Author's Note
This was hard to write, its not often that I do romance-ish stuff like this, but this has been sitting in my docs for like two years and I wanted to finish it. I tried to find all the mistakes, but some always slip through, enjoy the read everypony.
Bankrupt Love
Bankrupt Love
A mare moaned with delight, her body shaking with a want, needing for more as two souls become one. She could almost taste the euphoria as his body seemed to move faster, quickening his pace as the end came near. They tensed; the two bodies that had not but a moment ago been moving against one another stopped. Moans once more escaped from the pair as the climax came for the both of them. The mare's eyes stayed closed for a moment, doing her best to ride the high feeling she was given, to ignore the world around her for but a fleeting second. It was a rumbling stomach that broke her from her thoughts. She opened her eyes with a sigh, looking for the meal that was to come after the bedding she had been forced to do.
The stallion on top of her was already almost asleep in his drunken state, but luckily for her, he had enough time to let off some of the emotions he had felt in the throes of passion. A thick pink cloud rolled from his body in waves, covering the room's air in a light pink mist. The mare's eyes sparkled as she stuck out her tongue, letting a small amount of it in her mouth. It was sweet to the taste buds; she let out a large smile; she had finally found some real pure love.
She opened her mouth and drank in, leaching the pink cloud for the love that was held within, greedily taking the drunk stallion for all he was worth. She soon regretted such action as her lungs caught fire; she closed her mouth, stopping the much-needed meal, doing her best to stop the coughing fit that was now taking place. Through the tears forming in her eyes, she could see a red cloud hanging above her head; the pink that the stallion once gave off was now one of rose red. Gone was the love that he felt for the partner he had just bedded, replaced with the lust and greed that all men seemed to feel after climbing the mountain that seemed unclimbable.
She let out a sigh as she spit over the bed, a large glob of green and black goo landing on the cheap carpet of the hourly motel the gentle colt next to her had paid for. She turned to feed once more, this time with more caution, doing her best to feed around the red cloud that now poisoned the pink mist of love that she so needed to eat; as she did this, she looked at the drunk fool who gave her the meal.
She had found the fool trying to drink himself to death at some lowdown bar. He looked almost to be high class with his well-kept dirty blond mane and expensive booking cloak that he had wrapped himself in, but if he was that well off, she wouldn't have found him in the place that she did, watching her down barrels of cider like it was water. He looked like a better prey than normal at first; she could get a meal and money, but no matter how long she talked with him, it seemed like a lost cause. No amount of tempting looks or boldly swaying caught his attention; he just sat and drank.
It had taken a better part of the night and three form changes to get the stallion to follow her; even then, the only reason that had worked is because she scanned his memories for a form that would entice him. She had settled on a form that seemed to have the most memories involving love, but it was hard to tell because of the state he was in; she just had to hope that it would be good enough. It seemed to do the trick well enough.
She did her best not to wake him as she moved from her side of the bed, sucking in the last of the pink in the sea of red. She moved slowly and quietly, not wanting to risk waking him and filling the room with any more of the red burning mist of lust; breathing it in was enough to strip the sweet taste of the love that she just had. Her muzzle passed by him a little too close, and she got a whiff of the alcohol that seemed to be a permanent part of his fur.
She had attempted to get even the smallest of reasons on why he was drinking like the dead; she had hoped the more drunk he was, the more he would talk; maybe she would get something extra juicy she could nail him with later. Nobles always did pay well to keep information from leaking, but he was more tight-lipped than any stallion should be. She had found her reason later when digging through his mind out of boredom that it was a mare. It was always a mare. A mare that had probably left him for a better stallion, one that didn't drink his life away.
She has made her way off the bed, doing her best to breathe only when completely necessary; it was in times like this, in a room with an unknown stallion, with the sheets smelling of sex and the air filled with the sour burning taste of lust, that she hated what she had become. She hated how far she had fallen to get a meal at the end of the day just to stay alive. She made her way over to the motel bathroom, doing her best to ignore the wet feeling that covered her fake fur on her upper back legs.
She entered the dark room, using a wing to flick the switch and turning on the lights; only half of the ring of lights around the mirror had come to life, bathing the room in a semi-dark glow, just enough to see what one was doing if they focused. She looked into the mirror at a body that wasn't hers; the white fur that seemed to reflect all light that came near it was a far cry from the black chitin that she was used to. The strawberry blond hair that made its way down onto her back, albeit in tangled knots, was so much more than the green hair that she was so accustomed to brushing each morning as she made her way about whatever rat nest she could hide and fit into.
She moved the wings at her side; they were impressive. The feathers might have been out of place and unpreened because of the time in bed. Had they been more aligned, she was sure that they could rival any pegasus off the street; for such a small body, the wingspan was impressive. She could understand why the male had lusted over this form. With a shake of her head, she threw out such thoughts; it wouldn't matter after this. She wouldn't use this form again, not unless she really had to.
She looked for a second more before she let her power well up on the invisible horn on her head; she pushed magic into the spell as a dim green flame spread over her body and burned away the fake form she held, replacing it with the bug-like form that she was so used to; gone was the cute mare that had been in the bathroom mirror, replaced with the tired, broken look of the former changeling queen, Chrysalis.
Her cat-like eyes reflected back at her from the mirror; she stared into them for but a moment before looking over her body, black chitin shining back with a dull luster. Chrysalis’s thin green hair draped over her back like a thin cloak covering years of scars gotten from her many centuries of life. She turned away from the mirror, letting her bug-like wings buzz slightly as she moved to the shower.
Her horn sprung to life with a green light as she used her magic to turn the water on in the motel's shower, springing to life with quick ease. She stepped in, not even stopping to let the water warm to a comfortable temperature. She let it bounce off of her back as she stood doing nothing but letting the water wash away the seed she had taken from the male not long ago. There was a point in her long life that this such action would have been carried out much quicker, with fear of having to nest newborn larva; now, however, such a thing was in the past. It has been longer than she could remember since she had any eggs to lay or nymphs to dame; the time has long passed when she could raise armies. She moved a washcloth to her nethers, scrubbing away anything that the water couldn't wash away. While she did not fear what most mares would, she hated the feeling that the male liquid created when not cleaned.
She let the water flow around her as she scrubbed, giving herself a good cleaning all over, washing away the smell of sex that clung to her. When she was done, she took a moment to relax, feeling the warm running water flow over her, letting it soak into the cracks in her chitin that rarely let any feeling in. She sighed as the water stopped, and she stepped out, a towel floating over and drying her gently, and she peeked her head out the door of the room.
The red mist that had filled the room not long ago had faded, leaving only the drunk fool that had brought her here in the first place. Chrysalis felt some joy that the he was still asleep as she made her way out of the bathroom and over to the motel door. With practiced ease, she unlocked it and walked out, closing it softly as she escaped into the nighttime, from one hellhole to another.
Chrysalis shivered as she walked her way through the dark alleys of the slums of New Canterlot, doing her best to keep with the shadows hiding from the bright neon signs and barely working streetlights that were also common in this part of the town. While the new Canterlot might be a relatively new city, the poor and unfortunate had already made the less affordable parts of town a dangerous place to be after the sunset. Chrysalis wanted to be marveled at the growth that had come with Twilight taking the throne from Celestia and Luna. She had brought a golden age to Equestria, yet no one could foresee the future that golden age would end with.
The Equestria that she had tried to take all those centuries ago was no more; it was gone, aged like cheese. She dodged past a drunk, homeless pony who threatened her with a broken bottle, defending the little campsite he called home. She shook her head; while Equestria was so much more advanced in some areas, it had grown stale and rotten. The love that had radiated throughout the land has been spoiled by greed; no longer could one find the small-town friendships that so many once enjoyed; the lives that ponies now lived were one of wants and needs.
It was long ago that Chrysalis, with her hive, watched as her greatest source of love, her lifeline of food, shrank and shriveled into a grotesque husk of what it once was, and she could do nothing about it. They were tired, oh, how they had tired, but no nation gave the love they needed like Equestria had, and with the great nation that once heralded friendship like no other falling to the greed so common in other nations, they seemed to follow in their wake, clawing at each other's throats for what the world could offer. She could only watch as the hive slowly starved to death, each drone slowly giving away any love it had in reserve to keep her alive, to protect the queen, even as she begged them not to. Soon even her vast reserves ran out, and one by one her drones either died or left, some trying to strike out on their own, either to a different hive or into the wastes. She has yet to see one of her little ones heading out here; the world was so different in the times that the twin gods ruled
Princess Cadence, or better yet, ex-princess, was not a fan of the new world that they lived in. She was the closest thing this world had to a goddess of love, and this new age she lived in was not made for such a thing. Long gone was the old world way of slow dates and connection; it seemed that in this fast-paced new life, hook-ups and steamy nights with no-named ponies were all there was anymore. She stuck out her tongue at the thought of the love that such a way of life produced and nearly gagged at the taste that filled her mouth at the thought.
She wanted nothing to do with that style of living and yet somehow found herself in a bar in a seedy side of New Canterlot drinking away with a few of the police ponies that frequented the establishment on their off time. She found herself missing the old times and the royal guard, whose forces were not as numerous as the proud guard once boasted, having slowly become an honorary force over the reign of twilight and being nearly fazed out when the pony council removed the crown entirely. Candace sipped from the large mug in front of her as she listened to the way the police ponies acted up, having a good time with friends as they celebrated another day.
She gave a sad smile as, in her head, the bar faded away, being replaced by the old castle barracks, replacing the scene, the police ponies being replaced with the golden-armored guard partying away with reckless abandon, drinking their fill of the ciders that the princess had built up over the years, only to be violently thrown out of the happy thoughts as one of the very drunk police stallions knocked into them, causing Cadence to spill her drink over the counter and fall from the stool that she sat on.
Anger burned in Cadence's mind for a few seconds as she lay sprawled out on the ground; she wanted to do nothing more than throttle the pony who had put her on the dirty barroom floor; she instead used the little remaining control that she had to bite her tongue and count to ten, reining in her anger to a more manageable level. She was forced to pick herself off the floor as the pony that had knocked her off the stool failed to even notice that they had done it with how drunk they were. She crawled her way back in the stool and placed her head on the counter, letting the simmering anger flow out with a long, drawn-out sigh.
To her luck or misfortune, the only pony that noticed her plight was the bartender. The pony behind the bar had made his way over, a frown on his young but hard face, matching the dull blue coat and graying yellow mane. The movement had caught Candace's eye as she turned her full attention to the stallion; he moved stiffly, with uniform movements that all but screamed he was part of the armed forces. Cadence picked up her muzzle from the table as the pony came to a stop in front of her, his short-cut mane and tail only adding to the suspicion that the bar pony was freshly retired; his bandage cutie mark might have hinted at his job, but that was all history to the pony behind the bar.
Cadence had expected many kinds of voices to come out of the muzzle of the pony; it wasn't soft, and yet it wasn’t hard or gritty to the point that it could be considered sandpaper to the ears; it was just a voice worn down by years of fighting and yelling. It was, of course, rough, but it had a comfort all its own; it held the wisdom of someone who had seen things. No matter what this pony said, the words carried weight. It was welcoming to the hurting Cadence that sought out what little comfort that she could right now. A long, drawn-out “ma’am” filled her ears; it was a mix of accents from all over the world; most would call it city talk.
New Canterlot was a city of millions, built on the back of the world. There wasn't a race that didn’t live in the city; they all brought their tongues with them, of course, and over the years that had turned into city talk. When a pony picked up that mix of so many, it was almost impossible to tell where they might have come from, not even telling if they were born of the city itself. Cadence was thrown from her thoughts when the voice hit her ears again. “They aren’t usually this bad,” the bar pony spoke as he cleaned a glass and placed it on the counter.
“They jus' had a big break in a case, you see.” The pony picked up a cider bottle from the top shelf and poured it into the glass and pushed it in front of Cadence. “It's on the house,” he stated as he placed the rest of the bottle next to the glass. Cadence looked at the glass, using her magic to pick up the crystal cup. The amber liquid stirred slightly as she gave a small sniff. The drink had a tart smell with a hint of sweet apple. She gave it a sip, letting the alcohol of the drink burn down her throat as she tried to drown the night away.
The crystal glass came down with a light thunk as she moved to refill it; she wanted to do nothing more than drown out the thoughts that were going through her head right now, the bitter, sweet taste of the cider matching the memories that flowed. The flashback that she had earlier still living in her head, the years that she spent with Shinning and the guard making her miss the past and come to places like this, trying to relive the past. It never worked; she never felt like she did back then, and at the very end, she always tried to drown herself in the drink of the night. Too bad that it never worked.
Cadence never felt the effect of alcohol, one of the ever-so-great abilities that came with being an alicorn. There had been a time when Celestia would break out a brew that could knock out an alicorn or kill a normal pony, but that was a long time ago. The times that she could even think about becoming even a little drunk were long gone. Cadence still tried, though she poured herself another glass, taking the drink as soon as the cider calmed in the glass. The burning did its best to blur her mind, but those efforts were nothing but wasted.
Cadence rested the full glass for a moment, letting the cider reflect her sad look back at her. She was, of course, wearing a disguise. Alicorns in this day and age were nothing but myth and legend, relegated to a past that no pony could even remember, let alone understand. So she, in all purposes, didn’t exist; Cadence was no longer royalty, no longer a pony, no longer someone; she was a ghost walking in a world, invisible. She used her magic to hide in plain sight of others, covering her body in a glimmer, a false image.
This was one of the few that she used when she wanted to relive the past; it was a body that she knew well. She was still female, of course; it was hard to fake a voice for long periods; too much could go wrong. That didn’t mean that she couldn’t adapt; white fur covered her body, letting the mix of blue and light blue mane she had stand out. Her cutie mark that was once a crystal heart was replaced by a blue shield with a large purple star in the middle. It was the copy of a pony that history had long forgotten; this was her way of keeping one that meant the world to her in her heart. The glass came to her muzzle once more, distorting the image once more as she returned to drinking.
It was while she was downing a bottle in regret and sadness that a pony walked into the bar, the door swinging and making a small bell on the door ring; it was quiet, and most of the partying ponies couldn’t hear it. The bartender and Cadence were another story; at the same time, the ears of both ponies stood on end. The new guest was fast with their hoof steps, making the short walk to the bar counter even shorter as they found a seat next to the disguised Cadence, who in turn looked at the new pony. It took all of her strength to not drop the glass in her magic.
Green magic poured from the pony next to her, choking the air around them with the stench of changeling. Cadence didn’t even know that the changelings were still alive. After Twilight lost the crown to the council, and Equestria became less and less love-filled, the once-thriving lands. It was as the love faded, so did the changelings. Once they could be found in every city; now Cadence thought they were all dead, yet here they were. She had long moved on from the hurt that they caused her; now, in all honesty, she felt more bad for the creatures.
The one sitting next to her was obviously having a hard time finding food, while to a normal pony the disguise they wore might have been enough; to one that was trained in the magic arts, it would be able to see the leaks. On the outside you couldn’t tell they were a changeling; their light pink fur and pink mane were nearly perfect; the problem came from the magic that they used to make the realistic glimmer charm. Changelings used their biology as well as magic to shipshape; the effect of using that much energy to do something like that is that it creates a magical stink in a way.
This wasn't a problem if the changeling was at full power; they could rely more on the magic around them than their own biology to make the disguise, thus making it hard to detect the magic stink, as it were. However, as the changeling lost more magic power, their disguise would be powered more and more by body and willpower alone, meaning right now, with the amount of stink pouring off the poor changeling next to her, they must have been close to just giving in.
It was as Cadence stared at the dying creature next to her that she felt her cutie mark itch; it was something that didn’t happen often anymore; long ago, her mark would tell her if there was love that needed to be spread. She scoffed at that idea; the world that she lived in today had no concept of the pure love that once spread all throughout Equestria, but even after all this time, after all that the world had changed. Her mark was very rarely wrong, so with a sigh she gave in. Her body glowed ever so lightly as love flowed off her.
For any pony that could see the physical magic form of emotions, they would have been able to see the pink cloud that filled the room not long after, given off by a pony that looked like she was trying to drown her sorrows more than the princess of love that she had once been. There was one pony, or should I say changeling, that was more than surprised at the offering that was laid out before them; not only was this love, but pure love freely given and directed at them. The changeling drank greedily from the meal, taking in as much of the love as they could, not letting a drop of the precious meal go to waste as they flagged down the bar-pony.
She looked away as the creature looked at her; it was then that she realized that she had been staring, not a very nice thing to do to anyone, changeling or not. Cadence went back to her bottle only to find that the drink that she had been trying to find relief in was bone dry. It was then that she made up her mind to leave; the night had been a long one and not very good. Too much time living in the past and not enjoying the present. Cadence moved to pay for her bill when a glass of crystal berry wine was placed in front of her.
The bartender looked unsure as he placed the drink in front of her; he was right to look that way. Crystal berry wine was a hard drink; the few ponies that could stomach it were the crystal ponies themselves. “From the pony next to you,” he said wearily, “it's crystal berry, so,” he muttered, making it a warning without saying as much. Cadence flashed a smile, taking the glass in her magic and drinking from the wine. The rich wine flowed down her throat; gone was the burning cider, replaced by the bitter taste of the crystal berry. It was followed by a burn, but not that of alcohol; it was the Rudy that was infused into the wine, adding a gem-like taste usually only enjoyed by the dragon race.
Cadence let the happy memories of the Crystal Kingdom flow through her like the wine, better times when life might have been hard but happy. She sipped more slowly as the once forced love magic that radiated off of her became more and more natural. She looked over at the changeling next to her. It seems that her disguise wasn't as good as she thought it was, but that also helped her know who this unknown was. What should she do now? The past her might have hated the queen, but after all these years, the pain of the past seemed so much less worth the trouble; it was high past time that the two made up.
She finished her drink, wasting nothing more than to savor the glass, yet she had a newfound self tonight, and drinking had been thrown to the wayside in favor of her new goal. She reached out with her magic, calling on an older spell, a form of the notice me not, just a lot more powerful and hid more than just sight. There in the bubble she let her glimmer slip; the full size of Princess Cadence came to bear. She was just as tall as Celestia in her prime, yet she lacked the ethereal look that so many of her princesses boasted; love was simple after all.
Cadence watched as Queen Chrysalis let her form go, shifting; she looked unhealthy. Lanky and sickly. The once great Chrysalis reduced to this, it would seem that time had been worse for her out of the two of them; Chrysalis gave a strained smile as she faced the last pony that she would have ever thought she would find; she wore a sheepish look; the once proud queen that stood against Equestria all those lifetimes ago had been eroded into nothing more than someone trying to survive.
So here sat the remains of two gods, weighed down by the sins of the past and the ashes of an anger long burned out. They sat, both facing one another, yet too ashamed to look; it was Cadence that moved first. She could stand to do nothing as she looked over the near-decaying form of the creature in front of her. The past was long ago; the forgiveness earned in pain and suffering that she wished not on even the most hated of her enemies. She pushed forward.
She didn’t know why she approached; she shouldn’t have; she should have just kept on hunting. She had seen her through the window of the bar, drinking like a fish; the glimmer was good to someone that wasn’t a shape-shifter. She saw the way the magic flowed over the once princess, the way it reshaped her into the form of a long-dead pony. She should have just gone on; she shouldn’t have stopped, and yet, she found herself walking through the door to the bar and walking up to the counter next to her.
It could have been her hunger that made her do it; she had needed love, and on some instinct that she couldn’t even explain, she was drawn in on the goddess of love. There was a strange comfort in just sitting next to her; she would take that feeling in for a moment, then leave; that is what she told herself. That was all that was planned until a thick pink cloud lifted off the princess next to her. Chrysalis almost didn’t take part in the food that was offered to her. Would that be right, to take from one that for so long hated her? Would it be right to take from the ponies that she so often hurt?
It was her hunger that made her give in and eat from the cloud, greedily taking in all that she could handle. It was more pure than anything that she could find on the streets. She filled quickly, yet even then she still drank, savoring the taste of the first real meal that she had in years. It took a moment for her to come down from her food high; was it not kind to repay a kind act? A queen, no matter how fallen, still had manners. Chrysalis waved over the bar pony who had been cleaning glass.
“A glass of Crystal berry wine for the pony next to me.” She slid a few coins across the counter, an outdated way to pay, but for the destitute it was the only way they had. The pony took the coins with a squinted eye, checking them, then nodding his head, only to give a questioning look to the choice of drink. “Better way’ to tell them you don’t fancy them,” he spoke in a low voice. Chrysalis smiled knowingly. “You will find that they will favor the taste.” The bar pony shrugged; it wasn’t his place; he poured the drink.
Chrysalis watched as Cadence took the drink; the love in the room nearly doubled as she took small sips. It would seem that Chrysalis was right on the bits with her gift. It was too bad that she couldn’t eat any more of the loaf lest she be sick. She sat there just enjoying the feeling of being full for the first time in, well, forever. The joy lasted for but a moment as the room seemed to slowly fade from her view as well as all the sound. A privacy bubble, and a strong one at that.
Chrysalis watched as Cadence’s form was let go; she had grown over the centuries; she had turned out to be a fine mare. She had to resist the urge to stare; time had not been kind to her. She wanted nothing more than to walk out, to hide away from the pony that sat next to her, a pony that long ago was her enemy, that once hated her, and that for some reason was helping her. It was with reluctance and a struggle that she let her form collapse.
Her body tensed as she did so; it was hard to keep a form with such meager food reserves, even if she had just eaten; that was going just to keep her body alive, not to her magic. It would have been rude not to show herself after Cadence had; it was only fair to meet as their true selves. It took but only a moment for the disguise to drop. It was harder than it should have been, but it was nothing that was new to the queen. She turned to face the princess with all that she had, even if that wasn’t that much.
She wanted to feel shame in the way that she looked; she knew that for a long time now the lack of love had made her look even more monstrous than she already looked. She was sickly and broken. What would the princess of love think of her, and what would she do to the weakened queen? It came as a surprise when nothing happened, no feelings of anger or hatred; a hint of curiosity floated off of her amidst the love that still filled the air. Then, ever so lightly, she watched as the princess's muzzle brushed up against hers; she was being nuzzled. Chrysalis’s mind came to a grinding halt.
She hadn’t registered the words that were spoken to her the first time, nor the second; the forgiveness that rolled off the pony in front of her still causing her to stop thinking, what was this? She had expected many things from this meeting, and forgiveness was not on the list of outcomes that she saw. Tears threatened to well up in her eyes; deep down, she hoped that the princess would hate having been found by someone like her, that she could have done the job that time was failing to do and put down the failed queen, but this, she didn’t know what to think of this.
Warmth of contact filled her body; Cadence had sensed the conflict that roars in the changeling like a wildfire; no word had to be shared by the two; empathy that now sat hugging in in a bubble at a bar in the middle of a city that no longer had a place for the both of them. Long ago, Canterlot was the place of friendship free-flowing love; that city that Chrysalis tried to take was long gone. The city that Cadence once defended with her magic, that gave her shining armor, that gave her the first real enemy that she ever had, was gone.
The two of them were relics of an age long gone, in a world that had no more place for them. In New Canterlot, love was rare, distant to the normal fast-paced pony. For two creatures that needed true love to have meaning, they had no place in that new world. Maybe they could find a new chance here with each other, but until that day came, the two of them had nothing more to give than bankrupt love.
