Chapter 1: The Beginning of the End
Cadence and Shining Armor gazed lovingly at the small filly laying in the crib crying. Cadence broke the magical moment. " She's so beautiful." Shining Armor swung his head around to face her. " Not more beautiful than you." The two ponies stared at each other. Both of them wanted nothing more than to live in that moment forever. But they couldn't. Time would go on. Cadence picked up the filly and set her on her father's back. " Well, let's get you something to drink." Shining Armor carried the filly into another room. Cadence levitated a bottle of milk to the filly. She laid down with the milk and began to drink it. Cadence and Shining Armor stared at each other again, only this time they kissed.
Chrysalis looked at her baby, who was already standing and walking on her own. " Honey," Chrysalis called. " Come look." Another changeling, who looked identical to Chrysalis except for a more power build and a shorter mane, flew in. " Ah," the other changeling said. " Nothing less that I would expect from any daughter of mine." Chrysalis put on a fake hurt look. " And not my children, you mean?" The other changeling smiled. " Oh, be quiet, you." The two changelings fell on each other, laughing. Suddenly a flash of worry went through Chrysalis's head. The drones... they looked at her almost like... they hated her. What if they stole her baby? Chrysalis steeled herself. No one is taking my baby,she thought to reassure herself. This baby must be kept a secret though, just in case.
5 YEARS LATER
Cadence looked over at her filly, now named Lily Blossom. Her white coat and pink mane made her beautiful. Shining Armor was at work so Cadence had opted to be the stay at home mom. Lily Blossom looked at her. " Mom can I..." " No."
"How about..."
"No."
"Well maybe..."
"No."
"CAN I ACTUALLY TALK!?"
Cadence gave her a long look. " All right." Lily Blossom looked relieved. " So, can I go visit Celestia?" " Why would you want to do that?" Cadence was confused. " Oh, in school we're learning about how the day comes and how Princess Celestia rules the day fairly. I was told I could do an interview." Cadence was worried. Does her teacher have a few screws loose? she thought. You can't just barge in on the Princess of the day and say, 'Hey, whats up Celestia?' Cadence finally said, " All right. Go on now, get out of here!" The young alicorn giggled. " Try to chase me away, huh? Fat chance!" Mother and daughter ran around, laughing.
The young changeling, now named Moth, watched her mother. " Now, if a drone sees you, make yourself one of them, like this." Her mother flashed green fire and she looked just like a drone. " Now you try." "OK!" said Moth, excited to be doing her first transformation. She flashed green. " How do I look?"
" Well... Aah..." Chrysalis stuttered.
Her daughter was a... very sloppy drone. She was the exact same size. Her wings were too big, and her horn too small. She had no holes, and her fangs were clearly blunt. " Um.. we'll work on that." finished Chrysalis. " Well? How did I do?" " You did..." Chrysalis tried to think of the right words. " Um... Great!"
"So in other words, I did bad?"
" I said we have to work on it."
The young changeling sighed. She could never get a straight answer out of her mom. Moth felt like her mom never told her the truth. And if she did, it was twisted, a truth with just enough lie, or vice versa. " I'm going to try to find some food, mom." " All right." The young changeling flew away. As soon as Moth was out of earshot, Chrysalis sighed. Moth probably hated her. And Chrysalis didn't blame her. She was a horrible parent. Ever since her lifelong partner had died, and she had become a single mom, times were tough. She just didn't know what to do.
Lily Blossom walked into the throne room. It was so... so... BIG. And magnificent. The princess of the day sat like a statue on her throne. Lily Blossom walked up to her. " Um... Good Morrow, your Majesty?" Celestia looked down. " Ah. Lily Blossom. I knew you would come." " How?" Lily Blossom was amazed. Did Celestia have some power that let her see the future? Couls she see the entire day? " I heard about your report." Oh. Well, not as amazing, but still cool! " So can you tell me what it's like being a Princess of the Day?" Celestia got started. " Well, I have to make sure everypony has done their job. I also must check on Discord." Lily Blossom spoke. " I had an idea. Why would you keep Discord in your garden? Why not grind him into cement and make a building?" Celestia was impressed. " I never thought of that. It might be handy to keep you around." Lily Blossom was ecastic. " YES!!!!!!!!!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs, then blushed. " Oops..." Celestia smiled. " Don't worry about it... this time." " Yes of course." said Lily Blossom shyly. " Um... Can you tell me a bit more?"
Moth's thoughts turned from her mother to food. Using a trick taught by her father, she scanned the area with magic. Her father... thinking of him brought tears. He had been so kind, so understanding. He had never stopped loving her, and always had told her the truth... " Stop. Just stop." she told herself. She concentrated again on scanning. Unlike normal Changelings, she could feed on hate as well. She found two drones locked in a fight, yelling angry words. Instantly, she began to feed. Their hate... it was as good as love. When she had ate her fill, she plopped down on the ground and laid back. Her mother was a confusing jumble, her father was a kind, smooth ripple. Being with her mother... she couldn't stand it. Moth sat up and said, "I have to run away. I can't take it anymore." She left a note to her mother, which read:
Dear Mother,
You don't have to worry about drones taking me anymore. Or anything else. Because I'm leaving. I'm not coming back. Maybe you'll understand. It's not that I don't love you. This place just feels wrong. I have to leave. I'm sorry for everything, how much of a pain I've been, and everything else. Just don't go after me. I'll find my home somewhere.
Signed,
Moth
Chapter 2: They Come Together
Chrysalis paced back and forth in the hive. Her daughter had probably left her the note to make her feel better, but she didn't feel better. Just worse. Questions raced through her head. Is Moth okay? Where did she go? Did she find a better home? but she tried hard to ignore them. " Moth is fine," she told herself, " Just fine." But doubt still creeped into her head. " If only I had tried harder. Let her know I cared, and been a real mother." Chrysalis finally broke down and fell sobbing on the floor.
Lily Blossom had already turned in her report. Her teacher had called it, ' amazing ', and ' fabulous', and a few othe words. But Lily ( as she was nicknamed) was proud of herself. But now she was bored. She needed action. Maybe... try to find her cutie mark? She had heard of Cutie Mark Crusaders in Ponyville, maybe she could do the same thing. First..." SINGLE CUTIE MARK CRUSADER BAKER!!" She raced off to her mom's kitchen, ready to try making muffins, with chocolate chips, to give to Dinky. Dinky was a friend who came to visit a lot. She was in Canterlot right now, staying with Lily's family. It would be a nice present. She made it in the kitchen and turned on the oven.
Moth lurked around the forest. She hid behind trees, staying out of sight. She couldn't help but wonder how her mom would react. But her mom didn't care about her. She was abrasive and rough with her. She spent a lot of time with her, but only to keep her out of sight. Moth let a single tear fall, but no others. She had to steel herself to make it. She began to search the area. She found two rabbits in a fight. She started to feed. Energy filled her, giving her the stamina to carry on. She tried to turn herself into a bird. Fail. Total Fail. But good enough to fly. She took off.
Chrysalis could not take it. She had told the drones everything, and sent off ALL of them to find her. All of them but herself. She couldn't face Moth. Also someone had to watch the hive. But still, she knew they would never find her. It was too much to dream, or even to hope. The idea was crazy. Moth was bad at transforming, but good enough to hide from anything. She could take care of herself. She can take care of herself...the idea echoed through her mind and bounced back. Moth was almost 6. Chrysalis had to let her go.
There was a huge fire and water everywhere. The fireponies had arrived just in time. Lily couldn't believe how bad they had turned out. " So much for muffins," she thought out loud. But then an idea came to her. Lily's horn glowed pink. So did the muffins. She concentrated hard. The muffins turned fresh and fluffy. Lily was amazed. " I finally did it!" She had not been able to complete this spell in sessions, now it worked perfectly. " That's weird. Maybe my magic is wild or something." Being a filly, Lily knew just about nothing about magic, so in short, she was clueless. But not to worry about that. What next? " SINGLE CUTIE MARK CRUSADER MAILPONY!" She rushed off to Dinky's house.
Moth was still flying. But she had to land sometime. She dropped down, and landed softly. She turned back into herself. Once again, she began to walk. But where would she go? No one would take her. Then she looked up. Moth saw a big city on a cliff. " Maybe, if I go as a filly, and say I'm orphaned, I could live there." It gave her a little spark of hope. She started to fly with tiny wings. It was faster than before, but still slow.She flew up, and transformed. She was now a blue filly with a curly black mane. " Hmm.. a name... Starswirl." She walked into the city and promptly fainted.
Lily had already delivered the muffins. Dinky had gladly accepted them, but no cutie mark. Darn. But Lily, unshaken, statyed to walk home. To her suprise she saw a young filly laying unconsious in the street. Lily quickly picked the filly up and ran home. " Mom! This filly... I think she's dead!" Cadence rushed in and laid the filly down. Maigc glowed and surrounded the unicorn filly. She woke up.
Moth woke to see two ponies staring at her, a filly and an adult. " Are you... Princess Cadence?"
" Yes I am." Moth was filled with shock and dread.
Lily Blossom looked up at her mother. " Can I go play with her?"
" Sure honey."
Lily Blossom dragged Moth outside. " Are you a changeling?"
Moth gasped. " How did you know?"
" Your legs were full of holes. My mom doesn't like changelings. She said Queen Chrysalis tried to stop her from marrying dad. Who's your mom?" The world shook.
Lily Blossom stared directly into Moth's eyes. "Come on, I won't tell anypony. Please?"
Moth looked up. " Queen Chrysalis." Lily Blossom fainted.
Lily Blossom slowly woke up. Moth was staring down at her, looking worried. " Are you okay?"
" Yeah... You just suprised me." The two filles began to walk around the city, stopping at a shady tree.
" Are you trying to destroy us all or something?"
" No, I ran away from my mother. I hate her."
Lily was shocked. " Why? Is she mean?"
" Yes, my dad was the only one who ever loved me."
Lily Blossom shook. She felt sorry for this changeling, having to go through all of this. " Well, you can stay here."
Moth looked really excited. " Really?"
" Of course, as long as you stay a normal filly, my mom will never know. Come on, let's go home." Moth joyfully ran home with her new friend.
The dark hive was doing nothing to boost Chrysalis's spirits. The drone's failure was no encoragement either. But she had expected as much. Moth could take care of herself. No more search parties, no more letters, no more anything. Moth could take care of herself. Moth could take care of herself... care of herself... herself... herself... Words began to swim together, the dark colors of the hive collasped on one another, untill Chrysalis could no longer see. Finally, she blacked out.
