[Picture Series] Misguided Love Part 04/21 (Patreon)

It was late evening in the Badlands, and the Queen of the Changelings was still alive and, though she didn’t have any fatal injuries, she still just lay unmoving in the middle of the crater her harsh landing had caused, doing nothing but looking into the dimming sky, deep in thought. Shining Armor’s love was still burning in her body and that was what kept her alive, slowly healing her physical body of what wounds she'd gotten from the force of the force field slamming into her as well as her hard collision into the ground. Mental and emotionally however, she was fatally wounded.

"I've failed to save my race, my siblings, from starvation, I've failed to make a successful invasion for their survival. I've failed as a queen." the Queen hissed, her tone steeped in despair, "Everything I try to do always ends with failure. The only thing I ever did right was being born, and even that I doubt. I'm so tired…tired of failing. Tired of everything..."

The Queen didn’t have the strength nor will to even stand up. She didn’t have any will to live nor a reason to fight anymore. Surely all of her subjects had ultimately died because of her attempt to save them, undoubtedly not having the power to survive the impact of the force-field hitting them nor a crash into the ground like she'd had, their love supply so very limited and them so weak, the invasion draining them of the last of their love magic. She was simply too tired to feel the despair she should have at their possible loss; the loss of her entire race.

She lay still and did nothing until she heard somepony approach to her. She didn’t need to see who this pony was, the love that she had stolen from this pony already told her who he was. Shining Armor stood above her head now and looked down on her Changeling form, the black-chitin-coated, hole-ridden body of a Changeling Queen.

The Queen gave a humorless laugh as she saw the stallion she'd beguiled now standing over her, simply unable to care anymore. "So, you come here to finish me off personally, huh? You must hate me so much for what I've done that you had to come this far just to make sure that I died by your own hoof?" she asked, closing her eyes and speaking without looking at Shining Armor.

Shining Armor shook his head. "No…I just have some questions to ask you. I don't want to kill you."

The Queen simply gave a tired sigh, at the same time grateful and disappointed he wouldn't kill her and end her failure of a life. "What questions? Why I invaded Canterlot? Why I pretended to be Cadence, or why I choose to use you for your love?"

After thinking for a while, Shining finally knew what to say. "No. I want to know who the real you is. Are you an evil queen who hungers for power, or a playful mare who loves to play pranks and hang out with pony friends? A hateful mare who strives for ruin, or a hopeless sister desperately trying to feed her starving siblings and subjects?"

The Queen was silent for a while, considering his questions, before finally sighing again. "Not even I know, really. Ever since I was born, and when I became Queen of the Changeling after my mother's death, I've pretended to be so many ponies. I've worn so many masks, so many roles, so much fallacy and so many lies, that I've become so many ponies until I didn’t know anymore who the real me was anymore. I don't even know what my true personality is." the Queen said, looking up at Shining Armor, still not having the will to move. "You don’t know what it feels like to be the queen of a dying race, Shining Armor. A queen can’t think about herself or her own wants or needs. Her people must always come first."

Shining Armor simply stood there silently, letting the queen continue.

"But maybe...maybe that playful mare I was when we were together might be a pony that I want to be...or would be if I were not a queen nor Changeling…if I were a pony." the Queen said, before giving a soft huff, "But...why would you come this far just to ask me that silly question? Why would you waste your time with me when you just got your real Cadence back? Why don’t you just marry her and forget all about this foolish bug who thought she could save her starving race..."

Shining Armor softly shook his head. "No, I will never marry Cadence. Cadence is my friend, and only my friend...but I just realized who I truly fell in love with three months ago. Her imposter. You."

The queen was quiet for a while, before responding to him with a hollow chuckle. "Such a hopeless love you have for me Shining Armor, to fall in love with a fake pony, a persona. Thanks to that love you gave me though, I was able to defeat Celestia…it is truly a powerful love you hold for me indeed." she said, realizing how intense his love was for her, indeed even still feeling it radiating off of him like an intense heat as he stood over her.

"Do you love me too, as you always said you did, Queen? Did you actually love me, or was it all an illusion to gain more and more power from me?" Shining asked, genuinely curious now.

The Queen was once more silent for a while before she opened her eyes to look at Shining Armor. "Can a love-eater like me even truly feel love?! I don’t know…but it doesn’t matter to me anymore, since I will die here in this crater! I have nothing to live for; I've failed my subjects, all of whom are probably dead now! I've failed as a queen...and a failure like me doesn't deserve to live anymore!" she said as she closed her eyes and prepared to die again, willing her heart to stop beating even if she couldn't actually do so voluntarily.

Shining Armor placed a hoof on her, making her flinch from the unexpected touch, "No…you can’t die yet." he said, shaking her softly.

The Queen pulled away with what strength she had, finally moving. "Leave me be! Let death be a punishment for my crimes against pony-kind and my failures to Changeling-kind! I...I don’t want to live anymore! I'm so tired...I just want it to be all over..." the Queen said in an exhausted tone, before flopping limply to the ground a few inches further from Shining.

Shining Armor merely shook his head. "No, you don't deserve to die. Your crime isn’t unforgivable, given its noble purpose. Get up…" Shining Armor said and, upon not getting a response, he dragged the Queen to lay on his back with his magic. The queen moaned from the pain of spending too long laying, as well as her strained muscles and tendons from slamming into the ground. She didn't resist nor try to struggle to get off of Shining Armor’s back however, simply laying as limply on him as she had on the ground.

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