Keep her?!
Do you question my judgment, commander?
N-no, my queen! It’s just that—
Just what, commander?
…nothing, your highness.
I understand your worry, but this is the only way I can provide for him. Now, take the swarm and search for love. I will stay here and tend to Ditto. No one is to enter my chambers, save you. Is that understood?
Yes, my queen.
~~~~~
She could recall no dreams as Roseluck was reawakened by a rogue beam of sunlight shining down upon her face. She yawned and moaned lazily, for her body still felt weak and frail, but an enticing scent wafted through the air and into her open nostrils, coaxing her to rise from the hard ground she lay on.
The mare rubbed the tension out of her eyes and did a quick look around for the source of the alluring smell, but her search turned out to be a short one when she discovered that it was right in front of her, in the form of a platter of a small loaf of warm bread and a few bruised apples. A large, metal cup of fresh water stood next to the platter, combining her strong hunger and thirst into one.
She dared not question whether or not she was still within a dream. After all that she had been through, she felt that questioning things would only lead her to more bad luck. Her stomach growled fiercely and she dove straight for the food, greedily stuffing the loaf into her mouth and flushing it down with a swig of water, which was surprisingly cold, which thankfully aided in holding back the skin-tingling humidity that surrounded her.
“Ah. You’re awake…” hissed an eerily familiar voice nearby. “That’s good…”
Roseluck went wide-eyed. She dropped the apple she was about to take a hefty bite out of and slowed her chewing to a halt. She looked up from the platter, and almost gasped when she saw Queen Chrysalis once again staring at her with worried eyes from outside her chamber of confinement. She swallowed hard, but soon discovered the consequences of not chewing your food properly first. She coughed repeatedly, gagging on the pastry stuck in her throat.
Chrysalis sighed. “Here. Let me help you.”
The queen’s horn lit up with magic, and Roseluck’s water cup was lifted from the ground and up to her lips. Desperate, the mare snatched the cup out of the air and drained it of its precious liquid. Her forced food went down, and her raspy coughing slowed to a stop.
“Are you alright?” asked Chrysalis.
“Alright?” Roseluck looked back at Chrysalis and scowled. “Alright?! What am I doing here? What’s going on?”
“P…please, just listen for a moment.”
“Listen? You want me to listen?! Where am I, how did I get here, and what did you do to me last night?!”
“I will explain everything. Just—“
“Yeah yeah. ‘Just listen.’” Roseluck mimicked the queen’s words with a goofy face and her tongue flapping about like a child. “Well you’d better start talking, or else I’m gonna—“
Roseluck was interrupted by the sudden sounds of soft crying coming from outside her damp cell. She could hear squeaking, as if a newborn foal was somewhere in the room.
“Oh great,” Chrysalis huffed, rolling her eyes. “Now you’ve woken him up!” Chrysalis rose from the ground and walked with haste across the room to a small bed of green ivy. The queen reached into the bed and lifted a small bundle out of it, swaddled in a purple blanket that looked like it has seen better days.
“What the…” Roseluck breathed as the queen stubbornly walked back to her place with the squeaking bundle resting on her back. “Who did I wake up?”
“Give me a moment,” Chrysalis sternly ordered as she carefully unwrapped the bundle. Roseluck watched through one of the slits in her cage as the blanket was slowly peeled back, revealing the smooth, darkened face of what she could only guess was an infant. Whatever it was, it was certainly not a foal.
“What on earth is that?” asked Roseluck.
Chrysalis stubbornly ignored the mare’s question, keeping her irritated scowl. The queen then lowered her nose to the squeaking infant and gently began to rub it against its forehead. Her strange caresses had some effect, and the infant’s squeaking was silenced. Roseluck was stunned.
“This is my son,” Chrysalis announced, turning her attention back to Roseluck. “And I expect that you will keep your voice down from now on.”
“Y-your…son?”
Chrysalis nodded.
“Oh…” Roseluck sighed. “But that still doesn’t explain what I’m doing here!”
Chrysalis felt that a good, thunderous retort would silence the annoying mare, but quickly backed down from the idea, thinking about her son first.
“Well?” Roseluck continued, raising an eyebrow.
“Give me a few moments peace, and you will have your answers. Now, keep your voice down, and listen.”
Roseluck groaned and frowned, irately hunching her back.
“Fine.”
Chrysalis smiled weakly. She looked away from Roseluck, deciding on where she should begin.
“Several months ago, I was informed by one of my own that I was…pregnant, and thus I gave birth to my son only a week ago.”
“And that’s a surprise to you?” Roseluck looked confused. “You’ve got like hundreds of children, or whatever the hay they are.”
“That’s not how it works!”
“Oh really?”
“Yes, really. We changelings do not work like you ponies do,” Chrysalis guffawed. “This one is special…”
“Shouldn’t you feel that way about all of your children? You know, like a good mother should?”
“Well…yes, but this one is special in his own way.”
“How so?”
Chrysalis smiled again and lifted the bundle into her embrace. She completely unwrapped it and set the blanket off to the side. The infant opened his eyes and smiled up at his mother, whose smile grew even wider as she playfully nuzzled her son’s cheek.
“Erm…what was your name again?” asked Chrysalis.
“I never told you,” replied the mare, glaring. “Roseluck. It’s Roseluck.”
The infant reached up and brushed his tiny hooves against Chrysalis’s nose, causing her to giggle silently. To Roseluck, seeing the queen smile or even say she was sorry was a strange enough occurrence as it was, but hearing her giggle? There was no greater mystery.
“Well then, Roseluck, this is Ditto, the first changeling ever born in over five-hundred years.”
“I j-ju…what?! How is that possible? Are you things immortal or something?”
“Once again, that is not how it works. It would take too long for me to explain it, but even now it pains me knowing that my own burden is why you are here…” Chrysalis frowned.
“What…what do you mean?” Roseluck started to become worried.
“What I did to you last night…it was for him,” Chrysalis gestured a hoof towards Ditto. “As you may already know, love is our only source of food in this world, and it’s becoming scarcer each day…”
“I-I don’t follow.” Roseluck felt an uncomfortable pang in the pit of her gut.
“My changelings are dying. We raid towns and passersby for whatever love there is to be had, which is absorbed in the form of an exotic energy, but sadly, our hunger is never sated. It is simply not enough. We must have sustenance, or else we will wither away and die. What I did to you last night was…regrettable, but it was the only way I could provide for Ditto.”
“So you…drained me?”
“I did more than that. I had to. It took a great deal of my power, but know that what I am about to tell you I did only because I was desperate…”
Her knees began to quake and her mind felt on edge as fear surfaced in the mare’s heart.
“Roseluck, my newest emotions force me to give my greatest and most sincere of apologies, but a piece of your own soul is now bound with me. You can never leave this place.”
Roseluck’s eyes nearly popped out of her head with shock. Her breaths became ragged as she slowly backed into the cage’s south wall.
“W-what d-do you m-mean?” Roseluck shivered.
“I mean what I said, Roseluck. The love your body now generates is what feeds my son. You are his source of food. You may try to escape, but each time you will find it impossible.”
“L-Love doesn’t work that way!”
“You’d be amazed at what a little magic can do.”
“B-But I have friends! I have a family!” Roseluck broke down, letting tears fly loose from her eyes. “You can’t do this!”
“I have to do this! Don’t you get it?!” Chrysalis yelled, her own emerald eyes now quivering. “Without you, my son will die!”
“B-but you love him, right? Can’t you just feed him with your own love?”
“I’m afraid not. I have never transferred love from my own body before. The risks are too great,” Chrysalis sighed. “Besides, I need this love to feed myself. My changelings gather their own under a temporary leadership. What I did to you was in the form of a powerful spell of my own design. Your own heart now works like a factory. So long as it is nourished, it will continue to produce love.”
“Th-then I’ll just s-starve myself to death! Huh? How does that make you feel?”
“There are more ways than one to force feed a pony, Roseluck.”
Roseluck looked away, desperately searching for even the slightest glint of hope.
“Th-the guards! M-my friends! They’ll be worried sick about me! They’ll send out search parties, lots of them, and when they don’t find me in Ponyville, then even you can guess where they’ll look next!”
“Nopony would ever dare attack our homeland directly. Many will perish if they try.”
This isn’t happening! This isn’t happening! This is all just a dream! One big, horrible dream! thought Roseluck, biting her lower lip until it bled. I’m just going to shut my eyes, and wake up in bed! Safe and sound!
Roseluck followed her thoughts. Multiple times she closed her eyes and hoped of reawakening in her own bed, but each time she did, she only found herself in the same, unbelievable nightmare. She curled into the fetal position and buried her face between her knees, bawling.
Chrysalis wiped a tear from her eyes and flicked it off to the side. “Forgive me, Roseluck, but this is the only way…”
As disturbing as it was, all through the while, Ditto continued to smile away. He reached down and gnawed on one of his own, tiny hooves to entertain himself. Though cute, it brought no new smiles to his mother’s stricken face.
“I’m sorry, Roseluck. I’m sorry…”
A ten-ton deadweight of negative emotions pressed down hard on the queen’s motherly mind. Chrysalis rewrapped Ditto in his blanket before walking back across the room and placing him in his crib to rest. She turned to leave the room, but stopped at the exit and turned back to face Roseluck, whose shuttered eyes continued to flow with tears. She had nothing more to say. Something of this nature would weigh down on her memory for countless years, but she kept her conscience from collapsing completely with one, single thought.
Whatever she had to do, whatever risks she had to take, it was all for Ditto’s sake. With a hefty sigh, the queen left the room, leaving Roseluck to wallow in misery.