Truth Behind Harmony: Between Angels and Insects

Sombra and Chrysalis landed at the entrance of the cave, but as Sombra started going toward the cave, Chrysalis grabbed him by the shoulder to stay him.

“Sombra, something’s got me puzzled.”

“What is it?” asked Sombra.

“Sombra I have seen you fight Nyx before and you could always hold your own against her. What I saw today should not have happened that quickly, so I am asking if there is anything you wish to tell me?”

Sombra laughed, looking at her with an amused grin. “I can’t hide anything from you can I?” she shook her head at that, and he laughed again. “You know how we can split ourselves right? Well before I was imprisoned for a thousand years in ice, I split myself and…I have yet to find the other hal…”

“SOMBRA!” Chrysalis exclaimed, looking worried. “What were you thinking, you know how dangerous that can be, especially over long periods of time. Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“Cause I didn’t want you to worry” growled Sombra, “you always got so overworked over anything that happened to me in the past, I didn’t want you panicking over it.”

“But for a thousand years…*sigh* well we will just have to keep you from fighting till we find it that’s all.”

“Chrysi…”

“None of that?” said Chrysalis “you’re not escaping my care this time. Now get you rump back to my chambers and get some rest, I shall seek out this missing half, where was it last you knew.”

Sombra hesitated for a moment, and then whispered the answer to her, causing her eyes to widen in fear.

“I last sensed it in the heart of the Crystal Empire.”

* * *

Chrysalis darted along the dark streets, her eyes darting back and forth as she snuck from building to building. She did not want to be here, for this was not the empire of old that she used to visit in her youth. Its bright crystal structures now appeared black and jagged, having been corrupted long ago by their new inhabitants. Her goal was the palace, for Sombra had said that was where the other half had been their before he had lost his connection with it, though he did not say why. As she stepped out she heard a growl and retreated back into the shadows, seeing a creature leap down from one of the rooftops. It walked towards the center of the street, its carapace shining in the dark light of the moon. She held her breath, she knew what this creature was, and she feared it greatly.

The was a reason why Changelings needed to feed on love, for it kept them as they were, in this horrific insect like state. But if they did not feed within a month, they would enter a stage of metamorphosis. The fur would vanish from their carapace, being replaced by jagged spikes. Their hooves would crack and from into claws, becoming sharp enough to cut through dragon hide. The last changes always happened to their jaws and wings, the lips of their jaws becoming hard bone that could cut through flesh, and their wings becoming thing and sharp as a blade. After these changes completed, they would emerge, hungry not for love but for the flesh and meat of other sentient beings.

She grimaced as it noticed her, walking up to her and sniffing her very aggressively, the pheromones that singled it as a male wafting from it like a dense smoke. Despite the large gap in evolution between the two species, “Dreadlings” as they were called identified Changelings as part of their race, and therefore did not attack them, and even sometimes tried to attract mates from the latter species as this one was trying to do. She steadied herself, using her vocal cords to mimic its strange pattern to tell it she was not interested. It growled a little, stepping closer to her as its wings flared, this male was not going to take no for an answer. But she growled, sending out a new pheromone that caused its insect like eyes to widen in fear, and then it backed away. She sighed, stepping out of the shadows as she spotted others stalking around her, fear still gripping her chest. The pheromone she was producing contained Sombra’s scent, which signified that she was taken by some one, and mixed with another pheromone that told them he was not the kind of stallion that shared. But she knew it would not last, and eventually one of them would get too eager to care about offending her stallion. So with a burst of magic, she started moving quickly to the palace in the distance.

* * *

Back at the changelings cave, Sombra relaxed on the luxurious bed, purring softly as two changelings tended to him. He had to admit the pampering was nice, Chrysalis had left him in the hooves of two of her ladies in waiting, who had been masseuses before they had been turned into changelings.

“It is wonderful that you have returned King Sombra” said Chitter, smiling to herself as she worked her hooves through his tight wing muscles. “It has been a long time since we have seen our queen smile, a very long time. It brings us joy that you can bring her such happiness.”

“I’m glad” said Sombra, looking over at the changeling mare as she worked. “Can you by chance tell me what she was doing after…after I left the last time?”

“Certainly,” said Chitter “after you left, Chrysalis became cold and withdrawn, not speaking to anypony for the longest time. We did a lot of moving around back then, for you remember the decree Chrysalis’s mother passed concerning us.”

Sombra grimaced at the memory. Before Chrysalis had become a changeling, She and the other changelings had been part of the race of ponies known as Breezys, a mystical fairy race who’s magic was tied into the forests that made their homes, but after the element of Kindness was stolen from its tower in the Forest Le’Fey, some of the Breezys had undergone a drastic change. They had lost their connection to the forest, and become dark and hungry, turning on another aspect of their power, the ability to feed on the love of others.

This had caused outrage among the Breezys, how had clamored to have the “menace” wiped from their lands. To his horror, Sombra had learned that Dreamstride had given her consent, and the Breezys had begun a genocidal campaign against the Changelings. It had sparked a vicious war, and then something worse had happened. Chrysalis had come upon a group of Breezys surrounding a group of Changeling foals, and had landed to stop them from begin killed. When her mother had been brought in to stop her, Chrysalis had chosen to make what she considered the ultimate sacrifice. She had let the foals feed on her love, using her magic to transform the foals back into Breezys, but had herself been transformed into a Changeling.

After that he had come to her one final night, the night she had rejected him due to fear of killing him due to her hunger. After that he had become obsessed about love magic, learning and even steeling magic’s to try and come up with a way to alleviate his mates hunger and join with her again. It had even turned him against his own mother, who he had held in the highest regard before he had turned down his road of darkness.

“So where did you go?” he asked, looking back at Chitter.

“We first went to the Empire of Fangs, and then after we got driven out we went to the Shadow Lands. After that we went to the Adeptest Republic, but soon ad to leave after we encountered the feral. Equestria was our last hope…at least till you came back my lord.”

She saw the smile on her face, and nodded. He knew they appreciated what he had done, and it showed not only in their thanks, but in their bodies themselves. When a changeling was starved, their mane and tails disappeared, and their eyes turned opaque and a uniform blue. But when they were fully fed, their manes and tails reappeared, and their eyes became normal.

He placed his chin back down on the pillow, letting them get back to work as he his mind began to wander.

* * *

Chrysalis finally reached the entrance of the palace, using her magic to close and lock the door behind her. She breathed out a sigh of relief, looking around the empty hall to check for any other dreadlings, and immediately had to resist the urge to back out the door and take her chances with the greedy males outside. The place felt evil, and the thing that scared her most about it was it was an evil she had felt before, when Sombra had started his quest to find a source to feed her.

She pinpointed where the source of the evil, shivering as she sensed it in the old throne room. She didn’t want to go in there, for it was a place that held many bad memories for her, especially concerning Sombra. While her own mother had embraced the idea of her and Sombra joining together, Sombra’s mother Marmora had been outright against their coupling, so it was no surprise that she had nearly blown up part of the throne room when she had found out they had already bound themselves to each other in accordance with divine tradition.

She finally reached the room, entering and then gasping, for floating in the middle of the room was a Sombra in his shadow aspect. It turned at her gasp, its opaque eyes widening as it started floating toward her.

“Chry…Chrysalisssss……”

She shuddered as the thing uttered her name, but she stood her ground. As much as she hated, this thing was apart of her love, and she would have to take it into her body in order to take it back to Sombra. She also new that once she let it in, she would experience all the memories it had since it split from Sombra, memories that would most likely reveal how the Crystal Empire had truly fallen. She stopped herself there, knowing that it was pointless to debate such when her loves hinged on her bringing this shard back, so she steeled herself, and then opened up her mind to the monster.