“You never realize how much you love someone until they’re gone”
-Dori-to
Panting heavily, I burst into one of the caves with the dragon roaring in fury close behind. Above the entrance was a hoof-carved marking labelling this cave for ‘storage’. As the name would imply, the room was used for storing plunder from battles and loot from ponies exploring the Badlands.
As I entered, I cursed at myself, seeing no other exit. The room was filled with all sorts of odds and ends, piled up against the dark and gloomy walls- from paintings, to saddle bags, and even a small rectangular blue phone box with the inscription ‘Police Public Call Box’ across the top. Sweating the nerves out of me, I tried tugging at the handle of the phone box. The door rattled but refused to budge.
The sound of the dragon’s footsteps outside intensified. Clenching my teeth, I dug into a makeshift dune of saddle bags, covering as much of my body as possible and ensuring that my ears and horn weren’t poking out. The dragon’s profound breathing echoed throughout the cave as his head peeked in. His presence was mentally killing me.
Making a small hole for my eyes, I saw the dragon saunter to the middle of the cave, his neck swaying around while he scanned the area. “Come out, come out, wherever you are, little changeling,” he sneered. “My stomach is rumbling and the only thing that will calm it down is changeling flesh.”
I kept my mouth shut while biting my tongue and tried to slow my breathing before I hyperventilated. Please go away, please go away, please go away.
The dragon gave me a hostile hiss “Fine- you want to play the silent game! Let’s see how silent you are when you’re on fire!”
The intense sound of a miniature sun erupting from of his mouth filled the room as it landed on a pile of paintings across the cave. The walls started to glow from the light of the burning beacon. All wood and paper, the paintings turned a dead, black color, and the ceiling was flooded with smoke. Thick and hazy, the smog turned the world into an old, grainy photograph. At that point, my heart was going into overdrive.
“Don’t make this any harder for me!” One of the saddlebags tumbled from the top of the pile to the floor. His right eye seemed to stare at my hiding spot.
“It’s only in a matter of time.” As he swung to face the pile of saddle bags that I was hiding in, his tail demolished a great deal of the cave’s rocky supports. A chain reaction of plummeting rocks crashed to the ground and began to fill the room. The cave shook treacherously.
Horse apples, I swore within myself. The dragon tried to scurry away but was halted by something, letting out a sharp yelp of pain. My whole body was filled to the brim with adrenaline. Jumping out of the pile and passing the large unconscious body with a growing lump on its head, I hurried toward the exit. The smoke stung my eyes, and made visibility almost zero.
The next thing I knew, my only beam of hope was welded shut with boulders.
Another dense boulder fell from the ceiling, missing me by a hoofstep. After colliding with the boulder and recovering from my concussion, I crouched down as low as I could and shielded my head with my hooves. I closed my eyes and hoped for another miracle. I sensed that the room was gradually getting smaller by the second as a bombardment of boulders and rocks came down around me. The cavern caved in on itself. In an instant, the world I knew was darkened.
***
Regaining my senses and feeling like I had been hit by two trains, I groaned. Lying on my stomach, my eyelids slowly rose to confront the darkness of the outdoors, barely illuminated by the sun that was about to say farewell to the waking world. The sound of the howling wind and the still crackling embers drifted through the atmosphere.
“How did I get here?” I groaned again, feeling the aches and pains while getting my hooves under me. Making sure that it wasn’t a dream again, I raised my front hooves and stared into them, or through them, more like.
“A nose- a mouth- two wings- two ears- two eyes- one lost tooth- still filled with holes- black fur- ow!” Placing a hoof to my head, I winced in pain. “A bleeding head . . . ”
Feeling the thick, green liquid on my hoof, I placed pressure on the bleeding wound. I searched for a piece of cloth or something to bandage it up, only to be instantly jerked back to the ground by a saddle bag which was tied around one of my hind hooves. I grunted, feeling even more agitated than ever before while I got onto my hooves again. My first instinct was to boot the bag all the way to the other side of Equestria, but before I could hit the ignition button, I noticed that the bag had a giant lump of something within it.
Down on my haunches, I scavenged the goodies from the bag, grabbing a piece of what looks like a former safari shirt colored like a dog’s breakfast with the initials D.D. embroidered on the front. There was also a map of Equestria, a compass, a pair of camo colored binoculars with a fractured lens, two notepads, a few black pens, a hoofful of bits and- a bottle of love!
Holding the pink essence with my right hoof, I raised it up to the barely visible sun for a few seconds- I had thought these things were extinct, since our food storages were bare and empty, and it was so hard to keep it stored in a bottle.
Well, at least something went in my favour today. I was able to place a slight smile on my face, only to have it wiped out instantly as my head angled up to see the whole colony in ruins and aflame. After binding the cloth securely around my head, and with the saddle bag slung across my back, I started to wander toward the wreckage cautiously. The smell of death filled my nostrils, and breathing through my mouth only gave it a gruesome taste.
The only changelings I could see where either dead on the ground, still ‘shinning’, or dead on the ground half-eaten with their organs sprawled out on the dirt. My stomach twisted, and II gagged out the remains of the bottle.
“Ugh, well- that’s a waste of love,” I said as I wiped my mouth with my hoof.
I continued through the cold and harsh twilight until I heard a soft, barely audible, and pain filled moan. Perking up my ears, I followed the source of the sound, and found Queen Chrysalis. She was buried in a hail of rocks, with only her head partially uncovered.
“Queen Chrysalis!” My muscles tightened as I began to remove the rocks as quickly as possible. I marveled at how she was able to survive under so much weight. My hooves ached, my head wanted a break from all of the pain from my injuries, but my loyalty to the Queen caused me to diligently press on.
Once I was able to get enough weight off of her, I was able to haul her out, though she was much heavier than I thought. I kneeled down beside her, raising her head a little.
“M- my Queen.” Her body was covered in several deep cuts which were severely bleeding, while blood slowly trickled from her mouth. Her eyes were pale, and a pool of concentrated dark green blood started to build up around my legs.
“Tell me,” she said in a weak voice, scarcely alive. “How . . . are my children doing?”
“My Queen, y- your lung is punctured.” I panicked, feeling like I was on the verge of hyperventilating again.
“Tell me, how are my children doing?” she repeated, in the same weak tone. She wasn’t going to ask a third time.
“I- I’m sorry my queen b- but . . . I think . . . ” I was struggling to hold back my tears. “I think that there are no o- other survivors. I- I could have . . . I should have . . . Please don’t d-”
“Shhh,” she placed a hoof onto my lips, speaking in her motherly voice. “Don’t . . . cry for me. I was prepared for this from the start. I should be the one who is sorry. I wasn’t able to save my children. It was my fault for the results of our siege on Canterlot.”
Her breathing became fast and shallow. “Promise me . . . promise me, as my last wish, that you will keep our existence alive, no matter what. And that - ."
She took another frail breath. “And that you will avenge the death of your brothers and sisters.”
I shook my head in denial, with tears beginning to escape from my eyes “No, no, no! You can’t! You can’t d-”
“Can you promise me?” Her voice interrupted me, becoming more insecure and unsteady.
“Is this really- . . . ” I took in a defeated sigh as my heart sank “I- I promise.”
“Don’t worry . . . I’ll be watching over you and . . . ”
She took her final gasps of air. “I’m sorry.”
Her voice trailed off with a long, deep sigh. Her head sagged to her shoulders as her body became limp.
“No, no, no, no, no, no!” I vigorously shook her body. Chrysalis was like a second mother to me. She took care of all of us- she placed her life at risk, laughing in the face of death, and didn’t care if it was one or one hundred thousand dragons that were going to attack us. She just held her ground, shielding us from any threatening danger, not thinking of her own safety or welfare. She was the first one on the battlefield and the last one to be fed.
“Damn it, Celestia! This is all your fault, you hear me? This is all your bucking fault!” I cried out, repeatedly punching the hard ground, somehow managing to make a small hole. For some reason, I had the urge to blame Celestia for this. Falling to pieces, I sulked on Chrysalis’ motionless corpse.
I don’t know, even to this day, how long I laid there, with tears flowing from my eyes. It was probably only a few minutes, but it felt as though it could have been hours. I cried for all the emptiness of my life. I cried for not having somepony beside me anymore. But most of all, I cried for being who I was. I wanted to stay there for the rest of my life- to join the others and rot with them- but I had a promise to keep.
Staying here wasn’t an option, as the dragons would probably return to check for any survivors come morning, but trying to escape the Badlands would be nearly impossible. I didn’t really have a choice: it was either burn to death . . . or die trying.
Softly setting down her head and shaking the drowsiness from my mind, I got a grip on myself. I placed the map down on the dry, uneven ground, with the compass in the top left corner. I didn’t really know how to read a map, but I knew that the red pointer of the compass meant north, and the arrow on the top right of the map had to correspond with it. I traced my route with my hoof. The hike to the other side of the Badlands, and then to the closest town- Dodge Junction- would be long and arduous, not to mention getting past all of the dragons.
Taking a deep breath, I got up on all fours and moved to Chrysalis’ motionless body. Parts of me were still in denial that she had passed on, but those hesitations faded away as I checked for any signs of breathing.
Softly pressing my head against hers, I repeated the words: “I promise.”