Sure enough, who should emerge from the rubble but Queen Chrysalis herself (or rather ex-queen)? "It's not over yet, I still function!" She angrily hissed! But her defiant tone soon faded as she found herself staring down the fully functioning horns of three alicorn princesses, an alicorn prince, and several unicorns. Not to mention a powerful spirit of chaos, lots of pegasi and earth ponies, and a couple of dragons. To say nothing of the entirety of her former hive. It didn't take a genius to realize she was outnumbered and outmatched.
"It's all over for you now, Chrysalis," Shining said sternly. "Face it, you've been beaten. Now, come quietly and we can end this without any further delay. Resist me, and you're only prolonging the inevitable."
Chrysalis hissed again. It seemed she had no intention of cooperating.
It was then that Starlight turned to her teacher and pleaded. "Wait! Give me a chance to try and talk some sense into Chrysalis."
"Starlight, while I appreciate you saving me, Chrysalis is hardly the type of individual that can be reasoned with through words alone," Shining protested. "Under different circumstances I'd reconsider, but for right now she must be stopped."
"Please! Just let me have this one chance! I... think I can reach her." Starlight insisted.
Shining wanted to say no, especially considering his prior experiences with Chrysalis. But one look at his student convinced him to reluctantly allow her to try her method. "It's your lucky day, Chrysalis," He told the disgraced former queen. "My student's gonna have a little talk with you, and I'd hear what she has to say. Hurt her at all, and you won't last thirty seconds before I slap the hoofcuffs on you and haul you off to the dungeons!"
Starlight then approached Chrysalis, the former queen looking forlorn and miserable. "I've been where you've been, Chrysalis. And you're about to make the same mistake that I did," She the former changeling queen. "When Shining Armor and his friends defeated me and exposed me for the fraud I was, I had a chance to surrender. But instead, I chose to run away and seek revenge. All that accomplished was making a fool of myself and causing unnecessary suffering. I was lucky enough to get a second chance, you probably won't be. It's not too late though, you can still turn it all around. You don't have to seek revenge. You can be the leader your subjects deserve, and in time you'll maybe even get your old title back. Isn't that better than what you're about to do?"
Chrysalis said nothing at first. She just reached out a hoof to Starlight as if she seemed to be considering the unicorn's words. But then she brushed away Starlight's hoof rather coldly. "How many times do I have to say it? This isn't fantasy, this is real life. You thought that sob speech would magically change my ways? Well you thought wrong!" And then she threatened. "There is no revenge you could ever conceive of that will come even close to what I will exact upon you one day, Starlight Glimmer! Mark my words, you'll pay for this! You and all of your pathetic 'friends'!"
Shining, having heard the whole thing, only shook his head in disappointment. "Oh Chrysalis, you really shouldn't have said that. Because now we gotta do things the hard way. Come on, everypony, let's get her!"
But before anyone could take any action, Chrysalis, with a smirk on her face, blasted Starlight back! With Shining momentarily distracted by the well being of his student, Chrysalis took full advantage of this opportunity and began to light up her horn! A sickly green glow began to envelope her!
Thorax realized what was going on, and he gasped in horror! "No, stop her! She's getting away!"
Unfortunately, the warning came too late! Chrysalis's little distraction had worked like a charm. Managing to phase through the floor of the hive somehow, the former queen had vanished!
"She won't get away so easily! I'll just lock onto her location and teach her a lesson for messing with my friends, especially Fluttershy!" Discord firmly protested and began to snap his paws. He teleported to a couple of places, before he returned to the hive. But without Chrysalis. "Darn it, she moves too fast! I can't get a lock on her, and my magic's not completely back up to full strength just yet!"
Shining felt his blood boil! "I don't believe this! That's twice now Chrysalis has gotten away! And this time we had her right where we wanted her! She was cornered, dead to rights, no where left to run! Yet now she's slipped right through my hooves once again!" He groaned, putting a hoof to his forehead. "Why do I have to insist on doing things by the book? I should've just captured her right then and there when I had the chance!"
"Doing things by the book is what separates you from the monsters like Chrysalis," Soarin reassured Shining. "You break the rules once without reason, even for a scumbag like Chrysalis, it's hard not to find yourself on a slippery slope. Eventually you start looking for any reason at all to bend or break the rules. Sometimes, you have no choice, but when you start looking for other situations where you can justify breaking the rules, it doesn't take much for you to become that which you swore to stop."
"And look on the bright side," Fancy Pants added. "Chrysalis is on her own, she's got no army at her disposal anymore. And something tells me she's not likely to recover from all those blasts anytime soon. She's probably going to be licking her wounds for a very long time to come."
"We'll just have to make sure we stay on guard, so we'll be ready for whenever she rears her ugly head again!" Thunderlane vowed.
Thorax then approached Shining and bowed to him. "Well, this is a fine 'How do you do', isn't it? Quite a contrast from our first meeting."
Shining couldn't help but giggle. "Indeed, my how things have changed. And you're looking a little bit... different, Thorax."
Thorax nodded. "I know. This is gonna take a lot of getting used to, especially since it looks more or less like I'm the king of this new hive, at least for the time being," He then added. "We'll set up security around the perimeter, and if we spot anything suspicious we'll let you know. But for the time being, I think it's best if the hive and I were left to manage this transition in peace."
Shining agreed. "Right, it's probably best we don't meddle in your affairs and undermine your authority or make you seem weak. Still, I hope you'll stop by for a visit every now and then. I know Flurry Heart will want to see what's become of her second favorite foalsitter."
Discord, meanwhile, was clapping his paws together. "Bravo, everypony, bravo!" He cheered. "Now then, who's ready for some celebratory tea?! I'm thinking we all go back to Castle Friendship and throw ourselves a bash!"
But Starlight grinned and approached the chaos maker. "Actually, since you can warp to wherever you desire now, I have a better idea in mind."
Back at Equal Town, the Sunset Festival was in full swing. The sunset itself may have come and gone, but there were still tons of activities to partake in.
The residents of the town were unaware of what had transpired over the past day or so. But they were most surprised to see Starlight Glimmer once again.
"Oh, hey, Starlight," Party Favor greeted. "You feeling better now?"
Starlight nodded. "Physical and mentally. Sorry for dropping out like that yesterday."
Double Diamond shook his head. "You couldn't help it, you weren't feeling well. We're just glad you were able to make it for the festival after all. We were afraid you were gonna miss the whole thing."
"Well, I know I missed the actual sunset, but I was hoping it wasn't too late to swing by for a visit," Starlight explained. "And I hope you don't mind, I brought guests."
"Hey, the more the merrier!" Night Glider chimed in.
Sugar Belle smiled, looking at Starlight. "You seem a lot different from the pony we saw yesterday. Are you sure you're the real Starlight Glimmer and not some changeling pretending to be her?"
Starlight laughed. "The changelings aren't a thing anymore. In fact, they're part of the reason why I seem so different now. It's kind of a long story. But I've changed, and learned a valueable lesson," And she then explained. "After the way I used my magic on all of you, I wasn't sure I was somepony who should even be in charge of a baking contest, let alone be a leader. I was afraid that I might go back to being the pony I used to be. But now I realize that sometimes you don't have a choice. You have to step up and take charge, whether you like it or not. And I have changed, in more ways than one! I can handle my fear now. Whether that means saving Equestria or helping friends out with the Sunset Festival."
"Well, we're glad to have you with us again, Starlight," Double Diamond smiled. "And we can't wait to hear your story about the changelings. Seems we missed out on something very important."
"Believe me, you've no idea," Shining Armor thought to himself, as he watched Starlight mingle with the ponies from her old village, and smiled. "You've really come a long way, Starlight. Your progress is astounding!"