Short Shorts

by Coranth


177. Plush.

It was shortly after Thorax and the Ponies had left - to relocate her former hive to Ponyville - that Queen Chrysalis dared to return to the shattered remains of her once glorious Hive. Eyes glistening with tears that threatened to flood, the broken former queen whimpered as she sifted through the rubble of her once majestic throne room, seeking, searching for a beloved treasure long hidden... There!

A sob escaping her, from a carefully hidden alcove she pried a chest enchanted to hold a specific item. Stumbling over the incantations needed to unlock it she finally managed to do so; then she oh-so-carefully lifted from it her most beloved possession. "Sh-Shiny...!" She whispered as she cried and cried and cried, clutching the worn, though very-well-cared-for plush of Shining Armor tightly as she finally allowed her tears to fall.

Everything had been lost. Everything had been ruined. Bawling, foal-like, lost and utterly alone - save the plush who had been her guardian ever since her Mother had allowed her to keep the pony toy - Chrysalis whispered to him, admitted to him and to herself that all was her fault. Not the fault of the ponies; not the fault of her former changelings. Hers. Hers and hers alone. "Oh, I ruined everything, Shiny; it's all gone, everything is g-o-o-o-one...!"

If despair had a form it was she at this moment. Unthinking, instinctively, Chrysalis teleported, then, desiring to be anywhere but here, anywhere where she might find a mere scrap of love and forgiveness, anywhere where she wouldn't be alone. As she held onto her guardian plush, the poor former Queen startled as she felt pony hooves then a warm body then feathered wings wrap about her wretched form.

Opening her eyes Chrysalis saw a sea of pink. "C-C-C-Cad--!" she sniffled, but the Alicorn of Love - the mare who she'd treated so badly - shushed her gently, not scolding, but consoling and the former Queen's eyes blurred anew with fresh tears, the sound of her lost, foal-like cries near making Cadance's heart ache. "There, there..." she soothed Chrysalis gently, rocking her, "there, there, now, sssh..."

Later, once Chrysalis was finally able to stop crying, as she sipped gently from a glass of water she stuttered, "W-Wh-Why...?!"

Cadance's next words floored the poor former Queen, making her nearly drop her glass in shock. "I forgive you," the Princess of Love stated softly, as if it was a Royal Declaration--and perhaps, to her, it was. "I forgive you." Shortly thereafter, the Princess of Love sort-of-unofficially adopted the stunned and dazed former Changeling Queen, allowing Chrysalis to live in her home, with a few simple rules which Chrysalis followed almost eagerly.

At this, Shining Armor was furious!

Later, Princess Cadance took the former Queen Chrysalis as her Student, teaching her the ways of Ponies, of the Magic of Friendship, and of the Magic of Love such that the Queen learned to see it as more than just an emotion to feed on.

At this, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, and Princess Twilight were furious!

But that is another Short for another time.