*Drip drip drip*
The air was cool, effortlessly carrying on it every sound as it echoed through the vaulted halls, their acoustics in turn amplifying every noise.
*Drip drip drip*
Her ears were the first to react, waking as they twitched at each unseen falling droplet, pointed tips swivelling as they sought their source.
*Drip drip drip*
Her mind meanwhile lagged somewhat behind, determinedly resisting the pull of consciousness tugging at her senses, awakening in series. Cold entered her nostrils, as her heavy breathing slowly lightened, and blew across her exposed face whilst in antithesis the rest of her felt relatively warm, wrapped snug against the chill in her bed’s covers. After the nothingness of sleep all these feelings and their associated realisations she knew to her dismay meant that she was indeed waking, in spite of her efforts to the contrary. Then it started afresh (as she knew it would), re-emerging to strike at her from within, its biting spreading to each part of her being as it returned to life.
*Gurgle*
Her stomach stressed its starved complaint, along with that of the rest of her burning insides, with a loud low rumble and her eyes finally flicked open, giving up on her desire to retreat back into unconsciousness. To anypony it should have been darkness that greeted her, pitch black almost inky, the kind that consumed all it touched, but to her the place was illuminated as clear as day, her slashed pupils like feline slits devouring anything they could to form their images. The world was a cave of rough stone, hewn out by the sheer weight of time working ever wider cracks through it, making the root of the incessant dripping both clear and unclear as every surface glistened with a sheen of water permeating the dank strata. What little this cave was, its only feature being the bed or rather the construct which served as such made from a burst open translucent green shell (like some great ruptured cocoon), it was hers, her “room” for want of a better word. Although this privacy was supposedly a great privilege in the scarce space of the hive, it hardly felt as such. She could not help but feel isolated here, compounding her state with a degree of loneliness, and at the same time more than a little bit of jealousy for her innumerable brothers and sisters elsewhere.
‘You are destined for far greater things.’
*Gurgle*
She sat up straight, curling up around her gurgling guts, letting the sheets of equally green hoof-spun silk fall from her. Almost instantly the cold pounced, sinking its claws through her frame, unheeding of her shell of shined black carapace as it worked its way into her joints and struck up an aching from within. It was more than tempting to shy away in response, to rebury herself in her covers, but she knew that doing so would be no real cure; her stomach still left angrily thirsting after some form of sustenance. She therefore rose still further to her honeycombed hooves, insectoid wings flicking out at either side, quietly humming with the rapidity of their beating as they carried her to the doorway (actually a cave mouth draped with a curtain of silken cloth which acted as one).
*Gurgle!*
‘Shut up’ she muttered, weary of the noise, knowing full well that she was not the only one by a stretch to be feeling the pang of hunger. A deep green aura formed around her crooked horn, going to enwrap the door’s fabric and drew it aside. As far as her magic was concerned she still had an awfully long way to go, but she was still quite proud of her swift mastery of telekinesis and could not help but indulge in using it. Through the now open portal she passed between the hulking shapes of two guards, all thick chitin and long fangs far more pronounced as yet than her own, both twice her slight height, yet stooping lower in nodding bows at her passage. On cue they moved to follow at a single step behind, but she waved them off with a quick hoof gesture, preferring to remain in her own company. Anywhere beyond the slime-coated walls of the hive the sight of the two bulky sentries instantly deferring to her command would have been surreal and in truth she herself was not yet wholly at ease with this command over her siblings, entailed merely in the growth of her crown of antennae.
‘It will be your duty to be strong for all of them, and to guide them forward.’
She left them behind her, following the path of the meandering corridor a short distance onward. Aside from the continuing drip of water falling the tunnels were still, even in day time contrasting against the many others buzzing in the labyrinthine web of the hive, set apart from the rest. Steadily in her passing the surrounding walls, floor and roof changed, gradually becoming covered in something akin to a chitinous exoskeleton. Her sharp hoofsteps on rock changed to muted against the hard yet smooth organic substance, whilst the liquid of the continued droplets became more viscous. At the same time a breeze seemed to stir up, not enough to banish the chills from her frame but at least warming, like she were in an enormous creature’s airway, her dark teal hair being ruffled by its breathing. It could seem a strange thing to find comfort in, but its source was not quite as alien as the décor: it simply felt like home. Eventually the creeping growth would spread to her own youthful chamber in the ancient cavern, hopefully bridging its seclusion in doing so.
She rounded the final corner to her goal: another portal flanked by a duo of guards, this one covered by a tripartite extension of the walls’ fleshy covering, looking like the valve of some kind of monstrous internal organ. Again the broad formed pair bowed their heads on automatic as she got closer; this time however she was stopped from proceeding as one spoke. ‘If you’re looking for the queen your majesty, she has gone up to the peak chamber’ he stated factually.
‘You must learn to absolutely control your feelings.’
‘Thank you.’ Her reply as she turned away lacked any real gratitude in its tone, almost as flat as the voice it was a response to. This was not for the sake of coldness though, but rather because by necessity to share any emotion was a personal act, even before considering how famished she currently was. She set out determinedly once more, forcing down a return of the ache within her guts, making for a particular fork in the maze of serpentine passageways, trailing its length as it changed to snaking rapidly upward in a spiral. Her ascent took her far, briefly punctuated by the presence of further side passages, but quickly these ceased as she climbed increasingly higher in what would have been a tower were it not underground. This laboured journey reached its end at another triple segmented door which instinctively opened at her approach, the gust of a frozen breeze coming unexpectedly to whip through her mane as she entered.
‘Chrissie?’ a songlike voice questioned, its words constructed from a myriad of varying accents, but all greeting her with a caring softness. ‘What are you still doing up? It’s long past your podtime.’
‘Sorry mother.’
The one she addressed sat facing an open “window” of peeled back chitin, her exceedingly tall (easily surpassing the stature of the earlier guards and all others within the hive) yet slender frame concealed beneath multiple woven blankets, set against the cold blowing in to accompany the flurries of snow whirling outside. The mare-like creature’s head meanwhile was swivelled to face her, adorned like her own with both prominent horn and crown, concern written deep in its pale jade irises. Beneath the wavy strands of mane however, tinged by the first few strips of grey in amongst its acid green, the caring visage’s features were hard to detect, concealed by a mesh of impregnable jet black plates (marred in places by the scars left by those who had attempted to breach them). They were there though, in the wrinkles at the edge of her tired eyes.
‘I couldn’t get back to sleep’ she began, the matriarch’s face pleading with her to continue as she paused. ‘I’m… hungry.’
‘I know darling’ her mother nodded, a guilty sadness evident even through her disguise, the daughter’s antennae emitting a faint tingle as they sensed the emotion. An acidic glow surrounded the layers of blankets opening them at one side. ‘Come here, before you get cold.’
Gratefully she dived beneath the covers, instantly enveloped by their embrace. She burrowed through them until her head popped out alongside her mother’s, who beneath the quilting brought a wing to wrap her in a tight hug, whilst at the same time nuzzling against her daughter’s newly emerged cheek. Again her extra senses tingled, but this time with a far brighter energy, instantly spreading through her to satiate her desperate stomach. Happily she nuzzled back, chirruping quietly as she forgot herself.
‘Thank you darling, but you should eat, I’m fine.’
With considerable effort she brought her mutual love back into check, but still compromised with herself in snuggling in closer to its object. She did however guiltily know that the matriarch was lying; being able to read it even without her antennae which could detect the other’s drained state. Quickly in contrast she was left content, warmed within as well as without and comfortably full, and she found herself yawning to that effect, enjoying still being reassuringly held. As her eyelids had become heavy her gaze drifted and found a map unfolded in front of them, depicting a complex of buildings and streets all surrounding the towers and walls of a great citadel. To one side sat a sharpened piece of dark gemstone, having coated the picture in scribbled notes, directing arrows and orders highlighting points of infiltration and weakness. ‘What’s this?’
‘A future’ the mother answered in a whisper as her daughter’s head fell to rest on her slight forehooves and she lightly stroked her mane, ‘for all, but most importantly for you. You should have so much more than this.’ Her concluding gesture however, to both the cave and to a glowing beacon only visible for those with their sixth sense in the icy storm beyond, went only faintly noticed as the smaller form beside her floated into sleep.
---
‘Mother?’
Queen Chrysalis stood tall in the windswept cavern, its entrance left open to the craggy snow-capped range of the Foal Mountains, in the apex of one of whose peaks it sat. Before her the darkened reflection of her own face returned her look from the shined surface of a sharply carved obsidian obelisk, situated just to one side within the cave’s threshold. Where tradition demanded an absence the monument was at least something for her predecessor, appropriate in its mirrored gleam, hidden strength and pointed form, but nonetheless in her mind it was not nearly enough for the one whose life it was supposed to honour.
‘Mother?’
Having been engrossed in her own thoughts the queen finally noticed the voice at her back, instantly turning her round on the spot, following her ears as they in tandem swivelled to find it. ‘Yes sweetheart?’
‘Watch this.’
Before Chrysalis briefly was almost the mirror image of her younger self, instantly bursting into a ball of green fire to be replaced by a different yet still recognisable filly. The other’s black carapace became fur, whilst her slitted pupils rounded, but she still maintained a long wispy mane with matching tail and jade irises. In another explosion of flames her daughter reappeared, panting slightly, obviously sapped by the effort. Chrysalis was well aware that her own mother had been much stronger than she was, far more capable at holding herself in line. She meanwhile could not help her pride, it radiating from her in a broad fanged smile which cut across her face. ‘That’s fantastic darling!’
The praise spread a pink hue between the younger one’s armoured plates. ‘Thanks.’ An equal grin also blossomed in her features, before being replaced with an unsure frown. ‘How long are you going to be away?’
Chrysalis let out a low sigh, beckoning her daughter to follow as she moved to the gaping hole overlooking the mountainous expanse beyond their home. ‘Not long.’ A glow pulsed through her horn, moving a gentle aura to wrap around her child who, giggling at the tickle of energy, she proceeded to lift before her and then switched to holding tightly with a forelimb. Her daughter returned the hug, wrapping both forehooves possessively around her mother’s neck which she nuzzled lovingly into. Chrysalis’ eyes meanwhile picked their way across the landscape. They sliced through swirling mists and across rocky trails to land on a single peak in the far distance from which her target sprouted: an ethereal palace of pure marble and jewelled turrets, the imperial capital. ‘For you I will conquer it all’ she promised solemnly, laying a final kiss on the forehead of one for whom she would stop at nothing to gift a brighter world.