//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6: Demise 
// Story: The Darkest Day In Changeling History: The Beast Of Salem 
// by Harbinger Of Mist 
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	Nothing but black.

The sound of crashing rocks and shaking earth echo in Chrysalis' head. Her mind filled with despair; she just wants to end her own torment. She has most certainly lost her entire colony at this point. All her drones, dead; her castle, destroyed; her soul, shattered. But how? One pony... One pony with the power to defy the impossible. Such unbelievable strength, and a roar that could incur nightmares into even those with the highest of stature. The princesses themselves would not know how to deal with such a powerful, agile, merciless animal. They're lucky. Instead she had to suffer his wrath, now alone.

Chrysalis feels two sudden jerks at the base of her horn, then a jolt of energy surging in. She regained her hearing and feeling of her whole body. No pain from previous bruises, yet she still feared to open her eyes.

"Get up!" That gruesome voice barked in her direction, sending a chill through her. "Don't let your last two drones' sacrifices be in vane! I didn't throw them at you for nothing. I want you awake to suffer just one more time before this valley becomes your grave!"

Chrysalis swallows her hesitation and lifts her head to gaze at her living hell. His same evil sneer and soulless eyes; his imposing figure standing on his hind legs. She looks around to see that she truly is the last of her kind. No drones to command, or hide behind. She jumps into the air and lets her rage boil. Aiming her blazing stare at Sam, she fires a beam from her horn. 

Sam rears back both his front hooves and slams the beam into the air. The beam explodes upon contact with the roof of the cave. Rocks fall down toward Sam. He bats some of them at the queen, who swerves to avoid each one. Even at the speed they were flying, she could keep up with them with the heightened senses she gained from desperation. Sam follows up with a typical leap straight at her. She vanishes in a green flash. Tracking her unmistakable Changeling stench that he had come to know, he pinpoints her new location and slaps away another beam.

"I appreciate how aggressive you are now. Too bad it's because you don't have anymore rats to hide behind."

Chrysalis growls and dives toward him horn first. Sam sandwiches her horn with both his front hooves and allows himself to drift back. He snickers and lift her up to stare her face-to-face. She was starting to fill back up with fear.

"Tell me... what magic are you familiar with?" Sam inquired sadistically.

Chrysalis could only shiver at the thought that she knew exactly what he was going to do. In the time it took the thought to process, she already heard a hard snap. She screamed to feel that her power was slipping away. With only a stump left on her head, not only will it take forever to grow back, it left her only with magic that a child could perform. Clenching her "wound", she felt one of her hooves almost squished to dust.

With Chrysalis' hoof and horn in grasp, he made one more suggestion... "It shouldn't make much of a difference if you have one more hole here, now should it?" With the queen shooting her eyes open and darting her sights up, he delivers a crippling blow to her both implicitly and physically. He swiftly shoves her horn into a solid part of her leg just beyond the other holes.

She was in intense pain; screaming and backing away on her back legs, reeling. All the while, Sam was cackling in victory.

Curling up onto the ground, Chrysalis could make out another torturous response from the Beast through her cries as she removes her horn. "Be glad that your race cannot bleed. Shame you can cry though. How pathetic..." Chrysalis was tearing more from her hopelessness rather than pain. "In your final moments, I want you to perish in a place I call my own. You see, I've made this valley all mine with all I have done. Only fitting to rename it. In memory of my parents, the last real victims, I'll give this place OUR name: Primal Valley. You'll have the honour of being the only casualty."

Chrysalis has lost all care at this point. At a loss of words and concern, she kindly awaits her execution.

Sam winds himself up and leaps into the air to administer a killing blow.

Whether it was a voice in the back of her head or some freak reflex, Chrysalis dives out of the way while kicking up dust.

Landing on his initial target area, Sam gets an eye full of the dust kicked up and starts to growl in discomfort.

Chrysalis sees a light: She has an opportunity to escape while he's distracted. Some otherworldly grace has given her a second chance, and she was not about to waste it. She ignores all the pain shooting up her leg and makes a final dash for the exit.

Sam wasn't about to let his lack of depth perception get in his way. He jumps toward her and falls just short of her. Scowling like a rabid dog, he makes more leaps of faith, trying to get a grasp on the queen. He keeps missing and eventually crashes into the wall. Chrysalis was too far into the tunnel for Sam to catch up. He instead makes another terrifying roar to cave-in the exit to block her escape.

The waves were doing their job. Rocks were falling around Chrysalis as she starts to run short of breath. She made use of her heightened senses to swerve away from each one while holding her ears. The way out was near.

Sam was continuing his scream. He soon lets himself loose of the dent he left in the cave wall and falls to the floor. He lands flat on his back making a similar mark on the ground around his body. His roar was unhindered and causing many stalactites to fall throughout the cave. He didn't even try to avoid one that was directly above his stomach. Falling with enough force to drill straight through his midsection, it does just so and Sam lets the pain fuel his roar until he lost all feeling in his body.



The opening to her once thriving colony is now closed off by rubble. Chrysalis feels on the verge of slipping into a coma, but she was relieved that she was finally safe. The Beast can no longer get to her; it was trapped. She uses her innate Changeling ability to transform into a pegasus. She was fortunate that the ability itself doesn't require real magic to perform. She collapses out by the edge of the cavern in plain sight and prays for random passers-by to take pity on her.



She could feel the shaking and hear the rattling of a wooden carriage beneath her. She wakes to find that she was being carried away by a couple of ponies who granted her wish. She confirms that she was not dreaming by hearing in on their conversation. She falls back asleep in comfort as she starts to formulate a plan on how she could spend the next decade or so rebuilding her colony.