The mess had to be cleaned up. The invasion of rock elementals had been thwarted, but what was left of them littered the streets, and collateral damage was inflicted upon the infrastructure. The workers came out and did their job, while the royal guards who were injured marched to the infirmary.
Spike walked down the street, his wing compressed with an ice bag as he had just come back to find the guard captain reporting to the princess. He saluted her, then walked away as he joined his men, while the dragon took his place at her side.
“I escorted Flash to the medic and he said he’s gonna be fine. For somepony, who’s not an alicorn princess he sure is holding himself together well after a few hundred years.” He smiled.
But he realized his words have fallen on deaf ears, as Twilight’s sight has simply trailed away as if something else was on her mind.
“Are you still thinking about what happened in the garden?”
“Still?!” She was roused with those words. “Spike, my actions just ended somepony! Any chance of possible future they had is gone now!”
“Wait… what do you mean by “possible future”?”
“Spike, don’t you get it? Discord spent hundreds of years trapped in stone after Celestia and Luna used the Elements of Harmony on him. Sure, things he did even after he managed to escape were horrible, but he eventually changed. He CHOSE to change because he was given a second chance. I was hoping…!” She finally stopped herself, took a deep breath, and exhaled before continuing. “I was hoping that over time, once they had a period to cool off, that maybe even they would be able to turn around as well.”
“No offense, Twilight. I mean, I could understand if you were just talking about Cozy Glow and Tirek, but Queen Chrysalis? I told you, she was a monster. She was offered a better, easier way and she refused it for the sake of revenge.”
“But why Spike? Other changelings were so eagerly willing to change their ways, why couldn’t the one who was leading them from the beginning too?”
The little dragon could hear the desperation in the tone of her voice, yet he knew he couldn’t give her a satisfying answer. “I... I don’t know Twilight. I guess someponies just don't want to change.”
Sense of dejection fell over them. The damage was done and there was no coming back from it.
“Princess Twilight Sparkle!” a sophisticated voice broke the sense of depression in the air.
From the passing crowd, a white unicorn emerged; his blue mane finely combed, tiny mustache resting above his lips, a monocle in one eye, wearing a finely tailored suit and his cutie mark presenting three crowns.
“Fancy Pants!”
“Good morning, young mister dragon,” he said, before facing the Princess and nodding. “Your Majesty.”
“Fancy Pants, I wish we could’ve met under better circumstances,” Twilight somberly said.
“Yes, a very dreadful business that was.” He pulled out a handkerchief and cleaned his monocle. “Can’t say I fancy the repair cost that’s going to take to fix all of the damaged infrastructures. But anyway, regarding the noble’s meeting today-”
“Don’t worry, sir. I’ll join at the designated time… despite the current setbacks on the rest of the schedule.”
“Yes, about that… I’m afraid we’ll have to postpone it.”
“Postpone? Why?” Twilight questioned.
The white unicorn pointed to the side of the street. The structure where Twilight had previous meetings with the rest of the nobles had the front caved in, and in her distress, Twilight hasn’t even noticed it, even after the captain of the guard reported it to her.
“I… I’m sorry, Fancy Pants.”
“There’s nothing to apologize for, Your Highness. This matter was clearly out of our hooves.”
“I’ve been hearing that all day,” she muttered under her breath.
“In any case, considering the current situation we’ll have to postpone the meeting until tomorrow so we can find an alternate location.”
“Wait, are you saying our meeting today is canceled?” She looked at him in surprise.
“To put it bluntly: yes. Now, if you excuse me, I must depart. I’ve another meeting at this very moment and I’m going to be late myself. You’ll receive further communications from me tomorrow. Good day, Your Majesty.” He nodded and trotted past the two.
“Well… that just threw our schedule out the window, ” Spike grumbled.
Twilight thought for a moment. “Wait a minute, Spike. If the meeting with Fancy is canceled for today, that means we’ve just shaved at least 2 hours off of our schedule.”
“Yeah, and it’ll be replaced sometime tomorrow, which means I’ll have to rewrite the whole thing to keep track of it,” he complained.
“Spike, that’s not the point.”
“So, what is then?”
“If we got time to spare today, it means I can still go and visit Zecora for medical advice!” A grin appeared on her face.
Finally, something was going her way today.
“Well, that’s nice and all, but there’s just one problem,” the dragon intervened, “with all that’s happened just now... we’ve fallen almost two hours behind schedule.”
Twilight looked at her companion with a grimace and wide-open eyes. Spike suddenly felt the loss of gravity under his feet as Twilight lifted him off the ground and ran off back to the castle in haste.
Hours have passed in the dark tunnel. Chrysalis didn’t care. Her eyes were used to seeing in the dark, but the end was nowhere in sight. That thought was soon replaced with another, however, one that’s been eating away at her for some time: once she finally comes out, what will she do? Where will she go?
Her hive, her own swarm, turned against their own nature, against HER, the queen of their kind.
A deep-rooted hatred grew in place to fill the emptiness, hatred for a group of ponies from one insignificant village. But after what happened, after she and the other two were empowered by Grogar’s Bewitching Bell, how easily they were still defeated and immobilized despite all that power, now that she’s all alone again… what can she do?
Suddenly she heard a sound. It was something small. Numerous. It almost sounded like delicate wings grinding against the cortex of a-
Her attention was grabbed. She recognized that sound all too well. It was the sound she usually heard within her own hive, when juvenile hatchings were running through, chasing one another. She hastened her steps. It may have been a miracle, but some of her changelings may have been away from the hive when it was corrupted and have managed to survive without being influenced. Finally, no more talking to oneself or trying to make convincing wooden statues to compensate for lack of company.
She finally saw a dim light at the end of the tunnel. There were shadows on the side at the exit, strange bristling shapes reflected on it. The sound grew louder. She was finally there. She could finally salvage a small semblance of sanity that was left in her.
And just as it came, the sound disappeared. Chrysalis’ hopes were dashed. Whatever was making the sound was not there, and it turned out that the shadow imagery on the wall was simply leaves rustling in the wind. What she arrived into was a dark cavern, with a single crack of light coming from the ceiling. She was soon taken aback however as she recognized this place. There was a pool from which the strange magical substance was flowing into the chasm from whence she came. Her wings finally took flight and carried her over. Sitting in the middle of this small lake was a tree, now long since decayed and withered over countless eons. She landed on its roots and ran her hoof near the giant gaping hole in its trunk.
There was no denying it. Centuries may have passed, but she still remembered. This was the birthplace of the changelings, a place where she and her kind emerge into the world so long ago.
She was overcome by a sense of melancholy, as the irony was not alien to her. The first of the changelings returned to her place of origin as the last of her kind. All she had left now was a decrepit wooden husk to remind her how far her kind had fallen. Drained and exhausted she leaned against the trunk and closed her eyes, listening to the hollow tree for stories of ages past, of the glories achieved and forgotten, even if it would only temporarily take her mind out of the pit of misery.
Chrysalis.
Her ears perked. It might have been the wind.
Chrysalis.
Her eyes shot open. That was undoubtedly a whisper, but she couldn’t point to where it came from.
Chrysalis.
She finally caught it. The whisper came from the gaping hole. But how? Trees don’t talk. And even if they did, this one was already dead. What could it possibly tell her? She gazed into the hole in the tree trunk, trying to peer deep into the darkness. Suddenly, a gust shot out of the hole and into her face, her vision blurred and everything became dark.
She saw a blood-red gemstone, encased in an amulet, shaped like an alicorn.
The scene shifted, in its place is now a small wooden chest.
It shifted again, and she saw a hovel carved into the trunk of a tree.
Once more, and she now saw the landscape. A vast forest, a small village on the far edge of it and in the far distance, built into the mountainside, a city.
Chrysalis snapped out of her trance. She fell asleep by the side of the tree trunk and how long has passed it became obvious as the light from above the crack in the cavern was already gone. It took her a moment to collect herself. Either her sanity has finally been brought over the edge of madness or there was a meaning behind all of it. She still didn’t understand what it’s supposed to mean, but she did recognize the location. The city carved into the mountainside was Canterlot and the small village Ponyville, but they were obviously not the targets.
The Everfree Forest. Whatever that vision was, it wanted her to find the strange medallion, but for what purpose? What’s a piece of jewelry going to do for the Queen of Changelings? But that’s an answer she would not get… at least not unless she acted upon it. It’s not like she had any other goals at this point, at the very least it would sate her curiosity.
“Twilight, slow down!” Spike flailed as he got dragged along.
The rest of the day has been absolutely hectic. In her attempt to fill the gap as quickly as possible to make up for a loss of time, Twilight has been dashing back and forth between tasks and poor Spike kept getting picked up without prior notice at every turn. By the time the afternoon hit, the little dragon was in a state of vertigo. If he had any breakfast, he was pretty sure he’d fail to hold it down.
“Done!” the alicorn princess announced as she signed the last document. “That’s all for the early afternoon checklist, right Spike?”
The dragon’s claw rose from a pile of paper that’s been tipped off the table. “… check.”
“Alright, so how much time have we salvaged?” she asked him impatiently.
“Well,” he climbed out of the pile, “we managed to shave off at least ten minutes off each task, adding on top of that all the messes we left behind, re-writes of botched documents, hastily solved disputes, sped up public appearances, etc. Which means we’ve saved about… twenty minutes.”
“PERFECT!” she said in a hectic tone. “That’s more than enough time left to get to Zecora and back for the late afternoon schedule.”
As she trotted across the room, Spike stopped her. “Wait Twilight. Shouldn’t we instead use that time to have lunch instead? Neither of us had any breakfast and we skipped it on our original schedule to work overtime as well.”
“You don’t have to tag along, Spike. Feel free to help yourself while I’m away. Toddles!” and with that, she teleported away without delay.
The little dragon was left all alone.
“I’m really worried about you, Twilight…” he told himself and just as he did, his stomach rumbled.
She may be able to subject herself to lack of food, but that didn’t mean he had to in her absence. So, without delay, he walked off to the castle’s kitchen. He felt cravings for some rubies.
In a flash of purple, Twilight found herself on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest. She would have to go the rest of the way on foot; trying to teleport directly to the zebra’s hovel would’ve been unwise as there was no telling where she would end up if she tried to, or what monster she would enrage with her sudden appearance.
She galloped off. Time was growing short so she couldn’t get distracted by anything. Her sight went into tunnel vision as she stuck directly to the trail, ignoring her surroundings completely. Yet even when she deafened out all the noise and limited the vision around her, she could still feel a distinct sense of dread of this place; the creeping darkness, the evil eyes looking at every turn, the sensation of sinister forces lurking in the forgotten shadows. No, she had to ignore them, she didn’t have time to be scared even for a moment and besides, by now she should’ve already reached-
BAM!
Dull pain echoed in her head. Her vision became so skewed from being focused on the trail that she had lost her senses and forgot that she was already here, bashing her head against the zebra’s treehouse. She shrugged it off and went to knock on the door.
A few moments passed, and there was no response. She started tapping against the door furiously in hopes that somebody would open it, but it didn’t help and she was running out of time.
“ZECORA!” she yelled. “It’s Twilight Sparkle! I NEED YOUR HELP!”
“Had you been a stranger at my door, I would have caused an uproar.”
The princess stopped and turned her head to face the voice’s owner. Zecora stood behind her with a bag of herbs, her face not showing an ounce of amusement.
Twilight laughed nervously. “Sorry.”
The healer opened the door of her hovel and a strong smell burst out. While she walked in, the princess followed soon, trying to not be intrusive after the display she just put on, but she lost her train of thought as the fragrance hung in the air; it was pleasing and inviting, coming from the cauldron that stood in the middle of her home.
“That smells so nice… Is that another of your healing brews, Zecora?”
“A brew, yes it's true. I trotted off in haste so I might add to taste...” She pulled out an herb from her bag and tossed it into the cauldron, before grabbing a ladle and beginning to stir. “Goldenseal for bitterness, without it there's no happiness, which does away with tiredness. This is not a remedy brew, but it is actually a stew.”
That was an edge pushed too far. The feedback from the lack of nourishment finally got to her as the added herb to the cauldron did the trick and the aroma of the soup became incredibly enticing; her nostrils flared, her iris expanded and she was holding back her mouth to be agape as she began to drool slightly.
“Now, tell me what exactly has given you the crunch...“ She took a quick sip to check if it was just right, only to finally notice her guest drooling all over. “... unless you’d be willing to stay for lunch?”
Twilight shook her head, snapping out of the trance.
“What? Me? Pfff. Nah. I’m not that hungry. Besides, this is more important than-“ her words were interrupted and betrayed by a sudden rumbling sound coming from her belly; the charade was over. “Oh, who am I kidding. I’m starving.”
The zebra giggled in response.
Twilight took a sip. The warm broth from the cauldron went down with ease as the stomach rumble was finally silenced, its unease replaced by a sense of fulfillment and restored vigor. She needed that.
She exhaled in satisfaction. “Thank you, Zecora.”
“Fret not, princess, a visitor is welcome here, after far they have trot.” She put her herb bag away after emptying it. “Though I believe you're heavy with displeasure. Might I help you in any possible measure?”
Twilight took a deep breath. “I haven’t been sleeping too well lately, Zecora. For the last two weeks, I’ve been having nightmares… Or rather the same nightmare. I went to all the doctors in Canterlot, they gave me the same diagnosis and prescription, but none of them worked. You’re the last one I could think of that could help me.”
“Then we best start from square one and we’ll see what can be done. This nightmare that gives you the fright, why don’t you describe it to me, so we can make it right,” the zebra asked as she rummaged through a potion pantry.
“Well… It starts with me raising the sun. Then suddenly darkness raises from the earth and I’m not able to defeat it on my own. And then my friends come and we managed to push it back. But…” she paused for a moment, “then there’s this voice.”
“A voice?” The healer’s attention was piqued.
“A sinister angry voice coming from the darkness,” she continued. “The magic of friendship is not stopping it any longer and then THEY appear. Five faces: one has the look of spite on it, the second is very angry, the third is intimidating, the fourth is crying and the fifth one… well, to be honest, I don’t know, it’s like a shadow hiding among others. The darkness then tears my friends away from me and I become surrounded by it, their voices taunting me. The fifth face then faces me directly and asks "what makes me think I’m better" and out of nowhere a sixth face appears; it’s bigger than the rest, it absorbs them all into itself and then leaps at me… And that’s when I normally wake up… Zecora?”
Twilight noticed then that the zebra has been standing by the pantry for a long time and hasn’t moved at all. Did something she said jog her memory?
“Zecora?” she tried to get her attention.
The healer finally turned to face her. “I’m sorry Twilight, but I’m afraid there’s not much I can do…”
“I see…” She felt despondent by her blunt response. “You were the last one who could help me- “
“Let me finish what I have to say,” the zebra interrupted her. “There’s not much I can do right away, but I can perform a diagnosis. Yet to do that it is specific ingredients I require, some of which on my own will be difficult to acquire.”
“Are you asking me to help you… to help me?”
Zecora nodded. “Five ingredients I need for this task, and four of them I can deal without you to ask, but the fifth one will be tricky and folly to try, without the help of pegasi.”
“Pegasi? What kind of ingredient do you need that would require help from a pegasus?” Twilight asked.
As she did, Zecora picked a piece of charcoal and scribbled something on a piece of paper, before she handed it over to the princess. One simple thing was drawn on it.
“You want me to get you… a storm cloud?”
“If the bolts aren't willing, one caught in a bottle is also appealing.”
She was confused for a moment, but she was sure the zebra knew what she was doing.
“I’ll try to get it first thing in the morning, Zecora. Thank you,” Twilight told her.
The zebra smiled. “For now, our business is done, so shouldn't you be gone? Others to meet, Princess, hurry and greet.”
Then panic came over Twilight again. In the process of calming down, she’s forgotten the time and she was going to be late for the other tasks back at the castle.
“ThanksZecoragottago!” she yelped in one breath and in the flash of magic she teleported away, while the zebra’s nostrils flared in frustration when she realized Twilight took her soup bowl with her.
Silence fell over the healer’s hovel, one that was disturbed only by the fire in the pit below the cauldron. Now that her patient was gone thoughts raced through her mind. The nightmare she described to her… Zecora bore witness to something similar, but not here, not now. Her memory took her to a different time and place.
A lone little zebra stood within a white magical circle and outside of it, a dark force was pressing forth. And as the circle weakened, a sinister voice began to bear down on her.
ACCEPT US… ONLY THEN CAN WE HELP YOU. REFUSE… AND YOU WILL BE ALL ALONE IN THE END.
She cried. She cried for somebody to save her from the encroaching darkness of despair.
And then there was a light that engulfed everything.
She returned back to the present with her thoughts. It’s unlikely those things were related in any way. The darkness she witnessed was far, far away from her new home. But still, she had to be sure there was no correlation between the two. She took her bag out again. Those ingredients won’t gather themselves.
Spike walked up and down outside the castle’s meeting room, waiting for his companion to return, concerns flowing through his mind; she didn’t eat anything, she’s probably mentally exhausted and who knows if something happened to her on the way through the Everfree Forest.
POOF!
In a flash of purple light, the princess teleported herself right in front of the dragon, startling him.
“Twilight, where have you been?! The delegates from Baltimere are already waiting inside and… what’s that?”
Twilight looked at him in confusion and then blushed in embarrassment after she realized that she still held the zebra’s soup bowl. “Emmm… Zecora had me for lunch while I was at her place and I… might have accidentally taken it with me in panic.”
“So, you basically just went to her for lunch then…?”
“No, Spike! Zecora said she can perform a diagnosis for my condition, but first I need to bring her something she can’t acquire on her own. Here.”
She handed her companion the scribbled note. “A… cloud?”
“A lighting in a bottle to be precise.” She trotted over to the door. “We can plan it all later.”
“Well, you’re about five minutes late right now… And are you just gonna take that lunch into the meeting?”
Twilight looked at the bowl and took a mouthful sip, before rushing through the door, leaving Spike to catch it before it would hit the ground and break. He sighed in relief, then the soup’s alluring aroma finally got into his nose and temptation got him to taste it.
“Hmmm… could use a handful of agates.”
The day was slowly approaching its end, as the sun was beginning to reach the twilight hour. The princess on the other hand was not in a good state. After the thwarted invasion in the early morning, hectic middle to save up time to get a possible better opinion from another medical expert and then returning to the normal daily tempo, by the time she finally got to her room she dropped face first on her bed, with only one fitting response.
“What a day…”
“Hey, all things considered, we actually came through just fine.” Spike walked through the door.
“Well, I just hope that tomorrow’s not gonna be anything alike,” she groaned. “Although if those same dreams come up again tonight, then I’m not about to keep my hopes up.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll get you some fresh lavender and we will see if things get better.”
“Yeah, that will help,” she grumbled under her breath.
“Anyway, we need to rewrite the schedule for tomorrow,” the dragon said as he pulled out a parchment and a quill. “Now considering Fancy Pants’ routine, he normally makes announcements to the castle sometime in the late afternoon. This means we can make some room between visiting the graduation party for Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns and meeting the delegation from Crystal Empire. Problem solved.”
“Not quite, Spike.”
“Excuse me?”
“We still need to acquire that lightning in a bottle from Cloudsdale,” she explained.
“Oh… no biggie. I’ll just... ermmm… squeeze it in the late morning between judging the best bakery in Canterlot and appearance at the opening of the new bookstore. Shouldn’t take long... right?”
“Oh, and also I’ll need some room to deliver that bottle…” she stopped herself, remembering there was another thing she forgot, ”and bowl to Zecora, so she can give me a proper examination.”
“Wait. Tomorrow already? But that’s not possible. I don’t think I can stretch out the list any further.”
“Please Spike, can’t you just find a teeny tiny wincey little spot? Please?” she desperately tried to convince him.
He sighed. “Fine… I guess I can try and put it between-“
“Oh, I almost forgot!”
“OH, COME ON!” He tossed the list at the wall in frustration. “What else did you come up with now that I have to find a way to force in?!”
The princess winced at his outburst. “Spike, no, it’s nothing like that. Look at the calendar.”
They looked at the calendar that sat on the table. There were fourteen days crossed out on the month and two spaces onward one was colored in a big red marker, with written initials reading C.O.F.
“With all that’s happened in the last two weeks, I forgot that the Council of Friendship is to take place in two days. I’m really looking forward to seeing everypony again.”
“Yeah… I actually forgot as well… I’m looking forward to seeing them… especially Rarity.”
She rolled her eyes with a smile.
“And that’s all the more reason I’d prefer to have Zecora have a look BEFORE that. The last thing I want is to have my friends worry about the state of my mental health. So please, Spike… can you do anything?”
He sighed. “Okay, Twilight. I’ll figure something out.”
She gave him a hug and he repaid it in turn. After the moment had passed, she traipsed over to the drawer and pulled out the amulet once more, walked out onto the balcony, and activated it.
The sun sank over the horizon and with its departure, the moon rose.
“One more day,” she whispered.
Zecora took a moment to recuperate. Galloping back to her house before the hour of twilight ended was something she did not favor, but risking the stay outside after the night fell on the forest was even less appealing. All manner of creatures prowled the nighttime and encountering any of them would be detrimental to one’s health. But there was something else as well: she felt an unusual vibe in the air, as if the forest had gotten livelier… but also sinister, the surroundings pressing down on her as if the woods themselves were trying to get a hold of her.
Just a bit more and I’ll be safe I bet, from this invasive threat.
Home free! As soon as the zebra reached the proximity of her hovel the pressure surrounding her dropped. She sighed in relief. The threat had passed for now, but the question still prodded her mind as to why this is happening. She would have to look into this, for now however she needed a break, and the ingredients she had gathered needed taking care of. She reached out to open the door only to discover they were wide open already. A quick look inside left her shocked as it was left turned upside down.
Somebody was here and ransacked the whole place! But why? Only one with intimate knowledge on potion making would know their value and even then, only she knew which concoction did what. Nobody she knows would’ve wanted to steal fruits of her labor. So what else was there that she possessed that somebody would want from her?
A thought shot through her head.
The Alicorn Amulet!
It has been so many years since that one day when Twilight Sparkle came to her doorstep, besieging her for help against Great and Powerful Trixie, who had somehow got hold of a sinister amulet, which granted a wielder great power but also corrupted them with hatred. Since the day it was finally removed, Zecora kept it in her hovel, hoping that as few beings as possible knew about its whereabouts and against those who did, the Everfree Forest would offer enough protection to deter possible power-hungry burglars. This may have just come to an end, but she had to make sure.
She walked over to the middle of the room where her cauldron was tipped over, her brew spilled. She brushed away what little scorched kindling was left in the messed-up firepit. Solid stone was keeping the fire isolated from the floor to prevent it from being scorched, but one with a keen eye would notice that there was actually a handle on the carved-out stone. She grabbed a handle with her teeth and pulled it, opening a small trap door. Her tail reached into the opening and pulled out a small wooden chest.
The moment of truth was here. Anticipating the worst, she opened it. A red light glowed. Radiant red gem pulsed, adorned with a metal shaped to resemble a horned equine with wings.
She let out a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness, I was wrong. I truly feared that the amulet was- “
“- GONE?”
The zebra’s blood froze and a chill went down her spine. That ghastly voice came within her ears reach, as in right next to her. She slowly turned her head. A figure was right next to her face, hanging upside down from the ceiling, a pair of glowing green eyes staring directly at her. Then knife-like fangs curled into a smile and launched at her.
“This is it? The legendary Alicorn Amulet?”
Chrysalis walked out of Zecora’s hovel, carrying the prize she saw in the vision. She felt a bit disappointed. This was supposed to lead to some grand revelation? She was once infused with the power of Grogar’s Bewitching Bell and this amulet should by no chance be more powerful than it. Perhaps there was a clue on the amulet itself, an inscription, or some sort of a message, yet no matter how many times she turned it over there was nothing, nothing seemed out of place.
She slumped to the side of a tree root of the zebra’s house. No amount of power this amulet could provide would be of service to her, no closer to achieving revenge or lifting depression off of her. She simply let her gaze trail over the amulet until her eyes eventually locked onto the gemstone itself.
She felt a compulsion. As if some unseen force was trying to tell her, to convince her to put the amulet on. A strange sinister whisper suddenly entered her mind. She recognized the tone, it was the same as the one back at her birthplace, but now it was slightly louder, more pronounced.
Let us be heard.
She was swayed. She brought the amulet to her chest and wrapped it around her neck.
CLICK.
And as the neckless locked together it felt as if a shockwave pulsed out of the amulet and around her. And then there was silence.
“Well?” The Queen of Changelings waited for a response. “What am I supposed to do with this now?”
“Chrysalis.”
She jumped. That whispering voice was no longer a mere whisper. It was clear and very close to her.
“Who said that?!” She tried to recover from the shock.
“So… you can finally hear us clearly... or at least me anyway.”
“Where are you?!” She turned around looking in all directions, but she couldn’t pinpoint the source of the voice. “Who are you?!”
“I am nowhere… I am everywhere… I am the watcher – unseen.”
And as those words were said, vapor tendrils crept past Chrysalis’ eyesight and begun to conjugate in front of her face until the vapor finally took form. A small, slender, weaselly-like shape manifested before her, the frontal side of it spiked out into a pair of ears, and finally, a pair of small slit green eyes popped open.
As her first reaction, Chrysalis swung her horn at the vapor, cutting straight through it like it was nothing. And while the horn did fracture the vapor being, the rest of its body remained unmoved, floating in the air.
“If I were corporeal that would’ve hurt right now. Luckily for you, that’s not the case,” the vapor said as its fractured form came back together.
“So, what are you then?” she asked suspiciously.
“I am Doubt.”
“Doubt?” she frowned.
“Yes. You know that voice in your head, that’s telling you to second-guess yourself? What makes you think that you’re incapable of doing something even when that may not be the case? One who tells you that it can only get worse from here on out? That Doubt.”
“Wait… you’re an emotion?”
“Not quite. Every living creature possesses emotions. I am but its physical manifestation. If I were to disappear, doubt itself would not. As I said: I am nowhere, yet I am everywhere.”
She frowned. What did this spirit want from her? Surely it didn’t go through all that just so it could chitchat with somebody.
“So why did you call for me?”
“Because you’re the only one who could hear us, because of your very nature, broodmother.”
That last word stung. It made her think of something that she didn’t need right now.
“What you wear is a key to something great," it explained. "A piece to the puzzle, a web of events that were set in motions hundreds of years ago… or to be more precise, delayed.”
“Then say what you want already. If you’re asking me to participate in some grand master plan for the domination of Equestria, I’ve just been through that.” She turned to leave. “The last thing I need is being fed some vain hope that it will help me in any way. In which case, you can just go and find some other sheep to follow you.”
“Do you not seek to fill the void in your spirit?” the vapor asked.
She stopped, then slowly glared at the creature. How could this thing have known what she desires?
“And yes, we know what you desire,” the vapor said, its green eyes squint as if it was trying to smile. “To us, what you hide within your shell, cannot be hidden.”
The Changeling Queen composed herself as if trying to put up a barrier to block the internal spy.
“And how can I be of any help? And who are WE?”
The vapor spun aground itself then slithered through the air into the direction of nearby trees.
“I can arrange the meeting… with one of the others at least. All I ask is for you to follow me. After all, what other options do you have?”
Queen Chrysalis didn’t like this. A sinister incorporeal being that can read one’s emotions? Who can whisper dark lies into creatures’ ears to doubt themselves? She could just as easily refuse and walk away. But what would she get in turn? There was nothing in this world right now that could help her with what burdens her… except for it. What it said was true: what other options does she have?
“Lead the way then.”