Feared Love Requited: Chapter 01/The Black Queen
The black and broken body lay on the ground as the robed form approached. Her hooves clacked against the ground as she tentatively advanced, ever wary of her surroundings. A violet glow filled her cape, pushing it off her left flank, revealing a twinkling star and saddlebag. The saddlebag now bore the violet glow as it was opened, a collar escaping. The collar was filled with the same violet glow as it approached the sullen form. It crawled around her neck as a serpent, biting it's tail, and binding her to the Princess' will.
"Chrysalis." Twilight quietly spoke, but the form only groaned. If the scouts had taken any longer to find her she would already be dead. The Princess of Friendship channeled the love of her friends and all Ponies into the serpent, which seemed to quicken for a moment, with the fallen Queen's black form quickening after. Her eyes looked into the violet twilight above her, but soon realized it was a pair of eyes she was staring into. She cowered as best she could given her shape, but in truth it was hardly any movement at all.
"What?.." the Queen barely asked.
"I'm... sorry..." Twilight said to the fallen Queen.
"Sorry?.." Chrysalis groaned, "Sorry for what?, casting my Changelings to the horizon?, for condemning us to misery and death?"
"Sorry that we had to." Twilight continued. "I understand that you were just trying to save your people, but we were doing the same."
"And why are you here, Twilight Sparkle?" the fallen Queen asked.
"I am here to give you a choice."
"By your tone.. I won't so much as like your choice?" Chrysalis asked, her eyes finally coming into full focus. "Oh, a Princess, are we now?"
"You could save your people." Twilight added.
"As what?.." the Queen weakly asked, "your slaves..."
Twilight could not look her in the eye and instead looked down, nervously tapping the ground with her hoof.
The Queen's eye focused intensely, desperately, as if a simple look could change this day's outcome. "Doesn't slavery violate everything you lovey-dovey Ponies stand for?"
"There is only one way it would not..." Twilight nervously added, "If we could save you. What if I told you that you wouldn't have to steal love?"
"And what?.." the Queen weakly asked, "you... Ponies... would just give it away?"
"You..." Twilight softly said to her, "you tried to invade our capital... you... tried to enslave everypony in Equestria. You did all of this!, yet you don't know even the simplest things about us?.. How can you?.. How could you?.." Tears started to form around Twilight's eyes and pour onto the ground. This wellspring of emotion powered the Queen, who stood up. Though slow, compared to how little she could move before it was as if she was quick as the wind.
"Tell me!" the Queen shouted with what little strength she could muster, "How much you love your Princess Celestia!" Her horn and eyes glowed with her emerald energy, but... a moment later the energy was gone. It had never materialized more than the most token amount. As soon as she tried to summon the mana, it dissipated, as if it were being dispersed by... It was only then that she came to be aware of the collar she wore, of the serpentine collar that snaked around her as she tried to use her magicks. It borrowed the faintest portion of them and then forced the rest from crowding inside her. It was as if her magicks had been sealed, but if that were the case, how had she waken. She did not have enough energy to move or wake or...
"Ouroboros." Twilight quietly stated, and looked at up the Queen, staring into her eyes. Again, her eyes and horn glowed, and again the power failed to be summoned. "The great renewing circle of life and death... and magick. I'm sorry to say this, especially after everything that happened, but... Ponies... we... give love away."
"You what?!" the Queen asked, "then why do we have to sacrifice our bodies and ourselves to harvest it?! Why do we have to..."
Twilight looked at her with sad eyes, but sad eyes that held hidden happiness. Hidden joy. Hidden, dare the Queen think, love. "That's... that's why I'm here. As the Princess of Friendship, I'm here to see if..."
"What?!" the Queen screamed with the sum total of her power and strength and breath and magick, such that afterwards she left herself pale and winded.
Twilight's hoof reached Queen Crysalis' chin, and lifted it back up, and once again the two stared into each other's eyes. "Ponies earn the love they receive. We earn it with love of our own, we earn it with friendship, we earn it by helping each other when we need it."
"What do we have to do to earn your love!?" the Queen cried into Twilight's eyes. Twilight let her hoof fall, and with it fell the Queen's gaze.
"There is a problem..." Twilight stated.
"Problem?.." Queen Chrysalis nervously asked.
"We can't trust you..." Twilight said to her. "I'm sure you understand why."
"No, you cannot..." Chrysalis said, her head falling once again.
"But, do you trust me?" Twilight asked.
"Why would you care?" came the Queen's reply.
"Because Ponies do." was all Twilight could say. "I've been reading Starswirl the Bearded's research on Changelings. You are eusocial, aren't you?"
"I'm afraid I don't speak your tongue that well." the Queen stated.
"You aren't just the Queen because you rule, you rule because you are the Queen?"
"Isn't..." the Queen tried to say, but then paused, not wanting to do anything that could sacrifice an endless supply of love for her and her Changelings.
"Ask your question." Twilight replied.
"Don't... you Ponies... you Princesses rule because you are... Princesses?.."
"We're called Alicorns." Twilight replied. "We don't rule because of our power, we rule because the Ponies trust us to rule."
The Queen paused, thinking for a moment before continuing. "Then to answer your question, yes, I rule because I am Queen."
"Then the love I feed you can spread throughout your swarm?" Twilight asked.
"Yes..." the Queen replied, "if I have enough love to survive on my own... and if I am with the colony." She tried to speak as calmly as possible, but the urgent pleas could be heard in her voice.
"Before we continue, there is something I will hate to do..."
"What is it!?" Queen Chrysalis desperately cried.
"We will need one of your Changelings..." Twilight stated.
"I will... find one!.." Queen Chrysalis cried, and desperately looked around.
"I'm sure Rainbow Dash has found one..." Twilight added, and turned her horn upward. Violet light shot from her horn, exploding in the day's sky. A moment later a rainbow blur appeared, moving so quickly that when she stopped the air exploded around her.
"Is it... safe?.." Rainbow Dash asked.
"I can barely breathe." Queen Chrysalis replied.
"Are you doing that, Twilight?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"No." Twilight simply replied, "She's just so weak... Did you find another?.."
"Right over that hill." Rainbow Dash replied. "Can?.. she?.. fly?"
"Are you feeling good enough to fly?" Twilight asked her.
"Yes!" Queen Chrysalis cried, and desperated started flapping her wings. She would fly if it meant the chitin separating from her flesh. Ponies giving love away was more than the Changelings could ask for, more than they deserved. They would not have to scrounge and scrape for every scap of love they could take, they could have it all, just given to them freely. If that meant slavery, then it also meant freedom. She lifted into the air and quickly flew over the hill, without heed to her own safety. Her only moment of pause occured when she realized she had not checked to make sure the Ponies were flying with her. Her heart nearly sank, her body with it, threatening to crash into the earth, but she heard the flapping wings behind her and was filled with joy once again. She found the barely alive body of her Changeling. She landed, looking down on her and then back up at the Ponies who followed her. Her mind spun with what they could possibly want, but came to no easy conclusions. She looked at the Ponies, her obvious questions on her face, what did they want?
Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash landed beside her, Rainbow Dash ever wary of the Queen. Twilight once again summoned the love of all Ponies, channeling it into the Changeling Queen. "Please... re... revive him..." She hated being this cold, but so many things could go wrong. This was an entire herd or swarm or... Colony... was the word the Queen used. Their entire survival depended on this experiment working. It was a living, breathing thing, but this proof... without it, her plan could never work...
The Queen tried to channel some of her accumulated love into the form beneath her... and slowly, her eyes opened. The form slowly, shakily stood, and looked a her Queen, before looking around at the others present. She wasn't sure what was going on but saw her Queen, and let her Queen decide her actions.
"Have her..." Twilight said, and winced, trying her best to placate the anguish inside at her own actions, "turn... into Rainbow Dash..."
"Are you sure, Twilight?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"I'm sure." Twilight replied, and turned to the Queen and the other Changeling.
"Do as she asks," Queen Chrysalis said to her Changeling, "and nothing more."
The Changeling nodded and turned to Twilight, and then Rainbow Dash, and changed her form into hers... or at least thought she did. When she looked down, she saw the broken, black legs of a Changeling, and the energy felt wrong... the energy had never become. She was just as she was before, and immediately became frightened.
"Our survival depends on this!" Queen Chrysalis asked, "Do as she asks!"
The Changeling quickly looked at her Queen and then back to Rainbow Dash. She redoubled her effort, but nothing become of it. She tripled, quadrupled, quintupled her effort... and still... nothing...
"Our survival!" Queen Chrysalis cried, using near the last of her strength.
"STOP!" Twilight Sparkled screamed, and both paused, looking at her, unsure of what to do. "It worked..." Twilight quietly stated. "Your powers are sealed, but you can still feel love from those around you." She breathed as if she had been holding her breath for the entire time. She wheezed and whinnied and sputtered and dropped her head.
"WE!" the Queen cried, the Queen screamed, the Queen bellowed.
"It... worked..." Twilight stated.
"But!.." the Queen tried to say.
Twilight raised her head and looked back in the Queen's eyes. "You... don't understand... it worked..."
"You can come with us..." Rainbow Dash added. "She's saying it's safe. She's saying we don't have to fear you anymore. She's saying you can come with us back to Ponyville."
"Does?.." Queen Chrysalis asked, barely breathing, barely wheezing, "does that?.."
"That means..." Twilight stated, "that you can earn our love."
"We will do anything you want!" the Queen cried. "Anything you can think of, we will!.."
"You still don't understand..." Twilight quietly stated, "Even after..." she said, and bowed her head. The Queen looked as anyone would when facing their own extinction. Twilight looked at her and smiled a weary smile. She stepped forward and touched her horn to horn. She stepped back, looked in the Queen's eyes, and moved forward once again, touching the side of her neck with the Queen's, embracing her warmly. "Ponies," she whispered into the Queen's ear, "give away their love, freely, for nothing more than love in return."
"But we..." the Queen tried to say.
"Can pay for love with companionship." Twilight whispered into her ear. "Pay for love with friendship. And I am sure you will find other ways to do this as well."
"This thing you Ponies do is strangely warm..." Queen Chrysalis whispered, and Twilight gently pulled away.
"It is..." she stated.
"What should I do?" the other Changeling asked.
"Come here." Rainbow Dash stated, and opened her wings. The Changeling warily approached and when in range, Rainbow Dash embraced her with her wings. The Changeling enjoyed the feeling, but was afraid of taking any action, and so stood as stiff as possible. Rainbow Dash released the Changeling and lifted up her hoof. The Changeling mimicked the movement and their hooves struck. "Awesome." Rainbow Dash stated, and turned towards Twilight. "We okay?"
Twilight looked toward the Queen. "You should have enough strength to wake your... Colony..." she stated. As she said this, the Queen could feel her Changelings ever so slowly begin to rouse, but they did rise, as if from the dead.