She had been burned by mercy.
The thought replayed over and over in Chrysalis's mind. The images replayed over and over in Chrysalis's mind. Those blazing wings. That strength and power far greater than her own, slamming her, crushing her, a power that could have killed her.
How powerful was she?
The dark queen laid on her hospital bed, her body covered in bandages. She stared at the severely white ceiling. The bed she was laying on was white as were the walls. A terrible, blinding white. She groaned and rolled over onto her side. The doctors had treated her like a fun experiment, all of them sharing ideas on how best to heal her. Now the doctors had moved onto other things.
A groan escaped her parted lips. A white, blue-maned Unicorn nurse looked up from the chart she was reading and stepped inside the maddeningly white room. "Are you alright, Your Highness?"
Chrysalis snarled. "Your Majesty. The proper term of address for one of my rank is your majesty."
The nurse didn't change her expression. "My apologies. Equestria has no queens."
"Because you are an underdeveloped society."
The nurse's lips twitched ever so slightly. "Is something wrong?"
"Is something wrong?" Chrysalis repeated, astonished. "One-hundred of my best warriors are dead." Her voice choked. "They are dead because of your blessed princess."
"I'm sorry for your loss."
"Don't give me that crap! That's not what I'm upset about!"
The nurse trotted over to her bedside. "Then, what is bothering you?"
The queen turned away. "How is it your concern?"
"I'm a nurse. Healing is my business."
"It is my body that requires healing."
"If you say so."
"I do say so!" She slammed the bed and screamed so loud that the nurse jumped back. The nurse rushed over and lifted her hoof in a cerulean glow. "Dr. Unsicker! We have a problem!"
The stallion darted into the room. "What's wrong?"
"She's bleeding through her bandages. I think she needs an IV drip, but she doesn't, um, she doesn't have veins."
The doctor quickly exited the room and returned with a glass of some sort of clear liquid levitating beside him. He lifted it to Chrysalis's lips and she drank from it. As the liquid flowed down her throat, she felt herself growing drowsy. Then, oblivion took her.
When she woke up, it was night. Her door was closed and a hush had fallen over the ward. A few beams of moonlight streamed through the windows. There was the click of a door unlocking and then her door swept open. Chrysalis blinked a few times and sat up. Nopony would sneak up on her sleeping.
Luna tread into the room. "Still awake, Chrysalis?"
"Would it kill you Ponies to call me by my title?"
Luna stepped closer. "I am your peer. How are you feeling?"
Chrysalis blinked away the last bit of sleep. "What's it any of your concern?"
Luna shrugged. "You are no longer an enemy combatant. You are now a guest and under our care. As soon as your subjects ransom you, you may go home."
Chrysalis grit her teeth. "Rank extortion!"
"Tis the law of nations, even in my time."
Chrysalis struggled in an attempt to get off the bed. Every movement brought jolts of pain so she eventually gave up. "Why didn't she kill me? That custom you mentioned just now. I disagree with it. We Changelings do not humiliate our foes in such a way. How could she do this to me? Shame me before my subjects? How...how can I face them now? Why couldn't she have just killed me, granted me an honorable death?"
"She could have killed me." Luna levitated over a chair, sat. "I fell as hard as you did-no, I fell further. Lost my very sanity. In a way, we are both victims of her mercy."
Chrysalis turned away from her. Luna lifted a hoof, almost placed it on her shoulder, then placed it back down.
"She believes deep inside that no being is truly lost forever. I have tried to show her the error of her ways multiple times. But she's almost always right."
"Is that how she sees me?" Chrysalis growled. "Lost?"
"You are lost. Lost like I was."
"Shut up!"
A table flew across the room. Luna caught it and set it down. Chrysalis bit her lip and groaned, rubbing her head.
"Do not exert yourself so soon."
"What do you care?"
Luna rested a hoof on Chrysalis's foreleg. Chrysalis drew it back.
"I know you see us as enemies, but we were once friends. Can you remember?" She grabbed Chrysalis's hoof. "Can you? Do you hear me in there, Chryssy?"
Chrysalis didn't pull away. Luna tightened her grip. "I overcame the darkness. So did Celestia from what she tells me. You can return to us. You can fight it."
"I'm...very confused right now. I don't understand."
"It's alright to be confused."
Chrysalis curled onto her side. "What's happening to me?"
"Perhaps, the same thing that happened to me. I asked Celestia not to let the Bearers use the Elements on you-they may decide a sentence in stone or beneath the earth would give you fitting time to reflect. I believe you can overcome the darkness without such harsh methods."
"Reflection...yes, I need to reflect. Leave me."
Luna walked around so that they were face to face. "Do you need to feed?"
Chrysalis muttered something into her pillow.
"Speak up."
Chrysalis lifted her head. "Yes. I'm so hungry."
Luna touched her horn to Chrysalis. At first, she stiffened as if expecting a shock of pain. Then, warm waves of love flowed into her body. She relaxed, lulled by the wondrous feeling of it.
Luna pulled away. "Are you sated?"
Chrysalis struggled to keep her eyes open. "Never. Never sated. Always hungry. Please, more."
Once again, Luna pressed her horn to Chrysalis's, opening a link and letting the love flow. "That sounds like a terrible burden to bear."
"You have no idea."
"Oh, I think I do."
Chrysalis forced herself up on her shoulder, winced slightly. "You really don't. How could you?"
The love energy kept flowing through her. For just a second, a fleeting moment gone as soon as she breathed, she felt full. Then, the dull ache returned.
"I don't exactly understand. My curse was different. It was envy. I couldn't get enough praise. Couldn't get enough adoration. No matter how many parades they threw me after my victories, it was never enough."
"Never enough, never enough."
"Yes. They played in my sister's day and slept through my beautiful night. So, I do understand."
Chrysalis fell silent, contemplating Luna's words. Luna drew away her horn. Chrysalis squirmed. "Not enough. Not yet."
Luna panted. "Just, let me get my breath back. Why haven't you tried obtaining citizenship in the Crystal Empire? Surely, the Crystal Heart would sustain your kind."
"The Changeling Hive Empire will never bow to another!"
"You don't need to. Just ask Cadence for permission to decamp there. I know full well that your subjects are nomadic."
Chrysalis turned her back to Luna. "Cadence would never allow it. She hates my kind."
"Ah, I see. Deep down, it's a fear of rejection. You won't ask because you're afraid the answer will be no."
"Shut up! I fear nothing!"
"If you weren't afraid, you'd ask."
Chrysalis drew away. "That's enough. I must rest."
Luna stood back. "Pleasant dreams."
"That'll be up to you."
Luna chuckled. "I have missed that dry wit." She walked to the door.
Chrysalis sat back up. "I suppose the polite thing to do would be to say thank you."
Luna stopped. "And the polite thing for me to do would be to say you're welcome."
"Good night, Luna."
"Good night, Chryssy."
Chrysalis rested her head on the pillow. It cradled her with its softness, but it was nothing like the luxury waiting for her in her palace. Blazing wings of fire followed her into her dreams.
...
Something was different. Chrysalis's eyes sprang open at the intrusion of dawn light into her room. The white walls glowed in shades of pink and orange, painted by the early sun. The clop of hoofsteps came from down the hall, the nurses and doctors preparing the clinic. The stink of coffee stung her nostrils. It was a barbarous drink from across the sea-another sign of Equestrian degeneracy. The softer, more civilized smell of tea floated along as well.
Not that she needed either, but tea was a sign that Equestrian civilization had not entirely fallen since she had sojourned among them.
Maybe she'd indulge a bit. She yawned and stretched, then stopped, lifted her right hoof up. She couldn't see through it. That's when something began to tickle at the very edges of her consciousness. She was...not hungry. There was no dull ache, no gnawing in her stomach driving her to feed.
The holes that had lacerated her foreleg for ten centuries were gone. The other foreleg was as covered in holes as ever. She stared at the foreleg, unable to draw her eyes away.
Just how much had she fed off of Luna?
There was a knock on the door. Chrysalis laid back down on the bed. "Enter."
Celestia stepped inside. "Good morning."
Chrysalis drew her gaze from her altered foreleg to the Sun Princess. A bandage covered her side as remnant of their battle. "Good morning? Are you serious? Is that all you have to say?"
Celestia crossed over to her bed. "There's so much to say that I don't know where to start."
"Shouldn't you be attending court? Or tending to your wife?"
"I wanted to come see you."
"Why?"
Celestia opened her mouth to answer, then stopped. "What happened to your foreleg?"
Chrysalis jammed it under the sheets, but Celestia tossed the sheet aside then marched over to the side of the bed. Chrysalis snarled, but Celestia only rolled her eyes at the display. "Are you transforming part of your body?"
"No. I woke up like that. No idea why."
"Luna told me she fed you. Have you ever fed from a willing participant?"
"Define willing."
Celestia glared at her and Chrysalis shuddered. "No, never. Only by force and deceit. It is our nature."
"It is not. You were a Flutterpony once and such cruelties are not innate to your race."
Her horn lit up and she threw the chair at Celestia."Do I look like a damned Flutterpony to you?"
Celestia caught the chair. "You were once."
"Once! Once! One-thousand years ago!"
Celestia returned the chair to the floor. "Are you hungry?"
"What?"
"Are you hungry?"
There was a long pause. "No. I am not."
"Then, perhaps love given willingly is more filling than that taken by force."
Chrysalis stared at the wall, refused to meet Celestia's gaze. "Have you heard anything from the Imperial Council?"
"Nothing. We've sent them word of your capture, but the messengers we've sent probably haven't even gotten there yet."
"It'll take them a while to collect the funds. We don't have money back at the Hive. Everyone produces for the good of the Hive and everyone takes what they need."
"What a lovely system. I doubt it'd work in Equestria though. We're quite attached to our current system."
Chrysalis grumbled. "You're a lot of savages compared to us."
Celestia shook her head. "I'm trying to pay you a compliment. Why can't you just take it?"
"How much have you set my ransom?"
Celestia groaned. "Five-thousand bits, based upon damages and emotional distress. Standard."
Chrysalis choked. "I'm going to be here for a while. We get our money from agents who send us money from their jobs. They don't care about money so they don't care how much I tax them."
"So, why don't you have many funds?"
"Our military budget is extraordinarily high."
"You said the Hive produces everything that it needs."
Her eyes cut to the side. "Stagnation. Your technology is superior to ours. As is the technology of the Minotaurs and, hell, even the Diamond Dogs. My subjects do not think, Celestia. They can not innovate. The few that can leave the Hive when they realize..." She trailed off. "Why am I telling you national secrets?"
Celestia extended a wing and Chrysalis shied away. "Perhaps, it feels good to have someone you can tell these things too? You know, a friend?"
Chrysalis chuckled. "You are insane. First, you beat me to a pulp then you offer me friendship."
"You'd be surprised how often that occurs. And you attacked me."
"We are at war. Do you still possess some holdover fondness for who I once was? Is that why you invited me?"
Celestia sat down on the chair. "Twilight invited you."
Chrysalis's jaw dropped. "The same Twilight whose brother I seduced?"
"The very same."
She slammed her head on the pillow."You Ponies make no sense. Is this some sort of interrogation technique? Confuse me till I start spilling secrets?"
Celestia attempted to pat her shoulder, but Chrysalis knocked her wing away. "No. Don't. Let's get one thing straight. We aren't friends anymore."
Celestia resisted the urge to lower her head, keeping her chin up like the proud and strong ruler she was. "Alright. We're not friends. I get it. But can we at least be colleagues?"
"How do you mean?"
"It occurs to me that this war is benefiting neither side. What if we tried an arrangement?"
Chrysalis sat up straighter on the bed, rolling over onto her stomach and winced. "Of what sort?"
"I find Ponies who are lonely. You'd be surprised how many there are. You set up feeding centers and willingly take the love they give you, giving them affection in return. Of course, this will be regulated in order to ensure neither side is being taken advantage of."
"Brothels, then?"
"If that's what it takes."
Chrysalis muttered to herself, then shook her head. "No, it'd never work. We are demons to your Ponies. They would never willingly give us sustenance."
"How do you know if you've never tried?"
Chrysalis struggled off the bed and Celestia caught her. "You don't think we've tried? Do you know how many times...we've been driven out! Beaten! Slain!"
Chrysalis stopped. Two white wings wrapped around her. She remained perfectly still, rooted to the ground. "I'm sorry, Chryssy. Sorry that your subjects suffered. Sorry that you suffered. Sorry that in one-thousand years I was never able to reach you. But give it another chance. I'll be by your side this time."
Chrysalis slowly reached out her hooves and then held them out, not quite returning the embrace. Then she pulled away and whirled around. "Leave me. I must think."
Celestia sighed. "You know where to find me." She pushed open the door. Chrysalis looked down at her arm-her healthy arm, her whole arm. Minutes passed while she stared at it like it didn't belong to her. Finally, she set it down and trailed over to the bathroom, opening it and stepping into an expansive room which was just as white as the room outside.
She stepped into the tub, turned on the water and let it run over her carapace. Turning her head, she caught sight of herself in the mirror. The bandages would be waterlogged, but what did she care? It'd give the nurses something to do. With a flick of her magic, green fire enveloped her. When the flames died down, a sky blue Flutterpony with a green mane and tail stood across from her in the mirror.
She grunted and returned to her base form. The water soaked into her emerald locks.
...
Celestia stepped out of the room. Twilight was standing guard outside and leaned into her the minute she closed the door. "How was she?"
Celestia nuzzled her. "As well as can be expected. Her injuries were severe, but she received care very quickly. She's up and moving around."
"And emotionally?"
"Do you want to know if she's a threat?"
Twilight tried to lay a wing on her withers. Celestia lowered down to accept the comfort. The soft, violet feathers soothed the knotted muscles in her back. They sat down on the floor and Celestia drew Twilight close to her side with her own wing.
"On some level, yes. On another level, I want to know how receptive she is to at least...at least not being our enemy anymore."
"I'm not sure. I told her about the arrangement we discussed and she told me she had to think."
"So, she's considering it?"
"Possibly. I have hope."
Twilight nestled against her. "This must be painful for you."
"It is, but don't apologize again. You may have brought her back to me."
"I hope I have." She stretched. "Not to change the subject, but where do you want to go on our Honeymoon? You can choose this vacation."
"Perhaps, Everfree City? We could work on rebuilding the library, decorating the castle."
"You had me at library. And I am sort of interested in going to the Everfree. Zecora's showed me several interesting plants and I'm curious about experimenting."
Celestia giggled. "Experimenting? How so? Me and Luna tried a few interesting plants in our youth."
"Oh, you know. Cooking, magical formula, medicinal plants-though hopefully we won't need those. What else can you do with plants?"
Celestia's smile threatened to turn into a full grin. "Never change, Twilight. There are some psychedelic plants in the Everfree-or there were over one-thousand years ago. I'm afraid me and Luna made fools of ourselves when we stumbled upon some mushrooms of a non-culinary nature."
"Ohhhh. If there still are, Zecora's never mentioned them. I don't think she does that kind of thing."
"Have you? I know a lot of mages are tempted."
"The only drug I do is the occasional cider."
Ah, yes. Cider." She nosed Twilight's wing, straightening an errant feather. "That's what started all of this."
Twilight snickered. "And my Grandma said nothing good would ever come of the drink. So, what were you and Luna doing in the Everfree?"
"Actually, we were just there to explore. We did that a lot, before we were rulers. Just wander the world. Sometimes, Chrysalis would come along. That's why we went to the Roof of the World then. Because it was there."
"Do you think we could do that? Have a few adventures? I've gotten a taste for them."
"Maybe, one day, when Equestria doesn't need me as much."
"Exploring the Everfree will be fun. Do you think the architects will let me look at their schematics?"
"Of course. I didn't know you were interested in architecture."
"I'm not, I just love geometry."
"You're going to love our honeymoon."
"I think I will. It'll be something to see a city come back to life."
Celestia rose and Twilight rose with her. "Why don't we go get some breakfast?"
"Sounds good to me."
Celestia paused at the doors to the dining hall. "You know something, Twilight? I think I really would like going on a few adventures with you."
Twilight clapped her hooves and used her magic to open the door. "I've already planned a few things! Ever heard of the Lost City of Minos?"
"Used to just be called Minos." She followed Twilight through the door. "My goodness, have they found it?"
"Not yet, but we could look for it."
"Sounds like a plan."