Chrysalis cursed her luck, her life, her enemies, her need for love and most of all, she cursed the name of Celestia. That pony princess had once again butted in on her conquest, halting it before it could even begin. The sun monarch would cross any border and assist any race for the chance of destroying the Changeling race. No matter who they managed to overcome, Celestia and her army would be near to ruin everything and tear down anything that Chrysalis builds.
The defeated queen sighed as she looked back at her hive, those who managed to survive this time at least. Every battle with Equestria and its allies would end up the same, with retreat and Chrysalis ending up with fewer Changelings then when she started. Her race’s survival depended much on her lead and especially since at the moment she was one of the very very few females. Chrysalis had once questioned why this was and discovered that while their creation was made from many factors, one stood out among the rest. The Changelings were made with the blood of a unicorn, one of immense magical power which was gifted to them but the unicorn had been male so in turn most of the Changelings would follow.
‘This isn’t fair… they didn’t choose to be born into this… this death cycle. We exist to eat the love of others, not by choice but need. I refuse to allow my children to rot away and suffer starvation for the benefit of those other creatures. I will ensure that my hive never goes hungry again, no matter what.’
The queen’s vow was interrupted when she came across voices. She had her Changelings turn into royal guards and she turned herself into Celestia.
‘They’ve come farther than I thought they would in such a short time…” She approached the voices she believed to be royal guards but then found the enormous corpses of dragons. One had blue scales and dark green spikes while the other had been purple with lime-green spikes. They seemed to have been taken off guard, maybe while they were asleep. Huge spears made of some kind of metal were deep in the dragons’ backs and nearby were several ponies and griffons harvesting the Dragon scales.
‘Dragon Slayers. Fools will soon be facing Celestia’s wrath when the guards find them unless…’ Chrysalis smirked and licked her lips as she approached the hunters who were basking in their victory.
“Now what do we have here? Some pathetic worms who take the life of two dragons who didn’t even have the chance to defend themselves?” The group immediately pulled out weapons but upon seeing who it was and the tens of royal guards that she had by her side, they surrendered and begged to be let free. Celestia chuckled darkly and held up a hoof. “Ten seconds, five for each dragon. That’s how long you have to run.” The hunters all shared a confused glance as they heard that Celestia has no mercy for hunters. “Oh don’t worry, you all will be caught regardless.”
She dropped her disguise with the other Changelings who hissed and she pointed at them. “Not taking the chance? I thought this would be a bit of fun for my boys, oh well. Enjoy your lunch.” The Changelings struck together and soon enough each hunter fell, their weapons made more for combat against large dragons, not small speedy bug ponies. Chrysalis grinned out of pride as she watched the light fade from the hunters’ eyes and patted one of the Changelings as she walked by. They deserved this meal.
She examined the dragons closer, they seemed young maybe around a thousand years old? She couldn’t be sure but one thing was sure, they shouldn’t have been killed. Or rather they should have put up much more of a fight.
“I’m missing something here…” She whispered and realized the dragons were leaning on each other. “This pose… they knew they were being attacked so why?” She used her magic to move the bodies a bit and blinked in shock. A nest of dragon eggs, or rather the remains of one. They must have been trying to hide and protect the eggs from the hunters but the attack left all but one of the eggs destroyed. The last one was light purple with dark purple spots. It was cracked and seemed smaller than the rest.
‘How strange… Dragons are known for being heartless creatures with little to no love in their hearts. Greed and anger take up most of the space in there, but I don’t feel that. The parents bodies radiate just a tiny bit of love, but to have even a bit after death is impressive. Then there is this thing… so weak and pathetic. I should just show mercy and crush it.’ As Chrysalis trotted closer to the nearly dead egg, she rose a leg only for the egg to shake. She was shocked for the second time as the creature inside moved. It should have been dead or very close yet it struggled for it’s life.
“Maybe you’re stronger than I gave you credit for…” She knew that the guards were still coming and she glanced at the egg before taking it. “Hmm, I wonder just how strong you’ll be… having a dragon may just be the break we needed.” She smirked looking down at the egg before joining the others. “Welcome to your new family little one.” She took a moment to stop before the parents’ bodies. “And thank you, I’ll raise him as I would one of my own.” She laughed loudly as she walked away.
. . .
Back at the Hive, Chrysalis ordered the guards to increase their defenses and to ensure no fools had discovered their location. Her throne may keep out magic users but being found out would still be a pain and as powerful as her throne may be, even Chrysalis doubted it would protect her from the full might of the merciless sun.
She walked into the nursery while holding the egg in her magical grip and being careful of the little ones that crawled across the ground and on her legs. She placed the egg in the center of the room and began to think of how to hatch the egg. Using a full-powered blast would no doubt turn it into dust but one too weak and the magic may not reach the child. She sat down on the ground and began to power up her horn. She needed a single concentrated beam.
Just as she was powering up her horn, a lone Changeling hatchling had been sitting off by himself as he was making something out of the goo from his egg. He didn’t much care for trying to get his mother as the others usually just kicked him away. His eyes did get drawn to the strange new item that their mother and queen brought in. While he heard some of the others saying they wanted to smash it, Thorax wanted to protect it. To see what secrets the weird item held. He crawled to the item and just got near it when Chrysalis struck the item with magic.
All of the hatchlings stared in awe at how the egg absorbed the magic before finally beginning to shake and a claw erupted from the shell. Thorax gasped and shivered until the claw retracted and the egg exploded leaving a green and purple… thing floating before he was magically put down and he began to suck on his tail while looking around.
“Smaller than I expected and he seemed to have absorbed my magic into his body. I’ll need to do studying on this.” Chrysalis sighed as she stood to leave but remembered that Dragons are useless in this state. She would have to take care of the child with a much more motherly hoof and couldn’t leave it in the nursery until it was smart enough to not get itself eaten.
“You best be grateful little dragon. If not for me you would be dead.” The baby tilted his head before laughing and grabbing at her nose. Chrysalis shook her head and sighed as she ran a hoof over the infant, thinking of a name for it.
“Welcome to the family indeed… Spike.”