//------------------------------// // Chapter 14 - The Broken Mother // Story: The Pony Dreadfuls // by No one is home //------------------------------// “Changelings do not have siblings, stupid pony.” The changeling queen laughed bitterly within her comfortably furnished cell. “My drones are not my children, they are my drones. I had a daughter once, a true proto-queen nymph. I hid her from Chrysalis among my worker drones when the leaders smuggled me from the hive. Iam Noone promised he could help me find her again, all I had to do was give him my drones and kill a stupid little mutated whore. I failed. But I have no sister, that’s not how changelings work, you stupid whorse.” “Are you familiar with two changeling drones named Day and Night Shift,” Picture perfect asked evenly. “Ah yes, the two incompetents who lost my daughter,” Madame Butterfly rolled her eyes. “I should have killed them the moment they arrived in Fillydelphia. Such horrid disappointments, the Shifts. At least Switch had the decency to die in the line of duty… though I’ve heard rumor that reports of her death may have been grossly exaggerated.” “Night Shift refered to Day as her sister, when I interviewed her. But you just told me changelings don’t have siblings.” Picture quickly changed tactics as she realized news of Day’s murder would probably mean nothing to the fallen queen. “So is she a liar too, because everypony knows you don’t have an ounce of truth in your shell… Whatserface.” “You lying BITCH!” The queen slammed herself bodily into the bars. “Don’t EVER call me that! And don’t presume to lie to me! If you had confronted the Widow Maker, you’d be getting sucked dry. She hates ponies! She hates you all! Night Shift is so twisted by hate even Franklin wouldn’t take her in with his freaks. And you expect me to believe she let you go?” “But you didn’t call her a liar.” Picture noted with a nod. “The Shifts are sisters, but you said changelings don’t have those kind of relationships.” “Oh you stupid little pony.” Butterfly laughed cruelly. “The shifts were conditioned as nymphs, they were programed to be sisters. I thought it would make them more loyal to my little Dragonfly. Loyalty is as useless as everything else ponies ever invented, it turns out.” “You were a small larvae, I’m told,” Picture said with a smile, “Not surprising when two grubs hatch from one egg.” “What are you talking about pony?” Butterfly’s eye’s narrowed dangerously “I had a long talk with Fast Change’s grub-nanny, she’s had that job for years… decades really.” Picture smiled menacingly. “She remember’s your hatching… and Swing Shift’s…” “MY DAUGHTER?!?!” You know where she is? You will tell me pony! You will tell me now!” Butterfly hissed in rage. “I want something from you first Madame Butterfly.” Picture leveled a cold gaze on the queen. “Why do you care about any of this, pony?” The queen paced in her cage like the predator she was. “Because somepony I care about is hurting. And they’re somepony you should care about. You have a twin.” Picture made one last attempt to convince Butterfly to do the right thing. “A grub hatched from the same egg who was smuggled out of the hive as a nymph. She was placed in the home of a pony couple to replace a stolen infant colt.” “I have heard of such things,” Butterfly confessed, “but why should this matter to me? If I had a twin, she escaped! I was raised to be a brood queen! A breeding machine for Chrysalis’ madness! Let the wretch suffer!” “Then you can rot in this cell and never know what happened to you daughter.” Picture bowed her head sadly. “Or you can tell me what I want to know. How could a guard so easily track down so many feral drones? The answer should have been obvious. They had help from the drone’s queen. You sold your own children into slavery. For what? You’re never going to see the outside of this cage. Why did you do it and who was the guard?” “How do I even know you know anything about my Dragonfly?” Butterfly shuffled uncomfortably. “How else would I know the name you gave her to make her fit in with the Shift sisters? She’s been in Canterlot since the invasion.” Picture turned to leave. “But if you don’t want to give me what I want…” “The guard’s name is Iron Hoof,” Butterfly scowled in reply, “He brought me my medicine. These stupid ponies don’t understand what I need! The cravings! I need it! I need it more than love! The stupid ponies want to make me not want it anymore. Iron hoof said he would help me if I told him what I knew about the escaped drones… things he could say that they would trust. We had code words to let each other know which ponies could be trusted. Now tell me what you know! Where is Dragonfly! I want to see her!” “You wouldn’t even recognize her, I can promise you that.” Picture smiled with cruel malice, all sympathy for the fallen changeling long lost. “Or maybe you would. She would certainly recognize you.” “What? What do you mean, pony? Tell me!” the queen glared murder at the pony on the outside of the cage. “Your daughter spent a long time cut off from other changelings, what love she could find was poisoned by her shame at what ponies made her do to obtain it. She was wracked with survivor's guilt. She was scarred by witnessing the death of the changeling she believed to be her sister. It changed her.” The yellow unicorn sighed heavily, unable to take pleasure in the news she was honor bound to deliver. “She was… mutated… for lack of a better word. Her most notable features are her pink carapace, and her smile.” “No! You’re lying!” The queen collapsed under the weight of the realization. “No! It can’t be true!” “You’re daughter is healthy and she is loved.” Picture slowly walked away. “She calls herself Diane. She lives with her adopted uncle, and her big sister. You can believe that’s just something you programmed but your daughter and the Shifts, they are family. Even Night Shift, she loved her sister. Day shift died a hero trying to free her fellow changelings. All the family you ever had you threw away, traded away, or tried to kill. I pity you Madame Butterfly, even Chrysalis valued love enough to try to steal it.” It would be hours before the fallen queen’s screams were finally silenced by exhaustion.