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// A Pair of Alicorns 
// Story: My Name is Chrysalis 
// by hauntu4ever 
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“Hello,” a mare’s voice called brightly from behind me. I turned to find a dark blue alicorn staring at me curiously.

“Greetings,” I responded, a little stiffly.

She seemed to take this as an invitation of sorts and approached me. “What are you?” she asked in awe, peering at me.

She was surprisingly fearless, considering that I was in my true form. Not wanting to push my luck, I decided to forsake the Queen’s We for the moment. “My name is Chrysalis. I’m a changeling.” I was starting to get a little uncomfortable with her examination, but I held my ground. It gave me a chance to examine her in return. She was slender, rather small for what amounted to a young adult. Her mane and tail were both sky-blue, a lighter version of her dark coat. Her wings fluttered a little as she moved, as if she were eager to be in the air again.

“A changeling? What’s that?” I started to respond, but she interrupted me, poking at one of the holes in my legs. “Why do you have all these holes in you? Did you get attacked by something?” She then moved up to my wings. “Ooh, these are pretty.”

Her bubbly energy started to get to me, and I felt myself begin to relax. “No,” I said with a little laugh, “I didn’t get attacked. I was born with them.”

That stopped her. She looked at me in surprise. “Really?” I nodded. “That’s weird.” I tensed, but she kept talking, oblivious to my worries. “How come I’ve never seen you before? I know every creature in the forest. Or at least I thought I did. Tia keeps saying that’s not possible, but I didn’t believe her. I mean, the forest’s not that big.” She paused, frowning as if she had remembered something. “Oh, by the way, my name is Luna.”

I blinked at the torrent. It had been a long time since I had met a pony who talked this much, or this quickly. One comment in particular caught my attention. “Tia?”

“Oh, you don’t know Tia? You’re really strange. She keeps telling me that every creature knows her, but of course, that’s not possible, because how can every creature know you if you don’t know every creature? But anyways, Tia – Celestia is her real name - is my sister. Come on, I’ll take you to her.” The alicorn spread her wings and launched herself into the air, only stopping when she realized I wasn’t following. “You coming?”

I shook myself - that had happened too fast for my liking - then took flight after her. Luna began giggling as she watched my wings buzz into motion.“You’re like a bee!” I frowned at her, but either she didn’t notice or she didn’t care. Instead, she turned and began to fly through the trees.

I caught up with her quickly. She was moving at a faster pace than I was accustomed to, but it wasn’t hard to adjust to. “You don’t live in the castle?” I asked.

Luna giggled. “Oh, no. It’s just too big for the two of us to live in alone. Besides-” she leaned in
conspiratorially and continued in a whisper “-Tia thinks it’s scary at night.” Then she flew back again.  “But I don’t see why. Everything is more fun at night!” Laughing, she did a little pirouette in the air. “So we live out here instead. How about you? Where do you live?”

“Oh, around,” I said airily, not willing to explain without both alicorns present.

“Around where?” Luna asked immediately, swerving to avoid a tree. “Do you live on the mountain? Or maybe under it? We found a cave a couple weeks ago that led pretty deep, but Tia got scared, so we had to go back out.” The alicorn giggled. “She’s so jumpy sometimes! Oh, look, we’re here.”

I snapped back to reality as we entered a clearing. Inside it was a small wooden building, really little more than a hut, that we approached. There was a hole in the roof from which smoke was billowing, and a delicious smell permeated the air.

Luna flew straight to the building, calling for her sister. I followed at a more sedate pace, giving myself a moment to regroup from the alicorn's energy. Even without the comfort of my emotional senses, I could tell that she was a good pony – she was just a little exhausting, as well.

It saddened me that I would have to take that away.

“Tia, you have to see what I found!” Luna’s voice wafted out from the open doorway, shaking me out of my enraptured state.

“I would love to, Lulu,” a voice, much calmer than Luna's, replied, “but I have to watch the stew.
Remember the last time I left it untended to see something you found?”

“Oh, yeah . . . ,” Luna replied, sounding abashed. It didn’t last long, though. “That’s ok! She can just come in!” Her head poked out of the doorway and found me. “Come on, Chrysalis!”

Here goes, I thought.

It was an earthy single room inside, lit mainly by the fire that blazed on one side. A rug on the floor covered the bare ground, and a pile of cushions likely stolen from the castle sitting on the far side served as a bed. A kettle sitting atop the fire was the cause of the smoke and the smell.

“Now, Lulu, we’ve talked about you bringing animals into. . . .” Standing by the kettle was the speaker. She was quite a bit taller than her sister, though with the same slender build. Her coat was an unblemished white, and her mane and tail were the color of one of Discord’s cotton candy clouds. She was holding a spoon in her magical grip with one end in the kettle, though it had stopped stirring. She was staring at me with an expression of surprise - and shock.

I tensed immediately, my mind throwing up all the fears that had not yet come to pass - that she was afraid of me, that I could not succeed, that my hive would die out without the love to feed them -

“What happened to your horn?”

I stared in surprise as Tia leaned forward to look at the holes in my horn. “That must really hurt - and your legs, too! How are you even still standing? We need to get you some bandages!” I eyed her with a sense of bemusement. She was not afraid of me. In fact, she was concerned for me. I had never been cared for in my changeling form. Ahh, if only this forest did not block my senses. . . .

I recovered quickly, though. “Oh, no, it’s ok. I was born with these; they’re not wounds.” The alicorn eyed them, doubtful. I lifted up one leg to give her a closer look. “See? No blood.” She gave the holes another moment of intense scrutiny, but once she had assured herself of the truth of my words, the doubt gave way to curiosity.

She gasped.  “That’s so strange! How does it feel? Can you feel them?” Abruptly, she remembered herself.  “Oh, I’m sorry. My name is Celestia Everfree. And you are?”

I opened my mouth to respond, but Luna cut in. “She’s Chrysalis. Didn’t you hear me calling her?”

Celestia rolled her eyes. “I was going to give her a chance to say so!” The younger alicorn shrugged unapologetically. Frowning, Celestia turned back to me. “I’m sorry about that. Luna is . . . easily excited.”

“I’m right here!” The alicorn in question objected.

I smiled. “It’s perfectly fine. I haven’t seen anybody act like this in years. It’s . . . refreshing.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Luna stick her tongue out at her sister, who responded in kind.

I chuckled. “Yes, my name is Chrysalis, and. . . .” I hesitated again.  A pony like these two, one that actually cared for my race, was a rare find indeed, and I was unwilling to lose it now that I had found it.  But I could not ignore my duty.  The fate of my race rested in the balance.  “And I have come here from beyond your forest because I need your help.”