“The hospital should think about installing a revolving door. We come here often enough.”
Rarity knew jokes weren’t her strong suit, but she had hoped to bring back a little levity to the dreary atmosphere of the waiting room at Ponyville hospital. One glance at her princess peers and that hope died a quick and painless death. It still felt weird to see herself as royalty, watching Twilight and Luna sit as far as possible from each other on the same bench. The fashionista frowned when both tried constantly not to fall off from sitting too far on the edge.
Luna and Twilight Sparkle had entered a weird state of silent tolerance for each other. Even though the tempers had cooled somewhat, their earlier kerfuffle in the library was still fresh on both minds. It also didn’t help that Luna had already known about the fire and hadn’t thought about telling two of Applejack’s best friends, further souring the mood between the two alicorns.
They had arrived at the apple family home without a single leaf out of place and three of Applejack’s newest employees holding the fort; Flim, Flam and a very convincing body double of Big Macintosh named Crusher.
A quick recap later, Twilight and her royal colleagues knew that Applejack was now the richest mare in all of Equestria, the orchard miraculously fixed itself through magic and the family had regained two members as a bonus. Two very dear family members who should have been very dead and were rushed to the hospital to make sure it stayed that way.
Back in the present, the three princesses all coped differently with the news and remaining gaps of information while they waited for the tests to end. Royalty or not, hospital regulations allowed only family to be present outside of visiting hours and putting into account the doctors were doing a health examination on former corpses, it was safe to say the procedure wouldn’t be done quick.
Enough time to ponder the recent events.
“What’s up with the world lately?” Twilight held her head in both hooves and stared at the floor. “I’m used to having a hectic life since I’ve come to Ponyville but this is ridiculous!” Her head shot up to look at Rarity. “Am I wrong?”
“It’s been more than the usual amount of craziness, darling,” Rarity said, looking at her white wings with a dreamy sigh. “It’s not all bad though. So what if Applejack’s parents have come back from the dead? Isn’t that a wonderful miracle?”
“Yes, but…”
“What Twilight tries to say, if you ignore the inane rambling,” Luna said with a straight face, ignoring the daggers Twilight stared at her, "The existence and possibility of resurrection magic has widespread implications on magic theory.”
“How widespread?” Rarity asked, shuddering at the thought of how little she knew about magic compared to the vast power she now possessed.
Twilight groaned. “Enough to throw away all textbooks more advanced than elementary school. If this is true, the fundamental principles of magic have to be rewritten and rediscovered, starting with finding out who did it and how it occurred,” the purple alicorn spoke the next part louder. “But somepony won’t let us do our duty as princesses and rather make us wait!”
The nurse at the reception desk harrumphed and turned the page on her magazine. “No visits from non-family outside visiting hours. No exceptions!”
Twilight grumbled and sank back into the bench. “Where is Celestia? She’s been gone for hours!”
Rarity answered Twilight’s question with another question. “Did anyone send Princess Celestia a message to tell her where she could find us?”
Luna and Twilight looked at each other and spoke at the same time. “I thought you did!?”
“She’s your sister!”
“You are her little pet project!”
Rarity pondered if ascension was worth the hassle. If her two examples for prolonged princesshood were anything to measure it on, immortality seemed to be the bare minimum necessity to make it in this field of work. She stood up and cracked her neck, ready to throw herself between the two once again to stop a possible double regicide and sighed in relief when Celestia came through the opening door. The entrance of the fourth alicorn put a damper on the rising tension by her sheer appearance.
The seamstress had seen the princess in various states of dress during this week, one more ridiculous than the next, but the current ensemble took the cake. It started with the dreadful ball of poofy mane on her head and ended with the huge splotches of pink all across her chest and face.
“Are those the melodic shriekings of my sweet baby sister and my most faithful student that I hear?” Frank asked, cringing from the sound of somepony clearing her throat just outside of view and he quickly spoke to in hushed tones. “You know how I meant that my little Sunbun. Mommy loves you in a different but equally special way.”
The three alicorns inside heard a little sniffle. “I need a moment…”
Frank took a step into the hospital and his jovial demeanor turned off. “So what’s going on here? Somebody got hurt again?”
The sudden mood shift of her sister perturbed Luna. “Nothing of the sort Tia… It’s just ...the apple family is...” She tried to focus, but the silly afro compared to the dead serious expression influenced her ability to concentrate. “I’m sorry, but what happened to your mane and who is that pony draped over your back? And why do you smell like melted cinnamon buns?”
The blue mare on Frank’s back stirred with a moan and he adjusted his posture to make her more comfortable. Satisfied with her new position, Frank answered in lightning round fashion with a mask of no nonsense. “Discord happened. Crystal Glamour, a friend of my daughter. She threw up on me. A lot.”
“What?!”
Frank’s mood flipped again with a noticeable twitch, back to genuinely happy and go lucky. “I know, right? It was quite the fountain, so my little Sunbun and I decided to have her checked up to make sure it’s nothing serious.”
Twilight said what everybody was thinking. “Not that! The second part! You… you have a daughter?”
Frank’s expression blanked for full ten seconds, before his mind turned back into gear. “Of course, you never met! How silly of me to forget! I hope it’s just mental cobwebs and I’m not getting senile at my old age. Sunset, do you want to introduce yourself?”
Luna, Twilight and Rarity watched an amber alicorn with fiery red mane enter the waiting room. She walked confidently and radiated authority, self-taught from a very young age to prepare for her debut as a princess. In the presence of fellow royalty, she had gone all-out with accessories. The ensemble consisted of golden hoofslippers and a necklace emblazoned with her cutie mark, topped off by a small gem encrusted crown.
“Hello, I am Sunset Shimmer. Pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
Twilight and Rarity gaped at the newcomer like a fish. Luna wore a small frown and looked back and forth between Frank and Sunset. Her jaw began working as she compared their similar cutie marks, eyes turning to snake-like slits for a split second.
The lack of a verbal response forced Frank to do the introduction for them. “These lovely young mares are Twilight Sparkle and Rarity, two of the six elements of harmony and your juniors.”
The two addressed alicorns were still gaping at Sunset, making the whole situation unnecessary awkward for Frank’s taste. Thankfully, he turned to Luna who introduced herself. “I am Princess Luna, shepherd of the moon, sovereign of the night and apparently your… aunt.” Frank received a glare from his marefriend that could have melted steel. “Who impregnated your womb? Who laid hooves on you in my absence, sister?”
Frank began sweating and pulled Sunset close to put a hoof around her shoulder. “Nopony, Luna! My muffin remains unbuttered. Little Shimmy here is adopted, but I love her as if she were my own.”
Sunset blushed from the side hug, getting more stares and glares from the remaining princesses.
“Why did you never mention anything about her?”
Frank and Sunset shared a glance after Twilight’s question, ended by a small wink from the larger alicorn. Sunset understood and let her ‘mentor’ take the stage. “The nature of her studies are critical to national security. There are other types of magic than the magic of friendship and some of them are not for the faint of heart. In fact, many of them aren’t even originating from Equestria.”
Rarity, as the least magically inclined of the group, needed a clarification. “As in not from this continent?”
Sunset waited for a moment to see if Frank would say something and answered when nothing came out of his mouth. “As in not from this world.”
The proclamation had the intended effect of stunning the three remaining alicorns. Twilight especially, had a look of pure wonder in her eyes as she stared at Sunset Shimmer, who was suddenly very uncomfortable under the intense scrutiny.
Feeling mischievous, Frank added more fuel to the fire. “Consider my little Shimmy a dimension-traveling magic explorer extraordinaire!”
A purple blur flew from the bench across the room, stopping a hair’s breadth in front of the startled Sunset. Twilight forgot all sense of personal space for magic studies and showed it by almost standing muzzle to muzzle with her predecessor. “How did you compensate for the temporal fluctuations between dimensions?”
“I didn’t...” Sunset drew back, uncomfortable with their proximity that was close enough to smell Twilight’s mint mouthwash and lavender shampoo.
Twilight didn’t seem to notice or care, stretching her head out to follow Sunset’s retreating face and this time touching snouts. “But the time shifts must have cost you years!”
The miscalculation and obliviousness to the consequences of her impromptu dimensional escape from Equestria still irked Sunset. She considered herself to be above doing unnecessary mistakes and forgetting about this important detail, regardless of her emotional state at the time, was unacceptable for somepony with such high standards.
It frustrated Sunset even more that her replacement had thought about it instantly. “Thirty to be exact.”
Another round of gasps rang through the room and grated on Sunset’s nerve before Rarity, the least competent in her eyes, had to add her two bits. “Wasn’t that awful? To be separated from all your friends and family for such a long time? To have them grow old without you?”
“My only family is immortal and I have no use for friends. The magic of friendship, as ridiculous as it may sound, is Ms. Sparkle’s expertise and not mine.”
This time, it was Twilight who pulled back. Her head instantly turned towards Frank to see the outrage in her mentor’s eyes and was shocked when she found none. Frank just shrugged off the obvious blasphemy against the bedrock of her magical studies. “Your decision, I guess.”
“You guess…?”
“What?” Frank asked, confused about the frazzled state of his purple protegee. “Do you want me to force her to make friends?”
Twilight was about to blow her casket. “You did the same to me!”
It was hard for him to argue when the initial premise of the show was exactly that. A princess sending her socially awkward student to make friends as the only hope for saving her sister, not telling her beforehand about the plan to prevent Twilight from backing out.
It sounded to Frank like the behaviour of a colossal douchebag. “Huh… I did do that.”
“I think we have more urgent matters to discuss than the validity of friendship magic,” Luna cut in, ignoring the frustrated huff of Twilight. “What will be the purpose of your daughter, now that she has returned?”
“My succession.” Another round of gasps, this time from Sunset as well, and Frank wanted to expedite the process. “Yes, I know shocking. Can we move this along please?“
The indifferent attitude left him quickly from two blue hooves wringing his neck for answers. “Then explain yourself, you dolt! What do you mean with this nonsense? You want to retire?”
Luna getting angry enough to swear at him was a surefire signal for Frank to start damage control, before everything went to shit. “Not anytime soon and definitely not without you. When the time comes to resign, voluntarily or by necessity, I want somepony to take my place on the throne. Who else would be more suited than my own daughter?”
Rarity and Luna glanced towards Twilight, who had a very conflicted expression on her face. They recognized the signs of somepony who isn’t sure what to feel. Relieved because she didn’t have to take responsibility or insulted because she wasn’t even a choice?
“Uggghhh.”
Like a gift from the gods, Chrysalis had come to her senses to make her presence known, giving Frank the perfect reason to put a pin on this discussion. “Ms. Glamour, I am so sorry that we got so sidetracked in your time of need.” Frank leaned down to the pudgy earthpony mare at the reception to read her name tag. “Excuse me, Ms… Stoneheart… lovely name by the way... my friend here needs medical attention!”
“What are the symptoms?” Nurse Stoneheart asked, not even looking up while pulling out a piece of paper from a drawer.
You wouldn’t have been able to tell if Frank took offense to the lackluster treatment by the unwavering smile on his face. “Throwing up liquid cotton candy, fainting spells and stomach pains.”
The nurse wrote the information on a form, put it on a clipboard, and handed it to Frank. “We are shorthooved on personnel at the moment, so would you fill out this paper and bring her to Room 16 down the floor on your own? The doctor will look at her as soon as the team is finished with the apple family.”
“Lovely, thank you very much for your time.” The continued politeness earned Frank a small smile from the reserved mare as he filled out the paper with a name and a few bullet points before handing it back. “Ladies, why don’t you get to know each other more? I will rejoin you in a moment after dropping off Ms. Glamour.”
“Tia wait!” Luna yelled, but he had walked further into the hospital and she was blocked from following by the nurse who tsk-tsked at their approach. It meant that the princess of the night had to go back to her seat with a pout and wait for her sister to return.
Meanwhile, Frank fought the urge to whistle a little tune while he gained distance from the complete mess behind him. It felt like an eternity ago since he had a moment for himself to think about life and overall he was very content with how things were going.
There had been some bumps lately, but nothing he couldn’t persevere through.
After all, his magical dry spell has been blown away, the festival was going smoothly and the return of Sunset would expedite his retirement dramatically. He had no illusions about his ability to run a country and while playing ruler had been fun, Frank had the inkling it would be better for everyone involved to find something else for him.
Something like a far tropical island, sharing a drink with Luna on a towel, wearing matching bikinis and watching the sun set over the ocean.
“Just a bit more Frank. You can do it!”
Frank entered the hospital room full of vigor and hope for the future, only to feel it drain away by the first look at the other patient in the room halfway cast in darkness.
“Goddammit…” One flash of light and the ridiculous afro was gone, his mane back to how it was before, long wavy and regal looking. The stains on his coat didn’t come out for some reason, the pink sludge unusually resistant to be magicked away.
The bed closer to the door was empty and Frank lowered the mare on his back gently on it, before approaching the already occupied bed. Every free space around it was plastered with presents in all shapes and sizes. Lots of balloons and Get-well cards also, although the opened ones all had the same hoofwritten signature.
The little patient was lying among this wealth like a dead fish, uncaring and expressionless, staring at the ceiling with the right eye.
The other eye was milky without iris, surrounded by large patches of burned flesh and skin with a thick layer of salve on top.
Diamond Tiara had seen better days.
“Are you here to pile on my misery?” The voice coming out of the small filly was level and composed. “I can’t imagine how it could get any worse, but recent events showed me there is no end to the ways life can just suck.”
Frank had sat on enough barstools in smoke-filled bars to know when somebody wasn’t looking for input and just needed to vent their frustration, so he made himself more comfortable and listened to the existential ramblings of a ten-year-old.
Life can be weird like that.
“The whole apple family is two rooms down the floor, happy and smiling from ear to ear after their orchard just magically puffed back into existence. The orchard I burned down under the great cost of the photogenic side of my face.” Diamond Tiara began to bang the back of her head into the headboard. “But making my efforts pointless wasn’t enough, was it? No, Apple Bloom had to get something extra as well to make it extra insulting.”
Besides the therapeutic value for the little filly, Frank also gained valuable information about the current situation and remained silent.
“Have your mom and dad back, why don’t you? Of course, them being dead and buried for years is no obstacle in making her happy. Could it be any more perfect for precious little Apple Bloom? She’s been reunited with her loving parents, her sister is a national hero and the whole family became stinking rich over night!”
Frank did a deep sigh, the first audible reaction to Diamond’s story and visibly upsetting the child, so he raised his hooves in apology. “Not to sound too uncaring about your blight, but you should be thankful it went this way. It was the best possible outcome.”
Diamond Tiara didn’t throw a tantrum or denied his statement. She gave the towering alicorn a calculating look way beyond her years while she listened to him.
“Let’s ignore for a moment you could have killed an innocent family by burning them alive in their own home.”
A wave of relief washed over Frank as Diamond’s uncaring demeanor cracked for the first time and the smallest of waver resonated in her voice when she interrupted him. “I double checked their whereabouts and the orchard. That’s why I got burned. I stayed too long afterwards to make sure. None of them were even close to home.”
The urge to justify her methods showed Diamond still had a conscience.
“With all due respect , it doesn’t matter how thorough you are,” Frank turned up the sternness in his voice to bring his point across. “There is always room for mistakes and even the smallest error is fatal when you do something so needlessly reckless. You should be smarter than that, but I think you were getting a bit desperate for a win, didn’t you?”
He saw her swallow hard and do the faintest of nods. At least she was willing to listen and that was Frank’s chance to nudge this rivalry into a more healthy direction. “The sad part is, I can point out three reasons from the top of my head that makes this whole operation pointless even if you had succeeded without a hitch.”
Diamond was listening aptly, hanging on every word from his lips. The filly might be sure of herself, but didn’t want to miss out on an opportunity to learn something useful. Or at least what might be considered useful advice from a millennial in his late twenties.
“First of all, the Apple family is still rich beyond imagination, so any damage mostly registers on the emotional level not existential. Unless, you were only going for a slight inconvenience for them with your big stunt.
“Second, Any pony with half a brain will connect you to the crime by looking at your burned face. Even if you weren’t burned, the history you share with Apple Bloom makes you still suspect number one. Somepony with your potential shouldn’t make such obvious mistakes and hide their trail better.
“Third, you got impatient and valued instant gratification over long-term success. Would you really be satisfied with winning like this after such a long time and all the effort you put in so far? With a can of oil and some matchsticks?”
Diamond processed the information and came to the same, frustrating conclusion. She considered herself smarter than average and hindsight was, in her opinion, a necessity for stupid ponies. So it was all the more jarring to have overlooked obvious problems, even if she had been emotionally and mentally drained from her losing streak.
“You are an impressive young lady, too impressive for a blunder at this level. Especially if you take into account that you managed to score a victory today.” Frank almost broke out into laughter from the incredulous look on Diamond’s face. “Apple Bloom’s parents came back with the orchard. The orchard you burned, ergo…”
The penny dropped for Diamond Tiara. “Her parents wouldn’t be back without me…”
“Exactly. Apple Bloom owes you her happiness and this will be the tiny little sting of discomfort in the back of her head every time she thinks about today.” Frank picked up the little filly like a puppy, holding her in his outstretched hooves to get them both on the same eye level. “Granted, it’s not much of a victory, but a small miracle if you consider the starting point.”
He turned Diamond Tiara from left to right to get a better look at both sides of her face. “And you get to look cool as a bonus.”
“I do?”
Frank gave Diamond Tiara a nuzzle on her snout and got a giggle out of the little filly. “Totally, really badass.”
The sound of packages hitting the ground filled the room. Diamond’s father stood in the open door with presents lying to his hooves and a face paler than a bedsheet. It wasn’t hard to figure out why when you considered that Frank had his little filly in his grasp and barely a few inches from his face.
“Yes, daddy?” Diamond asked, being put back down on the mattress by the alicorn.
He was smart enough to read the room and not ask questions. “Your mother managed to get an appointment with a doctor from Manehattan.”
Diamond Tiara sighed. “Let me guess, Mom thinks the backwater quacks of Ponyville are talking nonsense after telling her my eye is beyond saving?”
“She might not show it much but your mother cares, Diamond.”
“Yeah sure…” Diamond turned to Frank with a bored expression. “Are we done here?”
Filthy Rich did a sharp intake of air from the rudeness of his daughter and Frank smiled. “Yeah, we are you little fire starter. Remember, be smart and don’t succumb to your baser instincts. For a victory to matter it’s just as important how you win.”
With those parting words, Diamond Tiara and her father were gone, off to find a treatment for something only her parents bothered. He couldn’t fathom taking the loss of an eye half as well as this tough as nails ten-year-old. The little mastermind would turn into a very scary adult.
“That speech was quite enlightening.”
Frank turned his attention to the remaining patient in the room. Chrysalis had changed position while he wasn’t looking, leaning against the headboard with her frontlegs crossed behind her head and acting casual, despite the obvious nervousness she was feeling under his attention.
If Frank noticed, he wasn’t showing it and pulled up a chair, sitting down at her bedside. “You think so? Most of the time I just babble out what comes to mind.” For a fraction of a second Chrysalis had the urge to pull back from the proximity of the large pony, but then calmed from the outpour of positive emotions. “How are you feeling, Ms. Glamour?”
“Better,” she suppressed a sigh of content, trying not to show how cozy the alicorn made her by sitting close. “I am sorry for vomiting on you.”
Frank tapped a pink spot on his chest with a smile. “Think nothing about it. Believe me, it wasn’t even the worst liquid I was subjected to in the last week. Ever had half your face submerged in bacon grease? A very vile combination with malt liquor.”
Chrysalis could have gone for a stiff drink to calm her nerves. Even though food and drink as a whole did nothing for changelings, Las Pegasus had helped her to develop a taste for the mind-numbing poisons ponies willingly ingested.
“Let me get a doctor to take a look at you, Ms. Glamour. It’s unnecessary to keep you from the festivities longer than needed.”
The changeling queen felt the presence beside her leave before she saw it, the aura of warmth dimming like the last rays of a setting sun. Her time to use this opportunity was running out with every step of Frank towards that door and desperation overrode every ingrained instinct of her infiltrator heritage.
She was about to do something incredibly stupid.
“What is your name?”
Frank stopped with his hoof on the door handle and turned with a worried expression. “Did you hit your head when you fainted? Without trying to sound conceited, you should know who I am…”
No matter how much she agonized over her strategy, Chrysalis couldn’t come up with something that worked with her usual bag of tricks. She didn’t have the time nor the resources to enact a complex infiltration. Quick mind manipulation was out due to the other princesses and most of all Sunset Shimmer noticing instantly. Let alone the fact she wasn’t sure if it would work on a being that was powerful enough to make other alicorns at will.
“I would like to know your real name. Not the name of the pony you pretend to be.” Chrysalis closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable, hearing heavy hoofsteps getting closer. They stopped by her bedside, followed by the sound of wooden legs scratching over the floor.
Frank had pulled up the chair closer and was sitting in it again. “What makes you so sure I am an imposter?”
Chrysalis changed into her real form in a cloud of green flame. Instead of the sparkling sapphire blue mare with top model measurements, a significantly larger and more feral looking creature occupied the bed now. Queen Chrysalis was an imposing figure, but never considered herself a candidate for the multicoloured and sugary beauty standard of ponykind.
“It takes one to know one.” She took a hole-riddled front leg and did a dramatic flip with her ratty, dark cerulean mane.
This was the moment Chrysalis learned that Frank had a legendary poker face. If not for her empathic powers of sensing emotion, you would have thought she had showed him the favourite piece of her post stamp collection. No change of expression, no movement, no nothing to indicate the mental fireworks going off inside the white alicorn. “That’s pretty reckless of you. Why would you risk everything by revealing yourself to me?”
The curious and non-confrontational tone soothed her immediate worries. She felt like the gamble had already paid off by gaining attention that wasn’t completely negative from the getgo. The next step entailed to gain favor with this new party.
“I’m here to warn you. Celestia is coming.”
The composed mask of Frank broke with a slight eye twitch, an unnoticeable sign for most ponies but a humongous tell for Chrysalis. She had just dropped a bombshell on him and his mind and heart were struggling to compensate.
“Sunset Shimmer?” Frank asked, looking at the closed door to the corridor.
Chrysalis mouth went dry from anxiety. The next few moments would decide everything.
“She is in the know, but acts independently. Celestia has only Princess Cadence and Prince Shining Armor on her side.”
After another silent pause, Frank clicked with his tongue and took a deep breath. “And you are warning me out of the goodness of your heart? Or do you expect something from me in return?”
Chrysalis nodded and Frank had no illusion which question she had affirmed. “You are very straightforward and open for a changeling. I expected more subterfuge and cunning to be honest.”
She had to agree. From any perspective, this was stupid, impulsive and unprofessional for an expert in infiltration. In any other circumstance, it would have been safer to bank on the silent agreement with Sunset Shimmer and wait with her approach. The one circumstance being four other alicorns, soon to be five and a former one as extra to deal with as obstacles to her plans.
Fortune favored the bold. “I have nothing left to lose. Anything beats living like a fugitive, scraping meager meals out of unsuspecting ponies.”
“You are hungry?”
“A... Always!” Chrysalis answered honestly. Her earlier throw-up of liquid love drained a huge part of her reserves and she felt the agonizing hunger pains build up again.
“Then have a nibble on my treat.” Frank leaned into his chair, “I don’t like to discuss things on an empty stomach.”
The clear invitation to feed on him flabbergasted the queen. She couldn’t think of a single instance in recorded history where a pony voluntarily let their love drained from a revealed changeling.
Naturally Chrysalis was hesitant to just go for the throat to Frank’s clear amusement. “Why are you getting shy? I won’t bite if you don’t. I don’t think you are stupid enough to suck me dry with four alicorns waiting outside.”
Chrysalis deduced her meal ticket was unaware of its infinite amount of love among other things. So far she wasn’t getting the impression of an omnipotent being, but a moderately competent schemer playing well with the cards that have been dealt.
Frank watched with interest as the bug pony monarch opened her mouth wide to show her massive fangs and snake like tongue. For a second he was dreading to actually getting nibbled by those chompers and felt relieved when a pink stream materialized from his chest to her maw.
It started out thin as a noodle, steadily gaining thickness and becoming more vibrant as the seconds passed. Chrysalis soon began to sweat under the staggering amount. She was full, so full to be close to bursting, but couldn’t stop from taking and Frank from giving. Panic gripped her swelling heart as dark thoughts about this situation entered her mind.
Maybe the imposter wasn’t unaware how limitless his love was? Maybe he knew what would happen if someone would take too much too greedily? Maybe she was about to die like a mosquito overfilled with blood?
Chrysalis cried bitter tears and waited for the inevitable pop, when a sudden weight on her head commanded attention.
Frank had a hoof on her mane, gently stroking along the hairline. “Do I taste that bad? You don’t like your enjoying the meal.”
The innocent question almost made her laugh, a difficult task with your jaw unhinged like a cobra. The freely given love she tasted right now was the most amazing thing she ever got to experience.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better last meal,” Chrysalis thought melancholic but without bitterness, ceasing her struggle and letting the inevitable happen. “I’m lucky to get such a gentle executioner.”
It began with a crack.
All around her body, the black chitin carapace burst open to reveal a pink glow underneath. Her eyes turned to spotlights, brightening the room in the same color. Her mane and tail began to smolder like ember, spreading the heat over her whole body. The last thing Chrysalis witnessed before everything went white, was her own silent scream as she burst into flame.
“Does that always happen?”
Changelings had no clear beliefs of an afterlife, but getting asked stupid questions as the first thing after dying had no part in it. Sight returned to the changeling queen in murky silhouettes, the most prominent of all was the white blob leaned over her still form. The edges went sharper and sharper, until she stared into the anxious face of Frank.
“I’m not dead…”
“Yeah, you’re not,” Frank sank back into his chair, visibly relieved about her wellbeing. “But you gave yourself one hell of a fairy tale makeover.”
Chrysalis raised her frontlegs to look at them and went wide-eyed from the new color. Frantically, she rolled to the left side of her bed to grab for anything with a reflective surface. She found a metallic bedpan and held it in front of her to look.
“Did I do that?” Frank asked while Chrysalis was still busy scrutinizing herself. “If so, I hope you don’t mind your new look.”
“I’m afraid, beings who change their appearance at will have different standards for identity than appearance,” Chrysalis explained in a deadpan tone and showed as much by simply turning back into her old bug self.
She was more concerned with her inner values and liked the fact her magic was still working as intended. A few more disguises of random ponies happened in rapid succession to test her abilities and they were executed flawlessly.
Better yet, Chrysalis felt several magnitudes more powerful than ever before and noticed with mirth that the always present emptiness was gone for good. With a flash of green, she was back in her new form and her eyes travelled to the nightstand. The father of that annoying kid had left a lot of get-well presents for his offspring and one of them raised the interest of the queen.
A large basket of fruit.
She grabbed randomly for the first thing in reach, a ripe banana, and shoved it down her throat along with the peel. A few cautious chews later, her eyes lit up in delight once her tastebuds reached the mushy innards of the fruit. Food usually tasted like ash and had no value for changelings, but this new deliciousness set off all the right signals in her brain. She hurriedly took more, one kind in each hoof, devouring an apple and green grapes.
Frank watched in amusement at the changeling munching away with big hamster cheeks. His approaching hoof for pets was stopped by a loud hiss that sounded like a mixture between cat and snake. She might look more friendly, but through the hiss he noticed the large fangs were still there, ready to bite his hoof off for touching her precious fruit.
The white hoof slowly inched away from her face, towards her chest and began rubbing the ridiculously soft chest fluff in a soothing manner. ”It’s all yours. Nobody will take it from you.”
The tender administration recovered Chrysalis from her food frenzy, juice dripping from her chin as love kept seeping into her from Frank, further increasing her staggering amount of magical energy. The old ways of feeding were still open to her and then some as other emotions like happiness, hope, confidence and even pride joined the stream into her essence.
The implications were already massive enough without the bombshell which was to happen next.
The pegasi responsible for putting out the fire over Sweet Apple Acres started their next assignment to move the clouds above the hospital. Chrysalis felt a weird tingle from her translucent wings as they were hit with the first rays from the window and marveled at the feeling of being energized by the emerging sunlight.
Chrysalis had turned into an omnivore in the most literal sense. She could eat everything!
Frank felt the vibrations running through her body as Chrysalis took his hoof while buzzing like a honeybee from happiness. “Please, what is your name?”
The sudden intensity and closeness of this pony-fairy-bug overwhelmed Frank, especially in how beautiful this weird combination had turned out. The changeling queen might look like she would be right at home in a Disney movie, but the overall aggressive and demanding behaviour has not changed one bit.
“Frank… just Frank is alright…” He was aware of the small stutters in his voice and tried to hide his embarrassment with a cough.
“Frank…” She said slowly, tasting every letter of his name on her tongue like a fine dish. “A masculine name?” Frank nodded at the obvious shot in the dark and earned himself a smile and a lick of her lips for it before she continued. “Mr. Frank, what you did today won’t be forgotten. Believe me!”
“That’s nice…” Frank believed alright, although the wording sounded a bit ominous. “Listen, I have to get back to Luna and the others, but feel free to pay us a visit later on the airship for beer and burgers. The meaty kind, not the fake hay stuff.”
Barbecue and grilled meat in general had always been Frank’s comfort food and he desperately needed some comfort after today. Nothing fancy, just something firm and juicy to wash down with a few beers on a hot summer day.
“You want me there?” She asked with big bedroom eyes, still clinging to his hoof and turning up the flirting. The promising reaction to her close proximity were clear as day and all the more frustrating when the fidgeting shut down the second she was doing it on purpose.
“Of course, you were always one of my favourites.” The tone was friendly enough but his confident mask was back on, showing Chrysalis the experience Frank must have had with people who tried manipulating him with affection.
The sour aftertaste his emotions developed felt like biting into a lemon and Chrysalis wouldn’t let this blunder fester any longer. “W... Wait what about Celestia? What will you do?”
The change of topic successfully changed the sour taste from his emotions into a much more pleasing tartness and finish into a creamy, heavy thickness. “I will use my remaining time to its fullest. You should do the same by enjoying the festival.”
The complicated mix was so enticing, she struggled with the urge to lick his face to add a hint of surprise as another emotional seasoning. So many flavours and directions she could experience by poking the right switch. How delicious would actual love for her taste?
Stars above, she shuddered thinking about lust!
“Don’t worry I won’t tell anyone about you.” Frank booped her snoot and made Chrysalis drop his hoof in surprise. “Try to stay away from trouble, okay? I have big plans for the final day.”
Frank stood up and was out of the door before Chrysalis could get out of her stupor. Deep in thought, she rubbed the spot on her nose he just touched and grinned. The big and scheming kind of grin you wear when you realize that you have been granted to a very special inner circle.