Thirty Chrysalises

by Diamond Sparkle

2-The Trial of Queen Chrysalis

It was evening in the Badlands, and changelings from all the Hives of the continent had flocked to see the trial of Queen Chrysalis by the rulers of five of the other major surviving Hives. From the Kingdom of Griffonia came the amber-shelled Queen Carapace of the Meganeura Hive, which specialized in extracting the fiery love of the griffins. Griffin love was both harder to get, and had a strong unique taste which put off most changelings, so the Meganeura were generally unchallenged in their territory and as such got on rather well with changelings from other hives because of this.

From Western Equestria came the purple-shelled Queen Miasma of the Formica Hive, whose territory stretched from Filliydelphia to the border with the Buffalo tribes, and whose changelings had been engaged in a nasty little undeclared war with those of Queen Chrysalis over territory for several years. She smirked to see Chrysalis brought so low.

From Germaneigh came Queen Phantasma of the Diptera Hive whose shell was a deep red. She and her changelings so rarely came to Equestria that Chrysalis knew little of her and her ways.

From Cloudsdale came the white-shelled Queen Mysteria of the Lepidoptera Hive which claimed control of the pegasus sky cities. In exchange for her changelings staying off the ground, the other Hives more or less accepted her control of said cities, although pegusai who lived on or near the ground were fair game for changelings from other hives.

The last Queen to serve on the tribunal was the green shelled Queen Crocodillia of the Digderidooia Hive whose territory was that owned by the Buffalo tribes and a few wandering ponies and griffins. The Changeling Queen of Prance had excused herself as she and Chrysalis were firm friends, whilst the Queen Melitia of Saddle Arabia was seriously ill with a Cordyceps infection and her doctors were plying her with the finest Camel love and fighting desperately to save her life.

"We will have order here, we can hardly hear ourselves think," snapped Queen Carapace. "The next Changeling to speak out of turn will lose his or her love rations for two days." There was silence. "Queen Chrysalis, in invading Canterlot as you did, and without even ordering your Swarm to invade and fight disguised, you have made our race undeniably public instead of a rumour, an old mare's tale, and therefore endangered all of us, from the Queens at the top of our society, to the most lowly drone and the smallest grub. You are charged with High Treason against Changelingkind. How do you plead?"

"Not guilty."

Queen Miasma stood up to address the tribunal. "My fellow Queens, I have it on good authority from a spy in Princess Celestia's court that because of Queen Chrysalis's attack on Canterlot, thousands of bits are now being spent on a new spell, a spell designed to detect our kind when we are undercover. Should that spell be properly developed, it would be a disaster and thousands of families where the mother or father is a changeling would be forcibly broken up. Starting romances with other races would be near impossible, except for the few who genuinely like changelings. There are those that do, but not enough to feed most of us. Queen Chrysalis, what do you have to say for yourself?"

"I had to do what I did, because I found out too late that there was a black market circle that was siphoning off the love from my hive's central store, to the point where there just was not enough for everyling. I punished those responsible severely with six months of short rations, but punishment would not fix the problem. I sent the police around to try and find the stolen love but it had been consumed already by changelings unknown. I tried to trade love from other Hives without much luck. Queen Phantasma turned my envoys down without comment, Queen Melitia was and still is sick and needed all the love she could get to save her own life, Queen Crocodillia could not be found, Queen Mysteria's changelings drove my envoys out by force, and you demanded a large chuck of my territory in exchange for help. Only the Queen of Prance would come to my aid. I'm far from perfect and my tactics could have been better, but what was I supposed to do? Break the very First Article of the Changeling Code by coming out into the open and asking the ponies for help? Then I would be in just as much trouble for that."

The Queens retired to a room to talk in private.

"She does have a point, you know," said Queen Carapace. "All of us have a deep attachment to the members of our own Hive. She was just trying to feed them and prevent being overthrown. Starvation leads to rebellion if it is left unchecked for long enough."

"Well, I for one think she should be executed , all of our Hives are on short rations because of her idiotic invasion of Canterlot," Queen Miasma replied angrily.

"And if she was executed or permanently exiled, who would benefit? Who would take over all of her territory? You would. All of the rest of us are either too far away or confined to the sky cities of the Pegusai," Carapace replied. "You want more power for yourself. Besides, except under the most dire circumstances, Queens do not kill other Queens, it would set a precedent that might see your head on the block one day. Be careful what you ask for, Miasma."

"Why not compromise?" Queen Crocodillia suggested. "Yes, her actions were not properly thought through and have brought trouble upon us all, so she should be punished, but her heart was in the right place. I suggest that she forfeit her territory for one year and be exiled to Prance, but at the end of that time her territory should be restored, and that all changelings, not merely Miasma's, be allowed to enter it until then. That way Chrysalis will be punished but not too much, and it'll do something to enable us all to get as much love as we can. I move for the above sentence. What do the rest of you say?"

One after the other the other Queens voted for it, Miasma very grudgingly.

"By tomorrow you must appoint an officer to look after your hive, gather your possessions and set off to Prance. If you ignore this sentence, Miasma may indeed get her wish, but I don't think you will. No hive is to attack you as you leave-that means you, Miasma. On behalf of us all, I declare this sentence affirmed," Queen Carapace said. "Farewell, Chrysalis."

Comments

[GIGA-XISBASS]

interesting. that would explain why she didn't try asking for help.