Four days after leaving the forest behind, Queen Chrysalis finally caught sight of what looked like an enormous pyramid-like tower jutting upwards far, far off in the distance. Leading in the direction of the fabled Crystal Empire was a straight path of tall poles that housed long burned out torches, which must have illuminated a road now buried in snow. The second she first spotted one looming ahead out of the snow, she felt her heart skip a beat with excitement and broke out into a full trot until she made it to what had once been the road to the Crystal Empire. The snow was deep enough that she could reach up and tap the glass cylinder that had once contained a candle, but under normal circumstances she imagined these lights were quite tall.
It was also her first clue that perhaps the changelings had been wrong about the Crystal Empire being buried in snow. Evidently it hadn't been if there existed a road leading to it; if she were to wager a guess, the crystal ponies had put together some sort of artificial climate separate from the frigid cold of the arctic. It still seemed unnecessarily complicated, but the desire for isolation was something she certainly understood. And what place was more isolated than the very top of the world?
Even more impressive then the tower or the road or the Crystal Empire itself, was the sun. As she'd continued traveling north, the dark of night had slowly but surely started giving way to a crepuscular twilight, until eventually even the sun was visible, just hardly dipping over the horizon line. The cold was still too intense for it to make any difference, and even with the sun shining, it was faint and the night still reigned supreme even here. But it was the first time Chrysalis realized that not all of Equus had been affected the same way by the eternal night as Equestria had. At the very best they would have a similar state of twilight, albeit perhaps a little darker, and at the very worst even the moon would be gone. The reality of the situation was that the moon hadn't necessarily been frozen, but rather the celestial orbits had been, which in turn would give the illusion of eternal night.
Chrysalis couldn't help but be drawn back in time to her youth, when she was still being taught all the basic of the little blue planet she and every species called home. She imagined the ponies and deer and everything in between would be shocked at the civility and normality of what changeling society actually was. She'd been taught the same way she'd come to understand ponies had been, in collective ensembles of pupils all being taught by an elder. Schools, she believed they were called here in Equestria. In those days, she hadn't known anything about what her future had held, all she knew was that the hivemind was supposed to command her and she must heed whatever the Queen dictated through it. The problem was, no matter how hard she tried, she was constantly unable to hear anything through the hivemind. She remembered the countless times she had gotten punished by an elder because she didn't do what she hadn't known she'd been told to do.
Even as a changeling, she'd been considered an outcast when she tried to explain that the hivemind didn't exist for her. She'd quickly been deemed a worthless changeling, unable to operate functionally and therefore a burden to changeling society. Still she pressed on, teaching herself how to transform and feed off love and showing to the elders that she was still capable. But despite being entirely self-taught and perhaps one of the youngest changelings she knew to possess so much knowledge about the world, it was still not enough to convince anyone that she was worthy of respect and consideration. She could flawlessly shapeshift a hundred times, but her first mistake would result in ridicule and scorn from the elders. Secretly she hated each and every elder she saw, but she didn't dare express it. The ancient changelings used their age to proclaim superiority and call her worthless when they themselves did nothing to help the changeling kingdom.
The life of changelings wasn't measured in years, but a unit called 'cycles' which existed solely to exemplify the grandeur of the Queen. One cycle defined the total average age of a changeling, which was measured at eighty years. A changeling of twenty years would therefore be aged at a 'quarter cycle,' where they would remain at that interval until they reached the next quarter. With such a system, the changeling society was broken into four distinct age groups: the nymphs, the drones, the imagos, and the elders. An elder was a changeling who was still alive at a third-quarter cycle or higher, whilst the imago was the reproductive age of changelings where many died in the process of laying their eggs.
Her mother had been twenty two cycles old when she shocked the entirety of the Changeling Empire with a completely unprecedented announcement.
When Chrysalis was seven in Equestrian years, Queen Elytra announced through the hivemind that she had a daughter, who would be thereby known as Princess Chrysalis. She told every changeling of how this new princess was to succeed her after her passing.
Chrysalis herself had not even heard the news of her ascent into royalty personally as it had been passed across a means she could not access. She'd learned that the reason she couldn't read the hivemind wasn't because she was incapable, but because she was never meant to obey it. She was meant to control it.
It was another common misconception amongst the ponies of Equestria that all changelings were born to a singular mother, the Queen. This was assumed for a variety of reasons, but mainly because the hivemind was known to stem from the mind of the Queen, as well as the fact that at the end of each Queen's lifecycle, the majority of the changeling population would wither and die and only several dozen would remain alive. This was attributed to the severed hivemind links between the changeling drones collecting love energy, which was fed instantly back to the Queen and then distributed across every changeling evenly. With the Queen's death, the hivemind shut down and changelings died as a result.
Regardless of the Queen's exclusive importance in her Empire, changeling eggs were still laid by changeling parents. It was, quite shockingly to many, that easy. However, quite unlike ponies, changelings carried little to no sentimental attachment to their eggs, perhaps because to do so would be to assume the responsibility of a hundred children. Instead, the changelings were left to hatch and when they did it was the entirety of changeling society that brought them up as opposed to a single family.
Of course, the Queen was capable of reproducing without the existence of another changeling, whilst every other imago was not. That, Chrysalis had learned, was what had happened with her. Anticipating her lifespan drawing to a gradual close, Elytra had made precautions for the continued survival of the changeling race.
Shell-shocked but ecstatic, Chrysalis met her ascent with enthusiasm and tried harder then ever to hone her abilities as a changeling. She still required lessons from elders but the respect she had gained meant she almost enjoyed proving her abilities to them now. She saw very little of her mother, who practically existed by mention of her name alone. Still, life in the Queen's immense cavern home was a vast improvement over life in the nymph cavern where the most prominent memories Chrysalis carried were getting into trouble for provoking fights with other changelings.
Eventually, three years after her ascent, on one of the rare occasions when her mother was present, Chrysalis finally posed a single question that had been on her mind since that one fateful day.
"Why not sooner?" she had asked, pushing away her plate of gelatinous green ooze that was essentially physical love.
"I beg your pardon, Chrysalis?" Her mother's voice was cold and challenging, the way it always was even when there was no conflict or confrontation present.
"You waited seven years to tell them I was your daughter. Why?"
"Do I detect blame in your voice, Chrysalis?"
"N...no," she lied. "I'm just asking."
"Well, although I see no reason why it is your place to know, the reason is because I simply wanted to see if you were ready," Elytra pointed a hoof at Chrysalis's plate of love and narrowed her eyes. Reluctantly Chrysalis returned her meal to its unwelcomed position in front of her and resumed eating.
"You see, Chrysalis, independence is not something changelings have in bountiful reserves. The ability to think and act freely is foreign and alien to them. But it is a necessity for a Queen. Do not think for a second I haven't been watching you, my dear. And don't think you haven't made me immensely proud at how much responsibility you have shown at your age."
Looking back at that memory, Chrysalis couldn't imagine that Elytra would ever have imagined the changeling's survival being in as much jeopardy as it was now. Nor the possibility that so much responsibility would end up resting on her kin. She knew for a fact that her mother had never once considered the extinction of the changeling race being a prominent issue, but for Chrysalis it was currently an omnipresent concern. With her death, the hivemind would be split again, the eggs Elytra had ordered stockpiled would never hatch, and the changeling youth inside would eventually perish.
But she wasn't prepared even for a second to let that happen. Putting on a determined face, Chrysalis increased the intensity and speed of her steps and continued on in the direction of the Crystal Empire.
Besides the tall tower dominating the horizon, there were several other smaller looking buildings ahead, also reflecting the orange sun now native to this part of the land alone. They were largely glass (or, crystal now that she considered it) in material, only serving to add to the pathetic impracticality of the whole city existing in the first place. She thought that perhaps for a few fleeting moments, she could hear some sort of drone in the distance, but it was quieter than the wind and only at times when it welled down could she anything else at all. In the end, she decided that it must have been her imagination and the city ahead must have been abandoned.
Of course, she still expected to encounter at least a few Crystal Ponies on her way to the tower, where she assumed the Crystal Heart would be. A few stragglers, refusing to leave their town. With love energy flowing comfortably through her body, she relished in the beautiful fact that they wouldn't be a problem to her at all anymore. Now, she could afford to be ruthless again.
In half an hours time, Chrysalis finally passed through a rickety and sparkling crystal archway that was most likely supposed to look royal and dignified but to her just looked silly. Only a species as materialistic as ponies would waste so much valuable crystal creating so many pointless things, that served aesthetic purposes exclusively. Give them one single year of changeling life, where every day was a struggle for survival, and they'd realize how petty they really were. Truthfully, she couldn't wait until her business in Equestria was finally complete and she could skulk back across the badlands and return to her home for the first time in four years. The trees and scenery here in Equestria were quite beautiful, she couldn't deny that, but it carried no real emotional value to her whatsoever. Besides, the land of the changelings was beautiful in its own right; the horizon doted in every direction with towering natural spires of slime and rock, the moonlight reflecting across the insect-wing-like leaves of the trees native only to her kingdom. True, everything was bleak and dark, the brightest of summer days no more than a dull twilight, but the land carried a certain mystery and abstractness that appealed to her. It might not have been beauty in the conventional sense, but conventional more often than not turned out to be disappointing.
"Perhaps that's why this crystal kingdom looks so strange," she reasoned, craning her neck to watch the orange sun dancing across the falling snow and mirror buildings.
The central tower was undoubtedly the hub of the city, and therefore where she was headed to find the crystal heart. It was a largely pointed structure, balanced almost precariously on four legs. The wind and cold was starting to show wear on the tower, for many cracks snaked along its sides, across broken windows and bits of concrete balcony frozen by ice in an eternal state of collapsing. She felt a chill not caused by the arctic cold rush down her spine as she craned her neck upwards and followed the tower's reach far into the unbridled purplish hues of the twilight sky. Chrysalis considered herself fortunate she'd chosen to come here, because in several decades the castle would more than likely begin the slow waltz of decomposition, the cold preserving it only enough to make it's demise stretch over the centuries. It was both the most beautiful and most depressing thing Chrysalis could honestly say she had laid her eyes on. The latter seemed surprising to her considering she felt no sentimentality towards the creatures who'd built it.
Or at least, she liked to believe she didn't. Stranger things had happened to her in the past four years, and anything was possible. She had half a mind to call out to see if there was anypony else in this frozen ghost town, but couldn't find a reason to justify doing such a thing. Whether or not it would be reassuring to know she wasn't alone, she had no idea. Part of her was simply sick of being alone, while the other had too much pride to agree.
Slowly, Chrysalis reached up to her neck with a hoof and cautiously tugged at the twine keeping her cloak snug against her sides, and in a moment it came undone and fell in a pile in the snow. Immediately, her wings were whipped out and catching the full blunt of the cold winter wind. Filling her gaze again with the uppermost reaches of the Crystal Castle, she began buzzing her wings and lifting off the snow. Unlike a pegasus or alicorn, a changeling's wings relied on speed and not size nor strength to achieve flight. Certainly, the paper thin wings were fragile enough that nearly anything could damage them, and the necessity to flap at ridiculous speeds made flight unpopular with changelings.
Years of being earthbound made her first attempt to take flight end abruptly as she swerved and crashed into one of the legs of the castle. Cursing between heavy panting, Chrysalis shook her head furiously and tried again. Her second attempt at becoming airborne was met with a similar result, but her third finally saw her rising higher and higher until the cracked and broken glass and crystal of the tower was rushing by her on one side and the threatening tundra unfurling like a tapestry on her other. Without her cloak she already felt her muscles starting to go numb as they were beat mercilessly by the elements, but she willed herself forwards.
Looking down to give her watering eyes recluse from the wind, she was surprised to see that her ascent had an audience. Around half a dozen crystal ponies were faintly visible, watching with curiosity at the strange creature rising to the top of the tower like a moth to a torch. They all looked to be wearing layer upon layer of thick clothing, so that only their eyes were exposed. Tracing their deep tracks in the snow, Chrysalis saw that they had all come from one of the many crystal buildings. This one's windows were glowing with the signs of firelight, something she had not noticed until now. Chrysalis wondered why they still remained in the first place; if they were meant to be guarding the Crystal Castle then they'd certainly done a miserable job, but any other reason she couldn't think of. Perhaps they simply did not want to leave home and would rather brave the cold then do so.
It was at least a hundred miles to the forest alone (now that Chrysalis thought about it, she had made better time then she'd given herself credit for) meaning that every time they needed food, they would need to traverse this incomprehensible distance. Falling asleep in the snow had been one of the scariest and most difficult things Chrysalis had ever had to do. She'd slept perhaps three hours, and when she woke up she was quite certain it was her body telling her that any longer without physical activity to warm herself up and she never would have woken up at all. To imagine having to make that journey on a monthly basis perplexed Chrysalis. Then again, the lengths ponies seemed to be going to in order to evade Discord's tyranny really did justify such an act. It was with vivid clarity that she remembered her last and (not counting when her mother was slain) first encounter with Discord.
She had been hiding in the shadows of a long abandoned house as the sounds of screams and wicked laughter run out from outside. Her fear had been so rich in those moments that she was genuinely surprised she hadn't been able to feed on it herself. The most terrifying part of the whole ordeal to her was the fact that Discord knew where she was hiding, and more importantly who she was. He'd killed her mother and yet he'd seen her escape. And then when the opportunity arose to finish the job, he'd chosen not to. The question of why had been at the forefront of her mind ever since.
Almost immediately after she pierced through the clouds did the final spire of the Crystal Castle come into full view. Chrysalis instantly gasped in surprise at a sizable hole that had been forcibly blasted into the side of the crystal by magic. It looked...fairly fresh, but regardless of how old it was it's existence proved one thing and one thing alone.
She wasn't the first one here.
Biting her lip and resiting the urge to scream out in frustration, she slowed the buzzing of her wings and oriented herself so her flightpath would take her through the hole and into the uppermost room of the Crystal Castle.
The interior of the castle should have been dark, but it was lit by the glowing crystals that made up every wall, floor, and ceiling. Intricate chandeliers (also crystal) hung from the ceiling, all leading up a staircase where a black alicorn was standing with it's wings unfurled. It looked like a curtain of dark magic existed around her alone, because despite the relatively well lit room her face and body were both concealed almost completely. The only visible feature Chrysalis could see was her icy blue eyes, which were glowing like the crystals surrounding her.
"Looking for this, I presume," Luna's voice came as a dull, almost disinterested monotone. Carelessly, she flung the Crystal Heart down the stairs where it tumbled down and down. The lost and fabled changeling artifact, Chrysalis's one true chance for salvation, being thrown about like it was some idle plaything. "Go ahead, Princess Chrysalis. Take it."
Anger and confusion fighting for mastery in her mind, Chrysalis looked down at the Crystal Heart that had landed near her feet, frightened to touch it but also amazed to see that it actually existed. But...Luna couldn't just be giving it to her, no, this was certainly some sort of trap. And Chrysalis was no fool. Instead she walked straight past the Crystal Heart and began mounting the steps towards Princess Luna.
"Oh?" Luna stepped forward, out of the veil of darkness so that her armor suddenly burst into reflected crystal light. "You've come so far, my dear, and now you simply disregard the thing you've been looking for? I am correct, aren't I, Princess?"
"It's Queen!" Chrysalis was close enough to Luna now where she was able to follow her furious statement by spitting at her feet. "You treacherous, murderous swine!"
"Q...Queen..." Luna staggered a little on the steps, recovered, and brought a hoof to her head whilst grimacing, as if an unpleasant thought had occurred to her. As if Elytra was no more than an unpleasant thought. "Queen...Then your mother..."
"She's dead! And it's your fault! You and Discord both!"
"I...I'm so sorry, Pr...Queen Chrysalis," Luna took a step forward as if to console Chrysalis, but was promptly pushed back. Even as she lost balance and fell from Chrysalis's shove, she rose to her feet still murmuring apologies. "I am so, so sorry. I had no idea..."
"Apologies..." Chrysalis sneered, surprised by Luna's sympathetic attitude but still remaining on the offensive. "The magic words you ponies spew, thinking that a few 'sorrys' can absolve you of the worst of crimes. You make me sick, Princess Luna."
"Yes, I can understand you feeling that way," Luna answered, and Chrysalis bristled at the unsuspected remark. Had Luna been rehearsing this? Preparing the ultimate phrases to make her look like the villain?
"I know the truth in what you speak," Luna continued. "I myself have had the burden of having to forgive the unforgivable when all they have offered me is their word. Their word, against the crimes they have done, means very little, doesn't it?"
This time, Chrysalis was at a complete loss. The most she could do was curse internally, because this was the absolute opposite of what she had been expecting to happen. She'd been expecting a snide and insincere Princess, and what she got instead was a pathetic lump of pity and sadness. Was Luna seriously sharing her feelings?!
"I suppose you want retribution, then?" Luna said, closing her eyes and once again unfurling her wings wide, like a gargoyle on an old Gothic cathedral. "Justice for your passed mother by way of the death of her killer?"
"Yes," Chrysalis said bitterly through clenched teeth. "That's exactly what I want."
"Then go ahead."
"W...what?"
"Go ahead, my dear. Kill me."
Luna opened her eyes again and a tiny grin joined her cold avian eyes.
"Carry out your justice."
Chrysalis blinked in shock. There was no magic shield around Luna, no magic whatsoever. A quick burst of magic, even a small one if she aimed for the heart, could kill the Princess dead and yet she was doing nothing. Even more striking, she was inviting such an action. And from her voice, she hadn't even made it seem like a trap. She'd said it as if she was genuinely presenting Chrysalis with the opportunity. If she were to take it...what sort of satisfaction would she gain? Striking an undefended mare dead moments after she had apologized and welcomed the end, all the while speaking in the exact same monotone, almost bored sounding voice. There was no fine line between murder and revenge, and Chrysalis had trouble telling herself she lied on the side of the latter.
"Why?" she said warily, preparing her magic but taking no action yet.
"Hmm? I do believe you know why, Queen Chrysalis," Luna replied. "But if you need a reminder I just spoke it prior to your name."
"Yes. I understand that, but why?"
"Do you not think you deserve this? Because you do."
"No, that's not it!" Chrysalis stamped a hoof. "Why aren't you defending yourself?"
"Because I know you won't strike me," Luna said. That same cold voice...Chrysalis didn't think it was possible for somepony to sound so infuriatingly calm in any circumstance, let alone Luna's current one. "My dear, I have seen so many of your type in my days. Do you honestly think you're anything special?"
Chrysalis watched in speechless silence as Luna's grin intensified until it was a fang filled smile that would send shivers down a weaker pony's spine.
"You're a gutless little filly, Queen Chrysalis. You were expecting a ferocious battle, weren't you? That would have made things so much easier. Ironic, isn't it, how so much easier it is to kill somepony in bloody combat then it is that same pony in a state of complete defenselessness."
Luna brushed past Chrysalis and started down the steps, not even turning to look back at Chrysalis as she kept speaking. To her surprise, it looked like Luna was walking with a slight limp, quite deliberately avoiding putting too much pressure on one of her hooves.
"Now, I know you're better then that," Luna continued on, "I know that even you have the strength of mercy. But if you really still think that killing me is going to make you feel better, then put your little theory into practice and see how much better you feel. I would be amazed if you felt anything other than complete dissatisfaction."
"Have you forgotten what you've done?" Chrysalis fumed. "Do you disregard all that you've stolen away from me? My mother, my race, my future...you've destroyed everything! All of it! Was I expecting a ferocious battle? Perhaps I was, I see no reason why I would expect any less after everything else you have done! And then you tell me that you're not guilty?!"
"Certainly, I am guilty. Which is why I have given you the opportunity. Like I said, you deserve your retribution. I deserved light from my sister's shadow, but I would have thrown it all away in a heartbeat if I'd known what it would entail. Will you make the same mistake as me, and succumb to the responsibilities of what you deserve? Or will you weigh them against what the right thing to do is?"
As much as she tried to force them away, Luna's words sunk into Chrysalis's mind as she carefully turned her options over in her head. Luna was still defenseless. She'd made it quite clear that she had placed her entire life into Chrysalis's decision. Would she feel satisfied if she avenged her mother like this? Would her mother be proud? Or would she shake her head sadly, wishing the poor princess she had birthed would have been stronger and less selfish?
With a mighty sigh, Chrysalis made up her mind and let her magic die away.
For the moment, she would stave off her desire for revenge. It simply was not the right time. But it would happen. Someday, somehow, Luna would pay. There was no way she was prepared to simply forgive her crimes and pretend what had happened was not in anyway her fault.
"How did you know I would be coming here?" Chrysalis snapped, trotting down the stairs after the black alicorn who had already reached the bottom. Luna was examining the fallen Crystal Heart in her magic, levitating it closer to her face every once in awhile as if inspecting small crack and dents on the old artifact's face.
"I did not. Like you, I came here expecting to find the Crystal Heart. What I found instead was a pretty little gem in the shape of a heart that possesses no magical ability whatsoever."
"Give me that," Chrysalis yanked the artifact out of Luna's magic and brought it to herself. Examining it like Luna had been, she confirmed that it did indeed possess no magical ability. Either it wasn't the Crystal Heart at all, and was instead an ordinary gem...placed in the highest tower of the highest building in Equestria and normally under heavy guard, or the changelings had been vastly misinformed as to what the Crystal Heart's power actually was.
"It's not magic," Luna muttered. "That being said...it isn't useless either. It has maintained the shield around this place for centuries. It is fueled by the hope and desire of the Crystal Ponies. It is dead now because they have all fled, and their hope has vanished with the last traces of day."
"H...hope?"
"And desire," Luna added. "For those reasons, I believe you would do good to keep it close to you. It is a changeling artifact, after all."
Chrysalis wrenched the Crystal Heart closer and stuffed it into her saddlepack before Luna could change her mind. Shooting Luna a filthy glare, Chrysalis fluttered her wings and prepared to fly off, back to Equestria, where she would find a way to exploit the Crystal Heart to help her somehow. Perhaps there was no magic now, but she didn't believe for a second it was powerless nor possessed no love energy. It might be true that it required the hope and goodwill of the Crystal Ponies to function, but surely she could find a way to use it to harness love herself.
"Queen Chrysalis," Luna held a wing in front of Chrysalis, blocking her way forwards. "You aim to defeat Discord, correct? I, too, have similar desires. While I realize I do not deserve an inkling of your respect nor forgiveness, I do think that you should consider our similar goals. A temporary partnership might be...beneficial...for the both of us. Therefore, it is with a hopeful heart that I ask you to stand beside me when I go to battle."
Chrysalis chortled, shoved Luna's wing out of the way as she walked on, and turned around.
"You're a fool if you think I would agree to help you," she said, letting out another barking laugh. "I aim to kill both you and Discord eventually. If you go to battle, then the ensuing result is that I am saved the task of having to kill at least one of you. I hope you win, because personally I think going against Discord would be suicide. For my sake, good luck."
"Your confidence and pride is boundless," Luna commented, the traces of a threat dripping from her words. "Don't overstate your abilities, Chrysalis. You may have motivation but I don't believe you have the ability to carry out the tasks you aim to. So watch your step, filly."
Chrysalis was unfazed, and she laughed another hollow and humorless laugh as she stormed to the precipice of the Crystal Tower.
"We'll find out then, won't we?"
"I suppose we will, my dear. I gave you a nice little chance and you wisely chose to deny it. Good for you. Don't think you're going to get that chance again."
Luna's nearly malicious grin was back, perfectly complimenting her patronizing and threatening words. Not that Chrysalis was afraid even slightly. Luna may have been correct about her confidence, but underestimating her power would be her ultimate mistake.
"See you later, Princess," Chrysalis said, and with that she took off into the air again.
She flew for a short distance out of the Crystal Empire at a brisk pace but slowed when the crystalline buildings were gone and the fields of snow lay ahead. Quickly she realized that she had no desire to traverse the cold skies again. Instead, she chose to spend the remainder of her gathered love energy into charging a long-distance teleportation spell, and with a brilliant green flash she was gone.