A Kindled End

by Darkevony

Chapter 4: Premonitions

"Juley, no. Snacks are for after lunch. You know this." But alas, little Jule had already torn through the cookies and was now just finishing her last, sending the tin they came in rolling on the ground which made a racket as the aluminum cylinder met the ground.

"Parthi, don't you dare mister! Get away from the clock this instant." The young little sprite took his hooves out of the wooden casing of the grandfather clock in the corner of the room, making an irritated face before ignoring the warning altogether and going for it. Somehow, the month-old had triggered its afternoon chime which further added to the cacophony of the overwhelming noise present.

"No no, it's okay, Mali. Your hoof art is just as wonderful as everyone else's. You don't need to feel bad about it." There was no helping Mali, who was forever on the verge of tears. The waterworks halted for no changeling. With the added source of noise, now the room was a very upsetting one. The kind that could make anyone cry. And boy did it. Every child who hadn't been crying had now gone into their own fits.

A chaotic mess, it was. It's to be expected. Running a changeling nursery is hard work. Especially with a brand new batch of kids who were very new to the world, let alone the Nursery itself. They were bundles of untapped energy and emotions ready to play, laugh, run around, and of course, cry like there would be no tomorrow.

The poor Nursery's Mother... having to deal with that every day. You felt an incredible amount of empathy for her while watching the chaos ensue in front of you, all while wanting to cry tears of your own.

"Alright, little ones. I'm back. Seems like there was a party while I was gone!" The soothing, nurturing tone of hers filled the room that instant, causing an almost immediate dissipation of the wailing children. It seems your worries were unwarranted since Mother was a seasoned veteran in the art of child rearing.

The changeling children all gathered around the aged white unicorn pony with bright amber eyes and were being pacified with just her mere presence alone.

"Parthi, don't you want to sit with the others to listen to a story?" She asked the unruly month-old who had stopped crying and was back to sticking his hoof into the grand clock. He took a second to think about it before turning around to sit with everyone else.

Noticing she was one changeling short, the Nursery's Mother turned to you finally. "And what about you, Chrys?"

You wiped the built-up moisture on your eyes and sat down along with every other changeling, making sure to sit at the very back since you were much older and bigger than the rest of the kids there and would ultimately make it hard for them to enjoy the story otherwise if you blocked their view.

"Today, I'm going to tell you about the Frozen North. A vast expanse of snow and ice. A rocky cold desert with only its mountain ranges to distract from the snowy plains." At her words a refreshing gust of wind swept through the room, giving the children a chill down their spine that left them giggling since they had never experienced that type of cold before. The traces of magic that had brought that wind were left behind in small little motes all around the room barely visible to the eye, in the shade of a yellow unique to the Nursery Mother's magic.

The motes then began to pool towards the aged unicorn's horn which stuck out of her long, bright yellow mane atop her head. Her amber eyes began to glow in a golden hue, and strings of her hair pulsated with the power of her magic as it coursed through her body. It was quite the sight to see a skilled magic user at work, but even more impressive when a spell shot out of her horn to create a plain circle in the air, with its center screening a mirage of her choosing. Visions from her past.

"And while there isn't much to see in the Frozen North, there is one thing you can only see by going to it." She continued. "A natural phenomenon of unparalleled wonder!"

At her words, the center of that magically drawn circle in the air that was all black gave way to the image of a small unicorn filly next to a creature unlike anything any of the children had seen before. A tall equine-like figure with two long, thin horns that seemed to branch out like a tree in different directions. From those strange horns, straps of paper floated in the air. With their backs turned to the image's perspective and night casting a shadowy silhouette of them, there was not much of either of those two figures to see.

But that was clearly not why the Nursery's Mother had shown that image. What stole the show for every young child present, including you who had already seen that picture a number of times before but never stopped mesmerizing you, was the night sky above the two.

What streaked across it painted the whole of the image in a vibrant and stunning hue of blues and greens. One of nature's very own masterpieces. The Frozen North Lights. The kids were all glued to the image of those swirls and columns of light in the sky.

"These are known as the Northern Lights. An Aurora Borealis. But this is only a small glance at that all-inspiring sight of a real one. Imagine those lights reaching all across the sky as far as the eye can see. It's hard, but you'll just have to trust that it's one the most amazing things in this wide world! And they're all-natural, no magic included." She explained. "Chrys, you've heard this story before. Do you remember how they come to be?"

"The sun! I think. Um, the wind?" You'd heard the reasons plenty of times, but being called on so suddenly had left you scrambling for a proper answer. Before you could, the Nursery's Mother smiled warmly in your direction, nodded, and proceeded with explaining it again.

"That's correct! Solar Winds are the cause of northern lights. They mix with the air and cause all sorts of trouble in the sky, which in turn make these lovely displays for us down here on the ground. Fascinating, isn't it? There's more to it than that, but you kids are still young. Perhaps when you're all grown up, you can look into the sciences of their creation even more!" With that, the circled visions disappeared along with her magic when she stood back up from the reading area in the lobby where every young changeling was gathered. "Okay, so who wants to have some ice cream sherbert only found in the Frozern North towns?" She said to the excitement of all the children present who all scrambled to say "me, me!".

Well, all but one changeling child. The Nursery Mother sent the rest on their way, to receive their snacks in the cafeteria from the Nursery's staff who had just arrived themselves. You could sense that she wanted to speak with you, even if you hadn't made a show of your own questions you wanted to ask her. She walked over to you after they'd all gone out of view and stood by your side, waiting for you to be ready to speak.

You rubbed at your foreleg with one of your hooves, not sure of what to say. The Nursery's Mother was a wonderful lady who was kind and graceful and well-respected. She was beloved by all of the children and the other staff held her in high esteem, despite not being a changeling. That's why she was called "Mother" by both the kids and the staff, and even the changelings outside the Nursery.

But to you, there was always something that bothered you in the way she looked at you. Nothing unnerving or disturbing, despite the many rumors that she was a witch with eyes on the back of her head who could foresee all manner of things. Like being able to tell when someone was about to cause trouble, like small Parthi. Or was about to cry and needed specific comforts, like little Mali.

No, what troubled you about the way she looked at you was your own reflection in her eyes. If it really was true that she could see deeper into someone else more than anyone could, what then did she see in you that caused that emotion to shine through them? A mix of sad things. A melancholy so profound, you could not help but feel paralyzed with fear that something must be wrong with you.

Or maybe that something will be wrong with you.

"Yes, um... Miss Tera. I'm sorry for not being able to handle the kids while you were gone." You said in finally speaking up.

Her expression dropped ever so slightly at the way you addressed her. There were not many kids or even adults who did not call her Mother. But deep down she understood the reason why and was happy for you.

"It's okay, Chrys. I think you did pretty well all things considered. You kept Jule out of the pantry for the most part. Handling even one tot is hard work, but a handful of them? Give yourself more credit." She said as she ran a gentle hoof through your hair. "Besides, I should be the one apologizing. It's not often we find ourselves so short on staff that we need to rely on our own kids to help us out as you have. You've been helping us out with everything. Cleaning, cooking, bedtime... come to think of it, yeah! Everything. Thank you, Chrys. You're an absolute dear."

"Happy to help, Miss Tera." She smiled contentedly at your response and signaled you to follow her to the cafeteria to get your own portion of ice cream before the tots ransacked the rest. "I just want to earn my keep." The casual comment you made had frozen Tera in place, which made you bump into her hindleg while following her. She stood in place unflinching long enough for you to skirt around her to see what had happened in curiosity. But that was a mistake. There was real sadness in her eyes. "Miss Tera? Did I do something wrong?" You asked in your worry, not understanding how the mood had gone south so suddenly.

She pulled you into a hug in that empty hallway and patted your back on occasion to comfort you. For a while, the two of you made for a strange sight since it looked like she was comforting someone who didn't need comforting. However, slowly but surely, you degenerated into a quiet mess and dug your face into her coat. You found yourself shivering and trying desperately to hold your tears back within that hug.

"Everything is fine, Chrys. You'll be okay. I know you. You're strong. Stronger than me. And everyone cares about you." She whispered over and over into your ear quietly. "This is your home. Don't feel like you need to earn it. You're our family. My family. I've known you since you were so little after all, and you've been here the longest. It doesn't mean that you have to work for your place here. It means that you'll always have a place with us. And with me."

The rumors were very much true. Or at the very least, she was extremely perceptive.

You'd been at the nursery longer than any other changeling child. Even some of the staff too, as you'd seen many of them come and go. It had been nine years since you first entered its halls. The generational birthing cycle had happened three whole times and was fast approaching its fourth. Most if not all of the kids that had stayed only ever lasted one, two, or at most three years before being picked up by their predecessors to spend their life in a traditional home.

But every time, you just waved those boys and girls off, left to wander those empty halls until you would see the new generational cycle for a few years before again becoming gradually emptier and lonelier. With each passing cycle, you would lose friend after friend, until eventually, you were too old to really relate to any of the new kids, thus becoming the resident big sister who helps out the Nursery's staff when push came to shove.

And while Tera and the Queen were a constant presence throughout the years, you were left to the quiet and lonely moments in life more often than most others. You had more than enough time to think about your circumstances and to get the idea that you had to provide some worth to be worth housing into your head even as young as you were.

Quietly and without anyone noticing until the moment you uttered those words, you'd begun to shackle yourself with responsibility. You hadn't truly understood the weight you'd given yourself until the moment Tera had hugged you.

You shed no tears. Sadness was an emotion you had learned to bottle up, as it made no one happy to see you as such. Even so, it took a while before you were back to normal and before Tera was confident enough in letting you out of that hug.

"You've never even complained about how unfair your situation has been, Chrys. Most kids your age would've complained about unfairness if their cookies were slightly smaller than someone else's. It's only natural and healthy for a growing changeling. You shouldn't be afraid to speak your mind." You stayed silent at this since you didn't know how to respond.

You were still too young to understand that her words were very much true, and that you would've been happier had you expressed your discontent more openly. But her advice was conflicting with a lot of other advice you'd gotten from all sorts of adults. You would visit the palace occasionally with the Queen, and oftentimes it was to be part of your lessons in royal upbringing. Your teachers were strict, harsh critics who drilled the ideas of grace and royal behavior into you. A Princess and much less a Queen were to ever show weakness in front of the public. They were symbols and rulers of an entire nation. A thousand souls rested on your command.

To act like a normal child as a princess was to be the biggest disgrace in the land. And for the sake of Queen Chrysalis, you would not risk allowing that to happen if you could help it. So over the past few years since you understood this to be your truth as a princess, you did your absolute best to hide your emotions. To be perfect.

Yet life is not so kind, and even if your actions spoke of perfection, the nobles who were against you still existed and were still growing in number. If they could fault you on any little thing, they would.

The worst part of it was, that they still had one major calling card every time there was an argument in the royal court about you. The kind that could not be dismissed. The kind that had grown in intensity and importance with every year that passed by.

Your inability to use magic.

Even changeling toddlers could perform tricks if they understood how. But you'd yet to show even a hint of magic ability. You'd gotten visited by numerous doctors from all across Equestria, and from many different magically apt races. Strangely, what none of them could figure out was why you couldn't use magic. Every testing instrument and method they'd used to check if you were capable of it read normally. In fact, your aptitude for magic rivaled the Queen's since your vessel had been shaped by her during your hatching and could house and control a huge amount of it.

If you could only use your power, none could speak against you. But alas. You could not channel even an ounce of it.

Okay, sorry to interrupt it here.

This is one such gap in your story. Even I don't truly know why this happened to you. The best that I can do is reconstruct the past by looking into the strings of fate. Yet even they offer no answer as to how and why this was yours. The future has proven that you never had a fault to begin with, and the past is inconclusive.

What's your guess, little miss?

Hmm? Oh, I see. Yes, that makes sense. Changelings, huh?

So you say that this was the result of your feelings... The matter of you bottling them up, is that right? It's okay. You couldn't have known that this was the case. You had pressures from all sides urging you to be perfect. Exacerbated by the frustrations that you were magic-less, the push towards being faultless on the outside made you fault-full on the inside. Irony can be such a cruel trickster.

Besides, it's all in the distant past.

Shall we continue?

"I know of one thing that might cheer you up, Chrys." Tera said while patting you on the head. "A birdy flew by to tell me that Chryssy is coming to pick you up. Sounds like she found the time to spend this afternoon with you and wants you to go along with her."

"Mom is coming?" The change of mood was certainly immediate, and while your poker face was indeed very good, Tera figured you out quite easily. She chuckled at how happy you seemed to be, then proceeded to be quiet as she pondered upon something.

"It seems obvious now that I think about it, but it must be because of her visit. It's been a while, maybe I should pop in to say hi later." She smiled a knowing smile and nudged you towards the cafeteria gently. "For right now, you should hurry or you'll miss out on the ice cream. I'm thinking the staff are having a hard time fighting off Jule for your sake right about now."

Sure enough, a loud banging of pots and pans clattered in the background behind the cafeteria doors. Feeling more chipper already, you pushed on the doors but stopped midway through to get one final thing off your chest.

"Thank you, um..." Reading a room... When you were a changeling, that statement can be taken quite literally, no? Looking around Tera, you could feel the emotions that were had still lingering in the air. Always thinking of how to help someone else, the words you found to finish that sentence floored the unprepared, aged unicorn. "Grandma Tera" With that, you disappeared behind those doors to fend off that tiny glutton.

---

"Auntie!" You exclaimed at the sight of the regal white alicorn sitting at a table on Queen Chrysalis' balcony connected to her personal chambers. She immediately set down the tea that she'd been drinking in order to catch the hug you were tossing her way in a quick jog.

"So good to see you again, Princess Chrys. It's been a while, hasn't it? When was the last time I visited?"

"Since the last hatching cycle, I believe. Running up to a year and a half now. You know that time goes by quick for children, right Celest? You should visit more often. You're not getting forgetful in your old age, are you?" Queen Chrysalis was the one to answer that question. Between close friends, there was no reservation between the two.

"Heavens forbid. No, I just had a busy year. And... it's been pretty hard for a while. I can't stop thinking about things at times." She said softly as if not wanting to be heard. Princess Celestia nudged your nose with her own in order to make you laugh after seeing the beginnings of concern welling up on your face from having noticed the downtrodden nature of her comment. "Now that Chrys is nearly ten, the more she grows, the more she is reminding more and more of... Well, you know."

Queen Chrysalis quietly nodded her way. "I understand. Whatever the case, as you can see, we won't hold you to it. Chrys is just happy to see you again. And so am I."

"Mighty thanks to the two of you." She chuckled heartily.

"The least we could do. You did help us out even when you were not here, after all. Thank you again for sending your best medical unicorns to come take a look at Chrys and the technological equipment to make those tests happen."

"I hope everything turned out well with those investigations?"

"Ah, so you hadn't heard then? We weren't able to fix Chrys' inability to use magic."

"Oh my... I had heard from down the vine, but was hoping they would've been just rumors..."

Before the mood could sour, Queen Chrysalis bumped the table they sat on with hearty enthusiasm and beamed a smile.

"Don't look so down, Celest! It's not like it didn't help us at all. We found out Chrys' vessel is as big as mine. If not bigger! I DEFINITELY think it's bigger. What do you think?" Having returned to Queen Chrysalis' side since the conversation had started, at that moment, she pulled you closer to her body with a foreleg so that she could rest the side of her cheek against your head in order to give Princess Celestia a good look at the two of you. Her pride had flared and she was actually happy about it, which helped the mood lighten up quite quickly for all of you. "Besides! It shut that portly senator up for a while. You know the one, always nagging about my dear Chrys. He really gets my goat, you know? So yeah, it helped us out plenty!"

Queen Chrysalis did not show her unruly side to just anyone. If there is a universal truth for all of us alive, is that perfection does not exist. For all the grace the Queen showed to the public, she was equally prepared to show the opposite in private.

You spent a rather jovial afternoon together with the Queen and Princess Celestia. While most of the topics being tossed around were more technical things like the art of stateship, there were still some things that allowed you to be part of their conversations, like when the Princess would ask you about your royal training and classes. And also conversations like when they would begin their rounds of behind closed-doors bashing of the royal nobles from their respective courts. You didn't have anything mean to contribute, but you loved to talk about the pretty dresses that some of the women of the royal court wore. This would then devolve into you trying your best to convince Queen Chrysalis not to ordain a Seamstress to make that dress for you or for her to try and make it herself. You already had plenty of clothes and knickknacks gifted to you by her. All in all, the three of you spent a good time.

The only thing that bothered you was Princess Celestia's gaze occasionally falling on you. The look in her eye reminded you of Tera's, but was different in a way. For starters, it never seemed like she was looking at you, despite looking directly at you. Did that make sense? Maybe not. There was a longing in those eyes of hers, and the bags under her eyes had grown since the last time you saw her. Lastly, the emotions still floating in the air where she'd stood were not all happy ones... You could sense that the Queen knew this too, and was purposely being careful about broaching the topics she would bring up.

With the day reaching its end and with the Princess getting ready to leave, a familiar face had come to pick you up. Tera walked up to the two tall figures of the Queen and the Princess, and had them both bowing their heads in respect for her.

"Now now, I want to see none of that. You know that's not how we raised you two to act around us." She poked at their knees with her hooves, as it was the easiest place for her to reach considering their height differences.

Queen Chrysalis laughed and knelt to get a quick hug from her. "Yes, and I've told you many times, Mother, this is my duty as Queen. I need to keep up appearances, and you're respected enough for me to do this every time I see you. Besides, I think you deserve respect too."

"Pish posh. I took care of you when you were in nappies. You bow to me when I tell you to bow. Not before, not after." Tera had not at all forgotten the attitude she needed to adopt for taking care of a young Chrysalis. Turns out, she was rather rambunctious in her youth and needed a stricter talking to than most.

"Good to see you too, Amare."

A magical gust of strong wind kicked up directionally towards Princess Celestia, leaving her mane disturbed. "Is that sarcasm I hear? How rude! And not even my title or first name, but my last?! You've become quite cheeky, Celestia."

"What? Fimbul said that there were countries out there that used the last name first when addressing others."

"For those who you don't know well! I may have not been the one to raise you like I did this Phasmatidae over here, but I'm many times your senior. Show me some respect, young missy." Doing a complete 180 over to you, her tone drastically changed back to being her usual soothing, calm, and gentle form. "Did you have a good time, Chrys?"

You couldn't help but giggle from the absurdity in it all, and her face showed how contended she was to see you express your emotions more openly, considering the talk you had with her earlier. "Yes! I did, grandma Tera."

"Chrys! It's rude to call her grandma." Queen Chrysalis had begun but was quickly shushed by the aged unicorn.

"Well, I am old. So it's not rude at all. Besides, she's calling me that because you call me Mother. And what does she call you?"

"Mom!" You responded.

Ever since you'd first heard of family structures yourself from Tera's storytelling, you'd stuck to calling the Queen your mother. We skipped over it in your story, but you can bet it was an extremely happy moment for the Queen when she first heard you utter that word and to her, too. Especially considering that it was also the first word you'd ever said.

On that note, it's quite a shame we skipped over a lot of things that happened in those last nine years. But it's okay. Some things in life are best kept to oneself. Not everything has to be told.

You could say, that some stories are more special when they're only ever told between two people.

"This wonderful little thing figured out that a mother's mother is a grandma. She's been paying extra attention to my talks about family. She's quite the smart cookie, Chryssy."

"I know, right?" She beamed.

The night had already grown quite old by the time the two royals had enough of catching up with Tera. It had taken their talk so long, that you'd begun to doze off and were laid to rest on Queen Chrysalis' bed so you could wait it out.

You were stuck in a state between dozing off and sleeping, waking up occasionally with a start to see if you'd missed the opportunity to leave back to the Nursery with Tera. You woke up in a daze just as they were nearing the end of their conversation.

But now they had bred a much more serious atmosphere with their talk. Their voices were quieter and more solemn, with distinct concern in them. Try as they might, they were not careful enough with their volume which allowed you to overhear what they were saying.

"Celest, I failed to mention something about the magical tests we ran. I didn't want Chrys to hear it." The Queen was the one to start it. "The instruments you gave us allowed us to determine the cause of what happened to her horn."

"Is this about the Great Nest, Chryssy?"

"Seems like there's no point in hiding anything from you, Mother. You're entirely right. If you remember, we cordoned off that part of the Great Nest to keep newer generations from suffering Chrys' fate. The Nest's Guardians and I ran an extensive timelapse with the magical seismograph Celest gave to us. Initially, we weren't able to find anything for the longest time. We didn't expect for that particular piece of equipment amongst the many others we got to find anything, since it didn't do so right away and nothing it showed seemed out of the ordinary. But then we started to have a malfunction with it. What we thought was one, initially. The machine would shut off for split seconds at a time, and then turn on again. We thought it was normal of it or some maintenance issue it had, considering that the line graph it outputted seemed completely fine. But it started happening regularly and in consistent intervals. We checked some of the logs from the time when Chrys had hatched when we had a similar investigation with similar equipment, and sure enough, that same issue was happening with a different seismograph at the time."

"I understand why you ordered several from me and from different manufacturers a few months ago, then."

"You're getting it. That issue happened with every single one of them. We still don't have a proper machine that can read this anomaly accurately, but we now know that what happened wasn't a fluke or something that I messed up personally. This issue seems to be affecting every inch of the Great Nest, and we've made the heavy decision to stop all hatchings for the foreseeable future while we try to understand the seismic activity."

"So then the next hatching cycle..."

"Yes, Mother. The Nursery will likely be empty for a while. We'll need to prepare your staff for this eventuality. I'm truly sorry about this."

"It's okay, Chryssy. Do what you need to do. For the Kingdom's sake. I'd hate to see more of the young affected by this."

"If you need anything at all, Chrysalis, I'll be ready to mobilize help at a moment's notice."

"Thank you, you two. For understanding."

The conversation ended at that, and you were unsure about what to think of it all. You didn't recognize some of the bigger words being thrown around. What was seismic activity? What did it have to do with your horn?

But there were definitely things you understood. The Nursery was going to be empty for a while. For how long? You don't know. Your heart clenched at the thought. You hated the feeling of loneliness, and now the thought that there would be no one was eating you from the inside out.

You did well to pretend as if you were asleep, and you managed to hide your growing concerns from Tera's all-seeing eyes when she came to wake you up. Again. Showing weakness was not an option.

It felt like a small hole had opened in your heart. All the emotions you'd swallowed had ripped open a leak. But for now, it was manageable. You could handle catching everything that dripped into some other imaginary cup.

Except... as you got up from the bed in order to walk with Tera back to the Nursery...

You found it hard to keep that cup steady and from spilling over.

For the ground beneath your hooves had begun to tremor once more, like it had nine long years ago.