Epilogue: A New Queen Rises/ Nightmares and Shadows Evermore
Far away over hills and valleys on the very edge of Equestria the changelings were all gathered around an unwilling host and they were going to watch and celebrate one of their own very special traditions. Thorax struggled against his chains but knew that there was no escape now, how he got captured he didn't know, but seeing the face of every changeling around him he knew that this was not a good thing, and he remembered their traditions and celebrations and knew what was coming next, but knew that he could not escape, the only thing he could do was to plead for mercy, and he did so, but his please went unheard by the hive, and a changeling designated as a ‘priest’ stepped forward with a very large sack that Thorax already knew what was contained within it.
“No! PLEASE! NOT THIS! Anything but this!” he cried out more in vain.
A changeling shoved a cloth up his mouth to shut him up as the priest began to speak the speech that few changelings had ever heard of before this moment.
“Changelings, children of Chrysalis, we are gathered here today to witness the age of a new era, long we have been commanded by Chrysalis, but she is in prison now and she cannot escape, even we cannot free her with all the forces we have right now. But mark my words, one day our queen will be free, but in the meantime, we must honor and respect her wishes to do this, but here before you now as you can see is the one and only true traitor to our kind, the king known as Thorax!” the priest shouted out very loudly as very changeling hissed at the name of Thorax, but the priest raised his hooves and the roar died down.
“Yes, I know, we all hate him, but today he dies and soon all the traitors will follow after him and take his place!” the priest said as the changelings cheered and he smiled and calmed them down again. “The Queen wanted to make this ceremony extra special which is why she choose him as the new host for our next queen, changelings, witness the live action process for our new queen, who will live and who will die? Only they can decide that,”
He smiled and gestured to the sack and pulled out the eggs, there were hundreds of them, thousands maybe even, but all they needed was just one inside Thorax, the priest took the gag out of his mouth and covered his nose and forced Thorax to swallow the eggs (since they were too hard to even try to chew on).
He gulped nervously and soon enough he screamed out loudly in pain, this was so much worse than anything the queen had given him before, he squirmed around and it was only due to the chains that he remained unmoved.
Inside his belly he could feel his organs split and burst apart and his bones slowly start to crack and break away as he could feel the thing rising up out of him, he groaned and moaned, but he could not stop the monster now.
A few more bones and organs split and he was finding it very hard to breathe, but then he saw a lump on his stomach as the thing slowly started to push its way forward up out him as he groaned and moaned some more still screaming as it popped out of him rupturing his skin gushing blood out of his sides onto the dirt and dark black rock below and on the marble table he was now on.
The female baby thing hissed and screamed and he could already see it take form, changeling births were very fast, but the queens took some time as Thorax estimated that the entire process up until now took about five minutes or so whereas usual births were less than a minute or so. The thing turned to him and screamed and lunged at his neck tearing off the meat as he fainted and passed out as his heart slowly stopped beating and then he died as the changeling swarm cheered, but the birthing process was still not yet done.
The baby changeling ripped the flesh out of his neck and greedily ate it up as its body slowly started to get covered in blood, but baby queens had the unusual ability to suck up every single last part of the host and so the blood slowly started to get drawn inside and sucked up by the baby as its form slowly started to grow larger and larger as it ate more. Next it went for the lungs and then his legs, back first and then the front, then it tore apart his stomach and the rest of his insides eating up his face devouring the eyes and slowly eating his brain, and many long minutes later it finally finished eating the last scraps of meat off the bones of Thorax, and where there had once stood a bloody shapeless blob there now was a full grown female with green eyes and deadly curved fangs and a long black horn, she had skeletal crystal wings and her body was riddled with holes, and she looked almost like her mother, except something seemed off and different, but the changeling swarm did not know what. She panted and sighed and lifted out her head towards the crowd slowly unfolding her wings out fully getting used to her new body and form as she did not try to hide any part of her as her mouth was still wide open, and then ever so slowly she opened her eyes.
And once she did the entire swam cheered and shouted with joy.
The child tilted her head confused since she didn't know what was happening yet since she still had the mind of a child even if she did have the body of a fully-grown mare. But all around her these strange and mysterious creatures were cheering and shouting with glee and joy so she supposed it had to be a good thing, and so she decided to give her best with a smile that came off as evil.
But the one who smiled most was the priest, he did not join in with the shouting of the other because he knew he had to keep his honor and dignity and position too, but he also knew this, changelings were born evil, there was no recorded case of a reformed changeling having children, they were born monsters and they should remain that way, and any changeling that disagreed was a traitor, and that was one of the real reasons why Thorax was a traitor to their kind.
The others were very obvious and didn't need to be stated.
Every changeling smiled and cheered and went on with their celebrations through the whole entire night as they shouted out one thing.
“Long live the queen, long live the queen, long live the queen, long live the queen!”
Meanwhile…
Celestia sighed to herself as she went to lay down in her bed staring at herself in the mirror from across the room smiling at the legend she had made up for it, the real truth was something else, it was still tragic, but not quite so much as the tale would suggest. She sighed again and wished that the truth could come out, but it couldn't, and she knew the real reasons why, but she always tried to lie to herself, but maybe some sleep would ease her of the pain and guilt.
“Celestia, before you go to sleep do you want to talk to me?”
Celestia blinked in shock and surprise not expecting her guest, she knew this voice all too well, but right now she just wanted her to go away.
“Go away please, I don't need your lies or your help,” she said.
“Oh, but you do, honestly I was surprised that you didn't ascend today.”
“I wasn't ready yet, maybe another day, but go away, you’re just a shadow, an illusion. I don't need you or your help and all you speak is lies.”
“How rude, I bet you would never speak that way to a noble.”
“You are no noble and you are not a welcome guest either, go away, I do not wish you to be here right now and I wish to be left alone,” she said.
“But you do need me, if you didn't I wouldn't be here.
“What do you want?” she asked tired of her guest.
“I want you to accept me and my power, accept the deal and take in the offer, free yourself of your guilt, just blame it on me if you must, after all, what happened to your sister wasn't our fault, she claims it was hers, but I say blame it on me, but if you want to be free from your guilt I can help you, I can free you, I can punish you if you want, I can be whatever you want me to be Celestia.”
“I don't trust you, go away and take your lies with you, go rot away in Tartarus where you belong, go away Nightmare, just go away,” she said.
Nightmare smiled, “As you wish, but I still do love these talks with you, and to think I have been with you for many long months now and you still won't break yet, see you again soon, sweet dreams and stay safe for me, will you?”
Celestia sighed as the Nightmare vanished and went away and she closed her eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep unsure of what the future held for her or anypony else, she just hoped that she would be strong enough to endure it.