//------------------------------//
// Chapter I 
// Story: In Love and War 
// by The Fool 
//------------------------------//

When Cassius awoke, his first thought was that he hadn't been asleep. He looked around the rocky tunnel as if seeing it for the first time. His thoughts struck him as odd, not because this was the same tunnel he'd been down every day since he'd been old enough to mine coal, but because they were his own.

"Mother?" he thought. There was no response. For changelings to break off from the hive and start thinking for themselves wasn't unheard of. It was why Chrysalis had given him his assignment in the first place—his assignment.

"Mother!" he cried. "Not now! Please!" He fell on his haunches and clenched his eyes to stem the flow of tears. It didn't stop.

His brothers and sisters were coming to a similar realization somewhere nearby, but at that moment, he had no one to keep him company but his thoughts. Chrysalis had told him the ability to think and feel for himself was a wonderful gift, one she hoped they would all have someday. He felt hollow.

"This isn't a gift," he whispered. His disgust grew in time with the number of his thoughts clouding his head. Scowling, he whirled around and spotted an outcrop on the side of the tunnel.

"This! Is! Not! A! Gift!" he shouted, punctuating each word with a smash of his head against the rock. He staggered and hit the ground in a heap. His vision blurred. As he looked toward the blue-green glow at the end of the tunnel, he thought he saw Chrysalis looking back.

Staring up into Chrysalis's emerald eyes, he whined, "It's my head, Mother. There's something wrong with my head."

Chrysalis nodded and closed her eyes just as before. Her horn bathed him in a faint green light followed by a blinding flash. "You just had a minor concussion, dear," she said, opening her eyes, "but I took care of it."

"No, that's not it. I keep hearing a strange voice in my head. Only it's not strange. It's my voice, but what's it doing in my head?"

Chrysalis smiled. "Can't you hear my voice?"

Cassius had smiled at the time, but he could only cry as he said the words that were no longer true. "I can always hear your voice."

Chrysalis sat beside him. "The ability to hear your own voice is a wonderful gift."

"How?"

"It marks you as a leader." Chrysalis looked off into the distance, her smile fading. "I won't always be around to care for you and the others."

Cassius looked at her, eyes pleading. "Don't say that, Mother."

Chrysalis draped her foreleg over his withers. "We don't have to talk about it right now, but know that when that time comes, the others will need someone to care for them until they're ready to care for themselves."

"I don't want to hear my own voice. Please don't make me."

Sighing, Chrysalis faded away as her horn lit up for one more spell. "If you really don't want to, I won't make you, not until the time comes..."

"When I need to," Cassius finished. He rose to his hooves.