I give thanks to my new editor, Serene Breeze for helping me out with these chapters! Go ahead. Hit up his page and stay for a little while.
Have they been kept separate from the others?
Yes, my queen. They are under my jurisdiction when I am around, and they remain under lock and key when I am not. The rest of the hive never even knew that they left.
Good. Make sure that they never breathe a word of what they did. I myself made it perfectly clear to them. Should they try…you know what to do.
~~~~~
The vibrant glows of the luminescent, multi-colored plants wisped against the motherly queen’s face like dim candles. They glowed in shades of red, blue, green, violet, and so many other eye-catching hues. Their thick leaves and beautiful petals smelled of all sorts of luxurious fancies, such as berry, ginger, and sweet smelling honey.
Of course, as Chrysalis had always known, these scents were only emitted by these viciously carnivorous plants to lure their unsuspecting prey to their deaths. The mesmerizing seduction would lead their prey into their sticky, gourd-like chambers where it was caught in an entanglement of hair-thin barbs before their acidic digestive juices finished them off. Had Chrysalis not stepped in earlier, Ditto would have been done for.
The dangers of the queen’s private hot springs were few and far between, but all the more harmful should one venture too close. It wasn’t exactly like a day at a fancy spa, but even the wilderness of the Everfree held its own special surprises. Where else in the world could one bathe in such natural luxury?
Ditto playfully splashed around in the spring’s steaming hot waters. Chrysalis had always enjoyed coming here in the past. It was one of the few places she knew of where she could go to wash her many troubles away in warm, soothing leisure. Only two changelings knew of its exact location within the hive, the queen of course and the changeling of the next highest rank: the commander. Only the queen herself was ever allowed to touch its waters, mostly out of respect for the sacred location, but usually out of fear of exile, or worse.
Now, it was Ditto’s turn to experience the pleasurable balminess of the springs. It was his bath time, his first bath time to be exact, and everything from his head to his hooves was in need of a good cleaning. Being only an infant, he managed to get himself quite messy sometimes when his mother was not around. Long rainfalls created small pools of mud for him to splash around in, and the elements of the forest became involved in the sullying as well when his mother would find the dry remains of dead bugs and clumps of dust and dirt in his short, streaking hair.
Chrysalis flinched in surprise when she was hit with a wave of hot water. Her mane fell limp over her eyes, obscuring her vision in a cracked veil of blue. Ditto found his mother’s new look to be quite silly, resulting in a fit of squeaky, joyful laughter.
The head-soaked queen sighed, spitting out a small trickle of the hot water. She raised a hoof to her forehead and parted her ruined mane aside. Ditto continued to giggle away while his mother looked down at him with a sheepish smile on her face.
What am I going to do with you? thought Chrysalis as she scratched the underside of Ditto’s chin.
Chrysalis sighed peacefully once again and returned to her caring drudgery. She placed one hoof on Ditto’s head, making him sit still while she gently scrubbed his forelegs and armpits. Ditto giggled softly with every move she made. She then went on to cleaning his wispy, blue mane, being sure to get behind the ears, which no doubt held a plethora of hidden muck. Eventually, the queen finished her work, leaving Ditto well and clean. She lifted her son out of the hot spring and moved him to a nearby steam vent to dry off.
“You summoned me, my queen?”
Chrysalis looked away from her smiling son, who was favorably enjoying himself in the heat of the vent, and turned to face the commander standing at the open entrance to the spring. She could hardly recall ever sending for the commander, but her earlier reasons for doing so soon reappeared in her mind after a moment of mental digging. The long distance communication system of the hive mind worked similar to that of the mythical mind power known to some as telepathy, but this slightly diverse, more integrated system had its own set of irreparable flaws. Sometimes, certain messages tended to “get lost” in the system, thus resulting in a delayed arrival to their recipient. Yes, it tended to get annoying, but neither unicorns, nor the princesses possessed or could ever hope to possess such a unique form of messaging.
“Yes, I did,” replied Chrysalis. “Roseluck. I wish to see her, but not where she lay now. Bring her to me at once.”
“What if she resists?” asked the commander.
“I’m sure you can find ways to improvise. Just don’t harm her.” Chrysalis added stress to her voice. “Understand?”
“Yes, my queen.”
~~~~~
Roseluck awoke several hours later in a daze. Her ears were ringing painfully and her skin felt pasty to the touch. She slowly opened her eyes and found her vision obscured by a soft, flat sheet of white that reeked of dampness and a smell so strange that she could only describe it as the smell of “vine juices.” It was only seconds later when she discovered that she was staring into her own unclean coat that became dirty as a result of being exposed to the harsh elements.
She lifted her head up to the sky and shook it back and forth to forcefully regain her senses. The sun had set long ago, with the moon claiming its place on the throne high in the dark blue sky, surrounded with countless stars.
Roseluck had cried herself to sleep long ago. Even now her eyes still stung with the salty remnants of her dried tears. Her eyes were thoroughly wrung out. She had no more sorrow to shed.
Mom…Dad… thought Roseluck, frowning. Lily…Daisy…I’ll never get to see them again…
The ringing in the mare’s ears stopped, bringing in the night’s many ambient clamors. Cicadas, crickets, frogs, and toads all sang the songs of their people, but Roseluck paid no mind to nature’s banter. Her heart lay heavy in her chest, weighed down with hopelessness. She put a hoof directly over it. She could feel it beating softly, pumping normally as usual, but just then, another feeling began to make itself known. It was a strange tingle of sorts that she had never felt before, like an invisible rope had a tight grip around her heart. It was the pure essence of love no doubt, her heart slaving away at the will of an evil queen.
She had already doubted it several times over, but the mare still deeply wished that this was all just a dream, or even a terrible nightmare. She didn’t care. Stuff like this only happened in fairy tales and old legends, never to occur in the real world.
Why me…why me of all ponies?
Roseluck stretched her legs and slid down to the soft, moist floor. She lay down on one side before rolling onto her back, staring up at the moon on high. Thankfully, the despicable empress responsible for her inner sorrow was nowhere to be seen, leaving her with some remotely quiet time to think.
If she could truly never leave this place, then what was going to happen to her in the future? Would she simply grow old and die alone? Would she be confined to this cage forever, slowly driving her to a point of madness? Or would she choose to travel down a much…darker path, leading to a more permanent way of ending her suffering for good?
She wanted to rid her mind of these murky contemplations, but as they came around, each one revealed itself to lead only to the inevitable, like a boomerang with serrated edges.
Roseluck was a hopeless prisoner, and the infant son of a malicious, coldhearted queen dangled the keys to her freedom in front of her face as if they were mere toys.
A part of her wanted to die, right there and then, while another part wanted to beg for clemency, to try its hardest to find another way out of this dreadful new reality, but what was the point in taking a side? She knew where she stood now. It was a place she had always feared, for it was a place without friends. The choices she made in her younger years had brought her here only once before. She had waded within its grim waters and experienced the prick of its spiteful ilk, and now she was right back where she began, in a place she had never hoped to see again so long as she lived.
Solitude.
The sound of rustling leaves and ivy caught the mare’s attention, but only for a short while. She brushed it off as a mere trick of the wind and returned to her lonesome sulking.
“My queen wishes to see you,” hissed an uncomfortably new voice from nearby. “Rise.”
“No,” Roseluck sternly retorted, rolling her eyes to look at the newcomer. A changeling no less, wearing a crude suit of armor that looked like it came out of a dumpster. Just what she needed in her moment of displeasure. “Your queen, and her son, can rot in Tartarus for all I care. They both deserve it…”
The changeling hissed with angered intimidation, but Roseluck kept her eyes focused on the nighttime sky above. It was clear that she wanted to be alone to soak up the heartbreak of her new reality, but the changeling would have none of it. It backed down, regaining only a minor sliver of formality to cool its high temper.
“Don’t make me drag you to her,” the changeling continued. “Because I know some really nice thorn bushes along the way.”
Roseluck was starting to become irritated. Her sadness contorted into anger, and she replied with thunder in her voice.
“Go ahead! See if I care,” Roseluck replied, huffing her breath. “Your queen already took my life away, and she knows it! If she wants it done twice, then be my guest.”
The changeling was abnormally taken aback, unsure of what to do next. The look on its face gave the impression that it expected the prisoner to fall to her knees and beg for forgiveness.
“Well?” Roseluck snapped, turning her head and glaring at her bug-eyed adversary.
With no viable persuasion methods left in mind, the armored changeling grunted in bitter defeat.
“Thought so!” Roseluck snapped again, returning her gaze to the stars.
“I do not wish to upset my queen, pony, but I was given strict orders to deliver you to the hot springs by any means necessary, and if that means dragging you there, then so be it!”
“Hot springs?” said Roseluck, turning her head back to the changeling with a confused look on her face. “What for?”
“How should I know? Maybe to clean your filthy pony body. Just look at you! Such a disgusting worm like you doesn’t even deserve to breath among us! I’ve seen swamp toads cleaner than you!”
“I-I j-ju…what?!” Roseluck bared her teeth, leaping to her hooves and stomping as close to the front of the cage as she could to meet her scaly opposer eye to eye. “Who are you calling filthy, pea-brain?!”
“Scum!”
“Creep!”
“Repugnant!”
“Wretch!”
“Enough!”
“Or what?” Roseluck guffawed. “You gonna go cry to your mommy? In that case, go right ahead! Some tough changeling you turned out to be.”
The armored nemesis looked as if it was on the verge of going ballistic. It bared its teeth, ready to lash out in fury, but was soon forced to regain a calm manner, remembering why it was here.
“You’re testing my patience, pony,” the changeling angrily groaned.
“And you’re bothering me, bug-eyes,” replied Roseluck. “So why don’t you do me a favor and buzz off!”
“You’re coming with me one way or another!” The grumpy changeling turned its neck and reached around its backside, poking its holey muzzle into a side pocket of its crude armor.
“Well, let’s take a short look at the facts here. I’m in here for the rest of my life, and you’re out there with that cold, heartless, vile creature you call a--!”
A sudden flash of light blinded Roseluck for a few short moments, taking her by surprise. Loud clangs of metal followed by a double repetition of swift, choppy gusts in the air made her flinch in fear, making her cover her eyes and cower low to the ground. Seconds later, the mare cautiously reopened her eyes, which immediately widened in shock when they fell upon the changeling looming above her, who now looked down upon her with an annoyed, angry look on its face. The front, vine bars of the cage were gone, cut down with ease by a slightly rusty sword held between the changeling’s sharp teeth.
The vicious warrior lowered the tip of its weapon to the mare’s forehead. Roseluck squeaked and bent lower to the cold floor.
“Get up, pony! My queen is expecting you…”