//------------------------------// // Passage Eight: Illacrimo censura // Story: (Dis)Harmonics. // by overlord-flinx //------------------------------// "To cut the paw of a thief: is this justice? To set fire to the den of bandits: is this justice? To execute a murderer: is this justice? Justice is a word I rather avoid. There is no justice... only judgement. To cut the paw of a thief: this is your judgement. To set fire to the den of bandits: this is your judgement. To execute a murderer: this is your judgement. To you, it may seem just. But what of the ailing thief that stole for medicine? Is cutting their paw just? What of the poor family that was looking for food? Is burning their home just? And what of the murderer who killed the man who threatened their family? Is it just to punish him? Granted, it will not always be like this; if hardly ever. But the point I wish to instill is this: there is no absolute justice, because justice is only someone's judgement... Right or wrong." - Star Swirl the Bearded. Queen Chrysalis the Changeling ruler. Brilliant, beautiful, and so loving of her subjects. She rules over a race of creatures that feed off of raw emotion; the most life-giving being love. If they could feed off of one another, or even their queen's love, they would never need to feed off of another pony again. But their queen is cunning; formulating plans to always find routes to more food for her subjects... At least that was how it used to be. The Changelings hardly ever had to leave their run down empire at all. So often ponies would come to them and offer them companionship or aid in growing their lands to be more presentable. For this, the Changelings never need to swarm or feast on the energy of others. Their meals are given to them freely... And they only take what they need. But why? Why would Changelings not swarm, feast, or do what they are inherent to do? It is because their Queen, Chrysalis -brilliant, beautiful, loving-, was weak... She was scared... She was powerless... But she was not hopeless. Hospitality between the Changelings and these ponies that had settled down near their empire had brought hope to a defeated queen. Where hate and bile once stirred in her inky body was now replaced with care and compassion. Mediation replaced stealing. Compromise replaced argument. Friendship replaced loathing. The Changeling empire, though ugly on the outside, had become a cocoon of thriving futures. The ideal of a future is a wonderful hope that they have began to strive for... The future is a wonderful hope that they began... The future is a hope they began... Future is a hope... Future is hope... "Queen Chrysalis..." Her mane flapped with a roaring fire as her tone clanged against a metallic echo by her helmet-crown. Sole queen of the Changelings, Chrysalis, stood within Canterlot Castle's royal hall, sweat trailing down her neck as the fire choked air away from her lungs. "Solar--Queen Solaris... Why have you summoned me." "Chrysalis... What are you?" Solaris looked not an eye to the Changeling Queen, not that her eyes ever showed. "I am a Changeling... A being that feeds off of emotion and can take the appearance of any living thing." A strange, almost empty chuckle came from Solaris as she looked out one of the windows of her throne room and off to the distance of a mass of mountains. "Yes, you are. And what do those 'children' of yours 'crown' you as?" It felt sickening how belittling she said those words... "Queen. I am--" "Nothing," Solaris interrupted with her flames flaring a bit and her head twisting to look at Chrysalis. "You bugs are nothing..." Solaris stepped closer and closer to Chrysalis until her body set a threatening shadow over the Changeling, "Do you not see that? You are not royalty, you are an ant, leading an anthill that the sun casts over..." "I... I am royalty... My subjects..." Chrysalis put on a brave face and returned a strong look to Solaris. "My subjects love me." "Love?" Solaris scoffed a laugh at that word before turning back and walking towards the window once more, "What is love? A means to draw what you need before you slay the giver. Correct?" "No... It is the right to be powerful and mighty... I know that now from true love ponies that have run from you have shown me and my subjects..." Years of waiting, years of pent up hatred for this monster could finally be unleashed. "You are not loved; you have no power..." Solaris seemed to ponder those words. Her flames curled and dipped into her armor as silence over took the room. "...Hurting words from a parasite..." Something wedged out of Chrysalis, and her mouth kept moving. She continued to berate the tyrant with her back to her. "I will always be strong...!" She would. The Changelings she raised, the ponies that have helped her, they showed her strength. True strength. "As long as... as long as my people believe in me." Solaris remained physically calm; not an inch of her body moving as the Changeling yelled at her. However, when Chrysalis took a breathe to think, Solaris spoke up once more with a low tone. "You will always be weak in comparison to my sister or I... Vastly so in comparison to me. But as long as you believe that way of thinking, that your subjects and your kingdom grant you some sort of power, you will always be a thorn in my side..." Suddenly, a shift of light moved through the room and it seemed like all the light of outside was moving. Sure enough, out from the window, in the corner of it, the sun was moving across the sky in an awkward manner. It was not setting, it was not rising; it was only adjusting a bit against the sky. "Sister had the right idea about cutting you things off..." Solaris continued, the sun moving along with her helmet covered head as if she-- "The only difference is that while she decided to simply banish you into the Dead Lands, I view it is time I settle it..." "S-Solaris?" Chrysalis' hateful tone had gone, replaced by a sinking tone. High in the sky, visible to both Chrysalis and Solaris, the sun continued to move until it was framed perfectly against the outlook before Solaris. For just a moment, the fire of the sun seemed to churn against itself and become even brighter, bordering on an almost white yellow. "By my right as Queen and mediator of the world--" The air crackled and grew almost blinding to the outside world; though Solaris did not look away, and with fear filled eyes of realization, neither did Chrysalis'. "Solaris, no!" The Changeling queen pleaded, her voice cracking as she watched the flames in the sun waver and edge against its body. "I will cleanse the world of you creatures!" "NO!" The whole world was bathed in the sun's light for just a moment... The white light of heaven touching against every window, every leaf, every eye, every inch of fur... For only a moment, the whole world could see the pain of the Changelings. In that moment, that blinding moment of Solaris' fire, the Changelings, their kingdom, the ponies that helped and fed them with their love... "Gods NO!" Tears cascaded down Chrysalis' face as she desperately tried to go towards Solaris, watching the fire lash out of the sun... In a moment, one mountain and all life around it felt the wave of a sun; the fire of Solaris crash against it and reduce everything there to a crater and ashes. "No...!" Slowly, Chrysalis wings died to no motion and she reached a hoof out the window, looking to the smoking hole that the ray of Solaris left behind. "No... My children..." Ten thousand elite changelings, five hundred thousand worker drones, over a thousand giving ponies, and... millions of unborn larva... Gone... "God has heard you... And god has delivered them... Such is holy judgement..." Solaris departed from the room, leaving Chrysalis hanging against the window with a choked expression and shaking eyes. Silence did not take the room this time... Nor did it take the city. All of Canterlot was now filled with the pain filled cries of a mother who saw her whole family killed before her very eyes. The cries sounded into wails as the sun returned to its set position once again as if nothing had happened... As if an entire species was not reduced to a kingdom-less queen left only in tears.