Gone...
Gone
“Goodbye my little ones,
You shine brighter than a thousand suns,
My love outweighs a thousand tons,
Goodbye to all my daughters and sons……
I love you…my little ones.”
“Mommy, why do you sing that song to me every night?”
A lavender mass of tendrils poked out from a slime blanket, the fraying edges tangling in some hair and getting caught in the tiny holes in her dark grey horn.
A large holey hoof, much like the one that weighed down the blanket, only bigger, stroked the cobwebby strands, making them even messier.
“Because all of you are my little ones, little royal.”
A smooth echoing voice, slightly heavy with emotion, answered. She booped the royal nose, making the little changeling sneeze. She then opened enormous emerald eyes, double irises sparkling with wonder.
“And all the other changelings are my brothers and sisters?”
“Yes.”
The voice laughed.
“Why don’t they look like me?”
The royal nose scrunched up as the little changeling looked to the motherly figure who sat in the corner of the enormous bed, still humming, but slowly drawing further from her. The figure paused and smoothed out the edge where she had sat on.
“Because you are very special.”
The large green eyes blinked, the royal shifting around to stare seriously at her mother, a comical frown forming on her little face.
“I am special?”
Queen Chrysalis smiled, tucking in her daughter and kissing her on her forehead. She blew out the black brass candle, dimming the lights, letting a silver beam of moonlight fall on the little royal’s closing eyes.
“Yes, you are very special, my little one.”
~
“My queen!”
LaceWing got unsteadily to her hooves. The dust and keening had settled down around the remnants of the old hive in the Badlands. She tapped her head with a slender holed hoof, frowning as she shifted her purple mane out of her eyes. She remembered stumbling there after crashing into the Badlands and rounding up some changelings. What had happened after? Around her, changelings lay on the reddish ground, exhausted. A curious and deathly silence hung in the air. She turned to face the speaker, a drone, with a severed ear and cracked lip. The drone stood on unsteady hooves, shredded wings beating uselessly against the hard chitin.
"What is it, Acizzia?”
“What are your orders, my queen?”
The drone, including several who limped around her, stood at attention, bowing as an afterthought. LaceWing opened and closed her mouth. It clicked.
“-Queen…”
No! LaceWing tugged on the Hive Mind, frantically searching. Her eyes unfocused and the bowing changelings halted, uncertain.
The search nudged against a severed mental stump. The aching emptiness had swallowed the rest. “No!” She grabbed frantically on the thread remains, knowing only one possibility for the common mental link being completely gone. “No, no, no!”
She recoiled, shuddering and bumping into more severed threads. So many…dead. “NO!”
The memories rushed back in a painful slice. The song. One last message. Her song. LaceWing stumbled forwards in blind shock. Words repeated, over and over, in her head. A tune, its melody ever haunting, resounding down corridors and rooms, changelings stopping to listen and hum in sync with their queen. Blurring memories of a motherly Chrysalis. LaceWing reeled as she remembered fainting. She sat down heavily, causing dust and changelings to stir. Her breathing quickened as she started to hyperventilate, her eyes wide with shock.
She could feel water welling up in her eyes, causing her long lashes to cling to her face. As tears made clear tracks down her face, LaceWing frowned. The salty-bitter tears tingled on her tongue, but she felt a surprising numbness, like she could not feel anything. Just a cold empty void that would not stop hurting. The hurt bit down on her soul, but the numbness would keep it at bay. LaceWing figured the numbness was shock. Why would the tears not stop?
She swallowed and rose to her feet, scattering changelings who had gathered around to observe her curiously. Closing her eyes, she walked, blindly, her hooves taking her down corridors and halls, in a clopping rhythm. Her hooves wore down at the hard floor, her feet following her memories, memories of a younger LaceWing taking the same path.
~
Her hooves skidded on the floor and nearly fell, but steadied herself with her insectile wings at the last minute. She bumped into a wall, but ran on giggling, louder hoof steps following right on her purple tail.
“I’m going to get you, little one! Then I will cook you and serve you for dessert!” The echoing voice sounded on her tail, causing the little Changeling to laugh and scamper on.
Queen Chrysalis gave chase, running and giggling like a little filly, her laugh rebounding off walls, causing drones to poke their heads curiously through doors and hallways in investigation. Several opened their mouth to protest against their dignified Queen’s behaviour, but the queen of changelings dashed on rebelliously, her laughter filling the once dreary hive.
~
The numb was starting to fade. She was starting to hurt. The hurt was an empty void that ached constantly and hollowly, offering only one escape, to end the pain once and for all.
LaceWing made a sharp turn, her hooves scrabbling on the hive floor. She paused before a large carved black door and opened her eyes, which were overflowing again.
The throne stood in disrepair from years of being abandoned, but it still stood regally and stubbornly, defiant to entropy. The sight brought back another sharp memory that caused LaceWing to shut her eyes once more against the pain. Her lip, chewed continuously, gave way to her sharp canines and had begun to bleed, the sharp pain and steady dripping of green blood causing LaceWing’s head to spin dizzily.
~
“No?”
“No. I’m sorry, little roy- “
“Don’t call me that!”
The princess, angry and rebellious, stood defiant to her mother, who watched her daughter with a curiously blank and hurt expression. The expression hardened.
“Go.”
“What- “
“GO!” The queen rose on the throne, staring angrily at her daughter. LaceWing opened and closed her mouth, before dashing away, opening the throne doors and slamming them with a powerful burst of green flame.
She ran until she was outside her room, its black door carved with little hearts and-
~
-opened her eyes.
She pushed the handle slightly, worn and damaged, the lock no longer working. It was exactly how she remembered it. The sloping walls and canopy bed, the disorganized cupboard. The wardrobe door was ajar, the mirror catching the dying flames and fading light of the setting sun. She walked over to it and tilted it to see her face.
Despite everything, it was still her.
She then tumbled into her bed. The numb was gone. The pent up feelings tipped. Like so many times before, she burst into tears and sobbed into the soft cushion of a pillow. She wished she would hear a familiar echoing and soft, sharp and smooth voice, sing her a lullaby. She wished she would hear the familiar haunting tune, the homey embrace that would not let go. The motherly fire.
But she would not.
Queen Chrysalis was gone.