A Gift From the Darkness to Love

by Autum Breeze

Prologue- A Loving Gift

Chrysalis wailed, clutching the limp form in her forehooves. Her cries of mourning and sorrow reverberated around, the cave walls magnifying the sound until there was nothing else.

Why? Why did this have to happen to her? Had she not already been through enough? Failing to take over Canterlot, kicked out of the hive, forced to carry this child around inside of her for almost a whole year and for what? What had she gained from this? Nothing! How could life be so cruel? Why was it so cruel?

She sobbed into the dead foal’s carapace, willing it to move, to breathe, to do something, anything! But the only thing she got in response was the echoing sounds of her own sobs and moans.

“U-um... excuse me?”

Chrysalis's head snapped up. There was a small figure standing at the cave . It looked like... Chrysalis snarled. A pony. It was small, a foal, she assumed. It had a horn, meaning it was a unicorn. No. It had wings too. An alicorn. From its size, she guessed a few years old. Two or three tops. And it was female.

Its coat was ink black and had a mane of very dark blue, almost purple. Its wings looked onyx. Its eyes were a pale blue, more dragonic-looking than pony.

“What do you want, pony?” she hissed, her voice no longer sad, but full of spite. She hated ponies. She hated them to her very core. Whatever this one was doing here, she neither knew, nor really cared. She just wanted it gone. Though, in her weakened state, she could not forced it out. No, that would be too easy, wouldn’t it? She would have to scare the retched creature away.

Besides, it was an alicorn. A princess. This made her despise it even more.

The small pony didn’t say anything, just looked away to its right and made a small squeaking sound.

Fear? Good. Chrysalis needed some cheering up and tasting a little filly’s fear, especially an alicorn’s, would do just that.

But... something wasn’t right. No, this was not fear she tasted, it was... sadness?

Chrysalis frowned. What would a pony have to be sad about? The annoying creatures were full of so much love it was intoxicating. So... why was this little filly so sad?

Come to think of it, why was she here, talking to Chrysalis when she should be with her pony parents? She was a princess, so why was she not in the lap of luxury with Celestia and Luna?

Now that she looked closer, Chrysalis found herself taking in a sharp breath of surprise. The filly was unhealthily thin. Almost nothing but skin and bones.

Despite her hatred of all ponies, she felt that turn for a split-second toward just this filly’s parents, or maybe the princesses, she could not tell which. How could they let this child get into this state? She’d never thought ponies possible of such a thing. If her child were alive, she’d have never let it get like that, not even if it cost her her own life!

"Why... are you here, little filly?” Chrysalius asked slowly. She did not really care what happened to the pony once it was gone, but her curiosity as to why it was in such a state in the first place was peaked enough to wonder. “Why are you not with your family?”

At this the filly’s eyes began welling up with tears and she started to sob.

Chrysalis’s motherly instincts told her to comfort the filly, despite the fact that she was a pony, but she was too weak to get up and go over to her. Not that she could think of what to say to comfort her in the first place.

“I—” the alicorn shut her eyes, her tears sliding down her cheeks and forming tiny puddles at her hooves. “I don’t have a family!”

Chrysalis paused. She had not been expecting that. But, the filly continued before she could inquire further.

"I don’t remember anything!” she sobbed, looking into Chrysalis's eyes with her own. “I woke up in a forest a few days ago, not knowing who I am or where I come from!” She was shaking with sobs now. "All I remember is a spell! A spell that’s useless to me!"

Chrysalis was silent for a few moments, before she spoke. “What is this spell? What does it do?”

The filly said nothing at first, just continued to sob and sniffle. After a few minutes she finally spoke up. “A merging spell.”

Chrysalis cocked an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“It- it fuses anything together,” the alicorn stuttered, becoming nervous. “I could use it to merge two things together into one. Any two things. Even...” her voice became quieter. "Even other ponies."

Chrysalis’s eyes went wide. Merging living beings together? That was magic even she’d never dared tamper with.

“Say, maybe, I fused myself with that body in your forehooves,” the filly continued, pointing a bony foreleg at Chrysalis’s lifeless child Chrysalis was still clutching to her chest. “If I fused with it, it would be alive.”

Chrysalis’s heart stopped. Her child... would be alive? It would not have all been for nothing?

She scowled. No. It would not be her child. It would be this pony inside her child’s body.

“Do not insult me, pony,” she snarled, baring her fangs. “I may have hit hard times, but I would not defile my child’s corpse with you. You are a pony and I am a changeling. What good would it do me to care for a pony impersonating a changeling foal?”

She paused for a second, thinking over what she’d just said. Normally, it was changelings impersonating ponies or other creatures. Now she was condemning the very thing her own kind were known for. An interesting irony, she mused.

The alicorn paused a little, hurt by her words. “I... wouldn’t remember anything?” she said softly.

Chrysalis cocked an eyebrow. “What do you mean? What does your memory have to do with this?”

"I-if I merge with your child, it would not change physically,” the alicorn said quietly. “My spirit would enter her, but nothing else.”

Chrysalis did not say anything. She had just realized who the filly was and the realization had left her dumbstruck.

Nightmare Moon. This filly was Nightmare Moon.

But how? She had heard the story from her former drones a long time ago, when the night had not ended when it was supposed to on the day of the Summer Sun Celebration a year before the fiasco that cost her her crown.

How Nightmare Moon had descended from the moon, trapped Celestia within the sun, intent on bringing eternal night, something she whole-heartedly agreed with.

With eternal night, the Canterlot Invasion needn’t have ever happened. She would still be queen of the changelings and Equestria, no, all the world would have been a feeding ground for her race.

It was not to be, however. She’d heard how six ponies, two unicorns, two pegasi and two earth ponies had used the Elements of Harmony to remove the darkness of Nightmare Moon, returning Princess Luna to her normal self and brought back the sun. The same ponies who had tried to stop her efforts of the invasion.

None had ever known what had happened to Nightmare Moon’s dark essence, however, until now.

Chrysalis looked at the filly form of Nightmare Moon. She looked so frail, so helpless. And, she didn’t seem to remember she was Nightmare Moon.

Chrysalis was still thinking of what use she could make of this information, when she saw the filly’s horn glow with a night-blue aura.

Suddenly, she could not move. Her body was completely paralyzed.

"You- you told me you knew only one spell!” she said, her tone accusing.

The filly looked down, her face flushed with shame. “I’m sorry!” she said, the apology sounding genuine. “I lied. But I need a home! I need a family!”

With that she walked up to Chrysalis and placed her still glowing horn onto the changeling foal’s head.

“No! Stop!” Chrysalis cried, but it was too late.

The room was filled with a light the same dark-blue as the filly’s magical aura. Chrysalius watched as the filly became nothing but magical aura and slipped into her child’s body.

There was another flash of the dark-blue light and then... silence. Chrysalis realized she could move her body again, but remained still, staring down at her child.

One second. Ten seconds. Half a minute.

Suddenly her child shifted in her forehooves, gave a tiny yawn and began to cry.