Acceptance and Recovery

by sincarnation

Chapter 2 - Contact

Crystal Empire, 5:00pm, 11th of Drigh, One Month into Artemis’s Journey, Frozen Wasteland

Artemis and snow had a love hate relationship, but as of late the relationship had become more hate than anything else. He loved the cold, and fresh snow was always welcome in Lupinia. Travelling through snow however was another story entirely. Despite being extraordinarily resistant to the elements, even Artemis had to admit to discomfort when walking through freezing temperatures while soaking wet and facing bitter wind chill. The arctic had many unique aspects that when taken as a whole made it one of the few climates that were dangerous to him without magic, making this portion of his journey into his personal Tartarus. The harsh winds alone hindered his hearing and sense of smell, and when combined with the bright white snow navigation by sight was all but impossible. What the wind didn’t hinder were rendered useless by the numbing cold, the only saving grace was that he had no destination in mind so it didn’t matter where he went so long as he kept moving. The most he had going for him was being able to feel the life energy of nearby hibernating animals, that meant he wasn’t so far north that he was beyond sustainable life.

“Never before have I been so grateful for Celestia’s choice in prison, I’d take a warm molten cave over frigid winds every time,” grunted Artemis aloud as he blindly waded through the snow.

He could only complain so much though knowing he was suffering due to his own choices by refusing to use magic. Most immortals opted to use magic as little as possible when doing tasks that didn’t require it, and that was because more often than not magic was used as an expedient convenience. Magic was a faster and sometimes easier way to perform an action, but when you didn't have a time limit what the point of rushing through everything? This was why many of them had strange tedious or meticulous hobbies that many times would be far simpler to finish with magic. In the past Celestia crafted the finest chainmail the world had ever seen by putting a painstaking amount of energy into perfecting every individual ring and taking a couple centuries to craft a full set of armor. Luna was the more artistic spending her time on a craft she invented involving blending vivid colors into water, freezing them, and sculpting them to make realistic statues and landscapes. Artemis attempted to learn the alternative and sometimes extraneous ways living creatures communicated, and this included things communicated through body language to things communicated through mortal combat. All three tasks could be easily and quickly accomplished with magic, but using magic as a shortcut robbed the task of the benefits of involved with the undertaking. As such Artemis was resolved to make the journey using as little magic as possible without killing himself.

“That’s not good,” thought Artemis as he felt large but incredibly weak life force come into the periphery of his senses. “Who was stupid enough be out here in this type of weather?”

He opened his eyes to try to see who or what was dying near him, but he was still unable to see through the blinding white storm. Undeterred he decided he was just going to be surprised by who or what he found as he picked up his pace to meet the creature. Though as he got closer his sense of them grew more defined, but it only left him more confused.

“They have wings and magic?” he thought as he began to worry. “Cadance? I don’t know, I didn’t mark her and I wasn’t exposed to her magic. Did something happen?”

Artemis’s wade shifted into a sprint on all fours, suddenly worried that something might’ve happened since he had left. He hadn’t left all that long ago, he thought he would’ve gotten some sense of something being wrong if there was a problem. However that didn’t change the fact that as he got closer, the figure seemed more and more Alicorn shaped.

“No, no, no, no, NO!” growled Artemis as he skidded to a stop.

“Ar-Artemis?” questioned a weak but unmistakable voice.

There was a brief moment of panic as he opened his eyes to see Luna in front of him looking battered and on the verge of death. A fear colder than any he had ever known washed over him as she stumbled towards him. Thoughts of if she could be saved and what he would do to the perpetrator flooded his mind as he began to step toward her. But before he could take a second step he checked his link, though he had distanced himself he should’ve known if Luna were injured. Surprisingly she was coming up perfectly fine, and Celestia wasn’t duly distressed either. These revelations left very few other possibilities for what was going on, and all of them angered him

“Artemis!” shouted the Luna relieved as she leapt as if to jump into his arms only to be caught by the neck.

“You know who I am? You must not value your life if you took that form in front of me,” growled Artemis as his claws tightened around her neck.

“Please, you’re hurting me! Ar-Artemis. W-why?” gasped Luna as she weakly grabbed at his claws.

“You’re deception has failed. REVEAL YOURSELF!” roared Artemis his claws continuing to tighten.

“Pl-please”

His anger froze as an even greater fear crept into the back of his mind, what if he was wrong? A few tears a reached his claw, burning him like acid. He wasn’t sure if it was the cold or his own imagination playing tricks on him, but this was one of the types of magic he detested with a passion. His grip hadn’t tightened as he stood there worried that he might be hurting the one he loved most, but while he was pretty sure it was a fake that nagging fear refused to be stifled. In a decision he would’ve never predicted from himself, he abruptly released his grip.

“Leave, and never appear before me again,” said Artemis grimly as he turned his back to walk away. Before he got too far, he noticed she wasn’t moving. A moment of concern passed through him, as he went back to check her body.

“She still breathing, weakly, but she’s still alive,” sighed Artemis as he watched her revert back to what he assumed was her original form.

While he had expected it to be a changeling, he had hardly expected a changeling queen. He had never felt or seen a changeling queen so weak before, though he had a feeling of this queen’s identity. Part of him wanted to leave her to die of starvation or exposure, but yet another part of him didn’t want to leave someone in need to die, no matter how much they might’ve deserved it.

“I have dreams about butchering millions of griffons including innocent females and children, but I can’t even leave an evil queen, who has attempted to harm people I actually like multiple times, to die alone,” groaned Artemis as he hoisted her unconscious body onto his back. “What is wrong with me?”

Crystal Empire, 10:00pm, 11th of Drigh, One Month into Artemis’s Journey, Igloo in a Frozen Wasteland

Warmth and comfort, it had been far longer than she would’ve liked since she had last felt either of them. She hadn’t been able to rest since the blizzard hit, but she hadn’t been comfortable since the downturn of her hive. The warmth did nothing to end the gnawing hunger that was steadily eating away at her, but it was a brief welcome respite from frigid winds she had endured.

“Wait, warmth? What happened? Where am I?” thought Chrysalis as she panicked forcing her eyes open.

The first she noticed was that she in some sort of furry make shift hammock, and while she wasn’t high off the ground she hadn’t been on the ice. She looked around and quickly realized she was in an igloo of some sort, and the warmth she felt was a combination of a lively fire and the pelt that had been given to her. Despite the comparative warmth her body froze when she spotted Artemis cross legged with eyes closed on the opposite wall, though she wasn’t sure if he had noticed she was awake. Seeing the wolf king sitting so casually brought the memories back vividly, he had nearly killed her when her body took Luna’s form. She was far too weak from hunger to fight him, but maybe if he was asleep she could siphon enough love to give her the strength to flee.

Though as she started to think of ways she could trick her way into getting love, she saw a familiar green flame burning its way up her hooves. She stared in horror as in its wake it left her with a midnight blue coat, she knew what was happening. Her body was taking Luna’s form instinctively, she knew she had to feed or flee before she was noticed. However when looked up, it was too late. She could see his scowl despite the dimly lit shelter, and as he shifted to move she panicked.

“PLEASE! I can’t control it!” she shrieked as she looked at him in fear.

“Explain,” he growled. A single word, he offered her a single opportunity to save herself.

“I’m starving to death, my body is instinctively changing to the form that might get me any love. Whether I it want to or not until I feed, my body will just change into the closest living thing’s loved ones,” she explained quickly though her hopes of surviving were falling just was fast. She had lost control of her body, and she was now at someone else's mercy.

The ensuing silence was brief, but it felt like an eternity. Her heart stopped as she watched him stand and walk towards her side of the shelter. She wanted to move, to scream, to run, to do anything, but she was frozen by fear and exhaustion. He stood over her for a time, his expression unreadable as he stared intently at her. She could see him judging her, watching as her body slowly shifted into Luna’s. It was humiliating to be so vulnerable and exposed, and every second of it made her hate him, Starlight, Twilight, Thorax, herself, everything all that much more. She was immensely thankful and surprised when his gaze abruptly shifted as he sighed and shook his head, before dropping to a squatting position.

“My apologies then, I didn’t realize you were that weak,” Artemis said bluntly.

“I AM NOT WE-“started Chrysalis angrily before being cut off.

“Here, you can feed off of me,” he said as his tone and attitude shifted to as if he were handling an injured animal. “I’m sorry for earlier, let me help you.”

“I don’t need your pity,” hissed Chrysalis as she weakly slapped away his claw though her body begged for her to listen to him.

“Your pride will be death of you if you don’t, it’s honestly a miracle that you’ve survived this long AND that you blindly came across my path. There’s nothing else you can feed off of anywhere nearby, its me or nothing. But who am I to force you to live if you want to die?”

“I’m no fool! Why would you save me? What do you get out of it?”

“Clearly you are a no fool; even a fool does not wander around the arctic without food or friends. Listen to yourself! You woke up in a shelter, next to a fire, and covered in makeshift blankets after passing out in a blizzard. If I wanted to harm you, I would’ve already done so.”

“That doesn’t answer either of my questions,” hissed Chrysalis as her eyes narrowed. “I would die before opening myself up to being exploited ever again.” He hadn’t said anything she hadn’t already realized, but she wasn’t going to take the risk of feeding and extending her life only to be trapped in some other Tartarus like torture. Changelings weren't difficult to enslave once they were isolated, an unfortunate fact that tended to keep dissenters from leaving the group.

“Is everyone nowadays so bucking paranoid?” groaned Artemis as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Look, I saved you because I’ve developed this annoying little voice in my head that screams at me not to leave mares alone and exposed to danger. So it was save you or listen to that for the next couples of months, happy now?”

“And I’m supposed to believe that?” laughed Chrysalis. “After I tried to take over Equestria not once but twice, and I replaced everyone important that you care about with changelings? You expect me to believe that the Wild King, Nature’s Fury, the Savage Beast who decimated all who even mildly bothered him would show me such mercy?”

“No you shouldn’t believe that because I am not the same as I once was. If I was the same wolf who held those titles, Equestria would be a crater, the griffons would've been eradicated already, and I would’ve tortured you for the crime of stealing Luna’s form in my presence.”

“Oh yeah after being gone for 1000 years, returning and within 2 years broadcasting a worldwide threat of genocide shows just how much you have changed,” retorted Chrysalis with eye roll.

“Th-that’s different!” spat Artemis defensively.

“Oh yeah the Griffons attempted to wipe out your kingdom and species. I merely kidnapped your friends and lover to be used as a food source for the rest of their lives, slight difference.”

“You don’t know anything about me, and I don’t have to explain or justify myself to you or anyone else,” said Artemis softly more to himself than to her. “Last time I offer, feed or die. I don’t care which,” he snarled as he used cruder magic than Cadance’s to separate a fraction of his love into a sphere and dropped it before the weakened changeling queen. It was less than he would’ve given her before she had questioned him, it likely wasn’t even enough to even slightly dampen her hunger, but it was enough to keep her from starving. He wasn’t sure how much she had considered her current situation, but he could see few benefits in angering your only chance of survival.

“Make sure you think long and hard about what it means for you to choose to survive from this point on. I’m leaving at dawn, prepare yourself because I will not be slowed,” said Artemis coldly as he return to his side of the shelter.

Chrysalis sat in quiet silence torn, she was relieved that she was no longer being analyzed but worried that she might have condemned herself regardless of her choice. She stared at the small orb of love in front of her unable to tell if it was her salvation or condemnation. She understood the meaning behind his words, she realized the situation she was in but wasn’t sure whether she should press forward.

She had lost her kingdom, her strength, her health, and now her freedom. Her options were clear: choose to die or continue to live at his whim. There was no one to feed on for miles, and she would surely die alone long before she reached anyone capable of sustaining her. Condemned to starve or beg for food, once again her life was no longer her own. As she laid back down in her makeshift hammock, the only sounds were occasional pops of a lively fire and the constant moans of deadly winds. She was keenly aware that regardless of which one she faced at dawn, once again she would lose her life. Before she knew it, tears streamed down her face. She wept quietly for all that she had lost, and for what she was about to give up.

Author's Note:

Losing one's agency is a truly terrifying thing, especially once you've realized its value by having it taken from you before.

Anyway I'm back, not entirely well but definitely feeling better. Sorry for the delays and shorter chapter, hopefully no more sickness or other bad stuff in the near future. As always thanks to my readers, hope you enjoy and have a great day
-Sin

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Is this story based off of another story?

[Korusso]

Yes it is the sequel to his first story. But if you mean if it had the same plot, I don't know what you mean
Hope this helps

[sincarnation]

8032917 What bunny said, its this is a sequel. Prequel should be in the description, check it out and let me know what you think