Reckoning

The dry, arid landscape flew past her in a blur. All the recently siphoned love she’d acquired gave her a much welcome energy boost, allowing her a quick and easy escape from the ponies, the chaos spirit, and… her former subjects.

The blinding light, the feeling of excess love coalescing into offensive power, feeling her throne crack beneath her hooves. The memories flooded through her, breaking her concentration, but she quickly regained her senses and continued flying straight forward. She continued until exhaustion finally took over, and she stopped, wishing to conserve her precious reserves of love energy.

She took a few steadying breaths before taking a quick glance behind her. She saw the hive on the horizon, appearing as little more than a black speck atop the brown expanse. Seeing that no one was following her, she allowed herself to fully relax, splaying her limbs in all directions as she fell to the ground barrel-down. Her breaths were nice and calm, and by all outward appearances she seemed to be content.

But her mind churned with more emotions than she’d ever understood or could even use for sustenance: confusion, rage, particularly betrayal. All of these bombarded her psyche in a way she’d never before experienced. It made her nauseous, enough so that she had to fight against the urge to throw up and lose precious strength. And taking stock of her current situation, she couldn’t afford to be so liberal with her food for the foreseeable future.

As she lay there, her mind kept replaying the events which had just transpired at her hive. Her lips curled a little tighter every time the image of Starlight Glimmer popped up, until eventually a full blown scowl crossed her muzzle. She threw her head back, letting loose an agonized scream that could’ve ruptured the eardrums of anyone close. But the dirt under her hooves, and a light, desert breeze was all the company she currently had.

Everything had been going so well for her. The attack on Canterlot, she had come to admit after the fact, had been flawed, but well thought out. Spy on the capital, obtain information on the ponies — especially those in power — and subtly, slowly infiltrate their ranks so she could sabotage their defenses when the all-out attack began. Even when Twilight Sparkle had shown up, unexpectedly, she hadn’t been worried. Her performance as Cadence was so perfect that she fooled everyone else, and even managed to be rid of Sparkle in time for the wedding.

But because of a few oversights, and her own cockiness, she’d failed. The changelings were expelled from Canterlot, and worse yet, found themselves in an even tougher position than before the plan had been set in motion. With their existence now known, any attempt to initiate a second invasion in an increasingly paranoid country with beefed up security was foolhardy. So she and her swarm waited, biding their time, until the ponies had relaxed their defenses enough for her comfort. And when the time came, she hadn’t taken any chances. She’d had her subjects ponynap and impersonate every single pony who stood a chance at subverting her plan. The chaos spirit — Discord, she believed his name was — was the only one they couldn’t take care of, so they had to work fast before he caught on to them. Everything had gone so smoothly, and so perfectly, that Chrysalis had really, truly believed she had finally succeeded.

With a sigh, Chrysalis got up onto her hooves and, picking a direction at random, she began walking. She wasn’t thinking about where she wanted or needed to go; she just needed to feel like she was making progress toward something, even if she didn’t know what that something was. Eventually, she spotted a rock formation in the distance, jutting from the desert landscape like a sharp blade. Squinting at it, Chrysalis thought she could see a spot of black amidst the gray rockwall.

A cave.

She changed direction toward the rock formation. As she trekked, her thoughts again turned to the confrontation with Starlight and Thorax, and while she found herself scowling at the memory, no longer did she feel the urge to upchuck in revulsion.

She truthfully had no idea what had happened back there. According to the wretched unicorn, Thorax’s metamorphosis was the result of sharing love energy instead of stealing it. The idea was ludicrous, but she couldn’t think of another explanation for his transformation, as well as that of all her subjects into his.

Moreover, if changelings had the capacity to be self-sufficient all along, how come she never knew it?

She stopped in her tracks, her eyes going to some far off point as new memories flooded through her. Different races, some oozing with love while others were filled only with scorn and hatred. So many faces she’d worn in her never ending quest to provide love for herself and her swarm, siphoning love and mind controlling countless hapless victims without a care for their well-being. And never once had she even considered the possibility that her kind was capable of self-sufficiency. Never once had she herself felt love for another creature. She knew the taste of love, and it was the most delicious thing to a changeling’s senses, but she’d never had any love to give.

Another memory came to the forefront of her conscience. Unlike the others, this one was faint, without distinct visuals to paint a clearer picture. There was the sensation of being… submissive? And… happy? The seemingly contradictory feelings only served to confuse her, until more details surfaced. Two streaks of light blue; eyes. Black carapace attached to a tall, hulking figure. A cruel smile that masked a terrible sorrow.

The memory stopped forming. Whatever she was remembering, it had to be important. Chrysalis fought to remember more details, wracking her brain as hard as she could to put a name to the figure. She’d forgotten many of the people she’d impersonated over the years, but she was sure this was someone else entirely. Someone closer to her. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t remember their identity. Every attempt she made was like hitting a mental concrete barricade, one which her puny little hooves could never have a chance of breaking through.

With an anguished growl, Chrysalis kicked at a rock by her hooves. It sailed a little ways in front of her before unceremoniously coming to a rest on ground every bit as dry and arid as where it was before. She huffed and continued walking, picking up the rock with her magic as she passed. Whatever happened in the past didn’t matter. All that mattered was she retreated somewhere safe to plot her revenge on Starlight Glimmer, the unicorn who’d taken away the one thing she’d valued even more than love.

Her purpose.

Sure, she’d listened to everything Starlight had said about wanting revenge and learning to forgive and whatever else she’d babbled on about. And for a minute there, she’d actually, legitimately intended to take up her offer of friendship. As much as she detested essentially surrendering to such an inferior life form like ponies, the concept of self-sufficiency was without question an appealing one. No longer would she have to work so hard for it and risk endangering the entire hive as a result. Everything about the offer would’ve worked in her favor.

But she still rejected it.

Chrysalis had but one reason to live for her entire life, and that was the self-preservation of the hive. Every action she’d taken, no matter how cruel or violent, was to keep the hive sustained on love. All she’d ever wanted was the continued survival of her species; never had she even entertained the idea of striving for a personal ambition or goals. The hive followed their queen, and the queen saw to it that everyone lived. That’s how life had always been for them.

Now all of that was gone. Starlight had shown the changelings how to be self-sufficient, thus rendering Chrysalis’ leadership useless. So in the end, she was left with two options: accept the ponies’ offer of friendship and face the challenge of struggling to find a new purpose, or reject it and be free to pursue revenge for taking away her purpose.

Seeing all of the ponies, their princesses, the spirit of chaos, and all her former subjects standing together had made the decision obvious at first. No way could she hope to take down so many powerful beings all by her lonesome, even with a sizable reserve of love energy at her disposal. She had lifted her hoof with the intent to accept Starlight’s offer, but she’d had second thoughts in that brief few seconds, and so smacked it instead

Her changelings had abandoned her for Thorax, but she could clearly see they were better off following Starlight’s advice than hers. As much as their betrayal infuriated her, knowing her changelings would no longer have to starve filled her with joy. And with that knowledge came a revelation: she had a chance to be selfish, to live life only for herself. The sweet, intoxicating feeling of spite had overcome her, to which she realized all she wanted in the whole wide world at that moment was payback against Starlight for uprooting her entire culture.

As Chrysalis trekked across the Badlands towards the rock formation, she swept her gaze left and right and in front, really analyzing the place that had long been her home for the first time. Nothing but dry, dry desert as far as the eye can see, devoid of life and water and anything lush. It rejects life, even. Anything misfortunate, or stupid enough to find themselves stuck here without supplies would be dead within days. The only reason she made her home here was because she couldn’t move her throne with her, and valued the protection against magic it provided too much to leave it. Otherwise, she would want to make her home somewhere with plenty of living, loving people to feed upon.

She finally made it to the rock formation and up to the cave entrance, and peered inside. It was quite small, only about ten meters high and twenty across. The faint light of her magic allowed her to see the back wall, showing her the cave was completely, utterly empty, yet spacious enough to her liking. A light breeze blew from behind, fluttering through her mane and whistling throughout the cave, as if directly highlighting its isolated quality.

Chrysalis stepped into the cave and lay down, folding her hooves. She twirled the rock around in her magic, before chucking it against the wall. The light echo it made was music to her ears, enough to keep her from going insane from the near-deafening silence of the Badlands. She repeated the motion, all the while thinking about what the future held for her. By her estimate, she had enough spare love energy to last another two weeks before she needed to find more; more than enough time to think up a suitable revenge plot against Starlight Glimmer.

No doubt, Equestria would be put on high alert once again after her declaration. Starlight Glimmer would probably receive special security. Heck, she rooms with Princess Twilight herself, so just getting to her would prove to be tricky. But she would manage it, somehow. After that… she honestly didn’t know what would, could, or even should happen. Her entire reason for living now was to get revenge on Starlight. What does one do after they’ve exacted revenge upon their enemies?

Chrysalis came out of her musings, returning her attention to the empty cave. For the first time, the full gravity of her situation dawned on her. No underlings for support. No magic throne for protection. Nothing but her wits, intelligence, and powers to rely on. Just her against the world and everything it threw at her. She couldn’t say she liked it, but she was Que— former Queen Chrysalis; nothing short of the entire world joining forces could stop her from achieving her new purpose.

A crooked grin spread across her muzzle as she brought the rock over to her, imagining it was Starlight Glimmer’s head. She dropped it to the cave floor and promptly crushed it under her hoof into a million pieces, relishing the coarse sounds it made as she twisted her hoof, grinding it for added measure.

Yes, she would have her revenge.

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