For as long as Twilight could remember, there had always been a clock in the living room of her parents' house. It was an antique, all brightly polished brass, and in the shape of a stylized sun not too unlike Celestia's cutie mark. And for all the time she'd spent in that room, all the millions of times she'd heard it tick, never had it been louder than it was right at this moment.
Twilight sat on the small couch she had shared with Chrysalis whenever they came to visit. Across from her, on their own love seat, were her parents. Night Light's face held an expression of pained worry, mostly as a result of the disappointed frown on Twilight Velvet's face. Worst of all, of course, was the looming, icy presence of Shining Armor standing off to their side.
"So," he said suddenly, shattering the silence and making everypony in the room jump, "how is my wife enjoying the palace dungeons?"
"About as much as my wife is enjoying being all alone, probably," shot back Twilight as a spike of anger suddenly ran through her. She gasped as soon as she said the words, her hooves going to her mouth. "I'm sorry, Shining Armor, I didn't mean that—"
"No, no, tell us how you really feel," he interrupted, all fake sincerity. "Tell us about how you sided with a monster, rather than your own family."
"Don't call her that!" shouted Twilight, pounding a hoof on her seat’s armrest. "You don't know anything about what Chrysalis is like, so you have no right to call her a monster!"
"She really got to you, didn't she?" said Shining Armor softly. "Worse even than she did with me, because you're doing it willingly."
Twilight glared at him for a moment longer, then slumped back in her seat, shaking her head. "Please, Shining Armor, this shouldn't be about who's on whose side. Ponies we both care about are hurting, and we need to help them.”
Shining Armor stared back at her, face slack and disbelieving. “You don’t get it, do you Twilight?” he said finally, shaking his head. “I want to help you, but I will never help Chrysalis. Everything that’s happened has been entirely because of her. As far as I’m concerned, we’d all be better off if she does exactly what she said and never comes back.”
He stopped, blinking, as he saw Twilight's face. Her lips were trembling, tears leaking out of her eyes, and she snuffled, wiping at her nose with one hoof.
"H-how could you say that?" she asked, voice hoarse.
"Twilight, you… are you seriously… arrrggh!" With a frustrated groan, Shining Armor turned and stomped out of the room. The sound of his hoofsteps was clear as he climbed the stairs to the upper floor, then a door slammed.
Twilight, rubbing her eyes, looked up as she noticed a glow. A handkerchief hung in the air nearby, held by her father's magical aura, and she took it with a grateful smile. After spending a moment cleaning her face off, she set the handkerchief off to the side and looked up at her father.
"T-thanks, dad," she said, voice back to normal.
"Well, you know, I just want you to be happy. No matter what, or who, makes you feel that way," Night Light replied, a small, sad smile on his face.
"Oh." Twilight looked down. "You don't like Chrysalis either, do you?"
"It's complicated." He sighed, running a hoof through his mane. "You and Shining Armor… you're my little filly, and my little colt. I'm your father, I'm supposed to protect you. And when Chrysalis attacked the wedding… I couldn't. I was completely and utterly helpless."
"To be fair, she knocked out Princess Celestia with one hit," pointed out Twilight. "I don't really think you need to beat yourself up about it too badly."
"Well, yes, there is that. And you two—especially now—have never had any trouble taking care of yourselves." He let out a chuckle, quickly sobering up. "But the point is… she hurt our family, Twilight. That wasn't just supposed to be a special day for Shining Armor and Cadance. It was for all of us, and Chrysalis ruined that."
"I know." Twilight closed her eyes. "That's why I've been having so much trouble trying to figure out what to do. I… I hated Chrysalis for so long. When we got married, I was terrified because I thought she was actually going to tear my throat out. It took me days to even start believing she was telling the truth every time she said she loved me. She coddled me, gave me everything I asked for, spent every moment following me around… and I spent a week thinking it was all just a trick. That's how little I trusted her, how little I believed she even could love."
"So you can understand how we feel, then," said Night Light. "All we know about this is what you've told us. We believe you, Twilight, when you say she's not quite as bad as we think she is. But your word is all we have to go on. We don't see her the way you do."
"I really wish you could," said Twilight quietly. "She's… she's special. You just know how cruel she is… and I do too. But I also know how kind she is, how caring. It's just… she only acts that way towards me and the hive."
"Is that really okay with you? That she treats your friends so inconsiderately? And that she does the same to every single pony she meets?"
Twilight took a deep breath. That, really, was the million bit question. She was the Princess of Friendship… and she was married to the Queen of the changelings, who seemed to think friendship was pointless, at best, and something beneath her at worst. If there was ever going to be any kind of long term relationship between them, she needed to come to terms with that.
"I think," she said finally, "That… I am okay with what she's like. She is not a friendly pony. She's a Changeling Queen, and she's not going to be everypony's friend. She's probably not going to be friends with that many ponies at all, in fact. But, she has made friends with Princess Luna. She's also at least mildly respectful to my friends now, too. She hasn't cut back on insulting the ponies we meet on a day-to-day basis yet, but I think she might actually be trying to work on it.
"And I don't really want her to change all that much. I… I like her the way she is. It's actually kind of, well, cute the way she hates everything. Especially since she's almost always forced to admit she's wrong, except she won't, and then she gets all mad and pouty. I know what she's like, and I accept that. She's not going to change, and I would never ask her to, because then she wouldn't be her. But she can do better, and she's trying to. For me. And that's enough."
Night Light looked at her, and smiled. "I think that's enough for me, too."
Twilight clasped her hooves together. "So… you mean…"
"Twilight, I'm not going to lie to you. On a personal level, I don't think I'm ever really going to like Queen Chrysalis. There's too much history there for me to. But I can forgive her, I think, given how happy she makes you. And I can accept her. I know you two don't really need my permission, especially since you're already married, but you have my blessing."
"That's… thank you, dad. That really means a lot to me." She paused to blink back a few tears. "I just wish I could get Shining Armor and Cadance to understand the way you do."
"That's going to be a bit trickier," he agreed with a nod. "I'm not happy about what Chrysalis did because it hurt the family, but it was those two that she hurt personally. She tainted what should have been their most special day. I don't know if even a direct apology can fix something like that."
"And Chrysalis would never do that anyway," admitted Twilight. "She hasn't even apologized to me yet. Which, mostly, is because she thinks I should be flattered she went through so much trouble for me." She dropped her head and sighed, then looked back up. "Mom, do you—"
That was a mistake. She immediately remembered why she'd been avoiding her mother's gaze as soon as their eyes locked and an icy glare hit her. She squirmed, trying to sink back into the couch. A glance to her father was no help; as soon as Twilight had turned to her mother, he'd sucked his breath in between his teeth, then had very carefully started looking at everything in the room besides the other two ponies.
"So, what, is a Queen not good enough for you?" snapped Twilight Velvet, voice frigid.
"Mother, please—"
"I'm sure you can find another Queen, though," continued Velvet, as if Twilight hadn't spoken. "Plenty of those in Equestria, am I right? Or maybe you can find an Empress, or a Queen-Empress even. I mean, they just have to be the Queen of one kingdom and the Empress of another, right? That shouldn't be too hard. No, you can definitely do better than just a Queen, Twilight."
"Mom—"
"And luckily I don’t need grandchildren. You just send all those darling little changelings right back where they came from. I'm perfectly fine dying without ever being a grandmother. That's exactly what I want, Twilight, so thank you for being thoughtful."
"They're not even my children, mom! So they wouldn't be your grandchildren!"
Velvet gasped. "Twilight, how could you?! Are you saying you wouldn't accept the children of your wife as your own?"
"W-what? No, that's not what—"
"Because that's a terrible way to think! I accepted them with all my heart. It doesn't matter if you didn't actually give birth to them, Twilight. They're still your children. You have responsibilities when you marry somepony, and you need to be mindful of that."
"I… I am." Twilight looked down, as a horrible sense of guilt came over her. "I'm sorry," she muttered.
"Hmph. I should hope so." Velvet smiled, for the first time all night. "Such polite little things. And so respectful of their grandmother. I spent an entire weekend baking cookies, and they lined up around the block to get them. And they ate every single cookie, too."
"Oh. Um, that's nice."
"Because when a grandmother makes cookies for her grandchildren, she puts all her love into them, Twilight," continued Velvet. "And that makes them more delicious than anything. You don't need to be a changeling to taste that, believe me."
"I do mom, I do," sighed Twilight.
"Now, of course, just because you have those changelings doesn't mean I don't want you and Chrysalis to get busy on making some children of your own as soon as possible."
"M-mom!"
"Well, it's something the two of you need to be thinking about."
"No it's not, we—" Twilight grimaced. "I don't even know if we're going to stay together. I think I love her, but I don't know for sure, and even if I do I don't know if I can get past all my other feelings about her."
"Oh, of course you love her," said Velvet with a dismissive wave of her hoof. "I'm your mother, I know these things. Now, back to my future grandchildren—"
"Mom, please." Twilight squirmed in her seat, her face reddening. "Even if we do stay married and… want children someday… we're both mares. It's not easy for us to have children just like that."
"Now, Twilight, you know there are all kinds of ways around that. Why, I can think of a few spells already that would let one of you impregnate the other—"
"Okay, okay!" Twilight, face now fully red, was carefully studying the ceiling. "Yes, I know there are spells like that. But even if we did decide to have children—at some point, years in the future!—I don't actually know any spells like that."
"Why that's no problem at all, dear!" said Velvet cheerfully. "I had a long talk with Chrysalis about this very subject, and she assured me that she knows all of those spells and techniques. Why, we even think she might know a few that have either been lost over the years or are from faraway lands!"
"You… you've talked to Chrysalis without me?" asked Twilight, embarrassment now total as she stared at her mother. "About this?"
"Of course. We've been having tea about once a month for a while now. And you know, it seems like the best option for you two has to do with her being a changeling. Apparently, she really does have an ovi—"
"Oh, sweet Celestia." Twilight interrupted her mother, burying her face in her hooves. "Mom, no, we're not talking about this."
"It's a perfectly natural thing, dear, there's nothing to be embarrassed about," replied Velvet primly.
"No. No it's not natural, at least not as a subject to talk with my parents about. If I was married to a stallion, I wouldn't talk about his stallionhood with you. If I was married to a mare, I wouldn't talk about her marehood. And I'm not going to discuss Chrysalis's…. queenhood, either."
"It's called an ovipositor, Twilight. You can say the word, it's nothing to be embarrassed about. As I said, it's probably the way you should go when you have children. It sounds like all you have to do is—"
"No! Nonono!" Twilight shook her head violently, clamping her hooves over her ears. After a moment, she lifted one hoof to check things out.
"—been fertilized, Chrysalis will then extend her—"
"LALALA, NOT LISTENING!" Twilight's hoof went back to her ear and she started to sing loudly. "I used to wonder what friendship could be~! Til' you all shared its magic with me~!"
After a few lines, she dared to peek again.
"—and after the eggs have gestated inside you long enough, you just have to lay—"
"Okay, all done here, going to talk to Shining Armor and try to repair a possibly damaged relationship with my only sibling, bye!"
Twilight took off, flapping her wings once to shoot across the room and halfway up the stairs, and Velvet turned to scowl after her.
"No flying in the house! You know that's not allowed! And tell Shining Armor we need to talk about grandchildren again!"
She sat back with a huff, crossing her hooves. "I can't believe that girl. Night Light, did you—"
She stopped, looking around as she realized she was now alone in the room.
"Really? We can't even have a conversation about a few simple facts of life?" Velvet snorted. "Well, excuse me for being interested in my future grandchildren!"
Twilight paused at the top of the stairs, letting out a sigh of relief at her escape. Raising her head, she walked out into the hall, a quick glance proving that it was indeed the door to Shining Armor's old room that had been slammed. Walking up to it, she knocked softly.
"Shining Armor? You in there?" There was no response, so she carefully turned the doorknob and trotted in.
After a few steps, she stopped, her heart sinking. Shining Armor was sitting on the bed facing the door. He didn't look up as she entered, instead keeping his attention focused on the book held in his hooves—an old copy of the Monster-pedia.
"Oh." Her ears drooped, and she ventured a guess. "Page seventy-six?"
"Changeling Queens," read Shining Armor, not looking up. "A Changeling Queen is one of the most dangerous creatures a pony can encounter. Physically larger and stronger than even the biggest earth ponies, their wings also enable them to fly like a pegasus, and their magic surpasses that of any unicorn, sometimes exceedingly so depending on how well they've fed recently.
"But their real strength lies in deceit. They can take any shape they please, all the better to trick their victims. Even if their disguise is seen through, they have a wide variety of hypnotic powers and mind control abilities to erase any such slip-ups. Their ability to lie, deceive and otherwise fool ponies into doing what they want is nearly unparalleled.
"A Changeling Queen is also possibly the cruelest monster in all the lands. They devour love, and think nothing of destroying all who stand in their way of stealing more, even tearing apart entire families in their quest to feed."
"Ice cream!" blurted out Twilight, and Shining Armor finally looked up, surprised. "Does it say anything in there about ice cream?" she asked, and he shook his head, mystified.
"Because Chrysalis loves ice cream, Shining Armor," she said hurriedly. "She says it tastes like love. We went to an ice cream parlor once, and got some cones. As soon as we got outside she dropped hers on the sidewalk. I thought she was going to cry, right there on the street in front of everypony. So I scooped up as much of it as I could and put it on my cone, and we sat on a bench and shared it."
"Twilight—"
"There's also this thing she does. I've never seen her do it in front of anybody else, not even her changelings, but sometimes at the end of the day, she would come into our room and just collapse on a piece of furniture. Like, boneless, full-body sprawl, her legs sticking out everywhere. Couches, easy chairs, beds, sometimes me if I was laying down—which makes it hard to read; she's actually surprisingly heavy—it didn't matter, she'd just fully relax, completely limp, no dignity whatsoever."
"Twilight, this doesn't—"
"And sometimes when she sneezes, she—"
"Twilight! That's enough!" shouted Shining Armor.
They stood there for a moment, looking at each other, and finally Twilight closed her eyes.
"She's a person, Shining Armor," she said emphatically. "Not a monster, not some entry in a book. She has real feelings, the same as any of us."
“So she’s just all sunshine and rainbows, then?” he asked bitterly, eyes narrowed.
“No, Shining Armor, I’m not saying that.” She opened her eyes to stare, downcast, at her hooves, and sighed. “Though maybe I was trying to gloss over that a bit.”
“Well, come on, then,” he challenged. “Let’s hear some of those other stories."
Twilight shifted uncomfortably. “This one time… she popped a little colt’s balloon. And then laughed at him when he started crying. I think that was actually her, too, because it wasn’t really a ‘date’ date, and I don’t think she was wearing the earring. But I had to apologize for her, because she refused. I did make her buy him a few extra balloons to make up for what she did, though.”
She looked off to the side, a frown on her face. “Little brat made her buy him five balloons,” she muttered.
“Twilight!” snapped Shining Armor, and she swung around to stare at him, blinking.
“What?”
“That…” he stopped, licking his lips nervously, then continued. “That sounded like something she would say.”
“W-well, it’s not like I’m being unreasonable!” stammered Twilight. “I mean, one balloon to replace the one that got popped, sure, that’s just assumed. A second one to make up for how mean Chrysalis was, okay, that’s good too. A third would even be acceptable compensation. But five?! That’s just greedy. At that point, he was taking advantage of us.”
Shining Armor’s expression was turning thunderous, so she quickly hurried on. “Okay, different example, let’s see…. Oh, I know.
"A few weeks ago, Pinkie was throwing us a party. I invited Chrysalis, and she came with, but you remember what she thought of Pinkie's parties when she was pretending to be Cada—ahem! Anyway, she was unenthusiastic, let's say. So Pinkie went walking past her with the cake, and… Chrysalis tripped her. Pinkie fell face first on the floor, and then the cake landed on her head. And Chrysalis laughed, of course."
Shining Armor winced. "And you're still trying to defend her?"
"Well, I mean, it's Pinkie. Massive head trauma is kind of a non-issue for her. And then she just licked the cake off the top of her head and laughed too."
"You can't tell me any of your other friends were happy about that."
"No, they weren't. It did kind of ruin the party, after all. Rainbow was especially upset. And it didn't really help any of their opinions about Chrysalis. She was so obviously just being mean that it took down the mood of the entire party. Well, except for Pinkie, of course. She just thought it was funny."
Shining Armor shook his head. "Twilight, I can't believe this. Ignoring for the moment that we're talking about Queen Chrysalis—you know, the changeling who's done some utterly horrible things to our family over the years—you just described to me a pony you call a friend who was mean to a young colt and then ruined a party for your friends. And I'm sure those are just a few of the stories you have. How can you call her a friend? You, the Princess of Friendship! Nothing that she does is what a friend does! You can't even say you forgive her when she does these things, because to forgive somebody they actually need to be sorry for what they've done in the first place!"
"Aha, but she was sorry about the party!" cried Twilight excitedly, pointing a hoof at Shining Armor. "I didn't even tell her that she should make up for what she did, just that I was disappointed in her. And the next time we all met, she brought a cake for us!"
She deflated slightly, hoof drifting back to the ground. "Of course, it turned out she'd stolen the cake, but it was still a nice gesture."
“So, that’s who you’re trying to defend?” asked Shining Armor, arching one eyebrow critically. “Someone that hurts little children, trips your friends, ruins parties, steals, laughs at other’s misfortunes… but hey, she likes ice cream, so she can’t be all bad right?”
“It’s a really pretty laugh,” said Twilight in a small voice, shuffling her hooves nervously. “And… sometimes, I think it actually gets nicer the crueler she is.”
Shining Armor stared at her, complete bafflement on his face. “How, Twilight?" he asked hoarsely. “How can you think anything she does is okay? How can you even say what you just said?”
“Because I like her, Shining Armor. A lot. I’m not claiming she’s perfect—nopony is. She has some serious flaws, personality-wise. But I think her good points, everything I’ve seen about her that I like, outweigh those flaws.” She took a deep breath. “And I’m pretty sure I’m in love with her.”
Shining Armor stared at her, expression blank. Just as Twilight was beginning to fear something was wrong with him, he slowly tilted back, flopping onto the bed and covering his face with his hooves as he let out a frustrated groan. Taking that as a signal, she trotted over, climbing onto the bed to sit next to her brother.
“I’m… sorry,” she said lamely.
“Why does everything with Chrysalis have to be such a mess?” he moaned plaintively, voice muffled by his hooves.
“She did kind of make a bad first impression. And then continued that impression for several more years,” Twilight admitted with resigned nod.
“Yes, I think ponynapping my bride, ruining our wedding, and taking over Equestria counts as a ‘bad first impression’.”
“Although it was kind of romantic.” Shining Armor raised his hooves to glare at her. “I-I mean, not the wedding stuff, but conquering a whole kingdom for me? How many ponies can say their wife has done that?”
“Me, for one. In a way."
"I suppose so." Twilight looked up at the ceiling, face innocent. "You know, they're not really—"
"Stop right there," warned Shining Armor, bopping her on the back of the head with a hoof. "Do not compare Cadance to Chrysalis. They're about as opposite as opposites can get."
"Well, there are a few similarities," Twilight pointed out cheerfully. "They're both all about love, even if they differ on the specifics. Also, they both love me… and I care about both of them. And.... now they've both tried to destroy each other's marriages."
"I…" Shining Armor lapsed into silence for a moment, then sighed. "Twilight, I'm sorry about Cadance. My feelings about Chrysalis aside, I'm absolutely furious about what she did to you. Part of the reason I was so mad earlier was because I'd just come from visiting Cadance, and I kind of went off on her when I was there."
"Oh," said Twilight quietly, head down. "I'm sorry. You're not too mad, are you?"
"No, Twilight. Just… upset that she would treat you that way. All I did was yell at her a bit. Asked her what she was thinking, how she could do something so cruel." He let out a guilty sigh. "Actually, I should probably go back and talk to her again. Let her know that while I may be angry at her, I do still love her."
"Well, at least I won't have that on my conscience," said Twilight with relief. After a brief hesitation, she looked back at him. "What was Cadance like? During the last few months, I mean. When she was doing… what she was doing."
"She seemed… completely normal." Shining Armor shrugged. "Maybe a bit more preoccupied than usual. There was no real way for me to tell the difference between her using that crystal ball to talk to Chrysalis and her being in one policy meeting or the other. I didn't even notice the times she went to Canterlot."
He paused for a moment, musing. "One thing that I did notice was that she didn't seem as interested in your marriage as I would have thought. And she didn’t even seem to care that Queen Chrysalis was back, which was definitely odd considering everything we went through.”
“Did you ever talk to her about it?” asked Twilight, and he nodded.
“Of course. But she seemed completely fine with everything. Ominously so, I suppose. She acted at least a little bit excited whenever we discussed your marriage, though in retrospect maybe not as much as I really would have expected. Whenever I brought Chrysalis up, though, she had almost no reaction. She’d just say that everything was going fine, and that she would ‘handle it’.” He paused for a moment. “That was probably a bit ominous too, now that I think about it.”
“I’m sorry about what happened, Shining Armor,” Twilight said quietly.
“No, no… Cadance made her own decision on how to act, and now she's going to face the consequences for it.” He took a deep breath. "As she rightly should. What she did was awful, and I'm very upset with her right now. But none of it was really your fault."
“It was, though. I should have talked to Cadance too. Talked to her for real, not just written a few letters where all I did was ask for advice. The Princesses said the same thing; we all really should have talked to her, and we let her down by not doing so. So I’m sorry.”
“If anypony should be apologizing, Twilight, it's her. And I should have been the one to notice something wrong with Cadance more than anyone else. There’s nothing for you to feel guilty over.” He sighed. “So… did they say anything about what’s going to happen to Cadance? I know right now she’s just being detained until a hearing can be held, but…”
“They said they’re going to be as lenient as possible.” Twilight shifted uncomfortably. “Obviously they can’t be too lenient. Showing too much favor to her would be an obvious bias. But, well, after everything Chrysalis did to her… it was kind of justified. So there are extenuating circumstances they're going to take into account.”
“You don’t think they’re going to turn her to stone for too long, do you?” asked Shining Armor anxiously. “It’s just that I’m mortal, and…”
“It’ll be okay, Shining Armor, I’m sure they won’t do that,” said Twilight. “Or, at least, it won’t be for that long.”
She gave his leg a pat, then opened her mouth, seeming to start to say something else. Instead, she hesitated, then turned away, chewing her lip nervously. Finally, after a long moment of thought, she looked back at him.
“Shining? Can I ask you something?”
“Sure, what’s up?” he asked, pushing himself up slightly on the bed.
“Could you, maybe… help me?”
“Help?” He looked at her, at her wide, pleading eyes, then let out a groan and pushed himself all the way up into a sitting position.
“You're asking me to help you with Chrysalis,” he said, a statement, not a question.
“I am. I know this is kind of an awkward thing to ask, but…”
“'Awkward' is a bit of an understatement.”
“I’m asking you this for me, Shining Armor. Please.” She looked over at him, eyes begging. “I’m the one who needs to know this. I’m not asking for you to forgive Chrysalis; I don’t even know if you can, or if she deserves your forgiveness. But I need your help. Even Cadance was able to help me a little.”
Shining Armor looked back at her for a long moment, then turned away, letting out a long sigh and running his hoof through his mane.
“When I first found out you were married to Queen Chrysalis…” he said, speaking quietly, “I actually didn’t mind that much. It didn’t fix what happened at my wedding, but at least it gave it… purpose. A meaning. I thought she made you happy, and for that, I could forget and move on.
“Then you told us all you didn’t really love her. I was… less than happy about that. But you were willing to give her a chance, to give love a chance, so I said nothing. And again, it didn’t make the wedding any better, but a misunderstanding was at least something that made sense.”
He sighed again. “And now… Cadance did something terrible and is in the dungeon, and I still can't help feeling that it's because of Chrysalis. Who is now gone, apparently forever, because of what Cadance did. And now you're asking me to help you bring Chrysalis back. After everything she's done, all the problems she's caused…"
"Because I miss her, Shining Armor," Twilight said, voice breaking slightly. "And she's as alone as Cadance is right now, even with her changelings. I want to help both of them. This needs to stop, now. No more hurting each other, no more trying to wreck each other's marriages. We need to bring both of them together, so they can finally understand.
"You were right, it was all a misunderstanding, from the very beginning. The changelings don't understand us, and we've never understood them. And until we do, things like this will just keep happening. We can all live together, in harmony, and be stronger than we ever were apart. Whatever horrible things they've done to us—and now we've done to them—we can put that aside, and be closer than we would have otherwise.
"Chrysalis and I are proof of that."
Shining Armor didn't look back, his head still down. "Do you really love her?"
"I don't know. But the more I talk with all of you, the more I think the answer is yes. Because I don't think I could feel this strongly about someone I don't love."
"And what about Chrysalis?" He turned to look at Twilight, face carefully blank. "Does she love you? Not to open some recent wounds, but as Cadance said, can she love you? And does she deserve your love?"
Twilight winced, but her expression smoothed out, and then she smiled. "Well, we went to the Summer Sun Festival last month, and…"
Ponies of all shapes and sizes pranced about the midway, some wearing costumes, some with their faces painted, and others on stilts. And those were just the fairgoers; the entertainers wore even gaudier outfits, cavorting and capering for the amusement of all as they moved between the brightly colored tents.
Twilight and Chrysalis moved through the crowd, for once in a place where they weren't the center of attention. Ponies didn't even seem to mind the nearby presence of a Changeling Queen, either. When they bumped against her in the press of the crowd, they quailed back, but simply apologized. And with Chrysalis's only response being a nod of acknowledgment, many had stopped quaking in fear or being overtly apologetic, simply giving a cheerful "Sorry!" before disappearing back into the crowd.
Chrysalis's good behavior, of course, might have had something to do with the fact that the rollercoaster hadn't allowed loose items or jewelry on the ride. And while she'd made sure to grab her crown, she'd 'forgotten' about the earring she always wore on these outings.
"Want to go on some more rides next?" asked Twilight cheerfully, looking up at Chrysalis. "Or we could grab some cotton candy. Though, if we're going to go on more rides later, that might not be a good idea—"
"Why, hello there, little Princess!" said an energetic voice from off to their side.
"And a fine hello to you as well, big Queen," said an identical voice.
Twilight groan as she turned and trotted up to the booth, recognizing those voices.
"Hello, Flim. Hello, Flam," she said to the striped-shirt wearing unicorns standing inside a booth. "What are you two doing here?"
"Why, just running our game of skill, of course!" said Flim.
"No law against that, is there, Princess? Unless you just made one right now, haha!" said Flam.
"No, I mean…" Twilight looked between the two, shaking her head. She still wasn't sure which was which. "The last I heard, you two were still in Las Pegasus."
"Well, what can we say? We're traveling salesponies!" said the one with the mustache. "We get uncomfortable if we're off the road for too long."
"Not to mention those ponies in Las Pegasus can be so uptight," added the other brother. "You sell a few tickets to shows that don't exist and suddenly you're the bad guy!"
"Uh huh." Twilight carefully looked over their booth, enjoying their discomfort at her inspection. The booth was a simple wooden frame, covered by canvas with the same red stripes as their shirts. "So, what's the scam here?"
"Scam? You wound us, Princess!" Flim put a hoof to his chest, then gestured at the milk crate behind him. "Simply knock over these bottles with a ball and win a prize! A simple game, for ponies that just want some simple fun."
"Are there magnets holding the bottles in place? Or is the ball just not heavy enough to actually knock the bottles over?"
"Neither, my dear, neither!" Flam, off to the side, picked up a ball in one hoof and gave it a light toss at the bottles as Flim kicked a hidden switch on his side of the booth that deactivated the magnets. The ball bounced off the bottles, scattering them in all directions, and with a wide smile he grabbed them in his magic and set them back up. "So, how about giving it a try or two?"
"Yeah, no thanks."
She turned and started to trot away, but Flim held up a ball. "How about you, tall, dark and shapeshifting? Win a prize for your sweet little Princess there? Only two bits for three balls."
"No. Come on Chrysalis—" Twilight was cut off as a holed hoof was held up in her face.
"I will win you a prize, Twilight," said Chrysalis determinedly. "One that you deserve."
Twilight just sighed and shook her head, but she still smiled as Chrysalis put two bits down in the booth's edge and grabbed up three balls in her magic.
"Uh-uh, no magic! We like to keep things fair for the ponies who don't have any," said Flam cheerfully. Chrysalis's horn turned blue as he overrode her magic and placed the balls back on the counter.
Slowly, no other part of her body moving, Chrysalis turned her head and stared at him. He smiled back, with the immunity to fear a lifetime of running cons had given him, then stumbled back as a burst of sparks exploded off his horn.
Chrysalis turned back to face the bottles, her horn once again glowing green, and lifted the balls off the counter. In deference to the rules, though, she plucked one out of the air and aimed carefully with her hoof. Winding up, she threw a blistering fastball across the length of the booth, just missing the bottles.
Her jaw dropped as she stared at her untouched target. Flim, having learned nothing from his brother's unfortunate experience just seconds earlier, let out a chuckle. "Wow, you're a natural! You should try out for hoofball someday, my dear. You may want to work on your aim before that, though."
An angry hiss came out of Chrysalis's mouth, and she scooped up both remaining balls, quickly firing them off as well. Again, both missed, the magically enchanted patch of air in front of the bottles deflecting her shots just enough to make them miss.
"Well, better luck next—"
"Two bits!" Chrysalis slammed her coins down on the counter, collecting her balls and trying again.
Whoosh!
"Ooh, there was some pepper on that one, but you're supposed to hit something with it!"
Whoosh!
"Almost had it there!"
WHOOSH!
"You know, I think I saw that bottle wobble?"
SLAM.
"Two bits!"
WHOOSH—CRACK!
A ball bounced off the wooden frame of the booth behind the bottles, sending it flying back at Twilight, who calmly caught it in her magic and placed it back on the counter.
"Ah, you don't need to throw so hard..." Flam said nervously. The patch of deflecting air had only been meant to stand up to normal ponies—at this rate, it looked like the Queen might actually win a prize! That went against the rules, of course, so he tapped hurriedly with one hoof, and Flim, hearing the signal, switched the magnets back on.
WHOOSH—CRACK—BAM!
The next ball hit the frame again, this time rebounding and striking the crate the bottles rested on dead center. It actually slid forward several inches, but the bottles stayed dead still.
"I think we have consolation prizes around here somewhere… some kind of paper hat—" Flim started to say.
WHOOSH—"AAAAH!"
The third ball ripped a hole in the canvas cover, flying off into the distance, and a faint scream floated back.
"Well, you tried your best—"
SLAM.
"Two bits!"
"Ah…"
The cooperation of the shyster ponies had long since stopped being required, as Chrysalis scooped three balls out of the bin with her magic, grabbed one in a hoof, and took careful aim.
The patch of air in front of the bottles was a spell long used by the brothers, honed years ago when they'd first gotten their start conning ponies in a fair just like this one. It was exquisitely shaped, deflecting the balls gently enough that it was nearly unnoticeable, but with the angle precisely placed so that the balls never quite came close enough to touch the bottles.
Of course, it was only designed to work on balls thrown with the force an average pony could muster. It had never been intended to stop a ball with all the might of a pissed off Changeling Queen behind it.
Chrysalis reared up, one long foreleg stretching behind her with a ball held in her hoof, and then she came down, putting all her power into the throw.
WHOOOOOOSH!
The ball tore through the air, ripping through the magically enchanted air like it wasn't there, and hit the bottles dead center. Which is where Flim and Flam's extra precautions came back to bite them, as the magnets turned the meeting of ball and bottles into the proverbial unstoppable force hitting an immovable object.
Luckily for the local laws of physics, but unluckily for the two brothers, the rubber ball was not quite an unstoppable force. It ricocheted off the bottles, hitting Flim on the head hard enough to toss him into the booth wall before he fell down unconscious. Continuing on its way, the ball flew across the booth to strike Flam in the head as well, sending him reeling. With a few more bounces, the ball came to a rest in the dead center of the booth.
Flam shook his head, trying to get his bearings back as he straightened up. Smelling something burning, he raised his eyes, to behold Chrysalis with all her fangs on display in a horrifying snarl and a gout of flame flickering from her horn, causing the canvas of the booth above her to smolder.
"Ah, y-you know, I think you might have gotten them that time... " stammered Flam, as he staggered across the booth to inspect the bottles. "Let me just take a look…"
Flim was still unconscious on the ground, blocking the magnet release—not that Flam could blatantly walk over and hit it, of course.
"You know, it does look like you got them all!" he cried cheerfully, looking back over his shoulder as he frantically tried to separate the bottles. Loud banging sounds came to the two impatiently waiting ponies as he began attempting to pull apart the crate with his bare hooves. "Yep, just checking things over. You know, we really value honesty here, and that goes for our customers as well as ourselves. Just want to make sure everything's fair…"
Finally, there was a loud crash, and Flam turned back around. "I was right, you won!" he said, giving a grand flourish to a milk crate laying on its side, the three milk bottles still attached to its top now sticking out perpendicular to the ground. "All knocked over, see? You get a prize!"
"Good…" hissed Chrysalis. "And what is my prize?"
"Why, a stuffed figure, of course! We have dolls of the most beautiful Princesses of Equestria!"
Chrysalis watching him with burning eyes as he dug under the counter hurriedly—and, unwisely, without looking. Grabbing the first doll his hooves found, he held it up, forelegs shaking.
What came from Chrysalis wasn't a noise, but the absence of noise, something Flam hadn't know could be so terrifying until that moment. Her nostrils flared, but otherwise she didn't move, and Flam slowly looked down… at the doll of Princess Cadance he held in his hooves.
Sometimes even a pony who seems to only make unwise choices will, at the most critical point in their lives, make exactly the right decision. Flam did that now, choosing to throw the doll to the back of the booth and dive back under the counter to dig through the prizes without looking back up.
"Come on, we have to… only these two?! I thought I told Flim to get all the Princesses… there have to be some others…"
A loud banging began to echo in the space under the counter, as Chrysalis grew impatient and started tapping her hoof on its wooden top. With a gulp, Flim grabbed the only other model of doll, standing back up and holding it in outstretched hooves as he turned away, eyes closed.
For a long moment, nothing happened, and the a hoof gently took the doll from him. When he wasn't immediately incinerated, he cracked one eye open, to see Chrysalis staring at a doll of Princess Celestia with a horrifying frown on her face. Reluctantly, she turned, to present the doll to Twilight.
"Here you go, my love," she said, in a resigned voice. "Your prize; a doll shaped like my rival."
Twilight took it with a smile. "Shaped like one of my best friends, you mean. And besides, it's from you. So I'll think of you whenever I see it. Thank you."
She used one wing to give Chrysalis a squeeze, and then they turned and started off back into the fair.
"Oh, and I'll be sending some Royal Guards by in a bit to check on things," Twilight called back over her shoulder. "So there better be some ponies around who can say they've won by then."
The Princess and the Queen disappeared into the crowd, leaving Flim and a groggy Flam, just now starting to sit back up, to nurse their head injuries. After a moment they looked up, realizing Twilight was standing at the counter again. She reached out, scooping up all but two of the bits that Chrysalis had paid.
“Don’t say anything,” she said before they could object. “You tried to swindle someone I care about. You’re lucky I’m not burning this booth to the ground.”
The two conponies winced as she trotted away, then flinched back when Chrysalis suddenly walked up to the booth. She reached out, putting a hoof over one coin and starting to slowly slide it off the counter. Flim tried to say something, but Chrysalis’s eyes simply narrowed and he closed his mouth again. Coin firmly in her grasp, she walked away.
Shining Armor stared at Twilight's beaming face, puzzlement evident on his own.
“Well, that’s a nice story, but I don’t really see what it proves,” he said finally. “It just sounds like you two went on a normal date at a carnival.”
“That’s the point,” said Twilight softly, smiling. “It was just a normal date. We went to a carnival, ate some fair food, she won me a prize at a game booth… the exact same things any two ponies who loved each other would do. Because she does love me. She could have done any number of terrible things to Flim and Flam—and they would have deserved it—but she didn’t, and we ended the night like any two ponies on a date would, without a single huge disaster.”
“Wait, didn’t I hear about the ferris wheel coming loose during this year’s Summer Sun Celebration? And crashing into the palace?”
“Unrelated,” said Twilight quickly. “Apparently the mailmare delivered the wrong lubricant for the ferris wheel, and it wore through its bearings. We weren’t even close enough to see it happen.”
He kept his gaze on her for a moment, then turned away again with an angry snort. "That doesn't prove anything," he muttered angrily.
"Fine," said Twilight. "If you won't help me with Chrysalis… then tell me about Cadance."
"Cadance?"
"Yes. Tell me about how you dated her. Tell me how you fell in love with her, how you knew you were in love with her."
Shining Armor let out a happy sigh, leaning back crossing his hooves behind his head to stare up at the ceiling. "When wasn't I in love with her?" he said dreamily. "She was a Princess, the only Princess in my high school—the only Princess in Equestria who wasn't over a thousand years old. She was beautiful, she was kind, she was the most popular pony in school…"
"Is that really love, though?" questioned Twilight. "It's a crush for sure, but…"
"It's different when it's love, though," replied Shining Armor, waving a hoof vaguely in the air. "You just… know."
"And when you thought you'd lost her?" Twilight asked cautiously.
"...like everything was pointless," he said after a moment. "Like there was no reason to keep going."
"Like you were empty, like everything important to you was gone," whispered Twilight.
Shining Armor nodded, then looked at her, eyes widening in surprise. "Twilight, do you—"
"Of course, you got her back. With that big dumb prom plan, right?" said Twilight, interrupting him with a teasing smile.
"It was not dumb!" protested Shining Armor. "For one thing, it worked."
"Well, I don't have a prom I can use to get Chrysalis back, but I could always sing a rock ballad like you did—"
"Don't you dare."
Twilight was silent for a moment.
"I love pretty black mares, they make me feel so good!~ I love Changeling Queens, they make me feel so bad!~"
"Okay, shut up." Shining Armor glared at her, then his expression softened. "Do you… really love her, Twilight?"
Twilight sighed, dropping her face into her hooves. "I think I have to," she said softly. "I don't see how I could miss her this much, how I could feel so much like nothing without her around. But… but I can't feel any love for her! I love her like a friend, like I love all my friends, and sometimes I think it's more, but then… something stops it. It's like there's a wall, and my feelings just run into it."
"It's because of Cadance, isn't it?" asked Shining Armor bitterly, and Twilight shook her head.
"No, I don't think so. She made Chrysalis do some really horrible things, but I half expected that out of Chrysalis anyway. I was feeling my way around a relationship with her, so I was doing my best not to be surprised by how she acted, trying to keep an open mind."
She shrugged. "And, well, Chrysalis never did a great job at listening to Cadance. As much as she was trusting in Cadance's advice, she couldn't stop herself from doing what she thought was right. The real her always shines through. Even when she was impersonating Cadance, she couldn't help being herself."
"Then… what is the problem? If you don't mind me asking."
"Because she did impersonate Cadance! Because she attacked your wedding, because she did so many horrible things. Because I hated her for so long. She's explained why she did that—well, most of it—and I know it's all just been a big misunderstanding on both our parts, but… even if I've forgiven her in my head, even if I understand her there, I don't think I do in my heart. And I don't know if I can."
"Twilight... " Shining Armor looked over at her, then sat up and pulled her into a hug.
"You can forgive her," he said quietly, patting her on the back. "You're one of the kindest, most forgiving mares I know. If anyone can forgive that changeling and make her happy, it's you."
"Shining Armor…" Twilight squeezed her eyes shut, tears leaking out, and gave him a bone-crushing hug back. "Thank you. I don't deserve a big brother like you."
"Well, no, nopony does. But you're a Princess, so you come closer than most."
"Alright, you jerk." She pushed him away, sending him tumbling across the bed. "But still, thanks."
"Don't mention it. If you can forgive Cadance already after what she did, I can at least give Chrysalis a chance. Well, like a fifth chance, but still." Shining Armor pushed himself up, watching Twilight slide off the bed. "What now? Back to your castle?"
"In the morning." Twilight paused in the middle of the room, looking back. "I'm almost there, I can feel it. I just need to talk to my friends now."
"Alright, well, good luck."
"Thanks."
Twilight put her hoof to the door, then paused. Her mother was lurking out there somewhere, no doubt waiting to pounce. She could just teleport, but she'd already broken the no flying rule, and she didn't want to add any more oil to that fire. So how—
An evil smile grew on her face. "Oh, Shining Armor?" she called back over her shoulder. "By the way, I think mom wanted to talk to you about something…"
Shining had proved to be a suitable distraction, and Twilight had managed to go the rest of the night avoiding any uncomfortable conversation about her future reproductive activities. But equally as uncomfortable as those conversations was her old bed, and she squirmed around in it trying to find a position that didn't leave her wings either cramped against the wall or hanging over an edge. Nearly fifteen minutes of tossing, twisting and turning left her convinced there was no such possible physical position. She'd even started wondering how she'd ever slept in this bed in the first place, and had started entertaining thoughts of the couches down below, despite the risks of running into her mother that would entail.
As if on cue, there was a soft knock at her bedroom door, and the knob slowly turned.
"Twilight?" whispered Velvet, voice hushed. "Are you still awake?"
For a moment Twilight considered faking sleep, but even knowing what would happen she couldn't bring herself to ignore her mother. So, with a sigh, she pushed herself up on one foreleg. "Yes, mom."
"I just came to say goodnight." Velvet paused, shuffling her hooves, then continued. "And… I should probably apologize for earlier, too. You know I would love grandchildren, but it's not my place to try and force that decision on you. And I'm well aware you know where foals come from, so there was probably no need to embarrass you by discussing it. Especially given the… unique situation you're in."
"Dad yelled at you, huh?" asked Twilight dryly, and Velvet laughed.
"A little bit, yes. Your father reminded me that, among other things, I shouldn't be trying to force you into a marriage just so I can get grandchildren. Especially not when Shining Armor and Cadance are available."
"I'm sure they'd appreciate your help," said Twilight, feeling no guilt at all about throwing her brother under the carriage once again. "And there's no need to apologize. I know you're just excited about being a grandmother."
"Thank you, dear." Velvet gave Twilight a warm smile, and started to close the door. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight, mom."
"Sleep tight, and don't let the bedbugs bite." Velvet stopped, then opened the door a bit more to lean in. "I mean, unless that's the kind of thing you and Chrysalis enjoy. Celestia knows your father—"
"GOODNIGHT, MOM." Velvet manage to duck out the door just as a pillow thrown at near supersonic speed slammed it shut.