//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 - Exploration // Story: After All, We're The Same? // by DudyMooner //------------------------------// Chapter 3 - Exploration Today I'm asking myself: what day is it? Recently, I keep asking myself what time it is, what day it is, what year it is. It's getting very strange, I've never felt this way before as far as I can remember, could it be the effects of defeat? One day I'll find out. These days I'm just exploring all the place I have left after the "Big Blow", and I admit I'm feeling strange things coming from this forest, once I had seen a spirit that was laughing at my face, even if I tried to haunt it too, it was no use, it was too resistant, the other day I saw a tree being killed by a pony that was giant, I wonder if it was my imagination, and I'm thinking that's what it is. Why is this happening to me? Defeat isn't enough, now I'm seeing hauntings coming from an abandoned forest. I was in a cave which, luckily, didn't have any creatures in it, it was near a misty mountain, I say that because it was always so foggy that you couldn't see the top of the mountain, that's not common, on the other side there was a valley, which by the way had red, green and yellow flowers, the forest has three lakes, two of which are near the misty mountain, the third was in the right part of the valley, and led to a beautiful river. During the day, it's not very complicated to live, not least because no creature is seen by me, I think I must be the only one in this forest, I don't even know which direction I went after I left my Hive. Normally the sun shone a lot, it just didn't shine on that mountain and in some parts where it leads close to a plateau, that's nature. At night is when the nightmares begin, spirits appearing from some unknown place, some whispers coming from trees, lakes making sounds that seem to be strong waves, false landslides, and on special occasions, blizzards that can be sand or others. The place may be beautiful, but it's bizarre. I've had another problem since I left the Hive: hunger. Usually, when I wake up, I start to feel my stomach rumbling and I always hiss when this happens, it's like waking up from a nightmare. I hate it when that happens, feeling hungry is the worst thing a changeling could have, and for me it was no different, when I was still leading the Hive, I would eat a portion of love at least every four days, and now since there are no creatures or ponies in the forest, I wouldn't eat any love, why did I get myself into this place... Combined with the effects of defeat, the ghoulish forest and hunger, it's my worst phase in many, many years of my life, and I swear that one day I'll get out of this place to have my precious revenge on everyone who betrayed me, and especially Starlight Glimmer, that pony... Today I would wake up in the same way as the rest of the days, scared, distressed and with my stomach rumbling with hunger, as I said, waking up like a nightmare. After opening my eyes, I got up and looked at the day, it was nothing much, just Celestia's sun shining on the entire forest, even though I hated it every morning, I had to put up anyway. I started walking through the forest to see if there was anything new, first by the two mountains, and there was nothing but a dry wind and the eternal fog, then I went to see the three lakes, and all of them, incredible as it may seem, were completely clean, I found it strange since at least one of them was dirty with something, and yesterday I heard the sounds of waves coming from one of the lakes, but continuing on, I passed the plateau that led to an immense darkness, and there was nothing wrong there, and finally, I went to see the valley, and I found something that could be useful, it seemed to be the blood of a creature that had passed through here. It would be time to look into it. I smelled the blood and the creature seemed to be a manticore, which was interesting, it could be my first prey, I started to follow the trails that went down the valley, it wasn't long before I found the manticore, I was surprised to see that it was already dead, I started to get a little frightened, but I put it aside and went to drain its love, it wasn't much either since it was dead, I was kind of satisfied and eventually, I started to hear voices. These voices were recognizable, but I had to make sure they were. The voice began to speak. "Chrysalis!!!" That was the exact moment I realized what this voice was, I started to get very angry and reluctant, it was the pony I hated the most in my entire life, Starlight Glimmer. "REVEAL YOURSELF!" "Oh, darling..." The voice said with a slight laugh. "You don't have to be so angry!" Is it serious that a voice was taunting me in the broad daylight? "I'm not joking, so where are you!?" I asked, still annoyed. "How can you not know!? Try to find your little friend, hehe," the pony's voice said. "You are NOT my "little friend"!" I said, lifting my hooves at the last word. "So that's how it's going to be, huh...Chrysalis." The only thing I could do now was run away from this bizarre forest, it could be my turn to be killed, I started flying fast down the valley and heading to the plains, but the voice was chasing me. "Chrysalis!" I tried to see if there was a voice, but there was no one, as if it were a ghost or an invisible spirit haunting me, I was getting close to the plain and the forest was becoming darker in the face of the bright sun. There's something wrong. "Chrysalis!" The voice was still repeating my name as I went down, I reached the plain and headed in a straight direction, I just wanted to get out of this forest and go somewhere safer, even though it's beautiful to stay there, it's dangerous too. "Chrysalis! Come back!" Flying for minutes, I reached a sandy plateau, it wasn't the same as the other one, but it seemed to be a division, I stopped to see a little more, there was a small river passing by and another forest ahead, being a little clearer than the one I was in, and it seemed to be a little familiar too. It was my chance to get out of this forest for ever. "CHRYSALIS!" And in the end, I jumped, flew down and then passed very close to the river, until I started flying up again and landed in the new forest, no more nightmares in the other forest, fortunately. Time to see what we have here. When I entered the forest, I saw that there were some lighter and darker parts, just like the other, but I started to explore a little more and realized that there were some places that had creatures, at least this one wasn't abandoned, I found some common ones and some dangerous ones like the Ursa Major, there were also the Cockatrices, which just draining their love wouldn't be a problem for me. Until when I entered one of the open parts of the forest, I came across an isolated structure located after a small bridge, and I recognized what it was. "The Castle of the Two Sisters" Having said that, I went inside the castle, there were several things that were still standing, such as parts of the roof, the princesses' rooms, dark and empty hiding places and finally, the library, I smiled at that moment because I would find something useful for my sweet and great revenge. I'd come back later to see more. Most importantly, I already knew where I was, and my revenge would begin from now on, I will dominate all of Equestria, I will take revenge for everything they did to me! And I'll be queen again, whatever it takes. Now I was going to stay in the Everfree Forest.