She was starving and wild by the time she heard hooves tapping against the hive's floor towards her. At first she thought she might be hallucinating, lost in some memory, but soon she realised it was real. Her ears perked up. Sure, there was every possibility that it would be her death - or at the very least the death of her personality - but it was another changeling to talk to.
It wasn't until the other was almost in the room themselves that she actually considered that she might be able to convince them she was innocent. She had been just thrilled at the idea of speaking to another living creature.
The changeling who came in was instantly recognisable. Deep green mane and wings, slightly taller than herself. One of her sisters, a changeling princess like herself.
"Good evening, Chrysalis."
"Mutare! You... you're here to..."
"Indeed I am, Chrysalis. What you have done is an incredible betrayal. You know I cannot let it pass. As my Element demands, and as the leader of the warriors who will be fighting due to your actions, I will be carrying out your sentence. This will be your last night as Princess." Her words and tone were strangely neutral - there was no condemnation, no anger, as the Queen had held.
"Please, you have to listen to me!"
"...Of course I will listen to you, sister. I would not let your final thoughts go unheard." Mutare leant forward gently, tapping her horn against the casing that imprisoned Chrysalis, and with a pulse of magic shattered it, except for the bindings around her back hooves. Being able to move again for the first time in her memory since waking up was wonderful, but far more than that was rush of power that came with the tiny act of kindness - not nearly enough to even levitate a pebble, but to her starving form it was ambrosia. She paused just to take it in, shivering with delight.
"...If you have something to say?"
"Mutare, sister, I didn't do it!" She blurted out desperately. She wished she had thought of better arguments in her time down here, but right then it was all she could consider.
The green-winged princess eyed her up and down. "You... didn't do it? You are trying to tell me that you didn't lead your brood on Canterlot and attack it directly?"
"I didn't! I swear! I don't remember doing anything of the sort! I wouldn't dream of it!"
"So you're calling the Queen a liar?"
"I... no!" She balked at the thought. "I-I don't think so. She wouldn't. But I didn't do it!"
"I would think that our Honest sister would have something to say about that, too."
"I don't care what she says! I didn't do anything! I don't even really know what I'm supposed to have done! The first thing I remember is waking up in the great hall and getting told I'm responsible for war with Equestria!"
"You don't know what you have done?" Her sister smirked slightly, the first expression she had shown. "Well, that's no good. Would you like me to give you the full rundown? Help you jog your memory?"
Stunned and confused, Chrysalis could do nothing but nod like a drone.
"Let's see. Your whole brood was mobilised, into an enormous flying army, and brought to Canterlot. The royalty somehow got wind of this, and before too many could get in, an enormous shield was erected around the whole city, permitting only passage to those with definite reason. The whole city was on high alert. Several drones from every hive were lost in the confusion.
"But it was too late, for you were already within the castle - and impersonating none other than Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, right under the nose of Celestia herself, feasting on her poor fiance... as you came closer to the great royal wedding. He was responsible for maintaining the shield - ponies and their special talents, you know how it is. So once he was in your hooves, the shield could be dropped at any time.
"Of course, somebody clicked to the princess acting unusually, and your cover was blown, in the middle of the wedding, standing not ten feet from the great pony sun goddess. In quick succession, the shield was shattered, the guards overwhelmed thanks to conflicting orders and confusion you had spread, and Canterlot overrun with changelings. Oh, and you managed to wound and capture Celestia in the process."
"I... wounded Princess Celestia?" Chrysalis gaped. It was far worse than she had thought. To have replaced one princess and wounded another, and done so much to insult Canterlot and its rulers... there would indeed be war from this. No princess could let such an affront go unanswered - let alone a goddess.
"I will admit, that bit was impressive. Idiotic, but impressive."
"But how? I've never had such power! I don't think even the Queen could--"
"You said that you had fed on your fiance's love for you and it had made you so strong!" Mutare gave a mocking emphasis and a slight pose to emphasise the words, before turning back to roll her eyes at her prisoner.
"What?!"
"I know, right? The ponies still believe those old tales. Feeding on Love... well, I suppose it's close enough for some of us." Mutare smirked. "There is Kindness enough in Love, and Loyalty too. The others are... more of a side-effect."
"I could never have gotten that sort of power from one pony, Love or Kindness or, or whatever! You're lying to me!"
"Oh, and what else was it you said? Oh! That's right, you proclaimed yourself Queen of the Changelings as well. Said it was y--"
"That is ridiculous! I would never insult Mother like that!"
"Oh yes, she was rather hurt when she heard that bit, indeed."
"I don't know what's going on!" Chrysalis cowered down, her pose awkward with her hind legs still locked in place. "I swear... I never did any of those things! I never would!"
"It's far too late to argue the sentence now, sister." Mutare shook her head. "I have to begin the process. But... it will take several days - If you are so determined that you have done no wrong, I will investigate while you are processed. It is the least I can do."
"Oh thank you!" Chrysalis smiled - the first piece of good news she had heard since she had awoken. She would have hugged Mutare if she wasn't locked down, and settled for gushing instead. "You have to believe me, I haven't done anything wrong, I would never!"
"Shush now, Chrysalis. I'm sorry about this, but if you haven't done anything wrong, there won't be any permanent effects."
Mutare's horn lit up with a deep green aura as she stepped once again towards Chrysalis. Instinctively the trapped princess tried to back away, but there was nothing she could do, still locked fast by her back hooves.
Giving in to the inevitable, she sighed, letting her sister touch the her horn to her skull, and feeling the fuzziness overtake her as her mind and body was prepared for transformation to a drone. It was horrifying, but she held strong to the thought that Mutare would investigate the strange circumstances surrounding her arrest.
If she had not been so desperately relieved, so starved and exhausted as she fell into unconsciousness, she might have noticed that despite Mutare's offer to investigate and protect her at no direct benefit to herself, she had not tasted a drop of kindness in her sister's actions.
~-~-~-~
With the immediate threat of being hunted no longer looming over their heads, Spring and Papillon set a far more reasonable pace, but they still didn't dare use the road itself.
The two of them had exchanged stories, as much to pass the time and take their mind off things as anything else. Spring spoke of her family and her farm, and the ponies of her village, but often she found herself trailing off midway through a story. It seemed to have a strange detachment to her now. It was all gone, wasn't it? The farm and the family, the market and the village. She didn't even recognise the roads they currently walked, having no idea where she was in relation to her village, or anything else. Thankfully, her companion seemed to have far more of a clue, and more of a plan.
Papillon had fewer stories to tell. Her cutie mark was a spread-winged butterfly, as if it had just come down and landed on her flank, the marks on its wings looking like bright eyes staring out from either side - far more natural-looking than the overflowing cornucopia on Spring's own sides. She explained that her talent lay in insect breeding and care, which meant she had lived away from her own village proper, off in the nearby swamp, since most ponies didn't care for swarms of bugs hanging around in the village.
That statement killed the conversation rather thoroughly for a little while.
Once the silence had pressed on too long, she explained that her bugs had fled when the changelings approached, so she had a bit of warning. She'd gone to warn the town that something was happening, but by the time she'd gotten close, the swarm was already descending.
She'd managed to escape with her wings and advanced warning, and had lived on the run ever since. It was a little depressing, but at least there was some hope - and now she had a friend to share that hope with.
For a while after that, they were quiet. They were probably the only two free ponies for miles around.
"...Thank you." Spring said suddenly, breaking the silence after a long time with only hoofsteps and wingbeats and the sounds of wildlife around them.
"What?" Papillon turned, tilting her head.
"You saved me. You could have gotten away by yourself, but you saved me, not only from the cocoon, but when we were being hunted after too."
"I... I couldn't have left somepony behind if we could have gotten away." The pegasus looked almost affronted. "I... you're the first pony I've managed to get free. After all the trouble I went to getting you out, I'm not going to leave you alone. And with two of us, we've got a better chance of staying safe, maybe even helping out some other ponies."
"You think so?"
"Absolutely. So don't worry about that - I'm not gonna fly off on you, if you won't run out on me."
Spring smiled - after everything this mare had done for her, she knew she'd never leave her alone.
"Still. Thanks. But what do we do now?"
"We need to get to Canterlot. We'll be safe there - the Princesses can help us."
"Canterlot? That's hundreds of miles away! Papillon, I know going to the capital will mean we'll be at our safest, but that's a hell of a walk!"
"We have to get to the princesses. They'll know what to do." Papillon stated with absolute conviction. "I need to get to Canterlot."
"...Wouldn't it be easier to just get to the nearest city and let the authorities take it from there?"
Papillon eyed her strangely. "You... you got captured some time ago, didn't you?"
"I don't know! I've been trapped in a cocoon!" Spring's eyes bulged, a slight panic gripping her. "Why? What date is it? How long? Why?"
"Spring... I'm sorry to tell you... but... follow me."
Papillon led her back towards the road a little way, glancing back and forth along it for any sign of passers-by, pony or changeling in appearance. Finally she moved along it until she found a sufficiently tall tree, turning to her companion.
"Come on. Climb up here."
"What? I'm not good at--"
"I'll help. Please."
Disturbed by the fierceness of her companion's expression, Spring nodded slowly and began to try and scale the tree, supported by the wings and hooves of her companion as she did. Soon she found herself high above the ground, too high for any earth pony to be comfortable, but suspected on a long branch with a view of the world around her, precariously balanced with Papillon's assistance.
And following the pegasus' hoof, she observed a city in the distance, a skyline of towering buildings and construction that could only be Manehatten. She'd never been there before herself, but she recognised it from images and books. She smiled - it wasn't so far away. They could probably get there in a day or so at the rate they were going, she thought.
Then she looked closer, and realised what Papillon was trying to show her.
The towering buildings had been damaged in places, crumbling down from their expected rectangular symmetry. And in amongst them were spires that had never graced any postcard, towering cones of shiny black reflecting in the sun that spiked here and there, surrounded by flying black dots in the distance.
Even though it was far too far away to make out any detail, she could tell that they weren't pegasi.
Papillon nodded as her face went pale, realising the implications of what she saw.
"We have to go to Canterlot, Spring. There's nowhere else left."