Teaser for my next, long-overdo story.

Finally, I've fully broken through my bouts of writer's block and unusually frequent moments of low motivation that's been hitting me for the last couple of months, and playing the remake/remaster of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door so my next story 'I'm Sorry (Suckers!!)' will be out in 3 or 4 days. It will be a 2-chapter story, and the 2nd chapter is planned to be released around 4 days after the story drops.

In the meantime, here's a sneak peek of part of the first act of chapter 1. It is not fully edited, so it likely contains some errors and the final version may look slightly different.

Enjoy!

Ta-ta!

“Darn it,” Celestia said as she and Luna flew over one of Canterlot’s streets branching the capital city. “I forgot where that guard said Chrysalis is. Do you remember?”

“I believe he said Equusmart, but we could use the screaming ponies below us to determine where to go. I am certain they are running away from Chrysalis’s location.”

“Yes, and they are running from the direction of Equusmart. Let’s hurry and stop Chrysalis before she can drain too many ponies of their love or even capture them.”

The two sisters sped up their wing flaps and soared high above the fleeing ponies below them.

After about a minute of flying over streets, the sisters slowed their wing flaps and slowly, gracefully landed on a now-empty street. Near the closed double doors of the towering Equusmart, Chrysalis, facing away from the alicorns, held a semi-conscious unicorn mare in her magic at head level. A continuous stream of love drained from the mare’s body and into Chrysalis’s horn.

“There she is.” Celestia looked toward Luna, bearing a stern, battle-ready scowl. ”Are you ready?”

Luna nodded. With a smirk, she answered, “Ready, big flank Celly.”

Celestia squinted her eyes, sisterly venom oozing from them. “Just for that, I’m going to pretend Chrysalis is you when we fight her.” Celestia stepped closer to Chrysalis and yelled, “Chrysalis, release that pony this instant!”

“Whatever you say.” Chrysalis stopped feeding and released, or more like dropped, the poor defenseless mare in her grip…to the ground, hard.

“Ow, rude…” the mare mumbled as her remaining consciousness waned.

“That wasn’t what I meant and you know it!” Celestia levitated the drained mare to and safely behind her.

“I know, I know.” Chrysalis nonchalantly said. She finally turned to face Celestia and Luna, wearing a smirk of calm arrogance. “I didn’t release that pony the instant you told me to. Heh heh heh, silly me, big flank Celly.”

Luna’s teeth gritted. A seething growl rumbled from her throat. “Chrysalis, listen well. Stealing ponies’ love against their will is despicable enough, but only I can pick on my sister.” The younger sister’s horn glowed as she bellowed in her royal Canterlot voice, “WE WILL NOT WARN THOU AGAIN!!”

Chrysalis wagged a hoof toward Luna. “Temper, temper. There’s no need to slip into old ponish these days.”

“Never mind that.” Celestia spread her majestic wings wide to battle mode. “Once again, you attacked innocent ponies for their love. What do you have to say for yourself before we do this the hard way?”

“I’m sorry.” Chrysalis leaned her head down. Tartarus almost certainly broke loose due to the words “I’m sorry.” passing through Chrysalis’s lips. Her gentler voice tone bore no sarcasm or jest, but seemingly sincere(!)

Celestia's and Luna’s mouths widened; the former’s wings deflated back to their normal folded positions. Both ponies’ eyes twitched in unison.

“I-I beg your pardon?” Celestia forced her shocked mouth to ask.

Her head still aimed toward the ground, Chrysalis repeated, “‘My pardon’ is I’m sorry.”

“A-a-are we hearing correctly?” Luna shook her head; something had to kill her eyes’ twitches. “You are apologizing? You, the changeling who once thought ‘empathy’ was a type of food?” 

The not-so-proud ex-queen nodded. “Yes. I will even leave Canterlot in peace.”

“Something is gravely wrong here.” Celestia ran to Chrysalis and laid her hoof over her forehead. “Hmm. No fever.”

“Shall I go fetch a thermometer from one of our castle’s doctors? It would be more reliable than your hoof.”

“Hey, ‘Doc’, I’m fine.” Chrysalis slapped Doc Celestia’s hoof off her head. “I would be in a self-made bed somewhere if I had a fever.”

Celestia asked, “So for the record, you are sorry and will leave on your own free will?”

“Yes and yes.”

Celestia and Luna stared at each other. Chrysalis said ‘sorry.’ Incredible. If anypony had told the royal sisters what just transpired before them, they would have risked becoming comatose from laughing. 

“O…kay,” Celestia eked out. “I’ll…see you later…I guess? Be good?”

“I’ll try.” Chrysalis flew away and out of Canterlot.

Luna asked, “Are you sure we should allow her to escape again?”

“I…uh, don’t k-know, I…”

“Uh, are you okay? Big flank Celly?”

“I…I…just….st–”

Luna slapped the back of Celestia’s head. A crude, yet effective way to reboot an alicorn’s brain.

“I’m just stunned. She. Chrysalis. Apologized.” Celestia lay a hoof on her head, both from pure confusion and pain from the growing bump on her head. “Ow, and I am unsure how to feel about a remorseful Chrysalis. Should I be scared that it’s an omen of the end of the world?”

“I admit to being almost as confounded as you, but Twilight would have burned all of her books as an omen if the apocalypse were nigh.” Luna gazed upward and at the fleeing Chrysalis high in the sky. “Hopefully, Chrysalis’s attack was merely for old time's sake.”

“And for some reason, it feels like we wouldn’t have had a choice but to let her go anyway.”