//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: Twilight Sparkle, Changeling Princess 
// by mojomcm 
//------------------------------//

Deep within the heart of the Badlands, a cavern-riddled wasteland south of Equestria, resides the Hive. This hive was no ordinary hive, for instead of housing bees or some other from of insect, the Hive's inhabitants were changelings. One changeling, the queen, stood outside the Hive watching the single road that led to where she stood. She was waiting for somepony very special, the pony who would be the saviour of her race. That pony was her long lost daughter. 

Chrysalis smiled, her fangs glinting in the sun. A ring of green flame, the signature appearance of a portal, had appeared a little ways down the path. She could see three of her loyal drones carrying an unconscious alicorn mare, one she recognized from the Canterlot incident. Oh, how she wished she could hate Twilight Sparkle. 

But she couldn't. 

All she felt was joy, joy that Twilight was alive, and love. Love that was so vital to the changelings' nature, love that only a queen--nay, a mother--could produce. Love that would make her daughter more powerful than the sun and moon, if not all of Canterlot combined. It was no wonder that her daughter had chosen a talent in magic. 

Or, that's what Chrysalis hoped. 

Secretly, the queen wondered if, perhaps, Twilight had not chosen her cutie mark. That her daughter truely believed that Chrysalis was a monster. Chrysalis grimaced. What if her daughter rejected her?

Queen Chrysalis shook her head. Of course she won't reject me. I'm her mother, and that means she has to love me. Right?

Here goes nothing.





Twilight's eyes fluttered open slowly. Lifting her head, she could see what appeared to be her bedroom at the library. That can't be right, she thought. Wasn't I on a train?

Looking closer, she saw that the room had no windows, and the shelves had books that she didn't recognize, along with several she did. There was other things that were slightly off about the room, but the biggest thing that was wrong was the room's other occupant. 

A single changeling drone sat at the end of Twilight's bed, a sight that caused the alicorn to shriek in fright. Twilight jumped up, and bounced a few times on the springy bed, before snorting. "Who are you? Where have you taken me? Why do you want me? And why in Equestria are you staring at me?!"

The drone cringed. "My apologies, your highness. Queen Chrysalis wished to know when you would awaken."

Twilight eyed the drone suspiciously. "Why? What does Chrysalis want with me? Revenge? My crown? Revenge?"

Shaking his head, the drone said, "You should let her tell you. She's waited almost fifteen years for this moment."

Twilight frowned. Fifteen years? She was barely fifteen herself. What could Chrysalis possibly want for as long as she had existed? She barely noticed as the drone beckoned her to follow him. Why did they try to trick me into thinking I was back at Ponyville, then prove I wasn't? Why?

Twilight rubbed her forehead, near the base of her horn. She could feel a headache comming on, and the magic ring around her horn truely didn't help. Also, the strange buzzing noise that she had heard on the train ride was back, but worse. Twilight wondered for a brief second if she was going crazy. 

The drone motioned to a large door at the end of the tunnel he had led her down. Pulling it open with her hooves, Twilight Sparkle stepped inside. The first thing she saw, or even cared to notice was the tall changeling who sat on a throne at the end of the room. 

"Queen Chrysalis," Twilight said with disgust, ignoreing the voice in the back of her head that said she should be more polite to the queen. "What do you want?"

Chrysalis grinned, "Come here, I want to look at you." She waved Twilight over with a holey hoof. 

Twilight frowned. "Is this some sort of a trick, changeling? You can't fool me anymore. As soon as I'm able, I'm getting out of here, and you know it."

"Manners," Chrysalis tsked. "Oh, you've grown up so much! And you make for a darling little alicorn."

"Did you ponyknap me just so that you could dote on me? I have two parents at home who do enough of that. I don't need my mortal enemies doing such a thing as well." Twilight rolled her eyes. 

"Did Celestia not tell you?" Chrysalis sighed. "They aren't your real parents, or birth parents as I should say. You were adopted. "

"Now, I know that's a lie. If I was adopted, don't you think somepony might've told me?" Twilight snorted. "Like they'd lie to me over something so trivial."

"But what if it wasn't?"

"Wasn't what?"

"Trivial. What if Celestia found you as an infant in a cocoon in the Hive, and took you thinking that I had fillyknapped you for your love?" Chrysalis' draconic eyes stared straight into Twilight's. The latter made no answer as Chrysalis continued. "And what if Celestia was wrong? What if you were actually a cha--"

Twilight interrupted her. "No, you're wrong. Celestia is never wrong, and she trusts me. She would tell me if I was...adopted...under abnormal circumstances. And I'm not a changeling. I think I would know if I was."

Chrysalis frowned. "For changelings, shape-shifting is as easy as thinking. You might have subconsciously shifted yourself into the form of a lavender unicorn."

"But I'm not a unicorn anymore," Twilight said, fluttering her wings. "Which means you're wrong. Still."

"Same thing. Your subconscious needed a viable excuse for Celestia's spell not taking hold, the reason being that you weren't really a unicorn, the spell's intended recipient, but a changeling."

"Where, then did the spell's magic go? It couldn't just disperse without Celestia knowing."

Chrysalis smirked, "Oh, but it did disperse. Celestia couldn't tell because the dream realm where you disappeared to was already saturated with solar and lunar magic. Such a small discharge in comparison would barely make a difference."

Twilight pouted, stumped. "B-but I can't be a changeling. I just can't."

"Don't deny who you are," Chrysalis said gently. "Besides, you aren't just any old drone. You're a princess."