Thirty Chrysalises

by Diamond Sparkle

Under the Moon (Sad)

The first night that the sun failed to rise, a lot of ponies failed to turn up for work, bosses included, and no pony was fired because of the strange situation. The start of that long night was not all that bothersome...ponies reset their alarm clocks and got used to it. It was in the height of summer so the start of the cooling was actually a benefit to many ponies who heartily disliked the hot weather. A month went by before the first serious problems started. Even with the strongest earth pony magic, new seedlings were refusing to grow properly. Firelight and magical torchlight was a poor substitute for the light of the sun, and only a few weedy stalks grew. Existing crops that were fully grown or nearly so were unaffected but it became clear to everypony but the strongest supporters of Nightmare Moon that unless the Princess could be persuaded or forced to raise the sun, that there would be no new harvest the next year. And the pleasant summer night grew cool, then cold, then chill.

The changelings who were undercover sent messengers back to their Hives, reporting on the slow unplanned changes in the weather.

The ponies sent polite delegations with petitions to their ruler, assuring her of their loyalty and asking her to raise the sun for the sake of Equestria's crops. When she failed to do so and banned the issue from being brought up in her Court, they grew restive. Some demonstrated in the streets demanding that the sun be returned to them, others tried different tactics, trying to make Nightmare Moon laugh to put her in a good mood so that she might agree to raise the sun, or even to seduce her. Yet they hesitated to attack their ruler. Partly it was because such a thing just was not done; as their kindly Princess Luna she had been a very good ruler to them. Partly, if she could defeat her sister and banish her into the fiery heart of the sun, what might she do to anypony who dared to rebel against her?
With no rationing, as Nightmare Moon refused to put it into place as she considered that nothing was wrong, those ponies who had access to more food then they could eat could hoard it and then sell it for a great many bits, which was mainly spent on warm clothing and firewood.

In the Badlands, the cold took longer to seep into the Changeling Hives, and when it did the Changelings could grow warm fur to keep warm. Their fungal food did not need light, but it did need warmth, and with their other sources of food cut off, the Changelings had to fully depend on the love from the cocoons of captured ponies and griffins and that which was brought back by their infiltrators. Love rationing was introduced, much to the annoyance of some changelings, and extra webbing was wrapped around cocoons and Changeling eggs to keep them warm. The Queens put aside their differences to hold a conference. Even if they survived, without other races to feed them love, they would start to slowly starve.

After three months of darkness the food was starting to run out and nearly everypony was going hungry. Some ponies, pegusai in particular, fled the country to try and get to the other side of the planet where it was eternal summer, preferring heat waves and the danger of fires to the freezing temperatures in Equestria. Others including most of the Day Guard under Captain Shining Armour finally attempted a coup to force Nightmare Moon to raise the sun, but after many deaths they only managed to drive her out of Canterlot and nopony knew where she had gone to.

It was then that Queen Chrysalis and the other queens decided to take a calculated risk and reveal themselves to the rest of Equestria.
Surrounded by shocked and scared ponies, the Queen told them, surrounded by her bodyguards "My little ponies, I am Chrysalis, a Changeling Queen...and these are my drones. We have been living amongst you since time immemorial, harvesting your love and living on it. Princess Celestia has been banished and is never coming back and Princess Nightmare Moon will never raise the sun again. Within weeks, months at most, the last of your food will run out. I am inviting you within my Hive, where you will be cocooned to avoid a death from starvation and tended and kept warm until the sun rises again if it ever does, and we will feed on your love in return. When you are cocooned you will think you are in Heaven. No pony, griffon, buffalo, or other race will have this forced upon them, they can try and survive in the icy wastes if they want to."

Many questions later, most of the ponies and griffins who remained decided to take up her offer, and whole herds of ponies, zebras. mules and buffalo made the long slow trek to the Badlands or to the up to now top secret locations of the other Changeling Hives where they had one final feast with what survived of their food around a roaring fire, before saying goodbye to each other and letting the Changelings fang and cocoon them and hang them up. Chrysalis promised them "As soon as the sun rises once more, I will set all of you free, I promise. And you may go back to your homes and I will help you get things back to normal as soon as possible. Goodnight, my little ponies and griffins and buffaloes and mules. Sleep until the day breaks and the shadows flee away." The Changelings now had enough love to gorge on, but at a cost; no more could they interact with the other races. No more could they eat anything but love; no more could they swim or enjoy warm weather as the whole of Equestria sank into a new Ice Age.