It stared at her. Its face was filled with curiosity, and its eyes were as blue as its hair, though not as blue as a changeling’s eye. It still had white on the edge and black in the middle. Chrysalis hoped that its iris would be slightly slit like her’s, but it was nothing but a ball of black.
For the longest time, she stared at this pony. Her mind was still trying to process how this could happen. “No…” She said to the colt. “Y-you’re not a pony, you’re just some...trick of the light, some...some magic spell that turned you into this.” She put her hooves on both sides of the child and came nose to tiny nose with him. “You’re not real!”
The colt tilted it’s head and Chrysalis showed her teeth. “Change back. I know the others changed you into this pony just to spite me for what I’ve done. Change back!”
The pony continued to look at her in wonder, its blue eyes looked at her face in amazement. Then it did something Chrysalis wasn’t prepared for.
It laughed.
It closed it eyes.
Smiled.
And laughed.
Right in front of her face, and as it opened it eyes, it started to reach out and grab one of her hairs, but before he could get a grip, Chrysalis threw her hooves and head in the air and yelled. “WHY! Why do you ponies act like this! Must you laugh at everything!?”
She pointed a hoof at him. “I am not something you should be laughing at child…no...you are not my child...you some horrible creation that the others made.” She didn’t realize it, but the pony rose from it’s pile of egg shells and grabbed her hoof.
Chrysalis looked away and continued. “Maybe you’re some...some...oh come on Chrysie, just think of something that can make this not real. Maybe you could be dreaming…wha?” Chrysalis was about to pace around the room, but the baby clung to her arm and started gnawing on it.
Chrysalis glared at it and brought it up to eye level. “And just what are you doing.” The baby stopped chewing on her arm and hung from it, smiling and giggling while Chrysie resisted every part of her being to not throw the child across the room.
“No,” She continued to inspect it with anger. “I’m not like them who just throw their problems in the air.” She sat down and lifted the colt with her magic. “Why are you not afraid of me, you ugly little child? Anyone would be scared of a creatures like us, they've done that for hundreds of years, never giving us a chance at love!” She flopped her ear stems down, remembering some of it was messing with her mind. She was prepared for whatever annoying cries this colt would yell, but it continued to curl it’s body and look at her with happiness, it was making her sick.
“You think you’re trying to make me happy? You are wrong...dead wrong!” She got up and walked to a nearby table and set the child on it, And as much as she didn’t want to, she kept it away from tools used for surgery and put it in front of a mirror. “Just look! You’re not even like me!”
The colt gasped and backed away from it and clung to Chrysalis. She rolled her eyes and pushed it forward, only for it to climb on her arm and run up to her neck, holding on to it for dear life.
“So you are scared of me?” She smiled, but the child looked at her and pointed at his reflection. “What?...Yes, that is you. You are that perfectly hideous creature while I’m the...the…” They both looked at mirror. He looked at it with fear, while she looked at it with a frown. “The other hideous creature.”
The pony’s curiosity hit him and he slid down her body until he hit the table. He looked at himself again and walked cautiously closer until he was inches away. Chrysalis shook her head at the sight and sighed, knowing this was a complete waste of time, she should be getting rid of this child and...and…doing...what would she be doing? She thought about this while the colt continued to play with the mirror.
He put his hoof to the mirror and quickly pulled away in fright, only to do it again, then he put the other hoof up, then he pressed his face into it and stuck his tongue out. He giggle a licked it before shaking his head in disgust at how the glass tasted.
He looked at it again and saw that Chrysalis was now looking away. He ran up to it and raised his body so he could get a better look.
He tilted his head and tapped the glass, making Chrysie turn around (from his perspective) and glare at him. He smiled and waved at her, like she was really in front of him.
“Yes…” Chrysalis said. “I see you, and no, I don’t care.” Then the baby stepped back and turned around to see that she was behind him. He looked back and forth in confusion until Chrysalis walked up to him. “It’s just a reflection,” She pointed the mirror then to herself. “That’s a reflection of me while I am the real thing. It’s just an illusion, which you should be.” She walked away as the child tried to hold her again.
He stretched his arms out from the edge of the table, but she was too far away. Chrysalis just ignored him while she continued finding out what to do next. “It’s okay...this is just a minor setback…” She looked at the colt again to see it was still trying to reach her. “I’m not your mother!” She yelled, hoping that would make him stop, but the child continued to reach her.
Chrysalis sighed and looked away from him. “Maybe...maybe I can change him...no...that would just kill him, he’d probably try to kill himself fir-”
Her ear twitched again, making her turn around to see the child on the floor. She held her hoof to her chest and gasped, thinking that thought had come true, but the child stood up and stat on his flank while rubbing his arm.
Chrysalis sighed again and walked over to the now whimpering pony, her shadow looming over him. As the pony looked up, Chrysalis could see that it was starting to cry, she thought she finally got the pony to fear her, but then it crawled toward her with one hoof raised.
“Get back!” She yelled and backed up while the child fell to his side and started to cry a little. “Oh for my sake...What is wrong with you?” She held him with her magic and inspected him. Doing so made him calm down and sniff a bit. “What? Does your arm hurt? Did you fall on it when your small brain realized your small arms couldn’t reach me?”
He nodded while continuing to rub his arm. Chrysalis was surprised to see that he could understand her, but she ignored it and grabbed his injured arm. “It’s not even that bad.”
The little pony whimpered as she continued to mess with his arm. “Just a little bruise. My children wouldn’t cry…over…” Chrysalis thought about that while the child finally decided to calm down. “Alright maybe my children would cry over this, but I don’t know how your kind works, so for all I know, this isn’t something a ground walker like you should be getting upset about.”
The colt sniffed a bit of snot before tilting his head at her. Chrysalis was starting to think that she was wrong and that this pony couldn’t understand a word what she was saying. “Will you just….GRAH!” Chrysalis tossed the child into the cocoon and screamed. “WHY!? Why couldn’t you just work, why won’t they ever work!” The colt popped its head out of the pile of egg shells and gazed at his mother in worry.
“W-why...every plan...every attempt at helping them...every time I try to help...it just...never works.” She looked at the colt to see it was still giving a look of sympathy. “You were my last chance colt...and you ruined it by being a weak and defenseless pony.” Chrysalis walked up the mirror and looked at herself. “Now I have nothing...just a cave as a home and subjects that will soon die off...ALL BECAUSE OF Y-” Chrysalis wanted to say it, to put the blame on this single creature, to say it was all its fault, but she knew it wasn’t true.
The pony was starting to climb out and walk to her, Chrysalis didn’t notice since she slammed her forehead on the table. “Who am I kidding.” She said miserably. “It’s all my fault, I have noling else to blame but me, I set up the plans, I told them what to do, and I failed every time. It’s all my...hu?” Chrysalis turned around and felt that her tail was currently being played with by the pony.
Chrysalis sighed and lifted her tail to eye level to see the pony was still hanging on to it. “You know exactly how to get on my nerves, don’t you?” The child laughed and proceeded to swing back and forth.
Chrysalis rolled her eyes shook him off her tail, where he then landed on the table and looked at her with a smile. “Nothing you do will cheer me up child...Nothing can right now…” Chrysalis slumped her head on the table again, this time landing on her chin.
The colt frowned and slumped its head on her nose to they could see eye to eye. Chrysalis closed her eyes and groaned. “Just leave me alone, little one. Every time I look at you you just remind me of that waste of interco- I mean...time.” She opened her eyes again to see that he was still laying on her nose. “I don’t know why you think you’re related to me,” She levitated him off and made him face the mirror. “Why can’t you just see the difference…”
Chrysalis was getting tired of yelling, so she laid on her forehead again and placed the colt on her head. “Just see it and understand you were supposed to be both. You idiotic father was a pony, and I’m a changeling...meaning you should be BOTH!”
She lifted her head and saw that he was hanging on to her horn. “You have all the features he has, even your smile is just like him. Which I’m pretty sure he’s doing the same right now. They're all laughing at me, all of them realizing that their plans for destroying our race prevailed, THAT” She slammed her hoof on the table. “IDIOTIC wife of his and that” She did it again. “MEDDLING sister and her” And again. “STUPID FRIENDS...What’s the pointing of even having them if they can be used against you…Against you…” Chrysalis looked up at the pony again, who was now chewing on her horn.
She smiled and grabbed him with her hooves. “Maybe you can be useful. Maybe I can use you to...no...use you as a hostage so...no...use...you...so...oh…oh what's the point.” She fell to the floor, knocking items off the table and falling around her and the child. None actually hitting them.
Chrysalis groaned and cradled what she thought was the child. “I’m sorry...I just...I just can't...can’t...uh?” She opened her eyes to see the colt was right in front of her...holding a quill in its mouth, while she was holding a book.
She looked at the colt in misery, know just what it was telling her. “You’re right little one. Maybe I should just...give up...give up and end this.” She grabbed the quill out of his mouth, ripped a blank paper out of the book, and dipped the quill into a puddle of ink that was in a jar, which spilt on the floor when she was slamming her hoof on the table.
She held the quill above the paper, knowing that, if she went with it, there would be no turning back. She looked at the colt one more time, he was looking at her in utter confusion, not sure as to what she was doing with the feather he was going to play with.
She levitated him up to the side of her face. “You will be the last little mistake I take care of once I’m done with this. Since I cannot fix the rest. You will never bother me or my subjects after this, and nether will I.”
She sniffed a bit and started writing. “To my loyal subjects.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“No...you.”
“No...you.”
“NO...YOU!”
“NO...YOU!”
“NO. Y-”
“Will you two just decide already!”
Both the changelings looked away from each other and stared at their other brother. “Maybe you want to talk to her Lee. Seeing as how you were just so brave when you heard her scream.”
Lee smacked him on the back of his head. “I was just startled was all, and you jumped higher than the rest of us.”
“Lee’s right Carl...you were acting pretty scared when she screamed ‘OH WHY!? Why must it be like this’” The other changeling said in a mocking tone.
“Don’t make fun of the queen, Sid.” The fourth, and last, changeling in the group yelled. “You try dealing with all of this, I’m sure she’s scared out of her mind.”
“You mean how you get scared of those silly stories Shift and Lift told, Stan?”
Stan backed up a bit glared at him. “They are not...that...scary…”
“Enough!” Lee yelled. “Who’s goin’ in?”
“Why don’t we do odds and evens?”
“There’s four of us Carl, that won't work.”
“Then who ever is the bravest bug...”
“In that case…” Stan said. “You go, Carl.”
“How about…” Carl looked around, then he had an idea. “Lee, why don’t you go...uh...go find someling who could help.” He winked at him while Stan tapped his hoof.
“Who else can help? Everyone else is-” Stan then felt something tap his shoulder, he groaned and looked behind him to see…
“Hi Stan.”
Stan then screamed and ran into the nest while the other three laughed for a few minutes. “Oh man...That was great, nice thinkin’ Carl.” Lee said.
“Yup, changing into your friend’s fear is a good way to-”
“Uh..guys...”
Lee, Carl, and Sid turned to the entrance to see Stan come out with a piece of paper in his hooves. “Did you guys see the queen leave the nest?”
Carl walked up to him. “Don’t think so...What's that in your hooves?”
Stan smiled. “Oh...lets see.” He rolled up the paper and smacked it across his friends face. “IT’S PAIN!” He then proceeded to smack him repetitively with the paper.
Carl shielded head while Lee snatched it out of Stan’s hooves. “ STOP! You didn’t see the queen in there?” Lee asked while he unrolled the paper.
Stan shook his head. “I didn’t even see the kid. It’s like they just vanished.”
Sid rolled his eyes. “Queens don’t vanish Stan.”
Stan ran up face to face with him. “I’m telling you, the Queen and the kid are gone, and you are a jerk for even-”
“‘To my loyal subjects.’” The other three turned to Lee as he read off the paper.
“You tryin’ to scare me again?” Stan said while the others snickered.
“This is serious guys.” Lee said “It look’s like it’s from her.”
“Well,” Sid said. “What’s it say?”
Lee adjusted the paper again and cleared his throat. “‘To my loyal subjects…”