Life, this wasn’t life it was just a smothering endless confusion. Sensations pull at me, but through a mist. A haze of clouding curses that pull at who I am. There are brief moments when I can see outside my cage of oblivion, I can feel the heavy shackle about my neck and the chains that bind my hooves: I know that I’m a prisoner.
I should be angry, furious at the betrayal, the indignity that one such as I is.... but then the heavy clouds of insensibility descend once more and I know nothing but half-thoughts. Vague recollections of power, love and the devotion of my children.... The thought is swept away before I can complete it, even frustration is denied me as my mind is silenced again. The heavy binding spells of....
The flash of anger surprised her; not the anger itself (she had plenty of that) but more that it came from an outside source. For the first time in heavens knew how long, her mind was her own. The burning fury of her captor had been like a beacon, lighting the way for Chrysalis’ thoughts to follow.
She forced a gummy eye open, her lids protesting after so much inactivity and Chrysalis peered blearily at her surroundings. The darkness was cluttered with glowing vials. Green flames flickered under multi-coloured containers. Chrysalis was laying belly down, her limbs bound in heavy chains while a tight collar was fixed around her neck.
A sulphurous vapour filled the air and Chrysalis saw her through the murk. Her captor, the sister she’d trusted once too often, lit by the raging incandescence of her horn. To see Ichor so infuriated made Chrysalis’ heart tremble with joy.
She glared at her sister, normally so confident and composed and relished her distress. Oh how Chrysalis yearned to wrap her hooves around that traitorous grub’s neck and feel it snap under the pressure. Once Chrysalis, the younger of the two, had admired Ichor. Learning the arts of trickery and deceit from her older sibling like a ravenous tick leaching blood from a host. Draining everything she could learn from Ichor until she was ready to start a hive of her own.
That was when times had been good, the feeding easy and rich. The poor fodder of Equestria had been theirs to take as they pleased. But then the cursed setbacks. Stupid as the ponies were they did learn surprisingly quickly, no doubt helped by their ‘demigods’. Chrysalis smiled despite her predicament, to see Celestia humbled so, trapped in an essence leaching cocoon of Chrysalis’ own making. Ah that had been the moment of triumph.
Never before had the changelings been so close to achieving their goal of subjugating Equestria and some other queens whispered that Chrysalis had played her hoof too soon. She’d paid them no heed, knowing she was prepared for every eventuality.
Then it had all fallen apart, curse those stupid ponies and their protectors. Why did they get such powerful creatures to watch over them? The thought stung Chrysalis and she pushed it aside, the weight of her chains reminding her of the dire situation she was in. No point crying over spilled mucus.
Chrysalis shifted her body, feeling the ever present pull of the binding spells Ichor had placed on her straining at her efforts. She couldn’t help but grin. So sister you’re not immune to our plight? Feeling a little weaker yourself hmm? The moment of mirth passed, as weak as Ichor must be to have the enchantments failing it made no difference if Chrysalis was even more so.
Bide your time, wait for the foe to look the other way. The lessons taught her still applied even when among family and so Chrysalis was content to simply listen for now and see what strange quirk of fate had given her a measure of freedom.
“It’s the nutrient halls Lady, we suspect sabotage,” The hapless drone cowered before his mother, snout buried in the soggy earth.
Despite her fury and enfeebled state Lady Ichor cast an imposing figure Chrysalis noted, It doesn’t do to let the drones see you weak. Her wings wickedly sharp throbbed in time with her anger. Ichor was thinner than Chrysalis and taller, as if she was a stretched copy of her own beautiful body. What really set Ichor apart from Chrysalis were her dark purple hues, like a rich ripe plum plucked from a tree in its prime.
“What fool allowed such to happen?” Lady Ichor didn’t shout or scream at this news but simply raised a ragged eyebrow.
The drone cowered, more fearful at his mother’s cold manner than if she’d been screaming in rage, “It seems the Overseer went mad your ladyship and destroyed the vats.”
Chrysalis was surprised. She knew well of accounts where underlings, had taken leave of their senses when the hunger gripped them too tightly. But that was when they were starved and desperate, to have an Overseer in charge of none other than food production succumbing to such was unheard of.
Watching her sister’s reaction carefully Chrysalis saw the same conclusion forming on Ichor’s face. She was taking the destruction of several months of precious food awfully well and Chrysalis was annoyed to feel a flicker of respect for her.
“I want the Overseer to be brought to me for punishment. The whole hive shall know of his suffering,” Ichor proclaimed, as if written in stone. But when the drone didn’t instantly move to enact her orders her demeanour of calm cracked, “Why do you delay?”
The drone shivered, clearly terrified, “Thousand apologies your Ladyship, the Overseer is gone….We cannot find him anywhere.”
Chrysalis had a rare moment of smug satisfaction as Ichor drew in a dangerous breath, the sight of her family rival in distress warmed her abused heart. Ichor stood stunned by such news, no doubt the very thought that anything within her hive was beyond her notice intolerable. It certainly would have been so in my hive Chrysalis thought and grinned all the wider.
The pleasure was fleeting as Chrysalis saw Ichor master herself once again, “What are the workers doing to remedy the situation?”
If the drone had pressed his snout into the ground any harder then Chrysalis believed he’d crush his own head, “There is fighting throughout the hive your Ladyship.” Oh this was too precious.
Lady Ichor’s eyes blazed, “Fighting?”
“Yes your ladyship, it seems that not only did the Overseer disrupt the vats, he also ensured the submission charms holding the fodder in line were broken. There is now a small army of freed creatures barricaded in the nutrient halls and confusion is spreading throughout the tunnels.” The hurried tones of the drone only seemed to enrage Ichor further.
Her veneer of control shattered and this time she really did scream at the minion, “I don’t have time for such interruptions! My work will not wait!”
Chrysalis’ good mood evaporated as Ichor mentioned her work. The hissing vials and bubbling containers held abominations. What made it worse, they were all Chrysalis’ own progeny. She’d given up trying to keep count of the numbers of stillborn or short lived drones, fodder they may have been, but they were her fodder.
The ache returned tenfold as Chrysalis recalled how Ichor had taken her children and experimented on them. As long as there was food a queen would produce offspring, it was in their makeup. As natural as breathing and Ichor had capitalised on that fact. Chrysalis had tried to stop herself, but her body did what it was made to do and so fed Ichor’s insane plans.
Desperation will do evil things to a creature: The changelings were starving and so solutions had to be found. That’s what Ichor had told Chrysalis to start with, before the spells of mind suppression and chains had been added.
Chrysalis had been so weakened, her hive so vulnerable after that final attack from Equestria that she’d stupidly allowed the envoy of Lady Ichor into her home. Surely at this time of trial, rival queens could put aside their angst to come up with a solution?
She clamped down on the feelings of sorrow and grudgingly admired her older sister for her foresight. Had the situation been different then no doubt Chrysalis would have tried something similar if she was being honest. Though even she balked at Ichor’s plan if not her methods.....
“I want this problem dealt with do you hear me! Why must I be surrounded by fools and incompetents?” Ichor’s rage soothed the pain in Chrysalis’ own heart. How does it feel to be the one with their world falling apart hmm?
As Ichor’s distractions grew Chrysalis felt the spells holding her down weaken further, and she felt a little strength return to her limbs. She felt the ever-present cramping and stiffness but pushed past those and drew on the magic within her. Timidly at first, but with growing confidence she let her mind ‘feel’ the hive around her.
She reached out. There were her children here, not the abused specimens of Ichor’s laboratory, but whole (if weak) drones of her own get. If nothing else she could spite her sister and cause as much trouble as....
“And that’s enough out of you!” Chrysalis felt her tender probing severed as if with a sword and the incandescent face of Lady Ichor pressed its muzzle up against her own.
“I don’t know how you managed it ‘Chry’, but be assured I will find out,” Ichor’s blazing eyes bored into Chrysalis’ own, no doubt looking for the knowledge that was simply not there.
Chrysalis chuckled, then laughed as Ichor’s probing revealed no answers to her, “Oh ‘Itchy’ you never could see my mind, even after all these years.” Her mirth was ended as a stab of pain blossomed in her side.
“When this little uprising has been dealt with sister, I will take enormous pleasure in removing your mind piece by piece until I find out you’re duplicity. I don’t need your company, just your body.” Ichor’s voice was dangerous, but Chrysalis didn’t care.
Gritting her teeth Chrysalis forced a smile on her lips again, “Don’t be gentle on my account, I would have had you lobotomised from the start. At least begin with a promise that if I co-operate you will be merciful. May as well give me some illusion that this could possibly end well?” The grating chuckle that escaped Chrysalis’ mouth only caused Ichor’s rage to flare all the hotter.
“Oh I’ll keep your mind intact enough to know what I’ve done to you,” Ichor’s cold quiet tones had returned. “No snivelling upstart shows me up do you hear?”
Chrysalis could almost have cried, Ichor still didn’t forgive her for being the one to nearly topple Canterlot. There really was no love lost between queens. She couldn’t bear that her little sister had achieved more than herself even if Chrysalis’ plan to conquer had failed in the end.
The pain redoubled as Ichor kicked her in the side again, “You and your ambition brought us to this point Chry, remember that.”
Chrysalis still had some fight left in her though, “Better to live for an hour as a queen than a whole lifetime as a maggot playing god in a laboratory.” Always save the best insults for family, thanks for that advice sister.
The screams of rage echoed through the hive and caused the panicking drones to redouble their efforts to reclaim the nutrient halls.
Buzz slunk slowly along the tunnels as the sounds of fighting grew more distant and thanked Twilight for her ingenuous programming. She hadn’t felt so alive for months. Here and now Buzz revelled in her own powers.
She was able to jump from one disguise to another and sow havoc throughout the hive almost at will. A misplaced order here, a conflicting pheromone there and pretty soon the hive was in uproar. It was almost frighteningly easy to do and called to the anarchy in her soul so long denied to her in Equestria.
Discord, he must be the root of it, Buzz mused. Nothing that her uncle touched was ever the same again and it seemed she was no different. A playful trickster lurked in her core, a birth gift from the master of chaos himself and Buzz delighted in it now.
She smiled to think of how Twilight would have scolded her actions, but this time she was doing what was needed and that was bedlam. A tiny voice of reason called to Buzz: This wasn’t her mission, but she was having too much fun to do otherwise; plus the sight of those poor trapped bodies in the nutrient halls.... She needed to find a release and this mayhem fitted that need perfectly.
Plus it would make Scrund happy and that was important to Buzz for some reason. She’d only ever cared what Twilight and Tinker thought of her, but now she had the sudden urge to make Scrund happy too. It couldn’t have been the pseudo feeling from her disguise, she was wearing the scent of Lady Ichor’s brood and every sense from that hated very thought of Scrund and his ilk.
Every time she thought about those puppy-like actions and simple joys that he’d shown when they first met an odd feeling came over her. It was kind of warm and fuzzy, but also scary and strange. Even now with his mind restored she felt that indescribable flutter in her core every time he looked or smiled at her.
Buzz wanted to feel that emotion again and so did her best to cause as much chaos in Ichor’s hive as possible. It seemed absurd that the changelings about her couldn’t tell she was a fake, surely the masters of disguise and imitation would be able to spot a fake a mile off? But here she was fooling them at every turn.
Another group of drones were misdirected into a passage by the simplest puff of pheromone, being driven to fight ‘traitors’ who’d been responsible for the disaster in the nutrient halls. The changelings fell on each other in a frenzy of snapping and biting, each side determined to win their Lady’s approval. Almost pitiful really.
Buzz had the mad urge to giggle, the feeling of power and control a new and inviting desire she’d never felt before. She could have this hive wrapped about her hoof. Make them dance to any tune she’d play, just for the simple joy of doing it and Scrund would be so pleased to know that his enemies were.....
A rhythmic chime was sounding in Buzz’s head, breaking through the dreams of conquest blossoming within her skull. Buzz was surprised she hadn’t heard it before and looked over the last few minutes. It had been there, insistent and constant but Buzz had only just noticed it now.
Checking she was now alone in a deserted passage, Buzz opened the channel and almost snarled into the communicator, “Yes? What is it? I’m busy!”
“Buzz, what’s going on in there?” Spike’s anxious call broke through the vistas of whole cities being overrun by Buzz’s changeling hoards. She looked about herself and only now seemed to realise what she was doing.
“I can see fighting down in the ravine, it looks like hundreds of changelings having a civil war!” Spike’s incredulous voice sounded in Buzz’s head and she staggered as if struck.
“I....er yeah, I may have something to do with that...” Buzz mumbled apologetically.
There was silence on the other end of the communication line before Spike spoke very slowly, “Are you safe?”
Buzz looked up and down the tunnel and saw no immediate threat, but somehow she knew Spike wasn’t asking about that. Her thoughts were muddled, her heart unclear. She was meant to be finding out who sent the cry for help, not force the changelings left to annihilate each other.
“Spike I don’t know. I think I’m in a little over my head here....could-you......” Buzz felt another system crash looming as too many conflicting points of data warred with emotions and the feelings shaking her frame. “I....” was all she managed before that accursed Error message flashed up and she toppled sideways. I’m getting really sick of seeing that. Buzz thought as the darkness swallowed her.
Chrysalis may have been immobile, she may have a mad sibling threatening to tear out what was left of her mind but despite all this she was enjoying herself immensely. Lady Ichor’s wrath was a tangible thing and it was like sweet nectar to Chrysalis’ troubled soul.
She gloated as more and more reports filtered back; telling tales of woe, confusion and best of all infighting. It seemed as if some force had completely destroyed all sense of order and trust within the walls of Ichor’s hive. What a sweet piece of poetic justice.
Running battles between drones all claiming to be loyal to her sister were erupting in every quarter. Stories of casualties and damage were rife. No drone knew who to obey and some Overseers were reported to have given directly conflicting orders to the same drones in the space of mere minutes.
Through it all Lady Ichor’s rage was stoked higher and higher until Chrysalis thought she may actually explode. Ichor had even incinerated the last drone who’d reported ill news, leaving the smouldering husk as an example to the others not to trouble her further.
“It’s so hard to find good help these days isn’t it?” Chrysalis couldn’t help herself and was rewarded with a shower of smashing chemistry equipment flying across the room. She had no idea what had caused such discord among Ichor’s minions but was very happy to take the credit if it wounded her sibling. Worth a few broken vials on the head at least.
Lady Ichor rounded on Chrysalis, her anger reaching a crescendo of blissful, explosive and beautifully apocalyptic expression, “Stop this now Chry! Don’t you see you’re dooming us all to starvation and death? Without my intervention we’re all going to die!”
Chrysalis only smiled wider, “Oh Itchy, you took everything I valued a long time ago. To die wouldn’t be all that bad, at least I wouldn’t have to listen to your insufferable arrogance.” Plus I wouldn’t have to see any more of my children used in you debased schemes. Chrysalis thought sadly, but there was no way she was going to let Ichor know that.
To Chrysalis’ amazement the mad changeling before her actually shed a tear, she’d never have even thought Ichor was capable of such a thing.
“You got to have all the fun didn’t you little sister, always so believable. So talented in the art of deception, oh how mother favoured you,” Lady Ichor was sobbing now and for just the tiniest moment Chrysalis believed it was genuine, but years of well-serving paranoia smothered such doubts quickly.
“Me? Mother hated all of us you stupid grub, same as we hate each other,” Chrysalis’ voice only shook a little as she tried to ignore the nagging feeling that Ichor was truly distraught.
“Why do you think I wasted all that time teaching you, you miserable, ungrateful termite! Mother thought you could make us safe, that you really could subvert and overpower even the likes of Celestia! Now look where your arrogance has gotten us! Please stop this madness before we’re all doomed.” The tears flowed freely down Ichor’s muzzle, the burning fury in her eyes replaced by insurmountable misery.
Chrysalis so wanted this to be true, it appealed to her pride. Of course mother would choose her over Ichor to carry the changelings into glory. Therein was the trap. Chrysalis grinned as certainty replaced doubt, “You know Itchy, you almost had me going there.”
Lady Ichor froze the tears still running down her carapace, “What?”
“All that ‘mother loved me best’ nonsense, oh poor itchy ever the less favoured. The truth is you just couldn’t keep up with me and you knew it. You were old news before I was hardening my shell,” Chrysalis felt vindication stirring in her heart as Ichor’s face became stony.
“You know I think I would stop this destruction for you if....” Chrysalis’ tired eyes were full of satisfaction as Ichor paused with breath held.
The moment stretched out and Chrysalis savoured it. Ichor’s eye twitched and Chrysalis’ mood soared, “Yes you would spare my hive if?” Ichor asked, all trace of the tears gone to be replaced by a hunger that Chrysalis knew too well.
“I would stop this if I had the faintest idea what had caused it, but if you will try to play God then you shouldn’t be surprised when destruction follows soon after.” Chrysalis laughed long and hard as Ichor’s face became a picture of fury.
It had been fun to allow Ichor to think she was behind this catastrophe, but how much more painful for Ichor to know that it was probably something she herself had done to cause the fall of her hive? For once Chrysalis was being honest, she knew all Ichors’ meddling was against nature and this event was all the proof she needed.
The air in the chamber was still, even the low burning fires of Ichor’s experiments seemed muted, before with a shriek Lady Ichor leaped forward teeth bared and horn aglow. Chrysalis felt a final surge of victory as the enraged image of her sister drifted slowly towards her.
Chrysalis really had no clue what was going on outside this room, but she did welcome the final peace from her sister’s enslavement. She closed her eyes, and waited for the blissful end to come.
It was at this point that the chamber trembled and a huge roar echoed through the hive. Chrysalis felt something heavy hit her flank and hissed in pain. Further sounds of impacts shook the room and an agonised scream assailed her ears only to be abruptly cut off. To Chrysalis’ amazement it wasn’t from her and she trembled along with the floor as a resounding ‘thud’ pressed her down.
She opened her eyes and saw a sight that would warm Chrysalis’ heart on cold nights. Lady Ichor’s twitching wings and an expanding pool of slime was all that could be seen from under a boulder. Half the ceiling had collapsed, further rocks and dust following in its wake.
Chrysalis’ mouth twitched and she stared down at her former sibling. The wicked grin spread slowly and at that moment she didn’t care if the roof fell on her too. This was quickly replaced by a fresh surge of determination. The spells Ichor had been sustaining faded away and Chrysalis felt a desperate strength returning to her limbs.
With a roar of her own she heaved upwards but the chains held. Panic began to sour Chrysalis’ newfound hope. Ichor knew her craft when it came to chains Chrysalis would give her that. No resin bonds for a changeling queen.
Further rock rained down on her and she felt the grip of dread returning, just when Chrysalis was free of a demented sister she now seemed doomed only to be crushed by a humble pile of stone. Still she wasn’t going to go quietly.
Heaving a cursing Chrysalis hauled on the heavy links, but they refused to yield. Her struggles became more frantic as dust began to fill her lungs. Rocks and loose gravel began to bury Chrysalis and she coughed desperately.
Lifting her head as high as she could, she yelled her rage at the heavens. Too many times fate had given her a taste of freedom or success and then cruelly snatched it away.
As if the heavens heard her cry the massive stone ceiling suddenly began to shift upwards. She continued to splutter as more rock and rubble tumbled down around her. Through streaming eyes Chrysalis saw a huge looming claw descending through the ruins of the roof. She screamed as the massive head of an angry looking dragon glared down at her and roared deafeningly.