A loud crack broke the silence in a barren canyon, miles from the Equestrian border, resulting in numerous echoes down the length of the towering stone walls pocked with dark caverns and caves. The two intruders of the silence looked about for a greeting, fully expecting a violent welcoming party waiting for them, but their presumptions were disappointed as the silence resumed after the cacophony of echoes receded. The high cliffs peered down at them, adding their ominous presence to the death-glare given by the ever present moon held aloft by one of the pair. The shadowy mare stood next to her distorted father, the only one with a look of apprehension on her face in comparison to the smug look on the draconequus at her side.
"I absolutely love what Chryssy did with the place. It looks so... uninhabitable. Delightful!"
Nightmare shrugged off her insane father and walked deeper into the canyon, eager to be done with this. He followed soon after, talking idly about how beautiful the barren ground and sandy rocks were and about how he planned the make some area of Equestria like this, "Perhaps Ponyville."
Nightmare accidentally let out a sigh of contempt, eliciting a glance from Discord. "Nervous about seeing your dear sister again?"
"No." she responded flatly.
He laughed then, but didn't respond as he glanced at a particularly small cavern. "We have an audience my dear," he said, indicating to the dark hole.
Her cat-like eyes could see through the dark more clearly than in the day, so she spotted a black figure watching from the opening in the wall. The figure turned and vanished deeper into the cavern as Nightmare's eyes found it its form vinishing into darkness that even her eyes could not penetrate.
The duo continued down the rocky aisle, spotting numerous appearances of black forms amongst the shadows as they delved deeper into the crags. After several minutes of the walk, they came upon an abrupt end to the canyon, a sheer wall towering over then rising hundreds of feet into the stale air with a massive cave near the top. Midnight Moon unfurled her wings and took flight as Discord just levitated up the side of the cliff without even using his mismatched wings.
"Lazy geezer." the mare mumbled to herself as she floated above him on her wings. A strong flap lifted her into the lip of the cave and she set down as Discord appeared beside her. Pulling her wings to her side, she looked about the dark cavern. Gooey webs were plastered to the walls, stretching across the ceiling covering every inch of bare rock. The webs congealed over a spire of rock in the shape of a throne in the center of the room. Midnight's eyes detected small movements over the slimy walls and she squinted to get a better view.
"Can't see a thing, how about some light, hmm?" Discord suddenly held aloft a orb of light, throwing its wan glow upon the walls that sent a chill down Midnight's spine. Hundreds of insectoid creatures crawled over the webbing like ants, snarling with venom dripping off bared fangs. Several green eyes glare at the offending lights and took to the air on beetle-like wings. Her gaze was drawn to the throne in the center of the room where Chrysalis sat with the body of an unknown stallion twitching before her throne.
Her serpentine eyes glared at the intruders on her feeding as the mare crouched with a glowing horn, ready for a fight. The one beside her, however, sat back in a fluffy armchair and pulled a box of popcorn from out of nowhere, popping a few kernels into his mouth, looking every bit as relaxed as if he were watching a play.
Chrysalis halted her children and gave her calm, yet preposterous father the mos heated glare she could summon. The changelings gave her hundreds of mental complaints, but they froze on their webs, eying her guests hungrily with desperate eyes. "What do you want Dad?" she asked quickly. The chair and popcorn vanished as her Father rose to his feet.
"Is it really so bad seeing me again Chryssy?"
"You know I hate that nickname, don't call me that."
He walked closerand placed an arm arm around her neck casually, making her children all round tense. "Relax hon, no need to be rude. After all you haven't seen your sister in what, three thousand years?"
Her eyes flicked to Nightmare Moon, her apparent sister.
"Four by my count, and I remember killing her. Besides this one looks nothing like her."
"Because of you I am forced to survive by taking over someponies body. This body you see is that of the Princess Luna."
A pleased expression slid across Chrysalis' face as she heard of her vengeance being exercised by her sister, the one pony she could say she was happy that she had killed. "Well I am glad the royal family is being torn asunder. But what about Princess Cadence? She and her accursed husband are the ones who defeated me."
"I didn't really check to see about her, but my chaotic influence will keep their love from doing anything. Don't worry Chryssy, Cadence is not the reason we have come."
The insectoid mare glared at her father at the mention of her nickname, but said nothing about it. Instead she asked what exactly that reason was.
"Why, Equestria is beginning to die and the only ones who can save it are Celestia and her father. However Cosmos' is out of commission, so we are presenting you with the opportunity to-"
Chrysalis shook her head and cut him off, "You never look but two seconds in front of you Dad. You live for the moment and take no heed of what will come after your "fun". If everypony dies, then there is nothing for my children to feed on. They will all die from lack of nourishment, the lack of ponies to drink from. This stallion happens to be the first I've had in days before you so rudely interrupted me. So what will I do after Equestria is destroyed?"
"You aren't exactly doing so hot out here, girly. You rarely make raids or attacks. You could move into Equestria and form a nest somewhere where ponies are more readily available at the very least. What are you doing out here miles from anything?"
The changeling queen sighed at Discord's ignorance on how her species functioned, even though he had been with her for thousands of years. "My brood requires drones to find somewhere that would work as well as getting back. The border guard is harder to dodge than you might think and drones take a long time to produce, a couple of months each. I am not here because of laziness, but because of the difficulty of moving some two hundred thousand infant and adult changelings without anypony noticing."
"The question is: Will you help us Sissy?"
Chrysalis rose to her hooves and looked at her children lining the walls. A mental command shuffled them into columns and rows across the floor. She turned her green eyes to her family and gave a toothy grin. "As long as you keep the land alive so my minions can feed after we take the throne, then I will help you."
******
Dawn Star stood watch on the wooden wall along the border, swaddled in blankets as his heart pumped rapidly to fend off the cold. His sword sat in its sheath across his lap, further hindering his efforts to keep warm as the freezing steel penetrated the thin layer of fur on his skin. Goosebumps rose with a shiver all along his body as the winds cut through the blankets wrapped over his shoulders, making him even more uncomfortable.
The ever-present moon hung listlessly, bathing the brown grass in a ghostly, ethereal glow as fickle shadows played games on the earth below. An owl perched upon the ramparts, hooting quietly and startling Dawn in the light of the moon. In the stallion's mind, he wished to see his namesake once again, partly to see its gorgeous sunshine he missed so much and also to banish this relentless cold. He watched the horizon, eying the distant cliffs that presented the threat that the wall was built for. He had never seen a changeling before, though his fellows often came to the barracks brimming with tales of fighting and capturing the insectoid ponies and he had heard enough about them to hope that he never would encounter one.
His reasoning was that the others who had seen them always mentioned their ability to feed on emotions such as love. Dawn didn't know exactly what that meant, but because he loved his wife, Rose, he couldn't imagine life without feeling love again.
He was leaning against the guard tower, thinking about Rose and how much he missed her, when he spotted something, a flicker of black against the brown ground, a shadow that moved in a way that shadows did not. Instantly alert, he threw off the thin blankets and strapped his sword to his waist, and was greeted with the stabbing cold that cut through his fur. Again the shadow moved and he ducked down behind a crenelation so that only his eyes peered over the walls, trying to remain unseen. He watched as the shadow stepped into the moonlight and the white beams reflected off of a shiny armor of chitin. Dawn gasped as he saw the figure and dread filled his heart. The changeling's head snapped to the surge of emotion where he was located and leaped into the frozen air, wings buzzing madly like a giant mosquito.
The creature dashed for the wall on his wings as Dawn scampered up a ladder on the side of the tower and grabbed a torch. He made for a large basin with the torch in his grasp but was knocked sprawling onto the stones. The torch rolled away and guttered out on the floor. The changeling dove at Dawn as he scrambled to his hooves and tried to draw his sword. However the steel stuck fast to its sheath, frozen by the night frost to its metal home. Dawn was hit hard by the creature and was pinned to the ground by holey hooves. A shiny black face stared down at him and snarled, baring razor-sharp fangs dripping with venom. With his hind legs, he kicked the changeling hard in its gut, cracking the armor and vaulting it off of him.
He quickly rolled to his feet as his attacker did the same and made a grab for another torch, but was cut short as he was yanked to the ground by his hind leg. Dawn rolled over and punched the changeling directly in the nose. The chitin shattered like porcelain and the nose-bone broke and drove itself into the brain of the changeling with a wet crunch. The lifeless body collapsed to the ground as Dawn jumped to his hooves and threw the torch into the basin.
The metal tub erupted into flames as the oil inside took light, making light and heat erupt from the fire that revealed a cloud of black ponies hovering over the tower. Dawn's last thoughts were that of his beloved wife.