What the future holds

by Whimsymimsy

Chapter 2

“As you know, we are not from this land,” Chrysalis started. “We used to live in a vast woodland, close to the Eiric Elk,” she said as her mind faded into the memory of that day.

***

Knight Chrysalis walked alongside Queen Cocoona in her massive garden, watching the gentle queen lift the occasional flower and inhale deeply.

“Isn’t it breathtaking Chryssy?” she asked her and looked over. “Everything is in bloom, and this year's crop is doing very well. With the princess hatching tomorrow everyone is so happy, I can hardly contain my own excitement.”

“Of course my queen,” she said and bowed.

The queen halted her bow, pulling her back up. “Chryssy, didn’t I ask that you stop bowing to me?” she teased. “And you don’t have to call me Queen.”

“Ah, of course My Q- Cocoona.” She blushed shyly up at Changeling queen. Cocoona was purple with gold accents, and had a smile that could melt even the coldest hearts. Or at least, in Chrysalis's humble opinion.

The queen perked up when one of the smaller guards ran to her panting. “My lady!” he yelped. “The elks poisoned our drinking water! And they have the hive surrounded!”

The queen gasped. “Take me to them,” she ordered.

“Cocoona, you can’t go alone, they’re giants compared to us!” Chrysalis objected. “I’m going with you.” The queen nodded and they followed the Changeling guards. The dark halls were lined with rainbow windows made from the eggs of their predecessors and those who helped make the hive what it was.

They dashed down the hall, witnessing other Changelings choking and falling with those already dead in the hall. One spotted the queen and tried to crawl over, his hooves shaking as terrible noises escaped him. Down further was an older Changeling, holding a dead child and crying to the heavens. They got into the main hall where the Eiric Elk were trying to get in, but their horns and size stopped them from breaking through the Changelings smaller doors.

“Changeling scum! Come out and pay for your crimes!” A deep voice of the Eiric Elk leader boomed through the hive.

Cocoona walked forward before Chrysalis could stop her. “What crimes?” the queen asked as she fluttered up to meet his eyes. The Eiric Elk were easily three times their size, and this elk leader had a nasty temper. He was young and headstrong with a visible hatred in his eyes for the bug mare.

“You know what you’ve done!” the young buck bellowed and glared.

“No, we really don’t,” the queen responded. “Where is the leader of your clan? I wish to speak with him.”

“I am the leader you witch, you dare deny me?”

Chrysalis darted up only to be smacked down by the buck. When Cocoona tried to go down and help her, everything was set into motion. Cocoona was pinned to a wall by the antlers of the Elk leader. She screamed in pain as her life blood stained the buck’s rack, and other Changelings tried to free and protect their queen, only to have the Elk cruelly gore them as well. Chrysalis flew up and blasted a couple of them back, freeing her queen and the other Changelings. They rushed inside the great hall, bringing the wounded with them. Chrysalis attempted to calm down and gather everyone together, before finally going to the queen.

“C-Chryssy,” Cocoona coughed and tried to stand up. Her knight gently pushed her down to keep her from injuring herself more so.

“Hush Cocoona, it’s gonna be okay,” Chrysalis said with tears in her eyes. “I’ll get you healed and you’ll be right as rain.” She felt Cocoona put a holey hoof on her cheek, forcing her to smile at the injured queen.

“No Chryssy. If I heal myself it’ll take too much love from everyone else. The damage… it’s too much.” The dying queen wiped away the emerald tears of the knight. “I’m going to do something you think will be stupid, and you’ll hate me, but I have to save our hive.” The queen gasped in pain as she began to move, every breath was labored and every movement was pain staking. “My Changelings, come to me!” she called in her royal voice. The dying Changelings were the first to come, and so she weakly said, “I am dying, and so are many of you. Please, give me every ounce of power you have so that we may give the survivors a chance, so they may escape and come back once all is well again.” It took a heartbeat for Changelings’ horns to glow, connecting to their queen, pouring every ounce of life they had into her magic. Cocoona then pumped what she could into the healthy Changelings and then looked to her knight.

Chrysalis felt the energy surge into her. “Cocoona, how will we cope without you? Without a queen we’ll never learn why the Elks attacked us. We won’t be able to help the children! What are we supposed to do? What am I supposed to do!?”

“Ah, my dear Chryssy. You will be the new queen. It will be your job to protect and help our children to survive,” she said with a weary voice. Four Changelings weakly came up to the queen and helped her stand. Her life mates, A dark blue changeling, a yellow, a pink and a green would stay by her side and die rather than leave her side.

“You can’t do this!” she cried, tears blurring her vision. “We need you! I need you! I’m not supposed to be queen!”

The queen smiled. “I told you that you’d think it was stupid. But Chryssy, please… Do this for me. Until it’s safe enough for my child to come into the world,” she said as she wiped a tear from the crying Changeling’s cheek.

“I… I will… For you.” Chrysalis bowed her head and let the tears fall to the ground.

Cocoona bowed her head as well, touching their horns together and transferring power and status. The knight felt her body grow and change. There was no pain, only a rush of adrenaline, a thrill. This was meant to be a happy occasion but it felt so wrong at a time like this. She opened her eyes and looked around at the other Changelings who bowed and watched as she moved her newly longer limbs.

“Now, you all need to go while you can,” Cocoona said and looked at the new queen. “I will stay here and seal the hive.”

Her life mates stood steadfast by her side. “We will never leave you darling,” one of them said. The others nodded in agreement. Cocoona sighed and leaned into them with all her weight.

“Chryssy please, go to safety. Take our family to safety,” Cocoona begged. The knight nodded, tears streaming down her face before fluttering away. She called to the others to come with her. Cocoona looked at her life mates and sighed. “This is it. Can I get some help to the door?” she asked gently. One of her life mates, Fern, helped her over to the door. Then they all bowed to her.

“What do you wish for us to do?” Fern asked. She looked at him.

“The eggs, hatchlings, they need to be protected,” she said weakly. “The stasis spell, you have to do it.” They nodded and nuzzled their queen.

“We love you, no matter what happens,” they said with varying degrees of mournfulness.

“And I love you,” Cocoona replied honestly before sending them on their way. Cocoona pressed her horn against the great door. Her magic ran along the seam, making the the door a solid wall of black material. Cocoona smiled as she took her last breaths.

“T-They’re safe.” Then all went black.

***

Chrysalis hiccuped, tears filling her vision as she finished her tale. Luna walked over and rubbed her back.

“How do you know what happened after you left?” Celestia asked sadly.

“If there are two queens at once, they share memories… She saw the last of us get to safety, and I saw her die.” The bug queen looked down before Celestia walked over and pulled the younger queen into a hug.

“It’s okay to cry. You’ve had a rough time.”

The queen pulled away and shook her head vigorously. “No, Crying makes you weak,” She mumbled and rubbed her face.

“How old are you?” Luna asked suddenly.

Chrysalis paused and looked down, kicking the ground a bit as she counted. “Um, lets see. Winter is three of your months… Roughly… twenty Pony years I think?” Chrysalis thought out loud.

“Roughly?” Luna asked.

“We have … Had, a different calendar system,” the bug queen explained. ”Our Calendar is based on seasons and events, not the lunar cycle like yours.” The princesses nodded.

“What about this archive?” Celestia asked. “You mentioned something about a great archive?”

Chrysalis perked up at the mention of the archive. With a smile she started to explain. “Well, we changelings haven’t needed to evolve in a long time. And we started writing early, so we’ve been able to catalog and record everything. We started going into other cultures and recording them as well. Preserving artifacts from dying cultures.” As she chattered on excitedly her wings lifted and started to rub together, making a chirping sound. She blushed and reached back to smooth out her wings. “Sorry, it’s a hatchling thing.”

Luna smiled kindly at her. “Don’t worry about it, habits are hard to break.” Luna walked over and sat down on a plump cushion, pulling off the sling and letting the children spread out.

Moon Wind waddled over and looked at the holes in Chrysalis legs as she talked to Celestia about the next course of action. He tilted his head and poked his horn through a hole, causing the queen to yelp and pull away.

“Moon Wind, come to Mummy,” Luna called before picking him up with magic as he tried to give chase. She rubbed his belly and smiled. “Be a good colt”

Celestia looked at Chrysalis with a raised eyebrow. “Are you alright?” she asked.

“My holes are sensitive,” Chrysalis mumbled and crossed her legs as she looked at the foal who was now curled up against his mother. “Is he always so...”

“Mischievous?” Celestia quipped. “Yes, he is. He and Morning glory love getting into things that they’re not supposed to.” Celestia and Chrysalis looked over as the foals fluttered all over Luna.

Luna looked up with a smile. “Tia, should I put the children to bed while we figure out how to handle this?” Luna asked as her sister smiled and nodded in response, prompting Luna to get up with foals in tow and take them to their nursery.

Celestia and Chrysalis sat in silence for a moment before the bug queen broke the silence. “Why does the Moon Child have bat wings?” she asked and looked at her host.

Blinking, Celestia looked back. “Oh Moon Wind? Well, before Luna was an alicorn, she was a bat Pony,” she explained. “We ascended to royalty and alicornhood.” This perplexed Chrysalis. Celestia saw the look and smiled. “I suppose I should tell you, since you told us.”

“Will it be as long as my story was?” the Queen asked as she settled on a cushion.

Celestia thought about it. “No, I don’t think so.” She look at her. “Would you still like to hear it?” The Changeling Queen nodded. Before the mare could start, there was a loud commotion in the hallway. They both rose and poked their heads out from the doorway to see a small crying Changeling dashing down the hall away from guards. The changeling spotted its queen and darted over before hiding under her and holding her leg.

“GET BACK HERE YOU!” A couple unicorn guards barked commands as they panted. “Ah! Your grace, we’re very sorry to interrupt your meeting. This one ran off,” the older unicorn panted.

The Changeling yelled from under the safety of his queen, “He said they were going to eat us Queen Mother!”

Celestia looked at her guards. “Is this true?”

The younger guard looked down sheepishly and scuffed his gold shoes against the floor. “My Lady, I was saying, they-” He pointed to the small changeling “-might eat us. And the little … thing there misheard me.”

The Changeling looked up at the Pony guard from behind his queens legs, then up at her. Chrysalis looked back at the little one and nodded gently. The smaller Changeling stepped out from his hiding place and walked up to the day guard.

“I’m not a thing,” the Changeling said crossly. “I am… I am ...” He sat down to think for a moment, and then looked back at Chrysalis, hoping for an answer. “Who am I?” he asked, a bit worriedly.

His queen put a leg around him and kissed his head. “Don’t worry little one, soon we’ll all remember who we are. For now, please go with them. And send the others my love,” she gently spoke, her underling nodded and walked over to the Pony guards. The three bowed to the royals and turned to leave.

“Oh,” Celestia said, giving them pause. “Respect our guests, I do not want to hear about this happening again. Do you understand?” she said The guards nodded and walked off with the changeling in tow.

Author's Note:

After about a million years, there is chapter two