A Queen's Lament

by lollipopchica

Chapter 12

“Stop!”

A look of horror crossed cerise features as the voice of Twilight Sparkle cut through the castle's great hall. Everypony gasped as they turned to watch the lavender filly. The changeling queen’s emotions had been on edge with a mix of things. Fear and outrage battled for dominance twisting and connecting synapses that should have never met in her ailing mind.

“Why does she have to be so possessive of her brother? Why does she have to ruin my special day?” She had cried. Why couldn’t that stupid girl mind her business? But then the voice of the real Cadance reached her ears.

“Because it’s not your special day! It’s mine!”

Everything was slipping from her grasp and it seemed the tighter Chrysalis held to control her situation, the more it fell. She remembered her mother's words from long ago. Sometimes you had to do things you didn’t want to for a greater cause. So she dropped her disguise and played the role of a confident and powerful queen crippling Canterlot from the inside.

What she didn’t count on was her love being used against her.

Shining Armor loved Cadance, which Cadance his mind hadn’t thought to process. And though the real Cadance was in-love with the stallion she had been crushing on since her teenage years, was it true love? As Chrysalis had learned from Discord, magic didn’t care about the particulars. So when the two united, together they were misguided enough to cast a spell that expelled her and her cursed species far from Canterlot. But instead of love setting her free, it obliterated all her hopes and dreams in a giant spectacle of magic.

How did they do it? She wondered as she tumbled with her plans of salvation. How had they managed? Maybe Odonata had been right. Her form continued to streak through the sky. Maybe she wasn’t the queen she thought she was.

“Do you realize how much is at stake here?” The changeling who’d been like a mother to her regarded her with disparaging eyes.

Chrysalis had stared back at the healer with tired eyes. “I’m not my mother.”

“That much is apparent,” she scolded. “You’re in over your head this time, ‘Princess.’ You better than anypony should know that fairytales aren’t real for people like us.” The healer always had a way of making her feel like a child. No pony else could get away with speaking to her like this. “If he doesn’t kill you, then that ambition of yours surely will… only we’ll die with you.”

“I thought you trusted my judgment...” Came Chrysalis’ quiet voice. She was still very much ill from an over-abundance of love.

“Not when you’re following sentiments. ‘True love’ can’t save everypony Chrysalis and you’re a foal to think otherwise.” Electric eyes were hard as Odonata thought of the decisions she had to make in her Queen’s stead. Things were falling apart and she had no idea what the other was trying do. She didn’t trust Discord and it seemed her monarch had absolute faith in him.

“And tell me… do you have any other suggestions?” Chrysalis forced herself up into a sitting position. “Do you have answers, Odonata?” Candy colored eyes flashed as anger seeped into the cerise colored mare’s voice. “You speak so critically of me only after two months of being half of what I am to the hive! There’s always a crisis, there’s never truly enough for every changeling and yet I always manage to pull you through! You forget how much I give so that all of you may go about blissfully unaware of your lot in this life.” Hot Tears ran down false features as her voice cracked. “All I want is for you to trust me…”

Odonata sighed as some of her disappointment fled. Sometimes she forgot how idealistic her monarch really was. Chrysalis could make even the most detrimental of slips look like an intricate step in an exotic dance. It was one of her best qualities. Unfortunately, it was also one of her worst. “Perhaps you’re not the Queen you thought you were,” was her quiet response to the other’s heated words.

The turbulent trip she had taken in response to the spell cast was finally brought to a bone-breaking halt as her streaking form collided soundly with the earth. She screamed as she crashed and tumbled only for the world around her to disappear in a dark fog of unconsciousness.

*-*3333*-*

Shining Armor stared at his wife with a solemn expression on his white maw. As he danced amongst his friends and family at his wedding reception he was still mentally processing what everypony had told him in regards to last 48 hours.

He couldn’t believe his fiancé had been replaced. He and his wife spun around the ballroom as an officially married couple. Storm cloud eyes took in the festivities around him before his gaze rested on the bright and relieved features of Cadance. Twilight happily chatted with her friends as they were all still apologetic about what happened earlier. Celestia was still explaining what had happened to her sister who looked just as shocked as he felt.

Finally, the song had come to an end and everypony cheered and clapped as the dancing ceased.

“I love you, Shining Armor. Thinking of you was the only thing that kept me going.” Princess mi Amore Cadenza smiled with tears in her violet eyes. “It was your love that saved me.” She leaned forward and kissed him the way she always dreamed of kissing him. At first, he tensed but soon relaxed into the action faintly aware of the whistles and cheers in the background.

Cadance grinned as she broke away convinced everything was just as it was supposed to be. The perfect princess for the perfect soldier! “I’m a married mare!” She squealed in delight to which everypony laughed and cheered.

What she didn’t notice was the troubled expression on her husband’s face when she turned away.

*-*3333*-*

Hours later, a changeling awoke to a multitude of sensations, none of them pleasant.

Chrysalis gasped as her heart ached with every beat. She could feel it cracking under the weight of her failure. Harlequin eyes stared up into a dark sky sprinkled with shining stars and a crescent moon. How had she fallen so spectacularly?

The physical pain she felt was drowning out the emotional pain that surely bubbled beneath the surface. A cool breeze caressed her twisted form encouraging her to take in her surroundings. There were trees for miles as well as a small trail from where she crashed and disrupted the earth. In a forest far from home, Chrysalis was still astonished over all that happened.

She had been so close.

Harlequin eyes blinked away tears as she noticed a dark shape a few meters away from her. She could tell by the trail that preceded the form that it was one of hers. Biting her lip to keep from crying out at the pain that threatened to overtake her, she steeled herself for the price of her actions. Despite a dislocated shoulder, broken ribs, a torn wing, and a sprained backleg, she was still able to move thanks to her body slipping into shock.

Chrysalis reached forward pulling herself closer to the body ahead of her. Another ache pierced her metaphorical heart. ‘No… no… no…’

"Odonata..." She croaked. The grass was cool beneath her form as she used her hooves to pull her weakened form through it.

"…"

"Odo..." She sounded so close to crying. "I didn’t... I didn’t pick him over you... I didn’t..."

Still no response.

But hadn’t she?

She finally reached the husk ahead of her and pulled it closer to her battered form. "I promise..." She whispered lamenting the lack of warmth and life that had always stood by her side. She repeated the words over and over hoping to convince herself. Was this her fault? Had she trusted when she should not have?

Chrysalis was so tired... and that spell Shi- The spell that was used to remove her from Equestria had taken its toll on her body. She was broken in every way a pony could be. She could barely feel her connection with her people. Maybe they were too far or maybe... maybe... they were gone.

She could tell her surrogate mother was and she couldn’t find the strength to cry.

All of the voices that had sounded in her mind... her heart... one by one they were silencing as their life force fled their bodies. She couldn’t even comfort them as they lay dying.

An unsettling feeling descended upon her until her entire being was cocooned by a cold numbness that pervaded deep into her bones.

Chrysalis was never one to fear monsters or dragons because she herself was an abomination. But this feeling of solitude was new and it frightened her. She was terrified by what this meant… What it could mean....

This was her fault.

Changelings had looked to her for guidance and love and she had betrayed them for another. She got tangled in her own web of hope and belonging and had lost her way and her species.

The Changeling Queen whimpered as the price of her gamble began to sink in. She buried her face in the changeling's husk as this development began to sting and burn.

The numbness had been terrifying but the burning sensation that began to flare in her chest was ten times worse.

“Just let it break...” a voice unlike any other sounded in her thoughts.

Yes, she had wanted to shed her responsibility... but not like this- never like this.

Harlequin eyes were tightly closed as they bled tears and blood. She bit through her lip as she tried to contain the sorrow that was threatening to spill out of her. Every face, every moment, everypony flashed through her mind and it was simply too much.

“Let it break…”

Sobs did not rock her body and curses did not leave her tongue. With a strangled expulsion of breath, Chrysalis' heart had finally shattered as her world slipped away. Harlequin eyes rolled to the back of her head as she fell away. Light poured from her dark body as a being from ancient times was awakened from a timeless slumber.

A pony-like entity arose from the being Chrysalis. It was a beautiful mare with a coat the color of the softest buttercream and a mane the hue of coral. She stood tall with closed eyes. Her essence slowly solidified into a physical being as she familiarized herself with this world.

Plum eyes snapped open and the mare once called Elytra tried to process a lifetime of memories. How had she… She blinked as the ghostlike fingers of despair brushed over her heart.

She remembered now… She had lost somepony important and nothing could ease her pain. Her father had… “Discord….” She spoke his name after not having said it for over a millennia.

Discord apparated with an unusually solemn expression on his face. The two regarded each other silently before the draconequus broke the silence. “Do what needs to be done.” Were his words to the daughter he’d punished a millennia ago.

She bowed deeply before spreading her wings in a grand sweeping gesture. Once again plum colored orbs were closed as the alicorn concentrated her magic on the task at hand. Her newly resurrected form was swallowed in ivory light as the energy responded to her desire. With a surge of blinding magic she flew high into the sky before dispersing into the four winds to set right what she had made wrong.

Discord watched as Elytra’s magic streaked through the night sky showering the land with its influence. It was a grand display of white magic that was sure to attract attention. Finally, his unholy gaze fell to the unconscious changeling at his feet.

He unconsciously flicked his tongue as a thoughtful expression came over his face. Chrysalis and the husk she had clutched were glowing with the soft influence of Elytra’s magic. Moments later, the husk faded away as Chrysalis remained mercifully unconscious.

What would become of her, he did not know. But he knew that for better or worse, her life was that of her own choosing.

Author's Note:

A/N: Remember to check out “Sweet Hearts and Princesses” for some young love fluff. There will be a sequel to this so keep an eye out. Thanx for your readership and I’ll catch you guys around!

Comments

[Namelesskk]

Is that it? I just feel... Unsatisfied with this ending.

[Random Duty Guard]

Really well written. Looking forward to the sequel.

[The Sexy Barbarian]

Can't wait for the sequel!

[Hydrawolf]

I read this last chapter to this song:

My eyes shed copious amounts of liquid pride.

I hope you keep writing in this universe.

[UNITLuna004]

Will there be a sequel for this?

[lol1759]

Not a terrible story to be sure. But it suffers from akward pacing and inconsistent characterization exacerbated by a lack development and unconventional if not downright silly scene breaks.

I wouldn't personally "like" it but will certainly make a cautious recommendation for Chrysilys lovers to read.

[Pentarctagon]

I hope the sequel gets written eventually, this was good.

[ScopeEva]

I am... disappointed. I'm not even sure a squeal would satisfy me. The fact that the changeling race, even if it was created by a curse, had to be exterminated for things to end? This wasn't the story I was looking for and I'm sorry I spent my time hear.

[Fourpony]

together they were misguided enough to cast a spell that expelled her and her cursed species far from Canterlot.

The cursed species wouldn't have had time to make it there. Also, would Discord now curse Cadance for murdering a bunch of changelings?

All of the voices that had sounded in her mind... her heart... one by one they were silencing as their life force fled their bodies.

Discord curses one alicorn for killing one pony and bringing another back to life. But Cadance gets off scott free after helping commit genocide and marrying a stallion that isn't sure he loves the real Cadance. There is a little bit of a mismatch here.

But this feeling of solitude was new and it frightened her.

How so? She fled her hive 10 years ago and got used to being on her own.

So Chrysalis is now free of the hive and the responsibility of ruling it as changelings do. However, how many changelings survived the expulsion from Canterlot? I assume not all of them came since others were dying in their home, so they could not be restored. Also, what did Elytra make wrong? It was Discord that made the curse. I feel this bit needs explaining since I am a bit confused over it. Yes, I am a little peeved over how the Canterlot Wedding was handled and how it seems to be just like the show. There are other inconsistencies I have pointed out which I feel need to be addressed before you move forward. Due to these, I am gonna have to withhold my favorite unlike what I did for your first story. I liked that one. This one felt lacking in that it tried to match the show too much. Chrysalis and Twilight still could have not gotten along or something else could have ended up ruining Chrysalis' plans, but I feel that making the last few chapters mirror the show did your story a disservice.

I can see another story after this being about have Shining finds out he never really loved the real Cadance and all his feelings are for the fake one. The pony that he loved when he was younger. There are also grammar mistakes as well that could use correction. I didn't want to go through and highlight every single one cause that would have taken far too much time; especially since it seems this story line is abandoned.

However, if you do with to continue, I would have happy to have ideas bounced off me. Just know that I can be a little harsh and sarcastic at times. I am easy to contact, either PM me or just respond to a comment.

[Razzy]

Poor Cutelings, poor Odonata, poor Chryssie... I hope this doesn't mean the end of the Cutelings.

Cya
Raziel-chan

[wlam]

Well, it's good that this has a sequel. Interesting and well-written, but it also cuts out pretty much at the most interesting part. Feels more like the first half of a story than a full story.

[forbloodysummer]

Really enjoyed this! Very different in tone from the first story, but it works

[Doctor_Den]

Well, the story in the ordenic was in my opinion stronger. And I can not believe that Chrysilys also sent a twilight to the cave, it was a stupid progress even when the twilight apologized and was ready to believe Chrysilys

[RegMoDII]

All she had to do was own up to everything and change back to her crystal emerald disguise and she would have won without a fight