With no other options available to her, Chrysalis darted deeper into the castle, weaving through the hallways in search of an escape, an army of cuddle-crazed ponies hot on her trail.
As it turned out, the horde didn’t take turns particularly well. That’s why, at every available opportunity, Crysalis dug her hooves in and flung herself around a bend at the last possible second. After a few such turns, she’d managed to shake them, even if only for the briefest of moments.
Panic-stricken and scared for her life, Chrysalis ran and ran as fast as her swiss-cheese-legs could carry her.
She could hear the unsettling chattering of the infected echoing not far behind her.
In that instant, Chrysalis faced a choice: she could keep running, or she could stop and hide. At the moment, it was clear that the former was getting her nowhere. Sure, she might be able to stay ahead of them, but that was only temporary. She couldn’t run away from them forever.
That in mind, she decided on the latter—she was going to hide. She trotted forward, searching for somewhere, anywhere to hole away until this whole thing inevitably blew over. After rounding a turn her eyes settled on the enormous throne room doors down at the end of the hallway.
Chrysalis paused and nodded; she knew what she had to do.
She stopped in her tracks and took a deep breath. After steeling herself, she crouched, getting ready to sprint. Then, just as the clammering of the ponies’ hoof-falls became audible behind her once again, she jumped to life, galloping as fast as she possibly could. She tore through the hallway, running so fast that she could feel tears forming in her eyes.
As she closed in on the door, she sped up even faster. Then, just before she hit it straight on, she pushed down on her hind legs with all of her might, launching herself into the air. Then, with all the grace of an ursa, she threw her weight into the door, bursting through it and tumbling through the make-shift barricade on the other side.
After gathering her bearings and letting out her umpteenth groan of the day, she clambered to her hooves and looked around.
Much to Chrysalis’ surprise, she wasn’t alone.
There, perched atop her throne in the fetal position, was Princess Celestia.
They stared at each other wide-eyed, unsure how to react.
Eventually, it was Chrysalis that broke the silence. “Quick!” she spat. “Help me re-barricade the door! They’re coming!”
At that, Celestia leapt up, finally realizing the gravity of their current predicament. Together, the two former enemies worked together to block the entryway with anything available to them. Tapestries, carpets, chairs, podiums… it was all thrown haphazardly at the room’s entryway in a desperate—and likely fruitless—attempt to block the infected ponies from getting inside.
Once they’d used everything they could, Chrysalis turned to Celestia, out of breath from what felt like a lifetime’s worth of cardio. “Can you please explain to me what the hay is going on?”
Celestia’s gaze fell to her hooves. “Honestly, you know just as much as I do. It’s an epidemic; the disease broke out two days ago. Before long, everypony will be infected.”
“But how? And why?”
Celestia shrugged. “I truly do not know.” She paused. “Now, what are you doing here?”
Chrysalis let out a brief and pathetic cackle. “Hah! The plan was to launch another invasion while you and your precious little Elements of Harmony were incapacitated.”
“And…?”
“And… clearly you can see just how well that worked out, can’t you?”
Celestia grimaced. “Is it really that bad out there?”
Chrysalis let out a long, heavy sigh, flopping back onto her haunches. “Yes. Almost everypony and everything has been infected. There aren’t any sane ponies left out there—just lots and lots of cuddling…” Chrysalis mumbled, her words trailing off into silence. “Actually, what’s with that? Why cuddling?”
“I really don’t know,” Celestia said, mimicking Chrysalis’ sigh flopping onto the ground in a starfish position. “I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
“Hmm. I see.”
Just then, a semi-audible thud came from their make-shift barricade. This was it—the horde had already found them. Chrysalis swallowed the lump in her throat, trying her best not think about the inevitable as the thud repeated itself again and again. The pile visible trembled with each thud.
“Y’know, I was thinking?” Celestia asked, pretending not to have noticed the noise.
“What?” Chrysalis asked. She fell onto her back, laying down beside Celestia.
Celestia opened her eyes, staring up at the ceiling listlessly. “What’s so terrible about this disease anyway? I mean, a little snuggling never hurt anypony, right?”
Chrysalis paused, taking a deep breath. “…You know, I… I’m not entirely sure either. My changelings are all fed because of your ponies’ love, and all the ponies are content as well. Are we sure it’s a disease?”
Celestia let out a laugh at the thought. “Hah! I suppose it depends how you define the word ‘disease’. Sure, everypony is happy for the time being, but productivity is down. Nopony is doing anything besides laying about. If this keeps up for months and months, they’ll probably all starve to death.”
“Well what happens once everypony is infected?”
“I… I do not know,” Celestia replied. “It is a pathological disease, right? It should probably run its course in a few weeks or so. Maybe a month, tops. After that, everypony will be healthy again.”
“And what then? Everypony is suddenly better again, just like that?”
After a moment of thought, Celestia nodded.
“So this whole thing is essentially just a month long cuddle fest?”
Another nod from Celestia.
The loud thud sounds from the barricade grew louder; soon they would break through and reach the two royal beings stuck inside the throne room.
“…And our best plan is to wait it out?” Chrysalis asked.
Celestia turned to Chrysalis and smiled. “Yup, pretty much.”
“Well…” Chrysalis rolled onto her stomach and pushed herself back into a sitting position, looking down at Celestia. “All of my changelings should be pretty well-fed after this, so we haven’t got much of a reason to ‘invade’ Equestria anymore. Do… do you want to just go back to normal and pretend none of this happened once this nightmare is over?”
The banging was getting progressively more and more vehement; the barrier would hold for another minute, max.
Celestia nodded in agreement, pulling herself up to a sitting position as well. “Yes, that’s probably for the best.”
“…“
“…“
“…“
“I just had a crazy thought.” Celestia blushed ever so slightly. “Do you… do you kind of want to go out there? I mean, if our plan is to play the waiting game, we might as well get in on the cuddle fest while we still can.”
Chrysalis let out an awkward laugh. “That… that sounds like a better plan, honestly.”
The barricade finally gave way, and the first purple, frothing-mouthed equine pushed her way through the tiny opening. The whole barrier crumbled, and the horde of ponies pushed through, charging the two of them.
Knowing that this would be the end, Chrysalis and Celestia linked hooves. Together, the two of them smiled peacefully as the masses overtook them, succumbing to the deadly snuggles.
Perhaps… perhaps everything wasn’t as bad as they had originally thought.