White on Black
“And then life goes on”
With some vigor Celestia threw the bouquet behind her, where a small crowd of mares had already gathered. A battlecry on her lips Rarity dived for the flowers. That the flowers from Cadence wedding had already wilted away without bestowing a prince charming onto her didn’t dampen her enthusiasm in the least.
Sadly all the work she had done on the show and the wedding dresses had left precious little time for her own dress, otherwise she would have noticed that she didn’t sew on the hem of her dress properly. With the sound of ripping fabric Rarity toppled over, rammed straight into the assembled bridesmaids and sending all of them to the floor.
Flailing hooves fished for the still flying flower bouquet, but only managed to push it back into the air again.
Spike, who had hurried to help Rarity up, only barely dodged the flowers as they flew towards his face, only for it to be sliced cleanly in half by his fins. Startled he flapped with his tail once again sending the now twofold flower arrangement flying through the air.
Daintily the flowers came to a halt on the backs of Applejack and Rainbow Dash that had watched the spectacle from the sidelines.
Everybody was staring at them.
Rainbow Dash turned towards Applejack.
Applejack turned towards Rainbow Dash.
Both of them stared at the flowers, then at each other.
“Gosh darnit!”
And that was that.
---
Breadn and Merry were sitting on a hill on the castle grounds. All around them people were busy clearing the chaos.
“This was quite something, wasn’t it?” Breadn chuckled dryly.
“Wouldn’t have thought that you’re such a good wedding planner,” Merry replied.
“This was strictly a one time thing... I’ll never do this again,” he grumbled.
“Really? What a shame, I wanted you to plan another wedding,” Merry said slyly.
Breadn turned to her confusedly, but before he could say anything he felt her lips pressed onto his.
---
Twilight sighed.
Before her lay a veritable mountain of papers, books, and reports.
Only now the numbers were coming in, and it became clear how large scale the damage was. There were really only two things that helped her stay positive as she watched the zero’s pile up, forming an unholy amount of bits. One, the amount of volunteers that had offered to help repair the castle was immense. In fact so immense that she was forced to send a lot of them back home again if she didn’t want any available place in the castle grounds to be filled up with ponies.
Two, nobody had been hurt.
Of course there were bruises, burned skin, and more than one pony that would have to wear a wig for quite some time, but there had been no fatalities. If she had been so inclined, Twilight would have believed that it was a miracle.
When she had confronted Celestia about this amazing fact, the white Alicorn had only smiled and said, “Maybe it was a miracle... or maybe our true nature can’t be hidden by something as weak as a little hate.”
After that she had thrown her out of the tent that temporarily served as bedroom during the wedding night.
---
Nurse Tenderhoof once again stared at her newest patient. Steel Aegis had been brought into the hospital a week ago, and while physically he was getting better quickly, it was his mental state she was worried about.
Normally it wasn’t like her to put her nose into patients personal problems, but when the captain of the royal guard had visited Steel Aegis half the station had heard him screaming.
It was very clear that there would be no more royal guard called Steel Aegis.
With a sigh she walked into the room.
Steel Aegis was still looking out the window, a forlorn look on his face.
Tenderhoof forced a smile onto her face and said cheerily, “It’s mealtime Mr. Aegis. I hope you like omelette.”
Steel Aegis looked at her, but his eyes didn’t really focus on her face.
Tenderhoof’s cheeks began to hurt. Silently she placed the plate before him.
Lethargically he poked his meal with a fork, only hesitantly taking a bite.
Tenderhoof turned away from the “retired” guardsponie and walked towards the exit.
“Excuse me, Nurse.”
Tenderhoof stopped. This was the first time he had actually talked with any of the stuff for weeks. His voice was deep and manly, exactly what you expected from a guard.
“Yes?” she asked, not daring to turn around.
“Say, what’s your name?”
“Tenderhoof” she replied.
“Tenderhoof, do you have any salt on this station? And maybe some pepper... and some dill?” Steel Aegis asked, hesitantly at first, but growing more and more confident with each word.
Tenderhoof turned around to see the stallion stare at the plate as if it was the most interesting thing in the world.
Something shifted, maybe it was just the way the light fell through the window, or maybe there was a soft sparkle, whatever it was, for a short moment Tenderhoof couldn’t help but thinking that the round shield on Steel Aegis actually looked more like a plate.
---
Pristine Records was busy stuffing the contents of her wardrobe into her saddlebags. The room all around her looked like a bomb had exploded. All her personal belongings had been carelessly thrown aside in her quest to gather whatever would be necessary to start a new life in Griffonia, or the Dragon lands, or wherever she would be safe from the royal guard.
In her nervous state, the door suddenly flying open nearly caused her a heart attack.
Silver Tongue stood in the door frame, panting heavily as if he had just run a marathon and covered from head to toe in ash and mud.
“Silver, you’re still alive? That’s.... erh... that’s great.” Pristine stuttered.
Silver Tongue grunted and spit something out. With a metallic clank a sooth covered ringlet landed between them on the floor. Even with all the mud and ash covering it, Celestia’s crown was easy to recognize.
Pristine’s eyes grew wide.
“Do you know what that is?” she asked under her breath.
“Celestia’s crown.” Silver Tongue growled.
“This is our story back into high society,” Pristine shouted. “We just have to present this to Celestia and say that we salvaged it for her...”
“SHUT UP!”
Pristine Records stared at Silver Tongue slackjawed.
“I’ve listened to you all my life, now you’re going to listen to me. We’re going to sell this thing, we’re going to buy us a nice house on Haywai, and then we’re going to get married and live happily ever after, are we clear?” Silver barked at the shocked mare.
“...” Pristine still could do nothing but stare at him wide eyed.
“Good. Now if you would hurry up, I don’t think the guards followed me, but let’s not stress our luck,” he said now more gentle before trotting out the door.
Pristine Records was still shocked, and her face was frozen with her jaw hanging open and her eyes threatening to fall out of their sockets, but she followed him nonetheless.
---
Celestia and Chrysalis lay in their tent. Exhausted but happy.
“Do you think that’s the end of it?” Chrysalis asked her wife.
“Of course not. Even if that sudden heel turn should stick with all the ponies in Canterlot, we still will have to deal with the ponies in Manehattan, Baltimare, and all those other cities. Not to mention that we need to start actually integrating the changelings into society.” Even though she was listing all those mammoth undertakings, Celestia’s mood didn’t seem to drop in the slightest.
“You seem awfully chipper about all this,” Chrysalis replied, cocking an eyebrow.
“Don’t worry that’s just the afterglow, we can go back to being gloomy together soon.” Celestia joked before she kissed Chrysalis again. The changeling queen chuckled as she enjoyed the embrace of her lover.
All too soon she became serious again.
“Of course that’s all moot if those two don’t find a solution,” she said.
“I think we can trust them. If they don’t kill each other first there should be very little that can stop them,” Celestia answered, more serious than before but still with a hint of playfulness in her voice.
“I guess you’re right. No use in worrying about something we can’t change,” Chrysalis said finally smiling herself.
“Exactly, after all there are other more enjoyable things we could do,” Celestia teased the changeling queen.
“Oh? and what did you have in mind?” Chrysalis replied coyly.
The camera zooms out, showing us a simple tent, then the ruins of the courtyard, the the whole castle ground that’s filled with ponies who are busy doing repairs. Finally all of Canterlot comes into view, only to quickly fade into the distance. Soon we can see all of Equestria. In the distance the sun rises above the horizon it’s light being reflected in the ocean water. The screen goes black.
The End...
A pink pony walks onto the screen from the left. She takes out a spray can and with a slight hiss words begin to form:
The beginning!
im glad that celestia and chrysalis are happy. good ending!
Wait, wait, wait. The fuck that riled up all those ponies into a rampaging mob, ruining everything almost beyond repair gets off scot-free? Happy ending my ass, we've got a fucking karma houdini here!
excellent ending and beginning. i'll leave some notes about how i thought of the story overall. the first thing is this story has taken the place as my favorite chrysalis story. the characterization of chrysalis is so unique and hits perfectly with how she is in the show. you were able to setup a good redemption without making chrysalis looking weak or shifting her personality 180 degrees. celestia acted very well and you didn't pull the bullshit that she lost to chrysalis because she held back. the first confrontation between them was very heartful and my favorite part. my only negative is the scene where twilight sees into celestia and we the part leading up to it was a bit convoluted. overall great story and i'll be looking forward to the sequel. also what happened to cadence and shining armor?
All I ask is that you make another chapter when your next installment of this story comes out with a link to it.
2765333 Justice is but an absurd notion that people use to justify revenge.
2765333
I'm pretty sure any store or pony claiming to have Celestia's crown will catch the royal's attention. Then they can backtrack the names of the sellers and yadda, yadda. Boom. Karma.
2766262 That is the excuse of those who bend the meaning of the word to fit their own ends, satisfying themselves and noone else.
That was amazing.
good show old bean good show.
I have to say I enjoyed the story, but still felt the ending was... not forced... just convenient, very convenient. It felt good and I felt happy about it, but then the "what the?" moment set in shortly after that. Also, villains getting away without even learning much... yeah that was a bit annoying. I wouldn't have minded if Silver and Pristine managed to get away, but I would have liked that their attitudes changed... instead they're still kind of jerks.
2769207
This story is largely about crime and punishment. We have Chrysalis against Canterlot, we got Luna against Celestia, we got ST and PR against Celestia and Chrisy. All of these present different perspectives on the same theme:
Chrysalis - accepts responsibility but not guilt, "I choose what I thought right at the moment." tries to change herself when she sees that she was wrong
Luna's - accepts her guilt and responsibility, tries to redeem herself by undoing some of the damage
Silver Tongue - accepts his guilt but evades his responsibility, tries to move on with his life, leaving past mistakes behind
The big thing is: In the end they all put themselves in a position where they won't hurt anybody anymore, and somehow things work out for them.
It should at least serve to raise a question about the true nature of justice.
Or you can just assume that I don't really put that much conscious thought into my story and that I just wanted a big sappy happy end. Both theories are equaly true. :P
Chapter 16
unicorn’s
rhetoric
they
Celestia’s
they mentioned
one.”
amethyst she shuddered, as for
who
can. (Matter of taste, but I think this sounds more poetic without sacrificing clarity.)
span
that
you?
I have command over powers or I command powers
two isn’t
lower (Arguably a matter of taste, ‘deeper’ still sounds weird as hell to me.)
was what
rest
gardens were
thrash (thrash works as it, if you meant trash, I would suggest using a synonym followed by what she wanted to trash.)
rolled
who
ranks. As
Chrysalis of the Black Swarm
Celestia of the Sun
breath, looked
Chrysalis of the Black Swarm
Epilogue
Cadance’s (…or Cadence’s, if you despise the official spelling.)
unto
zeroes
guardspony
staff
the dragon lands (…assuming that the lands aren’t actually named The Dragon Lands.)
her to have a
soot
Haywaii
press
horizon, its
What a sweet couple those two make.
2811115 Errr.... maybe you read another story than the one I've written, but if my memory (and my story notes) serve me correct, there is exactly one place in the whole story where Celestia even gets close to being defeated and then it's on purpose...
And if you read carefully you'll notice that this isn't everything Twilight got from C's memories.
The elements are all there, you just don't get them handed on a silver plater... (god, now I sound like an pretentious asshole xD)
I really liked this story, Chrysalis and Celestia have great chemistry in it and Rarity's plotting is great. Its still got problems for me though, Celesta getting 'worfed' in that earlier chapter is a big one, really I don't think it would take much to fix either, just remembering her heavy armor and adding something about her not wanting to massacre what appear to be almost mindless changelings and then have Chrysalis do something besides a bite. Really that whole bit doesn't fit, especially with how powerful you show a really angry Celestia at the end, to be.
The other problem I have with it is the ending, it just seems too happy for what transpired before it, plus we are never given an idea for how big the mob is and I didn't think it would be more than at most like a hundred ponies but Celestia's reaction make it seem like almost all of the city was there. I was kinda hoping Celestia would just banish them all from Equestria and maybe in a few years they could petition to come back, or she would be like "I cant deal with them right now" and she would leave and they would be forced to come to terms with Chrysalis for ruining both of their big days.
I guess it is ponies and they really do deserve more of a happy ending but for the events that preceded it, it just feels too saccharine to me.
I loved this story through and through; so much delicious chaos... excellent...
As enjoyable as the main plot was, I'd have to say my favorite arc would be the sub-plot involving Spike. I honestly wanted to see him officially become a part of the
ZergChangeling Hive, if not just to laugh when Twilight and the others found out about it. Besides, he'd be a shape-shifting dragon capable of using magic that can feed off both gems and love. Chrysalis would have discovered one of the most powerful hybrids to walk the land, gaining a very powerful ally forworld dominationthe defense of Equestria and her changelings. That, or the entire thing would backfire and Spike will gain no abilities whatsoever except the need to regularly consume love in order to maintain his health and sanity.I am fairly curious as to what Luna and Discord were up to during this time, it would make for an interesting side plot at least.
Very good story, though I think the comedy tag was a bit misplaced especially towards the end as things got more serious. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this work greatly and look forward to reading more.
Finally caught up with this, and it was quite good!
Ah yesh the Appledash is strong with this one. Ever chapter we draw closer to their perfect union. -Que evil laughter- Mwhahahahahaha!
D'awwww ~