//------------------------------// // Execution would be preferable // Story: Friendship has a strange aftertaste // by AlesFlamas //------------------------------// The once proud Queen Chrysalis stared out the window of the carriage, which at this very moment was carrying her to her doom. Restrained, so as to prevent her from trying anything funny, staring was all she could do. The green fields below, the clear, blue sky. . . it sickened her. All of Equestria sickened her. Oh, but how delicious Equestrians were, there capacity for love so deep, and the love itself so rich and complex. She just had to have more of it. She'd wanted it, needed it- and now she was here. In an airborne carriage on its way to her very own personal hell. Turning away from the window and her depressing thoughts, Chrysalis instead tried to focus on the benefits of the situation. . . . . Their were none. So she returned to the window and her festering. "You're avoiding eye contact, Chrysalis," said a voice across from her. "Are you nervous?" "I'm not nervous at all," Chrysalis remarked, turning to face her object of disdain. "In fact, Princess, nervous is the last word I would use to describe how I feel right now." "Oh really?", Celestia replied. "Then please, enlighten me as to what words you would use." "Well, miserable would be a start. Then there's bitter, and regretful and most of the other adjectives you'd expect somepony in my position to use in describing their moods." "You brought it upon yourself, Chrysalis." Chrysalis sneered. "Brought it upon myself, did I? Is this my punishment then, for doing as any true monarch would? My just desserts, for simply trying to feed my kin?" "Would that you could make that argument, Chrysalis. But you came here on your own, you yourself have admitted to that." Chrysalis couldn't help but smile. "Yes, well," she started slyly. "Queenie needed her fix, if you catch my drift. Romantic love is just so. . . deep and complex. So much flavor to mull over and discern. And often, so cloyingly sweet, like a marshmallow, one could say." "An appropriate analogy. Still, it doesn't excuse your. . . adulterous behaviors. Especially since you no longer bare the justification of feeding your subjects." "I suppose not. I will get some joy though, out of knowing I've caused a rift, however small, in that pretty pink princess's marriage." "To the contrary," Celestia said. "Your antics have only served to strengthen Cadance and Shining Armor's relationship." "Oh poo. You can't let me have any fun, can you?" "No, I can't. Oh! T'would appear that we've arrived at our destination." Chrysalis felt the carriage come to a halt. What could possibly await her outside this door? All she had been told of her sentence was that she was to be rehabilitated, by the top members of the field. She was unable to comprehend what that might imply. What sort of hideous torture awaited her? Chrysalis could hear a guard, unlatching himself from the front of the carriage, moving to open the door. She was anxious to discover what horrors awaited her. The door opened. Chrysalis began to shiver with anticipation. Celestia released her mobility restraints, keeping the ones on her magical and flight capabilities intact. "Go on now, Chrysalis.", Celstia said mockingly. "Your a big girl." "I hate you." "I know." Pleasantries done with, Chrysalis stepped out of the carriage. No sooner had her hooves touched the ground that she heard explosions and cannon fire. She was hit by something hard in the abdomen and felt something gooey begin to ooze out of her. She fell to the ground in a panic and began to cry out. "Murder! Murder!", she cried. "I am killed! Oh Celestia, treacherous dog you!" "Chrysalis." "Oh you, most insidious cur! That you would stoop so low as to promise me rehabilitation, and at my most vulnerable moment, kill me dead!" "Chrysalis." "Fie! Fie on you and all Equestrians! A pox, I say. A pox on all your houses!" "Chrysalis!" "What? What have you to say to me in my final moments, cruel mistress?" "You penchant for theatrics is impressive," Celestia began. "But that's all they are. Get up." "But-" "But nothing. Nopony was ever killed by a cannon-propelled apple pie." "Apple. . .pie?" Chysalis felt at the strange gooey substance dripping from her abdomen. Bringing it to her mouth, she found that she had indeed been hit by an apple pie propelled from out of a cannon. But who in their right mind would- "I told you the pie cannon was a bad idea.", said a whispering voice in front of Chrysalis. "Well, how was I supposed to know this would happen?", said another voice. "Pie is great. Cannons are great. I thought a pie cannon would be extra, super-duper great. It's not my fault she stood right in its firing path!" "Rainbow, Pinkie!" said yet another voice. "This isn't the time!" "Full disclosure," said a more masculine voice, making no attempt at whispering. "I moved the cannon for giggles." "Discord!" said a voice which seemed to be trying to yell, but couldn't make its way past a whisper. "What can I say, I thought it would be funny. And you know what? I was right! Ha!" Confused and slightly dazed, Chrysalis stood up and looked in the direction of the voices. She spied two cannons, one covered in confetti and the other oozing the remnants of an apple pie. There was a banner, proclaiming "Welcome!" And underneath this banner stood six ponies (and for some reason a draconequus) whom she had hoped never to see again. Could this mean- "Queen Chrysalis, for the crimes of conspiracy to undermine and overthrow the Equestrian government and adultery, I, Princess Celestia of Equestria, sentence you to rehabilitation by way of lessons in the magic of friendship." Chrysalis heard the door to the carriage close behind her, and in a panic, began pounding at it. "You can't do this to me, Celestia! I'm the queen of a proud and strong race of warriors! I will not be treated as a child who does not understand the basics of interaction!" "Would you prefer death, Chrysalis?" Celestia said from within the carriage. "Execution would be preferable by a large margin to this humiliating situation!" "Well. . . too bad." Chrysalis felt herself pulled away from the carriage by somepony's magic, and watched as it faded into the distance. The silence that followed was palpable. The pink one was the first to cut through it. "Sooo. . . do you want some pie?"