The luxurious scents of roses and other exotic flowers wafted through Roseluck’s darkened bedroom. The flower sister lay in a peaceful rest, wrapped in a red velvet blanket with rose petals strewn all over its surface, their incredible aromas acting a stimulant to aid her in sleeping better. She mumbled in her sleep, dreaming pleasant dreams of all things beautiful and floral.
Deep within her subconscious, the mare frolicked in a field of thorn-less roses, spanning for miles in every direction with no end in sight. She laughed and danced in the sweet-smelling expanse for as long as she desired. Eventually, she came across a tall dogwood, bearing a fresh plume of her second-favorite flower. She lowered onto the grass beneath it and leaned against the tall tree’s trunk, sighing with delight as her vision scanned across the vast fields of crimson perfection that mixed with the clear skies above.
The rose: a delicate, but painful token of love symbolized both her body and mind. Ever since she was young and small, the cerise flower played a key role in helping her realize who she truly was. They weren’t the most pleasant memories she possessed, but even to this day she couldn’t help but look back on those times in her life and smile knowing that she had come so far from where she once was.
Roseluck smiled. Her life was in its period of exactness. She had friends, family, and a very special talent to fit them all.
Thanks, dad…
The thoughts of the flower-bid mare suddenly cut to black. The field, the tree, the warm sun, and even the ground beneath her feet suddenly vanished into nothing, leaving her surrounded in darkness with a pitch black dropout. With no ground beneath to hold her up, Roseluck fell into the pit of emptyness, screaming all the way as her dream-state being fell into the black oblivion.
Roseluck’s screams carried into the real world, serving as a frightening and quite literal wake up call. She hurled herself off her pillow, her cream-colored body covered in cold sweat. She snatched her pillow and hid her face behind it, keeping her teary eyes peeked over it as she scanned her bedroom for the things that go bump in the night. Thankfully, not an eye or ear of a potential intruder cut through the silence, save her own rapid panting.
Roseluck sighed, wiping her perspiring brow. Thank Celestia it wasn’t a monster, otherwise she would be up all night crying horror until sunrise. With her mind now at rest, she replaced her pillow and fell back onto it, pulling her blankets over her icy body. Such a terrifying ordeal would not allow her to sleep easily. Her recent lucid dream had to have been the best one she’s had so far, and getting back into the mood wasn’t going to be easy. A quick glance to her alarm clock nearby revealed that dawn was just a few hours away. Such much for the good old eight hours…
Just as she shut her eyes in readiness for sleep, her ears caught the sounds of low mumbles coming from somewhere in the room. Her fear of intruders in the house was reactivated, and instead of choosing to investigate, she kept her eyes shut, forcing them to stay closed even tighter as the mumbling steadily grew louder, soon evolving into a strange, slurred hissing like a pack of cobras had slithered into her room.
Soon enough, her fears got the better of her, and she dared herself to open her eyes for just a quick peek, but she soon came to regret that decision when her eyes fell upon five, blackened silhouettes clinging to the ceiling above her head. She screamed, bolting out of her bed and making a bee line for the door. When she was only within mere inches of freedom and sanctuary, an intense pain caught her on the back of head, sending her sprawling to the hardwood floor in a daze. Her vision turned cloudy and bleak, soon fading to black altogether as three bug-like pairs of eyes slowly approached her battered form.
~~~~~
An intense coldness washed over her face. Roseluck slowly opened her eyes, rising from her untimely nightmare. Her vision was cloudy, everything that came to her showing up as mere indescribable blobs of dreary colors.
What a horrible dream… she thought to herself.
Her stomach growled, begging for a much-needed breakfast. After last night’s three-times-over ordeal of frights, her body most certainly needed a bit of relaxation. The pastel mare released a garbled, lazy yawn as she reached for her pair of morning glasses on her bedside nightstand, but strangely, about halfway in, her movement was halted. Confused, she tried harder, but soon found that her hoof was pressing against something tough and damp. Did her bedroom shrink in size?
As her brain gradually regained a sense of its surroundings, Roseluck couldn’t help but feel that her bedroom was suddenly a lot…colder than it was before. And were those the sounds of…toads?
“Splash her again. More water this time.”
A double dose of bone-chilling liquid splashing on her face sent Roseluck into a panic. Her eyesight refocused itself, the first clear images of her rude awakening coming into view at last.
Roseluck found herself in a cage of tightened, dripping vines, staring face to face with what only her mind could believe was the insectoid queen herself, Queen Chrysalis. From what she heard about a year ago, this was the creature responsible for nearly taking over all of Equestria by defeating Princess Celestia and sucking the love out of the many citizens of Canterlot. Her hyperventilation ran in direct proportion with her rapidly increasing heartbeat.
“She is awake. Leave us,” spoke the queen, who refused to take her eyes off Roseluck’s pale face.
A hefty weight was lifted from the top of the cage. A winged creature, carrying a rusty, empty bucket between its teeth flew up and away, leaving the mare and the monster to continue their stare down. Roseluck dare not make a sound louder than her owns fleeting breaths.
“Who…you’re that monster who attacked Canterlot just last year!” stammered Roseluck. “I’ve seen you, in all the newspapers! You were--”
Roseluck held her tongue when the dark-coated being rose to her jagged hooves and began approaching the cage. The red-maned mare feared for her life and slowly began to shuffle backwards, but there was only so far she could go before her flank bumped into the back side. She resorted to shrinking into herself, shifting into the furthest corner of the cage and curling into a ball.
The queen stopped, keeping a regal pose while she continued to hold her blank expression.
“Do you fear me?” hissed Chrysalis.
“W-w-what?” stammered Roseluck, shivering. “What do you mean? Where am I?”
“Do you fear me?” Chrysalis spiked in a more stern tone of voice. “Answer the question.”
“…yes?” Roseluck fearfully squeaked, retreating deeper into herself.
“…fine.”
Chrysalis plopped down onto her rump before slowly slouching to the ground. Shame filled the expressionless gaps on her face as she ogled meaninglessly at the cold dirt beneath her. Roseluck watched the queen sulk with eyes spooling a mixture of both worry and deep confusion. She uncoiled herself and rose to lie on her stomach. She hadn’t the slightest as to what to make of it, seeing an evil being openly express a feeling other than pure hate for whoever crossed their path.
Chrysalis looked up and stared at the mare, and the mare stared back at her. The queen’s emerald eyes twinkled with what Roseluck could only describe as something along the line of remorse with a touch of guilt, but for what? Not too long ago, she was at home laying…almost comfortably in her soft, warm bed, until those horrid creatures showed up out of nowhere and knocked her senseless. Something so terrifying had to have been nothing more than a dream. Sadly, she was wrong. Has the whole world been turned upside down? Was there some sort of magical equinox that caused all the world’s evil to take a few steps towards the lighter side?
Wait a minute… thought Roseluck. That…thing sitting on top of this cage. Was that what I think it was?
“Forgive me,” hissed the queen.
Hearing such words coming from such an evil being baffled Roseluck in every way possible. Before she could even open her mouth to respond, Roseluck’s body was engulfed in a veil of green, stinging magic, bringing with it a torrent of pain. The young mare writhed back and forth, moaning in excruciating agony. It was like a great conflagration had erupted inside of her body, comparable only to the biggest wildfires.
“Don’t try to resist. It will only get worse if you do,” stated the queen, continuing her assault on her prisoner’s contorting form.
From underneath Roseluck’s white-colored coat, there seeped a smooth, streamline wisp of pink energy. At first, the wisps resisted the queen’s power, trying their hardest to break free. Chrysalis pressed on, doubling the strength of her magic to act as a potent magnet. Her added efforts prevailed, and the wisps were caught and focused into her jagged horn.
Exhausted, the queen rested her head on the ground, profusely venting her raspy breaths.
Roseluck felt incredibly weak, as if a giant leech from Froggy Bottom Bog had sucked her body free of blood in a single gulp. She was so drained that she could not keep her head up, and her body went limp as a result.
What she had just experienced was so mind-bogglingly strange that putting it into words would be next to nigh impossible. A quiet ‘thank you’ was all she heard before her body caved in to its weakness, and with a final, slated breath, the mare slipped into unconsciousness.