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// Then Now 
// Story: Lost 
// by Mocha Star 
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Chrysalis lifted a foreleg and slapped me so hard I thought my shell was being torn from my body. It hurt more than any creature can put into words or thought. Then I landed on soft earth, green grass cushioned me and just when I started to think, the colt landed on me and officially cracked my carapace. I needed time to heal, love, and water to make patching glue, but I couldn't smell anyling nearby.

I looked around the dark area, then hissed when a light as bright as my Empresses magic was being cast lay itself upon me. Whoever this was wasn't going to get me without a fight... then I saw it. The sun from the memories. The sky turned bright blue and there wasn't anything I could do or say to give it justice for how amazing it really was.  

I don't know where I am, or what's going to happen, but I have to take care of a colt that needs pony food and time to use this orb thing, I think to myself while holding the orb that held swirling colors inside of it. “How do I even use this thing?” I ask as I put it in my carrying sac and move to the colt.

He's got a horn and wings, so whoever sees him will take him as royalty. Maybe I can use that angle to get anything I need. A flash of Twilight, Celestia, and Luna frowning at me stopped that thought. A tiny pink pony's voice whispered an idea in my ear and I liked it, so I stood and changed into a unicorn mare with a broken leg, two broken ribs, and minor internal bleeding; seeing as that was what I was in my natural form.

It hurt to pick the colt up, and I screamed when I put him on my back, but I moved in the direction the small blue pony led me. I trusted her so she wouldn't steer me wrong. Oh, how I wished I'd just appeared in the royal palace and could explain all this to whoever was there. But no, I'm not so lucky. I don't know where I am, but it feels like it's before the first hiveworld came to be.  

“Time travel? Is there nothing She can't do? May the Hive cover all worlds as it did the first, under our Great Empress, may Chrysalis live forever and conquer the stars.”

I stop my hobbling walk and spit on the grass. There was blood in my spit, but that wasn't what I was upset about. I had no reason to praise Her now, how would she ever know I didn't praise her when she's in the future.