Chrysalis opened here eyes and took a deep, sharp breath. Each subsequent inhale and exhale wasn’t as deep, but almost all of them were followed by uncontrollable coughing. Eventually, she gained control of her breathing, and looked to the pool of saliva on the floor. “Just how long was I coughing that up?” She thought. She also noticed that the only flooring below her was glass. She looked around, trying to get a bearing of her surroundings. Everywhere around her was pitch black. Even using her horn for light proved next to futile, as little to no light was produced. Suddenly, she heard faint tapping of the glass behind her. As the sound approached her, it got faster.
Chrysalis did a 360 turn, being sure to check everywhere around her. She saw nothing but the back that surrounded her, and the glass that supported her. The tapping eventually turned to cracking, and once again, it increased in speed and volume. Now, Chrysalis began to panic. Her movements became more sudden and quick, and her breathing mostly uncontrolled. “W-who’s there!” She yelled. The yelling made the rapid cracking come to a sudden stop. She looked down, only to see the glass below her was cracked and that faint red light illuminated behind her.
WHOSH CRACK
Chrysalis felt a sharp pain in her midsection Ana d fell to her side. Her stomach now aching, she couldn’t find the strength to get up. She couldn’t even find no energy to do anything but breathe and speak.She was then rolled onto her back and she looked up to see Arachnis standing overtop her. “I left…and all you did was send your dumbass lackeys after me? I feel like a mother might’ve been obligated to actually look for her child, but I guess you’re just different.”
Chrysalis’ expression said it all. She was shocked, in pain, and holding back tears. “That’s…n-not true. I loved y-“ Arachnis backhoof slapped the queen at his mercy, causing blood to flow from her mouth. “Don’t give me that sentimental bullshit. I was your tool, remember? Of course it doesn’t cross your mind until now. You don’t know, because you don’t care. Well guess what? I’m not yours anymore.” Arachnis stomped a hood on his mother’s neck, closing her airway and disallowing her to breathe. Her consciousness slowly drained from her body. When her eyes were already almost closed, a red flash blinded her.
In that same moment, Chrysalis woke up.
She kicked the air in reckless panic and eventually fell over from her bed. She didn’t explode in anger, but couldn’t help but give a deep sigh at her embarrassing episode of a panic attack. She got up, and looked in the mirror that occupied the back corner of her room. She looked terrible. Her hair was a mess, her face was glistening with sweat, and she could see the crust in her eyes. “Another terrible night…” she said to herself. “That’s the second time…”. Chrysalis knew that even if she wanted to, it'd simply be a waste of time to taker her anger out on anything for anyone, so she suppressed her emotions, got up, and began to do what she thought was taking care of herself. She walked through the hive, making sure to keep her horn flared up to signify to every changeling that doing as much as looking to her would result in a death sentence. She traversed into the lowest part of the hive, a sector reserved for the only her and Arachnis. Even just being there reminded her of her child. She pushed the thoughts aside and descended to the very bottom, where many small insects made their homes. Chrysalis didn't mind, as she loved bugs. She'd never show it around others, but she liked to make homes for them. she opened the trapdoor that separated her from her special place, and fell right into a room she had been making for a long time: a hot springs. She sank into the heated water with an audible sigh, that if heard from afar, one might've assumed she was performing a more indecent activity. Only her head was above the water, and she closed her eyes. She let the liquid soothe her body, and began to sort out her mind.
"What's been up with me today? I can't take my mind off...him." Chrysalis thought. She sank a bit deeper into the near boiling water, and faced the ceiling. Once again, she tried to block out any thoughts, memories, or inside voices that had anything to do with Arachnis. She tried all she could, not even for a flicker of success to present itself to her. Once again, she found herself in a dream of sorts. Like last time, she found herself in a black void, only being help up by a long and thin, but also durable pane of glass. To her relief, there were no footsteps to be heard and red glows to speak of. That relief was short lived, as she knew that if Arachnis wasn’t coming after her, something else was.
She nervously looked around her, and found a cracked area in the see-through flooring. The cracks seemed to be perfectly branched out to only stay in a designated rectangular shape. The glass then shattered, and every last shard connected with one another before Chrysalis like sentient puzzle pieces. They eventually formed a large rectangle, but had gone from being see-through to reflective. Chrysalis was now standing before an amalgamated mirror, and her reflection stared back at her. She moved closer to the mirror, and glowed her horn. Her reflection did the same. “I…made the right call..right?” Chrysalis asked herself.
Her reflection’s horn glowed brighter, and it answered back with a cold “No.” Chrysalis quickly jumped back and quickly set up a barrier. Unfortunately for her, she forgot she was in a dream, and that the laws of physics were completely in the control of some otherworldly force. The blast went right through her defense, and collided right with her face. The hopeful attempt at keeping herself safe went down and Chrysalis went flying, skidding across the floor before coming to a complete stop. The reflection stepped through the mirror, and approached Chrysalis. “Took you long enough to notice there was something wrong. You always seem to notice something is wrong after you pay a price.”
“W-what do you mean by that!?” Chrysalis yelled.
The reflection scoffed. “We both know exactly what I mean. What’s the one things happening right now, that you think is wrong, huh?”
At first, Chrysalis was confused by what she was being asked, it took her a minute to finally read the room. She had already been in this specific setting for a dream before, and she sensed a theme. “Arachnis…” Chrysalis said softly.
Her reflection rolled its eyes. “Well congrats, you aren’t oblivious to his potential interpretation that you’re a negative person based on how you handled him being missing from the Hive. Good. For. You.” It said, being sure to put emphasis on every single word.
Ever since the first dream, Chrysalis was always feeling some type of anger toward her intrusiveness, but it was only now where that emotion began to take over, and she made it known of how she felt. She stared directly into the reflection’s eyes, and lunges at it. She pinned it to the floor, and began striking it in the head with all the strength her adrenaline could offer her. Her sense of revenge was gone, but her anger remained. She kept the onslaught going, with each swing eventually drawing more and more blood out of her victim’s mouth, and even their head. The excessive blunt trauma slowly ceased, and when it was completely out of her system, Chrysalis noticed that she was no longer punching herself.
A bloodies Arachnis cried and struggled to breathe beneath her. She got up and took a few steps back. The conjured colt struggled to speak, but was able to get out one last message: “T-this..is how I felt *COUGH* a-after you told me off…like a piece of..garbage. M-maybe your worst enemies…are good ponies to be with….”. Chrysalis’ eyes opened wide at that last sentence. Her horn flared up, and she shot an energy beam right at him. The bean burned through the dream-bound Arachnis.
It screamed for mercy and help, and Chrysalis awoke once again.
She shot to the surface of her hot spring, and gasped for air, even coughing up a bit of boiling water in the process. She got on her hooves and looked all around her, ready to attack anything that so much as made a sound. It took her another dunk of hot water to keep her heart rate from reaching dangerous levels. She quickly left and ascended back to the Hive’s more habited levels and sat at her throne.
At this point, Chrysalis didn’t know what to do anymore. Admittedly, she knew deep down inside that she felt guilt for not bothering to go after Arachnis herself, but she couldn’t see why it was doing this much to her. She had changelings looking for him already, so she didn’t see a clear problem. She saw her son as a smart pony, and thought that there was no way he’d end up anywhere that would be bad for him or her.
But then it hit her.
Chrysalis‘ heart had skipped a beat when the thought of Ponyville came to her head. It wasn’t impossible that that’s where he would’ve ended up. Arachnis didn’t resemble a changeling all too well, so the ponies could’ve easily mistaken him for one of their own. “…One of their own. Not my own.” She thought to herself. Arachnis was the closest thing she had to a real child. Chrysalis wasn’t about to let the ponies take him from her.
She got down from her throne and exited the throne room, looking down on all the changelings before her. She stomped her hoof, and each and every one stared at her. “I’ll be on leave, in hopes that I find my child, and bring him back here. Until then…” Chrysalis’ horn flared up, as did the rest of her body. “Clonus” She whispered to herself. Miraculously, a second Chrysalis materialized. The first one turned to leave, while the second sat at the throne. The changelings made way for Chrysalis as she exited the hive.
“Ponies won’t take kindly to my presence, but I need to find him.”