> How To Reform Your Changeling
>  by Forces of Darkness
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> No-Good Bug
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	It was just a normal day when Princess Twilight Sparkle, returning from a visit to Sugarcube Corner, was attacked by changelings. 
And I had almost made it home without anything weird happening, too, she thought in annoyance as she froze them all in place with her magic and continued walking. It was only about five changelings, all undisguised. After she had walked about ten steps, she summoned a rope, and without turning around, tied them up.
Despite the ease with which she had completed the fight, she still breathed a sigh of relief when she returned home and saw Starlight Glimmer waiting for her. At least, until Starlight exclaimed, "Twilight Sparkle! Long time no see! And you're a Princess now, as well..."
"Cut it out, Chrysalis," Twilight snapped, firing a bolt of magic at the imposter.
Chrysalis hissed in displeasure, and acid-green flames flared around her as she dropped her disguise. She dodged the magical bullet with ease and returned with one of her own. Twilight instinctively threw up a shield, preparing for green flames to melt her into the ground or something-
Nothing.
The Queen of the Changelings was encased in a block of a transparent substance, and Starlight Glimmer stood with her horn pointed at the attacker, ready to cast another spell if Chrysalis even twitched.
"Twilight? Is that really you? This bug attacked me a few minutes ago, except she looked like you but as a plain unicorn. She locked me in the library and I only just managed to escape-"
"It's alright, Starlight. She took your form and was waiting for me when I got home. Thank you for your help, by the way."
"No problem. Um, what is she?"
"A changeling queen - think of her as the Celestia of the changelings, shapeshifting creatures that feed of the love of ponies."
Chrysalis made a noise that might have been an amused snort. 
At that moment, the door crashed open, and Twilight's friends all came rushing in. They all stopped at the sight of Chrysalis.
Rainbow Dash was the first to find her voice. "What is she doing here?"
Twilight merely shook her head. "There's more outside, tied up."
"Oh no. You mean that poor group of ponies we found tied up outside your castle?"
"What- oh, Fluttershy. You released them, didn't you?"
The yellow mare's eyes brimmed with tears. "I thought they were a helpless group of ponies! I was just trying to be nice..."
"They'll be long gone by now," a raspy voice spoke up, and all the ponies whipped around to stare at Chrysalis.
"What? They were only intended as a minor distraction so I could assume the guise of this one," she indicated Starlight, "and prepare for Miss Perfect Princess Twilight Sparkle over here. The second you turned your back, they were to escape by any means necessary and return to the hive."
Twilight stared in shock. It seemed like a good enough plan, if you didn't count the fact the Chrysalis was significantly weaker than the last time she had faced Twilight. Come to think of it... Twilight glanced over the changeling and was not surprised to find that she was painfully thin and her wings drooped.
"So what should we do about her?" Rarity asked. 
"Write Princess Celestia and have her put in the dungeon," suggested Applejack.
"We could ship her to the Crystal Empire and have Shining Armor and Cadance blast her with love again!" Rainbow shouted eagerly.
Chrysalis smiled. "I would survive. We always have."
Twilight matched her smile. "I know! I am, after all, the Princess of Friendship. And what better way to prove it than to reform this no-good bug over here?" Her friends stared. "Oh, come on! We reformed Discord!"
"Fluttershy reformed Discord," Rarity informed her blankly.
"Of course! So she can do it again!"
The yellow mare shook her head and murmured softly, "It's different. Twilight, you're one of my best friends, but please don't make me do this."
"How is it different?" Twilight asked in frustration, but she didn't push. She turned to her other friends. "Rarity?"
The white unicorn shook her head as well. "Sorry, darling, but I've got a little sister to think of. I simply can't do it."
"Well, I have to teach Starlight, I don't have the time to- fine. Rainbow? Pinkie?"
Both shook their heads. Twilight turned to Applejack.
"Ah know yer gonna ask me, Twi, and Ah have a little sister to think of too. But Ah'll do it."
Twilight's wings perked up. "You'll do it? Really?"
"Ah can't stand a liar, and what's a bigger liar than a shapeshifting bug-pony? Ah'll do it."
Chrysalis merely stood there and smiled. "And what makes you think I have to do what any of you say?"
"The fact that I have restricted your magic and will only release it when Applejack says you are trustworthy enough for me to release it," Twilight responded calmly, levitating a magic-restricting ring around Chrysalis' horn. Chrysalis shifted into the form of Twilight and smirked at her, then tried to teleport away.
Nothing happened. Defeated, she resumed her normal form.
"Your shapeshifting abilities are intact, but any magic aside from that is prohibited. And," Twilight summoned a length of rope and tied it around Chrysalis' body, "you can't fly. This is what happens when you try to cross the Princess of Friendship."
"And I'm sure there's always the reformation spell if this fails," Rainbow added slyly. "Believe me, you won't like it."
Chrysalis glared at them all, but seeing as she had little other choice, she nodded.
"Alrighty then. C'mon, Chryssie, let's go home."
She muttered under her breath at "Chryssie," but followed Applejack obediently back to Sweet Apple Acres.

...

Granny Smith had a fit when Applejack and the changeling arrived in the house, but grudgingly accepted it when Applejack said it was an order from Princess Twilight. Big Macintosh said an angry "Eenope," and went outside to buck some apples. Apple Bloom regarded the strange creature with a mixture of fright and fascination until she was sent to bed.
> All Work and No Play...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Chrysalis woke early the next morning to discover that she was not, in fact, in her comfortable room in the hive. She was sleeping in hay, like some common pony-
Her eyes widened slightly as the events of the day before caught up to her. She narrowed her eyes again and hissed in displeasure. 
A wet feeling at her side interrupted her thoughts and she turned to glare at a brown and white dog that was sniffing her thoroughly. It gave a low growl as she tried to move away. Fed up, she hissed at it, which spooked it and caused it to run out of the barn whimpering.
All in all, Chrysalis was feeling satisfied when she left the barn. Her wings buzzed, but she didn't try to fly or teleport. If she wanted to escape here, she'd have to do it by walking. She glanced up when a shadow fell over her and realized that the blue pony was circling overhead. With a flying creature constantly on patrol, escape would be a lot harder. 
Worse yet, she could not use the zan'ji, the mental link of the hive, to talk to any of her children. This is the world that these ponies must live in all the time, she mused. Never knowing what those around them are thinking. The silence seemed to fill her ears, expanding until it hurt. Tales were told of those lings who lived in this silence. They went mad. And none of those lings were queens... what would her children do without a queen? She had to get back to her hive, as soon as possible...
...which, if the ponies were constantly watching over her, could be quite a long time. 
That is, if she escaped traditionally.
But... if she went along with their program of "friendship," perhaps they would release her early. Surely she, Queen Chrysalis, She of Many Faces, could pull off a fake friendship with the orange pony... Applejack. Better to start using their names now. Chrysalis trotted slowly towards the orchard, where she could feel negative emotions.

...

Applejack woke up early in the morning and trotted outside to get some work done. She found Big Mac still bucking trees, several full baskets of apples under the trees surrounding him.
"Sweet Celestia, Big Mac. Were you up all night?"
"Eeyup."
She sighed. "Yer really upset about Chryssie, aren't you?"
"Chryssie? Applejack, this ain't a pet yer talkin' about - this is a monster that nearly took over Canterlot."
"Ah know."
"And you just brought it home."
"Mac, Ah know yer upset about it. But Princess Twilight-"
"Eenope. She's still the same friend she's always been, princess or no - you could have turned her down if you wanted."
"But Ah didn't. You're right, but that doesn't change it. It's- hmm. Ah want to able to sleep at night knowing that there's one less threat out there that could harm me and my friends."
"So kill her. Blast her with yer rainbow power or whatever."
"Mac, NO! That's not how magic works. And that's - Ah can't kill a creature in cold blood, not even her. She's starving, Mac."
Big Mac muttered something that might have been "Let her starve."
"Twilight believes in me," Applejack said, more to herself than to her brother. "Ah can reform her. Ah will reform her."

...

After a little bit of wandering, Chrysalis found Applejack in the orchard. Big Mac stormed off at the sight of her.
"Mornin'. Chryssie," Applejack greeted. "Mind helpin' me out with some of the apples?"
Chrysalis merely stared, confused by both the friendly greeting and the request.
"Here, just stand with yer back to the tree like this and kick out with your back legs, like this." She demonstrated the movement, knocking all the apples perfectly in the baskets set up below. 
Hesitantly, Chrysalis imitated the movement. Her hooves hit the wood with a weak 'clunk' and knocked off one apple, which fell pathetically into a basket. Hissing, Chrysalis repeated the motion, hitting harder this time, knocking off a few more. Finally, frustrated, she transformed into Applejack and hit the tree even harder. Most of the apples shook loose and fell into baskets, but a few more still clung to the top of the tree. 
Applejack, despite being unnerved at seeing her double, smiled. "Good job! Yer a natural." She lightly tapped the trunk of the tree with a hoof, causing the last few apples to fall into the baskets.
Chrysalis wasn't particularly happy, but nevertheless, she complied with the orange mare's request to buck a few more trees before breakfast. Soon enough, she found a rhythm and even took a small amount of pleasure in the steady work. 
Rainbow Dash watched from above with mild relief as the "no-good bug" helped out around the farm and never once seemed to challenge Applejack. Even Big Mac seemed slightly more contented when he saw Chrysalis helping out without complaining. She even ate the pancakes AJ served! It was progress, yes. But was it friendship?
That night, she flew up to AJ's window and banged on it quietly until it was opened.
"Rainbow?" Applejack asked in confusion. "What are you doing here this late?"
"We need to talk. Where's the bug?"
"Sleepin' on the kitchen floor. Decided hay storage was a little too mean, even for her."
"Okay. What makes you think having her do farm chores is going to help reform her?"
"Ah dunno. Fluttershy mostly won Discord over by humoring him, by being kind - but Ah don't think Chryssie needs kindness. Besides, there's nothing like work to clear a pony's mind."
"Alright. As long as you think it's going well."
"She smiles sometimes. And she managed to feed Winona without getting growled at. Ah'd say she's doing well."
> We Are One
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	The next few days were as uneventful as days could possibly be. Chrysalis woke at sunrise each morning and helped Applejack buck apples until Applejack decided it was time for breakfast. She fed Winona, who had finally stopped growling at her. She helped out around the farm for the entire day, stopping only for lunch and dinner, during which she would feed Winona again. And then she would collapse on the kitchen floor, almost too exhausted for evil plotting. Or plotting of any sort.
Almost.
The silence still scraped around her brain until she wanted to scream. The faces of her children, desperate and starving, flashed before her eyes in the moments between being awake and asleep. She had to get back to them, and faking friendship just wasn't working. Perhaps it was a sign of the maddening effects of the silence that she decided to do something insane. She decided to try talking to Applejack.
"AJ," she asked, using the affectionate nickname that the others often used for her, "might it be possible for me to leave the farm for a few days and go home?"
"A few days meaning what, a month? A year? Two years? No. Where would you go home to anyway?"
She couldn't answer that. How long had it been since she and her children had been blasted out of Canterlot? Perhaps a little more than a year. Every day, searching for more changelings. So many lives claimed that day. Out of five hundred, perhaps a hundred and fifty remaining? Forced to live in hiding, starving... And then her idea for revenge on the purple mare that orchestrated it all, crushing dreams, stealing food, claiming lives... All wasted because she was fool enough to reveal herself again. Her fault. She had failed them again.
Applejack gave her an odd look, came up to her, and awkwardly put her forelegs around her neck. She stroked one hoof through Chrysalis' mane. "We killed a lot of your children, didn't we?"
Chrysalis didn't answer that, staring woodenly into space. Then she shook herself all over. "What are you doing to me?"
"It's called hugging."
"But it won't provide me with love, will it?" Me, or the rest of them, she thought to herself. Applejack obediently stopped hugging her, but continued to give her odd glances throughout the day.
The next day, Applejack called her over a few hours after lunch. "Chryssie, come here. There's someone who's come to visit you."
Chrysalis absently wandered over, glanced up, and stopped in shock. A tall ivory alicorn was looking at her. 
"Hello, Chrysalis," Princess Celestia said, smiling.
She debated whether or not to bow, to show her "submission" to the ponies and their friendship. She almost did, the hungry faces of Chia and Butterfly watching her in her mind's eye. But what would they think of her if they know she was bowing to a pony queen? It would be considered a sign that she was weakening, and it would never be said that Queen Chrysalis, She of Many Faces, was weak.
She dipped her head to Celestia, in the way that two equals would greet each other. Celestia didn't even blink, but returned the gesture with the utmost politeness. 
Celestia lit her horn and summoned a small table and two chairs. "Please, won't you sit? A friend of mine will bring refreshments in just a minute."
"Of course." Chrysalis sat. As soon as she was settled, a pink mare with a poofy pink mane appeared - Chrysalis recognized her but couldn't remember her name. The mare busied herself placing teacups, a teapot, and a cake on the table.
"Pardon me," Chrysalis interrupted her, "but what is your name?"
"Pinkamena Diane Pie," the mare recited, "but you can just call me Pinkie. Everypony does!" With a giggle and a shower of confetti, she disappeared. 
Celestia began to cut the cake calmly, giving each of them a slice. She picked a fork and began to take dainty bites. Chrysalis ate like an animal, since she had no way of levitating the fork. Celestia made a noise that might have been a stifled giggle.
"Would it make you feel better if I ate like that as well?" she asked. Chrysalis considered a moment and nodded.
They sat in silence for a while, each mare consuming her cake in the style of a grazing animal. When they had both finished, Celestia magically summoned two napkins. She wiped her mouth clean with one, then ordered Chrysalis to hold still and wiped her mouth with the other. As she did so, Chrysalis realized that she tasted something almost like... almost like love.
She glanced down to make sure that she wasn't wearing a disguise, but she didn't seem to be. Was Celestia giving her love for... being herself? Surely not. And yet the sweet sensation lingered on her tongue, and it was a different sweetness from the cake. Come to think of it, the cake had been baked with a lot of love, making her feel more full than she'd been in a while. Idly, Chrysalis wondered if the pink mare - Pinkie - was the one who had baked the cake. 
A sipping sound brought her back to reality. Celestia was sipping her tea. Noticing Chrysalis watching her, she set down the teacup gently and smiled. "Did it make you feel better when we were equals, eating the cake in the same manner?"
Chrysalis nodded. 
"What if I told you that we are more than equals? We are the same."
"I'm a black bug. You're a white pony. I'm a Queen, you're a Princess. We are most definitely not the same."
Celestia smiled. "You have four legs. You have a horn and wings. You have fur. So do I." Chrysalis rubbed her hoof against her foreleg and realized that she did have fur. "Technically, we are both ponies. Even alicorns, if you wanted to push it that far." 
"And that makes us the same?"
"No. There's more to it than that. You're smart, Chrysalis. Why don't you tell me why we are the same?"
"I'm telling you, we're not. You are the prettiest, perfectest princess that ever was, and I'm a no-good bug."
Again, that mysterious smile and the taste that was not love. "I am not perfect. Neither are you."
"I suppose not, if you can be defeated with a simple magic blast," Chrysalis returned. It worked: Celestia's eyes flashed with something resembling anger, but it quickly faded. 
"Of course. I should have known. How could I possibly explain to you...?"
Chrysalis transformed into Celestia and mocked, "I will protect my subjects!"
"Yes!" Celestia cried in triumph, startling Chrysalis so much that she reverted to her normal form. "That is why we are the same!"
A vague memory floated through Chrysalis' head: an echoey, raspy voice singing, "No, I do not love the groom, in my heart there is no room!"
Hive. Children. Subjects. Daughters. Queen. Princesses. Home.
Love.
"I would do anything to protect my subjects, as you would to protect your children. I know that there is no magic that can replace the lives that were lost that day."
"But you don't understand what it's like!" Chrysalis shouted at her. "Vi endesh'an zan'ji-" She paused and repeated herself in Equestrian. "You don't have the... mind-link! You couldn't hear their dying screams!" She panted for breath, pointing her horn at the alicorn as though attacking her. As though she could attack her.
Celestia remained calm. "I heard Twilight took away your magic. Did she take away your... zan'ji as well?"
"Yes."
"And now you see what it's like to be a pony."
"I pity you, living in you permanent silence. There are tales of the enzan'ji - those without the mind-link - and it always ends with them going mad. You would annihilate an entire hive by leaving them defenseless and without a queen?"
"Not if I have a choice. And there is always a choice, Chrysalis. Remember that." Celestia smiled, serene perfection once more, and once again Chrysalis tasted that sweetness. 
"Celestia, what is that taste? It's almost like love..."
"Friendship." And without another word, the white alicorn spread her wings and soared upward, eventually seeming to find a current and gliding away on it.

...
  
"Chryssie, you awake?" Applejack inquired late at night. 
"Hmm?"
"How was yer talk with Celestia?"
"Good, I suppose."
"Ah'm glad ta hear that."
Friendship could feed her hive. She needed to bring them friendship.
"Applejack, am I a pony?"
There was a sound of smothered laughter. "Ah... guess so. You've got four legs, a mane, and a tail. Why?"
"So changelings are ponies."	
"Sure."
"Do you think changelings could live with ponies?"
There was a pause. "Ah don't know. After Canterlot, most ponies ain't gonna want you living with them. But Ah suppose it wouldn't hurt to try."
Chrysalis paused. It wouldn't hurt to try. "Applejack, what are your friends like?"
She watched as the orange mare practically lit up, the "friendship" taste flowing off her in waves. "Oh, Twilight is really smart and she reads a lot. Rainbow is competitive..." 
Applejack continued to tell her stories until she noticed the black mare's head hit the floor. She fetched a blanket and gently laid it over Chryssie's back, then went upstairs to sleep.

> A Midnight Meeting
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Chrysalis woke up in the middle of the night on the kitchen floor with a blanket draped over her. Hesitantly, she nudged it off and stood up, noticing that none of the Apple family seemed to be up right now.
Escape, she told herself. There is always love elsewhere. You don't need friendship.
She took one step toward the door, then another. Then she heard footsteps coming down the stairs. She recognized them as belonging to the nymph - filly - Apple Bloom, stumbling downstairs while still half-asleep. 
Hastily, Chrysalis went to the sink and pretended to be washing dishes. Apple Bloom dragged herself to a chair and sat at the kitchen table, head drooping.
"Applejack? Is that you?" 
"Uh - yeah, sugarcube," Chrysalis said, faking Applejack's voice.
"Couldja get me some apple juice please?"
"Of course." She took some apple juice out of the refrigerator and poured it into a glass. While Apple Bloom was looking the other direction, she transformed into Applejack and handed her the glass.
"Why are you up so early, Apple Bloom?" Chrysalis asked in what she hoped was a passable imitation of Applejack's "stern mother voice."
"Bad dream," the filly mumbled. "Princess Luna came and fought it off, but then she left and it got worse and then I woke up."
"What was the dream about?"
"Ma and Pa were tellin' me how proud they were about my cutie mark," the filly briefly glanced down at her flank, "and then some fillies started makin' fun of me for not havin' parents. They were more shadows and voices than fillies, but Luna came and showed me that they were really just my insecurities talkin'. Then she left to help another pony, and the fillies started up again. They told me my cutie mark was useless and I was useless and-"
Chrysalis wrapped her front hooves around the filly's neck and nuzzled against her ear. "It's alright, Apple Bloom. It was just a dream."
"I know. But now I'm scared to go back to sleep in case they say more mean things."
"Well, Ah guess you can stay up. You'll be tired in the morning, though."
"Hey, doesn't Chrysalis usually sleep on the floor here? Where is she?"
Qwa'ti. The curse word flashed in her head. "She's outside buckin' apples."
"No, she ain't. C'mon, Chryssie, don'cha think I woulda heard that?"
"Well done." Chrysalis returned to her normal self. Apple Bloom deflated a little bit, perhaps thinking that the hug and reassurance was just a trick to gain love. Which it definitely wasn't. Probably not. Okay, maybe it was, just a tiny little bit. But only a little.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Chrysalis asked her.
"No."
"I'm sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do to help?"
"You could talk to me. And next time, please don't fake being Applejack."
"Alright. What do you want to talk about?"
The little yellow filly sighed. "Do you know what it's like to not have parents?"
"Hmm. Well, I never really knew my father. But I had my mother, so I was luckier than most of the lings there. My mother was the queen, the mother of all the changelings."
"Is she really everyone's mother?"
"No... Family is different in the hive, Apple Bloom. Do you know how baby ponies are born?"
"They're born alive, right?"
"Yes. But changelings are hatched from eggs."
"Like chickens?"
"No, not like chickens!" There was an awkward pause. "Okay, yeah, kind of like chickens. I guess. But better, because we're way cooler and smarter than chickens. Anyway, the eggs are all put in one big room and cared for by a few lings until they hatch. Then they are raised by the entire hive. The only parent they really know is the queen, although they call everyling ento, which means parental figure. A rough Equestrian translation might be 'nurse.'"
"Does that make you everyp- everyling's ento?"
Chrysalis chuckled. "Ah, no. The changeling word for me is kuyan, which literally translates to Great Mother. The translation of Queen is far less accurate, but easier for ponies to understand."
"But don't you lose some of the spirit of what it means to be a kuyan? By calling you Queen, we're losing the motherly, caring aspect of the word. Which isn't good, because the ponies assume that you're evil and controlling."
"I - wha? I never thought of it until you said that, but you're right. You're quite smart, Apple Bloom."
The filly blushed. "Aw, shucks. I think you're a good kuyan." She picked up her glass of apple juice and drained it. Chrysalis took it from her and placed it in the sink.
"Thank you, Apple Bloom. That means... that means a lot to me. Not that it does much good right now..." Chrysalis sighed. In her excitement, the filly missed the sigh and blurted, "Tell me more. Do little changeling fillies get cutie marks? Do they worry about their cutie marks?"
"Well, apparently we're ponies, so I guess they should get cutie marks. They're called nymphs, by the way, and the really young ones, equivalent to your babies, are called hatchlings. But I've never seen a changeling with a cutie mark in my lifetime, though I suppose it's possible. I can safely say that no lings in my hive have cutie marks."
Suddenly, Apple Bloom's eyes were wide open. "A whole hive of changelings without cutie marks? You have to take the Cutie Mark Crusaders there, right now! Think how many ponies we could help!" Her eyes were shining. 
"I don't really think-" Chrysalis began. Apple Bloom cut her off with a pouty face so adorable that even the kuyan of the changelings couldn't resist. The faces of her children flashed before her. This was the perfect excuse to get back to them. She looked back at the filly in front of her and finally submitted. "Alright."
"YAY!"
> In Which Chrysalis Attempts to Go Home
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Getting Apple Bloom and her friends - or the Crusaders, as they called themselves - to the hive would be easy. Getting out of Ponyville? Much harder. 
Chrysalis pondered this as she bucked the trees and carried the baskets to Applejack and Big Mac. She was getting better at it; almost all the apples fell out of the trees now. Unfortunately, not all of them landed in the baskets, and after the sixth apple nearly hitting her head, she gave up. 
There was a certain peace that came with mindlessly doing the chores and farmwork, a quiet stillness found in the comfort of routine. For one who is used to voices buzzing in her head constantly, there is some relief to be found in this. But the loneliness of being away from family - no peace or stillness could make that hurt less. And so she would find a way to return home, apparently with Crusaders in tow.
She tried to think of a plan, a peaceful one. Endless diagrams were scratched in the dirt, only to be rubbed away by a hole-filled black hoof.  Various disguises were attempted and scrapped, mainly because the itchy rope tied around her grew or shrunk to fit her no matter what her disguise was. Teleporting was out of the question. She could simply knock out the Apple family, minus Apple Bloom, and escape. But she didn't want to because... because...
Because it would hurt Apple Bloom to know her family was hurt, the same way Chrysalis had been hurt when her family was blasted out of Canterlot.
And because the Apples... they were her hive too, at least for now. Changelings need a hive, she reflected, just like ponies need their "friends." Not that she liked them. Granny Smith often gave her suspicious looks when she passed by, and Big Mac glared and left any room she entered. But Applejack was... was... friendly. And Apple Bloom was so sweet, so innocent - almost... well, she was reminded of Chia and Butterfly, and all the nymphs she'd watched grow over the years.
"Chryssi!" Chrysalis shook her head rapidly. How long had she been standing here, thinking? 
"Yes, Apple Bloom?" 
"Wanna come meet in the clubhouse?"
What? "Sure, just a minute."
"Chryssi? You goin' somewhere?" Applejack called, trotting over.
"Yeah, we're gonna try to get her a cutie mark!" Sweetie Belle interrupted, giving Chrysalis a 'hurry up' look. "All that stuff about changelings being ponies inspired us, you know?" Chrysalis withdrew and trotted to the clubhouse, trying not to look like she was running.
"Uh- alright, but don't do anything dangerous. Ya'll injured yourselves enough trying to get your own."
"Yeah, yeah, of course!" Sweetie Belle nodded quickly and galloped to the clubhouse. Applejack rolled her eyes and turned back to her work.



The clubhouse was surprisingly well-crafted, and bigger than she'd expected. The four sat in an approximate circle, looking at Chrysalis expectantly. 
"Well, for starters, I'm gonna need you to untie me."
Sweetie Belle removed the rope and the magic-inhibiting ring.
"And the- oh, never mind." She flapped her wings, enjoying the buzzing sound. "Alright. Are you sure you want to do this?" They all nodded eagerly. "My hive is in the Badlands, it's very dangerous, not to mention your siblings will kill you if they find out you've been to a hive, and more importantly, that I brought you there. So not a word to anypony, got it? I don't care who you think you can trust - you can't!" 
They recoiled a little. Chrysalis realized she was shouting, and hurriedly lowered her voice. "I mean - just don't tell anypony. Please."
Three little heads bobbed in unison.
Chrysalis took a deep breath. "Then let's go." Her horn lit up, creating a flaming green circle around the four of them.
"Um, Chryssi?"
"Please don't interrupt me when I am creating a flame portal," she snapped. A bubble encased them and slowly melted into the ground, bringing them with it.
> Homecoming
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Upon reappearing in the main cavern of the hive, Chrysalis was surprised by one thing - it was empty. The perhaps three hundred voices flooded back into her mind, but they seemed eerily quiet, speaking in hushed whispers, and there were no lings - ponies? - in sight.
She heard a gasp behind her and turned to realize that the fillies were looking around in awe. It was simply a very large cave, nothing more. They hadn't seen anything yet.
"Come along, children," she called, her voice echoing in the silence. 
"C-Chryssie?" Apple Bloom asked, voice hushed. "What is this room?" 
"This? The entrance room. We have parties in here - used to have parties in here."
"Like Pinkie Pie parties?"
"What? I have no idea. We had them when I was very young, before Mother- left."
Apple Bloom hugged her gently, or rather, since Chrysalis was very tall, hugged her leg. "I'm sorry." Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo nodded in unison. 
"It's alright. I remember so little of her now anyways..."
"What was she like?" Scootaloo asked eagerly, trotting alongside her as she walked toward the next room.
"Tall. Black. Hooves with holes, jagged horn. Not the same as my horn, though; all queens have different horns."
"That's not what she was like, though," Apple Bloom said in a scolding tone.
"Oh, fine. She had the most beautiful green mane, always done up in a bun, and she told me it was to look professional. That's mostly what I remember about her - professional. Focused. Very precise. She had checklists, daily checklists, and she would just bring them around with her in saddlebags - saddlebags, just like a commoner - and check things off as they were completed. Once or twice a month, she would finish early and that's when we'd have parties - she'd let her mane down and dance her heart out with all the others, as though they were all the same."
"Can you dance?" Sweetie Belle asked. 
"Can I - oh, no. It's been ages, and I don't like to listen to the music anymore. It reminds me of her too much. Before she - left, she asked me to play music for her, just to comfort her, and I loved her so much that of course I said yes. I turned on the music and went to get a healer, only to come back and see her dead on the floor, music stopped."
There was a pause.
"She died with a smile on her face. How do you say it? Dancing like there's no tomorrow. And because she danced, it never came."
Another pause. Chrysalis stopped and looked at the ground.
"Tomorrow came for me. It keeps coming. She would have gotten better, the old fool, and instead she insisted on dancing and look where it got her!" Her voice rose to a shout. "She left me, sixteen years old, and all because she wanted to DANCE!"
"Chryssie, it's okay to be sad-"
"I'm not sad! I'm angry! She had a duty to her people, to watch over and protect them, and she let dancing come first, and now the responsibility falls to me. There's no more music. There's no more dancing." Chrysalis stopped looking at the ground and marched onward.
"There's no more life."
She didn't know which of the three said it, but it made her pause. They had food in those days - no need for this silly infiltration game. She'd never paid attention where the food came from - it was just love. They survived purely on love. Once Mother left, they had to scavenge for solid food as well, to fill the aching. Until she had the brilliant idea of an invasion of the pony capital - Canterlot.
Still she marched onward, through a tunnel into a much larger main cave. Slime curtains formed walls and rooms, stores lining either side of the cavern. Changelings were everywhere here, buying and selling, though their voices were hushed, their heads lowered, and the entire room tasted of sorrow. 
As she entered, heads turned, and there was a collective gasp as all the changelings recognized their queen. Instantly, all of them bowed.
"Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo." Chrysalis grinned. "Welcome to the hive."
Their eyes were wide, not in fear, but in wonder.
"They really do look like ponies," Apple Bloom blurted out.
There was some murmured hissing in her mind. Hastily, she tried to explain what she had realized during her stay at the Apple farm. Many of them made noises of assent. Many more made confused noises, and a small minority made angry, disapproving, disagreeing sounds. She sighed; there would be time to explain and analyze and argue later. For now, she had guests.
And a queen never left her guests waiting.
"Alright, children. Where shall we go next?"
Scootaloo wanted to go to the dungeon, wherever they kept pony prisoners and sucked all their love out. Instantly, a bitter taste of horror came flooding from the crowd of changelings, and Sweetie Belle glanced at Apple Bloom nervously. Chrysalis gagged on the taste and assured Scootaloo that there was no such thing, love was gathered by infiltrators in other lands and brought back to the hive.
The orange pegasus sighed. "Fine. How about the throne room?"
"Apple Bloom?"
"Uh... throne room's fine by me."
"Sweetie Belle?"
She was gone.
Chrysalis fought the panic rising in her mind and began sending out mental orders. Guards, to me. Everyling else, return to your daily business. The sounds of hooves against the floor told her that her orders were being followed. 
Guards, fan out and find a small white unicorn filly. Do not threaten or harm her in any way. Once she is found, please bring her to the throne room, where I will be waiting.
The guards nodded and began to weave through the main cave, searching.
"Apple Bloom, Scootaloo. I am only going to say this once - you are to stay directly behind me and do not wander off." With that said, she trotted briskly toward the throne room, glancing back every so often to make sure they were still there.



Once they had arrived in a smaller cave which served as the throne room, she paused. The fillies were panting for breath. 
"Goodness, I'm sorry about all that running. Don't worry, they'll definitely find her - she can't have gotten very far, and... and I'm rambling again. Um... hey, would you like some tea?"
They nodded.
"Alright." She sat on her throne - a crude rock sculpture cushioned with a layer of slime - and rang a small bell with her magic.
A changeling mare - for Chrysalis supposed she had fully accepted that changelings were ponies - appeared through a small opening next to the throne. "Yes, my Queen?"
"Iridescence, please bring three- no, four cups of tea, and three chairs." The changeling smiled and nodded, though Chrysalis could tell she was confused. Oh, please let Sweetie Belle get back soon.
"So, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo. While we're waiting for our tea, are there any questions you have about changelings?"
"Why do you have holes in your hooves and mane... and tail... and wings... Why so many holes?"
She laughed. "They aren't actually holes. The fibers in my mane and tail just have transparent sections, forming patches of clear hair that appear like holes. My wings are the same way, although some of those holes are actually rips and tears that never healed properly. My hooves... we don't have many doctors down here, but the ones we do have say that the fur, skin, bones, everything, has turned transparent - that's the best I've got."
"Are you alicorns?" 
"What?! No, though if we are ponies, then I suppose alicorns would have a bit of changeling in them as well."
"Why do you have fangs?" 
"I don't know if you know this, but it's almost impossible for things to grow in the Badlands, and those that do are firmly rooted in the ground. We use our fangs to bite into them and rip them out. I suspect that a long time ago, our ancestors did eat meat, but that's scarce here as well, so we don't eat it anymore."
My queen, we have found the filly. She was- there was a pause. We are bringing her to the throne room now.
"Good news. Sweetie Belle's being brought here as we speak. Oh, and here's Iridescence with your chairs." 
The changeling mare, who had a shimmering white mane and tail, both done up in an elaborate braid, set the three chairs across from the throne. "Your tea will be ready in just a moment, your majesty."
The fillies eagerly hopped onto the chairs as Chrysalis levitated a large, round stone over to serve as the table and smiled at them.
"Oh! There's someling - er, somepony - I want you to meet." Butterfly, could you come to the throne room, please?
There was an audible sigh of frustration echoing through the zan'ji. Of course, Mother dear, a voice responded sarcastically.
Don't take that tone of voice with me, young nymph.
She could hear a buzzing, which indicated that her daughter had started getting angry, but it was cut off a second later. 
"Sorry about that - oh, here's Sweetie Belle!" For the filly had indeed returned... and she was smiling about something. Chrysalis decided she didn't want to ask. The guards gave each other odd looks before marching to the entrance of the throne room and keeping watch.
"Anyway. Hello, Sweetie Belle. I was just answering some of your friends' questions about changelings, and there's tea coming in just a second, if you'll take a seat."
Obediently, the filly sat, mischievous grin still on her face.	Chrysalis yawned, subtly tasting the air: mischief, a tiny bit of guilt... and an overwhelming sense of pride.
She didn't run away because she was scared...?
Iridescence reappeared, tray balanced perfectly on her back and a bowl of sugar held aloft in her magic. "Four cups - ah. Four cups of tea, your majesty." She smiled and set the bowl of sugar down precisely in the center of the table, then passed a cup of tea to each pony. "Careful, they're still hot."
Chrysalis politely thanked the servant and dismissed her, inwardly sighing. None of the cups matched; they had all been stolen from ponies. Everything we own is stolen from ponies. They were still vibrantly colored due to lack of use, something that made her grateful.
She levitated the cup to her lips - oh, how nice it was to use magic again - and took a sip, wincing at the heat. Bland as always. She levitated a cube of sugar into her tea, hesitated, then levitated two more. The fillies had put in five cubes each before tasting it, and so apparently didn't notice the blandness.
Ah, nymphs. So blind and optimistic. Was she jealous... yeah, she was jealous. Just a little bit. 
The fillies whispered among themselves quietly for a few minutes. Excitement, secrecy, and that same overwhelming pride. Hmm...
Three sets of bright eyes turned to her at once. "So, Chrysalis, I have a question about changelings," Sweetie Belle said.
She nodded and took another sip of tea.
"Why do you need love if you can eat regular food?"
"... Good question. It's- difficult to explain. For starters, we can't disguise ourselves or create portals without love - in that sense, it's a power source. It also does feed us the way physical food does, but the effect lasts for a much shorter time. Therefore, we take love to disguise ourselves to take more love to disguise ourselves to take more love. I think you see where this is going. Seeing as food is scarce here, love is easier - and it doesn't cost money to receive either." It costs lives. "We can also transfer love to other changelings, so we send infiltrators to gather love from ponies and bring it back to feed anyling - anypony - who needs to stay behind, like the caretakers and nymphs." 
The fillies nodded thoughtfully. 
Just then, Butterfly burst in through the servant's entrance, wings buzzing wildly. "Hello, Mother."
Chrysalis groaned. "And this is my daughter, Princess Butterfly."
Chia burst in right after, calling, "Butterfly, you know we're not supposed to go through the servant's entrance!"
The changeling merely laughed. "She asked me to come to the throne room. She didn't say anything about using the regular entrance. Besides, the look on her face is worth it." Both stopped and looked at the three fillies. "Um, hello," they said in unison. The CMC waved in response.
"I'm Butterfly," the changeling announced proudly. She had a curly pale-blue mane and tail, and her mouth seemed to be permanently fixed in a fanged grin. 
"Princess Butterfly," the other corrected. "And I'm Chia." She smiled shyly, revealing small fangs. Unusually, she was a white changeling, with a long, flowing dark blue mane and tail, with turquoise streaks running through. "Princess Chiaroscuro, but... everyone just calls me Chia."
"We're twins," Butterfly added, as though it should be obvious. "Also best friends."
"And yet, I only summoned Butterfly to the throne room," Chrysalis added dryly.
"You can't pretend Chia doesn't exist, Mother," Butterfly snapped. "She is a princess too, even more than I am. You can't pretend that she's not real just because you're embarrassed-"
"ENOUGH!" Chrysalis roared, horn lighting on instinct. Butterfly's horn flared to life too, with a matching green glow-
And a pink shield was thrust between them. "I- I think that's enough. I was right, Butterfly. You shouldn't have dragged me here." Chia turned to go, tail dragging on the ground. In a flash, Butterfly was at her side, draping a paper-thin wing over her affectionately. "No, don't say that. You know I never have any idea what to say for these Royal Meetings."
Chia smiled and continued to walk out. Butterfly glared at her mother. "We thought you were dead," she spat. "Now you show up and boss me around and treat her like garbage once more. I- I wish- ala enkuyan!"
Iridescence, who had come to see why there was shouting, gasped. Chrysalis froze.
Butterfly turned, head held high, and fled the room.
"Did... did you truly think I was...?"
"Yes, kuyan. We... your funeral... was planned for tomorrow..." Tears welled up in the mare's eyes.
To have mourned a Queen so soon after a failed invasion... A tragedy that has never before occurred to the Hive. "It's alright. I'm here now."
"Wait, what did Butterfly say?" Scootaloo demanded.
"Essentially, she just told me that she no longer considers me her mother."
"That's... harsh." Sweetie Belle offered. 
"I think I should bring you home, children. I am sorry that you had to see this." She expected them to bow their heads in disappointment that they had failed their cause, perhaps beg to stay for a little while longer.
She did not expect all three of them to perk up and smile at each other. 
"Sure!" Sweetie Belle said. "Can we just... go walk back through the hive?"
Something was odd about this request. But she nodded.
They walked back into the main cavern, which was completely empty. Chrysalis sniffed the air subtly. Sweetie Belle's smile seemed to get wider the closer they got the the entrance hall, and come to think of it, she could hear... she could hear music.
And Chrysalis walked into a full-on party, with changelings dancing, playing music, laughing-
Living.