It’s a dark stroll you’re taking into the Everfree Forest but it’ll be a quick one. You already pinpointed Angel’s location even before your quest to find him started. Nearing in where Angel is, you shift your vision to thermal with a filter that only shows you living beings. You phase through objects walking towards him such as trees and bushes here and there considering you can only see living beings thermally.
You masked your presence so you won’t need to engage in combat with whatever’s in the Everfree. You clearly can’t get hurt but if it follows you then it can hurt Angel so you’ll have to take care of it before continuing your mission. You can sense that there’s nothing near Angel that’s attacking him so you decided to just take a stroll to him and let the Everfree scare the heck out of him so he won’t run here again. You can also sense he’s afraid and lost but you’ll just let that feeling sink in him while you walk to him. You’re in point blank range from him now but something’s off, something’s… awry.
You were lost in thought before but looking more closely now, there’s a figure a couple meters from Angel beyond some thick shrubbery. It’s not engaging him but what makes it pretty peculiar is that it looks like a pony. What’s a pony doing in the Everfree so late at night, and why’s it look a bit different from one? It’s got the basic form of a pony but it’s larger than one, and it seems there’s holes by its limbs. It’s definitely hostile, though it’s also weak and trembling. Nevertheless, you must get Angel out of the Everfree as quick as possible.
You mute all the sounds you’ll make as to not scare either of them away. You’re in front of Angel now and your shadow makes him turn around shaking. All he sees is a towering figure of darkness looming over him, though his fear sets him still. You take notice of his fear and realized that that probably wasn’t the best approach, though you save your mistake quickly by teleporting behind him and masking the form of Fluttershy. You even have a salad bowl with you as an insurance. You call to him with Fluttershy’s melodic tune and he looks back devoid of worry and full of regretfulness. Looking back and seeing the shadowy figure gone, he doesn’t take his chances and just runs at you. Upon touching the salad bowl, you teleport him to Fluttershy’s house with the salad bowl with a note on it that says
“I’ll come by tomorrow. Prepare the tea, I’ll bring the muffins.
-yours truly, Anon”
With Angel gone, you face the hostile figure near you. You remove any power you’d just used such as the sound masking and the transformation, you’ll have to face this one without any tricks, not like it can hurt you anyway. You make your presence known by some rustling of the bushes but you haven’t said a word. It seems to take notice of your presence. In the very case that it’s a regular pony that’s just lost, you make your sentience known by calling out, “Good evening.”
It’s a tad confused by your remark but knowing that you’re sentient, it immediately comes out of the bushes tackling you to the ground with your arms pinned. With nothing that can harm you, you play along to see where this is going. The long hair indicates to you that the pony is a she. You turn on your night vision to get a more detailed look. With more to see, you can already tell that this is the changeling that Twilight warned you about, Chrysalis. You grabbed a mental picture of Chrysalis from Twilight’s mind when she was talking about her during the double babysit. You can pretty much tell why she’s assaulting you but it’s pretty surprising to you that she’s in the Everfree. You’d thought she’d be in populated places stealing love or something.
Now that you’ve confirmed that since she’s Chrysalis and not some Eldritch abomination, you know that she’s not capable of hurting you one bit so you let things play further along. She has a rather confused but mischievous look on her face. Her nefarious look drops a few seconds later and turns into complete confusion. “Wh-What? That’s… not possible.” she mutters as she faints on your chest.
You could already tell that she’s confused as to why she couldn’t collect love from you. You’d already kept an internal bind into your soul. Remembering that Twilight remarked how changelings eat love, you’d made a seal in you whereas it prevents them from stealing your love. On a higher note, there’s a dying being right in front of you.
You touch her forehead to take a view of what she’s been up to lately. There’s… not much. She’d mostly been wandering in the Everfree and she hasn’t eaten in a long while. She’s starving and fighting off some beasts from the Everfree only made her weaker and bruised. That definitely explains why she fainted, she’s spent. Removing your hand from her forehead, you notice that she’s burning up. She’s suffering, but what are you gonna do about it?
Welp, she’s not capable of harming anyone so you might as well help her out. You don’t like the idea of the evils she’d done before but that was then and this is now. For all you know, she’s probably regretted all that and she’s just eating love out of necessity. In the very case that she attacks someone again, you make an alarm wherein you’d be mentally notified if someone gets attacked by her again. You’d just pop up and take care of her when the occasion arises. For now, you can’t let her suffer like this, no one deserves treatment like this. In the very case that she does deserve this, well… it’s time to see how much she’s changed first.
You pick her up as you stand from the ground. You’re carrying her princess-style now as she’s dozed off on your shoulder. Her slumber isn’t going well. She has a face of pain as she moves around in your arms. This is bad, she’s having a nightmare and she’s physically deprived. She really doesn’t have it going for her does she? It’s a rare encounter you had with her but you’ll make the most of it by returning her to her normal condition.
With a snap of your fingers you’re back in your home. You quickly lay her down on your comfy bed and prepare a set of medical equipment to aid her. You put a warm blanket over her, a wet towel on her forehead, some menthol rub by her chest, the works. She’s at least stopped fidgeting around but she still has that pained look on her face. That’s about all you can do for now. Though you can just make her sickness go away, there’s no better care than TLC (Tender Loving Care). Besides, despite your capacity to just make problems go away, it means more to you and to others if you take the time to manually fix them.
You take a Japanese style sitting position as you take your fair share of rest. You’re going to sleep now as you wait for her to wake up so you can take care of her more hours from now. After all there’s some things that you can’t help her with while she’s asleep such as eating. In the very case that she tries to escape, the other you still manning the bar downstairs will take care of her so she stays to finish her full recovery.
The morning light pierces your closed eyes as it awakens you from your slumber. You do a quick scan and your other you is still at the counter resting. Telepathically, you speak with him. “Hey other me?”
“Yes, other me?” he replies instantly already expecting you to speak with him at this hour.
“It’s almost that time of the day, opening time. Keep the diner running will ya? I’ll be busy today.” you request hoping to aid Chrysalis for the most part of the morning.
“Will do, other me.”
“And don’t for-“
“Forget about Pinkie, her breakfast is already being made.” other you cuts you off knowing the rest of your thoughts.
“Thanks, other me” you gratefully praise.
“No worries, take care of her well.”
“Will do, other me.”
That’s all that’s said as you focus on your task at hand. You get up and make your way to Chrysalis to check on her temperature. She’s still still burning up. You’d pull up the blinds so she would sweat more but that’d ruin her sleep, so you refrain from doing so for now. At the very least she looks peaceful while she’s sleeping. Letting her get some more rest, you make your way down to the kitchen to make her a proper meal.
Walking down the stairs, you hear a strong stream of air and the ring of a bell. It must be 6 AM already.
Reaching the tiles of the first floor, you see Pinkie by the counter with the other you. “Good morning to you two.” you greet hastily making your way to the kitchen.
Pinkie doesn’t seem to be confused with your powers anymore as she takes it as normal at this point. “Good morning, other Anon. Care to join us for some breakfast.” she greets back.
“Actually, I’m the original Anon. Isn’t that right, other me?” you ask.
“That’s right, other me.” your clone confirms.
With a smirk on your face, you remark on Pinkie’s offer, “I don’t need to eat, Pinkie. Besides, I’m pretty busy right now.”
“Oooooh, what is it? I bet it’s interesting.” Pinkie peers in curiously at you from the counter.
“It sure is, I gotta take care of something upstairs. Though it’s also rather… secretive.” you evasively give an excuse to keep Chrysalis’ presence a secret.
Pinkie’s eyes sparkle at that, “I like secrets, and I sure can keep one too.”
“I know Pinkie, but not this one.”
“We’ll see about that.” Pinkie dares as she makes a mad comical dash for the stairs.
She tries to no avail as she slams into an invisible wall by the stairs’ entrance.
She’s dazed but she’s not hurt so you just give her little attempt a chuckle as you pat her on the head. “Enjoy your meal, Pinkie.” you say as you finally make your way to the kitchen to make Chrysalis some breakfast.
Once inside, you ponder as to what you’ll cook up for your patient. Perhaps some milk and honey oatmeal with honey ginger tea will do her some good to start the day up.
In a few minutes her breakfast is perfectly prepared and on a tray. You teleport yourself and the meal upstairs as to not confuse your customers right outside since the other you is still there working his shift.
You peer in your room only to find Chrysalis shifting around your bed as she starts to wake up. Perfect, you got here just in time.
She’s probably confused about her current situation. The situation is so well-aligned that you deviously decide to take advantage of her confusion. Entering the room with her meal you put up a warm smile and greet to her, “Good morning my snuggle bug, how’d you sleep last night? I couldn’t sleep though, hugging you in bed just kept my heart racing.”
She’s even more confused now as a mad blush takes over her face. You simply lay her breakfast beside her and pull the blinds open so the sunlight can come in. Her shocked trance was only disrupted by the piercing rays of light as she uses her hoof to cover her eyes. Noticing her massive confusion, you decide to keep the ball rolling. “What’s the matter, honey? Do you need a hug to calm your nerves?” you offer as you take a seat by the bedside and open your arms. She flinches back at your gesture and moves a little further away from you. Inches later she collapses back down into the sheets of the bed as her body is too weak to move any further.
You decide to drop the act chuckling and let her mind ease up with the facts. “Hehehe, sorry sorry. I thought it’d be quite entertaining to beat around the bush for a moment, and it was. You’re Chrysalis, I presume?”
She doesn’t respond to that, she’s only glaring at you fiercely as she remembers the events of the night before. Seeing that you’re not attacking her, she doesn’t engage in attacking you as she remembered she can’t take your love for some reason, though she still puts her guard up. She still treats you coldly but at least she doesn’t see you as a threat. “I have to go.” she sternly says in a cold manner as she makes a dash for the door.
You’d chase her down but instead opt to just look at her as each step she takes is slower than the last. That must’ve taken what little strength she had left just to do that as she’s laying on the floor devoid of energy to do anything.
Seeing her sorry state, you stand up from the bedside and slowly stride towards her. Once you’re above her, you kneel down to lock her into a warm embrace with her back towards you. “You’re too weak to use your magic and moreover even move. You don’t have the strength to even leave here.” you whisper calmly in the hopes of easing her will to leave.
You can feel a stream of a tear or two land on your arms as you grasp her tightly. Here it is, the fall of the mighty. Her realization of how weak she’s become was only confirmed once you’d made mention of it as it was already a thought that’s been on her head for a while. She feels helpless right now, and you’ll do what you can to bring her back in shape.
“Stay.” you softly suggest.
“...no.” she manages to mutter between tears.
“Just until you recover.”
“No.”
“Please?”
“No.”
“Pretty please for me times three?”
“No.”
Chrysalis is atop your bed again with eyes dry. Though she hasn’t said a word since your pleading and she’s looking the other way in a stern manner, she’s at least decided to stay for now, though it’s not like she could leave anyway. It’s pretty silent but not awkward so you decide to step in and start up a conversation to get her to eat before the food gets cold. “So why’d you assault me last night?” you ask already knowing the answer.
“I was hungry.” she coldly says still looking away from you.
“Well, here’s some food. It’s pretty good food too.”
“I eat love.”
“It’s your favorite meal.”
“My favorite meal is love.”
“Hmmm… this was made with love.” you seem to be going with this the right direction as you see her agitating a bit.
She just glares at you from your last statement so you decide to continue, “Well then, I… love you.” you joke around as Chrysalis blushes wildly still averting her gaze from you.
“If I eat this, will you stop bugging me?” she asks now looking at you though hiding her face behind her hair.
“No but you’ll feel better if you do.”
She hesitates for a second before finally conceding, “...Fine.”
She’d take the tray with her magic, but as said, she’s too weak to use it. Noticing her incapacity to help herself, you carry the tray and work your way to the other side of the bed. She scurries back a bit away from you as she asks, “W-What are you doing?”
“Well you can’t use magic and you’re too weak to grab the spoon so… I guess I’ll… feed you?” you explain. Though you’re still confused by how ponies eat liquid foods such as soup with spoons.
“No.” she commands with conviction.
You know she’s really hungry but can’t find a way to eat without spilling the meal all over so you follow through with what she wants to see what she does next. “Alright then, I gotta see a pony about a thing so good luck with that.”
“Wait!” she pleads stopping you from leaving the door.
“Hmm?”
“F-Fine, help me.”
“You gotta be nicer than that.”
“P-Pl-Please” she manages to mutter with gritted teeth.
“Aww, you’re so cute when you try to be nice.” you coo as you teleport beside her and give her a flurry of huggy wuggies.
“Alright, alright, now get off me.” she demands annoyed. At the very least she’s come to accept your kindness even if she’s a bit reluctant about it.
“Sure thing. Here, say ‘ahhhh’.” you request taking a scoop from the thankfully still warm honey oatmeal.
Her coat is practically red right now as she hides behind her hair even more. She already dislikes but still tolerates you feeding her, but she absolutely despises the way you’re feeding her. Still, she knows she can’t do anything but accept your peculiar kindness. She opens her mouth sadly without the comically cute ‘ahhh’ sound, but if she stays with you then you hope she’ll let up someday. Placing the spoon in her mouth, her eyes light up into a sparkle as she takes in the whole serving immediately. It’s clear that she extremely enjoyed your breakfast. You’re pretty sure that she’s never had anything like this before.
In a few minutes, you’re done feeding her breakfast. She especially enjoyed the honey ginger tea as well. She’s filled up well and feels pretty drowsy for now. You teleport the dishes downstairs, close the blinds, and pull up the blankets for her. Her eyelids are closing now and she’s almost asleep as she gets comfy. She’s definitely too tired and satisfied right now to realize that she’s dropping her serious persona.
It’s about 7 AM in the morning now and you need to make your way to Fluttershy to speak with her as you let Chrysalis get more of her rest. You’re already fairly certain that she won’t try to escape, and other you will make sure she won’t even if she could. At the foot of the door, you hear Chrysalis speak up. “Wait.”
“Yes?” you curiously ask.
“Wh-What’s your name?”
“It’s Anonymous, but you can call me Anon.” you honestly answer her.
“Well then… th-thank you, Anon.”
That’s a very good sign for you. Perhaps she’s not unaware of getting lenient after all. Is she getting softer even if it’s only to an average level? It doesn’t matter, it’s still a pretty good sign. You put a smile on your face and say, “Get some rest, Chrysalis.”
Fluttershy’s cottage is now within your view and so is she it seems. It looks like she’s just about done feeding her animals some breakfast as she feeds some seeds to a variety of birds.
Finishing her job, she bids her birds goodbye kindly and turns towards her front door. Though she stops in the middle of her rotation as she notices your presence. “Oh my. You’re quite early, Anon.”
“My bad, I should’ve given you a time in my note last night.” you apologize feeling embarrassed.
“No no, it’s alright. You’re just in time. Please, come in.” she offers opening the door and gesturing you inside.
You give her a nod as you swiftly enter inside and make yourself comfortable on her sofa. Fluttershy seems to have flew into the kitchen while you’re looking around her cottage. There’s all sorts of animals but they all appear to be eating at the moment, though a few of them give you the occasional wave and smile as you passed them by.
Fluttershy soon comes back with a tray that has two teacups and a teapot on it complimented with some condiments such as sugar. You get up to help her take the tray to the coffee so she won’t have to do much effort to tend to you. You’re her guest, but she and her friends have already done a lot for you even if you didn’t need her help.
“Why thank you, Anon.” she says wholeheartedly. “Why’d you want to meet up today? I didn’t get a chance last night to find out.” she continues curiously as she takes her seat by the couch.
“Well,” you try to bundle your thoughts together while taking your seat yourself beside Fluttershy as you put the tray down and summon an assortment of muffins. “It’s been a while and I figured it just about time that we got to know each other more. If… that’s okay with you.”
“That’s really sweet of you, Anon, but aren’t you busy with your diner?”
“I’m busy with something else, actually...” you pause as your mind drifts back to Chrysalis for a bit. “But it can wait.”
You can’t take the silence that’s quickly building up so you decide to be courteous, “So uhhh… how do you like your tea?”
“Oh, thank you, a-and I’d like some honey and a lemon please.”
Immediately, you make her brew the way she likes it while making yours as well just how you like it, plain.
While trying to perfect her tea, she asks, “So, ummm… what happened last night?”
“Nothing much. Just a stroll into the forest and I found Angel.” you shrug lightly, though Fluttershy takes your action the previous night as very brave.
“Th-Thank you for helping me find him,” she blushes a bit and hides behind a couple strands of hair. “Thank Celestia neither of you got hurt, I-I just didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t do anything.” she’s tearing up now.
This definitely wasn’t her fault though. So you pat her by the withers and console her, “It’s not your fault, Fluttershy. Even so, you did something, you called me.”
You pull her into a tight hug and run your fingers through her scalp to make her feel better. “Thank you, Anon. Thank you.” she returns as you dry her tears and fix her mane a bit to which she giggles.
“By the way, where’s Angel?”
“He’s still sleeping since last night, he came back confused and shaking in fear. Thankfully, I calmed him down after a while.” she explains.
“Well, at least he won’t be running to the Everfree anytime soon.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” she says while you give her her tea.
She takes a sip just as you do and you ask, “So, what do you usually do from day to day?”
A long conversation is then traded between you and Fluttershy. She talked mostly about her life and the things she’s done with her friends and most of her opinions, you on the other hand talked about your old world and your life in Equestria since you’d arrived. She was glad to hear that you’ve been making new friends though. You found out that she and Discord occasionally have tea time just like you are with her now. You might visit her soon to meet him or to get to know more about him.
It’s almost noon so you decide to end your conversation already right after your zinger, “And so I said, ‘That’s not a pony, that’s my wife.’”
That real humdinger got both of you gasping for air as you both laugh until you wheeze.
Calming yourself down, you close your conversation, “Well then Fluttershy, I think it’s time I take my leave.”
“I had a nice time, Anon. I hope we can have more of this soon. It reminds me of when I’m with Discord.” she thanks you while getting up to show you out the door.
“I surely will, Fluttershy. I had a nice time too and hopefully Discord will be here the next time I can come.”
“I’m sure you’ll both like each other a lot.”
You sure hope so too. “That’s that I suppose. Here Fluttershy, have a nice lunch.” you say as you hand her a bowl of magnificently crafted salad. You also summon up lunch for every other animal she takes care of so she can have her fair share of rest. She’s probably tired from your hours of conversation and you had a very nice time so doing her a simple favor seems to be alright in your book.
“Thank you again, Anon. This really means a lot.” she says as she gives you a warm hug.
You pull away from her embrace and look at her from your tall stance. “Alright, I really better get going. Someone needs my attention.”
Fluttershy blushes a bit as she misunderstood your statement but brushes it off realizing that you probably meant something else. “Goodbye, Anon.”
“See you soon.” you wave her goodbye as your back is already turned to her while you’re walking away. She lightly closes the door to her cottage.
You sense a disturbance in the force as you scan the area in Fluttershy’s cottage. Well then, it seems she’s giving the salad you gave her to Angel and gets an ordinary salad for herself instead. She’s a real sweetheart. You summon up a vegetarian pizza on her coffee table with another note on it that says, “You’re too kind, have this instead.”
Fluttershy notices the pizza and the note on her coffee table and a smile can’t help but be formed on her muzzle. She just takes a seat once more on her couch as she grabs a slice and takes a bite out of it. That puts a smile on your face as you make your way back to the diner to make some lunch for Chrysalis.
It doesn’t take a while for you to get back to your diner. You still teleported yourself into the kitchen despite there being few customers.
You’re walking upstairs now with Chrysalis’ lunch in hand on a tray. It’s vegetarian Pho soup with Fensi and Jasmine rice. You figured some iced tea would go well to compensate the hot broth. You also made one for yourself so you can eat with her, it’ll definitely be less awkward that way and you’re pretty hungry yourself.
You decide to peer in the room secretively before just busting in and announcing yourself. To your surprise, she’s already up and moving about which is a good thing. What you didn’t expect though is how she’s snooping around your place, not that you really mind. She’s your injured guest that you consentingly brought here so your home is her home.
It looks like she’s taking notice of a framed picture placed on a table across your room. It’s the one that Twilight took of you, Pinkie, the Cake twins, and Flurry Heart. She’s blushing from the sight of it, probably because it looks like you have a family with Pinkie. You’ll keep that in mind for now, you can already think of multiple plausible situations with that knowledge that you can exploit to make Chrysalis be embarrassed, though that’s a tale for another time.
You simply teleport to the large bed silently and break her immersion by saying, “Making yourself at home I see.”
She flinches in surprise from your sudden statement. “I-I didn’t hear you come in.” she stutters disregarding the fact that she’d been snooping around.
“I know, now come on. It’s lunch time already.”
“I can eat by myself now.” she tells as she moves around a bit to prove herself right.
“I know that too, but no place better to eat than on the bed. Come on.” you gesture as you pat the large space beside you.
She gives you a bit of a pout as she banters, “I-It’s not like I wanted you to feed me or anything.”
She really is a real tug on the heartstrings, just misunderstood and badly treated. You’re fairly certain that in time she can be good as well. “Whatever you say, Chrys.”
She joyfully smiles a bit at that, though she averts her gaze from you and hides behind her hair to mask her expression. She hastily gets up on the bed next to you and takes her meal.
You’re both eating now. She, on the other hand, is exhilarated by your cooking. Her eyes shone up just like earlier this morning and she’s gorging the whole bowl now. You’ve barely touched your bowl and she’s already done with hers. Courteously, you give her your bowl of food, you don’t really need to eat anyway.
She reluctantly takes it before asking, “Why? Why are you helping me?”
She still seems to be cautious around you, though that’s fair enough coming from her context. “No one deserves to get what you got, except for an unforgivable few of course. I didn’t sense that from you. You seemed… redeemable.”
“You didn’t know that. What if I turn on you and attack those you love?”
“You won’t,”
“But what if I do?”
“You won’t.”
“But wh-“
You quickly turn to her and grasp her firmly by the withers. “Chrys. You won’t.”
You pull her into a tight hug and say, “I… I know what it’s like to be in your place. To be alone, helpless, and afraid. Afraid of what happens next because the world is out to get you. Whether or not you admit that… those are he facts. But you don’t have to be afraid anymore. I’m here, and well… I guess you’re not alone anymore. No one else may see redemption in you, but I do. We’ll get through things together from now on.”
Anon can feel multiple wet streams dripping on his back now. Chrysalis knows he’s right. She’s got nowhere to go and no one to help her. She could run away but she knows she’ll just end up like how Anon first found her. It won’t take long but she’ll be homeless, hungry, alone, and hurt again. She doesn’t want that anymore, even if it means she has to change just to avoid that.
As much as she wants that, she figured Anon wouldn’t let her stay with him. Though hearing Anon say that just puts her into a state of confusion, “W-What do you mean?” Chrysalis asks between streams of tears.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is… you can stay here if you’d like.”
Chrysalis strongly returns the hug and her tears turn not into ones sadness but rather ones of joy. She can’t believe what she’s hearing, no ones ever shown such kindness to her.
You’re just stroking her mane now to comfort her while you gasp for air.
After a while, Chrysalis pulls back gently and looks at you reluctantly in the eye. “Th… Th-h-h… Th-Th-“
“Thank you?” you interrupt as you see her struggle.
“Yes.” she shyly says.
Looks like she’s got a long way to go, but seeing how she is now you can tell that she’s already passed multiple milestones on her reformation.
“Alright, I better check up on my work downstairs. That broth is getting cold so eat up. See you later, Chrys.”
“Bye.” she returns.
She’s pretty healthy right now and extra giddy giddy. She’s not starving right now and probably won’t be for a while. Maybe she’s not full because of the good food but rather because of the love that she feels for Anon? That’s a feeling she doesn’t understand yet, a feeling she’ll keep deep in her heart for now. All she knows is that she feels warm and fuzzy inside around him, but she doesn’t know why.