Chrysalis tracks down Sombra in hopes of putting to rest one fear that has haunted her throughout her life. Things will not go as planned and Chrysalis will be hard pressed to make it out with her life and sanity intact.
Out in the blistering cold plains of the Frozen North, hundreds of changelings search for one pony.
Queen Chrysalis has never been quite sure of herself, despite what she would have her subjects believe. Now, if she can find this one pony, maybe she can get an answer to the one question that has haunted her for her entire life: Am I a monster? Then things start to go wrong. Insubordination, a Crystal Guard member appears, the one pony is found, and that pony has taken a changeling hostage.
The worst part is that one pony is none other than King Sombra, the Tyrant of Fear.
This is a love story of two supposed villians who fell in innocent love long ago and ruined each other's lives and the lives of countless more
This story is being edited by Lab, a great person who has greatly improved my writing. (Can I get a couple more greats in there?)
The fantastic cover art was created for this story by TheMaiah and I truly can't thank him enough for that.
"Sombra," Chrysalis huffed and kicked at a small patch of snow unmarred by hoofprints. “WHERE ARE YOU?” she screamed at the moonlit expanse of white open land, a few glaciers, and the thick chain of hills that stretched out across the horizon, making a few nearby changelings jump at the sudden outburst. The queen had been running a short fuse since receiving the news of Sombra's return, and time hadn't helped to curb her temper.
The changelings had been searching for any sign of the former ruler for just over a month when one of their hunting teams had heard rumors of somepony robbing houses of their food in one of the outlying regions of the Crystal Empire. It had been two weeks since then, and they still had yet to find anything of King Sombra. Then to make things worse, it had snowed earlier in the day, so the few traces of the burglar's most recent trek had vanished with the arctic storm.
Chrysalis stood there contemplating the situation, and her temper flared as she only reminded herself why this endeavor had been such a failure so far.
Changelings were well known for their skill at deception and hiding in plain sight, as this skill was commonly used to ensure their very survival. It was a heavy blow to a changeling's pride when somepony could hide from them. Changelings were a race built for hiding so they knew all the tricks and how to spot them, or so they thought. The fact that this one pony was able to elude every changeling that wasn't out hunting for love or attending their duties in the hive was a very large thorn in the side of every nymph and drone. Then, to rub salt in the wound, nopony could be sure the pony they were chasing was the same one they were looking for. Chrysalis was one of the few who actually believed Sombra had survived the Crystal Heart's blast, and nopony as had actually seen anything distinguishable about the robber. The entire search was all on one big gamble that the mystery burglar was the supposedly dead tyrant.
Chrysalis was pulled out of her thoughts as a heavy gust of wind suddenly blasted her with cold air and loose snow, threatening to drag the mint-and-cream-striped scarf from her shoulders. As she stood her ground against the chaotic gales, she saw that she wasn't the only one caught off guard by its malicious attack. Two nymphs were on a wild chase for a runaway scarf flying towards a clump of snow drifts, and any changelings with their wings out were either bowled over or knocked out of the sky by the raging torrent.
Chrysalis was immediately worried for the changelings who had been struck from the sky. Changelings were not built for cold weather, so any impacts that might otherwise leave a changeling unharmed would leave them with deep cracks in the now brittle chitin, which could be very painful and easily infected. Not to mention the wind might even be strong enough to tear a changeling's diaphanous wings. She was about to rush over and make sure nopony was hurt when a jovial cackle stopped her dead in her tracks.
She couldn't believe her ears. She quickly looked to make sure the fallen changelings were receiving enough aid before turning a searing gaze back to search for the source of the ill-timed laughter. She quickly found that it was coming from a drone flailing on the ground, crushing his large straw hat with one hoof clutching his sides and another pointing at the unfortunate changelings.
The queen's anger flared as she beheld the spiteful changeling and slowly but purposefully marched up to his side. The prone changeling's mirth was finally cut short as the sound of hooves crunching through snow warned him of his sudden audience. "What is your name?" The seething queen hissed.
The drone hastily scrambled to his hooves and replied, "P-Puppet Master, your Highness."
"And what exactly, Mr. Puppet," Chrysalis spat, "have you found to be so funny?"
Puppet Master hastily looked around for an excuse before his eyes came to rest on the thing on his head. A smirk crawled on to his face. "Why, my hat," he simply stated as if the humor of the cumbersome head gear was blatantly obvious.The hat was more brim than anything else and was covered in colorful ribbons with several large pictures of a golden crown on top of a red horn.
Chrysalis gave it a blank look. "What is so humorous about it?"
The gaped at her. "It's a sombrero... with crowns on it. You know? We've been looking for a certain king with a similar name?" He hinted with obvious disappointment that once again, nopony here thought it was funny.
Chrysalis was getting annoyed at not being able to understand the apparent joke and decided to drop the subject. "Don't think this has made me forget your disrespect for the safety of your peers that you happened to be pointing at in your mirth. A suitable punishment" - the drone wiggled his eyebrows at the word - "will be decided for your conduct when we return to camp," she finished in a disgusted tone; Puppet Master's innuendo not lost on her.
Chrysalis then noticed another drone had walked up to her during the conversation and turned to him to see what he needed.
The queen never saw Puppet Master's smirk as he stuck his tongue out at her back and tried to creep away without being noticed. He was actually quite good at walking through the snow without making any noise, a skill he had mastered to skirt the numerous punishments several officials had decided he deserved. Just because he wanted to have a little fun didn’t mean he was bad, just that ponies didn't often agree with his sense of humor.
Chrysalis nodded as she finished her conversation with the newcomer and noticed a certain conspicuous sombrero that was currently doing its best to ruin its owner's chances of being sneaky. A grin spread across the queen's face as she called out, "Puppet." The drone jumped at the sound of his name and slowly turned in dread. "It seems as if a spy has been caught in the area. You wouldn't want your queen to go meet a possible threat without somepony there to protect her, would you?" she fake pouted.
Puppet Master sighed, his escape plan thwarted, and put on a syrupy sweet grin as he decided to go with it. "Why, if you want to spend more time with me you simply have to ask. Surely if the spy's been caught they must be under heavy guar—AAaaaaaahh!" The queen's magical aura picked him up and tossed him in the direction she was already walking
"Move!" Chrysalis ordered, out of patience with the drone's antics.
It didn't take them long to reach the snowdrifts where the spy had been caught. As they rounded the small hill, the scene in front of them froze like a foal caught with their hoof in the cookie jar. Before the queen of the changelings lay a golden-brown thestral bound and gagged with several guilty looking nymphs caught in the middle of fawning over their very uncomfortable captive.
"What is the meaning of this?" Chrysalis demanded, to which she was answered by several grumbles about food as the nymphs backed away from the relieved stallion. "You all know that if that many of you force feed from him at once he will pass out from exhaustion. We need him awake to interrogate him." As she looked him over she saw the thankful look directed at her by his bold yellow eyes. "Maybe you can have him once I'm done here though." she offered as an afterthought, quickly turning his appreciation to horror.
Chrysalis decided she'd had enough fun for now and suddenly turned serious. "So who are you, and who sent you to spy on us?" she said, magically dissolving the green gel holding his muzzle shut.
The sudden questioning was enough to snap the bat pony back to the weight of the situation. He finally recognized the figure interrogating him as the queen of the changeling race, the very same person who had nearly taken over Equestria's capital city and single-hoofedly overpowered Princess Celestia. His mouth froze in a small "oh" for a minute before he got his wits about him. "M-my name is Night Owl. I'm a member of the search and rescue division of the Crystal Guard," he said, trying to please the changeling queen.
Chrysalis only scowled. "How did the Guard know we were out here?"
"Th-they don't! Just me! I-I search for anypony that might have been caught in the storms. I just happened to hear someone shouting out looking for somepony and ended up finding a field full of changelings. I would have flown off and left you all alone, but as soon as I got in the air I was blown back down by the wind straight into the group that tied me up," he spluttered out as vivid, terrorizing images of being sucked dry of all life and emotion flashed past his vision.
Chrysalis paused to think for a bit. Whoever was shouting is going to be hearing from me personally before dawn. That is a complete breach of protocol. But who did it? It certainly was not me shouting… at some… certain former king that refuses to be found. She facehoofed at the realization. She should have known such an outburst might attract unwanted attention. "Show me his saddle bags," she said, irritated she was the reason she and her changelings had been discovered. Again.
One of the nymphs rushed forward to take the bags off the stallion's back, running a hoof through his dark brown and black streaked mane while she did so. Night Owl flinched at the contact but the changeling simply raised an eyebrow and playfully flicked his nose with her tail as she turned to deliver the bags to her queen.
As Chrysalis rummaged through the bags she found almost nothing to disprove the thestral's story. She found a first aid kit, food, water, blankets, a brush, rope, and emergency flares. Only one set of items stood out as odd among the survival supplies. "Why do you have a customized crossbow with you if all you do is search and rescue?"
Night Owl looked at her and tilted his head in confusion. "It fires tranquilizer darts." His eyes grew dark as he continued. "There's more than just ponies and snow in this wasteland. If you haven't learned that out here yet, then you can consider yourself very lucky. However, I would still suggest doing a head count just to be sure," he advised with sudden seriousness and professionalism.
On such ominous notes, it is usually customary for the universe, a unicorn, or a pegasus to provide a lightning strike to drive the statement home. However, the storm clouds had all been blown away by the wind, so the universe decided to use the next best thing: a nymph's terrified scream piercing the crystal-clear midnight air.
Chrysalis immediately focused on pinpointing the scream's source. "I want every changeling in a disguise now. We don't need anymore unwanted attention." She donned a random pegasus disguise of her own. "Puppet Master," she addressed, using his full name for the first time, "I am putting you in charge of the captive for now. Do not let him escape." At that, the queen took to the air and flew further over the long chain of snow-covered hills.
"Yes, your Highness," the changeling replied to empty air. Puppet Master changed into a grey-brown unicorn with short white hair sticking out from under his sombrero and, after making sure the queen wasn't watching, looked down at his charge and magically dissolved all of the thestral's bonds save for the two large clumps of gel that cemented his wings to his sides. "Come on, we're going to follow her," he in the direction the queen had left.
Night Owl paused after he had gathered his supplies. The changelings that had been all too eager to greet him earlier had vanished, and the only changeling in sight had his back to him.
Everyone seems to be gone. If I can evade this changeling, I should be able to sneak through these hills until I get far enough to not be seen. They haven’t taken anything from my bags, so I should have enough food and water to make the trek back to the Empire on hoof. He sighed. But sompon- no, someone- someling?- someone is in trouble. The only other time I didn’t answer a scream...Silver...
"You know," Puppet Master called, sensing the stallion's indecision, "if you don't want to follow me I could always leave you with those nymphs."
Several heads popped up over the surrounding hills of snow at the offer, but were disappointed to see their food source galloping hard to catch up with the retreating changeling.
Not far away, a frantic nymph stood on top of the tallest hill nearby, looking for somepony she could call to for help. At that moment she noticed somepony flying by overhead.
"Wait!" she cried out to the shaded figure and flew up to it, hoping to have caught their attention. Thankfully the figure stopped as and hovered in the air waiting for the nymph to reach them. A flash of the new pony's eyes showed that the nymph happened to have found the best possible pony for the job: Queen Chrysalis, the most powerful changeling alive. "My queen, we need your help! Flitter and I found a cave but he attacked us and she's still trapped down there and I think she's hurt!" the words flew from her mouth hysterically as she nearly broke down into tears.
"What attacked you?" Queen Chrysalis asked, concern clearly written all over her face as she thought of what the bat pony had just told her.
"King Sombra! We found him down in the cave and he tried to blast us with his magic. I got away but black crystals blocked off Flitter's way out so I left to find help and then she screamed and I'm so scared for her I don't want her to die!"
Chrysalis' insides froze at the mention of King Sombra. She had not actually been prepared to take on the dark tyrant. All of her planning had been out of rekindled anger over an old grudge. Now that the prospect of actually fighting him was very real, she realized she had no idea on how to go about getting her answers. She doubted he would be open to calm discussion, and wasn't completely sure she could take on such a powerful foe without a steady diet of strong love like what she’d had in Canterlot.
The queen was thankful her inner turmoil was hidden behind the neutral mask those in power have learned to adopt, one which Chrysalis had long perfected since her first day in this world. "Show me where the cave is.” The panicking nymph quickly complied. The nymph needed the queen to be strong for her. Her subjects had always needed her to be strong and lead them, to be the shining light in the constant shadow they needed to hide themselves in. She couldn't let her subjects down just because she had overestimated her own abilities. Not when lives were on the line.
Both the nymph and her queen landed hard next to a pony-sized hole at the base of one the small hills of snow. "H-he's d-d-down he-here. L-let's go," the nymph said in a raw whisper. Her wings buzzed fast enough to send snow swirling about her, and her legs were shaking hard enough to make it difficult to walk. Worst of all, none of this escaped her queen's attention, and she felt embarrassment almost equal to the strangling fear.
The shaking nymph jumped as she felt a comforting hoof on her shoulder. "Do not worry, I shall deal with Sombra alone and save your friend." The queen spoke with a calm tone. "Meanwhile, I want you to make sure nopony else comes in here and gets hurt."
Fresh tears of relief washed down the nymph's face. "Y-yes, your Majesty," she said shakily.
With a nod of approval and a reassuring smile, Queen Chrysalis entered the icy darkness of the cave, shamefully ignoring her own fear. Yes, she could be strong for her subjects, but she would never have anypony to be strong for her.
A few minutes later, a light-brown unicorn around his mid-fifties wearing a sombrero and a very, very good-looking golden-brown thestral walked around a hill in front of the shaken nymph. "Have you seen the queen pass by here?" the unicorn asked her. It took her a second to realize she had been spoken to, the thestral having taken a significant portion of her attention. When her head finally caught up with reality, she flashed her eyes, unsure if the unicorn had done so.
The unicorn rolled his eyes, flashing them. “So, have you seen her? We’re on a bit of a schedule here.”
She simply nodded, pointing a hoof at the cave entrance and briefly wondering why the two drones were in disguise. A very hot disguise. Well, at least the thestral’s is. She couldn't take her eyes off the fine, well-toned young stallion, wishing she could find an available stallion or drone that naturally had those looks.
With that, Puppet Master gave a curt nod, which caused his sombrero to fall over his face, and turned towards the cave. Without fixing his hat, he headed towards the cave mouth which the thestral had already arrived at.
"Wait!" the nymph shouted at them. "It's dangerous in there, and the queen is in there to save my friend, and she ordered me not to let anypony through so they wouldn't get hurt!"
Night Owl paused. Dangerous? This looks like a unicorn-carved cave, so the danger most likely isn’t any kind of wurm. Too small for an ursa. Maybe a lupus, but they ought to be bothering the southern moose tribes this time of year. It’s possible it could be a malicious unicorn. One unicorn takes over an empire and suddenly every ne’er-do-well with a horn thinks they can take his place. One way or another, there’s a mare—er, girl in there who might need help. He set his face into a determined scowl as he patted his saddle pocket containing his crossbow and slipped through the opening with the unicorn-changeling following close behind him.
"Stop! Don't—" The nymph's warning was cut short as the drone paused in the entryway and gave her a confident smirk.
"Don't worry. We don't plan on getting hurt," the drone said, as if it would solve all her problems. The drone turned and disappeared into the crystalline depths of snow.
The nymph was shocked they hadn't listened to her. It was a direct order from the queen to stay out of the cave. She had to do something. She looked at the entrance and took a few steps in its direction, then thought better of it. It was an order for her as well. She took a few steps back to her post but paused again. Finally, she shook her head and decided she needed to tell the others about what had happened. That, and get more guards.
Changelings have the innate ability to sense and 'taste' any emotions being given off nearby; whether they like it or not. Fear happens to have a tart bitter taste and is considered repulsive to most changelings.
Queen Chrysalis had only just entered the cave when she was slapped in the face by the despised emotion. Usually even with a disgust for the emotion, fear wouldn't really phase a changeling much more than a moderately ill-kept public restroom. However the air in this cave was absolutely saturated in fear and the effect on Chrysalis was about the same as a strong whiff of chlorine and had cleared out her both sinuses and concentration.
Chrysalis blinked tears from her eyes as she lit up her horn with a light spell and looked for whoever was producing all this fear, but there was nopony there to be seen. What she did see, however, was the only other opening in the cave barricaded by large black jagged crystals.
Walking closer to the crystals, Chrysalis felt blood pounding against the back of her head. Groaning, she put a hoof to her head with her eyes squeezed shut as the light from her horn dimmed and flickered out along with her disguise. When she finally realized that she had let her horn go out, she concentrated until the light hesitantly flickered back to life.
Chrysalis stepped forward, trying to focus on anything but the headache that all of the fear was giving her.
She took a few more steps.
Step.
Step.
Trip.
Her jaw connected with the uneven ground as she fell on her side. Chrysalis opened her eyes to darkness again and slowly lit up her horn. Between the fear and pain in her jaw and head, all the light she could summon now was a dim glow, just bright enough to show that she had landed next to something tall that she could use to pull herself up with.
Chrysalis lifted a foreleg to the object and pressed a hoof against the cold surface.
Instantly her eyes went wide. She jumped back from the object and curled up, shivering on the ground in crippling terror.
The moment passed. The fear left as quickly as it had come but the adrenaline was still going strong, allowing her to think clearly for the first time since she had entered the cave.
Chrysalis lit up her horn again and glared in indignation at the illuminated black crystals that she had touched. Her eyes shrunk to iridescent green slits as she bared her teeth and fired a magical bolt at the offending crystals.
Imagine her surprise when that bolt rebounded and barely missed her flank.
"Great. Not only have I just been controlled by some glorified rocks but my magic can't even touch them -ugh- and my headache is coming back from all this Tartarus damned fear!" Chrysalis slammed her hoof into the hard-packed snow floor. She wished for the second time in her life that she had some defense against emotions.
Second time. The queen finally smiled as she remembered how her subjects had eagerly found a spell for this purpose at her request from the first time, which was right after the failed Canterlot invasion.
It had only taken a month and a half for Chrysalis to learn the spell that would have taken a normal unicorn about a week. Chrysalis just happened to be a fast learner for a changeling.
Her horn glowed as a translucent green bubble formed around her. Chrysalis sighed in relief as any outside emotions were cut off from her senses. This wasn't exactly what the shield had been designed for, but if a spell couldn't be used for more than one purpose then it wasn't worth its magic.
Chrysalis then turned her attention back to the black crystals and stomped towards them. Confident in the spell's ability to prevent the earlier incident, she reached out her hoof again to touch the crystal. This time, however, she never made contact. The crystals had disintegrated on contact with the green bubble instead.
Interested by this new development, Chrysalis thought for a moment then stuck her head outside the bubble and reached out with her senses, focusing on the fear in the air. What she found was multiple concentrated pockets of fear in the shape of large jagged crystals. It seems as if changelings are not the only ones who can solidify emotions. Chrysalis thought.
That led her to thinking about who might have created the crystals and the reason she was down in this ice-lined cave. Chrysalis used her emotion shield to plow a hole through the crystals and set off down the tunnel before her to find King Sombra and the endangered changeling.
What Chrysalis failed to notice was a unicorn and bat pony that had been watching her from the cave entrance. She also failed to notice the bat pony tripping over a remaining crystal and the unicorn snickering at his companion as insect wings sprouted from his back and he flew gracefully through the hole.
Night Owl Quickly got back to his hooves and shushed the pony besi- sorry, the changeling beside him, glad that the darkness would hide the red coloring on his face.
Distressed cries suddenly echoed from deeper in the cave. The Queen's eyes flew open as she listened to pure terror emanating from the pitiful cries and muffled pleas of one of her own. The nymph was close. She doubled her speed, turned a corner, and finally saw an end to the tunnel that would surely lead to the chamber where she would have to fight for the changelings life against the one enemy she had both hoped and feared to face.
Chrysalis jumped through the end of the tunnel, horn lit in preparation for a surprise attack.
To her utter astonishment, chrysalis found herself not facing her dreaded foe, and instead she was facing an oak tree. She wasn't even underground anymore, but rather she was standing on a grassy hill covered in flowers, and beyond the tree stood the most beautiful scene she had ever encountered in her life.
A lush green valley was spread out beneath her, covered in wildflowers of every kind; including rare types that were almost extinct that still grew in abundance amidst these flowing fields of grass and grains. To her right stood a tamed forest- no, a town of wide trees with doors windows and balconies built into them, while to her left stretched out a perfect tree line of a forest boasting its beauty in the fiery spectrum of Fall leaves. And above her -- oh, by love and all its glory -- above her was a radiant flaming orange sunset framed by crystalline clear blue skies and a silhouetted skyline of majestic snow-capped mountains.
Still in a slight daze, Chrysalis felt herself reach out and pluck one of the rare flowers and slip it into her mouth. Changelings have very weak taste buds so it was no surprise when she could only barely taste the delicate petals, but she found herself not only wishing she could taste the exotic flower but also . . . missing the taste of it.
Chrysalis shook the feeling off as silly since she had never fully tasted anything besides emotions in her life, much less this rare flower.
She turned around looking for the tunnel she had just left, but it was gone. Now that she thought of it, she couldn't even remember why she had been in the tunnel. Was I looking for something?
~You were looking for the town~
She turned her attention to the small town of trees and wondered why she couldn't see any of its inhabitants. Chrysalis donned an unremarkable pegasus disguise out of habit and walked towards the deserted tree town.
The town its self was just as beautiful as the rest of the valley was, if not more so. Almost every tree house was blooming with Spring flowers of different fruits. There were apple blossoms, cherry blossoms, peach blossoms, orange, pear, mango, and star fruit; even almond, pistachio and other nut trees. Adorning the houses were all kinds of trinkets, but most of all, wind chimes made of every size, shape, and material imaginable; from wood, to metal, to shell, to glass, to some so small the slightest breeze would send them flailing, to one so large that the wind would have great difficulty trying to play its massive chimes. All of them gave their music to the gentle wind and filled the air with twinkling melodies that accompanied the hundreds of petals dancing on the breeze.
Chrysalis had already reached the first few houses and was simply basking in the pristine atmosphere when the sound of window shutters pulled her out of her reverie. A quick survey showed that every window was shut tight or barred by shutters despite the humid evening warmth, and chrysalis was starting to get unnerved by the emotions she could just barely sense through the walls of every nearby building. Anger, sadness, fear.
"So you have come," a voice stated behind her.
Chrysalis jumped and turned around to face the stallion that had spoken to her, but was greeted by the sight of a street full of hovering pegasi. Why didn't I notice them earlier?
A bright green stallion with orange eyes and a gray mane flew forward and addressed her with the same voice. "We have heard about you, parasite. We know what you plan to do here and we will give you one chance to leave now before we force you to do so."
Chrysalis couldn't believe what she was hearing. Nopony should have been able to see through her disguise. She looked down at herself and was shocked to find her pegasus form missing and instead replaced by smooth black chitin and hole filled hooves. If they knew what she was then she could guess what they meant by her plans.
"Oh, you will, will you?" Chrysalis' blood ran cold as she heard her own voice speak out in malice against the pegasus. She tried to put a hoof to her muzzle but her body wasn't responding to her commands. "I would like to see you try."
"You had been warned. I see that warning has fallen on deaf ears," the pegasus spoke out like a command.
Suddenly wings were flapping everywhere. Rocks flew out from nowhere to crack down on her chitin shell, showering her insides with the reverberations. The wind whipped at her mane, ripping the membranes in places sending waves of pain through her head. It felt like the wind might just pick her up and throw her away like trash, vermin, an insect, a monster, a parasite.
"Enough!" Chrysalis shouted as she sent a wave of magical energy crashing into the wall of pegasi. Chrysalis felt herself galloping around the edge of the town and anger riding through her veins.
The wind had gone from a slight breeze into a maelstrom as pegasi were appearing everywhere, rocks hailed down on her from all directions, and streams of petals threatened to blind her. Chrysalis seemed to just ignore them all as she kept running and occasionally fired blasts of magic into the ground as she circled the town. Chrysalis immediately knew what she was doing but that only made her scared and want to take back control even more. She had finally come full-circle around the town and galloped straight for a stone circle in the middle of town with a large mob trailing behind her.
She finally stopped running as she came to the foot of the stone dais. The wind was raging around her, tearing out petals from trees all around and carrying them with it in a red stained vortex swirling all around her as pegasi hovered in a large ring encasing the central clearing like a jeering crowd from a griffin coliseum of ancient Roam.
One mare with a bright pink coat and deep purple eyes and hair and came forward from the hateful crowd and shouted out at her with tears flowing from her accusing eyes and a large stone in her hoof. Her words were torn away from the air and drowned out by the raging wind and cacophony of wind chimes slamming out their insidious discordant tunes. The mare was breaking down to sobs in her outburst and she finally threw the stone.
Time slowed down as the rock flew straight and true to Chrysalis' head.
A green magical aura encased and the stopped the stone a few trots in front of her. Chrysalis could feel herself smile as her chest started shaking with a slow rising laughter that escalated into a full throated malicious cackle. Her voice rang out, amplified by magic. "You say that you know what I am and what I was planning on doing to you." Most of the ponies around her seemed to be unaffected by her bravado, but many of them didn't seem to be quite sure about themselves anymore "Well, I have one question for you all then: Why didn't you run?"
With that, Chrysalis fired a beam of magic straight into the air. Right then, every spot on the ground that she had fired at while circling the town glowed and fired their own beams of energy arcing up into the center beam. when all the beams coalesced Chrysalis let hers die down and watched as all the beams widened into strips of magic and then walls until they all connected in a seamless dome of green magic that surrounded the entire town.
"You should have run while you still had the chance." Her amplified voice was soft but it could still be heard clearly over the dying wind.
Twenty shots of magic sprang out from her horn, each striking a pegasus and enveloping them in changeling gel. Panic instantly ensued. Many tried to fight but were easily subdued with the green gel. Most tried to flee but as soon as they hit the barrier, they too became encased in gel as they fell to the ground.
Chrysalis was screaming on the inside. She knew that she didn't need to feed from all these ponies. Changelings might invade cities en mass every few years, but that was always done in stealth and secrecy; any memories of them being wiped away with practiced care. But that was only to ensure the hive's survival. This . . . this was outright domination. A few invasions have ended up becoming physical but all that would be left after the fact was a few headaches, a fear of bugs, and a week of widespread crankiness. Never had Chrysalis seen such a blatant use of fear to dominate a population, and especially not for the shear p- ... pleasure ... of it.
It horrified her to think it, but watching herself subdue an entire population on her own she felt ... powerful, as if nothing could stop her, as if they were the vermin for once, and it felt ... good.
She could sense the love seeping out of every single trapped victim; the gel slowly milking it from their bodies. It was intoxicating. Chrysalis' body stepped forward to the closest of her captives who's gel was starting to turn blue, showing that she was done producing love. It was the pink mare who had spoken out earlier.
Chrysalis bent down to the mare's ear and whispered, "You were right, I am a monster."
Ever so slowly she brought her horn down into the gel surrounding her terrified victim. The gel began receding back into the changeling's horn, the mare's eyes slowly losing their shine and closing as the energy was taken from her. Most of the gel was gone at this point with just enough gel left covering the mare that she wouldn't go out on violent rampages after she reabsorbed her love. Chrysalis expected her head to lift any moment but it didn't. The gel kept flowing until there wasn't a drop left on the mare's body. She had been completely sucked dry of her love, leaving her looking gray and lifeless. Another changeling taboo that had been broken and it was the worst one of all.
The mare was dead.
Chrysalis couldn't believe it. Never in one thousand years had she drained somepony completely of their love. She hadn't even come close to doing so in almost as much time after the first few close calls had resulted in several ponies earning capitol punishment. Her thoughts ceased as she watched on in shock while her body went around going against every morale she had ever held.
Chrysalis moved on and began going through every house, dragged every free pony out with her magic and encasing them in gel. Some gave in as soon as she entered, but many still attempted vain resistance. Fire seemed to sprout from nowhere covering the once beautiful trees in raging infernos lighting up the night sky. More and more gel covered bodies piled up in the town center until they towered over the tall arches of the stone circle.
Chrysalis finally dragged the last free pony from her home kicking and screaming to be let go. The dark blue pegasus mare was thrown into the pile where she sunk into the thick green gel. Chrysalis let loose a torrent of magic on the pile, covering it in more layers of the gel and speeding up the milking process until the entire mound was stained a deep blue.
Every pony in the entire town was in that pile, and every ounce of love that resided in them was now sitting there, ready to be harvested. Chrysalis looked straight into the eyes of that last dark blue mare as she lowered her horn into the gel. Power flowed through her veins. raw power, stronger than she had ever felt since -- since . . . Sombra.
This was all fake.
Her vision started to split as she fought against what she now knew to be an illusion, but this illusion was far stronger than the reports she had been given of the trapped door in the Crystal Castle. The world seemed to warp around her as her struggles grew more violent.
Finally she broke free from the bonds on her body, but she wasn't out of the vision quite yet. There, standing in front of her was herself as she finished sucking the love from the entire village, leaving a massive pile of lifeless bodies.
Her double looked down at the empty shells left after her feeding and laughed in triumph. "Do you see what your purpose is now?" The clone looked directly at Chrysalis. "Do you see what you were designed to do?" The clone's eyes morphed into solid glowing green orbs. "This is you. This is your race. Parasites!" Purple mist was flowing from the sides of her- its eyes now as the rest of its body continued to change as the dead bodies caught flame. As the flames covered the bodies the flames began to turn a familiar green. "This is your truth that you've been seeking." The green spread to the fire in the trees and Chrysalis was surrounded on all sides by walls of her own emerald flames. The apparition before her rose up and levitated high in the air. "You are not of a natural race and you know it. You can not simply live in peace with ponies as you have been foolishly wishing over the centuries." The figure wouldn't keep a single form for long. It would grow large pristine white wings then shed them for torn and tattered membranous ones. Its horn would twist into a black crooked knife, then into a smooth red tipped thorn, then change again into a straight swirled ebony white. Its mane and tail never matched as it grew out and burned away at the tips flowing from pastel rainbows to aqua blue, to midnight black. Its body was a poorly stitched together greyscale and its facial structure was an amorphous blob of fur, metal, and chitin. The eyes, however, remained closed. "Your mind is a rather amusing thing. You are the original changeling. You have lived for over almost one thousand years, and yet you still deny what you are." The thing above her finally opened its eyes. One was the deep, unforgiving pink of a pony and the other was the dark manipulative green of a snake. "You came to me," -- the horn stopped transforming and split into all three -- "already knowing what your are." Its body grew sharp spikes of dark blue, sterling silver, and shining gold armor as its wings lost all but the longest feathers, revealing blue membrane underneath while black smoke billowed out its back. "You can not escape this." A slit formed on its forehead, an insidious purple haze billowing out on both sides. The slit slowly opened revealing the terrifying green and red gaze of a demon. "Your fate was sealed when I created you. And now I see my error in doing so." All three horns charged with their respective auras. "It was a mistake that I shall now rectify."
Three beams of magic flew down, crashing into Chrysalis' body. Unimaginable pain raced through her nerves. Every single inch of her felt like it was being stabbed by white hot metal. Chrysalis shot out her own beam of magic in a desperate attempt to counter the apparition's. All she could manage was to hold back two streams as the third seared its way into her. She knew what she was seeing wasn't real, but the pain and fear she felt seemed all too real. Chrysalis was losing badly. She racked her mind for anything that could help her but there was no spell she knew of to release her. The closest thing to being helpful was her hypnosis spell.
Chrysalis was nearing unconsciousness. She knew that if she faded out now, her mind would be easily broken and she would likely either become catatonic or a mindless slave. She thought of her hypnosis spell again. She wouldn't be able to control herself, as she would need to be in control to do so, and she wouldn't be able to control Sombra for the same reason. She thought hard on all she knew of magic and an idea came to her. She might be able to break his control over her if she could reverse the effects of her spell and de-hypnotize herself. She knew that this could be done but had never needed to do so before.
Chrysalis dropped her beam of magic and cried out as all three opposing beams hit her in full force once more. She closed her eyes and gathered her energy, working the hypnosis spell inside-out in her mind, fighting against the pain for her concentration. The light from her horn slowly turned from green to white as she put more force into the spell.
The world around her began to split apart once again as she put more and more magical force into her spell. The walls of flame around her began to sputter and quake in the light of her horn. The ground beneath her was drained of its color and texture leaving it a flat black plane. Chrysalis gave the spell another burst of magic and the flames around her were blown out, leaving her in a featureless black expanse. The only thing that remained was the monstrosity hovering over her, trying to fry her into submission with its three beams of magic. Chrysalis pushed harder than before for one final surge of magic. The white light on her horn grew ever brighter as the ground beneath her cracked apart and the apparition screamed as it dove for her, abandoning the magical beams.
Chrysalis could feel herself cracking through the barrier to reality. The hideous beast was almost upon her. She reached for those cracks in the spell and pulled, ripping them ever further. The apparition's armored hooves were almost within reach of her when the illusion finally unraveled with a blinding white light.
The light on Chrysalis' horn faltered and faded out, leaving her back in the tunnel exit next to a dazed Puppet Master and Night- something. Both were crying. before her lay a large cavern filled with towering black crystals. At the far end of the cavern sat King Sombra himself on a black crystal throne with a crystal cage next to him holding a changeling nymph with her eyes covered in a green glow.
"Hello again Chrysalis. It has truly been too long."
The nymph that had been guarding the cave entrance ascended from the night sky. She needed to report to the group leader of the whereabouts of the Queen. That and ask him for more guards. Now she was at the base camp that had been set up a month and a half earlier. She shivered in the cold night air as she pulled her scarf tighter around her neck and wished that the fur she seemed to be covered in was real. She had donned her own disguise of a light blue coated pegasus with a pastel purple mane and a glass vial with green liquid for her cutie mark after seeing several other changelings all in disguise on her way here.
As she walked up to the group of ponies swarming the camp the nearest stallion caught her eye. He was cute, but there was plenty of room for improvement in the way he kept his mane. She subtly flashed her true eyes and the stallion coughed loudly three times. As she past him she gave him a wink, which he promptly ignored, already having quelled any emotion that she might be able to detect. She sighed at his adamant professionalism and continued on her way through the thickening crowd. Normal ponies are so much more fun to tease.
She walked through the crowd, checking cutie marks around her to make sure that the disguise theme hadn't changed from an ice field study group checking for the possibility of oil drilling. She may have let her eyes linger on a few choice stallions' cutie marks a bit longer than necessary, but she kept her mind on the task at hoof. Oh, but that mane. That gorgeous mane.
After the routine was over, she looked around for the group leaders. Once more slightly distracted by two or three exceptional examples of the opposite sex, she gazed through the crowd until her eyes passed by a large covered brazier that let out minimal light but managed to warm up the area all the way to where she was without melting the snow around it thanks to an enchantment. There. A light blue coated earth pony with a thick white sweater and a dark blue mane was holding a clipboard next to the brazier and talking to a few other ponies next to him. The nymph made her way through the crowd towards the disguised drone and waited for a chance to speak.
"-and I want the lamps put up as soon as possible. A group this large working in the dark would raise suspicion with the theme we're using." The stallion turned to face the waiting nymph, "Yes, can I help you?"
She opened her mouth for a moment but paused as she thought about how to say what she needed. She knew from everypony being in disguise that a normal pony had been spotted somewhere nearby. This should mean that everypony should be talking in character and using code words and phrases that had been pre-devised to ensure their ruse remained intact even if a normal pony were to overhear a conversation. The thing that confused her was why the Group Leader would be talking out of character.
"Well, spit it out!" the stallion snapped, making the disguised nymph jump. Thankfully, she remembered to splay her wings as well. "I've got things to do and ponies to organize. I can't sit here all night watching you draw circles in the snow."
The nymph folded her assumed wings and stopped her hoof which had been doodling without her knowledge. She hadn't noticed the sense of irritation coming from the drone until now, but judging from the spicy taste he either angered easily, or hadn't had a very good day. Finally deciding to just use the safe response, she thought up one of the code phrases for making sure the coast was clear. "Is the ice clear for testing?"
"Yes. There's only been one sighting tonight and the pony was immediately captured. Now, what do you need?" The sense of irritation was only growing stronger.
She was really confused now. He and everypony else were in disguise. One normal pony had already been spotted. He of all ponies should know that you were supposed to be talking in character whether or not there was only one pony seen. "Um, shouldn't you be talking in-"
"GET ON with it!" the Group Leader barked, almost making the nymph's face scrunch up at the burning taste of not only his irritation but the irritation of several ponies around him.
The nymph took a breath and just decided to give up on the precautions that nopony else seemed to care for at the moment. "A friend and I have found King Sombra, alive, in a nearby ice cave." Although she hadn't realized it, all nearby conversations had suddenly come to a stop. "I was able to escape but my friend wasn't so lucky." Shushing and quick whispers were now flowing through the growing crowd "I notified the Queen immediately and she left me the task to guard the entrance from anypony else entering while she went in to confront King Sombra. However, two ponies have already muscled their way past me to join her, so I will need some more guards to ensure no more get inside." At that last part, her hoof had started nervously tracing the snow again. So, I did kind of just let them walk past me, but what was I supposed to do, fight them two against one? I blame the good looking one for dist-tract...ing...me...
By now she was the center of attention of probably every changeling in the camp, which was around one fourth of the entire hive. She sucked in her breath and worked hard on keeping good posture and preventing her ears from folding flat against her head but she could still feel her legs turning to jelly. She had never been good with being the center of attention of more than ten to fifteen ponies. This was decidedly more than ten to fifteen ponies. She just hoped that the bitter taste of her fear would be drowned out by the sour taste of shock emanating from all around her.
The Group Leader looked at her, mouth agape. He was one of the first few to recover and thought for a second. "So the queen was right. He is alive. Ha! So much for my forty bits." Half of the faces in the surrounding crowd became crestfallen at this remark while several faces radiated sheer joy. "What’s your name, miss?" he asked with approval in his eyes.
"Oh, um, I'm Diamond Rose. Oh, and my friend’s name is Flitter, sir," she replied with a smile, realizing that she had just earned recognition for finding the elusive pony which had left them all clueless for over a month, and possibly ending the grueling stay in this unrelentingly cold wasteland.
"Good work, Diamond Rose." The pony turn towards the main part of the crowd and raised his voice to be heard by everypony. "Attention! I need six volunteers for guard duty, ASAP. The theme has entered the clean up stage. Switch activities from nocturnal to diurnal. The search is over!" Hundreds of hooves pounded down on the snow in applause and celebration. Several volunteers quickly came forward and the earth pony turned back to Diamond Rose "Lead the way to our queen, miss Rose."
“Come on, Night. We’re gonna be late!” a small filly cried, tugging on Night Owl’s back leg and simultaneously using him as a light shield against the bright late afternoon sun. “Come on, come on!”
The little filly looked to be around nine or ten. Her coat was a soft, silvery blue and her mane was a deep midnight blue. Her eyes were almost an exact match to Night Owl’s: a bright opaque yellow with a vertical slitted iris. The light glinted off the shining silver membrane of her right wing. Although he could only see the shoulder of her left wing, he knew exactly what it would look like.
“Just a second, we need to finish locking up.” Night Owl smiled down at the excitable filly, moving a bit to better shade her from the sun. “Besides, what happened to `Noooo-hoooo, I don’t wanna get uuup`?” He said, trying his best to imitate her drowsy whine.
“Well, I forgot about the competition.” She hopped up onto one of the two chairs on the large patio. “If I had remembered, I would have jumped straight out of bed and rushed down the hallway to the bathroom,” - she pounced off the chair and jumped past the other - “quickly do all my bathroom stuff, speed through breakfast,” - she pantomimed brushing her teeth and eating her oatmeal - “and we would have been out the door ten minutes ago!” the filly was left panting at her little show of how fast she would have done everything.
She had, in fact, been woken up ten minutes ago and done all those things after Night had reminded her of the competition, but he didn't feel like spoiling her mood. He also didn't like thinking about the odd feeling of something being wrong he had felt when he woke up. Instead he simply dead-bolted one of the the windows and asked, “And which part of the competition are you looking forward to the most?” Night knew exactly what the answer would be, both just from knowing his sister, and this being her favorite topic of conversation for the past week.
She clambered back onto the chair, coiled her hind legs, and jumped off with her wings spread. “The Flying races!” she shouted, eyes closed, simply enjoying the faux flight.
“Wo-woah!” The wind had decided just then to pick up and had turned her jump into a glide. At least, it would have been a glide had it been anypony else. Instead she was sent spinning off towards the edge of the patio.
She couldn't see the drop that awaited her at the edge, but she knew it was there. The empty air greeted her, the towering trees all around silently watching as she came closer to the fateful fall. As she flipped over again she caught a glimpse of the ground, a full one hundred fifty trots below their home in the tree. Her screaming may have filled the air, but there was nothing else she could do to prevent herself from plummeting to her death as she was pushed past the railing.
She was in open air now. Nothing to grab on to, no branches to break her fall. Their house was built as low as it safely could be, which was well beneath any branches throughout the forest of gargantuan trees. In a few seconds she would become violently acquainted with the ground, scaring off any creatures that either couldn't fly or dared to traverse the forest floor.
A pair of golden brown hooves wrapped around her and her fall was blessedly cut short. Night Owl had been prepared for something to happen. He was always prepared for something to happen if she wasn't planted on the ground, even if she was simply jumping up and down. “Are you okay, Silver? You’re not hurt are you? Are your wings alright?” She was shaking violently in his legs. “Stars and moon, Silver. I was afraid I’d lose you. … I will always protect you.” he whispered hugging her tight, hoping to comfort his shaking sister, and ignoring the damp splashes falling against his barrel as he flew back up to their home.
He landed back on the patio, but he didn't let go of her. He walked on his hind legs over to his chair and sat down with her still in his fore legs. After a while the shaking had stopped and the tears were no longer falling. “Are you going to be okay, Silver Star?” Night owl asked.
“Yeah, I’m just fine.” Silver Star glued her eyes to the ground and hung her head, an all too familiar melancholic look on her face.
Night knew that there was nothing he could say to make things better, so he simply hugged her tighter. His eyes traveled down her silvery blue coat down to her left wing. The silver wing membrane was torn apart between the fingers, leaving her flightless. And it was all his fault. He had gotten his cutie mark that day, but all the shield and bat wings did was remind him of his failure to protect– No, stop.
The two of them sat there, both the recent trauma and harsh memories weighing them down, neither of them wanting to leave the other’s embrace.
Night Owl eventually broke the spell. “Do you want to just stay here today?” She shook her head. She had been looking forward to this and a fall wasn’t going to stop her. “Come on then, we’ve got to go if we’re going to get there on time.”
He tightened his hold on her and lifted her onto his back on top of his saddle bags. He walked back over to the window that he had been locking and pulled the key out. “Can you lock the last window for me?” She simply nodded and took the key, the excitement from earlier vanished without a trace.
He walked over to the window and sidled up to it so that she could reach the dead bolt. When metal bar clicked into place, Silver Star took the key out and placed it on its clip in Night’s bag. “Are you sure you still want to go?” She nodded. He sighed. “Okay, hold on tight.”
Night owl unfurled his wings, stepped back, galloped towards the edge and jumped.
Silver clutched his mane as hard as she could and kept her eyes closed. She had always hated the initial jump into open air. Several agonizing moments went by where she couldn't be sure if they would keep falling or fly through the trees. Then Night flapped his wings and the world felt safe again. She loosened her hold and opened her eyes, and she was once again reminded of why she loved flying.
Nothing could beat the feel of the wind rushing past her coat and whipping through her mane and tail. She tentatively unfurled her own wings in a way that they would slice through the air instead of catching it. She closed her eyes and just let herself feel the wind as Night made his way through the trees, passing neighbors and park platforms alike.
Night Owl had long since perfected the art of flying with a passenger. He easily swept through the trees, not even blinking as he careened past the massive limbs and boughs. He and his sister had lived in the Hollow Shades their entire lives, as had the rest of the thestral community. Thestrals weren't exactly widely accepted among the main pony races, especially among the pegasi, which was why it was odd that ponies from Cloudsdale had suggested this competition.
Flyers from all the nearby towns and communities were invited to the competition where all sorts of feats of strength and agility were to be contested. The main event, though would be the flying races. He would be competing in the long distance race, but he had left that as a surprise for Silver Star and had already gotten one of her friend’s parents to carry her to the different checkpoints along the course.
He smiled at the thought of seeing the pride and joy on her face as he won the race for her, the gold medal hung around her neck, him barely winded while the rest of the contestants flapped tiredly to the finish line, barely having made it without using one of the resting points.
As the town’s central platform came into view his smile only got wider. More pegasi were present than he had thought there would be. There were probably hundreds of them, all mingling with the community and each other. There were even some gryphons there.
“Silver do you see this?” He knew she would have her eyes closed, and always pretended that he didn’t notice her wings splayed out as if she was the one flying. It scared him a bit when she did that, but he knew she was careful about it. As such he was careful to always avoid the updrafts so that she wouldn’t be flipped over. It might mean that he would have to put more effort into flying on his own power, but it was well worth it for his sister. As a bonus, he didn’t have to work out much after carrying her around everywhere and avoiding any free lift.
“Yeah, its really coo–Woah, there’s gryphons over there!” She shouted. Her meloncholy from earlier had worn off from the flight and now her exhuberance had returned en force. “Can we go meet the gryphons? Huh? Huh? Can we?”
“I don’t know, Silver,” Night joked, “it might not be such a great idea; them competing against our town and everything.”
“Please? I’ll be good, I promise!” She brought out the powerful weapon that was commonly used throughout the universe: the puppy dog eyes.
Night laughed, he was willing to let her meet the gryphons either way, but he just loved seeing how cute she was like that, and she knew it. “Sure thing.”
As they landed, she shot off his back towards the nearby gryphons. He watched as one of the male gryphons brushed her off, while a female seemed to take a liking to her.
The sound of large leathery wings flapping through the air that was brushing against his mane brought Night Owl’s attention to a thestral mare that was landing beside him. “Hey, Ghost Wind. How are you today?” he greeted her as she landed.
“Well, I’ve had a crazy day so far."
"Crazy compared to a normal day at your house? This ought to be good."
Ghost Wind laughed. "The whole family got up for a final practice early this morning. After that, we helped everypony set up the courses and events and then the `dynamic duo` got a little competitive with each other, starting their own little event that somehow became official and is due to start in an hour. Later I had to help Breeze wash some punch out of her fur
"And how did that happen?
"Well, one of the colts is from one of the nearby towns and he started making a bit of trouble. Steady Breeze was keeping steady until he called her- well, you know, their name for us."
"Oh. I see."
"Yes. I swear she's going to join the Forest Guard when she gets older."
"If she does I'll personally vouch for her as fine guard material."
"Oh, I'm sure she would love that," Ghost wind said with a knowing smile.
Night winced a bit. It wasn't hard to realize that his little sister's best friend had a heavy crush on him. "Yeah, I'm sure she would."
Ghost Wind laughed. "Aren't young crushes just adorable?"
"Yeah, adorable. Um, uh–Oh!" He lowered his voice so only she could hear it. "Have you already signed me up for the race?"
"Yes, I made sure that got done before we finished helping everypony set up." She looked around before reaching into her saddlebag and handing him a sheet of paper with a few numbers with a few strings attached.
He quickly took the paper and put it in his own saddle bags. “Thank you for that, Wind. And thank you for flying Silver around while I'll be racing."
"Your welcome and good luck on the race today. I'm absolutely sure you'll get first."
"Ha. Shouldn't you be saying that to your husband? I know he's in that race too."
"With you racing? He's hoping to get second place, just behind you." Some shouting back in the direction she had come from caught her attention. "Oh, I've been gone a bit longer than I had thought I would. I'd better go make sure the twins don't start any new impromptu events. Good luck!"
“Thanks. I’ll see you at the race.” he waved at the retreating mare and decided to see how the thestral/gryphon relations were going with his sister.
What he saw sent shots of fear and joy down his spine. The gryphess had taken to juggling the filly in the air with her massive wings, Silver giggling like mad.
Night’s first thought was to rush over and pull her out of the air and away from the decidedly dangerous gryphon, but he figured the gryphon knew what she was doing if she would do this with a flightless young filly. Or at least he hoped. Besides, he didn’t often see Silver having that much fun. He would still hurry over though, just in case.
“I see you’ve met my sister,” he greeted the gryphess. “I hope she’s been in good talons.” he hinted, hoping she wouldn’t take offense.
“Oh, Bonjour.” She paused in her game with Silver and put the giggling filly down. “So de little one is wit’ you? She has been no problem. I love children and dis one is jus too cute. We have been getting to know each other and what our different races our like. We are almost as new to ponies as she is to us. I had jus been telling her how we were on vacation in a nearby town. When we heard about dis competition we decided to join. We did not expect to see bat ponies” - Night Owl stiffened at the word - “or other gryphons when we got here.”
“What’s a bat pony?” Silver spoke up. “Do you mean us? ‘Cuz we’re called thestrals, not bat ponies.” She looked completely cute and innocent to the normal eye, but Night saw that little glint in her eye that told him just how much she was aware of what she was saying. His pride in his little sister swelled to the point he thought he might start grinning like a goofball.
“Oh, I am sorry for de miscommunication. I had heard the name spoken among a few of de pegasi here. I had just assumed that is what you were called.” She looked genuinely apologetic, so he decided to ignore the mistake. Besides, anypony that would say that name was either ignorant of its context or wouldn’t say it to a thestral's face without a few lackeys to back them up.
“It’s alright. I’m Night Owl, by the way.” He extended a hoof in greeting.
“Oh, where are my manners? I am Genevieve -” She shook his hoof, careful to avoid scraping him with her talons “- and my husband, Gustav should be around here somewhere. He is likely by the food. He is a renowned baker and pastry chef. It is only thanks to me that he has not become too heavy to fly.” A quick look told them that he was, indeed at the bake sale booth, enjoying a few of the mooncakes that were kept as a secret recipe among the colony.
The sound of an enchanted microphone turning on brought silence over the majority of the large crowd. A pegasus mare with a bright yellow coat and fiery two-toned orange mane stepped up to the podium to many cheers among the pegasi and several of the gryphons. The mare smiled and motioned for the crowd to settle down, waiting a moment for a few of the flyers -Gustav included- to make their way back to their friends and families before speaking.
Genevieve introduced her husband to Night Owl while the mare on stage went through a speech about the relations between thestrals and pegasi.
Night Owl began to notice a strange smell near the end of the mare’s speech. It was such an odd smell, one that he had only smelled maybe once or twice before. He just couldn't place the smell. The uncomfortable evening heat was only making it harder to identify the smell with the rising stench of sweat.
Night Owl looked out towards where the sun was currently setting, the mare’s speech all but background noise at this point. Is it getting warmer? The sun was almost gone, but the light around him didn't seem to diminish in the slightest.
Night Owl fanned out his wings, trying to get a bit of relief from the heat. A warm updraft brushed against his wings on its way into the sky. This isn't right. The updraft from the heat shouldn't be this strong. Not right here on the platform. “Silver, stay close to me, alright? Something’s not right here.” The filly looked at him weird, but obeyed anyways, sticking close to Night Owl’s side. She knew better than to ignore him when he was feeling cautious.
Night Owl looked around and it seemed he wasn’t the only one looking uncomfortable. One of the thestral stallions by the edge of the platform was unfurling his wings as well. Suddenly the wings snapped open and he was pushed into the air by the force of the wind alone.
“Oh, ponyfeathers.”
The mare’s speech had only just ended when the flying thestral opened his mouth, eyes bulging and glued what ever he saw beneath the platform. Night Owl watched the stallion’s reaction and knew that something was terribly wrong. There was a strange orange glint to the pony’s eyes and suddenly the reaction made sense to Night Owl. The crowd was still hushed from waiting for the mare to continue talking when the thestral's voice rang out over the crowd.
“Fire!”
The crowd ceased all whispered conversations and for a moment there was no noise coming from the top of the platform, the sound of crackling finally washing over the horrified crowd.
The mare on the podium picked up the microphone again. A smile graced her lips as she spoke, “Let the games begin!” A flash of green fire encompassed her body, and what was left was a shiny black carapace with transparent insectile wings, holes carved through her legs, a smooth curved horn, long white fangs, and bright blue pupil-less eyes.
The entire crowd burst into pandemonium. Everywhere, pegasi were bursting into changeling forms, the green fire catching on the wooden floor beneath them. hundreds of ponies were escaping into the skies where more changelings awaited them above the tree tops.
Night Owl grabbed Silver, threw her onto his back, and ran towards the edge of the platform, Genevieve and Gustav close behind. Night held his wings straight out, preparing for the jump. “Hold on tight!” He jumped.
This time there wasn't a moment of unnerving calmness, but rather a violent jerk upwards as the heat from the fire bore them up. “We have to get away from here!” he shouted over his shoulder. “The changelings are covering the skies, so we’ll have to travel through the cover of the forest before surfacing. Stay close to me and whatever you do, don’t slow down. Forest fires won’t wait for anypony, and I doubt these changelings will either.”
“They heard you,” Silver informed him. “Night, what’s going to happen?” her voice was quivering but he could still hear a defiant strain of bravery in her voice.
“Stay strong, Silver. We’re going to to get out of here and tell Princess Luna what happened here.” He wasn't going to let anything happen to his little Star. Nothing.
“Above you!” Genevieve cried. Silver screamed as several changelings came from above, aiming to tackle Night out of the air. He flew to the side, knowing they would follow his movements. They were all watching him, rather than where they were going.
Whump. Whump. Whu-crack.
Night Owl had led the changelings into a dark tree limb that was hanging out in the air. Half of them had flown straight into it, ripping it from the tree and dragging the last changeling down with it.
“Thanks, Genevieve!”
“It is my pleas-Argh!”
“Genevieve!” Night Owl looked back to see Gustav ripping a changeling from his wife’s back and throwing it down to the depths of the forest floor, another hanging limp in Genevieve’s talons.
“Do not worry about us. We are capable of holding ourselves. Fly!”
He didn't wait another moment. They took off through the forest. A few more changelings came upon them, but after they were all quickly dispatched, no more were seen.
It was setting Night Owl on edge.
The rising moon left shadows everywhere and even a thestral’s eyes could only discern so much in the dark.
Nothing was happening. He didn't know if they had given up, if they had lost them, or if they were waiting for a chance to attack. He didn't like not knowing.
“Do think they have left us alone?” Genevieve called out.
Something caught Night Owl’s eyes in the shadows on the forest floor.
“It could be,” Gustave answered. “They must have many more people than just us to worry about.” He laughed. “I saw a few other gryphons there, all much athletic than us. I’m sure they have their hoof holes filled with troubles.”
“Shh.” Night put a hoof to his lips. Silver must have repeated the gesture to the gryphons by the way she moved on his back.
The small, indistinct noises of nature filled the air. There was something wrong with the shadows. They were moving too much. “I don’t think we’re out of the woods quite yet.”
Silence. Deathly still silence. “Ambush!” Night owl screamed.
They were everywhere. The three of them fought the horde back but were forced down to the ground. Genevieve and Gustav took out a large part of the swarm together but there were still so many to go.
This couldn't be happening. Night Owl was useless in the fight. He couldn't do anything to the changelings. All he could do was dodge their attacks while keeping Silver from falling off his back. He jumped to the ground as another changeling flew over him, tripping over Night’s wings he had put up to protect Silver.
He had to find a way out. He looked around frantically. He had to get Silver to safety. There were changelings in every direction, the gryphon couple doing their best to hold them all off. Then he saw the gorge to the side. “To the left!” he shouted, the two gryphons quickly catching his intent.
They barreled through the crowd, Gustav clearing the way in front while Genevieve protected Night Owl and Silver Star from behind. As they passed the opening to the gorge Genevieve flew up and knocked a rock out of place along the mountainside, causing a small avalanche and blocking the changelings on the ground.
As the stones fell around the entrance several went flying towards the small group. They all did their best to avoid the falling boulders but Night saw one as it careened it way towards him. He moved purely on instinct, throwing Silver off his back and away from the boulder’s path.
Silence.
Everything looked fuzzy.
He blinked a few times.
Sound was gradually coming back to him, a voice echoing above the ringing.
He couldn't tell, but he thought he recognized that voice.
Silver...That's Silver's voice...
“Night!” Silver Star was screaming.
Night Owl could feel blood running down his face and more pooling down by his hind legs. He couldn’t feel his left wing.
“Night, come on, get up!”
Why can't I feel my wing?
“Night, They’re coming!”
He tried lifting himself up but he seemed to be caught on the boulder laying beside him.
“Night, come on, you've got to get up!”
He must be stuck underneath the boulder. He guessed it might be his wing and hind leg.
“Night, come on! Night! Night! You said you would protect me. Night, please!”
That brought Night owl back to his senses. He could see changelings just calmly crawling over the avalanche debris, crawling down the sides of trees, and crawling down the tall cliff face across from him. Just crawling, as if it didn't matter how long it took, it wouldn't matter.
He was pinned beneath the boulder and Genevieve and Gustav were sitting there, horrified, not knowing what to do. He couldn't do anything. He couldn't protect anyone. He had left his community to the changelings’ mercy. He had abandoned everypony there. His neighbors, his friends; all gone. There sat his only family left, crying her eyes out, defenseless without him.
He couldn't protect her.
But he had a promise to keep.
“Genevieve,” he called, “I need you and Gustav to take Silver Star and fly away from here.”
“What? Night, no,” Silver cried. “I need you Night. You have to get up!”
Genevieve put on a brave face and walked towards Silver.
“Night, come on. I can’t leave you. Night, no-No!”
Genevieve picked her up and spread her wings, tears staining the fur beneath her eyes.
“Night, no!” Tears rained down Silver Star’s cheeks as she was placed on Genevieve’s back. “No, take me back! Help him get up! NIGHT!”
The small, flightless filly jumped. She spread her wings, one shining a pale silver in the moonlight, while the other was a gray skeletal reminder of the first time Night Owl had failed to protect her. She tried to keep a glide but was quickly flipped over, out of control, with only one wing being able to catch the air.
A pale yellow taloned foot reached out and snatched the filly from the air leaving her helpless but to watch as the changelings surrounded her brother. Her protector. Her only family left in the world.
Night Owl wanted to scream for Silver, wanted to be with her at least one last time, but it would be no use. He could see the changelings crawling closer, swarming in from every side, every surface covered in the parasites. He couldn't move, couldn't do anything.
A loud grinding noise filled his ears. He looked around, and there was Gustav, pulling the boulder off of him, shaking from the effort. When the boulder had been moved far enough Night rolled out from under the weight and tried to stand.
“Gustav you need to go.” Night Owl wouldn't be able to leave. He was a lost cause.
“No, there is more for you to do. More for you to see!” Gustav replied. “Do you not want to see your sister one last time?” Gustav helped Night Owl stand on the three legs he had use of left. “You must live for her. Do not give up until she is with you again!”
He's right. Silver...I will catch up to you and I will never leave you again. Night Owl struggled to keep standing. He could do this. He looked at his left wing and cringed. It was torn apart. Skeletal claws with bleeding rags hanging off. “I can’t fly, Gustav.” There had to be another way out.
“You were not meant to, monsieur.”
“What?” Night Owl looked over at the gryphon who had just saved him. What he saw sent icicles down his spine.
An electric green flame was running along the course of the gryphon’s body, covering Gustav. A haunting smile was plastered on Gustav’s beak until the flames had obscured him completely. Then, slowly the flames receded, leaving thick, hole-filled, black-shelled legs and a massive body to match. Where Gustav had stood, there was now a gargantuan changeling roughly the same size as a gryphon. The only similarities left between Gustav and this thing was that cold, haunting smile, white teeth and fangs shining brightly among the black shell beneath the deep glaring blue eyes. “Surprise.”
The sound of a pair of large feathered wings filled the air above him. He looked up and saw Genevieve still holding Silver in her talons. A patch of green slime now covered Silver’s mouth, her eyes stricken with fear and tears staining her cheeks.
“No…”
Genevieve landed at the top of the cliff face across from him, that same cold grin stretched across her beak. The same electric green flames surrounded her and left another hulking changeling with Silver clutched in its magical grasp.
The trees all around were lighting up in that unnatural green fire. Orange and green shadows dancing all around.
Several changelings came up behind her as she brought Silver up to her face, her mouth open wide, showing off the long glinting white fangs.
“Stop!”
Her jaws closed around Silver Star’s neck with and audible slap. His sister’s muffled scream piercing the air. The fire reacted violently, overflowing into the ranks of changelings, feeding off of her fear and pain. None of the changelings were affected by the fire at all, some still crawling through it while others were lit up in the green fire, as it it was a part of them.
Night owl to lunged forward, trying to get closer to his sister, but he was thrown back by the gargantuan changeling that was once Gustav, now a hulking monster that was half inferno. He tried lifting his wings but when he tried to fly up to her he only flipped onto his side, crushing his wing again, his own scream filling the air.
All he could do was watch helplessly as his pleas were ignored and his sister was passed around like a snack, her silvery blue coat turning grey, her eyes losing focus and reforming to milky white discs, both of her wings looking like skeletal claws now.
The changelings had finished feeding on his sister. The slime covering her mouth was gone, but she was bleeding from her neck, scorched in places by the green fire, and now looked like a skeleton with skin and fur. Everything about her looked lifeless except for one thing.
He could still see her breathing. Long, jagged, shallow breaths, but still, she was alive.
The thing that was once Genevieve once again adopted that vile grin, malice and hatred burning in her eyes.
The magical grasp around the shriveled filly shrunk and squeezed her until small sounds of pain could be heard.
“Stop. Please. Leave her alone!”
Those eyes. There was only hatred and malice in those eyes.
The magical grip on Silver Star began to slacken, but it didn't stop when she was no longer being squeezed. Very slowly she was slipping down through the magical field.
“No…”
Her hind legs passed the edge of the green aura.
“No.”
Her stomach started rolling out.
“No, no, no!”
Her withers were hanging out.
“No, No, No, NO!”
He tried again to run to her aid but was only blocked by the former Gustav, forced to watch as Silver Star’s head dipped below the field of magic. The green Aura tightened on her mane and she stopped sliding down. A small whimper escaping her muzzle as she hung by the hairs of her mane.
Night didn't breathe. He held as still as his sister, as if both of their lives were held in the changeling’s magical grip.
The Changeling bought Silver up above its head, giving one last snarl of hatred before the glow around its horn faded out.
The world faded to slow motion. Everything around Night Owl swirled into a blur, the only things left in existence now were him and Silver Star, falling to her death.
Every agonizingly slow movement he made was matched by a few inches lost between her and the cold hard stones beneath her.
His hooves thrashed against the ground.
His wings made pitiful attempts to speed him further.
His little Star continued to fall from the sky.
He stretched out his hooves, desperately reaching out for her.
He never even came close.
He heard the sickening crunch as she hit the rocks.
He made it to her side moments later. “Silver?” Her eyes were closed and he couldn't see her breathing. “Silver, please, speak to me.” She didn't respond.
He felt something hot and sticky beneath one of his hooves. His leg shot back as if seared. He looked down at it and there was blood on his hoof.
Night watched in horror as small black pools coalesced under his sister’s frame with a hoofprint left on the fringe of the largest puddle.
“No. Silver, I need you to wake up now.” She didn't move. “Silver, wake up. Just wake up.” He moved closer, ignoring the blood. “S- Silver?”
He wrapped his hooves around her and picked her up, cradling her in his legs. “Silver p-please don’t leave me.” She was cold. “P-please, don’t l-leave me.” Her fur was shining like silk in the moonlight and he could feel her blood rolling down his legs and barrel. “Please, I've tried to k-keep our promise, don’t b-break it now.” Tears blurred his vision and ran down his cheeks.
“Just wake up for me, will you? Please, don’t go. Silver. Silver, wake up. Silver! I need you to stay with me! Please, I can’t lose you! Just wake up!” He broke down into uncontrollable sobs as his hope was drained away.
“P-p-ple-ease d-don’t le-eave m-me…”
A harsh insectile chuckle rose from behind him.
He didn't want to look at them. She’s gone. The world was meaningless to him now. My little star is gone. And they...they took her from me. Rage filled his heart, pitifully trying to fill the hole that had just been ripped out. They killed her.
He carefully put his sister down, turned towards the laughter behind him.
Quivering with rage he faced her murderers. thousands of changelings stood to face him, outlined by their unnatural fire. In the front stood the two large changelings with triumphant sneers plastered across their faces.
He didn't know what he was doing anymore. The next thing he knew he was in a throng of changelings biting and kicking in every direction. Several flashes of the ensuing combat came to his mind. A changeling in front of him, his mouth latched to its neck as his sharp incisors pierced its shell. A changeling on his back, tearing at his wings. A changeling beneath him taking the full force of his power beneath his hooves. Several changelings holding him down as more pummeled him to the ground.
He was caught. Beaten and bloody, he lay before an army of identical monsters.
Breathing was a chore and would easily send him into a bloody coughing fit.
His ears were ringing, but the sound of magic could still be heard. When he looked up every single changeling had lit its horn, collectively producing a light that out shone even the unnatural fire around them.
He knew he was going to die. They were going to finish him off with this final blow. He looked up to the night sky one last time. He made a silent prayer the the night goddess Nyx that she might take Silver up to the stars with her.
I’m sorry, Silver.
The green glow of changeling magic was suddenly pierced by the light of a shining star, as if in answer to Night Owl’s prayer. The changelings let their built up magic fly as the white light of the stars blinded him and the world around him disappeared.
