“UNBELIEVABLE!”
Chrysalis pauses before continuing, her focus trained on Tirek. She waves a forehoof at Cozy Glow: “Her, I could believe falling for such sap; she’s just a stupid foal, but YOU … you’re TIREK, one of the greatest foes to all of ponykind! For YOU to get all sentimental …”
The former changeling queen suppresses another gag reflex.
“It’s like I told him,” Cozy Glow states, “Pinkie Pie can be very persuasive.”
“Oh, put a plug in that muzzle!” Chrysalis snaps back.
“Whoa, calm down now, everycreature,” Pinkie requests, drawing dagger-stares from Chrysalis.
“What are you doing back here, anyway?” Tirek asks, his composure finally regained.
Chrysalis groans. “The pink ball of crazy was correct … no changelings at the hive, no ponies on the ground … no nothing on the ground, in the air, or anywhere. It seems as though I have nowhere else to turn.”
“Nowhere else to …” A realization hits Cozy Glow: “You came back to drain our lifeforce!”
“Again, find a plug!” Chrysalis reiterates. “Yes, I thought about that … but you and Tirek combined wouldn’t last me a day, and I doubt I’d get much more from that delusional pony. Maybe a week … not that I even know what a week is anymore,” she adds, glancing up at the sky.
“Then I don’t understand,” Tirek says. “Why did you return?”
Chrysalis lets out a cry of anguish. “FINE … if it will undo whatever it is you or anyone else has done …” She turns to Pinkie, swallows, and bows her head: “I humbly accept your apology.”
…
“… Why isn’t anything happening?”
Pinkie replies to Chrysalis’s query: “It doesn’t work like that. You have to really mean it.”
“BUT I DON’T MEAN IT!” Chrysalis rages. “You break me out of that stone prison just to watch me wither and die, and I’m supposed to be grateful to you for that?”
“Easy, Chrysalis, we just have to—”
“ENOUGH OF YOUR INCESSANT BLATHER!” Chrysalis takes several paces around the courtyard, stops, and sighs. “So this will be how it ends for me … not with a bang, but with a sad, sorry whisper …”
Pinkie takes several steps closer to the changeling, careful to keep a respectful distance. “It’s never too late for true redemption,” she starts. “Take Discord …”
“Do NOT compare me to the likes of that bumbling oaf!”
“Well, what about Starlight?” Chrysalis’s icy stare causes a quick backtrack: “Got it, no comparisons. But that doesn’t mean you can’t change!”
“I’ve drained the lifeforce out of kittens,” Chrysalis admits while staring at the ground.
“OK, bad optics there … maybe we need to see where all this began. What were you like when you were young?”
“I was never ‘young’,” Chrysalis answers.
“Wait, you never had a childhood?” Pinkie exclaims. “That’s awful … so you never went to school, or had classmates, or birthday parties.”
Chrysalis looks up in disgust. “Do you have anything to offer besides more bile?” she tiredly asks.
“My point is, many aspects of friendship are built in your early years … and you never had any! See, now there’s a starting point. You never got to experience friendship at a time when it’s most critical; that’s not your fault!”
Chrysalis looks down at her hooves; she bends over, takes a bite of grass, reaches her head back up and spits it out. “Why don’t grasp some of that along with your straws?” she snidely asks.
Pinkie turns to the others, who each shrug. She turns back towards Chrysalis. “Well, the journey to Canterlot began with a single trot. We just need to find some place as a jumping off point. Let’s start with something pleasant … anything pleasant … that you like. Maybe, the smell of wild flowers?”
Chrysalis rolls her eyes and groans. “You’re wasting your time.”
“She likes cupcakes!”
Pinkie and Chrysalis turn to Cozy Glow. “What was that?” Pinkie asks.
“Well … when Grogar asked us to find common ground …”
“That wasn’t Grogar!” Chrysalis interrupts.
“Whatever,” Cozy replies. “Anyway, I took it upon myself to bring those two together, and Chrysalis agreed to join us when she found out I made cupcakes.”
“That’s incredible,” Pinkie exclaims. “I like cupcakes, too! And see, that’s where we can start!”
“That,” Chrysalis points out, “is an incredible stretch, even for you! But fine, whatever … yes, I like cupcakes. I needed some reason to be coerced into teaming up with those two.”
“We appreciate you too, Queen Chrysalis,” Tirek sarcastically responds.
“Oh, go find a second plug!”
“Hey, hey, hey … calm down, both of you!” Pinkie states in an effort to keep the two foes civil. “It’s not like I can drop any more large cupcakes on you … come to think of it …” She becomes eerily silent for several seconds.
“Now what?” Chrysalis asks.
“Well it’s just that … me and Twilight and the others had a long talk over donuts after our last meeting, and she was talking about that bell you had. Princess Celestia spoke about how well-protected that bell was, so nopony could ever retrieve it. So how did you three pull it off?”
“Oh, I can tell you!” Cozy Glow starts, before Pinkie gently brushes the attempt aside.
“I love your enthusiasm right now, Cozy, but actually, I want Chrysalis to trot me through this.” She turns her attention back to the changeling. “So, in your own words, how’d the three of you do it?”
Chrysalis pauses for reflection. “I remember … allowing Tirek to usurp my lifeforce so he could garner enough strength to break through the force shield put in place by that mage Starswirl. But even them, Tirek only had enough strength to pry a small opening into the cavern; then Cozy Glow rushed in, grabbed the bell, and got out.”
“I see,” Pinkie says, “but how did you get your lifeforce back from Tirek?”
“He … he gave it back, willingly,” Chrysalis concedes.
Pinkie opens her mouth to respond, but Chrysalis quickly snaps back: “DON’T SAY IT!”
“Don’t say what?” Pinkie innocently replies.
“I see what you’re up to. ‘Oh, the Power of Friendship’ …” she turns away from the others and spits. “It’s just like I told those two; friendship is a disease, a virus that infiltrates creatures and makes them weak.”
“And you’re not about weakness at all, are you?” Pinkie replies.
“Might makes right! I never needed anyone else to get to where I was. I took on all who would defy, rose to become queen of all changelings … and I didn’t need ‘friends’ to do it. Everything I had, I earned through effort and cunning. And I did it all on my own!” she proudly concludes. “I did it all, alone!”
“Gee … that is a really sad story.”
“What?” Chrysalis runs up to Pinkie and stares her down. “What do mean by that comment?” Her eyes narrow: “And I suggest you choose your next words … carefully.”
“Well, I mean, all that success and no one else to share it with?”
Chrysalis flashes a quizzical look.
“I joined a buckball team with Fluttershy and Snails, and we were really good. So good that we played in a tournament with some of the best buckball teams in all of Equestria, and we ended up winning. That was such a fun time, but it was only fun because we had so many others sharing the victory. Not just my teammates, but all the fans back in Ponyville, cheering us on during the games, throwing a big celebration for us when we returned … we were all part of that victory. Otherwise, it would have been, I dunno, just something to do to pass the time.”
“Now listen here, Pinkie Pie: just because you need validation for your successes doesn’t mean every other creature in the world needs it! I didn’t need celebrations or parties, or a bunch of phonies leeching off my successes.”
Pinkie Pie giggles, adding to Chrysalis’s ire. “Now what?”
“You called me ‘Pinkie Pie’ just now.”
“So what if I …” Chrysalis pauses for a moment. “That proves nothing.”
“I suppose it doesn’t,” Pinkie agrees. “But let’s continue: you said you earned everything you ever got on your own, right?”
“Everything,” Chrysalis emphasizes.
“And you claim it has everything to do with power, right?”
“All of it! I wielded the power to control the changelings, and together we formed the most formidable army this world had ever seen!”
“And when you imprisoned Princess Cadence and revealed yourself to us during the wedding, you were so strong that you bested Princess Celestia in a show of power.”
“The pinnacle of all my successes!”
“And your army captured me and the other Elements.”
“Another victory …” Chrysalis pauses for a second. “Where are you going with this?”
“Well … then what happened? How come you’re not the ruler of Equestria now?”
Chrysalis grumbles. “Rotten luck!”
Pinkie replies with a sarcastic tone of her own: “Really? That’s the best you can come up with?”
“Silence, foal!”
“The most powerful creature in the world, with the most powerful army, on the verge of total victory, and you lost it all because of bad luck? Come on, Chrysalis, there has got to be more to it than that, right?”
“It was … an unforeseen burst of energy that undid our plans. There was no way we could have—”
“And what about this ‘we’, hmm? You admit that your power came from the other changelings, don’t you?”
“It was my leadership that carried our kind to its heights!” Chrysalis snaps.
“Of course,” Pinkie agrees, “and when the time came that you saw another opportunity, you seized it, didn’t you? When you went after me and Twilight and all the Princesses? That was all you, was it not?”
“Of course it was all me! You think those changeling cogs could have orchestrated anything like that on their own! No … that was all me! We had it all …”
“So again, what happened?”
Seething, Chrysalis walks away from Pinkie; the latter presses on.
“What stopped you then? What stopped you during the wedding? What stopped you the last time our paths crossed? You had all the power, Chrysalis, so why didn’t you succeed?”
“BECAUSE I SCREWED UP, OKAY???”
Chrysalis takes several deep breaths as her declaration grabs the attention of the others. “I’m sorry,” Tirek says, “but could you repeat that?”
“I SCREWED UP! I … I underestimated the power of … the world around me.” She turns to Pinkie. “Is THAT what you wanted to hear?”
“Almost … come on, you can say it …”
“I underestimated …” she says between clenched teeth, “… the power of friendship.”
Tirek and Cozy stare at Chrysalis in dumbfounded silence. “I never thought I’d hear her say that,” Cozy remarks.
“You speak of friendship as a weakness,” Pinkie continues, “but it’s not. It’s a strength. It promotes camaraderie and boosts morale when both are needed most. An army can succeed or fail, but an army equipped with friendship can take on any challenge. You see, Chrysalis … friendship brings power.”
“That’s what I’VE been saying!” Cozy interrupts.
Pinkie turns to Cozy, smiling as she continues: “Ah, but there’s a catch, Cozy Glow: the power that friendship brings is greater than any other, but it only works if that power flows both ways. You must be willing to give all that you receive; then, and only then, can the true power of friendship be unleashed.”
Cozy ponders Pinkie’s words as Chrysalis silently broods.
“Chrysalis, you were so close to defeating us … you and Tirek and Cozy … but how did you ever get that close in the first place. How did you retrieve that bell? How did you even know what to do with it? …” Pinkie pauses for a moment. “Actually, how did you know what to do with it?”
“We … may have used one of your pony celebrations as a backdrop,” Chrysalis confesses.
“Does that mean what I think it does?”
“We worked together … you made your point, Pinkie Pie, but so what? I’ve taken so much from this world, done such deeds, to no avail. There is no place in a world such as this for one such as myself. This whole thing was just an exercise in futility,” she dejectedly concludes.
“It’s funny … every time you start to see it, you lose it again.”
The last remnants of anger now gone, Chrysalis turns to Pinkie. “What are you going on about now?”
“You think noccreature wants anything to do with you, but they don’t know the you now; they only know the you then. If the you now has changed, there’ll be a place for that you.”
Chrysalis sighs. “Do you ever make sense?”
“Do you ever admit to being wrong?”
“I AM NOT … I never thought … it doesn’t matter. There’s no place for me now.”
“Not even the hive?”
“Especially not the hive … now that they all know what I was, now that they no longer need me …”
“You blame Thorax for that, right?”
A momentary fire ignites with the changeling; it dissipates just as quickly. “I labeled him a traitor to our kind.” She utters a quiet chuckle and looks to the ground. “Now, I’m the one branded as much. None of them would want me back, even if I were changed.”
“Did you know Thorax has a brother? And did you know that brother misses you?”
“And how would you know this?”
“From Starlight, when she and Trixie visited the hive. His name is Pharynx; he was the last changeling to change, and it took a lot of effort for that to happen. And from what I’ve heard since, he still misses parts of the old days. He could use someone to talk to, someone who has stories about the old ways. He could use …”
Chrysalis’s lips pucker. Resigned, she sighs again: “… a friend,” she finishes.
“And if you honestly want to travel down this new path … to get a feel for what so many of us take for granted every day … you’ll have a guide with you every step of the way.”
“I still think it’s too late …”
“And if it is, then it’ll be the four of us for as long as possible. But isn’t that better than spending your last days alone? For the first time, Chrysalis … be my friend?”
“… OK … but no hugs!”
“Deal!”
“Fine …” Chrysalis struggles for one final moment before continuing, “… and for whatever it is worth, I am sorry.”
An instant later, a singularity appears in a corner of the courtyard. Pinkie maintains her position between the singularity and the threesome as Chrysalis creeps closer to Tirek and Cozy. The brightness of the singularity intensifies, causing the foursome to shield their eyes; bright silhouettes begin to form from the source, their shapes becoming more detailed. A flash of light causes the foursome to turn away. They turn back and their jaws drop, as Princesses Celestia and Luna, along with Discord, blankly stare around the courtyard.
“Sister, what just happened?” Luna asks. “Why are the sun and moon both up?”
“I can explain that part,” Celestia replies, “but not what we’re doing here.”
“I think I can explain that,” Discord states, pointing a hoof towards the threesome behind Pinkie.
“I should have known!” Celestia states, her words bitter and angry. “I don’t know how you three broke free of our spell, but this ends NOW!”
Celestia and Luna each lower their heads as their horns pulsate, their brightness intensifying …