Daybreak

by Leafdoggy

Chapter 19

Twilight cleared her throat. “Um, maybe we should, uh… Go inside to talk?”

Daybreak tilted her head. “Why are you acting so weird? Just tell me!”

“Daybreak, I don’t think it’s a story we should tell out in the open,” Chrysalis told her. “Especially not here. We’ll tell you once we’re settled in.”

“But why? C’mon, I wanna know what you’re talking about!”

“And you will know,” Chrysalis said, “as soon as we’re someplace private.”

“Why can’t you tell me here?”

“Because it’s a sore subject for older changelings,” Chrysalis said curtly, a hint of impatience creeping into her voice. “Let’s go. The longer you keep us here squabbling, the longer it will be before you get your story.”

“I—” Daybreak thought for a moment, then huffed. “Fine.”

Chrysalis nodded and set off into the hive with Twilight at her side. Daybreak trailed behind a bit, and Gooey was staying close to her legs.

The hive was bursting with energy as they made their way along. Changelings were skittering all over, hanging up decorations and preparing for the big day. They were hanging wreaths and banners and streamers, making a web of colors that stretched through every hallway.

The structure of the hive, having been formed mostly at the whims of nature, was unlike that of any pony city. Hallways of all shapes and sizes, some hardly big enough for the group to walk together, some wider than most streets back in Canterlot, curved in and out, up and down through the massive structure. These hallways held some structures, little stalls for changelings to share their arts and crafts, but for the most part, they were simply hallways.

Most of the actual hustle and bustle of the hive took place in the intersections, where two or more hallways would meet and hollow out a massive plaza. The space there was used as it was needed, and the edges of these rooms were generally lined with all sorts of things, from food stalls to reading circles to fashion boutiques. The rest was used by socializing changelings, musicians putting on shows, and anyone else who just happened to choose that spot to stop.

The changelings, being highly social creatures, spent the majority of their lives in those plazas. They saw little need for personal space, and not much desire for total privacy. They didn’t even have houses, instead all sleeping together in a massive communal chamber hidden away deep below the hive. The entire hive was their home, free to decorate and change as the pleased, and it showed in the mish-mash of decorations that, through years and years of updates and alterations, had eventually come to fit together rather than clash.

As they walked through the maze of halls, Daybreak fell further and further behind. All the changelings were focused on Chrysalis, watching her and whispering to each other, and Daybreak wanted to avoid that attention.

It didn’t work. At some point, Daybreak fell back too far, far enough that the changelings focused on Chrysalis would turn their attention away just in time to see Daybreak walk by. She folded in on herself as more and more eyes landed on her, more and more changelings talked about her in hushed tones, and she quickly started to feel very out of place.

Up ahead, Twilight spoke to Chrysalis under her breath. “What are we going to tell her?”

“The truth,” Chrysalis whispered back.

“All of it?”

“We can’t very well keep hiding it. She’ll keep asking questions until she finds out, you know that.”

“Yeah, but…” Twilight bit her lip. “It just feels like a bad idea.”

“I’m not sure I understand your nervousness,” Chrysalis said. “I don’t imagine she’ll come to despise me because of my past.”

“No, but…” Twilight made a conflicted noise as she though. “I don’t know. I just have a bad feeling. She’s so young, the most she knows about evil is from the pictures in the castle. What if we scare her? What if she decides she can’t trust us anymore? What if we scar her for life and everyone says we’re horrible parents and—”

“Twilight.” Chrysalis put a hoof over Twilight’s mouth to shush her. “I’m not sure Daybreak is the type of child to be frightened by a story like that. Even if she is, though, we’ll be able to handle it. You, at least, I know to be a wonderful mother. You’ll make sure she knows she’s safe.”

“Yeah…” Twilight took a deep breath. “Yeah, okay. You’re right. We’ll be okay. She’ll be okay, she’ll—”

She was cut off when Daybreak, hunched over, scurried up and weaved her way in between the two of them. Staring at the floor, she mumbled under her breath. “Hey, um…”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “What’s up, sweetie?”

“Can we go home?” Daybreak still didn’t look up at them as she talked.

“No,” Chrysalis told her. “We’re here for something important, and we’d like for you to be there.”

“Well, can you at least, like, take us where we’re going? Do we have to walk the whole way?”

Twilight frowned. She put a hoof out to stop Chrysalis, then stepped in front of Daybreak and crouched down to be at her level. “Daybreak, is something wrong?”

“I…” Daybreak looked up at Twilight for a moment, then blushed and looked away. “I just don’t like it here.”

Twilight reached out and stroked Daybreak’s mane. “Why not?”

“I just don’t.”

“You’ve been here plenty of times before, though,” Twilight said. “What’s different now?”

Daybreak shrugged.

Twilight sighed and put a hoof on Daybreak’s cheek. “So, you want me to just take us to see your uncle?”

Daybreak nodded.

“Alright,” Twilight said, standing back up. She looked at Chrysalis, who nodded back, and then lit up her horn and zapped the family away.

An instant later, they were standing in one of the few closed rooms in the entire hive, a small meeting room located just to the side of the throne room. It held the same large table Thorax and his friends had been sitting around when Daybreak found them, although now all it held was a pitcher of ice water and a few glasses on a tray. Gooey jumped up onto the table and started investigating the pitcher as the others settled in.

Chrysalis looked over to Twilight first. “Could you go get Thorax? I’d like a moment to speak to Daybreak.”

“Of course,” Twilight said. She leaned down and gave Daybreak a quick kiss on the forehead, then slipped quietly out of the room.

Once she was gone, Chrysalis took a seat in one of the comfy chairs that ringed the table and gestured for Daybreak to do the same. “Could we speak?”

“I…” Daybreak hesitated for a moment, then nodded and sat down next to her mother.

Chrysalis leaned forward on the table and looked into Daybreak’s eyes. “You don’t like the hive?”

Daybreak shook her head, then looked down at the table and frowned.

Chrysalis reached over, put a hoof under Daybreak’s chin and raised her head back up. “You’re not in trouble,” Chrysalis said. “I’d just like to figure out why.”

Daybreak shrugged. “I dunno why.”

“Have you felt this way in the past?”

“Not really.”

“Hmm… Did something happen while we were walking?”

“I dunno, we were just walking. Wouldn’t you have seen if something happened?”

“We were in front of you. All I saw was…” Chrysalis thought for a moment. “Daybreak, were the changelings looking at you like they look at me?”

Daybreak shrugged. “I guess.”

Chrysalis frowned and nodded. “Alright, I…” She took a deep breath. “I think it’s about time I tell you that story. Tell you who I used to be.”

Daybreak tilted her head. “What’s that got to do with it?”

Gooey chose then to wander over to Daybreak and curl up in front of her on the table to sleep. Chrysalis took the opportunity to pause and collect her thoughts before moving on.

“I… I was not a good queen to the changelings, Daybreak. I’ve lived a long life, and for very little of it have I been as you know me.”

Daybreak started to look concerned, and she grew dreadfully quiet.

“You’ve no doubt noticed that I look different from the other changelings,” Chrysalis went on. “Well, it used to be that all the changelings looked like me. They were homogenous. Unified. A true hive. And they…”

The door to the meeting room opened, but Daybreak and Chrysalis kept eye contact as Twilight and Thorax came in and quietly took seats around the table.

“They were starving,” Chrysalis said. “Changelings don’t feed like you do, Daybreak. They survive off of love, not anger, and while that may sound nicer, well… It is not so easily procured. So, I scoured the lands, took love wherever I could find it. But still, we starved.”

Twilight decided to speak up for the next part. “When it got really bad was around when I first met Chrysalis. It was… Not friendly.”

Daybreak looked over to Twilight. “You didn’t try to help her?”

Twilight pursed her lips. “It…”

“Perhaps I should be more blunt,” Chrysalis said. “Daybreak, I was not a good creature. I was… Well, to put it simply, I was evil. Changelings look at me distrustfully because I subjugated them. I used them. I am the one who kept them from being who they are today for generations.”

“Well, I’m not sure if I would go that far,” Thorax said.

“I would,” Chrysalis replied. “You forget the past too easily.”

“Wait, wait,” Daybreak said, “I don’t get it. Evil? What, like you were some kind of supervillain?”

“More or less,” Chrysalis said.

“Supervillains aren’t real, though,” Daybreak said. “You’re not even all that scary!”

“I assure you, they very much were real,” Chrysalis told her. “We live in an age of peace now, but that was not always the case.”

“But… You?”

“Me,” Chrysalis said. “And I fear that now that legacy is hurting you, if changelings are indeed regarding you with the distrust they show me.”

“Wait, what?” Thorax looked at her wide-eyed. “They are? That’s not right, Daybreak’s wonderful! I’ll have to have a talk with the hive…”

Daybreak wasn’t paying attention. She was still piecing together what this new information meant. “So… How long were you evil?”

“Many, many years,” Chrysalis said. “Thousands, most likely.”

“And how long have you been good?” Daybreak asked.

Chrysalis thought for a moment. “That’s hard to pinpoint… Maybe fifteen years or so?”

“That sounds right,” Twilight said.

“You…” Daybreak stared at her for a moment, then looked questioningly at Twilight, then looked back at Chrysalis. “You’ve barely been good at all!”

“Honey, she turned her life around before you were even born,” Twilight said. “I promise you, she’s not a bad guy anymore. You don’t have to worry about—”

“I’m not worried,” Daybreak said. “I just… Why does she get to tell me what to do?”

Twilight blinked. “What?”

“What does she know that I wouldn’t? I’ve never been evil! I probably know right and wrong better than she does!”

“I’ve still been alive a long time,” Chrysalis said. “I have a lot of experience. And I’m your mother.”

“So?” Daybreak suddenly got up out of her seat and took a few steps away from the table. “I wouldn’t listen to you if you were still evil, and then I’d be doing the right thing! Why should I listen to you now?”

“We’re your parents,” Twilight said. “Plus, I trust her. Isn’t that enough?”

“No! If anything, that just means you know even less than she does!”

“Wh—” Twilight furrowed her brow. “Daybreak, that’s silly. You know Chrysalis. She’s your mom! You love her!”

“So? Just cuz I love her doesn’t make her know better than me.”

“Daybreak,” Chrysalis said, putting a tone of authority in her voice, “please come back to the table so that we can talk about this.”

“I… No!” Daybreak stomped a hoof on the ground. “You’re not the boss of me anymore!”

“Oh, I very much am,” Chrysalis said, “and if you keep this up—”

“What, you’ll ground me?” Daybreak blew a raspberry at her. “Go ahead and try.” Then, in a sudden flash of magic, she disappeared, leaving the adults looking at each other, dumbfounded.

A second later, she reappeared next to the table. “I forgot Gooey,” she grumbled before disappearing again, this time taking her pet with her.

Comments

[RandomGuy101]

Well.

[Lore Horse]

A second later, she reappeared next to the table. “I forgot Gooey,” she grumbled before disappearing again, this time taking her pet with her.

This was amusing.

[leaderofstars]

pfft.

[Moondrake]

Daybreak... The naivety of the young and foolish. I can't wait to see reality slap her in the face. HARD.

[Aurora Dimmet]

10151187

Yes. Have you never heard someone say, "You down for a good time?"

[PrincessTwilightSparkle1]

That went well. 🙄

[Razzy]

What a brat.

Let's be honest, the changelings were acting evil even when she wasn't there to personally order them around, there's no way to pin it all exclusively on Chryssie.

[Black_Midnight30]

Welp this isn’t surprising