//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: The Changing of the Sun // by brokenimage321 //------------------------------// Celestia lay, stunned, on the cold tile floor. All around her, she heard ponies running about and screaming... something about Cadance…? Somepony grabbed her under the arms and dragged her forward. A muddy voice filled her ears—asking a question? Making a demand? She knew that voice. She’d heard it so long ago… And, suddenly, a sharp, stinging slap shocked her awake. Celestia yelped and raised her head. She lay on the floor of her throne room. Tattered wedding banners hung limply from the ceiling, and the broken windows sparkled like jagged teeth in the setting sun. Celestia remembered this place, though it felt like a lifetime ago… She had been so happy here, with her subjects, with Shining Armor, with Cadance—had it only been this morning?—before it had all gone wrong. Before she had appeared. A snarl twitched at her lips. “Good,” that same voice purred. “You’re beginning to remember.” A black mass stepped forward and bent down. The leering face of Queen Chrysalis swam into focus. Celestia let out a weak cry and tried to shrink back, but her brain was so fuzzy… Chrysalis sneered at her, then straightened up.“Feed her,” she hissed. Another shadow stepped forward, a smaller one. Celestia tried to back away, but hooves stronger than hers grabbed her and held her fast. The shadow came closer, and A face loomed out at her, covered in black chitin plates—a Changeling. A drone. He peered down at her for a moment with a strange expression on his face. Suddenly, his eyes bulged, and he made a pulsing, sickly noise, deep in his throat, his body lurching, chugging in time with the noise. After a few seconds, he fell silent, and green liquid dribbled from his lips. He bent down to her. “No—” she choked out. But that didn’t stop him. The drone bent down and pressed his lips to hers—and, suddenly, her mouth was full of bitter fluid, thick and horrible. She tried to spit it out—tried to vomit—tried to scream—but she was powerless. He was there, pressing himself and his slime on her. She couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t breathe— And she swallowed. Suddenly, it was over. The drone backed away, and Celestia dropped her head to the floor. This was all a bad dream—a nightmare she would wake from soon—it had to be… “Again,” Chrysalis commanded. Another drone stepped forward, and Celestia moaned. “—No—” He, too, made the lurching sound. He, too, regurgitated his slime. He, too, forced it into her mouth. And again, she swallowed. “Again,” Chrysalis repeated. Another drone stepped forward, and again, vomited his bile. And, at Chrysalis’s command, another. And another. And another... And soon, despite the horror, the revulsion, the bitterness—Celestia found that she wanted more. Needed more. Something inside her had taken over, and she slurped the slime down as fast as it came. She almost begged for more— “Enough,” Chrysalis said abruptly. Celestia cried out in anguish as the last drone pulled away from her. Chrysalis peered down at Celestia and grinned a wicked, evil smile—one that, only that morning, would have shaken her to her very core… “Put her in a cocoon,” Chrysalis commanded. Celestia felt herself lifted from the floor and dragged away. Chrysalis followed close behind her, still grinning. “With all she ate,” she said, to no one in particular, “it will only be a matter of time. Now, all we have to do is wait…” And the cocoon closed around Celestia. She remembered no more.