a fair length away from a clump of whitewater rapids. Roseluck fell to her knees upon arrival, groaning miserably as every aching muscle in her body all contracted at once. Her hooves felt as if they were going to fall right off, and she soon took to settling on her side. It was the most comfortable thing she had laid on in a long while. It was hardly a problem that the grass was wet and the air thick with early-morning humidity. She just wanted sleep; that was all she wanted right now. The bags beneath her eyes may as well have held rocks for all the good they did in suppressing her growing urgency to slam them shut.

“Hoooh...please tell me we get to sleep sometime sooooon?” Roseluck whined rather childishly despite knowing their lives were at risk every second of every day. She splayed her legs out onto the ground, taking comfort knowing the warming daylight would soon be upon them.

Chrysalis forewent answering her, for she had no definitive answer to give. The plains offered next to no protection, and the only sign of civilization was Canterlot’s snow-capped mountain peak, and even then they had no way of getting into the city without running into royal guards and a slew of changeling detection methods. As pitiful in success rate as they were, there was still a chance she would be weeded out even under the guise of a pony.

“We can’t stop moving, Roseluck, at least not out here in the open,” Chrysalis pointed out, testing the calmer waters by dipping the tip of her hoof into it. It felt cool and inviting, and they were all in obvious need of a bath. “There’s no telling what we’ll be up against, and, for all we know, someone may be watching us right this very moment.”

Roseluck breathed a heavy, boorish sigh, hesitant at first in accepting the truth of the matter. “And where do we go from here, huh? We does the tablet say we should do?”

Chrysalis had almost forgotten about the tablet, her mind perhaps too busy with thoughts of staying alive rather than said. On her will, it appeared before her by way of magic. She looked it over it carefully, though there was still so much about it she did not understand.

“That’s...difficult to say. It’s as far from following a conventional paper map as one could get.”

“Just tell me we’re lost and put me out of my misery...”

“Not lost,” Chrysalis replied, glancing to and from the stone scribery every few seconds. “Just unfortunate. Much of what the tablet mentions never existed before, like most major pony cities of today, including any outlying villages. This is difficult.”

“So what’s wrong with going around them?” Roseluck asked whilst drawing a circular gesture in the air.

“Everything between those cities is either barren plains or forests. If ponies frequent either territory, we’ll be in even more trouble than before.” Chrysalis bit her bottom lip, her ears going limp. “What’s even worse is this. Where Canterlot rests on the mountainside now, there used to be a system of natural caves and tunnels that would allow for safe, sheltered passage over the mountains it borders. My only guess is that they have been sealed off by now, especially after the invasion.”

“Why is there never any good news?” Roseluck pouted, rolling onto her belly and heaving another dreadful sigh. “What are we supposed to do then? Where in the hay are we supposed to go to get to Mariposa?”

With a worrisome frown, Chrysalis sent the tablet back to its dimensional strongbox with a puff of green magic. “All I know is that we have very little in the ways of options, but no matter where we go from here we have no choice but to trek over the mountains to reach the other side of Equestria. Our journey continues from there.”

“But that could take weeks! Maybe days if we’re lucky! We don’t even have the key anymore! What are we to do?” Roseluck retorted. Then, a low gurgling rumble erupted from her stomach. She couldn’t remember the last time she had a proper meal, the thought of which only gave birth to another gloomy rumble. At least the grass in front of her looked fresh. It wouldn’t have been her first choice, but she caved in before the hunger pains could and began munching tenderly on a small mouthful.

“I don’t know...regrettably, that’s what we’re going to have to work with. We’ll get through this.” Chrysalis nodded, putting on a faux brave face and dropping it as soon as she turned around. Truth be told, the prospect of traveling naked, that is to say without a disguise, terrified her, and rightfully so. She experienced many a nightmare in the past about being caught, and it was a sure thing that she had some sort of bounty on her head, an undoubtedly hefty one at that. Every imaginary fatal wound would shock her awake, and though she was a more different type of queen now, her past embodiment would not awaken in a cold sweat or with tears in her eyes, but with a constantly renewing vow to bring about her revenge on ponykind. The queen churned a hoof around in the cool waters, unsure of what to make of any of the events most recent and jarring. She compared her mind to the blue swirl she manipulated, though the results she came up with were equally as convoluted.

Roseluck was allowed to rest her eyes for a short while, but was urged that they would need to continue as soon as she regained her energy. With the given opportunity, she soothingly roused Ditto from his sleep to feed and bathe him along the thin shoreline. It was no picnic, but his delightful squeaks and signs of growth, such as his growing fangs, readily made up for her worry. They later followed the river downstream as their chances of not being spotted were far better here than out in the open. Occasionally, a flying stagecoach or a rogue pegasus would soar over them and the land, and they would do their best to conceal themselves behind scattered boulders near the shoreline and steep faces on the hills. Their journey nearly turned even more dangerous when a grey-coated pegasus circled the area several times. Thankfully, Roseluck was spared the trouble of having to explain what she was doing way out here when the curious sentry turned and flew away towards Cloudsdale, which had revealed itself earlier in the burgeoning daylight.

The plains were as boring as they had both expected it to be. They played with Ditto at times, Chrysalis tried and subsequently failed to accept the taste of grass, and an embarrassingly short game of “I Spy” all lasted them a total of five minutes of entertainment. Nothing but varying shades of prairie grasses stretched on for miles in every direction, save the forest they were coming up on now. How did they not notice it again? Was the never-ending lengths of green making them hallucinate like the desert sands of the balmy south west?

Roseluck giggled in excitement and cantered on the tips of all four of her hooves. “Oh, thank Celestia! I never thought I’d be this happy to see a forest again in all my life!”

“We don’t even know if it’s safe yet,” Chrysalis murmured with a clear hint of trepidation, her gaze trailing from the bases to the trunks of the bordering trees they stood before; typical pine trees if she correctly recalled from past scouting reports. She herself had never seen them before. Their sharp-tipped leaves, if they could even be called that, held a unique and zingy aroma. Even the bark of the trees deviated so much from the only home she had ever known. “I don’t know about this...”

“Well I do!” Roseluck cheerily exclaimed after pulling away from a much-needed hug with the trunk of a handsome spruce tree. “We’re going in.”

“What’s there to say that the predators in there aren’t as bad as those encountered in the Everfree?” Chrysalis glanced at Ditto from over her shoulder in concern for his well-being. The youngling looked up from playing with his mother’s hair and nuzzled the closest cheek within reach, his stub of a tail wagging. She smiled back at him and soon returned her attention to Roseluck. “You’re more of an expert than I am.”

“Well duh!” Roseluck rolled her eyes as she trotted in front of Chrysalis to present herself. “I recognize this place from group nature walks I went on a few years ago. It’s none other than Whitetail Wood!”

“Whitetail...Wood?”

“Or ‘Woods’ if you want to be formal. It’s everything the Everfree isn’t. Warm days, cool nights, beautiful plants, and weather patterns that actually make sense!”

Curious as to what Roseluck’s take on what “making sense” meant, Chrysalis turned her head skyward whereupon she discovered the presence of a light, overcast cloud cover, pricked in just the right places so that sunlight may beam down onto the branches of the gargantuan conifers and their neighbors far below. She never enjoyed the idea of pre-fabricated weather. It concerned her on a personal level for the well-being of world’s forests, or perhaps just those that belonged to Equestria’s landscape. If nature did not exist, and should the land find itself without someone to balance the weather, then could it potentially lead to another Everfree? Bit by bit, the origins of the black forest were becoming clearer as the thoughts rolled by. Had the original ruling order within the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters remained after Nightmare Moon’s banishment, where the castle was left standing and occupied by Princess Celestia and her subjects in the surrounding villages, could the Everfree have never been brought into existence at all due to a lack of chaos kept at bay by the weather beneath their influence?

Chrysalis couldn’t help but notice that she seemed to be more excited about this than she thought. This new environment was of scally, scent-laden trees, and it would be a whole new way for her to experience the theoretical alter ego of the treacherous forestry of her homeland. She wasn’t too keen on letting Ditto get hurt though. Tales of old evoking furry beasts came to mind from tooth to talon. Still, compared to the Everfree’s fauna, they were a skip through the tulips, but not without reason to be avoided.

“You lead the way this time. I will utilize my senses to safeguard the rear,” said Chrysalis as she fanned her wings in a test of her ability to escape should the need arise.

“Fine by me,” Roseluck replied, starting off on a merry canter into the forest.

Chrysalis gazed up into the breathtaking canopy of the forest again, looming over them like the fabled ents and staring into the back of their necks as they passed beneath their branches. What a sight...but danger could be anywhere. It wasn’t supposed to be this difficult to unwind in the presence of more colorful fauna, right? Roseluck repeatedly encouraged her to stop and smell the flowers, but those blood red stems weren’t going to make a fool out of her. Ditto may have gotten a little too curious and swallowed a bug...or three, and now he giggled every time his fouled breath made his mother’s muzzle scrunch up like a sponge. It was always the little things.

Yet, petal to petal, tree to trimming, there was plenty to love about this forest. If this was the standard then the Everfree was anything but. A more fitting name would find similarities in a rotting wasteland; a bone yard even. She was captivated yet confused by all her senses could took in. Sights, sounds, smells, and the sweet songs of musical insects she surrendered herself to for sake of getting to know them better. Inwardly, she enjoyed this a lot more than a smile or two could ever express. All the plants and flowers were starting to look friendlier. Granted, the fauna’s presence was virtually nonexistent, but this had to be due to their unannounced presence in their territory. This truth saddened Roseluck a little when she realized that no birds were singing, leaving her heart, hopeful for a more pleasant stroll, without resolve.

“...Roseluck?”

The flower sister’s reminiscing was broken by the sound of Chrysalis’s voice behind her.

“Yeah, Chrysalis?” Roseluck replied, looking over her shoulder.

“Do ponies ever...fear forests other than the Everfree? You’re just as vulnerable in here as you were in there.”

“Oh...umm...” Roseluck thought hard, looking to the ground. She doubted anypony would have made this connection before as the Everfree was perhaps the only one with an infamous history behind it. Still, she sought to explain it as best as she could. “...no.”

Short and sweet. Truth is she didn’t know how to explain it. Maybe it was magic, or the absence of nature that kept a pony’s mind at ease with the land around them. Nature itself was about as alien of a concept as it could get without going off into space. Leaving the fate of the land up to the luck of the draw would be environmental butchery.

“Why is that so?” Chrysalis asked. “Are the dangers not as evident as they are in the Everfree?”

Roseluck shrugged. “Not really, to be honest. There’s just not that much here in Equestria that has the potential to gobble us up if we get on its bad side. Most of those kinds of creatures are either in griffin or dragon territories, but even then the worst of it is still in the Everfree. Sure, there are bears, snakes, maybe an angry squirrel or two out here, but beyond that...” Roseluck looked up into the trees and breathed a dreamy sigh. “Equestria is just, you know, a nice place to live.”

Chrysalis’s few lingering tidbits of hope for equal-sided hopes fell just as her ears did. The changelings really did receive the short end of the stick in the game of life, though what wasn’t a wooden stub back then would have already burned away in the fires of misfortune. There was no reason for her to continue mourning her species’ loss, yet she couldn’t help but feel that it remained her final duty as queen. Few fail harder in a government than royalty.

“Sorry, Chrysalis,” Roseluck apologized out of pity. “There’s just no overnight method that could have helped. We all have to play with the hoof we’re dealt with in life.”

“It’s alright,” Chrysalis replied. “I’ve known that for long enough. It just pains me every day to know that we never had a chance to begin with. We have made strides in methods to do away with our inefficient affinities, but nature itself wouldn’t allow it. It’d be best to just leave it at that for now.”

Their journey reached an impasse when they encountered a wooden sign adjacent to a trail path. Much to their disappointment, the sign had no names or distances listed, and whatever was written on it before had long since faded to the point of illegibility. Such rotten luck. Perturbed, Roseluck bunted the post with one of her hind legs, bending it backwards.

“What a way to travel.” Roseluck huffed. “Which way are we supposed to go now?”

“Again, the tablet doesn’t work that way,” Chrysalis replied half-expecting her to bring it up again.

“Ugh, can we forget about that modern-day cavepony’s road map for a little while please?” Roseluck rolled her eyes after shooting down Chrysalis. She sat on her haunches and surveyed the area around her. In the mean time, Ditto was granted some time to run about and explore under the watch of his mother. Like before, his excitement couldn’t be contained, and he ran about the area diving into flowery bushes and chasing a peculiar blue butterfly around in circles.

“I suppose life, no matter its adversities, has it’s simple pleasures,” Chrysalis commented with a new smile as she observed her prosperous prince carouseling the same patch of ground.

“You’re telling me...” replied Roseluck.

Just then, there came an audible snap of a twig nearby. The two mares perked up, and Chrysalis made a quick grab for Ditto, cancelling his playtime. He appeared shocked and relentlessly wiggled in her hold, putting up a wild fuss that seemed eerily unlike him.

“H-Huh? Ditto--uhh! What’s gotten into you?” asked Chrysalis, squeezing him closer to prevent him from falling out.

“Chrysalis, quiet down!” Roseluck sharply whispered. “Didn’t you hear that?”

“Yes, but I--ack!” Chrysalis winced after Ditto started pushing against her soft upper chest.The more and more he thrashed about the more she would have to tighten her grip, but she would be forced to let go without risking hurting him this way.

“Keep him quiet! I think somepony’s coming.”

Chrysalis was at last getting into a position where she could keep him under control. She utilized the holes in her hooves to slip his smaller forehooves through them to act as handcuffs with moderate success. His ability to move was somewhat inhibited. His wings and hind legs, however, were not. Yet, try as he might, he was left completely stuck.

Until a sneaky, firm bash of the head to the chest solved his problem.

The traumatizing blow left him with ample time to slip free and land like a cat on the ground. Not a second more was wasted in running away towards a clump of bushes and leaving his mother in the dust. Roseluck made a hasty dive for him, but her only reward was a face full of dirt and a loss of dignity when she landed just outside the bush he dove through to the other side.

“Ditto, no! Come back here right now!” Chrysalis shouted with an astonished voice left wholly ignored. She frantically teetered on her hooves, precious seconds ticking away as she inwardly debated with herself. Risks were abound left and right. Was she to leave Roseluck to deal with this approaching newcomer or take her with her into the unknown? She’s an earth pony, but they’re readily known for their strength. One such as her could fight off a potential grizzly bear on her own, yes? This was the answer she was forced to go with as Ditto was almost out of sight.

“Wait there, Chrysalis! I’ll go catch--”

“No!” Chrysalis gasped, reaching out with her magic and pulling Roseluck away just before she could land the first hurdle. She then leapt in front of her and turned to look at her. “You stay there and I will go after him.”

“But--wait!” Roseluck stammered long after Chrysalis committed to the chase with a wide forward leap over the foliage, thundering through the forest with her wings outstretched.

Roseluck was left alone, here, in the middle of virtually nowhere, and with an unknown beast closing in. A sudden rustle of tree leaves caused her to whirl around in shock. There was more than enough reason for her to be on edge to not know that it was merely the wind making its gentle greeting. A leaf or two naturally glided down from the treetops, but Roseluck eyed them like a tabby eyes a fly. Slowly she broke down, her nerves failing to keep her senses in check as she backed towards the bushes. This had best not be somepony just playing tricks on her. Even then the odds of it merely being a brave pony who wanted a closer look at a changeling queen of all things were highly unlikely.The thought of them having been followed this whole time was present as well. A lone changeling queen and her infant was a big enough prize as it stood.

Just then, a cluster of bushes up ahead shook like she did now. The chatter of teeth was all she could hear before a single hoof, hardly visible, emerged from the bush and slammed into the ground. Her fright was immediate, and with a start she ran from the scene via the same way Chrysalis had fled.

“Chrysalis!” Roseluck cried as she stamped through the forest and maneuvered swiftly over and around anything that got in her way. “Chrysalis, where are you?! Somepony help!”

If she knew anything about being followed she knew that looking behind her to see what was chasing her could be her worst mistake. The nerve of temptation nipped at the back of her head, but stalwart she remained, albeit not in the fullest. Nothing else mattered right now except her survival. Reminiscent of her previous flight from the Everfree, she had enough energy to run for miles, accounting for, in her opinion, this year’s quota of exercise.

On and on she ran, pulling off evasive maneuvers and escape tactics that were for the most part pointless. Kicking up dirt and throwing down hoof-high blockades wasn’t going to be of much help, but it at least kept her at a distance. It was certain that someone, or something, was after her head. Whatever was tearing up the undergrowth far behind her was in a hurry to get to her. Chrysalis was nowhere to be seen yet, and the lack of a trail kept her fears rolling high.

Her luck ran out when she came to the edge of a tall ravine, skidding to a stop and pushing a few unfortunate pebbles over and into a stream riff with jagged rocks. She yelped, whirling around to face the fact that she had nowhere else to run. She could hear the being steadily close in on her. Off in the steadily-decreasing distance, she watched and listened in horror as hard feet assaulted the foliage at the bow of their charge. The seconds went by the needles on her personal death clock. Her end was imminent.

Suddenly, from behind, a hoof wrapped itself around Roseluck’s hind legs and toppled her over in an instant. She tried to scream out in terror, but another hoof was quick to force itself over her mouth. They dragged her over the edge in the blink of an eye just as the thing giving chase to her dove out of the final bush.

“Mmphh! Hmmff!” The grunts of Roseluck’s intense struggling were muffled by her captor, who’s face remained hidden to her. Squinting her eyes open, she could see the wall of the other side of the ravine but at a lower angle. Her hooves kicked where there was hard rock which made her assume that she had been pulled into a cliff side cave.

Then, something long and smooth wrapped itself firmly around her midsection before pulling her in, squeezing her body against what was apparently another. Next came a head, one that came as a bit of surprise when it whipped around the side of her own and bore a serious stare through luminescent eyes of myrtle green she could recognize anywhere; Chrysalis.

“Mmrfflis!?” Roseluck spoke out in shock, her voice yet again to be left dampened. The eyes squinted angrily at her, and she heard a sharp hush from Chrysalis’ invisible lips pierce the air, one clear enough for her to get the message and affirm it with a nod...only to then have a scream out in muffled fright when she felt something brush against her hind legs. She looked down with eyes wide to find another pair of glowing eyes: Ditto’s, blue and beautiful, though he appeared very afraid. At least she was relieved to know that he was alright.

Suddenly, from somewhere in the distance, a pair of wings were heard beating against the air. As the wingbeats drew closer, Ditto whimpered and curled in to fit close to Roseluck’s underbelly. Whoever, or whatever, was outside certainly had to be exceedingly terrifying, so much so that even Chrysalis looked on edge. She made a simple gesture for the two of them to remain quiet before uncupping Roseluck’s mouth and entrusting her with their safety.

On the cliff above them, whatever creature had neared them came to a soft landing, but there was little doubt remaining in what it was after it stamped the ground twice with a heavy hoof. Chrysalis could smell it, reeking with sweat and grime. They must have been out and about for a long time as indicated by their heavy breathing. She held back from taking a peek at it outside after its movements towards the edge caused small stones to break away and pitter-patter down to the rushing waters below. The precious moments went by until the being outside gave off a rumbling grunt. Again, Chrysalis made an attempt to get a look at it, and she did manage to slide her head outside before her vision was obscured by a cloud of dust kicked up by a powerful wing beat. Roseluck gasped softly and ran to the queen’s aid when the gust caused her to lose balance and nearly topple over to a watery doom. By the skin of her teeth, she was able to latch on to Chrysalis’s tail and yank her back inside. The noise they made was just quiet enough to be drowned out by the sounds of takeoff when the intruder took flight again and soared clear out of view.

“A-Are you alright? What did you see?” asked Roseluck with haste upon righting herself, panting.

Chrysalis followed up after a series of gags and dust-laden coughs. “I’m alright, but we won’t be for long if we stay here.”

“Well, maybe, but what did you see?” Roseluck was anxious to know. Whatever it was must have scared away what was chasing her before. It was self-evident that it had wings, but if it was a pony then it meant civilization was near. It worried her when she was forced to choose whether or not that was good or bad.

“I didn’t get a good look. All I saw were its wings, but the span of them was big enough for a pegasus.” Chrysalis whipped her tail around to her side and inspected it for damage; new damage anyway. Lost hairs usually grow back in a few weeks, though why a changeling’s body insists on making them look they were plucked from a patch of scum in a pond was beyond any conventional explanation that didn’t involve nature.

“Oh...but what were the two of you doing in here to begin with?” Roseluck asked as she surveyed the precarious hideout from the inside.

“Hiding.” Chrysalis replied, frowning sadly after Ditto hurriedly hobbled his way to his mother’s forelegs for comfort. “It seems that we were both being pursued, or hunted, possibly by whatever was just here.”

“No no no...” Roseluck shook her head, biting her lower lip anxiously. “Something chased me too, but entirely on foot. If it had wings I would have been in even bigger trouble. But...” She paused, looking up to Chrysalis. “Thanks for...you know, helping me.”

“It’s a good thing we found this cave when we did. I don’t know what came after us, but I halted its progress as best as I could. It was quick, but not clever. We never heard from it again after that, though I suspect that it’s still out there, looking for us.”

“I guess the same could be said for my monster...” Roseluck shuddered, hoping the gorge that spanned between them would split them apart from whatever horrors that desired their flanks on a silver platter.

Chrysalis nudged Ditto towards Roseluck before stepping to the cave’s edge. She looked down into the channel of rushing water and pondered where it might lead. No doubt away from the mountains, but her bets were on finding a lake. Where there was a clearing she could get her bearings without exposing herself by flying high above the trees. After all, ready convenience was far from her list of priorities.

“It’s too dangerous to remain here, let alone traverse through such dangerous territory. ‘Better place to live’...” Chrysalis guffawed, looking over her shoulder. “Be prepared to get a little wet...”