Monarchy
It was safe to say that negotiations had broken down.
Her advisers had scattered, fearing for their own safety over that of the group. So there she sat, alone and frightened in a burnt out shell that used to be a house, enemies lurking outside for all she knew. She had managed to crack one of the lenses in her only pair of spectacles and somewhere out there, a changeling was probably sporting a stylish collar and tie. Her coat was dishevelled and the roots of her mane were beginning to fade, revealing the much more vibrant colour hidden below.
She tried and failed to calm her breathing, knowing full well that if she kept it up, the enemy would have no problem hearing her frantically gasping for breath. Her mind kept going back to the negotiations however, the image of Queen Chrysalis emerging from the system of caves that the changelings had been forced to find shelter in after their failed attempt to take Canterlot. There was a hatred in her eyes, it was clear that she wasn't about to trust ponykind, even if they were extending the hoof of friendship. It was a tense meeting, out in the dry heat of the southern badlands, the irritation was written on every face that had gathered but she had forced her way through it, trying every negotiation tactic her many years in politics had taught her.
All of that was shattered when one changeling took offence to a look one of the ponies was giving him. An argument broke out, fighting soon afterwards. The Queen declared that the ponies had been sent to assassinate her, so they ran. They ran so far and so hard that even now she felt unsteady on her hooves. She had no idea what had happened to her advisers, they could be captured right now, they could even be dead if the changelings were willing to go that far.
The Queen wouldn't risk provoking the wrath of Canterlot so soon after her failure. If she was smart anyway. So she was sure that her fellow ponies were, at the very least, alive.
She calmed down a little after that, so she risked taking a quick glance out of the smashed window above her.
The scene that met her made her wish she'd never stopped running.
Queen Chrysalis was less than twenty metres away, somehow she had managed to stay so silent out in the middle of the desert that she had been able to sneak that closely to the house. Unbeknownst to her however, a pack of vicious looking timber wolves had beaten her at her own game, stalking up on the towering, insect-like monarch. The Mayor of Ponyville almost felt like calling out, trying to warn the changeling that she was being ambushed, with the hope that it would earn her enough points with the Queen that she could escape some sort of torture. Her mouth was dry, her throat nigh on unable to make a sound due to thirst and all that escaped was a small cough.
The sight of tough wooden fangs sinking into the changeling's neck however, that caused her to scream. The sound put the timber wolves on edge, enough that the small pack had backed off, looking for intruders. This gave time for the Queen to stifle the flow of sticky acidic green blood pouring down her neck. For a second, her horn glowed a wicked green, but it sputtered out just as quickly, the pain in her neck breaking the focus needed to cast magic.
The timber wolves rallied themselves, their prey was weak and the noise had revealed nothing, so they pressed the attack once more. Chrysalis tried to back away, but she stumbled and fell to her knees, the most she could do was back herself up against a rock and hope that she could build enough power to cast a spell. As the timber wolves closed in, the Mayor began to feel her hooves again, her body was no longer numb with aching, but instead it felt oddly light, as if she could run home without any problems. The thing chasing her was down for the count, the timber wolves would be preoccupied and she'd be safe, so why couldn't she turn herself and leave? Every time her thoughts turned to fleeing, she froze up, but when she saw a large piece of debris on the floor nearby, a crazy idea hit her. In her adrenaline fuelled state it didn't even seem that insane.
She grabbed the piece of debris and in the loudest voice possible, considering she had a large piece of wood in her mouth, screamed a war cry whilst charging straight for the timber wolves. Shocked, the group of scavengers scattered and fled into the distance, leaving a very tired and very scared earth pony alone with a very dirty and very angry changeling queen.
“A-Are you... okay?” The Mayor asked tentatively.
A cold glare was her only reply for a long time.
“I could get you some medical attention for that nasty wound... if that's alright with you.”
Chrysalis was still holding a spindly foreleg over her neck, it was oozing bright green blood and her face had gone unusually pale. After a few seconds of painful looking wincing, the changeling screamed in agony. “Give me your shoulder, worm.”
The Mayor wasted no time walking over and dropping her shoulder, the fact that there seemed to be a begrudging respect in the queen's voice had calmed her down considerably. “Judging by how far north I ran, we shouldn't be too far away from Appleloosa. We can find you a doctor there.”
“I don't need one of your pony doctors. I'll be fine in a few hours once the wound heals up.” Even slumped on the shoulder of the Mayor, Chrysalis was frighteningly tall, her spindly, perforated legs were almost as tall as the earth pony was. The Mayor had to crane her neck to see the pained expression on the changeling's face. Despite knowing what she had done, the Mayor couldn't help but feel sorry for her.
“You should at least get some shelter. I was hiding in that burned down house over there when, um...” she coughed nervously, “...when you were looking for me.” She walked slowly, guiding the changeling along with her. “I can't help but feel this is my fault.”
“You're just a pawn in that pathetic pony princess' pocket. Don't think I didn't know what your plans were, I knew you'd come for me sooner or later, I just didn't think you would attempt it under the guise of negotiations.”
The Mayor winced visibly, she should have expected this kind of attitude. “You have it all wrong, the Princess just wanted to make sure you knew that there were no hard feelings.”
“Hard feelings!?” Chrysalis spat at the Mayor's hooves, flecks of green getting onto the earth pony. “You call this rotten piece of wasteland a show of good faith? My children cannot survive here.” The anger seemed to drain out of her eyes, she looked defeated. It was pitiful really. Something about her look rubbed the Mayor the wrong way.
“I thought you were supposed to be a leader.” Through the cracked lens of her half-moon spectacles, the Mayor's vivid blue eyes were shining fiercely. “You tried your little piece of subterfuge, you tried your coup-d'etat and you failed. If it were me, I would have left you alone out here, I would have hoped you wouldn't survive, but the Princess? She's a little more compassionate than I am, she offered the hoof of friendship and you let your pride get in the way of the ticket to your entire species' redemption? What kind of leader does that?”
The changeling queen was slumped against one of the few surviving wooden support beams, the tan earth pony looming over her. In this state of helplessness, her magic power faded, body temporarily shut down to heal, a lowly earth pony dared to take the chance to lecture her. When she put on her best look of indignation and went to reply however, she found that the words weren't coming, the pony had made a good point. Chrysalis took a deep breath, seemingly deflating against the support beam.
“Just... just get better quickly. I don't want to die out here on your account.”
There was a long silence. A brisk wind from the west rustled up the sand around their shelter and the blackened trees, long dead from lack of water, seemed to sway back and forth ominously.
“There is something you can do to help.”
The Mayor turned to see Chrysalis looking in the opposite direction, the ugly wound was facing right at her. “Are you aware of changeling behaviour?”
“Only from what I was told after your invasion.”
Chrysalis smiled, her fangs bared. “We change our bodies into the form of another being, take their place and feed off of the love we are given. It's how we gain power, the love we feed upon is turned into a kind of energy in our bodies that we use for all sorts of things. We can still take in regular food to gain energy like you would, but the energy we gain from love is several times more potent.”
The Mayor raised an eyebrow. “Your point is?”
“My point is, I'm running very low on energy right now. I'm using what little I have for healing, but it's slow going. If I had more energy, I would be able to heal faster.” Chrysalis stared at the earth pony with a hungry glint in her eye. It didn't entirely go unnoticed.
“You want my love?” The Mayor took a step back, grimacing. “You honestly think I could? I'm not exactly fond of you right now.”
“I don't always have to be Chrysalis, changeling queen.” She climbed slowly to her hooves, reaching her full height. The wound on her neck oozed a fresh wave of green blood. “Let me look at you.” Her eyes flashed a dull green for a brief second and she smiled again, baring her fangs once more. “I think I have energy enough for this.”
With a burst of bright green light, the towering form of the changeling queen disappeared and the smaller, less imposing form of someone very familiar appeared in its place. The black and white stripes, the golden jewellery, there was no mistaking it. Zecora dropped to one knee, a pained expression on her usually calm face. “Please, can you help me with this? Perhaps with a healing poultice?”
The Mayor froze, she had heard of the changeling's abilities, but seeing it first hand was awe inspiring. Chrysalis had captured her perfectly, her accent, her speech patterns, everything.
“No? Just so.” With a wicked grin, Zecora disappeared in another flash of bright green light. The Mayor expected Chrysalis to reappear, but she wasn't ready for what came next.
She rolled over onto her back, her dusty blonde mane looking right at home on the sand. “Aw shoot, the farm aint made much money this month, Miss Mayor. Perhaps ah can pay you back in another way.” She flicked her tail back and forth, kicking up a small cloud of dust. Despite herself, the Mayor couldn't help but follow the red ribbon darting across the sand.
“A-Applejack, how... how did you know?” A furious blush ran across her cheeks.
“It aint no thing, ma'am.” Applejack got to her hooves, the sand stuck in her orange coat. She prowled around the Mayor, who had seemingly lost all feeling in her hooves. She would brush herself up against the tan pony every few seconds and swish her tail so it caressed her sides. “Seems ah injured myself apple buckin', dunno if it'll stop me from workin' or not. Maybe if somepony could lick it clean, make sure it don't get infected.”
“Chrysalis, please...” The Mayor was sweating and it had nothing to do with the heat.
“Ah think... ah think ah'm gettin' dizzy. 'Haps ah should lay down a while.” Applejack lay facing away from the tan earth pony, the apples on her flank gleaming as if they were the fruits themselves. She turned to look over her shoulder, one dazzling emerald eye beckoning her over.
“I-I really wouldn't want you to get an infection. Not after already saving you from those wolves.” She took a tentative step forwards and Applejack smiled. She knew that she should stop right now, that she was playing right into the changeling queen's hooves, but it wasn't Chrysalis smiling, it was Applejack. She sat by the orange earth pony's side, watching as she flicked her braid away from the wound.
“Be gentle, it's still a l'il tender.”
As the Mayor carefully licked up the first spot of red on the orange of Applejack's coat, she could feel the farmer moving. She kept at it, cleaning the bite marks to the best of her ability, when finally, she heard a soft moan come from her patient. It was a weird, almost too girly sound to come from Applejack, but it was written all over her face, she was enjoying this. Strangely enough, the Mayor found herself enjoying it as well. Before long, the wounds had disappeared entirely.
Applejack turned around, a sultry smile on her lips. “Thank ya kindly, Miss Mayor.”
She could taste the not so unpleasant metallic tang of the blood on her tongue, but there was another taste along with it. It was earthy with hints of sweat, kinda gross, but it reminded her a lot of Applejack- the real one that is.
“There, you're all better. You can go home now, can't you?” The Mayor sat as far away from the changeling as she could whilst still staying inside the broken down old house. She saw a flash of green out of the corner of her eye.
“Oh, if it were only that simple.” Her regal, arrogant voice had returned and sure enough, a much stronger looking Queen Chrysalis was stood before her. “You see, I owe you my life.” She flitted her papery wings impatiently.
“That's nice of you to say.”
Chrysalis stayed silent, not something the Mayor expected in this situation. The earth pony looked over at the changeling to see a scowl on her face. “I don't intend to just 'say' it. As pitiful as it sounds, my life is yours, changeling custom demands it.”
There was a very pregnant pause after this, as if a full eleven months had indeed passed without a single word being spoken aloud.
“I'm sorry... What?”
“I suppose I should explain.” Chrysalis let out a heavy sigh, like this was a very obvious notion to grasp. “Changeling society is rather different from what you would see as normal. As you've no doubt noticed, a changeling's outwards appearance is near indistinguishable to an outsider like yourself. You might notice some slight discolouration, or maybe a variation in horn length, but aside from that, I highly doubt you could positively identify the same Changeling twice in a row if we mixed them around. You ponies are all so colourful it's made your species blind to subtlety.”
The Mayor cast her mind back to the negotiations. Chrysalis' changeling guards all looked identical, so she had a point. Although the 'blind to subtlety' remark was perhaps a little unnecessary.
“Aside from various tells, like smell and even taste, even we have trouble differentiating some changelings from others. Besides, we spend so much time spread apart feeding, that most changelings don't spend any more time with their parents than is necessary. Emotional attachments to other changelings are very rare so we tend to go where the love is, to other species.”
“Sounds like a pretty lonely existence.”
“As a species, we don't crave as much social contact as ponies do. So what you would see as lonely, I would see as normal. It's a culture thing, you won't really be able to wrap your head around it.”
The Mayor felt a strange urge to give the changeling a hug. There seemed to be a great sadness in her eyes- the loneliness of an entire species.
“There is a great lack of community spirit in changelings, due to our secluded, nomadic nature. We are so focused on the acquisition of love energy that we form an almost fanatical devotion to the concept of love itself. Therein lies the answer to your question. To a changeling, perhaps the greatest expression of love is laying down one's life to protect another for no reward. I am honour bound to serve you, in honour of the love you’ve shown me.”
“But what I did wasn't anything special.”
“Yet I would have surely died had you not intervened. I was low on energy, I was bleeding and even if the timber wolves had left without touching me further, I still would have bled out long before anyone would have come across me. You had no reason to save me, you even said yourself you wouldn't have bothered to send anyone out here to attempt negotiations if you were in the Princess' shoes, you would have left us to fend for ourselves. Yet when it came down to it, you risked drawing the timber wolves' attack onto yourself in order to stop them from killing me. Perhaps you were lucky that these timber wolves seemed to be a particularly craven bunch, but you saved me nonetheless.” Chrysalis chuckled absent-mindedly.
It seemed the situation was amusing to her, which was drastically different compared to how she was acting earlier. “You almost sound grateful. I thought you hated ponies.”
“Don't get me wrong, I'm not overly fond of your kind. At first I hated the very idea that a pony had been the one to save my life, but after speaking with you and seeing how you act, how you carry yourself, I suppose I can deal with it. You have a commanding aura, you know when to act brave, you know when to criticise and most of all you're loving. I think any pony would be lucky to be a part of your constituency.”
The Mayor smiled, perhaps for the first time that day. “That's nice of you to say.”
“It's the least I owe you.” Chrysalis chuckled and offered a hoof to the earth pony. “Just because I respect you, it doesn't mean I have to like you. I assume you have a home and it has to be better than this dry heat, so I suggest we go there. Miss Mayor?”
“Oh, I'm sorry, I think I'm still just processing all of this.” She grabbed the changeling's hoof and was pulled onto all fours.
“Process on the way, you said there was a town north of here, didn't you? Let's start there.”