Chapter 2: Restless Night
You awake somewhere. I would've said somewhere "unfamiliar", but just about everywhere and anywhere is new to you. Your eyes adjust easily to the dim, warm glow of candle light. You've yet to know what it is, but the softness surrounding you is the product of a heavenly bed created for you by the tireless efforts of the Queen, as money wasn't solely enough to piece it together considering the special materials that went into its making.
The mattress stuffing had been created with special Pegasi clouds whose structural consistency was sturdy enough to infuse them with magic, thus making them more solid and akin to cotton candy.
Magic silk had to be imported from Canterlot and was sewn into the sheets and pillow casings by Chrysalis' own skills. She wasn't the most skilled at the delicate handiwork required for that, but the Queen was sentimental and liked to add meaning into every gesture, so she felt making them herself to be the best choice. It was her own personal show of her efforts to be a good predecessor to you.
Waterfowl down only found in certain parts of the world was collected for the pillow stuffing, gathered by the Queen herself when she last left the Kingdom to visit a good friend in the neighboring country.
In fact, the only part she didn't have a hoof to play into the creation of was the rather ornate bed frame and the special bedding of hay that was meant to support the mattress further. Those had been gifts by that friend of hers.
The finished product was a bed truly fit for a royal. And strangely familiar. Maybe not to you, but to the strings of time and fate.
Fate is quite the comedian, you'll find out soon enough, as it likes to play a strange game of our lives. Sometimes with cruel jokes and sometimes benign. It likes to use connecting patterns and is generally always working on a whim. Fate is a never ending story-teller with a strange sense of humor.
For now, and for you first moments of life, Fate was going lax on you. To your side, the Queen rested with her head drooped at your side with the rest of her body flowing down to the floor. It had only been a day since she met you, but she had been awake an ungodly amount of hours in her tireless excitement for this very day. That and royal duties, but those were the least of her concerns.
She worried endlessly as to what she would do for you, how she would care for you despite her duties, and wondered why her court didn't allow maternal leave. Maybe that's something she could change within her own time of rule, so that when it was your turn to care for a successor, you wouldn't have to worry about such things.
For now, it was a little late for her to ask for a prolonged vacation. Following the Changeling hatching cycle, this was the busiest time of the year with hundreds of foreign diplomats and dignitaries coming for the celebration of it. And because of you, there were now more than double those of previous years.
She also needed to publicly apologize to the predecessors whose deeply symbolic rituals had been upended by her interrupting display of affection. All of it calculated beforehand like all of the Queen's plans and to her, worthy risks to take in your name, she strongly believed.
It made for a mountain of paperwork she needed to solve before the day was up to allocate appropriate recompense to them and to some ornarey Great Nest guardians who did not appreciate the Queen's inclusion in the ceremony. For more than just the interruption, as they had, had their workload doubled due to the massive crowd you'd attracted. Normally it wouldn't have been an issue if she had just delayed your hatching until the next cycle thus giving them ample time to prepare, but the Queen had insisted she see you as soon as possible and gave them a last-minute warning that she'd be hatching you on this one.
The Nest Guardians had as much a venerable position as the Queen herself in respects to her status and power due to their mightily important job and were often seen as bishops or something similar to spiritual leaders. Naturally and seen throughout all of historical record in any Kingdom's lineage, church and state were always butting heads. Being equal in the social hierarchy meant that it was her duty to appease them to some respect. Sure enough, they would not take this stunt of hers lightly and required "overlook this" recompense. Not a bribe, per say. But a series of promises, IOUs, and other such things she could do to pay them back for taking initiative on her own to grandstand your arrival.
It had been a long, long day for her. That's for sure. She was rightly tired and soundly slept what she could while still watching over you with towering stacks of paper at her sides on the floor. You were none the wiser about it all, as you were just but a wee babe. Not to mention you basically snoozed throughout all the drama that followed.
What was that drama? Funny enough, the drama consisted of partly political things, and partly superficial nonsense. Here, take this for example: Your crooked horn? It's not often a changeling is born with physical defects. It can happen, sure, but it is incredibly rare due to the carefully maintained magic within the Great Nest. That's why the Guardians exist. Not only to protect it, but to maintain it. And not just to keep it clean and tidy, but to constantly even out the coursing power that surged through those halls. They were balancing the very same natural energies of the earth itself that manifested into the changeling eggs within the Great Nest.
Look, you're still young. The sciences, magic-study, and techno-babble aside, something happened to you while being incubated. And that something caused imperfections in your natural form. Your crooked horn and your thinly delicate wings, moreso than average, were proof of that. But all the adults could do was speculate as to what that something was.
Many of them had criticized the Queen for her haste, with many still blaming her for having sped up your hatching by an entire cycle. Some in the royal court believed the Guardians were at fault in some way, even going so far as to propose an inside sabotage by some of them. Some believed this was an ill-omen, for the changeling royal family was a long-held successive line by only the most powerful of their individuals when it came to using magic. The twisted horn made them, without any proof, think that you were not capable of magic at all and thus had ruined the royal line entirely.
Despite their positions, these changeling nobles could be real fools... Some even tried to make a case about how your crooked horn, if not a sign of magic deficiency, was just unsightly for royalty. The beautiful, graceful, magnanimous Queen Chrysalis had left big horseshoes to fill in terms of the Kingdom's ruler and what kind of public image her successor had to have to match up, and thus had opened the floodgates to vanity. All while they fought over trifling things like that, if you had been awake for it at that time, maybe you could've heard something similar to a teapot kettle boiling over and whistling as the Queen sat silently to hear their protests before she would speak. To say she was angry was an understatement...
When she finally had enough of their prattle and endless things they could come up with to besmirch your name, the Queen stomped her hoof once with a loud BANG on the floor which quickly whipped silence into the room. When push came to shove, the Queen commanded respect as much as earned it in her grace.
She would then proceed to defended you at every step and retorted to every painful thing they had said. She loved your imperfections and endeared you to her more because of them. She said they were part of your once-in-a-generation uniqueness and made you more beautiful because of them. She made them painfully aware that all of this was just baseless conjecture, and that they could not know if you harbored magic or not until much later when you were of the age to start training it. She would not put sanctions on any of the nobles who had badmouthed you, since she was a just and kind ruler, but it did not stop her from chastising those grown men and women of the royal court. For adults to speak ill of a newborn... Well, it brought shame not only to themselves but to everyone involved. The Court, the Crown, and you, the most innocent of the three.
Sadly, if simple words could fix the thoughts and the hearts of others with one conversation, then maybe this is where your troubles would've ended had they been reasonable, non-prideful changelings of high society.
You see how those two things contradict each other, right? To not have pride as a noble is to not be a noble at all. And so, these man-children who held sway in every facet of society would no doubt take their frustrations and create even more drama in the future for you, if only to get back at the Queen. They could not speak against the Queen due to her reputation and her impervious air of command as a regent, but you were free game in their eyes.
As wonderful a ruler as Queen Chrysalis was, it did not mean she was surrounded by equally magnanimous personalities of power. Without you knowing it and while you slumbered on, suddenly, you would find nary a friendly face in the palace. It was a hotbed and a battleground for dirty politics after all.
But for now, you were left to inspect the quiet, somber night you had awoken to with none of that weighing on your clueless self. The dark of night and the soft glow of blue, silvery streams of light breaking through the glass doors of the veranda in the distance were making your eyes heavy again since they had a way of making such a comforting scene, but you were curious as to what could be casting that kind of light. The way it reflected off the marble flooring created a mesmerizing effect of shimmering glints, which further drove you into a curiosity.
You got out of bed without so much as a whisper, being called to the light of that unknown. Just walking was an effort in of itself, since your imperfections seemed to be more than simple outward appearances and had affected your constitution too. However, your curious nature was in full swing, so nothing would've stopped you from getting to those glass doors. You were not strong enough to push them open, but regardless, you got a good view of what had created the mystifying rays of silvery blue light.
It was a ball. A shape. A big round thing. It was beyond wonderful, and it cast such a strong spell on you that it had you staring at it for lord knows how long. So long that the Queen had awoken from however much rest she allowed herself and had quite the fright when she didn't find you on the bed. Imagine her relief when all she had to do was turn around to see you sitting by the veranda's glass doors, fixated up towards the moon.
Who could fault you? The moon is really pretty, and changelings are naturally attracted to lights of all kinds. Maybe your kind shared a brainwave or two with moths? Plus, there was a lot to keep you entertained in its image. Like that silhouette of a pony-like creature.
But maybe there was more to it. Maybe there was something extra in there that caught your attention. Something about the moon made you sad. Like if you could almost... feel emotions radiating from its gentle glow. Remorse, anger, grief... and all sorts of feelings you had no names for yet. They were the kind that made you hurt inside. Barely a day old now and you were already forming the beginnings of empathy. Unbeknownst to you, someone else's hurt had become your own. Those feelings were very faint as they were likely very far away. It was not nearly enough to make you cry. Nonetheless, they'd caught your attention with a strong bind, and you could do nothing but stare endlessly at that round ball in the almost black sky.
"The moon. It's real pretty isn't it, Chrys?" The Queen had said, knowing full well you didn't understand words yet, but saying them anyway to help you learn and associate. "It's a reminder of the sad things my friend has had to bear, so to me, looking at it fills me with melancholy. Bad things happen, for no good reasons. None we could accept anyways. But yet we continue on. For our own sake, and especially for the sake of those we care about. And since we are royalty, we must persist. More so than commonfolk. For everyone's sake."
She sat behind you and began stroking your hair gently, caressing you with tender care. Partly to comfort herself, but mostly to comfort you as she could feel the downtrodden nature of the feelings resting inside of you now. She could've made you happier right there and then by consuming those emotions of yours, but she didn't. Queen Chrysalis very much believed that changelings were meant to live with their own emotions in stride. That only by doing so could you grow up to be virtuous and good of heart.
There was a lot of truth to that idea too. Emotionally driven creatures as changelings are, both physically and magically, learning to live alongside your feelings without repressing them is crucial. It too was rare, but it had happened before that if taken too far, that repression could lead to any number of consequences within the changeling's very mind. A range of things too, from small quirks like developing timid anxiety-stricken personalities, to some of the more severe things like psychosis. There had even been a few recorded cases of changelings developing entirely separate personalities in a sort of... magically manifested Multiple Personality Disorder. And even some who had entire sections of their motor and speech functions damaged due to extreme trauma. One such case had left one poor changeling being unable to speak the words in her mind the way she wanted to and took quite a lot of work to repair that damage over a long-extended period of time. But that case had not happened yet and would not for several more years to come.
So the Queen was doing her best to allow you to grow up the best way she could think to help you along, which was by allowing you to feel those troubling feelings. It did not mean she would allow you to simply stay sad all night long, as she hurt just as much by watching that sadden expression of yours. After a while, she proceeded to prop up the gem she had gifted you which dangled from the necklace around your neck, and up towards the moon.
Of course, contained within that gem is the wonderful feeling of love. A huge amount of it. And so, the sight of it had eased your heart. The white, milky sheen of that crystal mixed with moonlight made for quite a scene of its own too, and without really trying to, somehow the necklace had been ingrained in your mind and into your memories forever with pictures of the sun and the moon.
But the Queen had more up her sleeve to cheer you up, even if she had already been successful in doing so. She brought you up to her back again so you could rest atop of it. Unlike last time, she secured your body to her back with the help of a comfortable baby strap built into her prepared-before-hand saddle that had been designed specifically for you in mind way in advance. She opened the veranda to let the cool night air waft towards the two of you and walked you to the edge of it so you could see the large city of the capital below you. Its many midnight lights shown like a rainbow sea, and again, you were hooked by the array of that colorful display.
Suddenly, the Queen's wingspan extended their full length, and she beat them down towards the ground slowly and carefully. A lot of amazing things were happening one after the other, but the Queen was taking a good amount of time to gently kick off the ground and into the air so as not to shake you more than she needed to. A testatement to her abilities as Queen, as she made the take off and the ride a cozy sail through the air by using magic here and there to keep winds and the shaking to almost non-existent levels.
But boy. What a feeling flight was. If you hadn't cheered up before with the necklace and then the awesome sight of the capital at night, then soaring through the sky undoubtedly put you there. I mean, you were making all sorts of noises. Real happy ones. Some cute little cries of joy and a couple of tiny squeaks of delight. It was obvious the Queen was enjoying every moment of it.
The Queen kept her flight low, and suddenly, all the sights and the feelings vanished as you entered a thicket of trees and a forest. The Queen landed and proceeded to walk a short distance towards the destination she had taken you all the way out of the castle to. The walk was not entirely unpleasant despite the contrast, as the moonlight still managed to break through the trees making an interesting showcase of the forest floor. It kept your mind busy and riding that emotional high until the two of you reached a large pond. Its waters were still and reflected the night sky above.
If this is what she had taken you all the way out here to show you, you might've felt a little cheated had you been anyone else. But your eye for beauty is ever searching, and it didn't have to search hard at all to show you the true spectacle of what she meant for you to see.
It was a night sky unpolluted by the city lights, reflected off the pond like liquid night. Now the moon was in an even more beautiful splendor. Everywhere the eye could see, tens, hundreds, thousands, or maybe even millions of stars dotted the heavens. Along with them, huge strands of color painted over the cosmos. Nebulae of purples, bluish whites, and oranges gave even more life to the deep blue ocean of sky that was previously all black before.
There was nothing in the whole wide world quite like it. The Queen let you down next to the pond so the two of you could stare up into the sky for hours. The memory of you holding your hoof out to the stars as if to try and grab them were something she desperately wanted to immortalize in some sort of painting or drawing, and secretly took note of it in her head for future reference.
She laughed heartily when you brought your hooves to the pond to grab it down there instead, since reaching up hadn't helped you. She comforted you by nuzzling you for a long time when you felt sad that the liquid was running away from your grasp when you took your hoof out of the water again. And she stayed there all night long even after you had fallen asleep, to watch over you as you slept soundly in the peaceful quiet of that night.
The Queen was a mix of emotions. She had forgotten all about the stresses of life during that precious moment with you. But now that she had been given time to contemplate, all she could do was look towards you and worry. She desperately wanted to believe that all the nasty things those nobles had said had been false. But the sad thing was, even if they were, there would always exist those who think it true. She could not change that public perception by force lest she be a tyrant. The opinion of the royal court was usually a microcosm of the rest of the common-folk, and the mix of those opinions they'd showed told her how divided all of changeling society would be towards you.
Try all she might, she understood trouble was brewing on the horizon for you. And because of her duties as Queen, she could not be there for you in the capacity she truly wanted. She could only hold onto dear hope that you would overcome it somehow. If nothing else, she promised herself there and then that she would work even harder for your sake. A dangerous gambit for someone already working themselves to the bone, but for her peace of mind, she would not allow herself rest.
Finally, her thoughts fell on your horn. It was a definitive piece of you, and a lovely one. Everyone else's opinion be damned. But to say she was unconcerned with it was false. She worried as to why it had happened to you, of all changelings. Had it truly been her fault? She could've sworn she took every precaution... every careful calculation... but then, what if it really was her mistake? She couldn't help think what she thought, or feel what she felt. She could only wallow in unwarranted remorse.
It's honestly quite sad. I wish someone had been there to say something to her. To tell her the truth.
If only someone had even known the truth to begin with, maybe she could've carried on with more heart.
The truth that the earth beneath their hooves was trembling with power, both then and in this moment in your story. The very same power that gave you your form, and gave Fate the ability to ever so slightly, slyly, tip the scale to one side.
On the side of tragedy.
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That was a good chapter.
I still can’t decide to start this story because I know where it will lead in the end.
11470706
As the author it pains me to have to write about it too.
I understand what you mean.
11473401
My bad, I know it can be a bit confusing. It isn't a rewrite. It's a true prequel and it tells of the events that happened before the other two stories. This would be the very first story in the trilogy, chronologically speaking.
11473463
I find it daunting to even think of reading two more stories with like 20+ chapters. The art is actually really nice tho. Is it yours?
Are you commissioning artists for every chapter or...
11473516
Paying commissions to only the one artist named Skyepony on DeviantArt for this story, and yes! That's the plan. To have one of her wonderful illustrations for each, like how I did with A Kindled Beginning who also had only one artist named MutterButter create lots of wonderful pictures for it. The chapters for this story are a lot smaller so only one per chapter will do. I usually get them after a chapter has already published, so they won't be debuting on day 1 of a new chapter being out. I post em in my blog when they come out, so you can follow that if you'd like to not miss out on them.
And it's okay about not feeling like reading two seperate stories, I get where you're coming from. This story is meant to stand all on its own so no worries about having to read the other two. If nothing else, going blind might be an interesting experience. Hope you enjoy what I wrote so far and what it is I'll write in the future.