Chrysalis
The sun hung high over the sky. At this time of day, the subterranean tunnels of Chrysalis' hive would normally be filled with activity. Instead a tense resigned silence blanketed the hive as the changelings found themselves unable to do anything out of anxiety for the future. In her bedchamber, Queen Chrysalis took slow rasping breaths. After they had been violently ejected following the Canterlot invasion, many of her soldiers had been injured or killed. Chrysalis on the other hoof had sustained internal injuries that even her best healers couldn't fix. At best they had only soothed her pain and prolonged the inevitable. And now...
Chrysalis brought a hoof to her muzzle and coughed violently. Pulling her hoof away, she found it stained red and felt a small trickle in the corner of her mouth. 'So this is it.' The tension in the hive rose. Turning, she gazed out her window overlooking the badlands. She could practically feel the other queens on the edge of their thrones just waiting for her to croak so they could take her hive. Despite her pain, Chrysalis smirked.
'Wish I could see the looks on their faces when they see what I have in store.' She almost chuckled at the thought. ~Kormac, come.~ She called over the Hivelink
Instantly, a changeling entered his Queen's quarters and bowed. "I am here your highness."
Chrysalis nodded acknowledgment to her commander. "This is it for me Kormac." Her voice was raspy and weak but still held some power.
Kormac winced at this statement but didn't deny it, no matter how much he wanted it to be false. Chrysalis had no royal daughters to pass the crown on to when she died. Tartarus knew what would happen to them once she left them. He could think of several possible scenarios and all of them were unpleasant.
"Rise Kormac." Chrysalis commanded. "And don't count me out just yet. I don't plan on leaving the hive without a leader."
Kormac stood with a look of surprise that quickly morphed into a hopeful look. Chrysalis smiled and continued. "I may be a lot of things, but I don't plan on leaving my changelings to the mercy of those old hags."
Kormac sighed with relief and many of the other changelings relaxed a little as well. "We thank you, Your Highness and shall serve our new queen to the best of our abilities."
Chrysalis's smile became a little mischievous. "And what are your feelings about six queens?"
✴✴✴✴✴✴
Applejack paused her trot down the road that lead to Ponyville from her farm and glanced around. Some part of her felt like somepony was talking about her, but when she looked around she didn't see anyone. Applejack shivered then shrugged it off as best she could before continuing down the road.
It wasn't anything new for Applejack. For the last few months she'd been getting strange feelings that she couldn't explain. For example, she'd been feeling depressed, like she was a filly sitting by a loved one's deathbed, knowing that she couldn't stop the inevitable. At first she thought it would pass, but it didn't. Instead it got worse to the point where she just didn't want to do anything but wait. For what, she didn't know.
In addition, there was also a fear of the future. Like everything would change when this pony died. And she had no clue why she was feeling like this. It worried and annoyed her since it was interfering in her work. On the bright side, Applejack felt a sudden loss of that fearful feeling. The sadness was still there sure, but now she felt some hope that things would get better. Applejack smiled and continued her walk cheerfully, completely unaware of what the future held.
✴✴✴✴✴✴
"If I may be so bold your highness, where might these heirs be found?" Kormac asked.
Chrysalis got out a few chuckles before she started coughing wetly again. "In due time." She finally rasped. "Once I've passed on, you'll be able to find them. Which brings me to the reason why I called you here."
Kormac nodded and stood at attention. "Whatever your will, it shall be done."
Chrysalis nodded. "I want you all to abandon the hive."
Kormac stumbled in shock. "Abandon the hive?!"
Chrysalis nodded. "That's right. Once my body is buried, I want every male, female and nymph to gather what we can and leave the hive."
Kormac was flabbergasted, a sentiment shared across the Hivelink. This hive has been their home for countless generations, and now we are to leave it? A dozen questions floated through Kormac's head, but only one was voiced. "Why?"
Chrysalis was silent for a moment before answering. "This whole time I've been thinking about how things went wrong at invasion. It's all I can do. And I've come to the realization that it was my pride and our foolish ways that got good changelings killed. Things need to change. And the queens I've chosen are just the ones to do that. They have potential, I know it."
Komac nodded. Regardless of reasons or doubt, they would fulfill this request. "And where would we go?"
"Go to your new queens."
"Wouldn't they come here?"
Another coughing chuckle. "They won't know how or when to get here. And if the throne sits vacent for too long, the other queens will descend upon here like vultures to carrion." She grimaced as thoughts of what the other queens would do to her changelings floated through her mind.
"How do we find them?"
"The link will guide you. Follow it, no matter where it points."
Kormac put a hoof to his chest and bowed. "By your will, it shall be done." He said before straightening. Silence descended on the room, broken only by Chrysalis's rasping breaths.
"Kormac?" She whispered.
"Yes your highness?"
"Would you stay with me until the end?"
Kormac moved to sit by the side of the queen's bed and placed a hoof on hers. "Of course Chrysalis."
Chrysalis smiled as a soft melody hummed through the Hivelink. No words needed to be exchanged.
✴✴✴✴✴✴
"Hello! Equestria to Applejack. You there?"
"Huh?" Applejack almost jumped at the sudden appearance of a certain pink pony in her face.
"There you are!" Pinkie proclaimed triumphantly as Applejack focused her attention on the pink pony.
"You seem a little distracted darling." Rarity said with concern in her voice. "Is everything alright?"
Applejack looked down at the table as she tried to figured out how to word her thoughts. "Truth be told, Ah ain't sure."
Her friends frowned at her in concern. "You can tell us what's wrong." Twilight prompted.
"Yeah!" Pinkie Pie confirmed joyfully. "We're all here for ya!"
Applejack paused a moment before spilling. "It might be nothing, but lately I've been feeling sad even when ah'm happy."
Pinkie suddenly gasped and jumped onto the table to lean into Applejack's face. "Like somepony is really hurt and going to die but you can't do anything except sit and wait and it's getting real close to that moment?"
"Uh, yeah. Exactly like that. How'd ya know?" Applejack asked curiously.
"Cause I've been feeling that too." Pinkie deflated a little and settled into her chair. "And it's really been throwing me off my game."
"I must admit I've been feeling the same." Rarity admitted. "So has Fluttershy. She told me about it at our last spa visit." The pegasus in question nodded confirmation.
"I've been feeling it too." Twilight admitted. "I haven't been able to focus in the last couple of weeks because of it."
"Yeah, I've been feeling it too." Rainbow Dash admitted. "Don't know what it is, but I've crashing more than I'd like to these past couple of weeks because of it."
Twilight looked around the table in surprise. "All of have been feeling this?" Surprised nods all around.
"Well at least now Ah know Ah ain't crazy." Applejack said with relief.
"Too true." Rarity agreed.
"And here I was thinking it was just me." Twilight said. "But since we're all feeling it, I'd say there's something going on. Some magic malady or something."
"Is it dangerous?" Fluttershy asked.
"Not sure. So far it's been relatively harmless, but now that I know that something's up I can perform a magic scan."
"But first, I think some tea and snacks will do us good." Rarity suggested before calling out for a waiter.
✴✴✴✴✴✴
True to his word, Kormac stayed with his queen the entire day, soothing her or catering to her needs. All through the day Chrysalis drifted in and out of sleep as her breathing grew more ragged and shallow. Then around evening, as Chrysalis stared at the sunset out her window, she took a deep breath then released it as a sigh, smiling gently. She didn't breathe in again. Kormac sighed sadly and reached up to close her unseeing eyes. Wails of sorrow echoed through the tunnels and Hivelink.
✴✴✴✴✴✴
'Well that was a waste of a day.' Applejack thought grumpily. After tea, they'd gone to the library where Twilight cast her spell. When it came up clean, they thought it would be a good idea to check in with the doctor. The rest of the day was spent going through various tests only for them to all come up clean. Since it wasn't a serious condition, the doctor had released them advising them to relax and get some rest.
Applejack didn't have anything against the doctor, but after an entire day of answering questions and getting needles stuck in places she'd rather not name, she felt like jamming something painful where Celestia's sun doesn't shine.
'At least it's a pretty sunset.' She thought as she gazed and the reddening sky and for a moment she felt happy. Then suddenly she froze like she was rooted in place. And then drops of liquid wet the dirt between her hooves. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky.
✴✴✴✴✴✴
Rainbow had been reading Daring Do, when suddenly the book fell from her hooves as tears streamed down her face.
✴✴✴✴✴✴
Rarity had been serving her sister some soup when she froze, dropping her ladle back into the pot with a splash. The younger sister cocked her head and walked up to see her sister staring straight ahead with a blank look and pupils the size of pinpricks, tears pouring down her cheeks. Instead of saying anything, Sweetie Belle wrapped her hooves around her sister's leg and gave her a hug.
✴✴✴✴✴✴
There was a clatter and Fluttershy's animals turned to their caretaker. Fluttershy stood there, stockstill before collapsing into a sobbing heap. At first they were shocked and surprised; even Angel had been acting better since the pegasus started getting depressed. Still not sure what was wrong, Angel pulled out a comb and settled on her back as he combed her mane gently.
✴✴✴✴✴✴
Pinkie Pie had been in her room bouncing when she suddenly froze in mid-air then sat down. Eyes watering, her mane deflated entirely and she then she unleased a waterfall of tears.
✴✴✴✴✴✴
"Twilight?" Spike asked the unicorn cautiously.
*Sniff* "Yes Spike?"
"Why are you crying?"
"I *hic* have no idea."
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This looks promising. Tracking.
MOAR um please
Looking good so far. Changeling fics are my favourite, so I'll have to come back and read the rest
Wow, I like it. The unknown reasons for the sorrow, mental links can be fun to play with. Good job
All aboard the FEEL train!!!
My feels have been hit with a nuke
I realy hope the reasons for the main six becoming queens actually make sense in the narrative, and isn't 'just because'.
I think this song fits the occasion here:
A bit repetitive there. Apart from that, the concept of having six different perspectives may get a bit unwieldy, but it’s a pretty interesting way of storytelling. It’ll be certainly interesting to see how the rest of the fic so far goes. (and totally not because I have a bias towards changeling fics)
that cover picture looks surprisingly similar to work of one of my favorite artists, Vavacung:
http://vavacung.deviantart.com/art/Mini-Series-Friendship-s-Changeling-661301072
8354361
I'm a fan of his\her work too. Haven't looked at it in a while though. Probably should.
My attention has been had.
Basically me all the time
Gotta start somewhere
I love the name Kormac. That's definitely not because my name is Cormick, though. No correlation whatsoever.
10770613
Yeah, absolutely no correlation
If I didn’t know better I would think that they were depressed
“Why are you crying? I *hic* have no idea.”
Sounds like depression to me
Donald Trump