Prologue

The night is dry and cool as the wind brushed past a weary face, slowly but surely making his way in to the night and through the foliage. A single changeling, alone in the woods, looked all around him to ensure that no creature had followed in his hoof steps as he made his way back with the fruits of his labor. Although there isn’t many who would be foolish enough to go, and do what he had been tasked with. A soldier still is just that, a soldier, and must follow his orders as they are given. Once the drone was sure the coast was clear, in to the brush he dove. Bringing him closer to the place he would call home, for now.

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The mouth of the cave failed to give a single welcome tone to it as the wind seemed to pass over and give off an eerie whale in to the still night. Never the less, the single changeling ignored those sounds haunting his ears while he worked his way deeper in to the tight passage ways and narrow tunnel work of the system. To any other making the trip, they likely would have been lost at their first step, although by now the soldier had marched this route many a times, and has sense burned it in to his memory. Slowly but surely the narrow tunnel opens up in to a large cavern, while a glowing pool of water makes up the bottom basin, as jewels riddle the walls and ceiling. Reflecting the very light from the pool below, and nearly mimic the stars that shine in the night sky. Such a sight would dazzle the very mind of one who laid their eyes upon it. However not so much for a creature who has seen this for longer than he would care to admit. With the scene completely ignored from is vision, the soldier beats his translucent wings and takes off in to the sky over the pool, only to land amongst those the likes of himself.

Hundreds of changelings come out of their makeshift tents and cottages, surrounding him to see if his task was a success. All of them looking the same, but at the same time their subtle differences give way for an individual to be picked out amongst the rest. The creatures have never really been welcome in many locations. Due to the fact that they tend to be a parasite, using their gift to change in to whatever other creature they see fit, where they would feed off of the love from another. For countless generations they have gone through the same process over and over again. As their race carried on in the backgrounds, many not even aware their presence until it was too late and all the love that could be taken was gone, leaving nothing more than a cold husk of those that they fed from. That’s nothing to say of the loved one they may have taken the place of, considering that what a changeling does with them is up to them. Some simply imprison them for the rest of their lives. Others may kidnap them and drop off the terrified creature in the middle of nowhere. Then again, there are changelings who prefer to take the more permanent road and simply slaughter the target of their affection.

No matter the choice, the result is always the same.

The soldier slowly approached a single cottage put up in the center of the small encampment, made out of whatever could be mined from the cave or the surrounding forest. Two guards posted on either side of it stopped the changeling in his tracks. “You, state your business with her?” One female asks in a deep, hoarse voice after having breathed in dust, and soot for far too long now.

“You know very well what my business with her ,” he said with a snide growl to the guard, baring his fangs to the female, “she sent for them to be retrieved after all.”

The guard who prompted the question looks at the other, and turned to knock on the door. Before he even makes contact with it though, it swings open showing who she is.

Queen Chrysalis stepped forth from her dwelling with eager eyes, already gazing at the soldier she had sent out, before her eyes wandered their way to the sack he carried. The queen, as one may suspect, it much larger than the average changeling, and of course far more powerful than any of them could hope to be. The long toned, slender body of hers stands heads taller over her subjects. While bright green eyes continue their penetrating gaze, only to be interrupted by a lock of her dull blue mane falling in front of her eye. The queen's tail trailed across the ground while she walked clear from her cottage, in to the sight of her subjects, while her graceful legs carried her. All of which remain riddled with holes in them. From her legs, to her wings, and even her main and tail, almost like a hole-punch was taken to her as a young foal. Never the less it’s not a deformity, just how her race was made.

The queen shares the same power as her subjects, and used them to take the form of Princess Celestia's niece, Princess Cadance. All in an effort to overthrow the entire kingdom by taking it out from the inside. That plan was thwarted though, as a particular studious unicorn managed to see though her façade and knew something was wrong. After being thrown from the land of Equestria and in to its borders, the queen had little going for her in terms of fighting back. Even after the several years that had passed, and for the longest time it seemed she still would be stuck in finding a way to best her adversary… that is until now.

“Do you have it?” Chrysalis asked, almost drooling at the mouth. The single soldier that she sent out in to the world uses what magic he has to lift a shard of crystal from his bag, and present it to her as if it were a gift to be bestowed upon a pedestal.

He bowed respectfully as she takes it from him and inspects it, “Yes, my queen. Although it wasn’t easy. I managed to obtain it none the less.”

A sinister grin crossed her face as the queen sees the plan falling in to place. “You have done well my subject,” The tyrannical queen turned her attention to all the others now standing about watching her. With a single beat of her wings, Chrysalis took to the sky with the shard still by her. “Everyone! We have what we need, clear a path and lets begin!” Her command was met without question as they all scurry about clearing an area for the queen to start. Soon enough the other changelings that she had chosen to help with this task form a wide circle around her on the ground.

“Umm, my Queen?” One started off to the side while wondering it all as he hovers nearby. “May I ask why you needed that for your plans?”

The question is a valid one. Considering she has kept quiet, and most on a need to know basis, it seems time to let the cat out of the bag. She holds up the shard for them to get a better glance. “This crystal was taken from the Crystal Empire itself,” She proclaimed while holding up the relic, “over the last several months I have sent soldier after soldier there to sneak out what I could. After all the gems themselves enable the focusing of magic. Thus making it stronger.” She pointed out to him as a few of the changelings with her nod her head in response. “After all the precious Elements of Harmony that our enemies love to use so often are in the form of a gem aren’t they?” She posed as more of a rhetorical question then anything as they group lands in the opening below them that the others have cleared out.

The other shards she had mentioned have been brought out and placed evenly around in a circle. With the Queen placing the final one in her possession, in the center of them all below as he now takes her own place next to it. The others with her charge up dark green magic in their horns as they build and build the energy coursing through their bodies. Chrysalis, although she started later than the others. Soon reaches, and surpasses the level of magic each of them have ready. The effects of being the queen showing after all. As soon as the queen fires off a ray in to the center one, the others follow suit hitting their own targets.

The spell being cast starts to take effect as the shards start to glow bright green as they absorb and reflect the rays connecting to one another in refractions of the spell passing through them. Riding around, and around the circle like a particle accelerator as a single beam starts to grow from their side. Slowly edging its way towards the center while Chrysalis charges her own crystal to prepare it for when the beam reaches finally. The ground itself starts to shake as the energy is being drained from her own subjects, a few of them keeping their magic going, but starting to go weak in the knees. ‘I should have put more than one on the shards,’ she ponders the thought while regretting not having the hind sight that they weren’t as strong as her.

“Keep it up!” The Queen yelled out to them. Taking note that the rays from the surrounding shards are almost touching the center of the one she wields.

“It’s too strong!” One to the right of her called out.

“We don’t have the power to handle it all!” Another doubts.

Chrysalis urges them on. Knowing full well that if the magic flowing in and out of them were to stop now it would likely back fire in to their bodies –and likely her own- and kill them in what would amount to a spectacular fashion as their skin would erupt as a result.

“It’s almost done! A few…more…feet!” A final mutter left her lips just as the edge of the rays hit the center, and with all the shards connected. A singular blast comes up from the center, and engulfs the queen, surrounding her in a shroud of green light while the force throws many of the changelings off to the side.

Chrysalis herself is caught off balance, and hurtled in to the air as the blast surrounds her, and she is left with the feeling of being punched in the chest with the potency to knock the wind out of some pony. After being hurtled sky wards, Chrysalis is left falling for a few fleeting seconds before her wings pick back up, and she is left to hover there while many of her subjects on the ground still recover. In wonder of what exactly just happened to them. A few of the guards fly up to meet her as she gains her balance after losing some of her inner ear function from the wave and her eyes are left darting around the cavern.

“Queen Chrysalis,” one saluted, “are you alright?” He asks while she starts to look all around them.

Instead of answering his question, she instead asked her own, “Do you see him?”

The other guards look at one another, “Umm who your majesty?”

“The one I’m trying to bring back!” She snapped at them before remembering, ‘Right… they don’t know my plan either.’

A guard starts to look around for anything that seems out of the ordinary, but more so to make the queen happy after having seen many times what she can do to one of her subjects should they put her in the wrong mood.

“Umm is that who you’re looking for?” He pointed to a pony just below them. As the queen looks down, trying to think why she didn’t look there before, she eyes her prize. Chrysalis darted down to see the product of all the hard work that had taken place. Landing right next to the unicorn, she took a knee. Using her fore hooves to bring his chest up to her ear as she listens in.

‘Come on you stubborn mule,’ She said to herself while hoping for any sign of life, ‘I know you’re stronger than this. I read the history books. I know what you are capable of. ’

Lub dub

She heard in her ear, while the chest raised slightly, filling her with some level of hope.

Lub dub

Again she hears. This time propping him up, as she leaned him against her chest while the other changelings gather around to see. The unicorn with the crooked red horn, long black mane, and tail with a grey coat covered in armor may not look alive. But they all can tell by now that Chrysalis wouldn’t have a grin plastered on her face if things weren't going the way she wanted.

“Queen Chrysalis,” a higher ranking changeling officer asked lowering his head, “Is that who I think it is?”

Chrysalis looked down at the unicorn in her hooves. Although she has never cradled another like this before, he remains unconscious, and probably very weak given his previous condition. So given the circumstances, she’ll make an exception.

“Yes general. It is, and so much more.”

The general raises a brow in suspicion, “What do you mean?”

Chrysalis grinned at him dastardly, knowing something that he will soon find out. “Simple… not only is this the previous king of the Crystal Empire.” She used a hoof to peel back an eye lid, and see the neon green and red eye and pupil dilating as a result from the light change, “But, King Sombra here. Is also going to be an ally to us… whether he likes it or not.”