Chapter 1: In the Beginning
It was a Tuesday when it happened, when Night Light of Hoofington — a small town in the shadow of the mighty Canterhorn — closed the door to his study just a bit earlier than was usual for him. An Equestrian unicorn, blue of coat and darker blue of mane, an astronomer by trade and stargazer by habit, a husband and a father, and at once unexceptional and unordinary, both.
His was a modest study on the upper storey of a modest townhouse inhabited by three modest unicorns, a fact that was similarly reflected in the hallway his study was just at the end of. It wasn’t a terribly long hallway, narrow enough that there was no room for furniture. The dark wood floor was covered — except for a small trim on any side where the wood was exposed — by a long runner that bore one of the intricate patterns that the great cats of Purrsia were so fond of (the rug itself, however, was an inexpensive reproduction) that ended just where the staircase leading down began. The walls were papered in light blue with a very simple floral print, and hanging from the same walls were several small, framed photographs of himself, his wife and son — Twilight Velvet and Shining Armor — and other members of their family.
Also in the hallway on that Tuesday was a mare — a unicorn like he was — silver-coated, and mane striped violet and white, a stargazer by preference and scholar by profession, a mother and wife, and at once unordinary and unexceptional, both. Twilight Velvet and Night Light both were pressed for space in that narrow hallway, he closing the door to his study, and she closing the door directly across from it; Shining Armor’s — their son’s — bedroom.
“Evening,” he said, nuzzling against her face. “He asleep already?”
“Oh, don’t sound so surprised,” Velvet replied. “We took him to the park and the promenade today. He’s so worn out, it’s no wonder he went right to sleep. We should probably follow his example, I think.” As she said this, she leaned into Night Light just a little more forcefully than was necessary. “Don’t you agree?”
From the floor below them, a patient knock issued from their front door.
Velvet acknowledged the interruption with a tired sigh. “Dear would you get that?” she asked.
“Of course,” Night Light replied, and he was off at a sedate, even pace.
There was not much to their downstairs: The staircase itself ended on the ground just beside their coat closet, which was itself set under the stairs and in front of the door out. Further to the side was their living room with an unpatterned rug under a coffee table with a standing phonograph in one corner, and behind that towards the back garden was their very modest dining room, set next to their kitchen. The walls had the same paper as upstairs, and while there were some pictures hanging, they depicted pastoral landscapes that were not terribly inspired, but that had been in vogue for several years. They were not wealthy ponies by any imagining, but they were happy with what they had.
As he reached the bottom of the stairs, Night Light sparked his magic to life, unlocked and opened the front door. “Good evening,” he said.
Night Light had only seen Princess Celestia up close a few times — and even then, never that close — but knew that there was nopony as tall as she was. Considering that, his surprise would have been understandable to anypony when at the door was a pony as tall as she was. It was not, however, a pony that greeted him, but something nightmarish: Tall, lithe, and hungry-looking, legs dotted with holes, a mane that laid flat and seemed both thin and full at once, a jagged horn, thin, insectile wings, and black as night from head to hoof. Its mouth, pulled into a thin, predatory grin, was highlighted by the presence of fangs, and its eyes burned with an emerald fire.
He could not say what the thing was, but he knew with just a glance that it was going to eat him. He back away hurriedly and opened his mouth to scream but made barely a sound before he felt the tingle of magic clamp his lips shut.
“Nighty?” Velvet called. Night Light turned frantically, trying to tell her to stay upstairs, to no avail. “What’s —” She was silenced, too, by the same spell worked on him, and turned her terrified attention towards their front door.
“That’s better,” said the thing on the doorstep as it walked calmly inside — causing Night Light to scramble out of the way and towards the foot of the stairs, Velvet hurrying down to meet him — closing the door behind it with a hind leg. “No need to startle the neighbors or wake little Shining Armor, after all. All this fuss over a little chat, honestly.” Casually, almost languidly, it advanced further into the living room and towards the coffee table; it was then that both ponies first noticed a bundle of light blue cloth on its back.
“Oh, please, do have a seat. We have very important business to discuss,” it said with an even toothier grin than Night Light had first seen, possessing far more sharp teeth than either of them were comfortable with. Not seeing any other course immediately opened to them, both sat down at the coffee table, not bothering with cushions, and watched warily as their visitor sat across from them.
“Now then, introductions will be simple. You are Night Light and Twilight Velvet,” it — or perhaps she? — said, drawing looks of surprise from both ponies. “Suffice to say, I’ve made it my business to know everything about you that I possibly can. Which leaves only me.
“I am Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings.”
Neither Night Light nor Velvet moved, or gave any indication that her name meant anything to them. In response, Chrysalis simply nodded. “The expected reaction, I suppose. Now, I’m going to undo that little spell I wove that’s keeping both of you quiet, and really, I would prefer we have a civil discussion, like civilized creatures. Is that agreeable?”
Uncertain, Velvet looked to Night Light, who looked back to her and gave a nod before affording Chrysalis the same. With a much less toothy smile, the changeling’s horn lit up with acid green light again, and both ponies were able to once more work their mouths.
Night Light was the first to speak: “What do you want with us?”
“Oh, that’s simple enough,” Chrysalis began. “I had a list compiled of every household in Hoofington meeting certain criteria I had set, and then narrowed the list further to the twenty that best met those criteria, and finally, your street number was chosen by lottery. I suppose, therefore, that fate has ultimately brought us together.”
“But what do you want? Why are you here? What was the ‘lottery’ for?” Velvet asked, an edge of demand creeping into her voice.
“Oh, what I want is as I said. To have a civil discussion, the focus of which is all about this,” Chrysalis’ glowed again, and the bundle she’d been carrying on her back gently lifted into the air and was calmly levitated away and down to rest on the coffee table.
Confronted with another uncertain circumstance, both Night and Velvet regarded the bundle cautiously, neither eager to make the first move.
“Well, go on,” Chrysalis said after several seconds off them making no decision. “She isn’t going to bite you.”
“‘She?’”Velvet repeated, looking briefly to the changeling, and then turning her attention back to the bundle before her. After another moment, her horn lit with magic and the folds of the bundle were carefully undone. In seconds it was revealed to be a roughly-spun cotton blanket hiding —
“A filly?” asked Night Light, even if he wasn't really expecting an answer.
And a filly it was: A little unicorn not even close to old enough to be separated from her mother, with a pearly purple coat and deep indigo mane and tail, the latter two which each had a streak of dark pink and royal purple, happily sleeping and unaware of the events unfolding around her.
“Oh, precious. What are you doing away from home?” Velvet said, not realizing she was even speaking. Night Light, too, was completely taken by the foal in front of him.
“She is my daughter, Princess Lycorea,” Chrysalis replied. Both ponies turned their attentions back to the Queen to find her smiling warmly. “And she is my dream-come-true.”
“But then, why?” Night Light stammered, trying to voice his thought.
“I’ve cast a spell on her to force her into the shape of a pony,” Chrysalis explained.
“O-of course, but, why bring her here?” Night Light asked again, his wits back about him. “We’re strangers. You said you picked our house number in a lottery, but why? What do you want with us?” He knew that he needed to sound incensed over this home invasion, but at the same time, would not bring himself to awaken the angel sleeping on his coffee table.
In an instant, the warm smile on Chrysalis’ face was replaced by a melancholic frown. “I...,” she began, pausing briefly to, it seemed to her hosts, compose herself. “I need your help.”
Both ponies were stunned. “Our help?” Velvet asked.
“Yes. I... changelings, we need food and water, just like a pony. But we also need energy. The psychic energy that comes from emotions. From love. We need it for everything. Without it, we don’t have magic. We can’t change our shape without it. We die without it.”
“But, but this is your daughter!” Velvet protested, a bit louder than she meant to. “Your dream-come-true. You must love her!”
“I do!” Chrysalis nearly shouted, rising up suddenly with her face twisted in anger. Anger shifted to surprise when she saw both ponies shrinking away from her, and she quickly sat back down. “I’m sorry,” she said, looking down at her hooves, or what passed for hooves on a changeling. “I didn’t-I didn’t mean to....”
“Y-your Majesty?” Night Light ventured after a moment, drawing himself up just a bit. “What happened?”
Chrysalis was silent for several seconds, and then several more, and then for a full minute before she spoke again. “I love her so much. More than anything else I’ve ever loved before,” she said. “But it’s not enough. A changeling has emotions, but those emotions don’t make the energy we need. That is our curse. We must obtain it from others, and then bring it back to share, and there was an accident. We lost many infiltrators, and now there aren’t enough to gather energy and there’s a famine….”
In so short a time, Night Light and Twilight Velvet had witnessed the Queen bask in the superiority of her magic over theirs, glow with a mother’s love, rage at an innocent insinuation, and feel ashamed of her actions. In the moment after she had explained the events that had apparently led her to their door, they saw her cry, tears freely streaking her face. “I can’t feed her,” she said, distraught. “I’m supposed to look after all my changelings. How can I do that? I can’t even feed my own daughter!”
In the next instant, Velvet was off the sofa and at Chrysalis’ side, and in the instant after, had drawn her into a strong embrace, quietly shushing her. She did not do this because she was herself a mother, or because she was a pony, or because of any other easily qualifiable reason, but because she felt a stirring in her chest that told her what she needed to do; what Chrysalis needed her to do. She felt the Magic of Friendship — even in so strange a circumstance, with so strange a houseguest, before she even knew what it was that she felt — and it guided her: It was as simple as that.
“I can’t lose her,” Chrysalis said weakly into Velvet’s shoulder. “I’ve already lost so many, I can’t lose her too. I can’t.”
“You won’t.”
Chrysalis sniffled and withdrew herself from Velvet's shoulder and looked to where the unicorn comforting her had already turned her attention. Night Light was where he had always been, although he had since lifted little — and still sleeping — Lycorea into his arms, cradling her as gently as he would any other babe. “That’s why you chose us, isn’t it? Because you knew we would look after her for the darling that she is?” he said. It was not so much questions he was answering, as much as it was confirmations he was seeking.
Weakly, Chrysalis, ears still blurring her eyes. “Will you?” she asked.
“Or deny you what we ourselves would want for our Shining in the same circumstances? Dearheart, of course we’ll look after her!” Velvet could say nothing more, for immediately, Chrysalis had seized her in another embrace so tight that she had to work in order to breathe.
“Oh thank you, oh, thank you!” Chrysalis exclaimed. She released Velvet a moment later. “Anything you need, anything you want, it’s yours.” She looked from Velvet to Night Light. “Just ask.”
Night Light shook his head. “We don’t need anything. Doing the right thing shouldn’t need a reward,” he said. His expression shifted to one of concern. “But, you said that she needs love, almost like it’s a food for her. How do we....”
“She’ll breathe it, just as if it were air. She doesn't need anything special except for you to love her. Raise like you would a pony,” Chrysalis replied. Her expression became suddenly somber. “Please... exactly like a pony.”
Neither Velvet nor Night Light missed the change. “Your Majesty?” Night Light asked.
“Please, I don’t-I don’t know how many of us will survive. If any of us will survive,” Chrysalis said. She looked to her daughter sadly. “I don’t want to raise her hopes, to make her wait for something that might not be there when she’s old enough to go looking. I would-I would like to see her again, after she’s grown more but I don’t want her to know the truth. Not yet.”
“I understand,” Night Light replied, although he tone left no doubt that he was uncertain of this course of action. “Will you ever come to see her?”
“Yes, of course. When I can. If I can,” Chrysalis said, composure beginning to slip. “I should go.” With that, she picked herself up and turned for the door, green flames dancing over her form and she took on a new shape; that of an unremarkable mare, Velvet’s size, brown coat and chocolate mane, a straight horn and no wings to speak of. She did not make it two steps before she hesitated. A moment later, she turned again and hurried toward Night Light with a pained look. Although startled, he did not move out of her way, and when she reached him, she placed a gentle kiss on Lycorea’s brow, just below her horn. A choked sob escaped her, but she quickly recomposed herself. “I’ll return as soon as I’m able,” she said calmly, before turning once more and moving to the door.
Velvet walked just ahead of Chrysalis and opened the door to let her out. Although the Queen did not offer even a good night, it was understandable, given the circumstances. With a heavy sigh, Velvet closed the door. Noticing the living room window was opened, she moved to close it when she heard something she had not been expecting: A conversation out on her front walk.
“Is this right?” asked a voice that she could recognize as Chrysalis’ disguise.
“Of course it is,” replied another, deeper and decidedly male, but flat and without emotion, almost what Velvet would have expected from one of the Guards at Canterlot Castle. “You’re ensuring her survival, and ours. If even one of us lives through this, then we may yet come back to life as a race.”
“I’m not asking you as a soldier,” Chrysalis said again harshly.
There were several moments of silence that passed before the other voice replied: “My heart feels broken into a thousand pieces, and I know it’s never going to be fixed without her. But these are good ponies and this is a good family. I would rather give her to them, and know I’m losing her only for a time, than to keep her and risk losing her forever. This is right.”
Velvet strained her hearing, hoping to pick up some last bit, but there was little else. “Come, love,” she heard the stallion say again. “We have a long way to travel and a hard job ahead.”
Chrysalis didn't answer, but Velvet heard their hooves retreating along the front walk, going out into the night. She waited a few moments more until she was sure they were out of earshot, and then closed the window.In that moment, she resolved that no matter what, she would give Princess Lycorea the best life that she possibly could; her first step to doing just that was to turn from the window and move upstairs, careful not to make too much noise, and open one of the doors to duck her head in. Lying on the bed within the room was a white unicorn with a shocking, blue mane, finally almost old enough to begin school.
“Shining Armor?” she asked, moving into the colt's room.
Her son stirred under the covers and gave a great yawn. “Mom?” he asked sleepily.
“Do you remember the other day when you asked for a little brother or sister?” Velvet asked, taking a seat at his bedside. “Well, you’ll never believe what just happened.”