//------------------------------// // Rainbow Revelations // Story: I was just lonely ... // by Rune Caster the First //------------------------------// Chrysalis slowly opened her eyes. The morning sun was shining through the curtains, lighting up the room. The big changeling yawned. That was a good sleep, she thought. And the dreams were wonderful. I haven’t dreamed about the valley like that for centuries. She smiled wistfully. The smile suddenly disappeared as she remembered the other things that she’d dreamed about, and who had also seen them. “Oh ponyfeathers!” the dark changeling muttered as she tried to get out of bed. “I’ve got to get out of here … now.” The mere memory of the viewers seeing her private past issues felt mortifying to her. She was suddenly halted by the physical and mental remembrance that she was tied to the bed magically. “Oh ponyfeathers”, Chrysalis swore again. This cannot be happening. A random realization came to the changeling in the moment: all of her aches and pains, her fever … was gone. She felt better. “Well, I never. It looks like those annoying ponies actually did help me after all!” marvelled Chrysalis. The former ruler then frowned. “But why?!” The door opened suddenly, and the Mane 6, Starlight and Spike suddenly came in. “We’ll explain why in a moment,” replied Twilight, in answer to Chrysalis’s question. “But first we have some questions for you, Chrysalis.” The changeling sighed, feeling somewhat bored. “All right”, she said in a resigned voice. Twilight began her questioning. “Why do you like to persecute ponies, even though the original ponies who caused you strife had been gone for ages? Why are you so hostile to the idea of friendship now? And finally, why did you never tell the present Changelings about their race’s past?” Chrysalis had gone very quiet while the purple alicorn was talking. Then she spoke. “I hated Aulus and his fellow guards because of their actions against me and my kin long ago. You all saw what happened. My resentment grew until it covered all ponies.” The pink unicorn nodded slowly. I, of all ponies, should know what comes of letting resentment fester and grow for long periods of time, Starlight thought. “It’s can be easier sometimes to keep hold of a grudge than to let it go”, she said. The dark changeling nodded. “I openly discouraged friendship in the Hive, because I didn’t like the idea of it, having real fun, and kindness … it reminded me too much of Flutter Valley, Tia and Lulu, all of the happy times of my l-life.” Chrysalis started to cry again. “I-I thought that my friends had betrayed me, betrayed our friendship. It hurt. It hurt more than any other injury I’d got before. It was just too painful, mentally.” The Mane 6 slowly nodded, sympathizing with Chrysalis. Each of the ponies and dragon remembered painful things, especially Starlight and Twilight. Twilight remembered how Discord had made her friends turn on her, leaving her broken-hearted for some time. Starlight remembered how she’d misinterpreted Sunburst’s cutie mark as a friendship betrayal, and how anguished and empty it had left her for years and years. “You blocked happy things out of your mind because you couldn’t bear to think about them, didn’t you?” the purple alicorn said. Chrysalis nodded once again, looking mopey. “Maybe, if Thorax and the others had known about what you’d been through in the past, they might have been a bit more forgiving?” suggested Applejack. “Why didn’t you tell them, dang it? The dark changeling stared at the ground. “I didn’t want to tell my children about their race’s past for fear of hurting them emotionally,” she muttered. “I love them, and I never really wanted to hurt them.” Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “Thorax?” she asked cynically. Chrysalis’s expression darkened, and she laughed harshly. “The first changeling to want friendship. How quaint.” The former queen sighed, and then hung her head. “Rosedust helps and comforts her children when they’re in trouble. Chrysalis just hurts them.” She actually looked truly ashamed for the first time. “Thorax tries to persuade me to like friendship, and I tried to drain him of his love. I acted like a selfish foal, and I violated the promise I made long ago: never let my children come to harm.” Chrysalis turned her head away from the ponies. “No wonder they hate me now. I wouldn’t love me either after all this. I guess that’s why my children abandoned me.” Starlight frowned. “Chrysalis, they didn’t abandon you. It was you who ran away!” she protested. The pink unicorn smiled reassuringly, walking around the bed to look Chrysalis in the face. “In the past, I did some pretty appalling things to a lot of ponies, but when I apologised for my behaviour: they forgave me! I didn’t expect them to, but they did!” the pink unicorn said, emphasizing every word. “If you make a true apology, they’ll forgive you.” Starlight hesitated and looked back at her mentor. “I think.” Chrysalis snorted disbelievingly. “Yeah, right. Anyway, my children aren’t here, so I can’t apologise.” Spike coughed pointedly, walked to the door, and then opened it. It turned out that Thorax and the other changelings were standing right outside the door. Chrysalis’s eyes widened in surprise. They’re really here? They … did they hear what I just said?! The Changelings all looked at each other. Eventually Thorax stepped forward. “Did you really mean what you said? About loving us? Caring about our feelings? And the real reason why you don’t like friendship?” The black changeling was quiet for a moment, and then said “yes” softly. She looked at Thorax. “Did you mean what you said?” she asked. Thorax looked confused. “What did I say?” Chrysalis smirked. “Weeell, l just might have been wide awake for your visit yesterday,” she said slyly. “The whole visit.” Everyone’s jaws dropped at that. “You mean, you weren’t sleeping?!” exclaimed Rarity. Thorax slowly closed his mouth, and then gave his answer. “Yes.” The dark changeling’s smirk then turned into a soft smile, a genuine smile. “Thorax, I’m sorry, truly I am. I’m sorry for hurting you: that was completely uncalled for. I had no excuse.” She turned to look at the rest of the changelings. “I apologise to all of you for lying, for abandoning you, and for not acting like how a real mother is supposed to.” One of the multi-coloured changelings stepped forward, and Chrysalis braced herself for the torrent of criticism that she thought was coming. “Is Flutter Valley real? Is what I saw really real?” he asked. Those questions caught the black changeling completely off guard. “How in Faust, do you know that?” she asked, perplexed. “Thorax was the only changeling I showed my past to.” The Royal Pony Sisters then came into the room, smiling. “I’m afraid that it’s my doing”, Luna promptly answered Chrysalis’s question. “I secretly linked the dreaming minds of all the changelings, not just Thorax, to your dream, Chrysalis. All of them saw what happened to Flutter Valley, and afterwards. Thorax was the only changeling that everyone, except me, could see and hear. I didn’t tell you at the time, because I was worried that you might feel overwhelmed if you knew.” “You think?!” spluttered a very flustered, crimson-faced Chrysalis, staring once again at the floor. Twilight patted the dark changeling’s hoof, causing Chrysalis to look up at the purple princess. “Everyone here now knows what you’ve been through, Chrysalis. The reason why we helped you is because we couldn’t let someone lie there on the ground sick. You were pretty ill”, she said. The former queen frowned. “So what? I had a fever, doesn’t everypony get them?” “Well, you didn’t just have fever, you know. You also had very severe malnutrition, extreme magic drainage, and pure exhaustion.” As the list went on, Chrysalis’s expression became one of mingled horror and surprise. Horror at the sheer number of symptoms that she had before, and surprise at the ponies’ helpfulness in her recovery. “After everything I did, you still helped me”, she murmured. “See”, Starlight pointed out, “Equestria isn’t the same as the one that you thought you knew; it’s better, more understanding, kinder to those that are different from others in lots of ways.” Thorax nodded. “I still love you … mother. I know that you’ve done some very bad things … but, you know, everyone makes mistakes at some time in their life.” The rest of the changelings voiced their agreement to their leader’s words. “Yes!” “If she’s really sorry, then yes!” “I’ve made mistakes too.” “And me!” Chrysalis sniffled softly. “I’m sorry for every bad thing I’ve done to my children, you ponies … well, everyone”, she said sincerely. Thorax gave her a comforting hug. Every other changeling joined in, until the dark changeling was buried in a multicoloured mass. “We love you, mother”, the changelings all murmured. Chrysalis smiled through her tears. “I love you too”, she said. As they hugged, the walls of Chrysalis’s room began to shimmer with a rainbow glow. Sparkles and swirls of light came out of the glow and began to whirl around the changelings. Chrysalis’s bonds dissolved into nothing as she and her children were lifted up amid the maelstrom of swirling rainbow magic. The Mane 6, Starlight, Spike, and the other Princesses all stared in wonder and awe. The magic suddenly ignited in a bright flash of light and power, that soon disappeared. Once again, the ponies and dragon were caught by surprise. All around the room, they saw dazed ponies with brightly coloured coats and transparent butterfly-like wings that glowed and sparkled with powerful magic. On the bed was Chrysalis, only she didn’t look like ‘Chrysalis’ any more … It was Rosedust … but this time, it wasn’t the effect of poison joke.