Embracing the Darkness

by BlueAzura

Chapter 16

Celestia’s sun had disappeared over the horizon by the time the changeling and his “package” entered another forest.

The trees were much taller here than the ones in the Everfree, reaching as tall as a fully grown dragon and obviously the most dominate plant-life for miles around. The trees were not only tall but also very wide; each tree trunk was big enough to comfortably hold Twilight’s entire tree-home. The trees’ bark was very smooth and pale, giving the trees an almost ghostly look about them. The forest was a place of whispering thoughts, quiet daydreaming, but most importantly… solitude.

As the changeling journeyed deeper into the forest, the darker everything got and it soon became pitch black. Oddly enough the trees were still visible, giving off a ghostly glow as if it was releasing extra energy. The changeling however didn’t seem to care because he suddenly took a left and entered a hidden entrance on a side of a random tree. Showing no signs of slowing down, the changeling descended a long spiraling staircase and finally burst into a room filled with light. He had to blink a few times to readjust his vision before taking in the sights.

The room, for lack of a better term, appears to be an exact copy of the throne room back in Canterlot; however everything about it appears to have been changed to their polar opposites. The tall pillars and pearly marble floor have been replaced with obsidian and almost seems to absorb light itself. The carpet was dark purple with silver designs made into it, weaved in a delicate manner that reached all the way towards the throne. The throne itself was a mixture of silver and an unknown type of black metal, matching with the entire room but still able to stand out from the rest. The only thing missing from this room was the fact that there are no windows, but considering that this particular throne room was several feet underground, there’s really no surprise there. In place of the windows however were large stone goblets, filled to the brim with dark-blue flames. The room had the feeling of royalty to it and many would have stopped to admire it, but the changeling really could care less at this point.

Twilight felt her whole world shifting as the changeling unceremoniously dumped the unicorn onto the floor. Another thump beside her indicated that her bags were dropped next to her as well. ‘We finally stopped… What’s going to happen to us?’

“Pfff… don’t look at me! I have no idea what sort of crazy thing the changelings have in store for us.”

‘I just hope it doesn’t have to do with forcing us to become slaves, where we’re forced to forever supply the changelings with love for the rest of our lives…’

“That will be… problematic if that’s the case. uhh… You wouldn’t happen to know how the changelings eat love, do you?”

‘Wait! Shh! I think I can hear somepony talking.’

The changeling that delivered the unicorn ran forward and fell into a deep bow. “My Queen, I have returned with a pony the scouts captured during their mission.” After a moment of pause, the changeling could hear the sound of a tall figure slowly moving towards him. Slowing raising his head, the changeling took in the sight of his glorious queen.

The changeling queen was tall, just a head shorter than the current ruler of Equestria, sporting both a sharp horn and bug-like wings. Her mane and tail however didn’t flow like the way the goddess of the sun did, but instead hung limply around her in a cerulean-colored mess. Like all changelings, the queen didn’t have any fur on her body but was instead covered in dark gray, almost considered black, chitin armor. The queen also had a large number of holes drilled through her hooves just like all the others. The thing that seems different with this changeling appears to be only her size, the green chitin on her back, and the fact that she has hair.

Taking her green eyes off of the changeling bowing before her and instead towards the captured pony, the queen spoke, “You have done well my child. Now… release the prisoner so that I may see my prize.” Nodding quickly, the changeling rushed back the cocoon-like cage and gave the shell a quick swipe with his sharp horn.

Twilight felt her cage suddenly release and proceeded to roll out the cocoon with a sickly splat. The unicorn coughed for several minutes, trying to clear all of the green liquid out of her lungs, and sucked in huge gulps of air at the same time. “Where-” *Cough* “…Where am I?”

“You are in a forest that is in-between the White Tail Woods and the Smokey Mountains, however many of your kind confuse it to be part of one or the other. You may call it the Forgotten Forest and it is home to the changelings. My name is Queen Chrysalis and you are one of the many others that we have captured over the years.” The queen of changelings studied the purple unicorn with unblinking eyes. “You will make a fine slave to feed love off of for many years to come.”

Twilight’s eyes grew to the size of dinner plates as all the color drained from her face.

“… Well… it was nice knowing you, Twilight.”

‘Even though our time together wasn’t that great, it was nice knowing you too, Sparkle.’

The unicorn yelped when the changeling that carried her here suddenly doubled over and slumped to the floor. Twitching and whimpering as if he was in intense pain, the changeling weakly lifted a hoof toward his queen. “Please my Queen, I need… help…!”

Chrysalis stared at her servant in shock, quickly rushing to stand before him. “What in Equestria happened to you?” Her horn began glowing in a brilliant green aura as she checked to see what was wrong with her subject.

“Please… make the pain… go away…” pleaded the changeling, tears slowly falling to the floor. It appears that the changeling have been holding back some sort of pain for quite some time, only now losing control and letting it all out in one great swoop.

“Shhh… It’s going to be okay… Your queen will handle this.” The queen gave her servant a gentle pat on the head. The changeling smiled gratefully, closing his eyes and letting the queen’s magic wash over him.

Twilight silently watched the whole scene play out before her, confusion clearly written on her face. ‘What do you think she’s doing?’

Sparkle groaned as if she was slapping her forehead with a hoof. “Do you really want to watch them or do you want to escape, now that they’re distracted…?”

The thought just crossed her mind and she mentally facehoofed herself. ‘Oh yeah… Teleporting is out of the question because we don’t know where we are exactly.’

“Then quickly, to the door… Get that flank moving, girl!” However, before she was able to take a single step, the changeling queen stood up straight. Unfortunately for Twilight, it appears that the queen was very quick and efficient in her work.

The queen’s eyes narrowed slightly when she cut the magic from her horn. “This… this doesn’t make any sense… unless…!” Her eyes flashed dangerously as she rounded about to face the unicorn, who was still on the floor. “You!” Chrysalis didn’t give her a chance to scream before she lifted the unicorn into the air by the neck. “You did something to make him remember! What have you done and how much do you know?!”

Struggling for breathe, Twilight gasped, “I-I don’t know what you’re… talking about!”

Chrysalis roughly threw the unicorn to the ground, who grunted in pain as she landed. “Liar! You will tell me everything you know before I send your pathetic soul to the gates of Tartarus!”

Hurt and still gasping for breath, Twilight tried to crawl away from the crazy queen. She was able to move about an inch before a hoof kicked her in the chest. Groaning and coughing in pain, the unicorn could feel her vision already slipping. She could feel the sensation of something pooling around her and realized that it was her own blood.

“Twilight! Get up! She’s going to kill us at this rate!” Sparkle’s voice sounded angry and panicked at the same time, knowing full well on what’s going to happen next if the unicorn doesn’t do something.

‘I can’t… too much pain… I just need to sleep a little… bit…’ Twilight could feel her vision and breathing slowly growing weaker by the minute.

“Oh, for the love of… then stand aside and do not resist me, Twilight!”

‘What are you-’ Began Twilight, gasping when her vision suddenly turned red, just like many nights ago… But something was wrong.

Queen Chrysalis silently watched the unicorn slowly bleed out before her. ‘I needed her alive, but I seemed to have injured her more than I should have. Perhaps I was too rough with the pony…’ The queen shook her head, turning away as she did so. ‘No, it had to be done… for the safety of the hive, the ponies must never know.’ She only was able to take ten steps before hearing a low growl behind her. Whipping her head back, the queen gaped openly at the unicorn standing back on her hooves! “How… how are you still standing?”

The unicorn didn’t respond, but instead began thrashing her head back and forth as if she was trying to toss water out of her eyes. Her growls turned to dark snarls, almost like a rabid timberwolf, as her entire body violently shook. Without warning, the pony threw her head back and let out a screeching wail as if she was a deranged banshee. The sound could be heard echoing throughout the entire hive, waking everything within it. Most of the changelings looked around confused before realizing that something was happening to their queen. And that she was in mortal danger.

Chrysalis felt as if she was watching a horror movie coming to life before her very eyes. She watched as the pool of blood around the unicorn seem to grow a mind of its own, snaking up the unicorn’s legs and reentering the body through a wide gash on her side. Even as she watched, the queen could see the wound closing as if it was never there to begin with. The unicorn let out another screech into heavens, bits of the ceiling falling to the floor because of how powerful the shout was. The queen suddenly realized that she has been shaking the entire time and that her hooves wouldn’t move, even when she told them to. ‘Am I… afraid? Why does she feel so… familiar?’ She gasped, old memories resurfacing in her mind. ‘No… it can’t be! Can it really be true? Is she-?’ Her suspicions where confirmed when the unicorn brought her head back down to glare at her with red eyes. Deep, blood red eyes… the eyes of a vampony. The changeling queen shuddered when the unicorn opened her mouth and let out a demonic hiss, fangs glinting off of the lights in the room. Black mist appeared out of nowhere and began swirling around the vampony as if she was drawing in the power of shadow itself.

There was a moment of silence before a low rumbling could be heard and felt, growing larger with each passing second. The vampony whirled to face the doorway, the black mist dissipating, as a huge group of changelings burst through. They poured into the room like a large wave, attempting to find the biggest threat in the room. But, it was too late.

Immediately establishing the new arrivals as a threat herself, Twilight lunged forward and snatched a changeling at random. Ignoring its cries of distress, the vampony proceeded to snap the changeling in half, the snapping of bones and chitin armor was heard by all. THAT got the rest of the changelings’ attention and they all rushed forward to stop the crazed beast.

Time seems to slowdown as Queen Chrysalis stood back and watched in awe; too busy taking in the awesome might of the vampony. It was mesmerizing. The vampony dodged and weaved between flying hooves, occasionally finding an opportunity to break one of the hooves as if they were made of sticks. The changelings took the hint and immediately backed away, deciding to change tactics in fear of losing their limbs. Half of the group took to the air while the other half rushed to surround the unicorn. Not letting them get into position, the unicorn rushed forward and caught the changelings in front of her with a blood-crazed snarl. One by one, changelings flew in random directions, impacting the walls and ceiling with a sickening crunch. No matter how hard they tried to catch a glimpse, the unicorn will disappear and reappear in a different spot, taking down another group of changelings as she did. Throwing caution to the winds, the changelings dog-piled on top of the unicorn; attempting to do something… anything that could possibly stop the unstoppable creature. For a moment the plan appeared to have worked, but the vampony had other plans. Igniting her horn in a bright red glow, Twilight threw everypony away with a powerful blast of air. When the dust settled Chrysalis finally blinked, only to witness a pile of unconscious changelings on the floor. What had been an army of changelings, have been reduced to nothing more than a dozen in five minutes.

There was a moment of pause, where everypony in the room froze to take a quick breather and to regroup. The vampony had her hooves spread out and crouching in a territorial stance, hissing unspoken death sentences to anypony that dared to come near her. Queen Chrysalis glanced around, taking in the destruction of her glorious throne room with weary eyes. She noticed that the fire of fight has left her changelings’ eyes and all of them weakly slumped to the floor. ‘Almost all of my brothers and sisters are still alive but… what are we going to do? How are we going to stop something as powerful as this?’ The changeling queen and her remaining minions stood and waited for the end. Waited for the blanket of eternal sleep to embrace and wicks them away to finally rest.

They waited… and waited. The wait only lasted about a minute, but even a minute was too much for Chrysalis. ‘Why does she pause when she clearly has the advantage?’ The queen squinted to look at the vampony closer until…

*Thump-thump*

‘There! Did she just flinch?’ The changeling queen stood still with bated breath.

*Thump-thump*

“Gah-ahhhh!” The purple unicorn suddenly cried out, gripping her chest as if she was just stabbed in the heart. The vampony let out another pain-filled scream and fell to the floor, twisting and turning the whole time.

Queen Chrysalis gasped and yelled, “Go now! Stop her before she realizes what we’re doing, but do not kill her! The hive will need her alive at all cost!” Her remaining changelings all nodded before rushing after the fallen unicorn. The supposed final-stand never happened, but instead they found the unconscious body of the unicorn on the floor.

…

She didn’t know where she was, but she was definitely becoming increasingly annoyed by the bright light in her face. “Ugh… alright, alright… I’m up… I’m-” Twilight’s words turned into a gasp when she opened her eyes to see where she was. Changelings! Changelings everywhere! And they were all looking at her as if she just murdered a bunch of innocent kittens! Gulping nervously, Twilight looked down to see what was binding her. It was the same green slime that she was submerged in before, only now it had harden and was holding everything but her head in place. ‘Okay… a little help here, Sparkle?’

“Ugh… five more minutes mom…”

‘Wake up!’

“Ah! Okay, okay, okay! What’s happening? Where the heck are we? What did I…” Twilight flinched when Sparkle suddenly made a Rarity-worthy gasp. “What... what have I done? …”

The way Sparkle asked herself was so full of despair, Twilight suddenly became very tense. ‘W-what did you do?’

Sparkle seems to be acting extremely nervous now. “I… I never thought that I’ll lose control over my own powers, my own domain… and yet here I am.”

Twilight could feel a bead of sweat running down her face. ‘Okay… now you’re scaring me. Tell me what happened.’

Sparkle took in a shuddering breath. “We were dying and I couldn’t let that happen, I could never let that happen. So I did the only thing I could… I released your vampony powers. All of it…” She chuckled weakly. “I can’t believe just how powerful you have become in such a short amount of time. It was incredible… You’re incredible, Twilight.”

The unicorn could feel her cheeks heating up in a blush. ‘Okay… admiration and flank-kissing aside, would you mind telling what happened after releasing my powers? I’m guessing it had a lot of similarities with the Ursa Major incident, correct?’

“Yeah… you would be correct to assume that, but… there were some complications that I couldn’t ever have foreseen.” Sparkle cleared her throat with a nervous cough. “Long story short, we or rather… I lost control. And rather than escaping, I proceed to attack a large amount of changelings. I also think I might have killed a few of them during that time…”

Twilight could feel herself turning green. ‘Are you saying that I… I k-killed somepony?’ She immediately had the urge to regurgitate whatever that was in her stomach right about now and place it directly on the floor.

“No-no-no-no!” Sparkle interrupted the unicorn’s train of thought. “I said that I was the one that did it! You were unconscious the whole time so you couldn’t have taken a part in any of it.”

Twilight felt tears running down her face and didn’t even care that hundreds of changelings were there to witness it. *Sniff* ‘I appreciate the fact that you’ll take the blame, but you and I both know that that’s not true.’ She really wished that she could have a hoof free to wipe her eyes. Her wish was granted in the form of a small handkerchief, softly dabbing at her eyes. Flinching away in surprise, Twilight looked up to stare at the looming figure in front of her.

“Hold still…” Queen Chrysalis re-lifted the piece of cloth with a green glow of her horn. “That must feel very uncomfortable right about now.” Ignoring the look of pure confusion on the unicorn’s face she resumed wiping her snout, much like how a mother will do to her foal. “I have many, many questions for you.”

…

Twilight didn’t know what was happening, but she was currently walking beside a changeling queen as if they knew each other for years, taking a tour of the hive with said queen, and the whole time she was several hooves underground. She stole a glance at the changeling queen, quickly noting that she was currently carrying her saddle-bags from before and she left her back completely exposed to the unicorn. ‘I don’t understand… is she testing me to see if I was going to attack her or not? And that’s another thing, why isn’t she mad at me for attacking her drones?’

“I’m drawing a blank over here too, Twilight.” Sparkle’s voice was very calm when she next said, “What we do know is that the Changeling Queen has some sort of plan for us and I think we should play along for a little while… Just until we could find a way to escape, alright?”

‘Y-yeah… let’s do that.’ The unicorn flinched and leaned away when a group of changelings hissed at her in a threatening manner.

Noticing this, Chrysalis hissed right back at the offending servants. “If I see anymore of you acting untoward to our guest, I will personally punish every single one of you!” The changelings immediately backed away in surprise and scampered away, for lack of a better term, with their tails between their legs. Making an uninterested grunt, the queen continued down her path and turned her attention to the unicorn beside her. “Apologies, shadowed one. I still have trouble controlling their behaviors even after all these years. How are you feeling right now?” She turned sharply into a wall and walked right through it, which the unicorn found out that it lead to a secret cave system lined with blue-flamed torches.

The purple unicorn was still completely baffled that the queen, who she personally attacked her entire army by herself, was even defending and asking about her well-being. Seeing that the queen was waiting for an answer, Twilight quickly answered, “I’m…I’m fine…” Her ears flattened on top of her head, still intimidated by the large changeling. The odd pair continued their long trek down the cave for a few minutes before Twilight finally asked, “Uhh… where are we going?” She cringed slightly when Chrysalis gave her a look, taking on a very Fluttershy-like persona. “I-I mean if you want to tell me that is…”

The queen gave an amused snort. “There is no need to be afraid, shadowed one. You are not in danger in any way while you are with me.” She gestured the cave walls with a hoof and Twilight began noticing that the walls were covered with a massive amount of complicating looking runes. “These will protect us from anything that will bring harm to us.” Giving the runes an approved nod, Chrysalis moved deeper into the cave. “I just realized that I haven’t gotten your name, shadowed one.” She glanced at the unicorn expectantly.

“Oh…oh! My name is Twilight… Twilight Sparkle.”

“Twilight Sparkle…” Queen Chrysalis tested the name on her lips. “The time that signals the end of the day and will also lead the world into the beginning of the night… not bad.” The changeling’s eyes lit up when she saw their destination. “Ah-ha! We have arrived!” She expressed her excitement by pointing with a hoof.

Following the hole-filled hoof, Twilight was able to make out a large steel door with a picture of a crescent moon painted on it. Not too keen on finding out what was behind the door, the unicorn followed the changeling queen at a slow pace. What she saw however, made all of her worries melt away. Books! And judging on how tall the shelves went… a lot of books for that matter! There were so many books as far as her eyes can see that it brought a small tear to her eyes. “This… this is… amazing!”

Chrysalis walked up to a table and placed the saddles-bags onto it before turning around. “I see you are a pony that has a passion for pursuing knowledge.” She gave a small smirk. “I suppose that will make things a little bit easier on my part. But for now you may rest here for the day, as we have many things to discuss during the night. There is a sofa over there that you can use to sleep in and my servants will deliver food once you have awakened.” She lifted a small dusty bell off of a stone pedestal. “Ring this whenever you need something and my brothers and sisters will answer.” She walked past the unicorn and made for the door.

“W-wait a minute!” Twilight waited for the changeling to turn before yelling, “Just what the heck is going on around here?!” When the changeling queen didn’t answer, the unicorn pressed on, “You ponynap me, drag me into a forest I never heard about in my entire life, threaten to make me into a slave that will forever feed your changelings love, and nearly killed me when one of your changeling fell into some unknown illness! You haven’t even yelled or shown any type of anger at me for killing some of your changelings when I went completely crazy!” She was panting for breath at this point. “Not only did you not care about anything I did in your home, but you also gave my own place to sleep in? Have you’ve gone completely insane?!” After finally letting go of everything that was on her chest, Twilight’s leg gave out from under her and she slumped to the floor.

Chrysalis, who had remained silent the whole time, finally spoke. “For what I am planning, I will tell you later after you have eaten and well rested.” She held up a hoof to stop the unicorn from speaking. “The changelings that you have assaulted are all still alive, some more injured than others but they will survive.”

Twilight felt like a terrible weight was lifted off her soul. “They’re still alive and going to live? What a relief!”

The purple unicorn would’ve been at ease if Sparkle hadn’t decided to add her own remark. “Even the one that I snapped in half? Wow… these guys are made of really strong stuff!”

The unicorn felt her heart turn into a block of ice. ‘You did what?! Okay Sparkle, I’m going to have a few words with you…’ Sparkle groaned.

Queen Chrysalis nodded. “That is correct, Twilight Sparkle. Although one of my brothers will have to rest of a considerable amount of time before he is able to move again.” She turned once again to leave. “As to why I have done all of this for you…” The changeling looked over her shoulder. “Many years ago, I used to be a shadowed one as well… and you are the key in bringing them back. We all need you, Twilight Sparkle.” With that final statement the changeling queen left, closing the metal door behind her.