The Last Changeling War

by Coyote de La Mancha

Chapter Ten: My Heart is Diamond. (The First Front)

The Changeling kingdom, if such it could be called, was not so much a valley as a vast stone bowl. A wasteland of sparse vegetation and sparser animal life, bordered by more forgiving land, its interior blasted and fused aeons ago by the arrival of an incredible force from beyond their world.

In the centre of the crater, just visible in the distance, was the Changeling Hive.

And, emerging from it like a slow-moving cloud, gaining speed as they grew closer, were the rear guard of Queen Chrysalis.

“They’re coming,” Celestia said. “Several hundred strong. And even my magic is useless here. Are you sure you can do this?”

Seeing the hordes of Changelings flying at them, Cadence gave a determined smile, her body beginning to glow a soft blue despite the area’s anti-magic effect.

“Oh, yes” she said, “Love still works here, in all its myriad forms and powers. If it didn't, the Changelings could never feed in their own lands.”

Celestia nodded. “I understand that. But I meant, in light of everything they've done...?”

Cadence's eyes narrowed. Then, they, too, began to glow, her entire body seeming to shimmer, to transform into an azure light as she raised her gaze to the cloud of insectoids fast approaching.

“You are the children of Chrysalis,” she said to them. “The grandchildren of my second mother, the nieces and nephews I never had. Even as I am the family that was denied you, against my every desire.”

Her wings spread and she rose slowly into the air, the blue light surrounding her, growing brighter, small plasma-like arcs playing lazily around the corona of her power.

“You may not know who I am,” she said. “You may hate me. You may even want to kill me.

“I don't care.”

Cadence had done something like this once before, of course, many years ago. But she had been little more than a filly, and untrained. Now she was a grown mare, with years of tutelage from Celestia... along with her own experiences as a mare, a wife, a mother, and a monarch.

Before, it had been an accident of desperation and circumstance. Now, fully in control, Cadence reached out to the Changeling army with her power, bathing each one of them in her light.

“Because I do know you,” her voice said, somehow audible over the buzzing of hundreds of insectiod wings. Quiet as a whisper, it could have been heard over a thunderstorm.

“I know each of you. I know your hearts, because it is my heart that is touching yours. Each and every one of you. Right now.”

Celestia closed her eyes, turning her head away from her adopted niece. She had stared into the heart of her planet's own sun, more than once, and basked in its warmth. But now, as years before, Cadence's power was more than she could bear.

And even as she moved, the buzzing of Changelings became almost deafening, their hissing became legion. An army surrounding the two mares, yet not daring – or perhaps not able – to advance any closer. And clearly heard over their din, the Crystal Princess spoke softly, intimately, truthfully to them all:

“And... I love you.”

There was a sound like a giant heartbeat. Or perhaps like several hundred hearts beating, just for an instant, as one. The valley was filled with a pulse of light the color of a flawless blue diamond, purer than that of a newborn star.

And then there was silence, broken only by the sound of several hundred bodies falling, unconscious, to the ground.

Comments

[Arkonfleight]

11486022
>Kidnapped them offscreen
I always figured the original invasion worked in spite of Chryssie, and the more successful second attempt was her telling Pharynx the broad strokes, then invoking a legendary effort to keep her cheesy hooves out of it.

[Coyote de La Mancha]

11661975
(nods) I've had friends and family in the US military, and I always heard that it was the people on the ground who pulled off the major victories, not the broad-strokes planners. Wouldn't surprise me if it were the same on Equus.