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1 - Chrysalis3,100 words
2 - Miasma3,947 words
3 - Myxine4,237 words
4 - Ambrosia3,677 words
5 - Homecoming Queen3,597 words
6 - Queen's Gambit3,408 words
7 - Meeting With the Queen3,410 words
7.5 - The Most Wonderful Curse1,993 words
8 - The Queen and The Centurion3,485 words
9 - Last Child to the Queen3,288 words
10 - My Mother, The Queen3,288 words
11 - The Lone Queen3,339 words
12 - A Pair Of Queens3,514 words
13 - When the Queen is Away4,780 words
14 - The Other Queen Comes Over to Play3,373 words

11 - The Lone Queen

Out of all the races and creatures within Equestria, a changeling queen fears one thing and one thing only: The loss of her children. Whether or not it is death that takes them is irrelevant. For a queen to lose the loyalty and respect of those children of hers that are still alive is just as painful as their passing, if not moreso. The greatest fear of any changeling queen is the loss of all of her children. To lose them all means she has failed them as a mother.

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Chrysalis could not possibly begin to accept what her eyes were telling her. As if Sylph's declaration had not been enough of a shock, she watched with wide eyes as the helmet he had worn for thirty years-the helmet that he had worn with pride and honor-floated from his head. Silence fell upon the changeling queen as her mind fought within itself to determine an appropriate reaction. After several long seconds of this mental tug-of-war and with neither side any closer to success, Chrysalis finally made the decision herself. She managed but one word from between her fangs. "Why?"

Sylph looked up at his mother, his expression confused, unsure about what part of his reasoning was so difficult to grasp. "I believe I have provided an adequate explanation, your Majesty." The changeling shifted his shoulders as the same green aura that had removed his helm did the same with his armor, placing it upon the ground before Chrysalis' hooves.

The queen's emerald eyes watched in horror as the armor she had bestowed upon the one child she had believed would always stand at her side was discarded like a spent husk. The instant Sylph's magic released the armor, the tug-of-war was over. A furious inferno rose behind her eyes. "Now!? Why NOW!? Thirty years you have followed me! You have never once doubted my orders before and you choose now, when I am stripped of my hive and all of my children, to break your own oath!? And all of this is decided on a whim!? Insolent brat!"

Sylph flinched in response to the shout. This was hardly the first time his queen's voice had been raised against him. This time, however, it was far different. There was nothing within her tone but raw fury. His expression hardened in the face of such heated anger. His eyes closed to narrow slits, matching his mother's burning glare. "Since the assault upon Canterlot, it has been nothing but a struggle for me to simply survive. I have had one proper meal in close to two weeks and was nearly slain by a lowly timberwolf. For me to follow you any further only assures my own death. It has been my faith in you that has brought me this far, but now I can see that that faith was nothing more than a waste!"

Her centurion's sharp tone was the only weapon capable of piercing the veil of rage that enveloped Chrysalis' mind. Its blow landed true, finally triggering the tears she had been holding back. Even so, anger still had the matriarch's mind tight within its claws. "You would so easily turn your back on your queen!? After you were the only one to willingly follow me from the hive!? After all I have done for you!? You unfaithful maggot!"

"If I recall, it was your words that wished for me to not place my life in danger without due cause."

"What would you call the undertaking to reclaim my hive?"

"A lost cause, your Majesty." Sylph replied coldly. "You left your right to ask for respect and loyalty at the Canterlot gates. We should have parted ways at the hive. I have only followed you this far because I believed we had a chance. I have been thinking; why should any other hives even consider pitying us? I see now it is nothing more than folly to expect otherwise."

Chrysalis' fangs ground against one another in rage. "You would rather submit yourself to be trod upon by the swine that is Miasma!? Have you lost your mind!?"

"Quite the contrary, my queen. I have never been saner. Miasma is hardly anything more than a disgusting swine, this much is true. But even a swine is to be more respected than the filth in which he wallows."

Even with the anger pulsing through her body, the queen flinched at the cool insult. She stepped up to Sylph, her eyes searing him with a frigid glare. She rose her hoof in rage, holding it above the centurion as if to strike him. "V-very well... If you would be so disloyal..."

Sylph didn't so much as bat an eye as the hoof of his matriarch buried itself in the ground inches from his face.

Chrysalis' anger was beginning to fade, letting her voice begin to waver. "I would never bring harm to a child of my own hive; that shall not change, but...if you would be so disloyal, then you are dead to me. I won't forget this act of treason, Sylph. If you walk away now, it shall be the last time you see me. I...will no longer come to your aid. Regardless of the danger you may be in...I...I will not stand to see you again. In choosing to turn your back on me...you have asked me to do the same to you. Be gone, Sylph… Y-you are on your own now."

The centurion nodded slightly, an agreement having finally been reached. He turned away to stride into the forest. Before he vanished from sight, old habits bade him cast one final glance toward the figure amidst the countless trees. His once proud mother, his once strong queen. There she stood, broken, defeated, and alone. Her gaze met his for an instant. It was then that he saw everything behind her anger laid bare before him. All her sadness, all her pain. Everything she wanted to say, yet could not bring herself to do so. Sylph saw everything. The things he could never hope to understand. "It...has been an honor to serve under you, your Majesty. Goodbye." The changeling broke his mother's stare to step away into the trees.

The instinct that came over the changeling queen was so deep-rooted that Chrysalis didn't even notice her hoof rising to carry her after Sylph until she looked down. There she froze, slowly looking from her risen hoof to the spot where her centurion had disappeared amongst the trees and back to her hoof again. All the while her mind was consumed in a furious struggle. The impulse to follow Sylph was so strong that even thinking of denying it was causing her physical pain. At length, the changeling queen's hoof drifted back to the ground. In the single toughest act of her life, Chrysalis tore her tear-filled emerald gaze from where she knew Sylph to be. Each hoofstep away from her centurion held a pain worse than any wound she had ever felt before..

Chrysalis didn't dare look back; she knew if she did she wouldn't be able to keep herself from running after Sylph. She didn't know if she was even heading in the right direction anymore, nor did she care. She just kept walking. So strained were her steps that the queen hardly noticed when her hoof fell into something that responded with a wet squelch! Only one thing would have made such a noise. She had stepped directly into a pile of golden nectar flecked with dirt, leaves, and all other manner of forest debris. Face-down in this disgusting pile was the horribly emaciated remains of some unfortunate stallion, all four of his legs broken. A quick inspection revealed that his corpse was still warm. Horror ran cold through the matriarch's body. Ambrosia was nearby and Chrysalis had no idea where. Instinct threw her mind back to Sylph, walking alone through the trees. No! The changeling queen froze on the spot; every fiber of her being screamed at her to fly back to Sylph's side.

With a great amount of difficulty, Chrysalis stuffed her mother's instinct back down and turned to continue her journey. The instant she resumed walking, a scream of pure agony crashed against her ears. "GAAAAAH!" There was no mental debate this time. A blaze of fury instantly rose behind her eyes. The wings of the changeling mother opened into a blur. Branches cracked and entire trees fell before her as she flew to the aid of her child. Mere seconds passed before the queen arrived at the origin of the scream.

A changeling queen with golden-yellow mane was happily bouncing up and down near Sylph's collapsed body. With frightening accuracy, Chrysalis hooked one of her leg holes around the horn of the enemy queen, ripping her from her hooves. The rival queen twisted quickly in midair, landing on her hooves again. She nimbly caught Chrysalis' horn against her own, halting her furious charge.

"Simple-minded bitch! I will flay you with your own entrails!"

"I'm happy to see you too, Chrysalis! Guess what I found out?"

The Honeycomb queen’s innocent smile only served to heighten the rage burning within Chrysalis' eyes. "What have you done to my centurion!?" she snarled.

Ambrosia's horn lit up to carry her spoils up to Chrysalis' eye level. "Look!" she giggled. "I pulled his wings off and now he's so mad he's shaking, just like I thought!"

Chrysalis snorted at the happy giggling of the rival queen. A quick toss of her head forced the Honeycomb queen to the ground horn first.

"Well, he was shaking..." Ambrosia sighed from her newly prone position upon the forest floor as she stared at the trapped centurion. "Oh well. At least you're shaking! My plan worked!" she squealed, a wide grin stretching across her mouth.

The emerald-eyed changeling queen stepped over the ecstatic Ambrosia to attend to her child. "Sylph, are you all right?"

"'All right' is not the term I would choose, your Majesty. The giggling idiot behind you just ripped my wings out. I am far from all right." An irritated sigh slid from the centurion's mouth. "Why are you here? What happened to 'you are dead to me?'"

Chrysalis visibly hesitated in answering. "I...I... My anger spoke for me, Sylph. I did not know Ambrosia had the advantage. Had I known, I would not have left you to fend for yourself. Y-you were the one to pay for my negligence and I...am sorry."

Despite the pain upon his face, Sylph forced a half-hearted laugh. "You couldn't possibly have known Ambrosia was on the hunt, much less that I would have fallen into her trap. Fitting that I too would lose something in our parting."

No words found their way to the mouth of the changeling queen to form a sufficient reply. But, how could she say anything to her child? She had cast him out in anger and he had suffered for it. This knowledge drove a white-hot horn straight into her heart. Again and again the pain dug away at the changeling queen's side. When she could no longer stand it and looked back to the source of the repeated discomfort she found a sharp stick, held aloft by an aura of yellow magic, repeatedly poking itself into the side of her chest.

At the other end of the floating stick was Ambrosia, lying flat upon the ground, inquisitive eyes fixated upon the hovering branch. "C'mon. You were shaking earlier..." she murmured to herself. The instant she noticed the scalding emerald glare of the Chrysalis matriarch fixed upon her, she sat bolt upright, quickly hiding the stick behind her back.

"If Ambrosia finds herself finished with her senseless games, I would rather like to be freed from this disgusting filth."

Chrysalis' gaze remained upon Ambrosia's sheepish smile for a moment more, if only to avoid looking back at the last of her children. "As you wish, Sylph." A beam of bright green light flashed from her gnarled horn to dissolve the nectar trapping Sylph upon the forest floor.

"Better." the centurion snorted. He opened his elytra to survey the damage underneath. The two halves of the chitinous shell trembled irregularly as every tiny movement sent another wave of fire through Sylph's body. "Nggh!" Two rivulets of green blood stood out brightly upon the changeling's jet-black carapace, steadily leaking from his wings' former home. Apart from the stinging needles digging into his back, the absence of such a familiar appendage was confusing. The movement of muscles that would have previously lifted the centurion into the air only twisted his face in agony.

Chrysalis' reaction was identical. To see such pain upon her child's face and to know that she had been the cause of it. It nearly killed her. "If you wish, I can suppress your pain for a time." she offered.

"That will not be necessary, your Majesty."

Chrysalis nodded slowly, her following tone civil and steady. "Very well, Sylph. I shall respect your decision." For the second time in the same day, the changeling mother watched as her child turned his back upon her to disappear among the trees. The pain burning inside her was hardly of its earlier intensity, but it was still there.

It was far easier this time for the changeling queen to separate her gaze from her child's path. Chrysalis willed the tears from her eyes before turning to face the other queen. It was some time before either spoke. When one finally did, her words were not many. "Ambrosia."

The golden maned changeling returned the curt nod. "Chrysalis."

"I...presume you would desire a reason as to my trespassing?"

"No. Not really. I heard enough."

"I see. Then I need not waste breath upon what events have led me here. Rather, I would explain what I have come seeking. No doubt you gathered that the vain Miasma has forced me from my own hive. I have traveled here to request your assistance in reclaiming my rightful throne."

"Aaaaand why should I help you exactly?" Chrysalis' request had fallen upon deaf ears. Ambrosia's holed hoof reached out to lazily bat at a low-hanging branch, its owner already more interested in the twitching of its leaves than in the words of her rival. "Don't get me wrong, I appreciate you bringing me a new plaything, buuuut, it was sorta boring. Changeling wings come out too easily. They're not like pegasus wings. No feathers to pull out, no bones to break. Not that much fun. That's not really enough to make me want to help you, Chryssi."

If there was one thing that would get the attention of a changeling queen, Chrysalis knew exactly what it was. "You know Miasma as well as I. She has taken my hive with ease. That ease has gone to her already over-inflated head. To where do you think she will march next?" The taller of the two changeling queens paused to allow time for the thought to simmer. "I care not for your decision, regardless of what it may be. I have lost my hive, the last of my children. If Miasma takes your hive, what is that to me?" Difficult though it was, Chrysalis turned to follow Sylph, leaving the passive-aggressive threat hanging above Ambrosia's head.

Ambrosia’s thoughts moved rapidly, wasting no time in forming a reply for her. "Wait! What exactly do you need of me?"

A dark smile passed over Chrysalis' mouth. Perfect. "I need you to draw my children's attention. As long as they remain within the hive, Miasma will not hesitate to use their lives against me. Remove them from under her and she loses the only thing preventing me from pinning my horn to her throat."

The head of the Honeycomb hive may have been more laid back than most, but she was still a queen and knew how to negotiate for the good of her hive. "What do I gain from placing my children in danger for your sake?"

"This is not for my sake, Ambrosia. Help me to dethrone Miasma and your hive is safe."

"Uh, uh, uh. Do better."

A flare of anger twitched Chrysalis's wings. After some silent pondering, the matriarch spoke once more. "Very well. The White Tail Woods. You have sought after it for some time now. Assist me in reclaiming my hive and the territory along with all hunting it contains will be yours. You shall have it free of contest from my hive for as long as you shall desire it."

Ambrosia giggled happily. "I never thought I'd see you give something like that up! You feeling okay, Chryssi?"

"I never thought I would see the day my centurion turned his back upon me. There is a first time for everything." she murmured. Unconsciously, her eyes fixated upon the part of the forest she knew Sylph to have disappeared in. Strangely enough, the desire to run after him was beginning to wane. She wished for his respect back, that much went without saying. Even so, she knew that there was only thing that would return it to her.

The queen's somber look was replaced with one of annoyance as she felt a repeated poking upon her flank. A long sigh hissed from between her fangs. Chrysalis waited for the jabbing to cease, but her patience was at a premium today. When it snapped, it snapped loudly.

"Stupid bitch! Touch me one more time with that damn stick and I'll shove it through your eye!" Chrysalis rounded on Ambrosia with the speed of an uncoiling snake. In the same instant, a flash of green flame incinerated the offending stick and the Honeycomb queen leapt into the treetops with a squeal of startled amusement. "Enough! I will not indulge your simple-minded games!"

Following Chrysalis' shout of anger into the trees, a new, third voice made itself known to the pair of queens. "Queen Ambrosia, your Majesty!"

In response to the call, the head of the Honeycomb matriarch appeared, upside-down, from the branches above the newly arrived changeling. "Centurion Seayr? What is it?"

"Your Majesty! Come quickly, there are trespassers within our territory! The hive is in danger!"

Ambrosia hardly batted an eye at the news. "No. That's just Chrysalis." she corrected, shaking her head. "She's not a threat to the hive. She's just visiting."

"No, your Majesty! It's Miasma! A massive group of her soldiers have orchestrated an attack upon the hive! Ten of our own have already fallen!"

This news finally got through to the changeling queen. The playful light in her eyes immediately took on a far darker tone. "Ooh! I wonder if wings from Miasma changelings pull out that easily! Let's find out!" Like an arrow from a bow, Ambrosia was away through the treetops, closely pursued by her centurion.

For the last time, Chrysalis looked back over her shoulder.

"Goodbye, Sylph."

Author's Note:

Fun fact time again.

At the time of writing Myxine's introductory chapter, I had all of three little bits of information to build a fitting personality for her. The first draft of that chapter got a passing grade from Carni and was posted soon after.

This chapter above, the one dealing largely with Chrysalis/Sylph interaction? Three separate tries.

Enjoy and stay classy, readers.

*Approved for your viewing pleasure by Carnifex and Spiritofthwwolf. Special thanks out to Carni on this one. The first iteration of this chapter was butt, let me tell you.

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