"Had we never loved so kindly, had we never loved so blindly, we would never be broken hearted."
Queen Chrysalis bowed her head low in front of the pyre where the body of her beloved mother Queen Anisoptera lay, her chitin now grey with age, her eyes now dark in death, never to open again. My mother, my dear mother who made me who I am today. Who shared her own love with me when I was ill as a little pupa, emptying her hive stomach to make me well again even at the cost of hunger for days. Who taught me the Changeling Way root and branch-how to change shape, how to fool other races, how to govern a Hive without being either too soft on the drones or too tyrannical towards them, how to keep them well fed. And now I'm going to set fire to the pyre and burn my own mother. It seems so wrong-but it's what she wanted. She didn't want a burial-she didn't want to rot away in the dark. When she was clearly dying, she begged me to cremate her after she was clearly dead, so...Mother, I will obey your last wish although I feel as if I'm burning you alive. I know you are dead, you were checked thoroughly by the royal doctors and lay in state for a night and a day, but I still feel like you will feel it.
She wiped a tear from her eye, and said to the drones all around her "Our Queen Anisoptera was what a Hive Queen should be...she was fiercely protective of you all, making sure you were housed, kept save from pony and griffin and rival changeling, and above all, kept fed on as much love as she and her infiltrators could bring in. We are here to say goodbye as she enters the Gate of the Otherworld, which all Changelings must enter sooner or later no matter what shapes they take and how much they are loved. My heart has joined a thousand, for my mother has joined the Hive Invisible". She planted a kiss on her dead mother's forehead just below the horn. A horn that will never glow with magic again. she thought. She placed her horn to the pyre of fragrant Pico-wood, a type of wood popular for funeral pyres because it's smell blocked out the stink of burning flesh, and ignited it with a spark of magic, stepping well back as the green flames shot up to consume the body that had been her mother. Farewell Ani, your last wishes have been respected, I can only hope that you can be happy in the afterlife, and that your soul did not burn up with your body.
All her changelings who were present in her Hive gathered around her and bowed low three times, pressing their noses to the ground as was traditional at the coronation of a new Changeling Queen. One of her generals brought her mother's royal crown, a golden circlet studded with emeralds to her, upon a purple velvet cushion. "Your Majesty, Queen Chrysalis, we hail you as our new Queen. All Hail Queen Chrysalis." And every changeling replied loudly "ALL HAIL QUEEN CHRYSALIS", the sound from all the changeling throats echoing and re-echoing off the cliffs and through the canyons of their lands. She placed the circlet upon her head.
She looked around at them all...many were thin and hungry with withered wings, as despite the best efforts of her mother and her infiltrators there was never quite enough love to properly feed them all, and she had spent a lot of what had been brought in recently on prolonging the life of her dying mother for as long as she could. "Consider the rest of today a holiday. Tomorrow things will go back to normal and I and my generals will meet to consider a plan that will feed you all as if it was Hearth's Warming Eve, for years to come. But for now I wish to be left alone in my royal quarters with a picture of my mother." She re-entered the Hive on foot, and walked to her royal quarters and her bedroom where a portrait of her mother was, and lay down and cried. Mother, what will I do without you? How will I keep this often hungry hive under control? Changeling loyalty to their Queens is legendary, but long term hunger will still create unrest, and I do not want to be the last of my line. Above all, my hive must be fed.
She reached out and hugged the portrait of her mother. So many happy times...she cherished and protected me from when I was a grub, and unlike the lesser changelings in this hive I never knew hunger. Both my stomachs were always kept full. And she taught me everything I would need to be a good Queen in my own right. How to rule yet keep the common touch...how to feed my ever-hungry hive whilst keeping to the Changeling Way, how to be a proper diplomat and keep things all right with the other Hives. Mother, I already miss you so much. Are you already feasting in the afterlife on as much love as both of your stomachs can hold? Or is there no afterlife-did your mind fade away into nothingness when your body died? I know that your soul is not in a loveless hell as you had a good life as a good changeling when alive. Never did you execute, imprison or exile one of our Hive without good reason and they loved you for it. You always allowed them a trial. Mother, I wonder, can I be as good a Queen as you were? Can I ever be as wise and as loved as you were? Can I?