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Queen No More

by BlackWater

Chapter 1: 2012 Original: Queen No More

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Author's Notes:

FOREWORD

The following is the original version of Queen No More. It was a one-shot, which means the entirety of the original story is contained below within this first chapter.

I decided to write a retelling of it, which is included in three parts within the other chapters of this story. I wrote the retelling simply because I wished to do so. I did not write it to provide any comparison between it or the original. Neither did I write it to suggest readers choose one over the other. It is simply there should you be interested to read it. You may choose to read the original only or the retelling only or both and it doesn't matter at all in which order you choose to do so. Both versions exist simply for your enjoyment.

To those who may be concerned over such matters, the retelling does contain some slightly darker tones and physical injury that is omitted from the original version. I do not consider the material sufficient for full trigger warnings or tag changes but I do feel some readers may benefit from the heads-up (for the squeamish).

Please do consider grabbing a snack, relaxing, and reading in whichever manner suits you best.

With love, BlackWater



Queen Chrysalis was certainly not new to flying. However, her current mode of flight was very much new to her. It was not everyday that she was sent careening through the skies after being hit with changeling-crushing magic. This may, in fact, be only her second time experiencing it. The first being her defeat at the hooves of the celestial sisters those many years before. It was so many years in the past that she had nearly forgotten about it. As she soared past a flock of birds, she remembered it all once again. Life had never been worse.

“Ah” was the single thought that replaced all others as her flight took a downwards curve. Time to meet the ground. Or rather, time to meet a muddy pond - for that was her destination. She hit it face first and sent globs of mud splattering in every direction. It was fortunate for her that the murky water and mud was deep enough to soften her landing. As she arose from the grimy excuse for a pond, she was proven right. Life had never been worse.

Her hair was soaked and was dripping with wet soil. The holes littered across her legs were now filled with it and it gave her a sickening feeling. She had been so certain that everything was under control. She had all of Canterlot - even all of Equestria - at her beck and call. Most importantly, she had finally been able to feed her children. Yes, that was the most important thing. She had starved herself more than the others in her attempt to infiltrate Canterlot and give her children hope. For a brief moment they had that hope. If only she had not let the glee overtake her and make her so reckless.

She just wanted to survive. She wanted her race to survive. Was that so bad? It was only in her supposed moment of triumph that she had let her emotions overtake her. It was those emotions that had built up her entire life that had led her and her race to ruin. After all, she had lived her whole life scraping the bottom of the bucket, so to speak. By mere threads she had led her fellow changelings to one more day of starvation...just enough food to live another day of agonizing hunger.

Chrysalis had not always been queen and she had seen the last leader of their hive die a broken mare. The previous queen fell to unfulfilled hunger for there was no love for changelings. If their appearance did not drive ponies to hate and fear them then their desperation, born from hunger, would. They tried to be like ponies, as they considered themselves fillies, colts, mares, and stallions. It was no use. They were outcast, forsaken, and wretched.

As the now humbled Chrysalis escaped her muddy landing site, she felt the tears return. She had expelled great magic in those last moments in Canterlot and, as a result, she was now starving once again. Nothing had changed even if her appearance could. Those few moments of fulfillment within the royal city were now gone and she was back to crying. It was not just for herself but for her every child.

The changelings of her hive were not her biological children, but she considered them as such when she was appointed queen. After all, they were her responsibility and she wished to care for them as a mother would. Their cries were so much like a foal that needed its mother’s attention. Just a single grain of wheat or half an oat’s worth of love was not too much to ask.

There were no second chances were there?

A few more changelings fell nearby as they ended their own scenic flights. One hit a tree but the other flew overhead and, by the sound, probably fell through a barn ceiling. He would be fine. It wasn’t like they had cushy lives and most of them were unusually resilient as a result.

However, this particular setback may be more than they were capable of living through since they hadn’t had enough time to feed. They were still starving and were now strewn across half of Equestria after being assaulted by magic. Her hive would need a miracle to make it through this time.

She made her way towards the changeling that had hit the tree. As he finally fell out of the branches and hit the ground on his backside, she addressed him.

“Are you alright, dear?”

The smaller shape-shifter paused in his reply before giving a simple “pfft.”

That was hardly the way to respect his queen but she let it go since the day had been rotten to them thus far. Another changeling approached them via the nearby road. Judging from the purple eye and limping walk, it must have been the one that hit the barn.

“For a...grugh,” he faltered as he winced in pain. “For a while I thought you were actually worthy of being our Queen.”

The other changeling followed his peer’s thought. “There was so much promise before us.”

“But you failed us,” the injured one finished.

This was not happening. It couldn’t. Chrysalis was herself a changeling and thus she thought partially with the hivemind that they all shared. She knew for months that one of her children had taken on a name. Those that took on names were always candidates for leadership. The one that took on the name of Princess Flux - such a tacky title - had wild ambitions of taking leadership of her hive. She had been perpetrating discontent with her rule and now her malice was taking root. She could hear the thought travel like lightning through the hivemind.

She was unfit to be Queen. She had lead them to great opportunity and then messed it up. She was to blame. The hive wanted a scapegoat for their new predicament.

Queen Chrysalis tried desperately to assuage the doubts even as she tried to shake the disgusting mud from her mane. She projected her own thoughts into the hivemind but was immediately repulsed. No!

She was being cut off from the hive. Her starvation, the aches from her fall, and her wounded pride from defeat were all forgotten in an instant when she was threatened with not only losing her position as queen but also being exiled from her hive. The hive meant everything. One would die quickly without it.

You can’t do this, she countered the hivemind. I am your queen. You need me.

There was one more detail - one more reason why she feared separation from her hive. Death was something they had all faced their entire lives, but there was something deeper about being the hive queen that no other pony could understand. It was like being a mother.

No mare could entirely explain what motherhood was like. Every explanation always fell short of the emotion that could only be experienced first-hoof. Her earlier tears returned. She didn’t want to lose her children. They were the children she had fought for nearly her entire life. She loved them even if that love could not feed them. They were the purpose that fueled her existence.

The hivemind had decided. As she watched the two changelings walk away, the depression of loss hit her like a cold axe. She was no longer their mother. She was no longer a part of the hive.

She was no longer queen.

Her stomach grumbled. It didn’t matter. She was no longer any pony of any account. Her life hung by a single thread without any purpose. She could only shuffle slowly down the rural road devoid of any destination.

As if some greater power had the sick love of pouring salt on open wounds, it began to rain. At least it washed some of the mud off.

It was now night and the air had a chill to it. Chrysalis looked up from her stupor when she heard a carriage passing by on the road. It was the perfect insult added to the injury.

It was the now married Shining Armor and Princess Cadance being carted off to their perfect happily-ever-after honeymoon.

Chrysalis only paused her stride long enough to take the emotional blow. Ha, she laughed internally. Some ponies were just destined to have a life that she never would. Ever since birth she had known only pain and suffering. Even as queen of the hive she had never known comfort. She had suffered just as her subjects did. Born as a changeling, she was destined for a miserable fate. With these unarguable thoughts clouding her every step, she continued to wander forward. It didn’t matter what she tried to do since it always lead to the same thing. She would just keep walking down the road - her miserable road of life - until it ended.

Chrysalis awoke beside the road where she had finally collapsed the night before. She didn’t remember for just how long she had continued walking but it didn’t matter now. She had been awoken because somepony had been ferociously shaking her. What could they want? She was not disguised since she had no energy left. Perhaps the pony in question had recognized her and wished to torment her before her final moments were over.

When she turned and saw the pony who had awakened her, she nearly took flight. There was no mistaking that purple mare. It was that very unicorn that had ruined her; the one that had brought the real Cadance from her underground prison. If she could ever blame one pony in particular for her death then it would be this very one. It was Twilight Sparkle.

“Gah!” the unicorn squeaked in fear as their eyes met. She looked as if she was about to run off. The fact that she didn’t must have had something to do with the former queen’s poor physical state.

Chrysalis had nothing to say. Truly if she had anything to say then it would be to the cruel weaver of fate that was so intent on feeding her irony even as she died of starvation. When Twilight remained glued in place with a mixed expression of curiosity and terror, Chrysalis finally spoke.

“Kill me...”

The purple mare widened her eyes. Slowly she crept forward and, for a moment, Chrysalis thought she was actually going to do it. However, the unicorn spoke with resolve instead.

“I’m not going to kill anypony even if you’ve done some really terrible things.”

Was this mercy or torture? The changeling mare was going to die of starvation anyways. It was when Twilight lowered her horn towards her that she was finally confused. Some magic began to work and her physical pains began to ease.

“I would be a pretty pathetic student if I never applied my friendship lessons to real life,” Twilight smiled. The smile wavered as if she was still uncertain about helping the changeling. Regardless, Chrysalis was very certain of one thing about the unicorn. She had strength of character like none other. Unfortunately, she was too exhausted to gag at the unicorn’s personality.

“Why are you doing this?” Chrysalis asked even as she shakily stood up and her fangs bore from her mouth.

“You’re evil but that doesn’t mean that I should be. I’m certain that healing an injured...pony is the right thing to do,” Twilight emphasized “pony” as she tried to find the right way to categorize the changeling mare.

“Right thing...?” the idea escaped her. Twilight thought of her as evil and an enemy of her teacher and her very land and yet she thought helping her was the right thing to do?

“...” Twilight seemed to be thinking of something grave and her expression made her look like she was trying to solve calculus in her head. Just before Chrysalis could speak, she came to a conclusion.

“Follow me.”

They finally arrived at Twilight’s library residence. In reality, the walk wasn’t that long but it was a stretch for the weakened Chrysalis. Whatever healing Twilight had applied had not solved her starvation and she was incredibly weak as a result. Twilight had noticed her companion’s waning stride and had kept an appropriately slow pace for her.

Now that they were back at the library, Twilight’s eyes were quickly swirling. Her thoughts raged with panic.

What have you gotten yourself into, Twilight? The Princess will throw you into the dungeon for this! No, she will praise you for this! You lead the insane Death Queen into your house! No, you made an enemy into a friend!

Chrysalis started to notice that something was wrong with Twilight. The purple mare was nearly having a mental breakdown. She didn’t understand it all but she finally buckled to the floor from exhaustion. The starvation was ringing the bell of death. Whatever hope of life she had now rested with the very mare that had taken it from her.

“GAAAH!” a small dragon screamed in surprise.

It was just what Twilight needed to snap out of her meltdown. “Spike! Calm down. I need you to get me every book we have on Changelings. Something’s wrong with her and my healin-” she stopped short as she noticed Chrysalis was now sprawled on the floor.

“Oh no!” she cried.

Spike was less panicked, but still shocked. “Didn’t she get thrown out yesterday?”

“We need a doctor! Spike!”

“Geez, Twilight. The things you get yourself into...I doubt the local doctor will be much help.”

Twilight countered Spike with her rare icy glare. “Books, Spike!”

However, the dragon just shrugged as he walked to the shelves to begin the search. “She’s starving. All she needs is love,” he countered.

It was a curious and almost comical comment but the assistant had once again proven his usefulness. Perhaps he was more observant than Twilight gave him credit for. Obviously he, unlike herself, had remembered the whole reason that Chrysalis had attacked Canterlot in the first place. It was simple logic but it still took a sharp mind to put the pieces together.

“Do we have any?” Twilight asked desperately as she cradled the mare’s head with her front hooves.

Spike merely leaned around a tall stack of books and gave Twilight the did-you-seriously-just-ask-that look. She was always this scatterbrained when the situation was out of hoof. Her perfectionist personality gave her little calm in emergencies. Chrysalis had obviously gone to great lengths to secure a source of love with her brother Shining Armor. What could she or anypony else do on the spot to save the dying changeling?

Twilight was already beyond the “should I save her” question and was thus wracking her brain for a solution. Her only conclusion was not to her liking. It was crude and had a dicey chance of success - to say the least. When Chrysalis began to breathe unevenly, Twilight knew her time was up. The green-eyed mare had been silent this whole time and it did not bode well. She was obviously slipping from the starvation and would soon go unconscious. No hospital could help a starving changeling.

Twilight moved closer so that she could cradle the mare’s head in her lap. “Chrysalis, don’t try to speak. I know you’re really weak right now so I just want you to listen. I think what happened before with the wedding was horrible and I thought you were evil, but I realize now that I was just as bad. Actually I was probably worse than you were. You were just saving yourself and your subjects from death and I...I was painting everything black and white as if you were the villain and I was the hero.”

Chrysalis didn’t respond but her eyes were still making contact with Twilight’s. The purple mare’s eyes began to water as the weight of the situation began hitting her.

“It had to come to this f-” she faltered as she sniffled. “for me to realize...Chrysalis...”

The black mare’s eyes were closing slowly. Twilight panicked as she realized that the mare’s time was up.

“Chrysalis! Please! I’m sorry!”

Twilight didn’t know that it would feel this horrific to lose somepony, knowing she couldn’t save them. It didn’t matter if it was the same two eyes that had seemed so full of malice before. It didn’t matter if she barely knew the mare. All of the magic she had studied throughout her life couldn’t help her. Death was not just scary. It was sad. Her own tears were testimony.

The green eyes continued to diminish as they closed.

“Don’t go...I’ll...” she choked out the words. “I’ll...I’ll l-love you like a f-friend...l-like a sister...”

Spike watched silently from the other side of the room.

The black mare’s eyes finally closed.

Twilight stayed that way, not watching the time but just letting it flow by. She had only her own thoughts and actions to reflect on. What had she done? Was she so self-centered that she only applied friendship to her five friends in Ponyville?

She did not offer friendship when it would have made the greatest difference - when it would have saved an entire race. Now she held the consequences of her actions within her very hooves. One of her tears dropped and landed on Chrysalis’ crooked horn.

Mere hours previously, she would never have been able to guess what it was like to see somepony die. Even when she fought the likes of Nightmare Moon, Discord, and the changeling queen herself, Twilight never wished them death. She, just like everypony, sometimes thought of killing others in anger but it was always in a rhetorical sense and never realistic in mind or matter.

If friendship is magic then let it grant me one miracle, her thoughts begged.

Her horn glowed with a vengeance and the two mares were quickly enveloped in a purple haze. Twilight sat in wide-eyed wonder as the light that surrounded them grew to a blinding brilliance and then vanished altogether.

She gasped in shock, not believing in the wish she had made mere seconds previous. When Chrysalis opened her eyes, bewilderment plastered the black mare’s face.

“I’m...I’m not hungry...?” Chrysalis questioned herself. She didn’t believe it. It was such an odd and foreign sensation to not be starving. Even when she was manipulating Shining Armor, she always felt a tad hungry. It only added to her confusion when Twilight leaned down and hugged her. She could feel the unicorn’s warm tears against her.

Twilight sniffled, “I won’t. I won’t.”

“Won’t what?” she questioned in a daze.

“I won’t make the same mistake again. We’re friends now - I don’t want enemies ever again.”

“Wait, you?” the changeling was surprised. “...You fed me?”

Spike smirked as he interrupted their conversation. “Friendship is a better meal than stolen love. At least when it’s pure.”

Both mares looked over to the baby dragon in surprise. It was then that Spike held out a scroll. It was like the ones that Princess Celestia sent every now and then to Twilight.

“The Princess sent this summary. She must have done some research on changelings after the incident yesterday.” Finding the remark to be odd, he added, ”Or else she just guessed based on your friendship reports.” Considering Princess Celestia’s age, the latter was more likely.

Twilight protested, “Spike, did you know it would happen?”

“As your number one assistant, I had no doubt.”

Both mares laughed, though Chrysalis was less in the know with the joke.

“Twilight...” the fallen queen started.

“Hm?”

“Can I stay?”

Twilight didn’t know the mare’s situation and she hadn’t thought of what they would do after her health was taken care of. However, she didn’t have any real issue with letting the mare stay. After all, the library was big enough to hold quite a few ponies. It would be a simple matter to let her stay. Thus, it required no further thought than that.

“Of course.”

With the day long over, Chrysalis laid on the cushion she had taken up to the balcony. For the first time she gazed at the stars without contempt in her eyes. She didn’t have to keep living her old life of hatred. She no longer had to loathe the alicorn of the night nor the princess of the sun.

She pushed all thoughts of her hive aside. There was nothing she could do now that she was cut away from them. The hivemind no longer resounded within her mind. It was actually a bit lonely.

“Princess Luna sure knows how to make a beautiful night sky,” Twilight commented as she stepped out onto the balcony. The sight of the changeling was still unnerving for her even if she knew that the mare was not a threat. Chrysalis picked up on the unicorn’s faltered gaze.

“Would you prefer me to change my appearance?”

Twilight buckled her legs and laid beside her. “No. It’d be wrong to treat a friend that way. I want to get used to seeing you as you are.”

The resolve in her voice indicated that she was remembering some prior lesson of friendship. In fact, Twilight was thinking that very moment that her encounter with the changeling was some scheme of Princess Celestia’s. It could have all been an attempt to put Twilight’s learning to the test.

“What’s the blanket for?” Chrysalis asked.

Twilight had draped a throw blanket over her back. The question snapped Twilight out of her thoughts and she leaned her head back to grab the blanket with her mouth. Doing so, she tossed it over so that it covered the black mare.

“Oof,” Chrysalis disappeared under the star spangled blanket. It had been one of Rarity’s generous gifts. The white unicorn knew of Twilight’s love of the stars and had crafted a beautiful blanket on one of her random sewing sprees.

Slowly the black mare’s head popped out from under the sheet and Twilight couldn’t help but giggle. The former enemy of all Equestria looked nothing like she did at the height of her evil marriage-wrecking scheme.

“Huh?” Chrysalis asked confusedly.

“The blanket’s for you. I thought it might be a bit cold out...seems I was right,” the purple mare shuddered. Many quiet moments passed between them as they gazed up to the stars. It was the changeling that finally broke the silence.

“Twilight?”

“Hm?”

“Why have you been so kind to me?”

Finally Twilight got a question she didn’t have to think hard about. It was like getting a simple multiplication question after learning calculus. “Because that’s what friendship is for.”

“We’re friends...” Chrysalis commented softly to herself. It was hard to imagine anypony wanting to be her friend. Even in her hive days she was only respected as Queen. None of her subjects were truly her friends - just responsibilities.

“Friendship tastes different than love,” the black mare continued.

“I don’t think what you experienced was pure love...since it was acquired through deceit I mean...” Twilight speculated.

“Maybe I’ve never tasted true love then,” the thought saddened the changeling. “Will I ever?”

“I’m sure. But you will always have my friendship,” Twilight assured her. Although her attempt to help the formerly evil queen was risky, Twilight had never felt better about taking the initiative. Oh, the letter to the Princess would be very interesting. She even wanted to see the look on the Princess’ face when she read it.

Chrysalis sighed into a smile as she snuggled up under the blanket. Yesterday she had lost everything. Today she had gained a whole new life. Food was no longer a problem with Twilight beside her. No longer did she have to manipulate others because the purple unicorn had sincerely given her friendship.

“If friendship is this good, then I want to taste true love,” Chrysalis remarked.

Twilight smiled as she turned her gaze from her new friend to the breathtaking sky. “So do I,” Twilight added too softly to be heard.

They both lied there for quite some time as they stargazed together. When Twilight began to shiver, Chrysalis realized that she should have shared the blanket earlier. As she offered it and Twilight scooted under the sparkling sheet, she decided that life had never been better.

Yes, as they both cuddled against the blanket under the starry sky, she knew that life had never been better.

Next Chapter: 2014 Retelling: Broken Without Salvation Estimated time remaining: 57 Minutes
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