This is Home.

by Lucy_Marigold

Chapter 23 - But You Were Gone.

Author's Note:

A/N Okay so I know I promised this chapter to be out last night, but unfortunately, things popped up. Have it now, okay? Enjoy.

~Chapter 23 - But You Were Gone.~

01:29 PM, June 30th, 2 S.E.

The Canterlot Castle.

Twilight took a step backwards, hooves clinking against the marble. “What have you done, Blueblood!?” She muttered.

“Oh, isn’t it obvious, Twilight? I’m not Blueblood.” In a swirl of flames, a figure as tall as Celestia with a tightly curled crimson mane pulled up into a bun. Jagged and deep scars marred her body, chitin cracked and ruined. A dented and rusted crown rested on her head. Tattered and ruined beetle wings folded against her sides.

“You’re-You’re…” She gasped out.

Queen Rhene stood there in her mighty and ancient glory, sacred, full of hatred and titering on the edge of insanity.

“But they said you were dead!” Twilight sputtered out, her disguise faltering. The lavender changeling was revealed, her butterfly wings flying out behind her.

“Oh, I was! I was more than dead! But I survived!” Rhene let loose an insane chuckle. “I survived! I heard! I heard what your own brother did! I heard how you punished Chrissy! You didn’t punish her enough!”

“We couldn’t leave her hive without an heir, Rhene!”

“Her hive deserves to die!” Rhene spat. “She’s nothing but-but scum!”

“That doesn’t mean her hive deserves a fate such as that.”

“She took everything from both of us and yet you stand there idly with your friendship and your ponies!” Rhene paced back and forth, her head darting forward every time she punctuated a word. Twilight turned her gaze to the floor, wings dropping slightly. “She murdered my hive, she murdered your mother! She won’t stop and you know that! No matter how much she talks of peace!”

Her gaze darted up, wings twitching. “And is this the solution? Poisoning the princesses and their minds before making a law to hunt down changelings?! You’ll get us killed before it does any harm to Chrysalis!”

“It’s for the benefit of our kind, Twilight! You know nothing of the hardships our kind has had to face! You know nothing.” The lavender changeling lowered her head, frowning further.

“You right, I don’t know anything about the hardships of being a changeling. But I do know the hardships of fixing things. This isn’t the way to do things, Rhene. Stand down and release the princesses.”

“Over my dead body.” All three echoed, the enraptured Princesses jerking upwards and flaring their wings.

The door burst open, both Applejack and Rainbow Dash rushing into the room. Rainbow Dash froze, staring at Rhene. “You’re alive?!” She screamed, her disguise falling away in a swirl of flames. The other changeling queen paused, tilting her head as she stared.

“How are you alive, Primrose?” Luna questioned, mirroring Rhene’s movements.

Rainbow Dash remained silent, shutting her muzzle closed as her wings flared up behind her. Rhene’s emotions shifted until a frown appeared. “You… you left the hive.” She whispered.

“You died. I felt you die over the hivelink!” Dash’s ears folded over, a sombre feeling radiating from her.

“Hehe! But I didn’t! I almost did, but I didn’t!” Rhene chuckled, eyes twitching as she lowered her stance. “And if you don’t get out of my way, so will you!”

Twilight silently ordered the two of them to subdue to the regents of the celestial bodies, non-violently before she stepped forward. “Stand down, Rhene. There is no need for any more bloodshed.”

Queen Rhene had no more words to say, charging forward as a spell gathered in her curved and chipped horn.

Twilight dodged, casting her own shielding spell as the red changeling’s horn split into the shield. Arcane energy sparked around them as Twilight held her stance, using her magic to blast through the shield and towards the psychotic changeling.

The shield cracked as Rhene slammed another hoof against the barrier, a spider-web fracture splitting the magic. An eerily red mist began to seep through the cracks, filling the small bubble.

And then she saw nothing.

---

????

When reality came flooding back, Twilight was surrounded in darkness, her hooves echoing around her as if she was trotting on marble. There was a sweet, almost sugary, taste to the air, like sugared almonds. And then a voice whispered in her ear. “How pathetic. The mighty Twilight Sparkle, saviour of Equestria, beaten by me?”

Red mist swirled to one spot, revealing Rhene. She was no longer scared, the air around her glowing with magical energy. “I’d have thought you’d put up more of a fight. It’s a shame really.”

“What have you done to me? Where am I?”

She laughed, her voice like a thousand tiny bells. “I was looking forward to our partnership, reforming our hives, youngling but it seems I have to take a different approach. Tell me, where is Chrysalis?”

“I don’t-”

“Don’t lie to me, Twilight. I know she’s been sending you messages and letters these past weeks. Her drones swear loyalty to her, but you! You have no loyalty for her.”

“How do you know that?” Twilight stared in horror, her wings wrapping around her defensively.

“Oh Twilight. The stallion you knew as Blueblood-” Rhene snaked around the lavender mare, slitted red eyes staring at her. “-never existed.”

“You… you egged on my brother!”

“Oh no, but a small dose of hallucinations certainly made him think that way. It’s amazing what a little thing can do to a population of creatures that are willing to maul a loved one if they think said pony is a monster.” The red queen smirked, an insane giggle emanating from her mouth.

“Why?! Why would you do this!?”

“Because it wasn’t just Chrysalis that took everything from me.”

---

11:06 PM, December 23rd, 983 C.E.

The Libellua Hive

Queen Rhene paced back and forth, another explosion rocking the hive. The order had just been given, there was no hope now. Her eyes grazed up to the paintings of her ancestors, tears brimming in her eyes.

A scroll lay abandoned on her desk, unfurled. A warning for this, a warning she had neglected till now.

Celestia hadn’t responded to her letters. To her cries for help. There was another boom as a nearby chamber collapsed. She heard hooves running down the hallway. She should run, run far from the Hive and insure her safety for the sake of her Hive. But it wasn’t worth that, anymore. She had given them her order of extinction and like a captain with his ship, she would go down with them.

Hooves in her doorway now. “Hello, Aunty.” Queen Chrysalis stepped into the room, flanked by a squad of her own changelings.

“Chrissy, it has been a while.” Queen Rhene sighed, turning her head towards the Xenica changeling. “You’ve come to recruit me, have you? To fight against young Odonata’s brood?”

The green changeling nodded.

“I’m afraid to say that you’ll find it incredibly difficult to have any of my children on your side, Chrysalis, that is, if any survive.” The invading queen gave a smirk, trotting closer to Rhene.

“You’ve ordered the destruction of your own hive, haven’t you? What happened to your beloved daughter, Aunty?”

“Star’s whereabouts are none of your concern.” Rhene snapped, wings flaring as she turned her body towards Chrysalis.

“She’s dead, Aunty. I saw it with my own two eyes, dead as a doorknob.” She hissed into the Libeulla's ears. “The so-called innocent ponies massacred her and hung her body out for the ravens. For the kingdom of the sun, they declared and yet, you still support Nata’s pathetic attempts at peace with them?”

Her stomach dropped. It couldn’t be true, could it? The crimson changeling lowered her gaze, staring at her hooves. “Celestia-”

“-allowed them to get away with it, Aunty. Either you side with me, or you’ll suffer the same fate as your brood.”

“I have no quarrel with dying, Chrysalis. If my hive dies, so shall I.” Rhene stood firmly, raising her head proudly.

“So be it then.”

---

????

“Those-Those ponies took everything from me!” Rhene snapped.

“That doesn’t mean you punish others for their actions!” Twilight begged, watching as the other queen darted around the abyss. “Please, just stop!”

“Because Equis must suffer as foretold by our ancestors, youngling. It was foretold by Anaya that this world would die by our hooves!” She said back, growling.

“And what of our survival? If Equis is to die, then where shall we gather food if all the sources are dead? How can you think this would be a good thing?” The lavender changeling muttered, recoiling slightly.

“It is the punishment our ancestors foretold! You know nothing of our tales and prophecies, do you youngling?! If you must stand on this hill, you shall die on it too.” She charged her horn with arcane magic again, a sickly red glow framing her stilted eyes.

“As long as I live, there will be peace between changeling and pony kind. And as long as I live, I shall not let you harm those I care for.” Twilight planted her hooves onto the blackened ground, a look of determination marring her face.

“So be it.”

Comments

[Teraunce]

“ Oh Twilight. The stallion you knew as Blueblood-” Rhene snaked around the lavender mare, slitted red eyes staring at her. “ -never existed .”

...

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

Rhene, you are an idiot. you had a chance to rebuild and you WASTED IT