Love is Life

Twilight Sparkle unlocked the door to her library and stepped inside. She had just returned home from the after-after-reception party and seeing her brother and new sister-in-law off on their honeymoon. Spike was escorting Rarity and crusaders home and would probably end up spending the night with the three fillies. As soon as the unicorn closed the door behind her, however, she was suddenly hit with the fact that something was wrong.

Maybe it was the slight smell of copper in the air, out of place among the smell of old books and dust. It might have been the impossibly tiny drops of green that lead from the door toward Twilight's loft. As she moved further inward, horn charged with light as she lit every available lamp in the home, the sound of labored breathing began to reach her ears. Running the gamut of protective and debilitating spells through her agile brain just in case, the studious mare proceeded carefully up the stairs, following the drops of green fluid to her bedroom door. Opening it, she stood in shock at what she saw.

Laying next to her bed was a gorgeous mare with brilliant, iridescent wings that fluttered occasionally and a long, slightly curved horn. The mare looked up at Twilight's entrance and smiled, despite being surrounded in a pool of the same green liquid, "Hello, Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight's brain was briefly unable to process any information, "Who... Who are you?"

"Long ago, my name was Crystal Song, queen of the flutterponies, I was loved by my subjects, and..." her story was cut off by a violent coughing fit, green liquid falling from her mouth as the illusion flickered and fell away in a blast of green flame. Revealed before her was the queen of the changelings, severely injured and revealed to be the cause of the pool of, now identified as blood, around her, "and now, I'm a dying old nag who tried to feed her subjects and failed."

Twilight went from shocked to defensive to curious in the span of 1.658 seconds. She counted. Staring at the creature who had impersonated her favorite foal-sitter, brainwashed her brother, and almost killed her mentor, she wasn't entirely sure what to do, "I'm... listening..." was all she could say.

"Do you know why we became Changelings, Twilight Sparkle?"

"I... no. Nopony knows anything about Changelings, really."

"Will you listen? I... I don't have long."

Twilight nodded, her thirst for knowledge easily bludgeoning her thirst for revenge back into a dark hole to fester until she got over it, or turned into Nightmare Sparkle. She recalled that Pony Joe had a pool going, giving fifty-fifty odds.

"Very well. Have you ever heard of The Smooze?"

"Only in legends. No plausible evidence has ever been given for its existence."

"It existed, long ago, when I was still a pony. We were saved, eventually, but many ponies were lost, and my lands never truly recovered. Over the centuries, they turned into a vast wasteland, with naught but sand and gravel. We relied on each other more than anything, and eventually, only my love for my subjects and their love for each other and me sustained us. We changed gradually, over time, until we became what we are now, and somewhere, I lost my way. I see that now. I thought by taking over Canterlot, I could feed my brood, but they had become mindless drones of the generations, and I saw no way to change that. All I felt was their endless hunger, and that fed my desperate plan."

Twilight thought over her story fully, absorbing and collating the information efficiently. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew the mare was telling the truth, "Why are you here?"

"Because, Twilight... I need your help..."

"My help? Why would you need, or even want, my help? I exposed you! I stopped your plan!"

"By being one of the most intelligent, caring, and powerful unicorns I've ever seen. You, and you alone, can help me."

"How can I help? I... I can't even believe I'm asking that, but, nopony deserves to die, even you."

Chrysalis chuckled softly, bringing on another coughing fit. Twilight quickly bolted out of the room and returned with a glass of water to ease the changeling queen's throat, "Thank you... I... I want you to take my place as queen of the changelings. Though, that would be an easy job, as there are no changelings left. They all died after we were flung from Canterlot. Some from the flight and fall itself, others gave their lives to keep me moving until I could find a successor."

"You... want me... to be a love-hungry monster?"

The queen scoffed, "That was only while I was flush with love from your brother and desperate to feed my children. I wasn't always that way. You'll know everything once you take over. Love is, and always will be, our source of energy and the only way we can ever be truly satisfied, but there are other ways to obtain it than simply draining it from somepony. That is an act of starvation and, frankly, madness. This is the first time I have felt lucid in over a hundred years.

I only look as I do because the wastes mutated us with the remaining dark energy left from The Smooze. It helped us survive. The ability to change our shape came later. In time, we mastered it, and used it to acquire the resources we needed to live."

Twilight had sat close and begun to scan the wounds on the queen. They were fatal, and she certainly didn't have long. Would she let her brother and sister-in-law commit unintentional genocide? Could she?

"Why me?"

"You are strong. Strong enough, I believe, to handle the influx of magic and knowledge that would occur during the transfer."

"Kn-knowledge?"

Chrysalis again nodded, "Everything that I am, will pass to you. All my memories, all the knowledge I've gained over the years, and my personality will live on in the back of your mind should ever need advice. The spell is taxing, and will require all of my remaining energy. I will be dead one way or another, I don't want my entire race to die with me."

Twilight sat there, carefully considering every aspect of the deal that sat before her. On the one hand, she would become a love-drinking insectoid who simply wore her old skin as a disguise. On the other, she would learn everything there ever was to learn about Changelings, "What... will happen to me?"

"Physically? You'll turn into a creature much like one of my drones, only independent and far stronger. You will cease to survive on food and begin to need love to survive, however, you won't have to drain it from others forcefully. I've seen how your friends think of you, and there will be much... easier ways, which you will learn about," the queen said, before another coughing fit shook her weak form. "Twilight, I must know, will you help me? My time is running out..."

Twilight processed everything she had been told as fast as her brain could manage the information. It only took her 4 seconds exactly. She looked the queen in the eyes and nodded, "I'll help you."