34 - Suffering is Dilapidating
It's not like you were actually scorched,” Spike argued when Rarity unlocked his chains. She had gotten the key from a distracted Rainbow Dash.
“It is the principle of the matter,” Rarity acted as if she were on moral high ground. “Now quiet down and pay attention. Twilight's connection is strengthening and it would be wise for you to mind yourself. Do not go creating any magical spikes.”
The dragon either didn't catch the unintended pun or simply ignored it. It was true that the connection between Twilight and Chrysalis was building up. The green meadow was dissolving where the two females laid with horns touching. The black void of the featureless hivemind was becoming visible again while Twilight's attention was bent towards Chrysalis alone.
They were all seeing the memories of the changeling at the same time. However, the recollections were not headed in a positive direction. Emotions were starting to run foul.
Chrysalis ran from the hatchery. She couldn't bear to see it anymore. Things had gotten out of hoof years ago and time only made the situation worse. Whoever it was that said “time heals all” was a liar. A terrible liar.
The shouts of pain and death followed her even to her royal sleeping pad. It was all she ever heard now and it haunted her when she slept. This was a living Tartarus, where every dream was a nightmare and one only awoke to find it reality. She had tried to stay strong like her mother, but this was simply a moment she could not be strong. Chrysalis buried her face into the cushion of her ring and cried even as the hive itself suffered.
Everyone had turned their backs on the changelings. Every nation they had any ties to. Every race. Every individual. Everyone.
Equestria had been the first and the others fell like dominoes. Trade ceased and threats of war raged. It was as if the world had gone mad and was out for changeling blood. Chrysalis' own hooves, so perfectly kept before, now ached with malnutrition. The natural holes that formed in her lower legs and hooves had begun to hurt. They were always sore and the holes even grew in diameter, which was a sign that her body was reaching its limit. They were all reaching their limit.
Recent blockades from the griffons and northern pony tribes had cut off their hive from escaping the mountain range. Even if they decided to abandon their great underground halls, they had nowhere to go. Mother had exhausted every option to the point that she no longer held back public displays of aggression towards those that had deserted them. It had been years since mother had even spoken to her child with more than a few words per day.
Princess Chrysalis was taller now. She had the look of a young queen, though she didn't feel like one. She felt more like a starving changeling, which she was. The entire hive had been beset with starvation and had endured it for years. The breaking point was soon upon them because the hatcheries had used the last of their reserve sustenance.
She had seen it with her own eyes and couldn't for the life of her get the image out of her head. It festered in the hivemind, which she could no longer shut out. The screams were too strong. The hatchlings were dying even as they came from the eggs. Pitiful sounds came from their small helpless mouths, the last sounds they ever made. It drove Chrysalis insane. She was depressed at the death and she was angry over the needlessness of it.
Who were the other races to kill them off like this? What could possibly be going through their minds to justify it? Mother had said it was a shift in global politics and culture. Other nations needed a scapegoat for their internal problems and the best target happened to be foreigners recently out of favor with Equestria.
Chrysalis crawled across her ring and grabbed her worn brush. She could no longer levitate it with her green magic because she didn't have the strength. The last time she had tried going against mother's orders to steal love had ended in disaster, so she had to make due without magic. The extra strain on her body only made the lack of sustenance worse.
She brushed twice before it snagged. Rather than simply pull against her mane, it tangled in the strands and took them with it when she fumbled it away from her head. Her mane was starting to fall out, as if she needed another reason to cry. Brush forgotten, she crawled over to an item on the other side of her ring.
Her face flashed a weak smile for just a fraction of a second that she hadn't felt. She grabbed the small black device. It was almost like a cone, except it had an odd antennae protrusion with a green light on the end. Well, the light would have been green if it had any power. At the moment, it was just as black as the rest of it because there was no energy in the device.
As Chrysalis laid back on the padding of her ring, she clutched the odd thing close to her chest. To any normal changeling, it was just a piece of junk. To her, it was everything she cherished in the life she once had. The past of love, understanding, and gentleness was forever gone. Nothing could get it back.
She wanted mother to be like her old self again. She wanted the world not to hate her and her kind. She wanted grandmother to be alive again. The oldest and wisest ruler the hive had been blessed with in the last millennium had passed away months ago from the hive's deteriorating condition. It had been her that had spoken the last words of kindness to Chrysalis.
The princess changeling gripped her self-made clod construction tighter. Grandmother's last words had been faint almost to the point of being lost in the roar of the suffering hivemind. What she said had been kind and loving, though Chrysalis knew the words couldn't be true. She said that one day there would be no more suffering and Chrysalis would have the love she always dreamed of.
She hadn't realized the padding below her face had become damp. It was a cracking sound from the spot near her chest that snapped her to attention. She had subconsciously been gripping her device so tight that it had cracked. Age had worn it down and even her weak condition had allowed her to break it.
Nothing stopped her from crying long and hard after that. There was no changeling to comfort her because they were all too busy with their own painful existence. Some mention went through the hivemind of another failed attempt to obtain love sustenance outside of the hive's domain. Of course it failed. Everything ended in failure these days.
Starved and broken both inside and outside, Chrysalis cried herself to sleep. It wasn't restful. Every night was filled with nightmares.
The flood of memories wrenched at Queen Twilight Sparkle's heart. It wasn't the fact that Chrysalis had witnessed such horrors or had been broken over it, though she did feel for her changeling. What terrified Twilight was that present-day Chrysalis was reliving the emotions through the recollection. As Twilight's connection continued to strengthen, they both began to feel the weight of the memories. It was as if they were both actually in the moments, feeling every painful nuance.
This couldn't go on. The memories were getting worse and it was clear that Past Chrysalis' mind was breaking. She had lost her sanity at one point due to the suffering and that brokenness was coming out of the memories and straight at Present Chrysalis and Twilight. This wasn't supposed to happen. As queen, she could and would stop it before it got out of hoof.
The next memory came flooding in with even greater intensity.
Twilight panicked. This was not supposed to happen. It should have stopped. She willed it to stop. With fresh horror all her own, she realized she was no longer in control of what was happening. The next memory pulled her in like a tiny fish in a maelstrom.
A young Queen Chrysalis pounded the bottom of her holey hoof against a rock. She laughed because the stomping had killed a tiny bug. Stupid things. They were born specifically so that they would die. It was a shame it couldn't endure a little torment first, though. Perhaps she should find a way to torture the things before squishing them underhoof.
No, she had better things to do. Wiping off the remains on the edge of the rock, she turned back to her elite cadre of changeling warriors. No more would the world's hatred decide her fate. She would take command of destiny and show everyone the fury of the changelings. Not a speck of mercy would they get. No compassion either. She'd laugh in their faces.
We've broken through the eastern pass, one of her warriors reported in the hivemind. But the griffons have been hardened by the siege and offered no sustenance.
“Leave them plastered to the cliff wall,” Chrysalis bit out in a loud buzzy voice. It cracked with venom. “They can starve and die up there. It's the very least they deserve for what they've done. If I had my way, they'd all be shackled into the living flames of Tartarus!”
Months ago, she would never have believed it possible to fight her way out of the disease-ridden hive chambers. Excess amount of death had given them plagues that worked as both a blessing and curse. Many were dead, but the ones that survived were stronger than even a well-nourished changeling warrior. Sickness and starvation only drove them into blind and deadly rage. Most of them would die along the way, but it would be worth it.
As if in opposition to her, the fierce wind of the day tore against her face and whipped her long messy mane backwards. It was stronger than usual and the overcast sky threatened to bring more punishment in the form of hard rain – possibly hail. Thunder could be heard far in the distance. Fitting, she thought.
“Come,” she commanded her group of soldier changelings. They hadn't been real soldiers until she declared them as such because all of the properly trained warriors were long dead. “Everything we will ever need is out there waiting for us.”
Not a single one defied Chrysalis. She was, after all, the last living royal changeling in the hive. The ones that hadn't starved to death were claimed by disease. The ones that hadn't died of sickness were killed by the sieging forces upon attempted escape. That was how mother had gone. Her last attempt to open a path for her hive to leave by had ended in failure and her last breath.
Waiting in a dying hive for mother to return was not something Chrysalis had enjoyed. Especially so when she later came to realize her mother was never coming back. The life she had some dying ember of a hope to reclaim...well, it was as dead as everything else. If the world wanted to play a game of blood-letting then she would oblige twofold.
Queen Chrysalis squinted against the wind and forced her aching body to run down the fern-ridden path. The overgrown walkway would lead them through one of the mountain ridge's exits that opened up to the northwestern side. The dark rock and deep green near-jungle broke to great dry savannas populated by an assortment of griffons, ponies, and zebras. There was at least one large city there due to the critical trade route that ran through the area. That was Priority One.
How will we overcome their numbers? the second-in-command changeling asked. He was panting from behind, trying to keep pace with the rest of his beaten, starved, and sick warriors. We cannot succeed again as we did in the pass.
Chrysalis let a dark giggle loose. “Another hive has been sieged further up the ridge. Hivemind activity indicates they still have several usable cadres. We can fuel them with the villages along the way and then strike the capital at its core. The northern states will draw in to protect the trade route and eliminate our 'proven' evil. The cadres have been sharpened in prolonged guerrilla fighting during the siege. We'll bleed them out until we have enough sustenance to move on.”
The changeling gulped in fear. He knew through his own part of the hivemind that Chrysalis was always clever, but she had never been so terrifyingly vindictive before.
A less fearful warrior decided to venture a question. Move on to where?
Chrysalis' hooves slipped on a rock underhoof. Something cut her, but pain was long from having meaning. “The next city, the next nation. Whatever it takes to restore the hive and feed our needs. Who knows? Perhaps one day we will even reach Equestria. I'd love to see the look on that old hag's face when we take that capital!”
The wind was against them and a light sprinkling of rain began as they finally came across the rocky canyon that her warriors had defeated the griffons within. She saw evidence of the chaos that had occurred, losses on both sides. Most were changelings, but she paid it no mind and focused on the group of survivors. Ordering them up to her smaller group, she started them to the other side of the pass.
Cracked stone was beneath their hooves and vines covered the rock walls on both sides. Everything started to get damp from the sprinkling and the wind made the water streak. A sparkle of joy spread in Chrysalis' heart. They were finally free. Sick and dying, but they were free.
Everyone was about to reap from the hatred they had sown.
Twilight realized in her panic that she had lost her hivemind form. The others were gone too. What happened to them? Chrysalis was only a small glowing light of green in front of her. The memories hadn't stopped and had never gotten any better. The pony queen felt as if her eyes were on fire.
A bright white light was starting to glow from them, noticeable to her only because they started projecting that pure light into the dark void around her. Green tendrils of energy were crackling out from Chrysalis' orb and striking her without causing pain. They actually only increased the power Twilight felt surging up within her. She knew this feeling. It had happened before during her entrance exam...right before Princess Celestia took her as her personal student...
No!
Twilight wanted to scream the word, but it didn't come from her mouth. She had no mouth, no physical representation. She would have to wake up and return to the real world so she could have a voice again. As if her panic needed some assistance in escalating, she realized she couldn't wake up. She was trapped with her own magic spiraling out of control.
It had been many long years since she had felt this way. The fear of the raw power was overwhelming. There was the fear that she would harm others. What if she had already hurt her friends? They were nowhere to be found. What if she hurt Chrysalis? The changeling had already gone through so much. What if she hurt herself? Could she die from this? Would the magic continue to surge until her body and mind could take no more?
Chrysalis' next memory was of war. There was no prettier way to describe it and, true to reality, the flashes of violence seemed only random and avoidable in hindsight. Twilight didn't want to see any more. She didn't want to know because she already accepted Chrysalis for who she was in the present. The past need not have weight.
The former queen changeling laughed even as she struck down another pony. That made eighty-three. Even the elite members of the cadre didn't have that kind of number for just a single day's worth of fighting. She was strong now, nigh invincible. She had drained so much love energy from unsuspecting sentients that all of her wounds were healed and her attacks struck as powerful as lightning itself.
Well, “sentients” was a bit of a strong term to use as reference for the filth. They had the intellect of worms and ethics even worse than that. They were, after all, one of the nations that had used the changelings as scapegoats for internal political machinations. To them, changelings were an insignificant ethnic group that could be blamed for anything and most would believe it. Perhaps Chrysalis was now proving some of the previously untrue lies that changelings were physically violent by nature. She didn't care. Non-changelings deserved everything they were now getting.
The sound of battle raged on all around. Changelings fought with ponies, griffons, and zebras. Anything and everything was used for offense and defense. Hooves, claws, teeth, horns, swords, pieces of rubble from the war-torn city. Some even had a new form of rudimentary weapon that was responsible for the booming noises that filled the city. Racks of the things had come in on one of the supply trains. They were made of wood and metal, sparked with fire, and shot deadly pellets from one end.
Chrysalis laughed as one pony tried to use one against her. They were clumsy and slow weapons in the hooves of those that were equally so. The pellet missed her, though it would have easily been blocked with her magic if it had not. She charged the attacker and made short work of her.
This was the situation she had schemed into existence and not one thing had gone wrong. For her anyways. Everything seemed to be going wrong for the savanna nation. They had called in every ally and even some of their enemies who were bored enough to accept. Nothing helped. The queen's changelings faded in and out both with expertly-timed disguises and well-hidden tunnels.
Some changeling hives took to building villages and cities reminiscent of ponies, but those that Chrysalis knew had kept to their underground roots. That meant that her fighting changelings were experts at tunneling, which the defenders were not. In fact, the griffons still had a hard time even comprehending the concept because they were prisoners of the sky.
The body count rose only when it was necessary. Chrysalis may have deserted some of her sanity, but not to the point that it hurt her ability to survive. Love sustenance could only be obtained from the living, after all.
The queen supposed, as she used her magic to drag the unconscious mare behind her, that all good things had to come to an end. It would only take the defenders so long to decide that the city was lost. They would fall back and use some cowardly tactic such as gas or magical bombing. Chrysalis and her hive survivors already had all the “loot” they needed to live off of, which meant staying was an unnecessary risk.
The female pony that the queen had knocked out was young. Probably a greenhorn with the tired ideal of defending her country. An evil country, but a country nonetheless. The worker changelings would have her out of the temporary harness cocoon and fitted into a new long-term one in no time. They had become amazingly fast at it in the last week.
The sounds of war and chaos continued on around Queen Chrysalis. The hot air made everything in the distance wave with the heat and the glaring sun above offered no respite. Not a cloud was in the sky and not a green blade of grass could be found below it. What grass did exist was painted in yellows and light browns. Larger plants, such as trees, were formed in odd bulbous shapes and were completely crooked in their growth – assuming they weren't dead. It was hard to tell.
Chrysalis found her destination she had been heading towards with her latest prize. It was an inn. Correction: it used to be an inn. The flat tan front facing the dusty rubble-ridden street was about as inviting as a train wreck, but that may have had something to do with the actual train that had blasted straight through its walls.
The train track that ran elevated over the city had been broken down in places from all the fighting. One glorious night battle had seen a pair of pylons, which acted as critical support, crumble just as a fresh supply of zebra war supplies were being transported overhead. The train plummeted down with angry zeal, plowed through several building by sheer momentum, and finally stopped inside the inn. Supply cars were strewn behind in mangled arrays, packs of rations and munitions raided by changelings before the defenders could recover them.
It took a bit more doing for Chrysalis to haul the unconscious mare over the rubble of the collapsed inn's front. She managed it and smiled when one of her changelings greeted her. He was near the underground tunnel entrance hidden in one of the ruin's dark alcoves.
I can take that one if you want to go grab number eighty-four, he grinned with his tiny sharp teeth.
Chrysalis giggled at the joke. “Appreciated, but unnecessary. We must remove ourselves from the city and collapse all tunnels on the way out.”
That seemed to surprise him, though he should have suspected as much through the hivemind. Nodding, he grabbed subject “eighty-three” and offered for his queen to be first down the hole. She had to encourage him to go instead and, when he did, she warmed up her magic and followed.
The queen dropped into the darkness. It wasn't too far a depth, but it was deep enough not to easily collapse on its own. She intended to do that manually, which she charged up her magic for. The changeling with the unconscious mare was headed down the tunnel towards the Advance Operations chamber and would be safe from what the queen was about to do.
Her green magic made a little bit of the slightly-coolor-than-topside soil visible. Backing away, she ignited her custom spell into the entrance. Large amounts of dirt and rocks blew this way and that, bouncing off of the magic shield Chrysalis had prepared for herself. When it finally settled down, no more light from the surface invaded the underground space. The tunnel entrance was sealed and nobody would be able to tell from the top that there had ever been an entrance in the first place. The city was in ruins anyhow.
The large royal changeling darted down the tunnel until, after a significant amount of time, she reached the Operations chamber. Over a hundred changelings swarmed about in the cramped place. Some were handling new prisoners, some were maintaining the cocoon prisons, and others were treating wounded changelings. Some were even treating wounded prisoners. Sources of food needed to be protected, after all.
The dim green lighting of the place was natural to them and a soothing rest for their eyes compared to the blazing bright inferno that was the surface. It was cooler here, though not by too much due to the mass of live bodies. Because of the hivemind, the sounds that filled the chamber were mostly of buzzing changeling wings rather than spoken words.
“Ah,” Chrysalis sighed openly.
She could feel her hive bending towards her will already. Warriors out in the battle above were reeling in the last of their captures and disappearing into the tunnels. Ponies, griffons, and zebras started to surge forward to reclaim territory they had been clawing away for weeks to get back. They would have it back. They would have every worthless blasted hoof-sized increment of ruin back.
Rumbling and crashing sounds could be heard down other tunnels leading to the Operations chamber. Various entrances throughout the city were being sealed up. Changelings were hauling their “loot” back in droves, testament to their battle-hardened expertise. The chamber was being overwhelmed by more prisoners than the cocoon spinners could handle.
Chrysalis worked her way into the center of the chamber. She liked addressing her survivors from a spot where they would not only hear her in the hivemind but also physically see her. They knew she was about to address them again and so their attention locked on.
“My wonderful little changelings,” Chrysalis beamed with a half-crazed smile. “We have won!”
The roar of success through the hivemind was so loud and immediate that it made even the queen herself wince.
“Begin taking the finished cocoons through the southern exit tunnel. I will lead you all to our next destination. One third of you must stay to finish with the new captures. One half of the fighters will stay to ensure security until the cocoons are finished.”
They all cheered again in the hivemind, the only physical noise in the chamber being of happily buzzing wings.
“Let us be on our way,” she concluded and headed towards the exit tunnel. Some overjoyed changeling had comically marked it with a large green-glowing exit sign. She smiled and thought aloud to herself as she lead her hive. “Through our struggles, we have been perfected.”
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This brings the question: Why the hatred towards changelings?
Now that's just awesome.
Best villain backstory evar!
War changes a mare….
4994749
4995032 Yeah, but...Celestia...she got some 'splainin' to do!
I may be wrong, but you seem to have a spelling error in the title of this chapter.
delipidate (third-person singular simple present delipidates, present participle delipidating, simple past and past participle delipidated)
To remove the lipids from
Perhaps you mean:
debilitate (third-person singular simple present debilitates, present participle debilitating, simple past and past participle debilitated)
To make feeble; to weaken.
4995241 On the other hand, they were starving. Fat is a lipid. Fridge Brilliance?
And that is why this story is my favorite here on fimfiction. I absolutely love your story telling and your brilliant build-up of suspense throughout the individual chapters.
Can't wait for more :)
4995249 WHY WOULD YOU LINK ME TO THAT SITE, WHY WOULD YOU...
Back in twenty.
Gaaaaah, TVtropes.
4995032
This is through Chrysalis's point of view. I'd imagine the reality of what went down would be different.
There's a saying that goes something like -
"If one person acts like an arsehole towards you, then they're probably an arsehole. If the whole world acts like an arsehole to you, then you're probably the arsehole."
The entire world doesn't suddenly attempt to annihilate a country with no reason.
I agree>>4995241
4995241
One of my more amusing typos. It's supposed to be "dilapidating."
Vowels...in my head...CAN'T HANDLE IT!
Fixed the problem.
4995375
Aw. Thank you.
I hope you continue to enjoy it.
4994749
This brings the question: How did they ever have peaceful relations in the first place? Changelings are essentially parasites.
Oh quite fantastic. You've really done a great job bringing out a villain you want to see win. Personally, for me that's the pinnacle of an antagonist, when you can look at all the mayhem and horror they've wrought and justify it well enough that a little voice in the back of you're head whispers; 'I could do that'.
I do look forward to how they resolve this dilemma of being trapped in maddened memories. Hopefully they'll even come out ahead.
Though, I can't help but wonder about the fate of the rest of the changelings by this point in the story. What are they doing? Will we ever see them again? A part of me hopes so at this point, and mayhaps Twilight and Chrysalis will find a way to pull them away from the path she set them on in her madness.
She was warned, but she ignored it... Now she have to pay for that and learn, next time listen the warning
4997664
I second those questions.
4997626
Where some see parasites, others see symbiotes.
4995604
True, but there are always shades of gray. Look what Hitler managed to convince Germans to do to their Jewish neighbours when jews can't shapeshift for purposes unknown and potentially nefarious or adulterous.
Changelings are the ultimate scapegoats.
i like the idea and crislis did warn twi that it wouldn't brake until it is done but i like the back story can't wite to read more of it. anyways good work.
Spelling fix: A capitol is a building that houses a govenrment. A capital is the city that contains said building.
4999202
Love can be freely given.
Well, the nations of the world created their own worst nightmare.
Poor Chryssie.