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// Momma 
// Story: Momma 
// by 5thWriter 
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	Do you think me evil? That I am a soulless creature incapable of love? If you do think that, then you would be wrong.

While true, that perhaps my methods are harsh, it is only because I love my children. I love my children with every ounce of my being. I would rather see this world burn than feel sadness from my children. I suppose that’s why I do what I do. I push them as hard as I can to make them as strong as they can be. They gripe and they complain, but like all good children they do as their mother asks of them. I have asked so much of them and done so much myself so that our race may survive. Ours is not an easy life to live. We come from the area known as the Badlands just south of the jewel that is Equestria. The Badlands are a harsh wasteland. There is barely any water and even less food. I have seen my children starve by the dozen, simply because there wasn’t enough food to go around.

I suppose it was an act of desperation or maybe an act of insanity that caused me to think attacking Canterlot would be a good idea. Whatever the case, it was done with love for my children. In those short two weeks, I had eaten more love than I had in years. It was pure ecstasy, but I was no fool. My children came first. As often as I could, I would sneak away and give them as much love as I had saved up. Oh, how my children’s eyes sparkled when they tasted that sweet pure love; I had never seen them so happy before. I told them that this was why I was doing this. Not for the love, but for their happiness.

For the next few days it was a fairly simple routine, I would collect love during the day and I night I would sneak away to my children and feed them all the love I have saved up. Luckily as a queen, I was able to save vast amounts of love to feed them. As they fed, I would inform them of what I had learned about the ponies. Of have wasteful they were and the stench of their overconfidence. This caused my children to become angry. After all, they had had to watch their brothers and sisters die on a daily bases. Prove that they were worthy of being feed and fight savagely against the elements of the Badlands for whatever scraps of food remained. Very few of my children were fighters, less than a fourth, but all of them would be willing to fight to the death for this. What right did the ponies have to live while they were forced to choke on the scraps of life and then die? If Faust the creator above demanded that my race die, then she would find that we would not go quietly into the night. We would make this world acknowledge us.

I suppose it was my own overconfidence that led to my defeat at Canterlot. I had just beating the sun princess Celestia with the love I had gained from Shining Armor and my children had just destroyed the barrier. At this point, I was running on pure adrenaline. I could feel the ponies running scared, none of them knowing what to do as they had never faced a threat like us. After all, who would be foolish enough to attack Canterlot? One attack by a desperate queen and her children was enough to show these ponies how woefully unprepared they were. None of these fools would last a day in the Badlands. My children had just returned with the Elemental bearers; as Celestia was in a holding cocoon and the six did not have their Elements, I ordered the few of my children with me to join their brothers and sisters no Changeling would sit on the sidelines for this battle. I looked out over the city and could feel my children’s enjoyment at finally being able to make someone else feel their pain.

It was then, that I noticed a light glowing behind me. I turned around to see that Shining Armor had broken free of my control and was having his shield spell powered up by his fiancée Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. A split second later a shield of love erupted form the two of them. In the brief time it took for the shield to reach me, I knew it was all over for my children and I. There was nothing left that I could do. I scream for them to stop. But it was too late. The shield slammed into me with all of its might and sent my hurtling out of the city. It was a pain unlike any I had ever felt before. The force of the blow was enough to crack my chitin in several places. Even as I was in pain, it wasn’t enough to prevent me from seeing what was happening to my children. Many of them were being thrown out as I was, but a few were not lucky enough to be met with open air. Instead, they were slammed into a wall and crushed to death by the shield power. A few were met with only half a wall in those cases their bodies were ripped in half.

As I tumbled end over end through the air, I could hear the screams of my children. What were once cries of joy and excitement were now cries of terror and horror. They all cried out for me and there was nothing I could do for them as I wasn’t even able to do anything for myself. I was sent harsh and fast into a vast forest and after going through two trees was finally stopped by the third tree. The love and adrenaline I had had completely worn off at this point and unable to do anything else, I let sweet unconsciousness take me.

I don’t know how long I was out; all I know is that when I began to regain consciousness I could feel love being poured into me. I struggled to open an eye and saw three of my children on the ground before me. “What are you doing?” I asked them. Of course I already knew, they were giving me the love that they needed to live so that I could live.

“We’re saving you, Momma,” replied the middle one with a struggle.

“Don’t worry Momma. Soon you’ll be all better,” the one to the right added.

“Everyone who survived has been so worried about you Momma,” the final one finished.

“My children listen to me. If you finish this, you will die. Please don’t do this,” I begged of them.

“It’s okay Momma, we’re happy to give our lives for you,” the three replied as one. “Everyone needs you.”

My eyes began to tear up, they said they needed me but they didn’t know how much I needed them. With a final shimmer, the glowing from their horns stopped and the three heads collapsed. Though it wasn’t much, they gave everything they had so that I could continue on. The journey would be long, but thanks to these three I would make it back to the hive in the Badlands. I stood up on shaky legs and looked down at the still bodies of my dead children. For the first time, in my reign as queen, I did something I had never done before; I wept for my children.

My name is Chrysalis; I am the Terror of Badlands, Queen of the Changelings, but most of all I am Momma.