Embers of Passion

by Bakmah Genesis

Prologue

Love is a powerful emotion, possibly one of the most powerful, in fact. It has the ability to control the actions and thoughts of even the most stoic characters in existence. Even the all powerful Princess Celestia is swayed by love. Even the Queen of the Changelings is affected.

Love to us is a food source. It as delicious as red velvet, and is as important to us changelings as nutrients are to other creatures. We eat normal food, as we do require calories as an energy to function, but love is required to keep us healthy and alive.

Malnutrition is the lack of the required nutrients. It makes the creature sick and frail, and birthing deadly to both the child and the parent. It has plagued us recently, and was my reasoning to invade Canterlot. I planned on using the weakness of love to my advantage so I could take over and harvest it in bulk for my children.

The great princess of love fell, the famous prince, and the regal Celestia all came down with them. Even the highly regarded Elements of Harmony collapsed. It was a bitter victory, since I never liked releasing our existence to the world, and I never wanted to conquer our main food source, but times were rough and change was needed.

In the chaos of fear and hate, I felt an amazing sense of love in the moments leading up to our defeat. I heard my changelings mutter about me lying, or me mistaking it for the royal couple who was supposed to marry, but I know what I felt.

It wasn’t me gaining love, but me feeling it. I was intrigued by the small purple unicorn that had quickly seen through my disguise and then quickly acted to dispose of me. I grew fond of her willpower and her strength. It was my own, fragile love that I felt. And my hesitance was all it took before I was sent hurtling out of the castle.

After our first encounter, I quickly went about on spying on her, finding more about Twilight Sparkle, the mare who had bested me and was the sister of the Princess whose identity I stole. I gained the guise of a red and pink unicorn whose field of choice was Couple Counselling. After a few lies and a new shop in the town of Ponyville, I spent my time doing my job and watching Twilight from afar, and a little closer by borrowing a book from the library.

When she left town, I left town. When she went to the heart of Canterlot, so did I. I followed her wherever she went. I felt her joy, sadness, hate, frustration, and every emotion she felt. Out of obsession or curiosity, I made it my goal to know what she was doing, and I couldn’t figure out why. As I watched her, I came to admire her. I was there when she was transformed into an Alicorn. I was panicked when I thought the spell originally backfired and killed her, but found myself trying not to run and hug her when she came down from the sky as a whole new mare.

From fights with beings that far surpassed my time and hers, to silly adventures with her friends, I watched. And yearned. Friendship was a concept I knew, but aside from acting in disguise, I never truly felt it. Ponies befriend my disguise, not me, not who I am. I sometimes kid myself and think if I came out they would still view me as their friend, but I knew I blew that chance when I invaded.

It wasn’t until when I came down with a sickness when she went off to some town in the middle of nowhere that I found out that it wasn’t an exploration of curiosity or obsession that drove me. I found myself missing her, daydreaming of a time when I could not be in disguise and feel love that I always thought was forbidden to me. It was love that drove me and I found that harder to cope with. For half a decade I was falling head over heels for someone I knew I could not be with even if she was on her deathbed.

When I got better I closed my business, offering sympathy to any scheduled couples, saying a family emergency required me to go back to Canterlot. I now knew what drove me, and the crushing reality of the situation made it depressing to try and stay.

Of course, fate has a funny way of making you stay.

---

Since the Library was blown up and a bigger, more crystal tree erected itself in town, the Friendship Castle had basically opened it’s personal library to the public once it was stocked. I have borrowed a few books from here, ranging from mystery to some romance for reasons.

While I did want to get out of town and avoid Twilight as much as possible, I was not one to steal books from ponies. I made my way through the main doors of the castle, which had to be the most unprotected castle of a princess in history. At least a few guards wouldn’t hurt.

Spike was cleaning up the main hall, and telling by the haphazardly thrown saddlebag on Twilight’s seat, she had recently returned from wherever it was she went. I didn’t really pay much attention to their conversation, as I was more distracted by the factor one of my clients caught my while I was trying to use my eavesdropping spell.

The dragon mumbled a greeting, more focused on sweeping up the easy to mop floors. I ignored him as I entered the large library, this one being twice the size of the tree library. It was a three story room with sliding ladders along the bookcases and tables on the main floor for reading.

Twilight was face first in a pile of paperwork, as usual. She has been working on something, but I never figured out what. I stopped trying to read her notes years ago when I gave me a headache and made me realize how poor-read I was when it came to pony science.

Trying to hurry up, I quickly levitated the books I brought onto the return desk and signed them back in. I looked over at the alicorn, who now had the look on her face like she discovered the holy grail, and sighed. With a quick light of my horn, I cursed my curiosity and began try and get a glimpse of her paperwork.

When I first started spying on her, I found a spell to help me see through her eyes. It’s hard to detect and is a little disorienting, so I normally pretend I’m spaced out in thought or asleep when I do it.

Her notes were as quickly and poorly scribbled as ever, making it difficult to translate anything useful. The most I could tell it was something for detection, which piqued my curiosity more. Reading on, I tried to figure out more, only understanding that it was complex, but was simplified for novice use which told me it was a spell designed to be used by anyone with magic or a charm.

I froze as I read the target host, what sort of detection it really was. It wasn’t for only detecting, but for revealing a disguised changeling by canceling any sort of distortion magic and few other types for good measure. It seemed like I chose the right time to leave.

I caught a glimpse of her horn lighting up, causing me to quickly cut off the spell. I turned for the door, trying to leave without drawing attention but before she could cast the spell. I was only able to make it halfway before I felt a nauseating feeling course through my body as I suddenly gained height.

I stood there, terrified. Changelings have existed for centuries and a few occasions have been spotted and hunted, but each time we blended back into society without a trace. Twilight changed that. She got rid of the curtain that separated our species and hid us for so long.

I could feel her eyes on me, her magic still pulsing in the room as she held another spell at the ready. Everything seemed to stand still, the moment before my obvious demise waiting. I found myself an idiot to have spent all this time following a silly crush, not finding Twilight as the threat she was. I fell for the one thing I used to my advantage.

Slowly, I dared to turn around. I moved carefully as if I had a bomb strapped to my back and any sudden movements would set it off. Twilight stood there, her horn shining a bright pink as she stood defensively. I had to force myself to not look away at the sheer hate that she stared at me with. In most cases I would brush it off, but from her it stung much more deeper than I was prepared for.

“Chrysalis.” hissed Twilight. “What are you doing here?” I wanted to state the obvious that this was a public library and I had whatever right to be here, but that didn’t seem like the brightest idea.

“Leaving.” I tried to say it with confidence, but my voice cracked. “I came here for… peaceful reconnaissance and have finished.” Good job, dumbass. Why don’t you mention for five years you stalked her out of some schoolyard crush too?

Twilight raised an eyebrow, not seeming to believe me. I honestly wanted to run, try and escape. The door was still open, but the chance of being hit by her magic was too strong. I could teleport, but a hasty teleport out of a building could prove dangerous. But anything was better than my current alternative.

Just before Twilight could say anything, I quickly teleported while disguising myself. I felt her magic just graze where I was standing as I found myself outside the main doors. Without thinking, I turned and bolted towards the train station, cursing myself for choosing a non-flying pony as a disguise.

I felt a stronger wave a nausea hit me, this time I knew my disguise was gone and took off into the air. Thankful for the ability to fly, I did a turned around and headed towards the cave system in the Everfree that we were based in directly.

I was just barely out of town as more magic whizzed past me. Looking back, Twilight was flying behind me, albeit a little shaky. I pressed onwards, trying to at least making it to the tree line so I could lose her in the dense forest.

I was nearing the trees as pain erupted through my left wing, knocking me out of the sky. I cast a spell to try and correct myself before landing, only barely stopping myself from falling face first. Standing, I ran in hope that I still could make it.

Pain. It washed over me as Twilight hit her mark on the back of my head. I collapsed just outside of the forest. A few more feet and I could have made it. Just before passing out, I saw Twilight standing over me. She gave me the look that showed me that there was no hope for redemption.

Author's Note:

So no, the entire story won't be in First Person. Maybe a few character specific chapters, but after the prologue, majority of them will be Third Person. Thank you for putting up with my horrendous writing.

Comments

[Cross Lament]

...And this is why you return books to Twilight's library on-time.

[ForSpite]

The first chapter felt a bit awkward, it might have been the first person.

If Chrysalis didn't realize it was love that she was feeling for Twilight until she became sick, it would be better to dwell on her confusion when she first felt it during the paragraphs about the invasion, rather than outright stating it was love she felt for Twilight. By not stating that Chrysalis didn't realize what she was feeling until several paragraphs after Chrysalis started feeling it, one is left with the impression she realized her feelings right away for a while.

[Razzy]

Time to alter the ol' change magic so that the spell stops working.