Rainbow Dash soared through the sky, the wind rushing through her mane. She paid barely any attention to the constantly shifting landscape below her, all her attention directed forward.
As she finally saw the shapes of the two mountains in the distance, Rainbow Dash smiled. She didn't know for how long she had flown, but what she did know was that no other pegasus in Equestria could have traveled this far as fast.
Rainbow Dash quickly went through everything she knew about Smokey Mountains. The meeting of Fluttershy's club was held in the valley between those two mountains. Twilight and Fluttershy had come here because of the map and they had sorted out the problems between the two families living here who had hated each other like forever or something.
She didn't remember the names of either family and didn't really care either. All Rainbow Dash cared about was finding Fluttershy. The sooner she could find her friend and make sure that she was safe, the better.
There were some buildings on top of both mountains and even more in the valley between them, a river running through what looked like a newly established village.
Rainbow Dash swooped down towards the village, searching her target from the ponies here and there doing their normal everyday things. Her gaze darted from one pony to the next as she circled around the village, looking for familiar faces and ignoring the curious looks from the ponies below.
To her annoyance, she couldn't see Fluttershy anywhere. Hopefully she was inside one of the buildings or somewhere in the forest surrounding the village.
But she did see one familiar pony down there bathing in the river. Or rather, just sitting still in the river with her eyes closed.
Rainbow Dash descended as fast as she could, stopping just above the green earth pony with a red mane. She didn't react in any way even as the wind from Rainbow Dash’s arrival made her mane flutter in the air.
Annoyed of being ignored, Rainbow Dash sighed as she circled around Tree Hugger.
"Um… hello?"
Tree Hugger still didn't respond and just sat there.
Rainbow Dash cursed and flew right in front of Tree Hugger, waving her hoof in front of her face. There was still no reaction whatsoever.
There was no way somepony could fall asleep while sitting in a river, right?
Deciding that enough was enough, Rainbow Dash moved to Tree Hugger's side and cupped her hooves.
"HELLO?!"
This at least got a response. Tree Hugger slowly opened her eyes and turned to look at Rainbow Dash with that same mellow and relaxed expression she always had.
"Nice to meet you." Tree Hugger stared at Rainbow Dash with her eyes half-closed and smiled. "I'm Tree Hugger. Your mane looks really radical."
Oh no, not this again. She had no time for this.
“Look, I know you are probably high as kite on something.” Rainbow Dash stared at the happy, completely oblivious smile on Tree Hugger’s face and sighed again. “But I have no time to go through this again. We have met before, I’m Rainbow Dash.”
What was most frustrating when speaking to Tree Hugger was how it always felt that nothing got through to her.
Case in point, she just nodded to Rainbow Dash and then splashed her hooves in the water. “Are you here to bathe too? This valley is totally amazing, the water makes your aura so pure.”
Rainbow Dash tried her best to not to lose her patience and instead got right to the point. “Do you know where Fluttershy is? I really need to find her.”
A flicker of something flashed in Tree Hugger’s eyes at the mention of Fluttershy's name and she tilted her head.
“Isn’t she in Ponyville?”
Rainbow Dash blinked in surprise and then shook her head. “No? We...” wait, there was no way she could tell about the changeling, could she? “...got a letter from her. She said that she was going to stay here for some time. Since she sent it yesterday, we figured she is still here.”
Tree Hugger looked puzzled at the words and then looked at the river again with a thoughtful frown on her face.
“Fluttershy felt... sick yesterday and decided to go back to Ponyville.”
“Wait, what?”
Rainbow Dash stared at Tree Hugger with her mouth open as the earth pony just shrugged.
“Last time I saw her, Fluttershy boarded the train to Ponyville this morning. I don’t remember her writing any letters either.”
Rainbow Dash stayed there transfixed in air for a moment, completely stunned by Tree Hugger’s words.
Then, accompanied by a deafening boom that vibrated in the air, she was gone.
Fluttershy stared at Chrysalis, dumbfounded.
She flinched at the sound of something crashing against the floor before realizing that it was her the teacup.
She looked down at the tiny pieces of porcelain scattered across the floor, a red flush creeping across her cheek as she cleared her throat.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I broke it...”
Chrysalis nodded, her mouth curved into an understanding smile as she calmly poured tea into another cup, gently pushing it across the table to Fluttershy who took the offered cup with a bashful smile.
Her hooves trembled and she barely managed to prevent more tea from spilling to the floor. After a moment, Fluttershy carefully lowered the teacup back on the table, took a deep breath and looked at Chrysalis.
“I’m your niece?”
Fluttershy was surprised at how calm she felt. Maybe this was simply so bizarre that she didn’t know how to react to it.
Chrysalis in turn looked sober, her earlier smile gone and replaced by an unreadable, neutral expression as she nodded.
“Yes. My older sister Carina was your mother.” Chrysalis’s gaze was distant as she looked at Fluttershy, her lips curled into a frown. “You look just like her.”
Fluttershy shifted uncomfortably in her chair, not sure how to respond. How should you react to being told that a changeling queen was your mother? In all honesty, Fluttershy was paying more attention to Chrysalis’s emotions than her own.
But it was strange. There were no visible signs of it, but Fluttershy was certain that behind that calm facade was a complicated knot of feelings. She could feel flashes of sadness and regret radiating from Chrysalis. It was like those emotions were hanging in air, leaving a sour, bitter taste in her mouth. It was complete opposite to the wonderful feeling of lo…
Fluttershy shuddered, shaking her head to clear her mind. She refused to take that line of thought any further and instead concentrated on what Chrysalis had said.
“This…. Carina.” The name did feel oddly familiar, but Fluttershy couldn’t place where she had heard it before. “She is…?”
At first, Chrysalis didn’t respond, her gaze still poised over Fluttershy’s shoulder. Finally, she shook her head much in the same way Fluttershy had and sighed, a measure of composure returning to both her expression and tone.
“Dead, yes.” Now it was Chrysalis’s turn to stare at Fluttershy, her expression sober. “She succumbed to a rare illness years ago.”
Before Fluttershy could ask for more details, Chrysalis quickly continued, clearly eager to change the subject.
“However, I didn’t know about you. If I had, I would have turned the Changeling Kingdom upside down to find you.” Chrysalis’s jaw clenched as she gritted her teeth. “I don’t know who stole you from us, but I will grind their bones to dust in front of Carina’s grave when I find out.”
Fluttershy frowned, trying to imagine how different her life would be if they hadn’t. Fluttershy the changeling queen, living in somewhere far away from Equestria with Chrysalis as her family? Attacking Canterlot with the other changelings? It was too alien to comprehend.
Fluttershy didn’t know what to think about any of this. She also didn’t know what Chrysalis hoped to accomplish here with all this talking.
What Fluttershy did know was that none of it was going to make her pick changelings and Chrysalis over her friends and family.
She did believe that all this was true, but even if Swirl Breeze and Rose Dust weren’t her real parents, they were still her family along with Zephyr Breeze.
Fluttershy straightened her back and turned to look at Chrysalis, encouraged by the thought of her family. She wasn’t going to do what Chrysalis wanted, whatever it was. It was time to make that clear now.
“And if I ever meet them, I will thank them.” Fluttershy crossed her hooves over her chest, keeping an eye contact with Chrysalis. “I’m much rather Fluttershy the pony than Fluttershy the changeling. And that is not going to change, no matter what you say.”
Chrysalis rolled her eyes and gave Fluttershy a half-smile. “Why do you assume you will have any choice in the matter?” The older changeling queen rose from her chair and walked to Fluttershy, leaning forward. “You can’t deny your true nature. It is time you understood that.”
Before Fluttershy could retort, Chrysalis lowered her head and gently tapped their gnarled horns together.
And then Fluttershy’s thoughts scattered, her mouth hanging open and her expression blank as something poured into her from Chrysalis.
Something wonderful.
Fluttershy felt elated, warmth coursing through her. Her fatigue and exhaustion were gone, replaced by a racing heartbeat and feeling of electricity running through her.
Fluttershy felt so alive. Like she was a goddess, capable of doing anything she wanted. Wild energy filled the hollow emptiness inside her, overwhelming all her senses. It felt better than anything she had ever experienced.
Then, Chrysalis leaned back so their horns didn’t touch each other and the feeling was instantly gone, replaced by the familiar sense of emptiness that had plagued her for days.
Fluttershy gasped, falling from her chair to the floor. She moved her hooves to her neck, feeling like she was suffocating. The hollowness festering inside her felt all the more terrible now, painfully sharp contrast to the wild and raw feeling of power she had just experienced.
Fluttershy gasped for breath and looked up at Chrysalis who smirked and gently straightened the younger changeling queen’s mane with her hoof. “Makes you giddy, doesn’t it? That was just a taste of how it feels to feed on love. For someone like you who has no experience and is starving, it must feel simply amazing.”
Chrysalis slid her hoof under Fluttershy’s and pulled her up from the floor.
“You can’t even imagine how it felt when I was in Canterlot, surrounded by all that love.” Chrysalis licked her lips, her wings buzzing with excitement at the memory before she sighed in resigned manner. “In hindsight, I was probably so drunk in it that it made me careless.”
Fluttershy finally managed to regain some semblance of her wits, taking a deep breath. She pushed Chrysalis’s hoof away, barely managing to stand on her own hooves.
Chrysalis looked at Fluttershy, raising an eyebrow. “You can’t fight the hunger forever and will only torture yourself by trying to do so. Eventually you will lose your mind and become a simple beast, a feral animal that hunts by instinct.”
There was a loud thump on the side of the room as First Captain came in and dropped a large green cocoon on to the floor. Fluttershy stared at it, realization hitting her as Chrysalis continued speaking.
“I have no desire to see my niece regressing into such a state, even if it would make a good lesson.” Chrysalis walked to the coon, placing her hoof on it, looking at Fluttershy. “And I’m not cruel. Eventually you have to learn how to hunt your own prey, but for now you can just feed on this. It has already been prepared for you.”
Fluttershy looked at the green, slimy cocoon. There was a some sort of dark shape inside it, roughly size of a pony. But she couldn’t tell who or what it was by that vague silhouette alone.
She gulped, staring at the cocoon. “There is a pony inside, isn’t there?”
Chrysalis grinned. “Perhaps. Or maybe it is just a large animal? You have used animals for years, we do the same when acquiring ponies is too much of a hassle.” Chrysalis tapped the cocoon with her hoof. “Don’t worry. Prey is always sedated when they are cocooned. They sleep peacefully, dreaming of their loved ones and won’t feel a thing when we feed from them.”
Fluttershy’s eyes fixated to the cocoon, her first reflex to shiver in revulsion and look away from the horrific sight.
No, that wasn’t true.
Her first reflex was to lick her lips and step closer, the emptiness inside her demanding food. She could sense the love emanating from the cocoon’s occupant, calling to her.
Fluttershy realized that she wasn’t disgusted by the cocoon. What made her shiver was her own thoughts. It was like something was living inside her mind. Something cold and ruthless.
And it was becoming harder and harder to resist. Especially now when Chrysalis had shown to her what it felt to sate that hunger. Just the thought of reliving that blissful feeling made Fluttershy’s wings buzz excitedly.
Fluttershy felt her hooves moving on their own, taking steps towards the cocoon. It was like she wasn’t in control of her limbs, a passive observer in somepony else’s body.
Or was that just her mind trying to come up with excuses for what she was going to do? But even that sense of loathing at herself felt distant now. It was hard to think about anything else besides her hunger and the cocoon in front of her.
She could take just a little, right? Enough to drive back the hunger? If she could take just a bit, she could feel like herself again!
Fluttershy stepped closer, now enough close to the cocoon to touch it. She stood there, her hooves trembling. This close the love from the cocoon was intoxicating.
Chrysalis was standing next to her and said nothing, her lips curved into a smile.
Finally, Fluttershy felt tears running down her face, the hunger too much to resist.
“Please forgive me...”
She opened her mouth, feeling like everything around her had slowed down to crawl. This close she could see that it was a pony inside the cocoon, a stallion. Sleeping peacefully just like Chrysalis had said.
Something moved at the edge of her vision as Fluttershy leaned her head forward. She moved her head just a fraction to glance at it even as she prepared to feed.
It was First Captain, standing silently on the far side of the room like he had for the most of the discussion. But now the changeling captain had lowered his head to look away from them with his eyes closed, a hint of sadness creeping through his normally unreadable expression.
It felt so out of place that Fluttershy paused, confused.
Then, her eyes darted to the full body mirror next to First Captain and Fluttershy saw it.
Herself hunched over the cocoon with her expression twisted into a voracious snarl, her features devoid of anything else besides ravenous hunger.
Chrysalis standing next to her and looking down with a wicked, self-satisfied grin.
And as she felt the first hints of love on the tip of her tongue, Fluttershy saw how the pony in the cocoon shifted in his slumber, his peaceful smile disappearing and turning into a pained frown.
Fluttershy’s eyes widened in horror as she screamed.
“NO!”
She threw herself to the side, clumsily stumbling away, feeling like throwing up. Her hooves felt weak, the sound of her heartbeat thrashing in her ears.
Fluttershy collapsed against the wall, taking heavy, ragged breaths. What was happening to her? She had almost…!
No, she refused to think about it.
As she looked at Chrysalis, for a moment she thought she saw a flash of annoyance in the older changeling queen’s eyes, her mouth set in a hard line.
Then, Chrysalis was smiling again, shaking her head with a sigh.
“No need to be so dramatic about it. It looks pathetic.”
That callous, mocking tone filled with contempt made Fluttershy see red. She pulled herself up to stand, grinding her teeth, heat flushing through her body as Chrysalis continued.
“You are only delaying the inevitable, you won’t be able to resist your natu... ”
“I won’t do it.”
Chrysalis blinked, visibly taken aback of being interrupted in mid-sentence by somepony. Fluttershy concentrated on that burning feeling in her chest, it was much better feel anger than fear now.
“I won’t feed on somepony against their will. There must be some other way! I will rather starve to death before stealing love from others!”
“Tch.” Chrysalis looked like she had tasted something sour, no longer smiling. She looked down at Fluttershy, her eyes narrowing. “Such ridiculous notions. You really are like her.”
The two changeling queens stared at each other for a long moment, until finally Chrysalis gave a deep sigh, waving her hoof nonchalantly.
“Fine. I can see when it is pointless to argue.” Chrysalis shrugged and smiled again. “If you really want to learn this the hard way, I’m not stopping you.”
Fluttershy blinked in surprise at how easily Chrysalis seemingly gave up. She glanced at the First Captain again who looked just as surprised.
“However,” Chrysalis closed the distance between them, placing her hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “I still want to you to understand that we aren’t monsters and what we do isn’t evil. There is no such thing. It is simply the natural order of things.”
Fluttershy wanted to object, but there was some truth to what Chrysalis was saying. Changelings weren't evil. Fluttershy had never believed that anypony or anything really was. Befriending somepony like Discord was an undeniable proof of that. What Chrysalis was being wrong about was that changelings were unable to peacefully coexist with their so-called prey. Fluttershy refused to believe it. The thought of it being natural to hurt others was abhorrent to her.
“Rest and explore this hive a bit. Even if you still harbor some misguided notions, you are a changeling and should learn about us.”
Fluttershy didn’t need any prompting. By this point she was anxious to get out of Chrysalis’s sight so she could finally collect her thoughts and make some sense of all that had happened today. She shoved the older queen’s hoof away and started making her way towards the wall of slime that opened as she approached it.
“However, don’t wander outside.” Chrysalis’s words came from behind her, but Fluttershy refused to look back at her… aunt. It was going to take some time to get used to that thought.
“Not that you really have anywhere to go, do you?”
Fluttershy flinched at the words but refused to react in any other way, just walking out of the room.
Chrysalis was silent after Fluttershy left, deep in thought.
Was she being too lenient? Her dear niece was meek, shy and unable to hurt a fly if her life depended on it. There was no way she could be a threat.
Yet, when pushed, Fluttershy was surprisingly determined. Years of being pampered by ponies had made her soft but there was a changeling queen underneath all that pathetic behavior.
Oh well. At least this separated Elements of Harmony from each other.
“Why did you deceive her?”
Chrysalis blinked in surprise before realizing that it had been First Captain who had spoken. She turned her attention to the changeling captain, snorting in amusement.
“What are you talking about? Everything I told to her was true.”
Well, except for one thing. But some secrets were best left buried in the past where they belonged. At least she had managed to avoid talking about the rest of their oh so wonderful family. Fluttershy had no need to know about any of them quite yet.
“You didn’t tell her about the letter.”
Ah yes, that quickly improvised scheme to send Rainbow Dash as far away from Ponyville as possible.
“She didn’t ask. And we are on a schedule in here. It is better to hasten the flow of events to their eventual conclusion rather than to waste time. I’m sure Twilight and her friends would have protected Fluttershy from the rest of the town and wasted days trying to find a spell to turn her back into a pony or something.”
First Captain fell silent, clearly thinking hard about something, which amused Chrysalis to no end. Drones were always entertaining when they tried to use their simple brains for something above their station.
Finally, First Captain spoke, his tone hesitant. “My queen... some of her friends would have accepted her, even after finding out the truth? Protected a changeling from other ponies?”
Well, that was certainly a strange question. Chrysalis thought about it for a moment and shrugged.
“Possibly. Twilight Sparkle is disgustingly naive and idealistic. I’m sure that as a so called Princess of Friendship she would have felt obligated to at least try to find a peaceful solution.”
And with that question answered, Chrysalis decided it was time to stop humoring the overly inquisitive drone.
“Follow her and make sure she doesn’t try anything stupid like releasing the cocooned ponies or some other such idiocy. Remember your orders.”
First Captain nodded and left, leaving Chrysalis alone in her private quarters.
This was curious. Ever since Chrysalis had arrived to this hive, she had felt like the drones here acted strange. They wasted time in idle conversations and were overly curious about the strangest things, mostly involving ponies in some way.
Chrysalis felt that maybe this hive had been, for the lack of a better word, compromised. All drones here took turns spending a great deal of time in Ponyville. Perhaps it had been a mistake to leave these drones so close to the ponies for such a long time without supervision.
Fluttershy’s presence was complicating matters even further. The changeling royalty preferred to spend their time far apart from each other because drones obeyed any and all of them.
Chrysalis was certain that her authority over the drones was stronger, but Fluttershy’s meek and altruistic behavior could distract drones here even further from their assigned duties.
Could that become a problem?
No.
Fluttershy could develop into a problem further down the road unless she was properly educated. But not in the next day or two. Once Twilight and her friends were out of the picture, Chrysalis could properly concentrate on her niece. Fluttershy was so starved for love that it was only a matter of time before she would snap and attack the next pony she saw.
With any luck, by that point Chrysalis would have one of Fluttershy’s friends to throw in front of her.
The mere thought of Twilight lying on the ground while being drained of her love by Fluttershy as the rest of her friends were forced to watch made Chrysalis lick her lips in anticipation.