Heiress Apparent
We were starving off, in the Badlands, all of us.
There used to be many of us, our hives infiltrating throughout pony culture, coexisting with them in secret. And then the hives were found, and they were purged like a tumor. We almost went extinct then, but one of us found a way to survive. Twelve centuries ago, we stopped being mere grazers.
We became hunters, extracting forcefully what could not be gained through coexistence, abducting those who lived on the edges of the Badlands. We weathered centuries, unnoticed, forgotten.
But the harsh land that kept us safe was also slowly killing us. The Badlands held many dangers, eager to feed on our hunting parties. Slowly but surely, we were whittled down by this land. Civil war was much in evidence between the hives.
Until the tattered hives were united under one banner, the banner of Queen Chrysalis, a rallying call for the salvation of our entire race.
In one last desperate attack, Queen Chrysalis was going to take over Equestria.
She was my mother.
I am the changeling princess Naudia, and now with the apparent failure, and probable subsequent death, of my mother and most of the rest of the hive, it falls to me to bring my people back from the brink of extinction.
I have inherited the status of Queen, but I fear it may be too late for it to mean anything.
I estimate there are less than five hundred of us left.
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Princess Luna groaned, her head felt horrible, and she couldn’t feel her horn. Moving a hoof up to rub her aching temples, she felt something cold and metal against her skin.
Luna snapped her eyes open. Instead of her royal bedchamber, she was surrounded by crumbling stonework in a dungeon so bare, the only furniture was the rotting wooden bench she found herself sitting on.
She was in chains. There was a very heavy magic suppressor on her horn, so strong she couldn’t even feel a hint of magic from it anymore.
Hesitantly she reached up and touched the ringed device around her horn. It shocked her hoof with a blinding flash.
“I wouldn’t do that again if I were you.” came a somewhat familiar voice from the opened door.
Luna looked up and-
“Chrysalis!”
There she was, standing in the doorway to Luna’s cell, flanked by two changelings, but something felt odd.
“What have you done to me?!” And to Luna’s absolute surprise, Chrysalis shrunk back at her voice.
Something was different about her. The haughty stance was gone, the piercing gaze was absent, even her voice was different. Softer. Less imperious. Her mane was a darker blue, nearing black.
And above all, she looked younger than Chrysalis.
“Who are you?” Luna narrowed her eyes at the changeling, who seemed to have collected herself again.
“Apologies, Your Highness,” said the changeling. “I am Prin- Queen Naudia, of the changelings.”
The changeling queen grimaced.
“Or at least what’s left of them.”
Luna wasn’t too sure of anything with regards to changelings, but she estimated that Naudia couldn’t have been more than twenty years old.
“So what do you want me for then?” Luna scoffed. “Some sort of last-ditch effort?”
“No.” The changeling queen shook her head. Now that Luna was looking closely, she saw that Naudia looked visibly shaken. “The attack on Canterlot was the last ditch effort. Suffice it to say that I have recently become the heiress apparent to our extinction.”
“You haven’t answered my question though: What did you abduct me for?”
Naudia didn’t answer, but instead approached Luna, horn glowing an unpleasant green.
“I hope you can forgive me for this, Luna.”