//------------------------------//
// Prologue (aka the whole story) 
// Story: Silver 
// by Sleepy Panda 
//------------------------------//

The changeling gazed sadly down upon the cluster of eggs in the nursery. It was such a shame that they would never grow up to be changelings, but he had no choice in the matter. Due to certain unavoidable circumstances, the eggs must be destroyed.

Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes and summoned his powers. The spell he needed to cast wasn't particularly complex or powerful, but casting it multiple times required a great amount of energy. In fact, he wasn't even sure if he had enough energy in his reserves to complete his task.

But he had to try. It was his duty.

Exhaling, he opened his eyes and directed his focus toward the changeling eggs that lay before him. He shot a bolt of destructive energy at an egg, which immediately disintegrated into dust. He repeated this multiple times until there were just a few eggs remaining. After stopping for a moment to catch his breath, he fired up his curved horn once more to deliver the final blow to the eggs.

Or he would have, if it were not for the boulder that crashed into his side and knocked him across the cavern. A wave of pain coursed through his battered body, and he found himself unable to breathe as the wind was knocked out of him. He stood up on unsteady legs and prepared  to chew out whoever had dared attack him, but stopped short when he saw who it was.

"What. Are. You. Doing. To. My. BABIES?!" Queen Chrysalis demanded, her voice dripping with anger.
"M-my queen! I wasn't expecting you here. I am simply honored by your presence, Your Highness. I would bow, but my legs-"

"Shut up."

"As you wish, my queen."

Chrysalis took a menacing step forward towards the trembling changeling and glared fiercely at him. Terrified, his legs gave out and he collapsed onto the floor. "Answer my question, changeling."

"I was just doing my job! After the incident last week, some of the hazardous chemicals released from the explosion leaked into the nursery and tainted the eggs. The new changelings will surely have birth defects. My boss is always saying that perfection is key to survival, and I agree with him. I decided to help out the hive by ridding it of imperfections." Shrinking back, he squeaked and added, "Please don't hurt me."

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. "So you're saying that you did this because it was your job to do so?" The changeling hesitated, then nodded meekly, quickly looking down at the ground. "I see. And remind me, what exactly is your job?" The changeling was silent for a moment before he sighed and stood up, looking his queen directly in the eye.

"I assure you, my job is incredibly important. Without me, the hive would-"

"That is not what I asked."

The changeling sighed and looked away, defeated. "I am a janitor."

Chrysalis fought an intensely strong urge to facehoof as she roughly picked up the changeling in her magic and brought him up so that they were face to face.

"Let me explain something, janitor. No changeling messes with my babies but me. They're mine."

"But your majesty, the chemicals-"

"NO! I do not care about defects. They're my babies, and I will not stand for them to get hurt, much less killed. If I could kill you one time for each of the eggs you destroyed, I would. If I could throw you into the deepest pit of Tartarus, I would, because I will protect my children at any cost!" And with that statement, she flung the offensive changeling into the wall as if he were the nastiest thing alive (which wasn’t exactly true; his changeling girlfriend was much uglier than anything she had ever seen).

Groaning, the changeling snorted, "Your Majesty, you're getting soft. I think you might be turning into a fuzzy, hug-loving pink pony with-"

Those were his final words.

Chrysalis stood fuming, the light fading from her horn. "I am not turning into a soft-hearted pony. I simply need more workers for the hive," she said to what used to be a janitor. Or maybe, a voice in the back of her mind slyly whispered, the time you spent disguised as a pony has taken its toll on you, softened you up. In the past, you wouldn't have tolerated anything but utmost perfection. You wouldn't have hesitated to do away with them. Is it possible that you... care about them? Maybe you even love them.

"No, I do not care for them," she said aloud, but she couldn't help but shudder when the image of the idiotic changeling obliterating her eggs replayed in her mind. "Okay, maybe I do care about them, but that is only because those changelings will never be able to grow up and contribute to the hive. The hive has experienced a great loss."

Satisfied with her own explaination to her sorrow, she trotted away with her head held high, but her head lowered and her frown grew as she approached her remaining two eggs. She slowly sat down near the eggs and stayed there grieving until a soft voice interrupted her thoughts.

"Your Majesty? I- oh. Oh. Oh my. I, um... what just..."

Chrysalis stood up and wiped the moisture from her eyes. "I take it you're in charge of the nursery?"

The female changeling nodded, unable to keep her eyes off of the broken shells.

"Good. Clean up the mess here, and raise these two changeling nymphs extra well." Not waiting to hear the reply, Chrysalis exited the vicinity and headed to her private quarters to take an extended nap.  She would need a long time to recover from such a devastating event; the destruction of the ones she loved.

A second later, she marched back in. “Actually, I changed my mind; I really don’t care.” She then proceeded to make herself a very delicious breakfast, consisting mostly of scrambled eggs.