Queen Chrysalis was still sitting dumbstruck on her throne, in the main chamber of her hive. Or better yet in the largest cavern of the cave system her hive had found shelter after being defeated in Canterlot. It has been almost half an hour, since a flash of magic silenced the whispering of the hive mind. Half an hour, since she lost the sense of her life. She didn't know how that was possible, but she knew that her changelings were gone. Instead of them dragons, minotaurs, griffons and a great number of dreaded ponies roamed her hive and her provisional throne room. She was aware that they were there, but she ignored them. Even those who had waved their claws or hooves in front of her eyes.
She had other problems at the moment, than those lowly creatures. The thoughts, which circled in her head were dark enough to crash her. She had failed. Her hard and more and more desperate work to save her race was in vain. She had broken the vow to her mother. The vow to save the changeling race from extinction. Her hive was lost now. The last changeling hive was gone.
A part of her mind told her to kill herself, that she didn't deserve to live anymore. It might have won soon, but then she heard a faint whisper in her head. She didn't understand what it said, but she was sure what it meant. It was a command of a changeling queen. Not to her. No queen would dare to command another around.
Another queen. Hope glimmered in her. Maybe not all was lost. She could still be useful for her kind. She erected herself and marched towards the exit of the hive. She still did her best to ignore the pathetic creatures she came across, while leaving the tomb of her dead hive. They were of no use to her. They didn't have emotions, which she could rip out of them nor could she stand even the thought of eating the flesh of sapient creatures, even such unworthy ones like them.
After some minutes walking through the hasty broadened tunnels she reached the gates of the cave system. Most guard posts were vacant. Just on one without any way to the ground was a forlorn unicorn. “Madam!” she called down, but Chrysalis couldn't care less about that scum, in fact she increased her speed. “Please, I need your help!” her voice becoming more desperately, causing Chrysalis to fall into a gallop.
It was far hotter, when she expected. Still, she didn't let that stop her and raced in a straight line, right towards the other queen. She couldn't maintain this speed for long. Soon, she was out of breath and her run changed into a walk.
The ground below her was barren sand, only rarely interrupted by patches of dry grass. Here and there a larger rock or a cactus were visible. In her peripheral vision she saw something grass green were her hooves were, but didn't bother to take a closer look.
After she caught her breath she tried to lift off, but for some reason she couldn't. She didn't bother to find out why. It didn't matter, she would reach the other queen eventually.
She walked for hours. The sun burnt down merciless at her. Hunger, thirst and fatigue were constantly nagging at her. But she forced herself to move on. Her hooves felt heavier and heavier with the passing hours.
The sun had almost set, when she reached a small village of disgustingly bright colored wooden houses. The streets were abandoned, but she saw light in some houses. She didn't waste a thought about what kind of pests could live here and why they were hiding.
Her feet were like lead, but she dragged herself through the empty streets. She didn't want to rest. She couldn't rest. She had to move on, she had to reach the other queen as soon as possible. But almost right after she left the town her body betrayed her. Her fore legs gave way and she fell onto her snout tasting dust. She growled, but her legs remained uncooperative. To make matters worse she had to fight her eyelids from falling.
For her the struggle went on for eons and she mustered all her willpower to fight off her exhaustion and to keep her eyes open. Still, she was slowly losing it. Finally, her eyelids fell and with them she fell into a deep dreamless slumber.
---.---
Chrysalis awoke with an unknown, but wonderful smell in her nose. Above her were wooden planks and she was laying on something soft and aside from her head she was covered by something. Her stomach grumbled violently, like it tried to make it clear to her, that it wouldn't be ignored any longer.
Confused, she brought herself into a sitting position, to examine the area better. She was in a bed in a small room with plain furniture and bright yellow walls. It was quite likely in one of the houses in the town, she had passed the day before. At least the window in the room showed her an amazingly boring view of mostly barren soil like she had seen during her march.
She wondered why the owners of the house would bring a changeling here, but before she could come up with a good reason, a pony stallion walked through the corridor next to her room. When he saw her, he changed direction and entered her room.
While doing so she got a better look at him. He had yellow fur with some orange-brown stripes on it. He had a strong build, even slightly stronger, than this captain of the royal guard of ponies, she had feasted upon. His mane had an alternating pattern of the same colors as his fur. He wore a brown vest and one of those strange hats ponies in this region wore. His warm green eyes were looking at her and a small smile was on his face. All in all he looked exotic, but was strangely appealing... Definitely just in a culinary way. He was just a pathetic pony! He was just some delicious piece of food. It was impossible, that she could like him in any other way.
Oddly she couldn't feel any emotions she could take from him, although he definitely showed care for her. Maybe he was hiding them from her. Impossible, ponies are incapable to do that.
“Ah, you are finally awake. How do you feel?” he asked, sounding relieved.
She wanted to answer herself but her stomach decided to go first and growled loudly. She blushed and replied, “I'm hungry.”
“Well, as expected. I've already brought you some food and something to drink. Feel free to serve yourself.” He pointed with one hoof at a bedside table, where she found a small tray with some apples and a cup with a transparent, orange liquid. The apples looked as disgusting as fruits always did to her and she needed to drink that stupid stallion dry of his emotions instead of that cup.
Still she had to keep her masquerade. He might be a pony and therefore his intelligence couldn't be that great, but she shouldn't be too careless again. She was far too weakened and couldn't afford it, that he would turn against her.
So she took a bite of one of the apples. Her eyes widen in amazement. That was the best food she had ever eaten. Without any thought about mannerism she gulped the apples and downed the juice.
He whistled. “Amazing, I didn't expect you to be that hungry. I'll bring you some more.” He smiled at her, took the tray onto his back and left the room, leaving her with an odd, but nice feeling in her chest and a strange warmth in her cheeks.
A residue of the taste was still lingering on her tongue and she truly craved for more.
No, she didn't like those apples. Why would a royal changeling like the food of her meals? She just had played the role of a starving pony so well, that she even believed it herself for a moment. Likely, she had also fed on his emotions, which had to be the real reason for the good taste. It was obvious to her now that, that the flash, which had eradicated her hive, while unable to kill her, has blinded her ability to see the emotional energies of her victims. Luckily, she retained her ability to feed on them, even though she couldn't control it anymore.
She looked at her hoof. It was a grass green fur-covered hoof of a pony. She couldn't remember, disguising herself as a pony, so she must have done it subconsciously. She was impressed by herself for that deed. Even though shape changing isn't difficult in itself, it normally needs focus and a clear image of the new form to do so. Additionally, it should have ended, when she fell asleep unprepared.
She felt proud for her new found mastery of her abilities, but her train of thoughts was interrupted by the delicious food bringing her the tray with more apples, a bit of hay, her cup and a can with apple juice.
“I'm sorry, that I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm Braeburn and your are here in my house in the lovely town of Applelooooosa,” he said, stretching the last word far too long. After a short pause he asked, “What is your name?”
“Chrysalis, qu...” she replied, just to comprehend moments later, how stupid it was to tell him this. She could just barely suppress herself throwing her hooves in front of her muzzle. Maybe the sun had burnt her brain on her journey here. How could she tell a pony her name? What if he could link it to her kind. At least she didn't told him her title. She forced herself to calm down. He was just a lowly pony. His kind should be ignorant of her name.
She heard the whispers of the other queen again. They were slightly louder than before, but she still couldn't understand them. But they sounded scared and desperate. She had to hurry, otherwise there might be no other queen anymore, when she reached her destination.
“I have to go,” she demanded, while sliding out of the bed, taking a short look onto her own side. She grumbled, since her disguise was of the most pathetic pony tribe: earth pony. This ruled out the possibility to just open the window and fly off. She couldn't risk that the townsponies would see her true form.
“I don't think, that would be wise,” he replied, while trying to stop her. “You had almost run yourself to death, when we found you. You need rest.”
“I have an important task, I've been delayed far too long,” she stated making a step forward.
“But...”
She glared daggers at him, which caused him to retreat some steps. She walked past him towards the door.
After some moments he followed her. “You should at least take some supplies with you,” he resumed his talking, “Where do you need to go?”
“That's too kind, but you've helped enough, I just can't take this offer,” she replied in a far too kind way. At least she dodged the question.
“I have to insist. The next town is more than a day of travel away and you'd die of thirst, if you go there without at least something to drink,” he argued.
“No, that's...“ she started, but stopped when he touched her shoulder.
She turned around and looked into his concerned face. “Please.”
She couldn't say no even though she really wanted to. She sighted defeated, “Good, I'll take some.”
“Perfect.” A wide grin appeared on his face, which caused her to wonder, if that was kind of a trap. He brought her into a room with a plain table and some matching chairs and said, “Wait here, I'll be back in some seconds,” sat the tray with food on the table and was gone out of the door.
She sat down and waited. A part of her mind were panicking, elaborating what kind of traps he could set up for her. It was telling her, that she had to go now, to save the changeling kind. Another part soothed those worries telling her, that he clearly wouldn't do such things and viewed his smile again, what made her somehow happy and muted her worries.
“I'm shorry,” Braeburn said with a brown saddle bag, with bright green clasps in the form of apples, in his mouth and two hats piled over each other, evicting her from her daydreams. Again, she tasted the fine residue from before. Definitely his emotions were the reason for this. “I had a shmall convershation with a cousin.”
“Why do you have those with you?” Chrysalis asked, pointing at the second set of saddlebags on his back. They looked heavier, had a set of sticks attached to the bottoms of the bags and a small pot was dangling from a side.
He sat the saddlebags in his mouth down to get it free for the reply. “As I said, I talked to my cousin and we came to the conclusion, that it is too dangerous for you to travel alone, therefore we decided, that I should accompany you.”
“You don't have to...” she said, trying to stop him, but only half hearted. A watchpony should make her uneasy, but strangely it didn't. In contrary she was very happy about his decision.
“No, it's alright. We have to send somepony out-of-town anyway, because since... the Changing Chaos happened, no trains have come to town. Ehm...” He paused, “May I ask you a question?”
“Sure.”
“You weren't changed into another species in the last days, were you?”
Chrysalis panicked mentally, he couldn't have seen through her disguise. “No, no, definitely no!” She replied, shaking her head violently.
He just raised his eyebrow. “Okay, if you say so. Put your saddlebags on and take one of hats,” he pointed upwards with his left hoof to the pile of hats he wore, “and let's go, you were in hurry earlier.”
through the day before. She led the way, but he was only a muzzle length behind.
The march was uneventful for hours, she walked straight in the direction, where she felt the whispers of the other queen were coming from. From time to time, he forced her to make a short break in the shadow of a huge rock, where they drunk some water they carried with them. He also used a compass to check direction, but he didn't asked her to change the path.
Her gaze was directed to the horizon. Only sometimes she looked at him for no particular reason. He was searching the surroundings for something, quite likely threats. Whenever he turned his head in her direction, she forced herself to look forward, back to the horizon. Strangely she blushed, whenever that happened.
“Stop!” he whispered suddenly and she complied immediately. He pointed at a small inconspicuous sink right before them. “A scorpion lives down there and might get aggressive, when we walk over its home.”
“I...” She started, wanting to tell him, that she didn't care about the scorpion and that her shell would protect her. Luckily she realized in time, just how stupid such an answer would have been. Sure, they were alone and nopony could help him against her, but she clearly didn't want him to become hostile. She took a deep breath to get some time to think. “... thank you.” she finished with a smile on her face, which was far easier, than she expected.
“You're welcome.” He smiled back and again she had that nice feeling in her chest, while he directed her around the scorpions home.
Again, hours passed without any event. The sun was setting slowly, but it was still far from dark yet, when he told her, that they should set up their camp. Begrudgingly, she came to a halt, while he had already started preparing their stay for the night. He took the sticks from below his saddlebags and two pieces of cloth out of them and erected two little tents.
To her confusion he dug a hole into the ground, but before she could decide to ask, it seemed, that he found, what he was looking for: a wooden looking tuber. He fetched a knife and a small wooden plate from his saddlebags and removed the outer layers of the tuber. Below its dry shell, was a damp core, which he threw into his pot. He added something grainy from his saddlebags and stirred the mixture, causing it to become a mush. Strangely, the mush increased in volume while he stirred. A short while later he stored the water hose he had prepared earlier back without even opening it.
He took two wooden soup plates out of his saddlebags and filled into both some of the mush. He waved her to come closer. “Dinner is ready!”
“What is that?”
“It is porridge made with traveler's root milk. It is known for a bitter taste, but it help recover strength after long walks.”
“Enjoy your meal,” Braeburn said and dug in.
Chrysalis eyed him and the plate in front of her. He looked up, “It does not taste as bitter as I remembered it. Try, it is good.”
She lowered her head, closed her eyes and licked the mush. It tasted far better, than she had expected. Since her expectations were very low, that was in no way difficult. She was surprised, that she actually liked it very much. While she was eating, she already felt less exhausted than before. In the meanwhile the sun set and the full moon rose.
She had just finished her meal when he asked her, “Do you like the stars?” He had put his plate away and was now lying on his back looking into the clear sky.
Chrysalis was a bit confused by the question and looked upwards, since she had never bothered about them. She took some moments to inspect the thousands of white dots in the dark sky and the patterns they formed. After some moments, she looked back at him and replied dryly “No, they are even more boring, than I expected.”
Braeburn looked at her surprised for a moment, but then he forced a smile on his face. “That's unfortunate. I like them very much. They're a calming view and it's interesting to look for patterns, which resemble something.”
Chrysalis just raised an eyebrow, and looked upwards. She searched the night sky for any cluster of white dots, that formed some special shape, but after some minutes of focused searched she gave up. “I don't see any such patterns,” she stated flatly.
He got up sat beside her and pointed at a small group of stars. It consisted of a pentagon of stars, where the outer left star was very close to a second star and a bit below each of the two lower stars was another star. “This for example, is a bison,” he stated.
“I still see nothing.”
“Well,” he took a deep breath, “the double star is the head, the pentagon is the bulky torso and the to stars below are the hooves.”
She looked again at the stars and tried to see a bison. After his description it worked. More or less. With a lot of good faith. “Ahh, now I see it,” she said sounding far more enthusiastic than she expected. Although the topic was boring, she wanted to hear more from him.
They talked for quite a while. After some time she switched the topic and questioned him about his live. Even though his live sounded boring to her, she didn't stop to ask additional questions. The conversation came to an unexpected end, when he returned a question, “What do you do for a living?”
Chrysalis smile, which she had most time of the time they had talked, dropped. She couldn't answer this question, so she needed an excuse and she needed it fast. “Ohh, it's sooo late and I'm tired,” she said feigning a yawn, “I think I should go to sleep now. I wish you a good night.”
She got up and could hear him wish her a good night in a very confused tone.
She didn't bother though. She walked to her tent, pulled the blanket over herself, closed her eyes and was out like a bulb.
She dreamed of the time as the queen of her hive right after the defeat. Her changelings were weak and exhausted. Then Braeburn appeared in front of her throne. He vowed his loyalty and eternal love to her. With this statement he ascended from lowly pony to royal changeling, and he returned the strength of her subjects. Together they marched against the ponies that had wronged her. Braeburn defeated them for her and they celebrated the victory together.