Tainted Love: A Twysalis Prompt Tag Collab

by Foals Errand


Windego by lyra_lover777

by lyra_lover777

A young changeling princess stood in front of a white marble altar. A withering changeling, an old adviser of the crown, surveyed her and her thirteen brothers and sisters, all potential heirs to the throne.

The fourteen's mother and father had both recently passed away in a tragic battle in the jungles of Zebrica trying to find a better source of love than from the meager four thousand diamond dogs that they lived next to. The Hive was barely surviving with such a small source, and the structure of the Hive was creaking like rotten wood ready to snap in half. When that happened, the Hive would become a total anarchy as changelings fought for a helping of love bigger than what they were receiving,

The Hive had been on the brink of collapsing when the king and queen left to find new love sources in Zebrica. Their deaths had just sped up the hasty decline into the fiery destruction of order in the Hive.

The princess buzzed her wings for a moment, stretching them but keeping her hooves planted on the ground.

The old geezer of a changeling reached forward with his magic, for he had been blessed with a horn like the royals(and the princes and princesses themselves.) He continued, enveloping a small velvet bag, in which twenty chips sat, waiting to be drawn.

His voice, creaky and dry, echoed in the massive chamber.

"Each possible heir to the throne must choose a figurine from the bag. Each tile depicts a specific specie of vicious animal or monster. The first heir to return to the Hive with the head or heads of their chosen beast will become the new king or queen of the Hive as well as choose five advisers and a spouse from their batch of siblings. The leftover heirs will then be properly disposed of."

Each sibling nodded in agreement to the ancient tradition. When it was young Chrysalis' turn (who was the smallest and weakest), she nodded heartily.

"The oldest must go first," the adviser muttered, walking over to the front of the line where Chrysalis' oldest brother, Prince Mothball, stood proudly.

There was seven princes and seven princesses. Each stood in their place in line. Chrysalis was at the very back.

Chrysalis watched as Mothball used his hoof to fish around in the bag. No magic was allowed, but it wouldn't change anything either way. Each monster had about the same ferocity.

Mothball finally settled on a figure. His hoof exited the bag, clutching a mottled brown figurine.

It was a carved representation of a four headed hydra. He smiled triumphantly. The adviser shuffled through a pile of yellowing guide books, pulling out one labeled "Hydra."

But Prince Mothball refused the booklet, his cockiness getting in the way of his brain.

Her oldest sister, Princess Grub, quickly picked her figurine. She pulled out manticore, its scorpion like tail chipped from rough handling in the past.

She quickly accepted her pamphlet when it was put in front of her, and she galloped out the doors at the other end of the chamber. Prince Mothball had already left the place minutes ago.

The adviser went down the line quickly, as each sibling was eager to start on their quest. Each also received a magically enhanced map of the positions of every other sibling. Foul play was allowed. If and when only seven heirs were left, then it would resort back to the oldest becoming the king or queen, and so on and so forth.

Soon the second youngest was speeding down the hall, a booklet on Ursa majors in his grasp.

Chrysalis smiled kindly up at the elderly adviser, who smiled warmly back. He had always had a soft spot for the youngest of the bunch, even though it might have been mostly out of pity for her weak demeanor and lack of strength.

Chrysalis knew that there was only seven figures left. She had always had a bit of a better sense of touch, sight, smell, taste, and hearing than her siblings (though it might have been gained because her lack of strength.)

She felt the long body of what had to be a Tatzlwurm. She quickly pushed her hoof away from that one, knowing that facing a creature such as that was imminent death.

She felt around, avoiding the body of a chimera, and felt a smooth figure. She decided to chance it and pulled it out.

It was a frosty white color, strands of clay streaked white flying off of its frame.

"Ah, our close cousins the windigos. By far the most changeling like and the most intelligent creature in this bag. Be wary, young ling."

Chrysalis nodded, and set of at a brisk canter, bursting out of the doors.

The adviser spilled the last six figures onto the table. He picked up the Tatzlwurm, remembering the cheating of one of the past advisers that made him an adviser and not a king.

He sighed, stuffing the statues back into their bag and carrying the bag back to a dusty storeroom, setting it down on a place on a crooked shelf where it had sat for many a century.

===

Twilight Sparkle sighed as she pressed her snout against the chilled glass window, looking out onto the vast tundra. Soon, her breath clouded the window and she was forced to wipe it away to be able to see again.

The winds drove lines into the snow and ice, and smacked against the building, trying to flatten it. Young Twilight, a filly on a quest or sorts, wanted to go out and investigate possibly the biggest scientific discovery in the past century, but here she was, stuck behind glass and iron walls "to protect her."

She looked over at the other ponies lounging around in the base. There was Brainsmart, a young earth pony colt who literally could do equations in seconds in his mind. A pegasus mare, about her mom's age, named Blustery was curled up on a cot since she had contracted a cold. Another pony, an aged unicorn named Ice Cube, sat in another corner, drawing shapes on the foggy window with his wrinkled hoof.

All the smart and strong ponies were out studying the ice caverns a few miles away, searching for the mythical beings that had supposedly died out when the fire of friendship shredded them to pieces so many centuries ago.

But Twilight had been waiting here for over a month, doing nothing except the occasional short expedition into the frigid wastelands for a few hours. She had only gotten to research in one of the caverns once, and that had been for only ten minutes.

Twilight wasn't normally one to be daring, but this was insane. Over a month trapped ina flimsy metal building being harassed by the winds?

Not any more.

Twilight slowly donned a furry parka, as well as a scarf and boots and earmuffs.

She pushed Ice Cube aside, who was trying to stop her, and sped out the door.

She spotted a sled and a few mushing dogs in a few heated kennels. She freed them , hitching them up to the dogsled.

She then yelped at them, cracking the whip against their backs. The mutts barked and sped off into the snow, which flurried around the lavender filly as she rode across the icy tundra.