“Shameful, taking the role of queen in an invasion,” snarled Queen Cylka, glaring daggers at her daughter Chrysalis who sat before her, a bitter look in her eyes as she stared up at her mother. “Forty-four trainees dead from your little stunt! Do you know how many changelings I have had to threaten to keep your public name and image clean?! Do you know how many lies we needed to make up to explain the deaths of the trainees to their families now? Of course not, all you think about is yourself,” she claimed.
“Myself?! I tried to take Equestria for all changelings mother! We can conquer that pathetic little existence of a country easily,” Chrysalis retaliated, a fire of anger in her voice.
“The world does not work like that Chrysalis...” her mother began, saying her daughters name with bitterness and ire. “You cannot simply attack a country, enslave its people and feed off them like animals, we are better than that.” Cylka finished. If you were to show a picture of the Changeling Queen and Chrysalis as fillies the only major differences would be their eyes, tail, wings, and mane. While chrysalis’ eyes were green and blue, her mothers were purple and orange. Her mothers mane and tail were a dark violet color with her transparent wings having a violet tint.
“Better? We did the same thing to the original inhabitants of this country and look, their love lasted us two millennia with our current practice,” screamed the princess, stomping her hoof down onto the stone floor of the changeling throne room, annoyance clear in her tone.
“I have spoken, do you know how much I had to kiss up to Celestia and Luna to prevent them from arresting you and putting you to court? Did you ever think like that? Of course not, get out of my sight. Now!” demanded the changeling queen, pointing with her hoof to the door behind her daughter. Chrysalis growled before turning, deciding to keep her mouth shut till she left the room. She opened the two doors of the changeling throne room with her magic before slamming them behind her to amplify her anger.
Cylka growled before her second born daughter Fora spoke, Fora having the same colors as her mother. “Mother I....” began Fora but was cut short by her mother.
“Silence!” Cylka snarled disdainfully, not wanting to hear her second daughters usual schemes or idiocy. Fora had always been jealous of Chrysalis, not because of her looks or the attention Chrysalis usually got, but because Chrysalis was first born she was in line to the throne and Fora was not.
“Sorry,” Fora apologized meekly.
“A coward and a fool, that’s all she is and all she ever will be” Chrysalis murmured as she stalked through the castle hallways. The changeling castle had been built two millennia ago with repairs and additions being added throughout the centuries. Larger than Canterlot Castle and with a more sinister appearance the changeling castle’s exterior was plain and made from a dull smoky gray stone that appeared black in the night. While during the day, though dull, it stood tall and proud, being visible for miles in the almost perfectly flat country. The interior however was a different story; the walls being covered left and right by purple tapestries, a black heart decorating the center with a crack splitting down its middle, the changeling symbol and flag. Attached to the ceiling by a chain was a simple lantern, the main source of lighting. Chrysalis took a left where the hallways split and continued down the corridors, her hooves announcing her presence to the two servants ahead. They bowed, as usual, knowing to not interrupt the princess when she was visibly angry. As Chrysalis approached her quarter’s double doors she could hear a faint giggling noise inside which caused her to pause for a moment. Who’s in my room? she wondered.
Chrysalis opened the doors to her quarters and stopped at the sight of two changelings in the room, her face of anger changing to that of surprise. The first was an elderly female changeling standing the same height as Chrysalis. Her mane orange and kept short, a book currently was held in front of her by her magic. The second changeling was Chrysalis’ youngest sister Varia whose mane, tail and wings all were a forest green. Her eyes were the same as her sisters, however Varia was different. Chrysalis, her two sisters, and brother had been born during the prosperous years of the changeling kingdom where the economy was booming at the time and the amount of love to be fed upon was abundant. Varia, however had been born after everything collapsed, the lack of love the queen had consumed while carrying her had left her damaged.
Upon first glance from a distance she appeared to be as normal as any changeling child but upon further inspection her faults became obvious. She had only one fang which was much larger than normal causing it to be visible to anyone who looked in her direction, this caused her to mispronounce everything as well. Mentally she had not developed correctly, causing her to not grasp things as easily. If she were normal she would have learned the Changeling and Equestrian languages by now and know the history of her species, but due to her disabilities she only knew who her family was, how to write her name and how to say simple sentences and replies. She had the mind of a child far younger than her and usually communicated by noises and behavior, her size being not dissimilar to that of a pony filly.
The elderly changeling, named Tella, was Varia’s nanny and spent the day with the young princess to make sure she was happy, she did not break anything, and did not disturb her family members during their day. The two changelings turned their heads to see Chrysalis which caused Varia to make a squeal of excitement, her eyes lighting up at the sight of her favorite sister. Quickly jumping to her hooves to begin galloping across the room towards Chrysalis, almost tripping as she stepped on an overturned book which caused her to stumble though she managed to regain her balance. Chrysalis smiled lightly at the sight of her youngest sister before she sat down and opened her front legs.
The second Varia embraced her older sister in a loving hug she could sense the change in her sister’s power and how much love she had consumed. Any other changeling would have asked about this but those thoughts were overshadowed by her joy at seeing her sister. She was unaware of how long her big sister had been gone for but to the young changeling it had felt like a millennium, Chrysalis being the only one of her older siblings that she saw very frequently. “Welcam ome Chryslasis!” Varia spoke which brought a giggle from her older sister.
“Chrysalis” her older sister said, trying to teach her the correct pronunciation.
“Chrystalkis”
“Chrysalis”
“Chryskelmis”
Chrysalis smiled lightly before looking over her sister to Tella and giving her a curious look as to why they were in here. “She missed her favorite sister, I found her in here earlier playing with a book of yours... its unreadable now I am sorry to tell you” Tella apologized, holding up a book full of ruined pages which now had various drawings and scribbles all over them. It was of no importance to Chrysalis for she had read it three times over before taking the role as Cadence in Canterlot. It had helped all the way until Twilight Sparkle’s arrival, after that it failed miserably. Thinking of her newfound enemy she felt her anger rise once more but calmed herself. Your home now and you’ll have another chance, be calm and wait patiently for the day you can kill that insufferable purple unicorn she thought to herself, imagining the dying gasp of Twilight Sparkle in the process which brought her a sadistic smile.
Chrysalis released her younger sister who ran back to her toys and paper before returning with a drawing. Chrysalis held it up with her magic to find a drawing she guessed was her, Tella and Varia herself. To Chrysalis it looked like a blob with 4 legs, a dark cerulean mane, green undetailed eyes and an overly large horn, the others being the same however one was smaller which she guessed was Varia. Looking past the drawing she could see her younger sister waiting, excitement and happiness on her face, obviously believing it was the best picture ever drawn in history, to please her Sister chrysalis put on a smile. “I love it Varia, I’ll hang it up after I catch up on current events,” Chrysalis told her sister whose smile amazingly, grew wider. Chrysalis guessed she had lost her sisters attention at her saying she would hang it up. If it was from anyone but her sister she would have burned it afterwards but she could never be that cruel to Varia despite her past cruelties to others.
“Yay!” the young princess squealed excitedly, her wings beating happily before Tella approached and touched her hoof to the young princess’ shoulder.
“Come Varia, lets give your sister some privacy, how about we get a treat?” Tella offered and the young princess began making noises of excitement while she followed her nanny, forgetting about her sister and the drawing at the mention of a treat. With their departure Chrysalis closed her room doors and cleaned the clutter her little sister had left on the floor. Her room was very spacious and included four bookshelves on the left, a desk on the right, a wardrobe by the bed, a fireplace and finally the bed across from the door with the fireplace on the left. She approached the fireplace and in a flash of green magic from her horn a fire was ignited. She sighed and seated herself in front of the contained flames, throwing the scribble filled book into the fire to dispose of it. The changeling princess began to ponder the question floating around her mind: what had she done wrong?
The wedding raced through her mind, each conversation, each syllable was fresh in her mind and then it hit her. “I was an overconfident bitch,” she whispered to herself before she growled. “How could I have been so blind? I assumed they could not reinforce their protection spell and now here I am, directly where I started, eight months of planning WASTED!” snarled Chrysalis, clenching her teeth from her anger. She began to wonder what happened after she was forced from Canterlot, had they cancelled the wedding? Had they went through with it even though the trainees had destroyed half the city?
The thought of the trainees brought another bitter memory. Knowing fully that she could not recruit real changeling soldiers she had gone to the dead bottom and recruited young changeling soldiers, all were eleven with four being fourteen, those she had made her lieutenants for the invasion and gave them extra armor, her ending result was a failure caused by her and the death of forty-four changelings. Chrysalis sighed as she felt a small amount of guilt for the deaths of her temporary soldiers but changed her thoughts so it did not bring her down.
“I either need to convince my mother to invade Equestria or I’ll have to wait till I take the throne,” Chrysalis said, her voice full of annoyance. Many would wonder why she pretended to be the queen, it was a simple answer, if she had said she was the princess during her invasion it would have been pathetic, saying she was the queen however, told the ponies of Equestria that she had all the power over the changeling civilization, it lowered their moral as well for they would believe that she had experience in the matter and would know how to send their civilization into hopelessness.
Chrysalis did not only want to invade for her people, she despised Equestria on a cellular level. She hated the history, she hated the sports, she hated the government and she loathed the culture. Many changelings in what could be considered the nobility of the changeling kingdom had embraced the culture or mixed it with changeling culture, her sister Fora being one of them. She despised it all with one of her goals for when she took the throne being the banishment of Equestrian culture in the changeling civilization. “Imbeciles,” she muttered to herself bitterly at the thought of those who embraced Equestrian culture.
“... That means we have enough food to last till the twentieth of next month your majesty,” Velix, the minister of food distribution for the changeling kingdom stated. Cylka peered over the documents currently levitating before her with a cold glare.
“The twentieth? You said we would have enough for another 2 months,” Cylka reminded, her patience running thin towards the minister.
“Yes your majesty I did, however we did not include the data from the northern district,” Velix explained before noticing his Queen’s gaze, causing him to lower his ears and shrink down a bit.
“Care to explain why you did not include the northern sectors?” Cylka wondered, looking at all the ministers with curiosity.
“U-uh... w-well your majesty... we had been told that ponies from our reserves had been sent up north... however it turns out that the reason those ponies were missing was because well... they have already been fed on,” Velix explained, a growl coming from Cylka’s throat.
“So you were lied to?” Cylka questioned, gaining a small nod from the minister before the Queen raised her hoof, gaining the attention of a guard.
“Yes your majesty?” the guard spoke, like all guards he was dressed in armor.
“Tell your superiors to execute whoever lied to the minister,” Cylka ordered, receiving a nod from the guard who then proceeded out of the room. Her ministers all were seated before her at their usual places, their documents placed on the table and their gazes on the queen at the head of the table, ready to explain the condition of the topic they were the minister of.
“General Nox,” Cylka spoke, turning her attention to a changeling dressed in black armor with green eyes. “Please explain the condition of the military,” Cylka ordered, resting the previous documents down on the table.
“Well your majesty... it’s too large,” the changeling spoke, gaining confused gazes around the table.
“The problem is too large to explain or... Please elaborate your statement general,” Cylka requested before the general cleared his throat.
“By too large I mean the army your highness. Currently we have seven hundred forty-five thousand and eight hundred soldiers, those tasked with training the recruits are becoming lazy due to the staggering amount of changelings that join each year and frankly... the new soldiers are nothing compared to ones from say three years ago,” the general explained, receiving a growl from Cylka as her anger grew.
“Then why don’t you replace the trainers with different changelings?” Cylka wondered.
“That is the problem your highness, when we assign the replacements they simply fall into the same routine as the ones before, we need strict requirements and... possibly dismiss at least four hundred thousand soldiers”
“That’s your solution! How can you even call yourself a soldier?”
“This is ridiculous! Were you dropped on your head as a child?”
“How can you even call yourself a changeling? That kind of talk is treason!”
“Silence!” Cylka’s voice echoed through the room, causing the shouting ministers to silence immediately. “General Nox is a friend of mine and frankly the best general we got, before you stick your snobbish snouts up at him hear what he has to say!”
“Your majesty, the kingdom is deteriorating. Young changelings join the military knowing that it, for one, makes their families proud. Two, they know that they will be fed emotions free of charge and finally they know that if they die in the military their families get a pension.
“In the last fifteen years we have had over eight thousand changelings commit suicide, particularly those from the northern sectors to give their family food. Now that may be weak and pathetic of those changelings to do so but it is that bad your highness. They know that if they sacrifice themselves their family will be given ponies or whatever they receive to feed off of, potentially saving a child or a sibling.
“If we simply change the rules and remove some of the changelings from service to a reasonable number we will be able to control our army. Its size is too large currently to actively and accurately control, we can’t move seven hundred thousand plus soldiers into battle with coordination, your husband knew that and you know that, it’s just not possible.”
Cylka stayed silent for a moment as she thought of what he had said. Never had that been done before and she was hesitant to do so. What if shortening the military backfired and caused the changeling kingdom to become weak in defending itself? She did not know for she was usually not the one in the past to make these decisions.
Her husband had been a colonel when they met, her mother and father still had control over the kingdom and she was free to do what she wanted to do. The two quickly fell in love with each other and upon her taking the throne and him being promoted to General they married. He had always kept the army stable during their marriage till the day he caught a disease that prevented him from feasting on the emotions of creatures. He stayed alive for awhile by eating normal food but it did not last and soon he died.
“I’ll... consider your suggestion Nox,” Cylka spoke, receiving a nod from Nox in understanding.
“Yes, your highness.”
“Dismissed,” the Queen said, rising to her hooves and leaving the table to gaze out a window while the ministers packed up their documents and exited the room.
“Stunned as usual,” Chrysalis responded upon hearing her uncle’s information on the meeting. General Nox had been her father’s brother before his demise.
“Sorry?” Nox wondered, unsure by what his niece meant. The two sat at a table inside the local bar, Nox without his armor and Chrysalis in disguise. Chrysalis had changed her eyes to red with her mane and had left her crown behind causing every changeling in the city to not recognize her due to her altered appearance.
“My mother, she was stunned upon your explanation,” Chrysalis said, lifting a glass of water to her lips and having a sip.
“I’m sorry to bring this up again, but are you sure its safe for you to be here? I mean...you only changed your colors” Nox pointed out, receiving a small laugh from his niece.
“Just like Equestria, changelings are very dense, I spend most of my time on the streets of the kingdom,” Chrysalis replied before finishing her glass of water.
“May I ask why? I mean... it doesn’t seem logical, besides it has been dangerous on the streets lately,” said Nox.
“Dangerous, ha! Tell me, how much energy am I emitting?” Chrysalis questioned.
“More than anyone in the city.”
“How many changelings have you met with this much power at a single time?”
“None.”
“Would you attack me on the streets upon sensing my power?”
“I would be terrified if I was a criminal.”
“See? No fool would touch me uncle,” Chrysalis stated before a waitress approached, carrying five trays with her magic.
“Your... drinks” the waitress said, pausing upon sensing Chrysalis’ power. She took two drinks off one of the trays and placed them on the table, a glowing pink liquid with ice visible through the glass.
“Thank you,” Chrysalis thanked before the waitress trotted away to the other tables and Chrysalis grabbed the glass with her magic. Chrysalis raised the glass to her lips and took a drink, holding it nearby afterwards for quick use. It had a very acidic flavor, like a lemon, though a very sweet aftertaste. The drinks were magic made artificial emotions that only lasted for a few hours and had negative consequences upon drinking too much.
The consequences being an overdose on the liquid that was used to produce the drink; overdosing sent a changeling into a dizzy, unfocused state that in a way resembled a pony drunk, but it didn’t make changelings do stupid things like alcohol did for ponies. Some drank it for the temporary emotions while others, like Nox and Chrysalis drank it for an emotional boost without the need to consume them from another creature and made them happier and calmer than usual.
“Then why do it?” Nox questioned.
“I’d much rather see what my future subjects act and live like than to hear it from my mother or some other changeling,” Chrysalis stated before Nox sighed.
“Chrysalis, your mother will find out eventually.”
“She won’t. She, as you know, is much too busy for everything, Tella is more of Varia’s mother than her,” Chrysalis complained, earning a sigh from her uncle.
“Your father...”
“Don’t,” Chrysalis growled, a nerve obviously being hit in Chrysalis’ usual unbreakable emotional wall. Chrysalis was a confusing changeling to many throughout the kingdom. All times she had appeared in public she either had a emotionless expression on her face, or a look of anger. Some believed she hated the kingdom, others believed she was simply a cruel changeling, the first being incorrect, and the second almost correct. There were three subjects that hit Chrysalis emotionally; them being: Her mother, her sister and her father. She hated her mother, she loved Varia, but whenever a changeling brought up her father she locked up and didn’t want to hear anything they had to say.
Nox gave a sad nod before continuing “Be nice to your mother Chrysalis, she is just as stressed about the kingdom as you, more so however since she is queen, and you are not.”
“Don’t remind me.”
“All I am saying is: be kind to her, you will get the throne and turn the kingdom around soon, she is old and since...” Nox said before noticing Chrysalis’ magic glowing brighter around the cup before shattering the glass into a hundred pieces, causing the liquid to splash down with broken glass onto the table top. “She was hit hard by it too Chrysalis, she doesn’t have much left in her,” Nox explained, his niece looking away from him.
“Does anyone else see that she is nothing but an imbecile and unfit to rule the kingdom due to her pride?” growled Chrysalis, raising her voice and leaning over the table as she spoke, saying the last word with some venom.
“Some changelings do, some don’t. Be patient, if not for me then for your father.”
“I thought I told you to not speak of him,” snarled Chrysalis, her eyes and horn glowing green once more. That would have stopped any changeling in the kingdom but Nox knew her better than any other changeling currently alive.
“Go ahead Chrysalis fry me in my own chitin and send me to meet Aktez, but just remember: I miss your father too, I was his brother for Aktez’s sake so before you kill me think about how I feel as well instead of thinking of yourself.”
Chrysalis’ horn and eyes dimmed before she sighed sadly. “I-I’m sorry uncle,” Chrysalis apologized.
“I know,” Nox said, before looking at the spilled drink. Damn thats seven coins out of my pocket.