Chapter 1
“Calamine… We’ve been through this.”
“But maybe it would work! It has to!”
Chrysalis flinched at the hatchling’s whining tone, but she did not scold her. No, she didn’t have the energy for that. It was nearing a full year since they had last been able to feed well and that had been a rare blessing. There had been a traveling caravan from Saddle Arabia passing through the vast wasteland and, during one of their nights of festivities, she had allowed her own to wait in the shadows and slowly feed off the joy radiating from the camp. But she didn’t permit any contact. She could not risk that. Not again.
“But you could try, couldn’t you? They’re so far away from our old settlement-“
At the mention of their first home, Chrysalis faced the younger one head on and the rest of her words went silent.
“I’m… sorry,” the hatchling nearly whispered.
Chrysalis closed her eyes, exhausted, and let out a sigh. Trotting towards Calamine, she nuzzled the younger one’s small wings.
“Come. I’ll help you with your flying practice this evening.”
Calamine’s eyes brightened, her head lifting from its downward position. Then her shoulders slumped slightly once again. “Oh, but, you’re tired Chrysalis.”
The queen noticed that the hatchling did not phrase the observation in question form. “Yes, I am. But you need to practice.”
She left off the part that echoed within her mind, ‘You must know how to defend yourself as soon as possible.’ It was not that she doubted her ability to protect her own. No, Chrysalis did not doubt that. As tired as she was, she would not hesitate the pour every drop of her being into protecting as many of her own as she could. Even if it meant destroying herself. But Chrysalis was no hatchling. The enemy her own faced was not something she could so easily defeat with her magic. Nor could she assault it head on in combat, or fly above it into the sky.
As Chrysalis watched Calamine’s small wings struggling to lift her, she remembered her own attempts. She remembered how slow she was at the art. How that slow learning curve of hers had been the death of-
Chrysalis lifted up the young one with one hoof and began to fly. She flew slowly, as was needed for teaching, but in only a few moments the strain of keeping her larger frame airborne with so little movement was felt.
“I’m going to let go now…”
“Don’t! I’m not ready!” Calamine turned terrified eyes towards her elder. But all she saw was her queen smiling softly.
“I think you’re more ready than you thought.”
Calamine looked down and realized she was indeed ready. Although she was going at a painfully slow speed, she was flying. A large smile rippled across her face.
“I’m flying. I’m flying! Chrysalis! I’m-“
Within a breath’s instant, Calamine was falling. And just as quickly, Chrysalis shifted her own flight and dove after her. It wasn’t hard. At least, it shouldn’t have been. Chrysalis’ left wing nearly buckled under the sudden change in speed and she felt her overworked muscles begin to scream under her tight skin. She sped past Calamine and dropped below her, catching her with ease.
“Thank you… Queen Chrysalis,” Calamine murmured as she dropped to the ground softly.
Chrysalis didn’t answer as the hatchling jumped from her back to the ground and the queen noticed how frightfully light the she was. “That’s all for today, Calamine. We’ll try again tomorrow.”
Calamine looked weary. “Do I have to learn to fly now? Can’t I wait-“
“Tomorrow.”
Calamine dipped her small head obediently. It was so narrow looking. “Yes, ma’am.”
*~*~*~*~*
“You did this! Your kind did this! She’s dead because of you!”
Chrysalis watched her mother from behind the house. She was scared. She wasn’t sure why, but she knew she would soon need to fly. But she couldn’t.
“We would never do that-“
“You killed her!” The stallion talking to her mother was not listening. Rage filled him. Chrysalis could feel it from where she stood. It dropped from his pores, and shone from his eyes. It made her stomach sour.
“We do not kill. We feed only on love. What good can killing do?”
Chrysalis felt sick. The world was spinning.
“You killed her! You are parasites! You are evil! Evil!”
Everything was burning. Screaming and flying. Her own were flying above her.
“Chrysalis!” Her mother was running towards her.
The stallion was there. He was a unicorn. A grey coat and a jet black mane. His eyes were full of rage. All burned. The homes of her kind burned.
“Fly!”
Chrysalis knew she couldn’t. Still she tried. She stretched her small wings and tried.
‘I don’t want to see this.’
The stallion was running towards her now. His eyes and horn were glowing green.
‘Please not again.’
Her mother ran into his side and both fell. She felt her small body being lifted by one of her elders. She watched the burning homes drop beneath her hooves. Her eyes were on her mother and the stallion. The stallion was moving. Her mother…
“NO!”
Chrysalis trembled, gasping for air. It had been a dream. Or rather a memory. She shut her eyes tightly, trying to forget. She looked back at her wings, now fully grown and stretched them. Her eyes wondered over to the small forms of the hatchlings and changlings scattered in the large cave her people called their own. Ignorance was not a luxury they could afford. Neither was having a childhood.
‘No,’ Chrysalis decided, looking at the thin forms of her kind. ‘I have no hatchlings here. Only grown changlings in hatchling form.’
*~*~*~*
It was a firework that started the next conversation with Calamine about the town. It had been pink and it little up the sky like magic, defying the gray clouds that loomed in the distance. For a bare moment, the eyes of every changling glowed with joy. Then the sparkles in the night sky vanished and the moment of joy for her own died with it. She should have expected the question before it was asked of her.
“Chrysalis? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to see fireworks closer? To see all the colors?”
The queen didn’t answer. Her eyes remained fixed up on the clouds. The rain would dampen any spirits of ponies passing nearby. Another drought for her own. ‘Not that we get much as it is, from this distance. We’re barely-‘
“Chrysalis? Wouldn’t it be wonderful? Wouldn’t it?”
The queen turned distracted eyes towards the hatchling. “Yes, I suppose it would.” In an instant she realized that answer had been a mistake.
“Then couldn’t you try? Try to talk to them and make an agreement? Couldn’t you?” Before Chrysalis could think of an answer, the young one was on her unsteady hooves and her bright eyes were staring up at her, glowing lightly in the night air. “It could be just like our old settlement! Back when we lived with ponies and we were full and happy!”
As Chrysalis’ eyes hardened, Calamine’s voice quickened. “We’re far enough away from the old home the elders speak of! Too far for the words and magic of Sombra-“
“Do not,” Chrysalis stood tall, her eyes narrow, her voice a whisper, “speak of that name to me. Ever.”
Calamine shrank down, her small frame huddled to the ground, her ears back, her eyes brimming with tears.
“I’m sorry. I was just…”
Her voice was a mere wisp of air; Chrysalis could barely hear it as she left the hatchling’s side and began to walk away slowly.
“…I’m so hungry.”
Chrysalis stopped. The world stopped. Every sound grew silent. All she heard was that bare whisper. That small plead. Every color, every shadow around her was bright. She saw every bone sticking out just under the skin of her own kind. She could count every rib bone on the elders to her far right, every disk in the spines of the hatchlings still scattered across the plain, looking up hopefully towards the sky. Hopeful they might see another firework. Something to stop them from thinking about how hungry they were.
‘I’m killing them.’ She felt small. Her wings felt weak. The realization grew upon Chrysalis like a cancer. And just like a cancer, it did not leave.
*~*~*~*~*
It was another week before Chrysalis found herself at the edge of the village. A week of nightmares and worry. A week of hearing those words in her mind.
“I’m so hungry.”
Chrysalis dropped her head wearily and breathed slowly. The sound of nearby hooves made her head snap back up quickly. But walking towards her was no stallion with green eyes. It was a foal. She had a coat the color of cream and a mane of the lightest, most delicate blue Chrysalis had ever seen. She was so amazed at the small pony that soon enough the foal had spotted her as well. Both stood looking at one another for a moment before the foul smiled and tilted her head. Chrysalis felt no hate or fear from her, only curiosity.
“Who are you?”
Chrysalis struggled with her words for a while before finally deciding on an answer. “I am Chrysalis. I come from… very far away.”
The foal trotted over to her eagerly. “You’re new here? Welcome!”
Chrysalis gave a nervous smile. “Yes, I am new, but… I am not alone. My… family is with me.”
“Oh? Where are they?” The foal’s eyes sparkled. They reminded Chrysalis of Calamine's and her stomach knotted painfully within her.
“They aren’t ready to come here yet… They’re hungry…”
The foal smiled brightly. “Oh, that’s alright! We have plenty of food! We can share it with everypony!”
Chrysalis began to relax and her eyes softened. She had forgotten the generosity of willing hearts. It warmed her, yet she knew it was not so simple a thing. How she wished it was!
“I’m sure you would. It is very kind. But we do not… eat normal food.”
The foal’s head tilted to the side again. “What kind of food do you like?”
Chrysalis struggled with her words once again. “We feed on… good feelings. Like love and friendship and happiness…”
To Chrysalis’ surprise the foal only smiled all the brighter. “Oh we have plenty of that! You can have as much as you want!”
Chrysalis felt something that she had not felt in many years. She eyes were wet and the pressure that had long been within her chest left. She felt hope. Closing her eyes, the queen dipped her head and gently pressed her cheek against the foal. The small one giggled and happily hugged the queen back. Chrysalis could feel her own hunger diminish.
“Thank you,” she murmured as she pulled out of the hug.
“Did you eat just now?”
Chrysalis smiled brightly for the first time since her mother’s death. “Yes, small one.”
“I didn’t feel anything!”
“Most ponies don’t. It is only when ponies are low on love and joy that they feel any discomfort. But you have quite a lot.”
The foal smiled brightly. “My brother says I’m like sunshine!”
Chrysalis was about to reply that such a description was fitting when the ground at her hooves flashed with light.
‘Magic!’ Chrysalis turned to see a unicorn rushing towards them. Though his eyes were not green and his coat was not grey, Chrysalis felt what she dreaded radiating from his form. Fear.
“Sugar Puff! Get away from that thing! It’s a monster!”
Chrysalis instantly backed away from the foal, attempting to look as nonthreatening as possible. Soon the stallion was between them.
“Brother, she’s not a monster! She’s good! She said she was hungry and-“
“That’s just it! They feed on ponies, Sugar Puff. They’re killers!”
“You killed her!”
“No,” Chrysalis felt her mouth form the same futile words as her mother, but her wings felt as weak as water. “We feed on love. We don’t kill-“
“You’re evil!”
Chrysalis’ body grew rigid. The stallion before her seemed so much bigger than her now. ‘I can’t fly. I can’t fly. I can’t-‘
“Get out!”
Chrysalis’ body moved just in time to avoid getting zapped by more of the stallion’s magic. She didn’t fly, she ran. She ran and ran. But the voices followed her.
*~*~*~*~*
The rains came. They lasted for weeks and the spirits of every pony that passed her own kind were as damp as the cave they lived in. The elders passed away first and then the hatchlings that were too weak began to leave as well. Chrysalis stayed by each one. She held them close to her own bony frame and counted their breaths. Yet it wasn’t until Calamine’s stopped that Chrysalis allowed herself a privilege she had long denied. That night she cried with all the other survivors. She cried and no changling thought less of their queen. She cried and when the rain stopped, so did her tears.
“My queen…”
Chrysalis continued flattening the recently replaced dirt under her hoof. After a few more minutes, she paused. She could feel the eyes of the changling behind her. He was hardly much older than many of the hatchlings, but like all the other survivors, his eyes were strong and full of determination.
“I did this… she’s dead… They’re dead… because I couldn’t do what needed to be done.”
She felt the discomfort of the changling behind her. She was his queen and she was showing weakness. She knew that was something she could not do. Doubt, like so many other things, was not something she could afford any longer.
“Never again-“
“Chrysalis! Fly!”
“-will I hesitate-“
“I’m so hungry.”
“-to do what must be done.“
She was looking up towards a far off mountain, a far off castle. She knew those that lived there had love and that their sky was full of fireworks.
“Wouldn’t it be wonderful?”
“No more negotiation.”