> The Love of a Queen
>  by SilverMuse
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> Chrysalis' Decision
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	Pain.
That was the first sensation Queen Chrysalis felt as light broke through her foggy, unconscious world. She hissed in pain and gasped, feeling dirt tickle her muzzle and nose. Soil stuck to her tongue and peppered her mouth with a disgusting taste. She spat it out in a glob and cracked open one working eye, the other too swollen to move. The spit soaked slowly into the ground, except for the blood that mingled with saliva. 
Chrysalis grimaced and lifted her head slowly, her green mane falling tangled around her face. A racking cough threatened to drive her back to the dirt, but she struggled through it and spat more blood onto the ground.
Where am I? What happened?
Her memories were blurred, and she couldn’t seem to get the haze of pink and blue out of her eyes. Lifting a trembling hoof, she rubbed her forehead and pushed the strands out of her face. When her good eye opened, she wished very much that she was still unconscious.
Carnage lay before her in the form of the twisted, mangled bodies of her beloved changelings. Some had died instantly upon impact with the ground or the sides of cliffs and hills.  Others looked as if they had writhed in agony for hours before succumbing to their wounds, their mouths hanging open in soundless screams. The light from their eyes was long gone, their wings so still beside them unless the wind gently blew at their corpses. 
The few that still lingered were curled up or weeping over the dead bodies of their loved ones.
No…no, no, no! Chrysalis screamed silently. What has happened to my children?! 
In a flash, images of the takeover of Canterlot returned to her. She saw her children feeding upon the ponies of Equestria, nourishing themselves with the love that overflowed from their victims’ bodies. Celestia dangled in a cocoon, on her way to becoming a changeling herself. But then Chrysalis’ perfect plans were unraveled by Cadance and Shining Armor. Their love had ruined everything and sent Chrysalis and her changelings flying from the castle and into this forsaken waste land.
“No!” Chrysalis cried out and dug her shaky black hooves into the dirt. With what little energy remained in her body, she forced herself up onto her four legs, only to stagger as her right wing collapsed at her side. She tried to lift it, but the membrane was bent and broken, useless. In fact, her entire right side was cut, bruised, and battered from landing violently. She looked down at the imprint on the ground and found that she had been inches away from smashing her head open on a massive boulder. A shudder ran through her at her close call before she started to limp from one changeling body to the next.
“Mirage!” she shouted. “Double Ganger! Mist Rider!” Name after name left her lips as she searched for some of her commanders as well as those who were even dearer to her heart. She looked down at a changeling that had broken his neck upon his fall. Chrysalis knelt slowly and turned his head the right away before folding his legs reverently against his chest. “I’m sorry, Shadow Splice,” she said and leaned down to kiss his brow. 
The ponies of Equestria thought her to be a tyrant, as did their precious Princesses. But she had to wonder; did Celestia know the names of all of her subjects? Had Luna slept with the sick and the wounded to nurse them back to health? Had Cadance put aside her crown for a single day so that she could teach fillies and colts how to grow and become proper ponies?
No, they had heralds to tell them the names of their ponies, healers to mend the ill, and mentors to help the foals grow and thrive.
The changelings had Chrysalis alone. She was responsible for helping her species live. She knew them…she knew each one, those she had birthed, and those she had raised as her own when parents or guardians had died. These were her people, and she would give her life for them.
“Would you do that, Celestia?” Chrysalis hissed as she closed the eyes of another dead changeling. “What would you give to your ponies? You who couldn’t even stand up against me! You send a tiny mare to perform your deeds because you’re too much of a coward to do it yourself!” Her shouts turned to sobs of grief.
We were so close…Canterlot could have fed us all for years, and my children could have lived happily together. 
But it was not to be, and now all Chrysalis could do was count the number of graves she would have to dig. She bowed her head, tears flowing down her dark face and splattering on the still cheek of her commander, Double Ganger. He’d had a mate and children back at the hive. They would be waiting for him…most likely preparing a spot at dinner, unaware that he lay dead so far from home. 
“I’m sorry,” Chrysalis said, repeating her mantra to each body she passed. As she knelt next to another, she heard wings buzzing near her. 
“Queen Chrysalis!” Mirage shouted.
Chrysalis turned sharply and looked at her beloved changeling. Mirage flapped light purple wings, her short violet mane rustling on her head. She landed quickly at Chrysalis’ side, but before she could say anything, Chrysalis reached out and pulled her into a tight hug.
“I thought you were dead…are you injured?” Chrysalis asked.
Mirage gave a tiny nod of her head and leaned against Chrysalis. “My front leg is fractured. I can’t walk on it.” She pulled back and looked Chrysalis over with bright blue and green eyes. “You look…horrible.”
“Never mind that,” Chrysalis retorted and stood shakily. “The others? Are there others still alive?”
Mirage’s expression fell as she closed her eyes. “My Queen…most of our army was obliterated in the attack. Those who weren’t killed by the unicorn and alicorn’s magic died on impact or…starved.”
“Starved?” Chrysalis gaped.
“I don’t know what their magic did, but it seems to have stolen what little love we had in our bellies. They…so many died. It’s like a graveyard…” She looked over her shoulder then up at Chrysalis with teary eyes. “I don’t even know if the ones who survived will have the strength to return home. We’re so far from the hive.”
Chrysalis’ shoulders slumped. She touched Mirage’s side and walked slowly towards the edge of a small hill that overlooked the rest of the waste land. What met her eyes made her drop down to her knees with a wail.
Mirage was right…most of the army was dead, and the few changelings that remained were clustered together, shivering and weeping. Cadance and Shining Armor hadn’t just freed Equestria from their attackers; they’d nearly obliterated Chrysalis’ entire species! Why did they deserve this? Yes, they fed off of the ponies, but taking their love did not kill them! The changelings would have spared their lives to feed upon them. Perhaps it wouldn’t have been a perfect life, but the ponies would have lived! 
The blood pounded in Chrysalis’ ears as she knelt there, torn between screaming in grief or rage. This was all Celestia’s fault! That damnable Princess always had her way in the end and others had to pay the price! Sombra, Discord, Chrysalis…they were all just trying to stay alive and claim their rightful places in Equestria. What right did Celestia and Luna have to obliterate or turn to stone those who too craved life and safety?
I’ll destroy her…I’ll destroy her! Chrysalis raged and rose once more, her green magic building around her horn. She looked back towards Canterlot and lifted her left wing. When the right still refused to move, she pressed it to her side and started to trot, then run.
I’ll kill every last one of them to avenge my people!
“WAIT!” Mirage cried.
The scream broke through Chrysalis’ rage, long enough to force the Queen to skid to a halt. She staggered, panting, her heart dancing in her chest with exhaustion. Her magic fizzled out to nothing, forcing her to realize that even if she made it to Canterlot, she might not even have an ounce of energy to use against Celestia. Still, even that didn’t deter her. Celestia, Cadance…they were the reason her children were dead. They deserved to suffer too.
Maybe Chrysalis would start by destroying that little purple nuisance that had ruined her plans.
“My Queen!” Mirage cried and flapped towards her. She landed, only to wobble and nearly fall because of her injured leg. Chrysalis caught her and steadied her. Sweat flowed down Mirage’s brow, her pants shaking her entire body. “Don’t go, I beg of you. The changelings need you.”
“Celestia and Cadance deserve to pay for what they’ve done to us,” Chrysalis said angrily. “Our people will be avenged.”
“They’ll die without you!” Mirage argued desperately. She touched Chrysalis’ chest and pointed back towards the dreaded hill. “There are so few of us left, my Queen. They need your support, guidance, and wisdom. Without you, we’ll perish, and then what will be left to be avenged?”
Chrysalis blinked at her changeling’s passionate words. While Mirage had never reached the status of Commander in the changeling army, she had acted as an advisor to Chrysalis more than once. Now, the changeling was shedding her wisdom upon Chrysalis again, and though the Queen wanted to return to Canterlot, Mirage’s words tempered the heat of her rage. 
She swallowed a lump and stared at one of the vacant-eyed bodies of her changelings. “Why do they need me?” she asked. “I did this to them. I brought them this fate.”
“You were trying to save us,” Mirage said, shaking her head. “We would have lived happily in Canterlot with you but…things went awry. We still need you, my Queen. You give us life…you give us purpose. Without you, the hive will die. Without you…where will we go?”
Chrysalis didn’t realize she had started crying until she blinked and her vision blurred. She reached up and brushed the tears aside, wishing that she could do as much for her changelings as Mirage hoped. She’d done this to them, and that guilt would never go away, especially if the rest of her people perished. “I’ll stay,” she said in a whisper. “I’ll stay.”
Mirage breathed a sigh of relief and held out a hoof. “Come…we have to help them.”
Chrysalis looked at her beloved advisor and leaned forward. Instead of taking Mirage’s hoof, she touched her dark, twisted horn to the changeling’s leg and sent her magic inside the limb to mend it. Mirage gasped in surprised then flexed the leg.
“Thank you…”
Chrysalis remained silent, unable to accept the gratitude after all of the pain she’d caused. Lovingly, she ran a hoof along Mirage’s back then limped to the hill to join her changelings. The first one she noticed was Mist Rider. The blue in his wings was lighter than on most changelings, almost white. Even his body was a lighter gray than the rest. There was a deep scar across his right eye that still wept blood. He looked up at her and staggered to his hooves.
“My Queen,” he all but whimpered.
“Shh, shh, sit,” she whispered to him and pushed him back down to the ground. As with Mirage, Chrysalis touched him with her horn and healed what damage she could. Her magic fizzled out as the wound closed, but a scar remained. “That’s all I can do.”
He blinked his eye open, but there was no color; he was half-blind. “That is more than enough. It brings me joy to see you alive. I thought…I was so afraid…” He looked at the other bodies and bowed his head low. “What shall we do, my Queen? All is lost.”
“No,” Chrysalis said and lifted his chin, her green eyes narrowing. “So long as we live, we are not lost.”
“But for how long?” Mist Rider asked and looked around. “We’re barely clinging to life and I’m…I’m starving.”
Mirage stepped near him and nuzzled his cheek. “We have to be strong. Once we make it back to the hive—” 
“How?” another changeling, Silverfang, asked. “How will we ever make it home when we’re so weak? My mate is waiting for me.”
“As is mine,” Mirage said softly. “We can do this, Silverfang. We’ll find a way to get home.” She folded her ears back and slumped a little. “We…we have to.”
Chrysalis reached out before Mirage collapsed. “Mirage…”
“I’m sorry,” Mirage said as she leaned heavily against Chrysalis. “I’m just so hungry and tired.”
Silverfang held his belly with a trembling hoof. “I am too…I’m too weak to fly.”
Chrysalis stared at him and then at Mirage. While she might be able to carry them both back to the hive, there was no possible way that she could do that for the rest of her subjects. In truth, she didn’t even know if she herself had the strength to fly back home. 
Chrysalis sat with her changelings and looked at those who still lived. There were so few…maybe thirty that had survived, which was so small in comparison to the horde that had attacked Canterlot. There weren’t many back at the hive either to replace her lost warriors, and she knew…the changelings that had survived here and those at the hive were the last of her people.
The changeling species was nearly extinct.
What am I to do? How can I stop this from happening, and how can I save them? she wondered. They didn’t have a large enough number to go back to Canterlot, and she didn’t know if there were any nearby villages. What hope did they have if they couldn’t feed off of love?
You can’t think like that,  Chrysalis reprimanded herself. You are their Queen, and they need you now more than ever. What will you do, Chrissy? 
The nickname opened up a floodgate of memories and emotions. Images of her mother, the previous Queen, flashed before her eyes. 
Long, long ago, the great changeling Queen had sat on a ledge with Chrysalis at her side, both looking out across their subjects. Her mother hand leaned down to nuzzle her ear and to place a small crown on her head.
“You will be their Queen, one day, and they will look up to you for protection and leadership.”
“What…what if I can’t be as strong as you?” Chrysalis had asked in a wavering voice. “What if they don’t follow me?”
“Show them the respect that they deserve, and they will,” her mother had replied. “They need your love as much as they need food and air. So long as you love them, and they you, you will never fail them, my daughter. Lead them well.” 
Chrysalis blinked as the memories and voices faded from her mind. Her mother had instilled in her the importance of knowing each one of their subjects and that to be a good leader meant to show her people love and devotion. But would that be enough to save them now? If she ran to gather help, maybe, just maybe, she could get enough changelings to rescue the ones here, but how many would die while she was gone?
If I die, who will they look to next? Then again, if they perish, who will I have to lead? 
Her eyes drifted towards Mirage as the young changeling tried to help Silverfang up. 
What are you willing to do to save your people? That’s something Mother always asked me. What am I willing to do?
“Anything,” Chrysalis whispered under her breath.
“What was that?” Mirage asked.
Chrysalis smiled gently at the changeling and took a steadying breath. “Gather around, my children,” she called to the remaining changelings. “Please…come to me.” She sat as the wounded slowly limped and hobbled towards her. Mirage sat to her right and Mist Rider took a seat to her left. Silverfang curled up on the ground and tucked his legs in. Chrysalis could practically hear his belly growling from where she sat. Her gaze swept over her people as they sat before her like children did to hear a grand story from their beloved mother. 
I have told them many tales, but it seems that this one may finally have to come to its end.
Chrysalis reached forward and ran her hooves gently over her changelings, uttering their names and gazing into their tired and bewildered eyes. Did they know what she was about to say? Would they understand? No…possibly not, but they didn’t have to understand. 
They just had to live.
“I am proud of all of you,” Chrysalis began in a gravelly voice. “You all fought with your heart and soul at Canterlot for your Queen and for your hive.”
“Hail Queen Chrysalis. Hail the hive,” all of the changelings said wearily together.
Chrysalis closed her good eye. “I know that you are weak and hungry, and I know that we are far from home, but I swear to you all that you will make it home to be with your mates and children again. The changeling race will survive and live to fight another day.”
“Don’t you mean we will make it home?” Mirage asked warily. A few changelings looked up, having caught the carefully phrased words as well. 
Chrysalis smiled at Mirage like a mother to her daughter. “Astute, my little Mirage. You’re weak and hungry, and I know the hive is far from here. So…I will help you home in the only way that I know how.”
Silverfang slowly pushed himself into a sitting position. “I…I don’t like where this is going.”
Chrysalis shook her head. “I know you don’t, and won’t, but this is for the good of the hive, and you, my children.”
A nervous murmur started up amongst the changelings. Chrysalis rose and walked between them, her hoof brushing against all her people to soothe them. They looked so afraid, and she couldn’t blame them. She had to protect and save them, because she loved them so dearly. “The spell has hurt us all and taken what little food we devoured while in Canterlot. The only way you’ll make it back to the hive is if you eat more love.”
“But we can’t go back to Canterlot!” Silverfang cried and flapped his blue wings, his single silver fang flashing. “We’ll die!”
“We won’t be returning to Canterlot,” Chrysalis assured him. She stood tall above them and looked back and forth at her subjects. “My love for you should be enough to get you home.”
Deathly silence fell upon the changelings. They looked at each other then at Chrysalis with wide, fearful eyes. No one dared to speak, and just when Chrysalis thought that perhaps they did not understand her implication, Mirage stumbled to her hooves.
“No!” she screamed. “You can’t! I have love to give as well. Take it from me! We can’t lose you, my Queen.”
“Take my love for you as well!” Mist Rider cried.
“You alone must live,” Silverfang wept. “Who will guide us if you leave us?”
“Hush, my children,” Chrysalis said with a sad smile. She looked at Mirage again. “I think you will find a suitable replacement for now. All that matters is that the hive lives.” She limped through them again. “They call me a tyrant in Equestria, a mad Queen who would destroy all. Perhaps I am mad, but it is only because of the love I have for my people. All I have done has been for you. And what I do now is for you as well.” She took a deep breath and raised her horn. “My body is weak, but I still have enough love from Shining Armor that you can take that to feed yourselves. Feed, my children. Feed, and live.”
“No!”
“We can’t!”
“Please, don’t leave us!”
The cries grew louder and louder. Chrysalis just sighed and looked down at Mirage. The young changeling was no longer crying out. In fact, there was a resolution in her eyes that echoed what Chrysalis felt in her very own soul. Mirage knew this had to happen. “Come, Mirage,” Chrysalis said. “Feed.”
Mirage slowly walked forward. She knelt low before Chrysalis then opened her mouth and drew in some of the love within her Queen. 
Chrysalis winced and took a steading breath as her energy and her own life force started to fade. Once the love within her was gone, there would be nothing left of her…and strangely, she was at peace with that. She turned her horn to Silverfang, and he slowly drank from her love and magic. As the changelings watched their brethren feed, they did the same but not without shed tears. 
It’s funny, Chrysalis thought to herself as the life started to seep out of her. I wanted nothing more than to feed my subjects. I was willing to die to take Canterlot for them…and yet I had what I needed to save them inside of me this entire time. I suppose if a Queen must fall, it is at least in service to her people. 
Chrysalis’ legs wobbled and the dirt rose to meet her. She breathed out slowly, a plume of dust rising around her mouth. Water fell on her face, sides, and legs, the tears of her dear subjects. She blinked open her good eye and looked at their tear-filled faces. They looked stronger now, able to fly home, but not a single one of them left her. Mirage pushed through and looked down at her with wet eyes.
“Sleep, my Queen,” Mirage whispered brokenly. “Your people are safe.”
Chrysalis smiled at Mirage and closed her eyes. Her chest rose and fell as the sound of her people drifted away from her. The dust no longer coated her mouth, and the pain of her wounds and the ache of her belly faded until she felt nothing but peace. 
Up, down, went her chest.
In, out, flowed her breath.
Until her life faded and there was nothing left.