• Published 30th Mar 2014
  • 12,089 Views, 164 Comments

Twilight Sparkle, Changeling Princess - mojomcm



Twilight Sparkle: a name often associated with magic, friendship, harmony, and most recently, ascendant princess of Equestria. Nopony, not even herself, could have thought that she would be a changeling.

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Bonus Chapter/Prologue

Author's Note:

Chapter title comes from "I See Fire" by Ed Sheeran, which plays during The Hobbit 2.

This chapter is more of a deleted scene than anything.

Fifteen Years Ago...

Deep within the heart of the Badlands, a cavern-riddled wasteland south of Equestria, resides the Hive. This hive was no ordinary hive, for instead of housing bees or some other from of insect, the Hive's inhabitants were a creature almost unknown to Equestria and its ponies.

Celestia, monarch of Equestria and princess of the sun, did know what was in the Hive as she flew into the Badlands. She had heard reports of attacks and ponyknappings on the nearby towns, such as Appleoosa. These attacks were no ordinary occurance, and the strangest part was that the attackers were changelings, creatures that had not been seen in almost five hundred years. These changelings were those that dwelled within the caves that made up the Hive.

Landing with a thud and a silent promise to eat less cake before bed, Princess Celestia strolled into the Hive as if it were her own castle, with the expeption that any and every changeling she saw was instantaneously incinerated in a blast of bright gold magic, heated to temperatures that would make the sun itself turn on the air conditioner. Celestia's usually colorful mane was a firey inferno, and her tail left scorch marks on the floor behind the white alicorn. Her hoofprints were seared into the ground as she walked. Nopony had, nor ever will see the sun princess as angry--no, livid--as she was that day.

"Come out, Chrysalis!" Celestia called out into the tunnels. "You will harm no more of my little ponies!"

"Make me," Queen Chrysalis hissed, allowing her buzzing voice to bounce off of the walls and reverberate throught the Hive, so as to throw Celestia away from her true location.

Celestia snorted and blasted apart the walls around herself, and walked through the new doorway into what appeared to be a hatchery. Changeling eggs glowed greeen and dotted the floor in groups, while tiny nymphs hung from the ceiling inside slimy green cocoons. The baby changeling drones slept soundly, even throught Celestia's rampage.

"Chrysalis?" Celestia growled, her hair flickering in its own flame. "Where are you?"

"Right here," the queen said, standing right behind Princess Celestia. Her sickly green mane and tail hung limp like sea weed, and was desperately in need of a wash. Chrysalis' carapace was dirty and her wings looked even more fragile than usual. Her hooves had gaping holes up past the knee, and her stomach was sunk in, both signs of starvation.

"You look terrible," Celestia taunted. "I'd have thought you would actually look fed after attacking so many ponies."

Chrysalis chuckled, which soon turned into a wheezing cough, as she said, "It wasn't for me."

"Then who did you attack my ponies for?" Celestia asked, horn charging up with bright gold magic. "Moi?"

"No!" Chrysalis snarled. "And you won't lay a hoof on her! I won't let you!"

"You? You couldn't even keep me out of your own home, much less away from any of your changelings," Celestia scoffed, her flaming hair crackling in rage. To emphasize her point, Celestia's magic shot out, blasting away a clutch of eggs. Tiny bits of shell and ash floated down from where the eggs had sat.

Chrysalis gasped, her breath caught in her throat. "You-you-you monster," she choked out, having heard the unhatched changelings die within the hivemind, which was the mental connection all changelings had.

"Oh no. You're the monster," Celestia said as she incinerated more of the eggs and even some of the cocoons, all of which Chrysalis could hear in her mind.

The changeling tried to shield the eggs, disrupt Celestia's magic, even attack Celestia herself, to no effect. Chrysalis heard a shriek that nearly deafened her before she realized that it was her own scream, wailing with a mother's agony.

"Scared?" Princess Celestia asked. "You should be. Nopony hurts my little ponies."

Chrysalis' scream turned into a choking sob. "I had no choice! Please, I beg of you! Spare my children!"

Celestia scoffed, "You are in no position to beg for mercy. Perhaps twenty victims ago..."

Chrysalis shivered, sobbing. Her frail wings quivered with her cries. "Spare us! Please! Please."

The princess ignored her, instead turning to a private room adjacent to the demolished hatchery. Stepping inside the crude door, Celestia lit up the room, her firey mane giving off more than enough light. The room's sole occupant, a tiny unicorn filly, slept soundly inside a green-tinted cocoon.

"Thou hast gone too far, Queen Chrysalis," Celestia spat out, turning back to the crying changeling. "Who doth thou thinkist thou art?" she growled backing Chrysalis into the wall. "Who doth thou think thou are?!"

"I-I don't-I don't know what-what you're--"

"Have thou no boundaries to your evil, twisted ways?!" Celestia screamed, her flaming hair crackling madly. "You will most certainly pay!"

"Have I not paid enough?!"

"I shalt have thou sent to the depths of Tartarus for what thou hast wrought!"

Chrysalis collapsed, covering her face with her forehooves. She peeked up at Celestia through the holes in her legs. "I don't know what you're talking about!"

Princess Celestia jerked her head towards the room housing the unicorn filly. "Even thou shouldst know that foalknapping is a most henious crime, punishable by death!"

"Foalknapping...?" Chrysalis asked hoasely, her eyes widening and her pupils shrinking to pinpricks. "No! That isn't--She's--I'm not--!"

"Plead all thou wish, all thine evidence is against thou."

Chrysalis grabbed at the white alicorn. "No! Please don't! Don't touch her!"

Celestia shook the changeling off and glared at her. "Don't touch me."

Tears ran down Chrysalis' cheeks and onto her chitinous hooves as she cried out, "Don't hurt my daughter!"

The sun princess froze, and without turning around, said in a voice cold as ice, "Cease thine lies, for they fall on deaf ears. Thou shalt steal away no more of my ponies as long as I shall live." Celestia met Chrysalis' eyes. "And I will live forever."

Chrysalis whimpered quietly as Celestia's golden magic pulled the filly from her cocoon. In the light, both monarchs could see the infant clearly. Soft lavender fur met straight purple hair, and when the filly yawned and opened her eyes, Celestia saw big, bright purple irises staring up at her. The princess' own mane and tail died down from a firey inferno to a soft rainbow of pastels as she smiled at the child.

"I will not kill you here," Celestia said after a pause. "And risk harming one of my little ponies."

Chrysalis sighed with relief.

"But, so help me, if you ever step hoof in Equestria again, I will send you straight to Tartarus."