Chapter 1-End of Hope
Celestia violently coughed, spraying blood on the ground. She gingerly raised her foreleg and wiped her mouth, feeling the chains that prevented her from raising her leg higher then her head. Her sister Luna was next to her, still unconscious. Celestia winced as she once again looked upon the large bruise on her sister's head. She longed to reach out to her, or to heal her with a wave of magic. But as mentioned before, she was chained. The princess would then have washed Luna in magic, but she had a black ring at the base of her horn restricting her from using magic.
The two alicorns were chained to the ground in front of the entrance to the castle. Celestia tugged at her chains again in a futile attempt to remove them and sighed. How had this all happened? But even as she asked the question, she knew the answer. Her son, her biological son Shade was dead and it was her fault. She knew the risks and how much danger he was in, and how much danger it would be if she grew close to him but she hadn't cared. Shade was hers and she loved her son. Because of their unique blood, she formed a biological bond with her son's soul.
What neither of them knew at that time was that if Shade died prematurely, it would severely weaken the alicorn. And he had died, murdered by Chrysalis, the queen of the changelings and their mortal enemy. Her changeling son had tried to defeat Chrysalis on his own, and would have won if it wasn't for a life-stealing bite that she had given Shade a year ago. Chrysalis had stabbed Shade in the chest, killing him.
The first instance that anything had been wrong when Celestia had collapsed during a meeting with some of Equestria's officials. Her sister and some of the guards had taken her to her room and done their best to help her, but it hadn't worked. Celestia's magic was gone and she was barely able to speak to warn them that she knew what was wrong.
Luna had heard that somepony was at the front of the castle and had gone to see who it was. When she saw that it seemed to be Shade, she directed him to his mother's room. Sadly, Luna was taken off guard and knocked out by the pony, who was actually Chrysalis in disguise.
Tears came to Celestia's eyes as she remembered how fast it had all happened. Celestia had been struggling to send Twilight a message, when a virtual army of changelings had swarmed into the castle. Because both royal princesses were otherwise incapacitated and everypony else was caught off guard, it had been rather easy for them to take over the castle in a short time.
And after that, it was hell for everypony.
Chrysalis had wasted no time in humiliating the princesses as much as she could. She ruthlessly tortured Celestia with anything she could, knives, magic, even her own sun. She enslaved Luna by freezing her in place, a living statue.
But, the worst act she did in Celestia's eyes was what she did to Shade's marefriend, the Element of Kindness. When she had brought Fluttershy into the prison cell with Celestia, the two of them simply held each other and cried for the longest time. As time went on, Chrysalis forced her to become her personal slave, not that it was any better then being in prison. In fact, it was probably a lot better.
Fluttershy had to carry out whatever task Chrysalis told her, for good or bad. The poor pegasus broke when the changeling queen forced her to burn Twilight's house down, with Spike still inside. The rest of Fluttershy's friends attempted to reassure her, but it hadn't worked well. Chrysalis had put a permanent banishment spell on Twilight, rendering her unable to return to Ponyville for the rest of her life. She forced Rarity to create clothing for her, day after day and to further destroy the white mare's spirit, she sold Sweetie Belle to some, unpleasant stallions.
Her cruelty didn't end there though. She ordered her changelings to destroy every last inch of Sweet Apple Acres, down to the soil. And in a final act of hatred toward Fluttershy's friends, she destroyed Pinkie Pie's vocal chords and removed Rainbow Dash's wings. Tears flowed as the princess remembered the utter despair that her ponies were going though.
And now it was time. Chrysalis had marked this day as the day she would finalize her control over Equestria. As Celestia lightly called Luna's name, the creature she hated the most appeared in front of them.
“Hmm, she still hasn't woken up then?” Chrysalis said, prodding Luna's body with her hoof. “Pity. I was hoping to simply let her wake up on her own...”
Celestia grit her teeth. “Leave her alone.”
Chrysalis smiled. “Please Celestia. Stop acting like you are in control. Those days have ended.” Without another word, she leaned down and shocked Luna's body. The moon princess convulsed, then opened her eyes slowly.
“Wonderful. Now, let's go. Everypony is waiting for this glorious day.” Chrysalis said. With a flash of her horn, she pushed the doors open and walked out. Prodded by the changelings behind them, Celestia and Luna were forced to follow.
. . .
Celestia had never been more upset to present herself and her sister in front of the ponies of Equestria. Chrysalis led the two alicorns down the main path from the doors. Changelings were on each side, mocking the fallen alicorns. At the end of the path was everypony from Ponyville and Canterlot. Nopony in the crowd had any other emotion then sadness. It cut the two princesses to the soul to see their subjects so broken.
At the end of the path was a large metal platform with a stone slab on the top. When the princesses reached the end, Chrysalis yanked on the chains, stopping them.
“Everypony!” Chrysalis yelled, getting everypony's attention. “Today, is a momentous day for all. After today, everything will change. It will take time, lots of time but we will get though this together.” She pointed at the alter. “And we begin with this symbolic burning. Bring him out!” The sight that graced the princesses eyes caused them to start silently crying and the crowd to gasp.
Fluttershy and Twilight had harnesses around their necks and were dragging a wagon behind them. The pegasus was bleeding down her flank and had a bruise over her left eye. Her neck was torn up from when Chrysalis had repeated tried to force her magic necklace from her neck. The enchantment held, and Fluttershy still wore the necklace.
Twilight fared no better, if not worse. She wore a cast on her foreleg and her horn was gone. In a violent act, Chrysalis had sawn it off. The two mares struggled the best they could to pull the wagon, and finally reached the platform.
“Nicely done you two. You may wait next to the alicorns.” As Chrysalis released them, Twilight dashed over and hugged her former mentor as hard as possible. Fluttershy also stood by Celestia, which prompted her to hug the pegasus also.
“I am so sorry you two.” The alicorn whispered. “So sorry..”
Everypony looked up as Chrysalis yanked off the cover of the wagon. Immediately, Fluttershy started weeping and Celestia was unable to hold her own tears in check.
Her son's broken body laid on the wagon floor. He was still bloody from the last fight he had with the changeling queen. From her location, she was able to make out that he was still wearing his promise necklace. Apparently, his enchantment had stayed strong as well. Almost lovingly, Chrysalis maneuvered Shade's body and place it on the stone alter.
“Look and listen well ponies.” She began. “This changeling was my pawn. My tool in taking over this country. Not only that, he was the son of Princess Celestia herself. But, this you already know.”
She paused again, thoroughly enjoying herself. “He thought himself a thorn in my side, something that was hampering my from achieving my goal. But, he was very, very wrong.”
She hopped on the alter, next to Shade's body. “Everything he did, equaled into him playing into my ultimate plan. I had every alternative planned out from the beginning. For a while, I entertained the thought of having him be at my side. But I abandoned that idea thinking, if I can defeat the one who killed Discord, what could I do to all of you?”
Everypony was quiet in fear, distress, or anger. “And we gather here today, for a momentous occasion. Today, I will light Shade on fire as a warning to you all. I rule here now, and you will all learn to accept that.”
Chrysalis summoned a burning torch and moved to Shade's side. Right when she was about to light him, she stopped. Levitating the torch in mid-air, she grinned and pointed at Fluttershy. “You. Come up here.”
Twilight and Celestia tried to keep her from going, but the mare pulled herself from them and stood in front of Chrysalis, a stony look on her face. “You were the driving force behind him. So, I think that it's only appropriate that you send him off on his final journey.” She moved the torch in front of Fluttershy. “Do it.”
Fluttershy turned and looked over at all the ponies, especially at the two princesses and Twilight. She mouthed two words, so quickly that only Celestia caught them. Then she took the torch and moved over to her changeling's body.
“Princess.” Twilight asked. “What did she say?”
Celestia felt her heart shatter. “She said good-bye.”
Fluttershy reached the side of her changeling's body and leaned down to his still face. She didn't say a word, but only kissed his still lips. His body had been drenched in flammable liquid, but she didn't care.
“I'm coming Shade.” she said. “You better still be wearing that necklace.”
“Fluttershy! No!” Twilight screamed with all she had.
Ignoring her friend's cry, Fluttershy climbed up on top of Shade's body, and dropped the torch. Instantly Shade's body went up in flames, taking Fluttershy with it.
As her two friends burned, Twilight sank to the ground in pure agony, weeping. As she cried, Chrysalis sauntered over to Celestia, looking her right in the eyes. “Do you enjoy this, Celestia? The despair of everypony that you said you loved? The thought no, the fact that you can do nothing to save them.”
Celestia looked down. “Do not think that I will not think of a way to take you down.”
“Oh I didn't.” Chrysalis said. “And by the way, tell Shade that I really enjoyed the process of having a child with him.”
The Sun Princess of Equestria raised her head and looked Chrysalis square in the eyes. “Don't worry. I will.”
Chrysalis grinned. Without another word, she slid over to her side and sank her fangs into Celestia's neck. The princess's eyes widened and she wailed in pain. As Chrysalis removed her fangs, Celestia's entire body convulsed Her eyes dilated and her breathing grew shorter...until it stopped, sending Celestia to her eternal reward.
“And what to do with you?” Chrysalis said to Luna, who had been weeping ever since Shade's body had been brought out. “I bet that you're rather upset about all this, hmm?”
Luna looked up, rage dancing in her eyes. “Just, do what you want and leave me alone.” She growled out.
Chrysalis sighed. “I was hoping that I could convice you to serve me, but maybe killing your sister in front of you wasn't the best way.” She gave Luna a toothy grin. “But I think that there's somepony in there that will...”
Pure horror registered on the moon princess's face. But before she was able to make a sound, Chrysalis cast a red arrow into her chest. Screaming, Luna's body shook, and her eyes seemed to change into a draconian shape. Her wings grew bigger, and her mane grew a darker shade of blue. And her beautiful blue coat changed to pure black. Nightmare Moon was reborn, and under the changeling's control. And nopony knew, but Luna's soul was forever banished to the moon.
The changeling queen flew up and landed next to the burning remains of her enemy and his mare. “And now Equestria, it is time for a new era. My era. And we will always remember this, as the day I made the changeling race great! The end of the alicorns has come and the age of changelings have begun!”
Everypony was forced to bow, and even the years to come were hard for all, nopony ever forgot the Celestial Sisters, and the son of the princess.
