Chapter 35
a double edged blade
Onyx was the first to wake up, his body still sore from the previous night, and the mare of his dreams still sleeping, curled against his side. He could have stayed there all day, but his body had an acrid odor, and very slowly—so as not to wake up his new marefriend—got out of bed and took a shower. He couldn’t believe all that had happened between him and Twilight ... it was like life was a dream, and he didn’t want to wake up for anything in the world.
During this time, Chrysalis was waiting outside of the library; she would’ve already had the Prince in her hooves if he hadn’t rutted with that purple mare all through the night. Fortunately for her, all the love that she fed on between Onyx and Twilight made her strong enough that plan B could be put into action, and feed her hungry children back in the hive.
So with the form of a pony called “Colgate”—if she had heard right—, she entered the library.
“Hello? Anypony there?” she asked.
Onyx, who just got out of the shower, wondered why somepony was in Twilight’s house, until he realised that it was a library. They must not have closed it last night with all that had happened. Seeing that Twilight was still asleep, he decided to take care of the customer himself; he had taken care of all of Equestria during the night, surely he could manage a small library, right? He put his clothes back on and went downstairs to greet the pony.
“Hi, how may I help you?” asked the Prince as he walked down the stairs.
“Oh, um, I’m here to borrow something,” answered faux-Colgate.
“And this something is a book, I presume?”
“Yes, um ... do you have book about the history of the Badlands?”
Onyx didn’t know where the book was, but tried to find it. He remembered how Twilight loved how the Royal Library was organized; in order by subject and alphabetical. He looked in the history section; it was under “B”.
“Here we go, ‘History and Legends of the Badlands’,” said Onyx, turning to give the book to the unicorn mare. The blue pony wasn’t there, instead a tall black creature was standing in the library.
“Remember me?” it asked the before it shot a green laser that struck Onyx; his body fell to the ground unconscious.
“Well, well, well. Seems that it was easier than I thought,” said Chrysalis before she teleported herself and the Prince away from the library.
Onyx slowly came back into consciousness, his mind foggy. He tried to remember what had happened; strangely, he couldn’t move his body.
“Wait ... why can’t I move ... let’s see, I was in bed with Twilight and then ... oh right, the customer. And then ... argh! Why can’t I remember!”
“Difficulty with your memory, little Prince?” asked a strange voice in front of Onyx. He opened his eyes to discover that not only was he in the woods, but tied to a tree; a dark creature was in front of him. He knew that he’d already met a creature like this before, but when...
“How rude, you don’t even remember who saved you from the Emperor ... maybe I should have left you to die there instead?”
“Changelings! Yes, I remember now ... but why did I forget...”
“I see it’s all coming back to you now, little prince. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings. And you, my little Prince, are Onyx, Prince of Equestria.”
“Thank you, but the presentation isn’t really my top priority right now. I’d prefer to know why I’m tied to this tree.”
The Queen laughed with her soft voice. “Don’t worry, soon all of your questions will be answered. But first, tell me, are you happy being a little prince?
“Little Prince? Why do you keep calling me that?”
“Well, you’re little in power; you’re not yet the ruler of a country, but you could be the leader of an entire continent.”
“Sorry, but power never interested me,” said Onyx as he tried desperately to untie himself.
“Maybe ... but I know something that you strongly desire ... I can feel it in your heart. You want your revenge on the Gryphon Emperor, am I right?”
To Chrysalis’s joy, Onyx didn’t answer; it was true that since he came back, he had not stopped training. He kept it a secret—even Celestia didn’t know about it. In her opinion, all of these foreign affairs should be dealt with by the Council, but Onyx wanted blood—to kill the gryphon that ruined his childhood and imprisoned him away from his family ... kept him from his mother ... from Twilight ... for ten long years.
“I will say this one time, little Prince. My kingdom is in need of food, and you already know that we changelings feed on sentiment. Join me, Onyx, and with my help you will be able to have your revenge and more.”
“If I’ve learned anything in my life, changeling, it is that nothing is really free. Let’s say that I join you ... what will be the price?”
“Canterlot. That city could feed my hive for many years, saving us from starvation. And before you tell me that Equestria is your kingdom; you are not a pony, Onyx. I don’t know what you are, but you’re certainly not a pony. Don’t worry about your mother and that purple marefriend of yours ... if you wish I will order my army not to harm them.”
Chrysalis waited for Onyx’s reply; she hoped that his desire for revenge was greater than his love for Canterlot. Unfortunatly for her Onyx had been raised by a ruler who would do anything to protect the ponies in her kingdom.
“You think that because you saved me from the Emperor, I will join you, changeling? My home is Canterlot; I was raised by these ponies and it is my responsibility to protect them. So my answer is “no”. The Emperor can wait.”
“Well, in that case, you are my enemy. I’m sorry for this after all that you’ve done for Fillia, but you leave me no choice, little Prince.” After saying that, she picked up a bottle of green jelly off of the ground with her magic. Then she forced the Prince to drink it. He tried to resist, but there was nothing he could have done; his hands were tied and she was using magic. It tasted like a mix between expired milk and blood—if blood were green.
When the bottle was empty, she let it fall on the forest floor and stepped closer to Onyx.
“You see, that was what we changelings call the “royal jelly”. It’s like a poison ... perhaps the most painful and violent poison that ponies have ever seen. Inside are eggs from which larvae will hatch and then eat their cocoon, if you catch my drift.”
Sweat dripped from Onyx’s face as he tried to force himself to throw up, but being upright and without a free hand, it would be more than difficult.
“They will slowly start to eat you from the inside, and you will feel like your flesh is on fire. Then they will attack the lungs; you will have difficulty breathing and will vomit blood.”
Tears poured from his eyes. For once, all was perfect in his life, and he would die. He would lose his mother,... Twilight,... Philomena, Cadance,... even Blueblood. He would die there. Alone. In the woods leaving loved ones worried about where he was. After two or three days, they would probably find him, his dead body half eaten by buzzards or wolves. They would probably bury him in the Royal Gardens. Celestia would probably never forgive herself for leaving Onyx alone...
Chrysalis watched the Prince; she felt his every fear and sadness. She would end it then, before it was too late.
“Little Prince, you are lucky to have saved Fillia ... and even luckier to have my interest ... in one way or another, you will be mine, so this is why I am giving you a gift. You will forget all that has happened here. You will wake up in bed with your marefriend with no memory of this morning, and it shall remain that way until I need you.”
Chrysalis then leaned in close to Onyx, and opened her mouth; Onyx clearly saw her fangs and long snake’s tongue.
“You should be honored to be poisoned by the venom of the Changeling Queen you know.” She bit into the Prince’s neck, her venom was injected into his vein. The Queen stayed with her fangs in Onyx’s skin for a couple of minutes, injecting more venom at each second. Then she stopped, backing away from the Prince tied to the tree.
“Now that my venom is in your blood, the larva will not kill you ... I will leave you to find out what my venom will do to you in the future.”
The bite marks in Onyx’s neck started to disappear until they completely vanished, leaving behind only a sickly dark vein around where he was bitten.
“See you soon, my Prince. I hope you enjoy my little gift.” With these last words, she cast the memory-eraser spell on Onyx and teleported him back to the library.
Onyx was the first to wake up, his body still sore from last night, and the mare of his dreams still sleeping, curled against his side. He could have stayed there all day, but his body had an acrid odor, and very slowly—so as not to wake up his new marefriend—got out of bed and took a shower. He couldn’t believe all that had happened between him and Twilight ... it was like life was a dream, and he didn’t want to wake up for anything in the world.
He entered the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror; he saw a dark vein on his neck, but quickly ignore it, thinking that maybe it was a bruise from the night before.
When he get out of the shower, he heard somepony in the library, he wondered why somepony was in Twilight’s house, until he realised that it was a library. They must not have closed it last night with all that happened. Seeing that Twilight was still asleep, he decided to take care of the customer himself; he had taken care of all of Equestria during the night, surely he could manage a small library, right? He put his clothes back on and went downstairs to greet the pony.
“Hi, how can I help you?” asked the Prince to a blue unicorn mare as he walked down the stairs.
“Oh, nothing, my Prince. It’s just that the mailmare delivered the wrong package to the wrong address. Again. Strangely enough, it has your name on it.”
Beside the mare, a long, rectangular box was sitting on the floor.
“Thank you, miss, it was very kind of you to bring it here.”
“Oh, it’s nothing,” she said before she exited the library, leaving Onyx alone with the package.
“So who could have sent me this?” wondered the Prince as he opened the box. What he saw inside made his heart miss a beat. Inside was a magnificently crafted weapon like Onyx had never seen before. It looked like a staff or spear of some sort, but instead of having a single spearhead, it had two double-sided blades at both ends. The entire weapon was forged out of a strong, lightweight steel. The metal staff was a dark green, engraved with a bug-like pony, enfolded by green fire. The “pony” on it rang a bell in his mind, but he couldn’t quite remember why. The weight of the weapon was perfect, so with a smile, he began spinning the dual-sword around until he accidentally knocked off several books in the library’s history section.
He sheepishly placed the dual-sword back in the box and quickly tried to clean up the mess before Twilight woke up and killed him for doing that.