Chrysalis entered her chamber after cautiously ensuring that her temporary allies did not follow her. She excused herself from the discussion of their plans to usurp the lands of Equestria without addressing a reason. As if they have the right to know the constant whereabouts of a queen. Besides, Grogar’s bell was left with them; she saw no reason for them to be concerned for deceit. For now, at least.
Chrysalis’s chamber was hollow of decorations and belongings. It felt somewhat nostalgic for her old bedroom when she was young. All they stood before her was a small purple log that laid atop a large slanted rock that she has been using as a desk. Chrysalis furrowed at the ignorant log and flicked it across the room as she said, “I’m not here for you fool.”
Behind the slanted rock, there was a small hole that widened when she pulled the rock aside. Beneath where the rock once stood lied a deep hole that minimized further inside; a precaution that Chrysalis to prevent the slanted rock from falling in far enough to harm what she hid inside.
A green glow emitted from the hole. Chrysalis grinned and used her magic to lift out an egg from out the hole. A common changeling egg would have olive pigments with stripes of darker tones of green; however, this particular one that Chrysalis caressed in her hooves was pitch-black with green stripes that radiated. Through those stripes, Chrysalis can grasp a glimpse of the larva that made subtle shuffles.
“How is my princess?” Chrysalis cooed as the green lines of the egg shone brighter. Chrysalis could feel her body getting heavy a slight as the egg hungrily sapped her of the accumulated love she collected. “You starved again, haven’t you?”
Seeing her precious youngling so desperate for nutrients made her feel bitter about the predicament she has placed her child in. There was a moment where she had liberated all of her obstacles in conquering Equestria and it seemed that the changeling race was guaranteed to thrive for centuries to come.
The moment was perfect for Chrysalis to lay a special egg that she held for years and finally welcome it to the world where it would live a life of luxury.
But reality played a cruel trick on its mother and stripped her of everything she had earned, leaving only the two to fend for themselves. Chrysalis’s egg was welcomed to a harsh environment where Chrysalis had to be anxious about everything to ensure its safety.
The countless months of relocating home due to nearing predators and fending them off have taxed the former queen’s mind and have festered her hatred of the ponies that have humiliated her to this state. Particularly of a mare that deprived her of her entire Hive. Burdened by her anxieties and paranoia, her troubled state of mind swayed her to seek companionship from a purple log that made snide comments of her quite some months ago. But no more.
“It won’t be long now my youngling,” Chrysalis whispered to the egg. “In the coming moments, I shall regain my rightful place as queen of not only the Hive but of the entire lands of Equestria. When you finally emerge from your egg, you will be welcomed to a home befitting of a princess. However, there are other steps that need to be taken.”
Chrysalis’s horn illuminated and released a black light that streamed into the egg. Chrysalis could feel the egg rumble, but she persisted, confident that her youngling could handle the power given to it. After half a minute, she finally stopped as the green lines of the egg flickered wildly and then remained lit brighter than before.
“I knew you could handle it,” Chrysalis breathed raggedly. “With Grogar’s magic as sustenance to your growth, I’m certain that you will surpass the power of all who stands in our way. Including our two aides.”
“Chrysalis!” Chrysalis’s ears perked at Cozy’s voice. She tried to put her daughter back in its hiding place, but she lacked enough time when Cozy Glow entered her room merely seconds later. “How long are you going to keep us waiting!? We have the conquering of Equestria to do, remember!?”
Cozy paused at the sight of the egg that Chrysalis was midway from laying back in its burrow. “Did you lay an egg?” Cozy approached Chrysalis to get closer to the egg, but Chrysalis warned Cozy with a hiss.
“If you value your life, then I suggest stepping away from me.”
“Will you relax,” Cozy rolled her eyes. “I just want to look at it.”
“Then you have seen enough. Now leave.”
“You know what I meant,” Cozy appeared annoyed. “Come on Chrissy, I promise I won’t hurt it.” Cozy continued towards Chrysalis’s proximity as she held the egg defensively from Cozy. After sharing a large pool of Grogar’s magic with her child, it’s likely that she no longer bore the power to match with Cozy. Sparking a fight now may risk her demise, especially for her daughter while in the crossfire…
“If I let you touch my child,” Chrysalis started. “Do you promise to leave us alone?”
“Golly,” Cozy voiced. “I can’t believe how defensive you are of little old me. Is this how mommy Chrissy is like around her kids?”
“Do you swear to leave us alone if you get to touch my egg?” Chrysalis asked again.
“Yes, yes,” Cozy flapped her hoof. “I, Cozy Glow, do doubly swear I shall not harm your egg.”
“…”
“I swear it! Now, will you let me see the egg already!?”
It took Chrysalis a moment to hesitantly open her hooves for Cozy to see the egg clearly. Cozy looked at it in awe and commented, “Wow, it’s kind of looks menacing.”
“It’s beautiful,” Chrysalis retorted. “I wouldn’t expect a child to understand.”
“Guess it’s a matter of perspective then,” Cozy concluded as she felt her hoof upon the egg. At contact, the egg brightened and Cozy yelped as she felt it pulling her. “What’s it doing? I don’t feel right.”
Cozy tried to pull her hoof away from the egg, but there was an unknown force that kept her stuck to the egg. She had to borrow a semblance of Grogar’s magic to gain enough strength to separate herself from the egg. When she finally released herself from the egg’s grasp, she fell on her back. Cozy rasped for air before glared at Chrysalis.
“What did it just do to me,” Cozy demanded an answer.
“It would seem that my daughter took a liking to your love,” Chrysalis grinned. “I guess a thank you is in order for your contribution.”
“I don’t recall agreeing to contribute anything!” Cozy stood up but faltered a bit before regaining her balance. “Ugh, I feel heavy. How much did that thing take out of me?”
“If you’re done moping, there’s a kingdom that we need to conquer.”
“Now hold on a minute!” Cozy held up a hoof. “I think I should be compensated for what that egg took from me.”
“Compensation? What do you think I could possibly give to you? And what makes you think I would be willing?”
“I can tell that egg there is something pretty special. And since I gave my fair share of contribution, I think it’s only right that I should be its godmother, don’t ya think?”
“You, a Godmother?” Chrysalis chuckled. “Hah, you wouldn’t have what it takes to raise much less a baby pony.”
“Hey, don’t cut me short. I’m known to surprise others.”
“Fine,” Chrysalis grumbled, not wanting to stir any fight while her youngling was still in her hooves. “Just go away before the other one shows up.”
“I’m glad we had this talk,” Cozy smiled as she flew out of the room. “I feel that we’ve become much better friends, don’t you agree?”
Chrysalis rolled her eyes at Cozy’s ridiculous comment and waited for the filly to leave the room. Once the filly was finally out of her sights, she laid the egg back in the hole. The egg began to flicker when it was no longer surrounded by its mother’s hooves.
“It’s okay,” Chrysalis whispered to the egg. “I won’t leave you alone for too long this time. I promise you will get everything you deserve my youngling.”
Chrysalis carefully slid the rock over the hole to ensure it doesn’t slant inside the hole. She takes one last look at her child before she conceals it under the rock again.
She takes a heavy sigh before exiting the room. She needs to focus on the matter at hoof. Her vengeance. Her birthright. Her conquest. All were now within her reach and she will attain all of it before she returns to her youngling.
It’s quiet. It’s always quiet in this darkness. Nothing for her to feel, nothing for her to hear within the pitch blackness.
She waited impatiently for that familiar warmth to return to her. She felt so hungry that she started shaking about to get out to go find it herself. But the invisible barrier that surrounded her kept her in place and so she continued listening to nothing. Until she heard a voice.
“Honestly,” she heard a voice. “I don’t see the whole point of this endeavor. We’ve already had our epic victory and our awe-inspiring finale. Why not throw an after-party rather than have me escort you to this dump?”
“The point,” she heard another voice. “Discord is for precaution of any dangerous artifacts they might have left. As the new Princess of Equestria, I need to do my best to prevent any danger from occurring before they escalate to something worse. And to do so, I need to be proactive in the possibilities that might occur.”
“Well aren’t you dedicated,” said Discord. “But going on with that mentality might make a pony paranoid. For you, I would give at least a week. It would be more fun if it were a day, but there’s nothing I can do against character development.”
“I know that I can’t stop everything from harming Equestria,” the other voice retorted. “But I should at least be able to stop any creature from obtaining whatever else those three found.”
“Well excuse my doubt, dear Princess of Equestria,” Discord said. “But if they had possibly—which I think is zilch—found another powerful usurping artifact, I’d imagine they would have used it already.”
“Are you going to keep complaining or are you going to help?”
“Ooh, I didn’t know complaining was an option. Well then, let me start off with my issue of—”
“Discord!”
“Fine, fine. But it’s your loss. No ruler can say that they had the god of chaos as their first guest of public counseling. But fine, see if I care.”
She heard them move across the room, resounding sounds that she was happy to finally hear. She tried to wiggle her way out of her confines to approach the voices, but this barrier was determined to restrict her movements.
During her struggle, she felt the presence of one of the voices. It felt only feet above her; the love she sensed put her in a hungry frenzy as her body glowed. A stream of purple aura entered through the bright lines of her confinement as it entered her, finally satiating the hunger that she had endured for weeks. She sapped for as much as she could until it came to an immediate stop.
“What?” the other voice spoke. “Why do I feel so tired? Was that you?”
“If I had done something,” Discord said. “I assure you; you would know. Now, are we done here? Cause there’s obviously nothing here as I already presumed.”
“…Let’s check the other rooms first.”
“Of course, you’d say that,” Discord sighed.
She can hear their steps fading after having a brief moment of bliss from her hunger. She shook wildly for their attention and her container illuminated as bright as it could. But then the steps disappeared, and it was quiet again. It was all quiet and dark again.
“Strange,” a hooded mare commented from within a bush. Her eyes furrowed as she witnessed the newly crowned Princess of Equestria, and the Lord of Chaos emerge from a creepy looking cave.
The mare was on her daily forage to spruce new products from interesting herbs she could find from this forest. Most of them turned out to be poisonous, making this search yet another letdown. And at the moment she would call it quits, she found two famous figures lurking in this forest.
Her curiosity was far too piqued to ignore them. She had to know why they were in that cave. So, when she was certain they were no longer within sight, she entered the cave to explore its depths. She checked through the halls and chambers for any clue of what took place here.
Her search led her to a small hollow chamber that held nothing but a slanted rock and a weird purple log that looked to have been tossed aside. “Now what’s this?” The mare picked up the small log and observed its features. No matter how she looked at it, it was a plain broken log. A weirdly shaped and colored one, but still plain one, nonetheless. “This day has been an utter waste of time!” She complained.
She concluded that there was nothing of value here and decided to return home for the day and try again tomorrow. However, her journey out of the chamber halted when she heard a muffled snarl. It was a weak sound, but very noticeable in this quiet cave. The mare traced the constant snarl to the slanted rock but saw nothing. Although, when she looked around, she noticed a green light emanating from a small hole.
The mare used her magic to shift the rock aside and realized that there was a deep hole beneath it. And within that hole lied a creature she has never quite seen in her life.
A large caterpillar-like creature wrapped in a white coating gazed at her. It flailed in a frenzy to get out of the hole, but there was nothing for it to latch onto to move its body. It hissed and cried loudly at the mare, but the hooded mare looked at a daze from this creature. However, her senses snapped when she noticed the mane of this creature started to glow bright green, forcing the mare to mask her eyes.
When the light subsided, the mare glanced at the creature that continued its attempt to climb out of the hole. “What are you?” she asked. Noting the cracked egg beneath the creature, she can guess that it was a newborn. “You’re definitely a rare sight. I might be able to find some use for you.”
The mare was careful to pick up the flailing baby, worried that it may use its small fangs on her. However, as soon as she touched it, the baby began to calm itself and the mare used that moment to pick it up from the hole.
The mare held the baby to her pectoral, careful to near its head to her own where it could possibly leap and bite her face off. She began to feel strangely heavy the longer she held the creature, but there was no way she was going to abandon a possible gold mine like this.
“You’re going to be a valuable asset to me,” the mare said.