Twilight Sparkle: a name often associated with magic, friendship, harmony, and most recently, ascendant princess of Equestria. Nopony, not even herself, could have thought that she would be a changeling.
Twilight Sparkle: a name often associated with magic, friendship, harmony, and most recently, ascendant princess of Equestria. Nopony, not even herself, could have thought that she would be a changeling. Especially not a changeling princess.
Deep within the heart of the Badlands, a cavern-riddled wasteland south of Equestria, resides the Hive. This hive was no ordinary hive, for instead of housing bees or some other from of insect, the Hive's inhabitants were a creature almost unknown to Equestria and its ponies.
Celestia, monarch of Equestria and princess of the sun, did know what was in the Hive as she flew into the Badlands. She had heard reports of attacks and ponyknappings on the nearby towns, such as Appleoosa. These attacks were no ordinary occurance, and the strangest part was that the attackers were changelings, creatures that had not been seen in almost five hundred years. These changelings were those that dwelled within the caves that made up the Hive.
Landing with a thud and a silent promise to eat less cake before bed, Princess Celestia strolled into the Hive as if it were her own castle, with the expeption that any and every changeling she saw was instantaneously incinerated in a blast of bright gold magic, heated to temperatures that would make the sun itself turn on the air conditioner. Celestia's usually colorful mane was a firey inferno, and her tail left scorch marks on the floor behind the white alicorn. Her hoofprints were seared into the ground as she walked. Nopony had, nor ever will see the sun princess as angry--no, livid--as she was that day.
"Come out, Chrysalis!" Celestia called out into the tunnels. "You will harm no more of my little ponies!"
"Make me," Queen Chrysalis hissed, allowing her buzzing voice to bounce off of the walls and reverberate throught the Hive, so as to throw Celestia away from her true location.
Celestia snorted and blasted apart the walls around herself, and walked through the new doorway into what appeared to be a hatchery. Changeling eggs glowed greeen and dotted the floor in groups, while tiny nymphs hung from the ceiling inside slimy green cocoons. The baby changeling drones slept soundly, even throught Celestia's rampage.
"Chrysalis?" Celestia growled, her hair flickering in its own flame. "Where are you?"
"Right here," the queen said, standing right behind Princess Celestia. Her sickly green mane and tail hung limp like sea weed, and was desperately in need of a wash. Chrysalis' carapace was dirty and her wings looked even more fragile than usual. Her hooves had gaping holes up past the knee, and her stomach was sunk in, both signs of starvation.
"You look terrible," Celestia taunted. "I'd have thought you would actually look fed after attacking so many ponies."
Chrysalis chuckled, which soon turned into a wheezing cough, as she said, "It wasn't for me."
"Then who did you attack my ponies for?" Celestia asked, horn charging up with bright gold magic. "Moi?"
"No!" Chrysalis snarled. "And you won't lay a hoof on her! I won't let you!"
"You? You couldn't even keep me out of your own home, much less away from any of your changelings," Celestia scoffed, her flaming hair crackling in rage. To emphasize her point, Celestia's magic shot out, blasting away a clutch of eggs. Tiny bits of shell and ash floated down from where the eggs had sat.
Chrysalis gasped, her breath caught in her throat. "You-you-you monster," she choked out, having heard the unhatched changelings die within the hivemind, which was the mental connection all changelings had.
"Oh no. You're the monster," Celestia said as she incinerated more of the eggs and even some of the cocoons, all of which Chrysalis could hear in her mind.
The changeling tried to shield the eggs, disrupt Celestia's magic, even attack Celestia herself, to no effect. Chrysalis heard a shriek that nearly deafened her before she realized that it was her own scream, wailing with a mother's agony.
"Scared?" Princess Celestia asked. "You should be. Nopony hurts my little ponies."
Chrysalis' scream turned into a choking sob. "I had no choice! Please, I beg of you! Spare my children!"
Celestia scoffed, "You are in no position to beg for mercy. Perhaps twenty victims ago..."
Chrysalis shivered, sobbing. Her frail wings quivered with her cries. "Spare us! Please! Please."
The princess ignored her, instead turning to a private room adjacent to the demolished hatchery. Stepping inside the crude door, Celestia lit up the room, her firey mane giving off more than enough light. The room's sole occupant, a tiny unicorn filly, slept soundly inside a green-tinted cocoon.
"Thou hast gone too far, Queen Chrysalis," Celestia spat out, turning back to the crying changeling. "Who doth thou thinkist thou art?" she growled backing Chrysalis into the wall. "Who doth thou think thou are?!"
"I-I don't-I don't know what-what you're--"
"Have thou no boundaries to your evil, twisted ways?!" Celestia screamed, her flaming hair crackling madly. "You will most certainly pay!"
"Have I not paid enough?!"
"I shalt have thou sent to the depths of Tartarus for what thou hast wrought!"
Chrysalis collapsed, covering her face with her forehooves. She peeked up at Celestia through the holes in her legs. "I don't know what you're talking about!"
Princess Celestia jerked her head towards the room housing the unicorn filly. "Even thou shouldst know that foalknapping is a most henious crime, punishable by death!"
"Foalknapping...?" Chrysalis asked hoasely, her eyes widening and her pupils shrinking to pinpricks. "No! That isn't--She's--I'm not--!"
"Plead all thou wish, all thine evidence is against thou."
Chrysalis grabbed at the white alicorn. "No! Please don't! Don't touch her!"
Celestia shook the changeling off and glared at her. "Don't touch me."
Tears ran down Chrysalis' cheeks and onto her chitinous hooves as she cried out, "Don't hurt my daughter!"
The sun princess froze, and without turning around, said in a voice cold as ice, "Cease thine lies, for they fall on deaf ears. Thou shalt steal away no more of my ponies as long as I shall live." Celestia met Chrysalis' eyes. "And I will live forever."
Chrysalis whimpered quietly as Celestia's golden magic pulled the filly from her cocoon. In the light, both monarchs could see the infant clearly. Soft lavender fur met straight purple hair, and when the filly yawned and opened her eyes, Celestia saw big, bright purple irises staring up at her. The princess' own mane and tail died down from a firey inferno to a soft rainbow of pastels as she smiled at the child.
"I will not kill you here," Celestia said after a pause. "And risk harming one of my little ponies."
Chrysalis sighed with relief.
"But, so help me, if you ever step hoof in Equestria again, I will send you straight to Tartarus."
Twilight Sparkle stood silently in front of the gates to Canterlot Castle. It was strange, that less than a month had passed since she was just a "regular old unicorn", to quote her much younger self, and now was a princess. She was no longer the part of the faithful student to Celestia, but her equal, a fact that never seemed to grow old.
She took a deep breath and stepped inside. Even though the castle was the same, and had been for almost a thousand years, the colors seemed brighter today. It was almost as if the world was smiling down on Twilight, and everything was most certainly fine.
"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" a familiar voice asked. "We don't really see much of you in Canterlot nowadays."
Twilight sighed, "Discord? Where are you?"
The draconequus chuckled from his hiding place within Twilight's ear. "It's nice to see you, too, princess."
"I'm kinda busy right now," Twilight said as she trotted through the halls. "Can this wait?"
"Hmm..." Discord climbed up to the lavender alicorn's horn and stared down at her. "It can, but I don't think it will."
"What in Equestria are you talking about?"
Popping back to his original size, Discord gerked his thumb over his shoulder. "'Tia's been looking for you all morning. Some sort of 'diplomatic mission' or something. I kinda tuned her out once she started talking about politics." With that, he leaped into one of the stained glass windows and slithered away.
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Alright, then." Her hooves made muffled clicks on the carpet as Twilight wandered about, looking for Celestia. She soon found the sun princess on the Solar Tower balcony. "You wanted to see me?"
Princess Celestia nodded without facing Twilight. "Yes. There have been some small riots in lower Zebrica, which is one of Equestria's top export countries."
"You want me to go check it out? Why?"
"You have yet to learn what all being a princess entails, and this is just the sort of thing that will help you," Celestia answered, glancing at Twilight Sparkle. "And you're the only princess availible right now."
Twilight nodded slowly, "I think I can do that. I won't let you down."
Celestia smiled and nuzzled the younger princess. "I know you won't."
Twilight waved to her friends as her train departed from Ponyville. Instead of heading to Zebrica direcly, she had stopped at her home to finish packing and to tell her friends good-bye.
"We'll miss you!" her friends called out. Pinkie Pie still had streamers in her hair from the I-know-you've-gotta-leave-now-but-this-will-be-a-super-duper-fast-going-away-party party. "Don't forget to write!"
The lavender princess smiled as she watched her friends seemingly shrink as the train moved farther and farther away. Once she could no longer see them, Twilight turned back around to the book she had brought to read during the trip. Her last thought before diving into the world of literature was that this was going to be a long ride.
Unknown to Twilight Sparkle, three ponies who were not planing on a trip to Zebrica had been following the princess almost all day. They needed to know if she was the one they were looking for.
<Ugh. I've read that book, and the ending totally sucks.> The brown-coated stallion snorted. <She's gonna be so disappionted.>
<Stay focused.> A mint green unicorn mare two rows behind him rolled her eyes. <You don't want her to get involved, do you?>
On the other side of the train car, a white mare adjusted her dark purple sunglasses. <No, and you really don't want her involved if we botch this mission. Can't you guys keep the line clear for even a little while?>
<No.> <Yes!>
The white mare, a unicorn whom we shall call "DJ Pon-3" snorted. She was the pony in charge, and the other two, "Dr. Whooves" and "Lyra", were little more than assistants. As to what they were assisting, some ponies might call it "treason". These ponies called it "strategic revealing of the crown's secrets, working title."
DJ sighed as the others continued to argue, effectively ignoreing her order. This was going to be a long trip.
Twilight glanced up from her book, confused. She thought she had heard something buzzing just out of her hearing.
The princess flicked her ear. "Did somepony say something?"
One of the other ponies across the aisle of the train car shoook her head. Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight saw two ponies glance at each other worriedly, but ignored it in favor of her book.
She soon felt the tingling sensation of magic, and heard somepony scream as the world went dark. Twilight tried to pry the hooves off of her eyes, but was quickly restrained by more legs. She could feel something cold and hard slipping around her horn, which she guessed to be a magic draining ring, futher proven once Twilight attempted to teleport away. Oddly enough, it felt like hardened cocoon-goo, rather than the enchnted steel that made Equestrian rings.
A hissing voice, one identifying her attackers to be undisguised changelings, said smoothly, "Relax, princess. You're going home." as they traveled through a portal, coutesy of the changelings themselves.
Twilight's last thought before entering a magic-enduced sleep was that she hoped Chrysalis wasn't out for revenge.
Celestia stared at the messenger in front of her. The stout pegasus stallion had just flown to Canterlot to tell her, and her only, of the reported ponyknapping.
Twilight's ponyknapping.
"And you are absolutely, positively, without-a-doubt certain of this?" The princess asked, brushing her hoof on the carpeted floor nervously, hoping against hope that perhaps the pegasus was wrong.
He nodded his head, "Yes, ma'am. I saw it with my own eyes. Three changelings came out of nowhere and zapped Princess Twilight Sparkle into who-knows-where. I'm sorry I couldn't do more to get her back."
Celestia smiled as the stallion turned to fly away. "You've done plenty. Thank you." He nodded and took off. "I wish I could have done more."
Princess Celestia could remember the first time she had seen the lavender unicorn whom she had come to love. It was about fifteen years prior, after the changelings' first attack on Equestria in centuries.
Queen Chrysalis had made a name for herself, draining ponies of their love until they were no more than burned out husks, then slaughtering them once they were of no more use to her. It was a horrible, horrible way to end.
After one such an attack, Celestia herself went to go investigate, and if need, punish the changelings. She imagined that her sister, Luna, would like some company should it have to come to that. But it never did.
Inside the changelings' Hive, she had found one of the victims that the bugs had taken home to continue feeding off of, a tiny lavender filly no more than a few weeks old. This was Twilight Sparkle.
Upon returning to Canterlot, Celestia was able to quickly find a home for the foal under the care of Night Light and Twilight Velvet, two graduates of her school for gifted unicorns. They already had a son, who would eventually grow up to be the captain of the Royal Guard. All they needed was a daughter to complete their near-perfect lives.
It was completely a coincidence that the same filly would become Celestia's personal student, a pony whom the princess had loved from the beginning. Celestia only hoped that Twilight would be safe wherever the changelings had taken her.
Deep within the heart of the Badlands, a cavern-riddled wasteland south of Equestria, resides the Hive. This hive was no ordinary hive, for instead of housing bees or some other from of insect, the Hive's inhabitants were changelings. One changeling, the queen, stood outside the Hive watching the single road that led to where she stood. She was waiting for somepony very special, the pony who would be the saviour of her race. That pony was her long lost daughter.
Chrysalis smiled, her fangs glinting in the sun. A ring of green flame, the signature appearance of a portal, had appeared a little ways down the path. She could see three of her loyal drones carrying an unconscious alicorn mare, one she recognized from the Canterlot incident. Oh, how she wished she could hate Twilight Sparkle.
But she couldn't.
All she felt was joy, joy that Twilight was alive, and love. Love that was so vital to the changelings' nature, love that only a queen--nay, a mother--could produce. Love that would make her daughter more powerful than the sun and moon, if not all of Canterlot combined. It was no wonder that her daughter had chosen a talent in magic.
Or, that's what Chrysalis hoped.
Secretly, the queen wondered if, perhaps, Twilight had not chosen her cutie mark. That her daughter truely believed that Chrysalis was a monster. Chrysalis grimaced. What if her daughter rejected her?
Queen Chrysalis shook her head. Of course she won't reject me. I'm her mother, and that means she has to love me. Right?
Here goes nothing.
Twilight's eyes fluttered open slowly. Lifting her head, she could see what appeared to be her bedroom at the library. That can't be right, she thought. Wasn't I on a train?
Looking closer, she saw that the room had no windows, and the shelves had books that she didn't recognize, along with several she did. There was other things that were slightly off about the room, but the biggest thing that was wrong was the room's other occupant.
A single changeling drone sat at the end of Twilight's bed, a sight that caused the alicorn to shriek in fright. Twilight jumped up, and bounced a few times on the springy bed, before snorting. "Who are you? Where have you taken me? Why do you want me? And why in Equestria are you staring at me?!"
The drone cringed. "My apologies, your highness. Queen Chrysalis wished to know when you would awaken."
Twilight eyed the drone suspiciously. "Why? What does Chrysalis want with me? Revenge? My crown? Revenge?"
Shaking his head, the drone said, "You should let her tell you. She's waited almost fifteen years for this moment."
Twilight frowned. Fifteen years? She was barely fifteen herself. What could Chrysalis possibly want for as long as she had existed? She barely noticed as the drone beckoned her to follow him. Why did they try to trick me into thinking I was back at Ponyville, then prove I wasn't? Why?
Twilight rubbed her forehead, near the base of her horn. She could feel a headache comming on, and the magic ring around her horn truely didn't help. Also, the strange buzzing noise that she had heard on the train ride was back, but worse. Twilight wondered for a brief second if she was going crazy.
The drone motioned to a large door at the end of the tunnel he had led her down. Pulling it open with her hooves, Twilight Sparkle stepped inside. The first thing she saw, or even cared to notice was the tall changeling who sat on a throne at the end of the room.
"Queen Chrysalis," Twilight said with disgust, ignoreing the voice in the back of her head that said she should be more polite to the queen. "What do you want?"
Chrysalis grinned, "Come here, I want to look at you." She waved Twilight over with a holey hoof.
Twilight frowned. "Is this some sort of a trick, changeling? You can't fool me anymore. As soon as I'm able, I'm getting out of here, and you know it."
"Manners," Chrysalis tsked. "Oh, you've grown up so much! And you make for a darling little alicorn."
"Did you ponyknap me just so that you could dote on me? I have two parents at home who do enough of that. I don't need my mortal enemies doing such a thing as well." Twilight rolled her eyes.
"Did Celestia not tell you?" Chrysalis sighed. "They aren't your real parents, or birth parents as I should say. You were adopted. "
"Now, I know that's a lie. If I was adopted, don't you think somepony might've told me?" Twilight snorted. "Like they'd lie to me over something so trivial."
"But what if it wasn't?"
"Wasn't what?"
"Trivial. What if Celestia found you as an infant in a cocoon in the Hive, and took you thinking that I had fillyknapped you for your love?" Chrysalis' draconic eyes stared straight into Twilight's. The latter made no answer as Chrysalis continued. "And what if Celestia was wrong? What if you were actually a cha--"
Twilight interrupted her. "No, you're wrong. Celestia is never wrong, and she trusts me. She would tell me if I was...adopted...under abnormal circumstances. And I'm not a changeling. I think I would know if I was."
Chrysalis frowned. "For changelings, shape-shifting is as easy as thinking. You might have subconsciously shifted yourself into the form of a lavender unicorn."
"But I'm not a unicorn anymore," Twilight said, fluttering her wings. "Which means you're wrong. Still."
"Same thing. Your subconscious needed a viable excuse for Celestia's spell not taking hold, the reason being that you weren't really a unicorn, the spell's intended recipient, but a changeling."
"Where, then did the spell's magic go? It couldn't just disperse without Celestia knowing."
Chrysalis smirked, "Oh, but it did disperse. Celestia couldn't tell because the dream realm where you disappeared to was already saturated with solar and lunar magic. Such a small discharge in comparison would barely make a difference."
Twilight pouted, stumped. "B-but I can't be a changeling. I just can't."
"Don't deny who you are," Chrysalis said gently. "Besides, you aren't just any old drone. You're a princess."
