Prologue

“NOOO!” screamed Chrysalis as she and her changeling army were flung into the distance by Shining Armor and Princess Cadence's love barrier.  About her, changelings screamed similarly as they were scattered in the wind.  Below her, the ground dramatically changed from mountain to field to forest to desert.  Amidst the flight, many unlucky changelings lost their momentum, forcing their bodies into trees, boulders, buildings, and other similarly hard objects.  The impacts were bone-crushing, and she knew that none of those unfortunate ones will survive.

After several minutes, the remaining changelings finally began to fall, their speed reducing, allowing most of them to land safely in the desert sand.  She landed unharmed, but about her, other changelings were not as fortunate, some even dying upon impact due to wounds received from skirmishes with the Royal Guard before the blast.

On a nearby cactus, a young changeling already near death was suspended by its holey hoof on its spines.

Tears formed in the queen's eyes as she looked at the remaining changelings, who were so few in number and in varying states of disrepair.  Some of the more healthy changelings were helping their brothers and sisters back onto their hooves.  Such death should not be necessary, she thought, finally breaking into sobs.  A nearby drone cautiously approached her in an attempt to comfort her.  “My Queen, please fret not.  We may be thin, both in numbers and physique, but nonetheless, some of us have survived, and some of us will survive.”

There was another injured changeling next to her who had just awoken from unconsciousness.  It groggily turned its head, blood oozing from many disfiguring scars that riddled its face.  The changelings lifted its head enough to inspect the rest of itself, and sure enough the rest of his body was damaged in the same way.  It knew it was going to die, and soon.  It heard its brother talk, and so turned its head, only to see none other than Queen Chrysalis in tears.  “You did your best,” it said weakly to its queen, catching her attention.  “You did your best...and we will...never forget that.”  With that, the changeling fainted again, doomed to die of its wounds.

From seemingly nowhere, Chrysalis felt a large surge of love.  It wasn't nearly enough to get the hive back in working order, and its source was a mystery, but Chrysalis didn't care.  The resources were there, and she was going to utilize them.  Collecting herself, she concentrated and put herself into a hive mind state.  “Do you feel the love?” she asked all the changelings around her.  Those who were capable of answering her said yes.  “Let the injured ones use it to regain their strength; take the remainder for long term storage and later use.  We return to the hive once this is complete.”

The able-bodied changelings bustled into activity, some of them tending the wounded while others while others paced about, their horns glowing, collecting the strong love and converting it into a physical form; spheres that slowly filled the holes in their hooves.  She even went to pry the young changeling off of the cactus.

Not more than ten minutes later, the small troop was ready for mobilization and set a course back to their home.

Chrysalis was a fair ruler.  She was just, kind, and caring to those who were her subjects.  And long before their alienation and entitlement of  “monsters”, she extended those courtesies to other civilizations.  However, her changeling subjects were much less controlled, and it took a calming charm on her part to make her subjects civil.

Once, long ago, she had failed to do so.  The resulting uncontrolled changelings ran amuck and caused widespread death and destruction to that long forgotten civilization as they satiated themselves with their emotions.  Since that incident, changelings had been made outcasts, alienated, and rendered as beasts to be slain.  Food became scarce and starvation was a common cause of death among changelings.  A growing disdain for other societies festered within her.  Eventually, Chrysalis had seen enough of her subjects dying needlessly, and so she put into motion a plan to capture Canterlot and use it as a feeding grounds for he beloved changelings.

But now, this was not possible, and she was back where she had started.  Now, though, progressing would more difficult now that they had become notorious.  These thoughts and more she pondered as she sat alone on her throne.  Her mind was riddled with a multitude of emotions: fear of losing her remaining subjects, regret for having so many suffer due to her failure, anger towards Celestia for not giving the changelings prior leave to make amends; but mostly, what dominated her was a growing desire to avenge her fallen changelings.

“Equestria knows not suffering like we have,” she mused to herself.  “They know not the privileges that are wasted on their kind.  They know not fairness nor justice.  But soon they shall; soon they shall learn of their transgressions and the consequences, and we shall be their instructors!”