1 year ago
Green, black and brown were the only colors Queen Chrysalis could see from inside the rowboat she was seated in as it slowly rowed through the murky swamp. There were white bandages all over her body, including one covering her left eye. Her dark cerulean mane draped down her battered face. The two paddles at the side of the boat were enveloped in a green aura as she continued to row through an endless amount of old trees and inky black water with patches of grass sticking through. The only sound she could hear were frogs and the buzzing of insects, giving off a vibe of true isolation.
As Chrysalis gazed across the dim marshland, the only thing she could think of was her defeat at the hooves of Shining Armour and Princess Cadence. Her conquest had failed, years of precise planning was all for nothing because one stupid little pony had figured out her plan. She gritted her teeth; that unicorn was going to suffer for what she did.
Chrysalis shifted in her seat at the sight of a small black castle coming into view. It had been nearly six years since she stepped hoof in there. Now, in a weakened and defeated state, she had to face the other hive rulers once more. She eyed the castle with contempt; the other rulers were complete failures; they would never achieve anything during their meetings, just bicker and argue. King Morph was the worst of them. He was far too caught up in the ideals of his ancestors, the first changeling rulers. He sat on his shiny throne, trying to keep ‘tradition’ while his people starved. She would’ve like nothing more than to rip that fool’s head off and actually do something right for her race. Once the meeting was over, she planned on continuing her efforts on bringing prosperity to the hives. Her soldiers had already been gearing up for another invasion.
Once the boat reached a sliver of land, Chrysalis got off and began slowly walking towards the decaying structure. She stopped at the large double doors and took a deep breath, before pushing them open and stepping inside. The room she stepped into was very dim; the dark green walls and grey stone floor illuminated only by a few hanging lanterns. On the right, an entryway led to a set of descending stairs. At the back of the room, a set of grey double doors stood.
With hateful eyes, Chrysalis turned her attention to a long rectangular stone table in the middle of the room. Her three cousins sat around the table, all wearing the same crown she had upon her head. She felt sick, truly sick to be in the presence of such cowards. Queen Nectar, who was sitting to the left, kept her head down. Chrysalis noticed the dark bags under the monarch’s sky blue eyes, which were almost hidden under her long unkempt dark blue mane. She had a pained, almost tormented expression. Chrysalis gave no smile of assurance or sympathy when Nectar’s tortured eyes looked up at her; she felt no pity for the weak. Turning her head to the right, she gazed upon an unfamiliar face. The very young queen looking back at her intently had a short faded light purple mane and light purple eyes. She sat up straight, almost uncomfortably so. She reminded her of a well disciplined military commander.
“Who are you?” Chrysalis asked brashly.
The queen held her head high. “I am Silver, newly crowned queen of the Prospera Hive.”
“Where is King Vision?”
“Dead,” Siver said simply. “As his daughter, I have taken his place.”
Chrysalis stared into Silver’s eyes; she saw self control, will and power. Very interesting, she thought to herself. With slight hesitation, she moved her focus to the changeling she hated the most, Morph. He had gotten uglier since she last saw him. His slimy grey mane was slicked back and his skin wrinkled down his face like an old carpet. How the old king had not died yet was truly remarkable, and unfortunate. Morph’s bright red eyes shot daggers at her, and she stared right back.
“You have a lot of explaining to do, young one,” King Morph proclaimed in a dangerously low voice as Chrysalis took her seat at the other end of the table.
“I did what our race should have done hundreds of years ago,” Chrysalis replied, malice oozing from her voice.
“You have betrayed what our ancestors worked so hard to build,” Morph hissed.
“They never had the guts to do what was necessary,” Chrysalis said. “We’ve lived in the shadow of the other races for centuries, hiding and scrapping for food like rats.”
“Easy, girl,” Morph warned, his eyes narrowing.
“We can have so much more,” Chrysalis continued. “We feed off the love of other creatures: that makes them the prey, and us the predators. There’s a whole world out there. A world we can take, mold into our own.”
Morph shook his head. “Your childish ambition has caused all our hives to suffer, and there will be consequences.”
“You’re a blind fool,” Chrysalis spat in disgust. “Have you even once thought of the crises we’ve been dealing with for years. Changelings are starving and dying, and we’ve done nothing about it!”
“I’ve heard enough out of you, child.”
“We can make peace,” Necar said softly.
Morph slowly turned his head towards Nectar. “What did you just say?”
“I’m sure the Princesses of Equestria would help us if we explained the situation,” Nectar said.
“You’re more foolish than her to even insinuate that.”
“Why can’t we try?” Nectar argued. “Chrysalis is right, our subjects are dying!”
“Our race has survived harsher times then this,” Morph retorted. “We will prevail. Now, enough of this nonsense, let us get back to the matter at hoof.”
“There will be no peace,” Chrysalis mumbled, her voice dropping very low. “And we won’t survive unless we do something. This is our time.”
Morph slightly cocked his head to the side. “Tell me, how old is your daughter?”
Chrysalis's blood went cold and she narrowed her eyes. If that wretch even thinks of touching her I'll -
“Still too young, I suppose,” Morph mused. “Oh well. You will be executed and I will rule over you hive until she comes of age.”
“You wouldn't,” Chrysalis growled.
“Take her away.”
Suddenly, two large muscular male changelings with red eyes walked into the room and grabbed hold of Chrysalis. She thrashed and squirmed, but the changelings held on to her tight. With her horn and body injured, she was powerless to stop them. Nectar watched the struggle with her jaw wide open, Silver remained indifferent.
“You’ll regret this Morph, you hear me!” Chrysalis hissed as the guards pulled her away.
Morph didn’t even look in Chrysalis's direction; she wasn't worth a second more of his time.
“Change is coming, whether you like it or not!” Chrysalis yelled as she was forced through the entranceway and down the stairs.
Nectar stared at Morph with pleading eyes. “Don’t do this.”
“The sentence has been passed down, it is done,” Morph said.
“She’s family!” Nectar yelled, pointing a hoof towards the entrance way. “What she did may have been wrong, but I will not allow a fellow changeling, a fellow mother, be put down like some stray dog!”
Morph gave Nectar a questioning look. “What will you do, Nectar? Rise up against me? Is this something you're willing to start a war over?”
Nectar stared at Morph with defiance, but as the seconds passed by and the thought of even more of her subjects dying senselessly flooded into her mind, she broke eye contact and looked down.
“Now, enough talk about Chrysalis, do we have anything else to discuss?” Morph said, looking at Silver, who was staring at the wall, deep in thought. “Silver?”
“Whispers of an uprising are being heard in my hive,” Silver said quietly, her eyes slowly focusing on Morph. “Guards are being attacked by unknown assailants.”
“That’s nothing we can’t handle,” Morph replied. “Within a week, the so called uprisers will be found and eliminated. Is that all?”
WIthout saying another word, Nectar shot out of her seat and stormed off.
“I’d like to see Chrysalis,” Silver asked.
“Go ahead, she’s not going anywhere anytime soon,” Morph answered.
Nodding, Silver got up and walked towards the entrance way, trotting down the stairs. All background noise was silenced as she walked through a decrepit hallway, cracks littering the walls and floor. Her hoofsteps and the occasional echo of a water drip were the only sounds present. Reaching a single cell at the end of the corridor, she saw Chrysalis pacing back and forth. She cleared her throat, causing Chrysalis to stop in her tracks and peer through the bars, her face still burning with rage.
“I’d like to talk,” Silver said calmly.
Chrysalis’s features softened slightly. “Go on.”
“My parents never talked fondly of you,” Silver said. “They said you were an arrogant sociopath.”
“Your side of the family has always been the rich kind,” Chrysalis scoffed. “Staying in their castles and being pampered day in and day out.”
“I’m not like that,” Silver retorted. “I wanted to be a fighter, a warrior. Not a princess.”
“You can be all three if you desire.”
“I know that. I am that. Well, I’m a queen now, not a princess.”
“And what do you plan on doing now that you’re a queen?” Chrysalis inquired.
Silver held her chin high and smirked. “I’m going to help you change the world.”
***
A young changeling sat upon the grass with with a brown sack over her head. She was shaking in place and silently crying. What were the ponies going to do with her? She never wanted any of this, but she couldn't refuse the queen's orders, that would have been treason. She shuddered as the memories of what got her in her current predicament flooded back into her mind. She remembered being torn from her family, being forced to put on armor and thrown into the front lines of a siege on another nation.
The bag was hastily ripped off her head, finally letting her see her surroundings. She was in a field in the dead of night. The moonlight and stars shone high in the sky, providing the only light. Fearfully, she looked around at the ponies surrounding her; there were five thestrals, each one wearing the light and dark purple armor of Princess Luna’s night guard. Their glares caused her to tremble. There was one however who was different: she was not a thestral, but an earth pony with a white coat and sky blue eyes. Despite being different, she wore the same armor as the others. The sole earth pony mare looked down upon the shivering changeling with not anger, but compassion.
The mare slowly walked up to the prisoner and gently lifted her chin. “Don’t be scared, we’re not here to hurt you.”
The changeling stared back with fear, but there was a small visage of hope in her eyes as the earth pony smiled reassuringly.
“My name is Winter, what’s your name?” the mare asked.
The changeling gulped. “M-my na-name is… Shift.”
“How old are you, Shift?”
“Sixteen.”
Winter gave a sympathetic nod. “Do you know why you’ve been captured, Shift?”
Shift nodded, casting her head down. “We attacked your country.”
“You’re the first changeling we’ve seen since the invasion,” Winter said calmly. “We have many question to ask you.”
Shift snapped her head back up, tears beginning to form in her eyes. “It was her! Everything was her! She did this to you! I never wanted this, but she… she wouldn't listen to reason!”
Winter was taken aback by Shift’s sudden outburst, but remained calm. “Who are you talking about?”
“Chrysalis!” Shift screamed as if the name caused poison to seep into her tongue. “She’s powerful, and she has many loyal soldiers, trained since birth, who won't hesitate to kill you or your entire family if you cross her. I can’t commit treason… I can’t tell you anything.”
The guards all exchanged glances, but Winter kept her eyes glued on the frantic changeling. “You need to calm down, Shift.”
“How can I be calm?” Shift cried. “I’m a prisoner of war! This wasn’t how my life was suppose to turn out!”
“We’re not going to hurt you.”
“I still won’t tell you anything,” Shift whimpered, her voice barely above a whisper as fresh tears slid down her cheeks.
Winter signed. “If we find out where your race lives, we can bring Queen Chrysalis to justice. From what I’ve heard you say so far, it sounds like things are pretty bad where you’re from. The Princesses want to help you all, they want peace between our races. That can’t happen unless we know the location of your kind.”
“I… I can’t.”
“Maybe this is your purpose in life. You can be the one who takes the very first step towards peace. Don’t you want that?”
“I…”
“No? You don’t want peace?” Winter questioned, her voice rising slightly. “You want our races to destroy each other?”
“No!”
“Then please, Shift,” Winter pleaded. “Do the right thing. You want to go home, don’t you? Tell me where they are.”
Shift looked down once more, deep in thought. She then looked back up at Winter. “They're… they're in the Badlands.”
“What?” Winter asked in shock. “That’s impossible, no sapient creature can survive there.”
“We can,” Shift replied, her eyes starting to dry up.
“The Princesses will not risk their ponies dying senselessly,” Winter said, her authoritative nature returning. “You need to tell me the exact location.”
“The edge, near Haysead Swamps,” Shift revealed.
There was a long pause as Winter studied the changeling before her, searching for lies within her face. Eventually, she stopped and looked up at one of the guards standing behind Shift. “Okay, I guess we’re done here.”
Without a moment's hesitation, the guard wrapped his right foreleg around Shift’s head. With his other hoof, he pulled out a large knife and positioned it near her throat. A look of pure horror crossed Shift’s face as she tried to squirm out of the strong pony’s grip, to no avail.
“What are you doing! No, please do -” Shift was cut off when the knife effortlessly slit through her skin, her neck opening as blood shot out and poured down her body, staining it forever. Winter watched impassively as the young changeling jerked around in the thestral’s grip, before going still and being thrown to the ground. The guards backed up as a pool of crimson surrounded the corpse. Winter remained in place, letting the blood soak her hooves.
“Bury the body,” she ordered. “The Princesses must not find out about this.”
“Yes ma’am!” the guards all replied, saluting.
Winter turned around and was immediately face to face with another thestral with a blue coat and light blue eyes. He eyed her with disapproval.
“What?” Winter asked aggressively.
“She was just a kid, Winter,” the thresteal scolded.
“She was an enemy.”
“She gave us valuable information.”
“Yeah, and then she was no longer of use to us,” Winter replied harshly. “Mercy only gets you so far, Moonlight”
“What if Princess Celestia is right?” Moonlight mumbled, looking to the side.
“What did you just say?” Winter questioned in a low tone.
Moonlight’s eyes focused back on Winter, shame and sadness evident on them. “What if there can be peace between our races?”
“The Princess is a naive fool,” Winter asserted. “But she’ll learn soon enough what we had to. The only way to obtain peace is if we kill them all.”
1 Year Later
“I asked for a blue tie, not a red one!”
Prince Blueblood eyed the maid before him with fury. That simpleton had the audacity to forget the type of bow tie he was going to wear to his own birthday party! What a disgrace.
The young earth pony mare shook in place, eyes glued to the floor as Blueblood went off on a tangent about how stupid she was. It was her first day, and already, everything was going so wrong.
“I-I’m sorry sir. I thought -”
“You thought wrong!” Blueblood yelled. “Get out of my sight, you poor excuse for a pony, before I have the guards take you away! You’re fired!”
The maid’s eyes widened. “F-fired? But -”
“Am I not speaking clearly, mud pony?” Blueblood snapped. “I said you’re Fired! Get out!”
The maid’s eyes began to water up, but Blueblood ignored it and turned around to walk into his bathroom. He shook his head when he heard the maid run away crying. Stupid mare. Why take this job if you don’t know how to do it properly. Once he entered his bathroom, he studied himself in the mirror: his long flowing mane was dreamy, and his well groomed face was exquisite, but without the tie, he was incomplete. Growling slightly, he looked away from the mirror in irritation. He wanted to be one hundred percent perfect at all times, not ninety percent.
“Oh, this is a disaster!” Blueblood whined, stomping his hoof like a child. “The party's in ten minutes and I still don’t even have the right bow tie! That fool of a maid ruined everything!”
“Firing a mare on her first day?” an unknown voice said from the other end of the room. “That’s a little harsh, don’t you think?”
Blueblood spun around and gasped. There, through the bathroom doorway and sitting on one of his comfy red chairs at the end of the room, was a changeling. He didn’t look a normal changeling, both his eyes were different colours. His right eye was light green and his left eye was bright red.
“You’re a… a… ” Blueblood stuttered, pointing a hoof at the intruder.
“A changeling?” he asked. “Yes, that’s… pretty obvious isn't it?”
Blueblood backed up, bumping right into his bathroom counter. “W-what do you want with me?”
“We can worry about that later,” the changeling dismissed, waving a hoof. “Right now, take a seat, let’s have a chat. I’ve alway wanted to meet Equestrian royality. My name’s Shadow by the way, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“P-please don’t hurt me. I-I’ll do anything!” Blueblood cried.
“You’re worrying, Blueblood,” Shadow chastised. “I told you not to worry. I just want to talk.”
“You broke into my room just to talk!?” Blueblood yelled.
“Of course not.”
“But, you just said-”
“We’ll get to the troublesome things in a moment,” Shadow cut him off. “Right now, let’s have a peaceful conversation. That’s what ponies do, right?”
Blueblood just stood in place, slack jawed. Shadow took that as a sign to continue talking, so he did. Despite Blueblood’s fear, his patience was beginning to run thin. He closed his mouth and narrowed his eyes at the talkative changeling.
“I’ve been learning a lot about your species while I’ve been here,” Shadow said, either not noticing or not caring about the silently fuming Prince. “Very fascinating stuff. I’ve been reading about the customs as well. It’s customary to to be kind to strangers, is it not?”
“Not if they're breaking into your home,” Blueblood said through gritted teeth.
Shadow smirked. “Ah well, we can’t all be perfect, right?”
“That’s enough,” Blueblood whispered, closing his eyes.
“What was that?” Shadow asked.
Blueblood’s eyes shot open. “I’ve heard enough out of you, bug!”
“Woah, where’s this aggression coming from?” Shadow asked innocently, putting his front hooves up in defence.
“Do you know who I am!? I am Blueblood, Prince of Equestria!” Blueblood proclaimed, puffing his chest out like a small dog trying to act tough.
“You’re just a pony,” Shadow mocked with a smirk.
Blueblood stared daggers at Shadow as his face went red with rage, causing him to look as if smoke would start coming out his ears any second. “Just a pony!? I am a prince! I have a royal bloodline that goes back generations! My ancestor was the ruler of the unicorns! I am one of the most wealthy and powerful ponies in all of Equestria! And I will not allow myself to be intimated by scum like you!”
Shadow sighed. “You know, I wanted to be civil with you, break the ice a little before I get started. But I see you want to get right to the point. I can respect that. Let’s go then.”
The still fuming Prince narrowed his eyes. “What are you -”
Blueblood was cut off when Shadow's horn lit up and fired a green beam of magic at him, hitting him directly in the chest and sending him flying backwards into the mirror. The mirror shattered, causing shards of glass to stab right into the unicorn’s skin. He fell hard on the tiled floor, clenching his eyes shut as pain shot through his entire body. Shadow calmly stood up and slowly walked towards the downed pony. Blueblood slowly opened his eyes, and the first thing he saw were the hooves of his attacker walking towards him. He immediately got into a sitting position, his back resting against the counter.
“Wait! Please stop!” he cried, putting a hoof up.
“Where did Angry Blueblood go?” Shadow teased, continuing to walk forward.
Blueblood’s only response was a whimper.
Shadow chuckled. “Oh, I see. It’s all just a mask you wear. It’s okay Blueblood, I understand.”
Shadow bent down to look Blueblood in the eyes. His body was then engulfed in green fire. When the fire settled, a very familiar pony took his place. Blueblood gasped at the sight of himself, smirking.
“We all wear masks, don’t we?” his copy said with a chuckle.