//------------------------------//
// Ch. 2: Time Heals Wounds... 
// Story: Inherited Crown, Obligatory Trauma 
// by TundraStanza 
//------------------------------//

---(Chrysalis P.O.V.)

"What are you doing?"

I was looking at a mirror.  The reflection of my face was not happy.  It scowled and its eyes were narrow while staring at me.  I should have been surprised when its face emerged and it walked out.  But I couldn't bring myself to feel anything.  I was drained.

"You had them right where you wanted them!  Why didn't you strike?!"

I blinked. "There were too many.  Without the love reserves, I would get struck down as soon as I attacked one of them."

"You're not a coward! You're a queen! Act like it!"

I glanced up at the crown still on the reflection's head. "I resigned from my position. That authority is dead."

"Minor setback!" It slapped me in the face. "Get back out there and bide your time for revenge!"

I lightly rubbed my cheek. "Now you're talking in circles. Am I supposed to attack now when I'm weak or attack later when I have even less magic to work with?"

"Don't change the subject!"

"You're changing it right now." I deadpanned.

It channeled magic into its horn. "If you're not going to do anything, then I will!" As soon as its spell was unleashed, it fizzled out. "What? What's going on?"

I shook my head and placed my hoof against its chest. "I, Queen Chrysalis, have been defeated. It's time for me to accept the consequences that entails."

The reflection shattered.  The pieces turned green and flew past me on a nonexistent wind.  I breathed in deeply and exhaled.  My head hung down as my eyes closed.

---

When I opened them again, I was on a bed of moss.  My head was pounding.  I reached up a hoof and felt some cloth gauze.  So, someone had decided to bandage me and keep me alive.  I miscalculated how far they would go.  I turned my head to the side.

There was a gasp.  A bucket of water fell to the floor and spilled its contents.  A young female changeling took a couple steps back.  I tried to recall which one that was.  The color of her shell and tail was throwing me off, but her shaking eyes couldn't be anyone else.  She was my contingency.  At least, she was before I "woke up" on that plateau.

In my fatigue, all I could do was whisper, "Ocellus?"

She turned around and ran for an opening. "She's awake! Chrysalis is awake!"

I tried to reach a hoof in her direction, but she had already left the room.  I quietly groaned as I rolled to the opposite side.  I was alone, which left me with only my thoughts for company.  If my hive had gone to all his trouble just to keep me from going under, then I had an idea of what would happen next.

First, they'd bring in one of the equivalents of a doctor to make sure I was physically stable.  Then, they'd make me stand trial for my transgressions.  This was what I speculated, based on what the human world did for criminals that were injured before arrest. ... That world wasn't mine anymore.  Chrysalis's memories were too ingrained in me for me to be anyone else.  Perhaps it wasn't right to draw comparisons to my past life, but the ones I had of Equestria were skewed by years of my hatred and pride.

At the sound of multiple footsteps echoing, I tried to sit up.  My front legs ached, my wings were slow to respond, and my tail felt numb.  I gritted my teeth and hissed instinctively.  I sighed and looked at the room's opening.  I was surprised it didn't alter size since I last looked.  Then again, my magic throne was gone.  Maybe that was why all of the surrounding rock looked more stable.

I saw Ocellus stick her head around one side.  A green changeling, wearing a pair of glasses, trotted into the room without hesitation.  This was Laneiya, one of the nursing changelings.  The jewel-like protrusions in her neck couldn't fool anyone.  She was right next to the bed before she stopped walking.  She pulled out a clipboard and looked it over.

"How long was I asleep?" I managed to mutter.

"Six and a half days." Laneiya responded without losing her place on the paper. "Severe exo-skull injury, self-inflicted. Major bleeding.  Unconscious for one hundred thirty-six hours. Concussion: likely. Atrophied limbs: also likely. Brain damage: verification pending."

Yep, that was Laneiya alright.  She was a blunt individual with everyone except the newborn changelings.  I would have laughed at this truth if I didn't hurt so much.  She poked and prodded at various parts of my body, telling me to move every so often.  She jotted down some notes to herself.  I always left the medical and anatomy studies to her.  That was outside my expertise.

She pulled out an ink-stained page. "What do you see here?"

I stared at the abstract illustration for a bit. "It looks just like you." I chuckled until a twinge of pain hit my head.

Laneiya put the paper away and wrote something. "Ability to mimic a sense of humor: still intact." She took a couple steps to the side and looked up. "Try to stand."

I lowered my hooves to the floor.  The sudden weight on them nearly tripped me up.  I took a few breaths to try and steady myself.  The involuntary shaking slowed down significantly.  Instinct was urging me to hold my head up high like always.  Stiffness in my neck prevented me from doing so.

"Follow me, please." Laneiya trotted toward the exit. "Our leader wanted to speak with you as soon as you woke up."

I ended up moving my legs pretty slowly.  Laneiya stopped trotting every few steps.  She probably already knew I wasn't going to run marathons.  As soon as I was out of the room, Ocellus slowly trotted next to me.  She was shaking all the while.

"Who is in charge now?" I asked my daughter.

She braced herself while she walked, as if she expected to be slapped.  I couldn't blame her.  I was a terrible person.  I saw her move her mouth, but her voice was so quiet.  I didn't catch what she had said.

After a long silence, we arrived up in the open.  I tried to move my hoof to shield my eyes, but I lined up the holes just right that it didn't work.  I ended up sneezing a bit in response to the temporary blindness.  After blinking a couple times, I saw several changelings of various colors hurrying away in one direction or another.  When I saw who owned the hive's throne, I was whelmed.

The one that I called a traitor, the one that sympathized with ponies first, and he was the one that had the courage to share all of his love in one blast.  He looked like he was having trouble getting comfortable on his seat.  At least, that's what I gathered from all of the readjustments of posture, folding and unfolding wings, and the occasionally unintelligible grunts.  But as soon as Laneiya whispered a word to him and she stepped back, he sat up with an air of confidence.

"Hello, Chrysalis." Thorax kept his expression as even as possible.

"Thorax.  I mean..." I took a bowing posture. "... Your Highness."

"I... wow... I wasn't expecting you to call me that." He blinked twice.

"Pretty surreal when the roles are reversed, isn't it?" I stood back up.

"Uh... yeah." He held his front hooves together. "Maybe we could stick with a first-name basis for the time being?"

"As you wish." I nodded. "You wanted to see me when I woke up.  Now what happens?"

"I'm not entirely sure." He held up a hoof. "How are you feeling?"

"Do you really want to waste pleasantries on someone that was ready to suck you dry last week?" I raised what would have been a brow if I had one.

"Ah, business first.  Got it." He turned to face his left. "Laneiya, what's her state of health?"

"Physically, she's capable of recovering in a matter of days." Laneiya rolled a page up on her clipboard. "However, she is likely to develop scar tissue permanently where her crown used to be.  I have yet to determine if her mental state is on par with where it was prior to her coma."

"I see." Thorax nodded and looked back to me. "Well, what do you want to do now?"

I blinked twice. "I beg your pardon?"

"I mean, you did kind of rule the hive before.  So, did you have any ambitions about taking that position back in the foreseeable future?" He shrugged his shoulders.

I lifted a hoof to point at my bandages. "As I recall, I figuratively and literally gave up the crown. I'm in no position to take that back. I mean, if you made the same mistakes that I did as queen, I'd be disappointed. But that's your right."

"Huh." He paused, at a loss for words.

I shook my head. "But enough about my reign, what's my sentence?"

"Your what?"

I swiveled my hoof a bit. "You know, for crimes against Equestria and putting the hive at greater risk than necessary?"

"Oh! That!" He scratched under his right antler-horn. "See, a lot of us gathered together and thought it over.  After a bit of debate and tossing some ideas out, we decided you purposefully injuring yourself was punishment enough."

It was my turn to imitate a deer staring at headlights. "Heh?"

"Yeah, the jury unanimously decided that your physical assault on your own body is far worse than anything we could come up with.  So... you're free to go as soon as you've recovered." He smiled gently.

I sat down. "You can't be serious."

"I wish he wasn't." A scratchy voice walked out from behind the small throne seat. "I find his compassion quite disgusting."

"Pharynx?" I looked him over carefully. "Wait, you still look like you did before the turnaround."

"A hoof full of us chose not to switch." He trotted close with his back turned to his egg sac brother. "We'll take this pretender down on your command, My Queen."

I sighed. "I don't have that authority anymore.  It sounds like the hive follows his orders now."

"Sure, I'll follow his rules." Pharynx spat. "But that doesn't mean I have to like them." He sniffed in my general direction. "Ugh, you lack your compulsion pheromones.  I guess you weren't kidding about abdicating." He sighed and walked away. "Fine, long live Thorax, weakest changeling of the tarring century."

"You ought to do something about that brother of yours." Laneiya leaned toward Thorax. "His bad attitude isn't healthy for the rest of the hive."

"He just needs time to adjust." Thorax twiddled his hooves. "It's a big change for an army-minded changeling to accept an era of peace."

"Not to interrupt, but I just want to make sure I'm not hallucinating what I've heard." I stood up and moved my hoof around for emphasis. "I'm... 'free to go' as soon as I've healed up completely?"

"That's correct." Thorax nodded.

"Go where?" I asked. "I doubt many creatures outside of here would just accept that I'm getting off scotch-free.  Shell, I can't believe it."

He spread his front hooves to either side. "I mean... you can stick around the hive until you find somewhere else you want to settle down."

"Are you sure my presence won't be the cause of some local unrest?" I pointed a hoof behind me. "Pharynx sounded like he wanted me to start a coup."

"This is still a home for changelings." Thorax looked dead serious. "I may ask them to accept changes, but I will never force them to leave their home."

Something in his tone convinced me to take a step back.  There was a feeling that he had inadvertently fed me.  It wasn't a full-course meal of love.  It was a taste of something else.  What was that?

Thorax's expression softened to normal.  He motioned toward Laneiya and she nodded in understanding.  She made a gesture toward me to follow her.  I rubbed my head a bit before doing so.  I hadn't seen Ocellus leave, but she was nowhere in sight.
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