Chrysalis & Mirage

by Zobeid

Alone in the Desert

Queen Chrysalis flew across the desert. No guards or attendants flew with her. She couldn’t sleep, couldn’t rest, couldn’t stop fleeing — although pursued (as far as she knew) only by her own anger and despair. In the wee, dark hours of the morning, the cold night air and exhaustion forced her to the ground.

She collapsed in a heap, her body resting on bare dirt and pebbles, while dark shapes of desert scrub bushes limited her vision on all sides, formless silhouettes against the starry sky. Her wing muscles burned, her heart pounded, and she panted and heaved. Her mouth and throat were dry. After long minutes had passed, and the pains of her exertion had faded somewhat, she clambered to her feet and walked onward, sullenly. She still hadn’t left the Hive far enough behind her. After what had happened, she wasn’t sure she ever could.

She’d heard that the desert became cold at night, but this was the first time she’d ever experienced the chill herself. She shivered but kept on walking. There was just enough starlight to see where she was stepping.

Her belly grumbled. Her legs itched and burned, as they often did. A glow of dawn appeared near the horizon, but Chrysalis was not cheered by the prospect. Celestia’s sigil of power might warm her body, but it gave her soul no comfort.

As dawn neared, a chorus of yips and howls sounded somewhere in the distance. Chrysalis stopped in her tracks and cocked her ears. She’d never heard coyotes before. Their calls sounded to her like maniacal laughter. She crouched down, shivering. Back in the Hive she’d had comfort, safety, guards, servants. She’d never been cold and alone while unknown creatures cackled at her in the dark.

After a few minutes the animal noises died down. After a few more, Chrysalis rose to her feet again, and she snorted. Speaking to an audience of only herself, she said, “I am one of the most powerful beings in the world. I won’t cower like a nymph!” She snarled and charged up a spell from her gnarled horn. A bolt of green fire lashed out against a random bush, incinerating it almost instantly.

Chrysalis shrieked and collapsed onto her knees. The pain in her forehead was almost blinding for a few seconds, and she couldn’t breathe. It felt like she’d broken something. As the pain subsided to barely-tolerable levels, she gasped and retched, trying in vain to cough up something from her empty stomach. The power… Her magic power felt enormous, perhaps greater than ever before in her life, perhaps even greater than when she’d overpowered Celestia. Why did it hurt so much to use it?

She dragged herself to her feet again and stumbled onward. Soon birds were calling out a dawn chorus as sunlight spilled over the horizon, and an enchanting odor hung in the morning air. With a bit of sniffing around, she discovered the wonderful scent came from the greasewood bushes. She took an experimental nibble of their tough, tiny leaves. Needle-sharp thorns pricked at her lips, despite her best efforts to work around them. It was just as well, for the leaves proved to be tough and bitter, and she had to spit them out.

Tired. Sick. Cold. Hurting. Hungry. She wanted to stop, but there was no shelter here and no water. The idea was just beginning to sink in that it had been unwise to flee alone into the desert with no supplies, no map, no plan. As Queen she’d never had to think about things like that. That was what her subjects were for. Now a lump of fear formed in her otherwise very empty belly.

With nothing but the sun to guide her, she walked in what she imagined to be a straight line. This wasn’t like the Badlands, which she’d already left far behind. This was a living desert with plants and animals. There had to be water somewhere. Right? As she walked, the day warmed rapidly, and her thirst grew, and her legs burned. She longed to soak them in a cold pool.

Tromping along in sullen funk, she was startled by a sudden noise almost at her feet. She reared and tried to scoot back from the rattlesnake. She cast a spell reflexively, without thinking, and blasted the snake — and then was herself floored with pain and nausea. For some moments she almost wished she’d let the snake bite her instead. After she recovered and got to her feet again, hunger and a lingering scent of burnt meat compelled her to lower her muzzle and sniff at the remains of the snake, but her excessive blast of magic had reduced it to only bones and char. She grumbled and trudged onward.

Hours passed, and the heat continued to rise, the sun’s rays baked her back and neck, her thirst grew, and she began to stagger. Still she kept putting one hoof in front of another, stumbling over rocky hills and gullies, and occasionally blundering into cactus that made her legs hurt even worse than before. Not risking her magic again, she tried using her lips and teeth to pluck spines out of her legs, but then got some of the hairy little spines lodged in her mouth as well.

Several times she stopped, telling herself she couldn’t go any further. Several times she got back up and walked onward, telling herself she couldn’t lay down and die. She was feeling dizzy and barely staying on her feet when she came to the top of one more ridge. She stopped. She blinked. Her parched mouth hung partially open as she peered toward the horizon at a shimmering sliver of blue. “Water,” she muttered. She summoned her best effort and broke into a trot, although with some stumbling and tripping. The water was distant, but it was in sight. She could reach it.

On and on she pressed, but the water taunted her and seemed to evaporate the closer she drew. Finally she found herself standing, befuddled, in the middle of a barren and bone-dry lake bed. The world tilted, and she collapsed onto her side and closed her eyes.

Author's Note:

I thought of putting an adventure tag on this, but it's not really what most would expect of an adventure. I thought of putting a crossover tag on it, but one very obscure Disney character isn't what most would expect of a crossover. So. . . Slice of life it is!

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Is this story based off of Equestria's Mirage in any way?

[Zobeid]

7783500

Never heard of it. I'll have to look into that!

[Reykan]

I thought mirage was awesome before i knew what sex was. Now she's even more awesome