The trick worked! The royal guards went and searched around the place for the ‘monsters’, but couldn’t find them. They reported to Aulus that the ‘monsters’ must have fled.
“You see!” Aulus stuck his muzzle in the air proudly as he walked around triumphantly in front of the rest of the guards.
“That’s why the Royal Guards are renowned! Renowned for their bravery, their resourcefulness, and for having qualified, dignified leadership … Aaah!”
The lieutenant had suddenly tripped over a tree stump, and sprawled unceremoniously on the ground. Even worse for him, his helmet had come off in the fall: revealing his chewed, mostly missing mane. The viewers broke into gales of laughter at the sight, the hidden Flutterponies couldn’t help giggling, and even the guards’ faces twitched a bit.
Dark crimson with fury, Aulus seized his helmet and put it on. He addressed the woodland around him in a shaky but rage-filled voice.
“Freaks! Changelings! You want to get into Equestria but you won’t succeed! EVER! You know why? Because it’s for peaceful ponies, not freaks and abominations! Princess Celestia and Princess Luna themselves gave us orders to attack and defeat monsters such as YOU! Get back to the Badlands where creatures like you belong!”
Snorting, Aulus turned around and marched away from the scene, the rest of the guards following behind him. There was silence for a long time.
The forest glowed bright green once again as Rosedust lifted the illusion, revealing the stunned and confused Flutterponies. A filly finally broke the silence, with a whimper.
“I thought that the ponies were supposed to be … nice.”
Other Flutterponies joined in.
“Yes, that was what I thought!”
“What was that all about?!”
“I … your highness, are you all right?”
This last question was aimed at their ruler, who was silently crying.
Blue Joke crept closer, and then tapped her on a shoulder. Rosedust sniffed, and a few words could be heard.
“Gave them orders … Celly … Lulu … how could you … how could you …” The Queen slowly got up, wiped her cheeks, and then turned to face her kin.
“I’m sorry to have to tell you this … we can’t stay here in Equestria. We’ll probably have to improvise for now, since the ponies,” she spat the word venomously, “won’t let us stay in their home.”
Rosedust started to walk away, her expression thunderous. Blue Joke looked nervous, and then asked in a small voice.
“What about your friends?” Rosedust then whirled around with the speed of a hurricane. Her face was contorted in anger, loathing and hatred: an expression that the viewers had seen on Chrysalis before.
“My friends can go to Tartarus, for all I care.”
The blue filly whimpered quietly. The Flutterpony Queen’s face softened at that.
“Oh, I’m not cross at you, Blue Joke … or the rest of you. Come here.” She held her arms open in a big hug, and the rest of the ponies followed suit. Soon, all of them were in a big group hug.
“I promise to always look after you, never abandon you, and NEVER let anypony or anything else hurt you. All of you are the only things I love truly in the world.” Blue Joke smiled and said: “We know, Mummy. We know.”
The visions faded again, and this time: so did the mist. The group of friends and Chrysalis were once more on the desolate landscape of Chrysalis’s nightmare.
The dark changeling sighed.
“My children and I then went to the Badlands and made a makeshift home: a ‘Hive’ as it became known as. It wasn’t a very good home, but we had to make the best of our situation.
I managed to stop the metamorphosis from going any further by sharing the last of my Flutterpony magic with my kin: giving them access to illusion magic, battle magic, and a knack for sensing powerful emotions.
We soon found that we could still eat normal food, but love gave us strength and power. That we found out from those I sent on spying missions into Equestria.
My kin ended up taking a new name … and so did I. It felt appropriate after everything we’d been through.”
Chrysalis had fallen silent. The friends looked at the female changeling with sympathy and pity.
The alicorn sisters felt absolutely horrified at what their old friend had been through, and sad that a misunderstanding had caused her to hate them. Celestia approached Chrysalis slowly.
“Chrysalis?” she said quietly. “I had no idea that Aulus said that to you, or even attacked you and your kin. He never told us, and I don’t think he told the captains either. If we’d known what he was going to do, we would have stopped him.” Luna laid a hoof gently on the black changeling’s back.
“We never ordered the guards to attack you and your children. At that time, Equestria was going through a veritable tsunami of monster attacks. We told the royal guards to defend Equestria from all aggressive monster attacks”, the blue alicorn said emphatically.
Applejack coughed to get Chrysalis’s attention. “Princess Luna is telling the truth, you know.” Luna resumed speaking.
“I personally think that Aulus was manipulating the truth to justify his own actions. It was a nasty habit of his that I really disliked.”
Chrysalis’s eyes widened and her jaw fell.
“He … he was lying? Then you didn’t …” The changeling’s voice died away into a fit of sobbing. Celestia and Luna hugged their old friend tightly.
“So Chrysalis already knew about sharing love?” Starlight whispered to Spike. The dragon nodded. Applejack eyed the sobbing changeling.
“Now we know why Chrysalis was so hostile to Celestia and Luna”, muttered the orange farm pony.
Twilight had been watching Chrysalis for quite some time. Now she came over to the trio, and looked directly at the changeling.
“Chrysalis, why didn’t you tell anypony about it, even your children?” she asked. Chrysalis didn’t answer, silently crying. The royal sisters slowly let go of the former queen.
“I think that perhaps it’s best if we leave her be for the rest of the night. She’s been through enough as it is,” whispered Luna. The group nodded.
The night alicorn’s horn glowed brightly, and the surroundings changed into the bright paradise of Flutter Valley’s former state. Chrysalis’s form changed into that of Rosedust. Flutterponies came out from behind trees, bushes, out of the sky. They fluttered over to Rosedust and each gave her a big hug. Rosedust / Chrysalis sniffled, and then hugged them back.
“The least I can do, after hearing about Chrysalis’s past, is make sure the rest of her sleep isn’t steeped in misery”, Luna murmured.
Mutters of agreement came from the rest of the dreamers as they began to disappear from Chrysalis’s dream. Starlight and Twilight took a last look at the changeling.
“Chrysalis still has some things to explain, doesn’t she?” said Twilight.
“I agree, but now it’s time for sleep … for all of us”, Starlight replied, as dreamless sleep overtook them both.