//------------------------------//
// Loved to death 
// Story: Things Change 
// by Equimorto 
//------------------------------//

"What?" Chrysalis asked, taken aback by the alicorn's words.
"This was all just a test, and you passed it," Celestia replied, walking closer to the changeling.
"What?" Chrysalis repeated, still unsure of what was happening.
"I suppose I should explain what happened. You see, I became aware of your presence when you first entered the castle, and I wanted to make sure that you were telling the truth about your amnesia. So I cast a spell on myself and over the city of Canterlot, convincing ponies that I had always been a terrible ruler and modifying the city accordingly. I set up this to see if you could not only free my ponies from my oppressive rule, but also bring my corrupted self to return to my normal ways."
"You what?"
"Yes."
Chrysalis walked closer to Celestia, staring deep in her eyes. "So you forced your ponies to suffer your new self, knowing that if I failed things would remain like that and Equestria would be doomed, knowing that even if I was good there was a chance that you would be thrown in a dungeon, knowing that there was a possibility that I was still evil and that your actions would allow me to defeat you and rule over Equestria, and you even changed your memories of yourself, all so you could make sure that I was being sincere to you?"
Celestia rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. "I did, yes."
Chrysalis took a step towards the alicorn. "That is-" she took another step "-without a doubt-" another step, almost face to face with the alicorn "-the sweetest thing someone has ever done form me," Chrysalis said, eyes beaming.
"Do you really think that?" Celestia asked.
"Of course! I would have never thought you could care so much for me."
"I do care for you. I love you, Chrysalis."
"I love you too, Celestia."
The two moved a little closer, eyes locked into those of the other, feeling each other's breath on their face, silently contemplating the one in front of them, until finally, after a few moments of hesitation, they moved together and embraced the other in a deep, passionate, warm hug of friendship, which was what they felt for each other.
The door burst open with a loud bang. "Oh come on!" Twilight shouted, entering the room. "That was a perfectly romantic scene and you ruined it! Will you two just kiss already?"
Chrysalis and Celestia looked at each other, giggling a little.
"I'm afraid this isn't one of your stories, Twilight," Celestia said.
The purple alicorn walked closer to the pair, an annoyed expression on her face as she stared at the two. "That was really anticlimactic, you know?"
"How about this then?" Chrysalis asked. Her body began to levitate and glow, and Twilight realised what was happening a moment too late, the resulting blast of energy sending her flying back out of the door.



"So, about that whole 'test' thing," Twilight said to Celestia, the two of them sitting under the shadow of a tree in the castle's gardens.
"What about it?" Celestia asked, looking at her student.
"You made that story up on the spot, didn't you?"
Celestia went back to looking at what was in front of her. "Maybe. Does it matter though? This are my memories and those of everypony else now, so there's not really a point in trying to figure out how things were before."
"I guess you're right. Still though, rewriting the memories of all your citizens? Isn't that a little extreme?"
"Friendship is magic, Twilight, but sometimes, friendship is mind control. That sounds like a title now that I've said it. 'Friendship is Mind Control'. Bah, I'm sure there's someone out there who already used it."
Sitting at Celestia's other side, Luna mumbled something about justice in her sleep.
Twilight looked at Celestia with a somewhat confused expression, her mouth half open and ready to ask a question, then she shook her head and went back to looking to the park in front of her. "So I guess things are back to normal now."
"I don't know, Twilight," the white alicorn said. "I would say..." Celestia looked at what was in front of her, the newly reformed Chrysalis playing in the park with some of her guards. "I would say that things changed."