"Why are you looking at me like that?"

In her dreams, she remembered the happier times. Food had been plentiful. Equestria flowed with love for all. The hive...the hive had not had to resort to such extreme measures. She had had friends, true friends, ones she could confide every secret in. But most of all, she remembered him. His smile, his easy laugh, the way he was always there for her, meeting her needs before she could give voice to them.

It was all gone now. He was gone now. Lost to her when the hive set its sites on Canterlot for a second time. Lost when the Queen, in her madness, abandoned any semblance of subtlety and commanded the swarm to kill. Lost when she found herself caught between cultures, because ponies and changeling could not find a way to coexist.

Before...it all felt so very long ago, when by the calendar's reckoning only a few short months had passed since that fateful day. The day when she was forced to choose between friendship or death. She could have fought against her swarm, but they were implacable. She would have died screaming, and if she were fortunate, it would have been quick. There were worse ways to go, worse things she had seen, worse things she had ultimately done. But the hive had to thrive. The old Queen had been mad, but Chrysalis had understood at least this. She had been mad, though, so her heir had opposed her. To succeed, though, she needed power.

And there was one who loved her with all his heart. One who was so innocent, so trusting, he never saw the moment coming. She had convinced herself it was the only way. That she was trapped with no way out. Equestria was once full of harmony, but that had been shattered in the invasion. He had played his part without knowing he was marching to his doom, walked gladly beside her until the final moment when she turned on him with hunger in her eyes.

She had thrown down the Queen, but found herself unprepared to lead the swarm. There was so much demanded of her, and in the grand scheme of things, she had asked little of the ponies. What were a few lives to rebuild the swarm when all of them would have been lost without her?

They had not seen it that way. They had fought back. Rebelled. She was forced to institute harsher measures, forced to do things that she could not bring herself to think about. She had been so certain it was the only way.

She had been wrong. There was a way out. A way to free herself of her sins. Even now, she felt herself fading. She ached all over, but the ache was fading. The pain was fading. She was fading away with a smile upon her face, for soon, she would see them again. Each and every one of those she had grown close to. Even him. He would forgive her. He would understand it was necessary.

[hr]

Everything went black, and for a moment, she felt herself slipping towards her well-earned rest.

It didn't last. Familiar sensations built within her, a painful pounding in her skull was the world rushed back into focus. This wasn't supposed to be happening. It couldn't be happening. She opened her eyes, wanting to deny what was in front of her. He was dead! She had killed him herself, he couldn't be -

“Well, that didn't work.”

Sanity fled as Twilight Sparkle opened her mouth and screamed.