In the history of awkward setups, there are few more awkward than what took place in the Crystal Throne Room immediately after the “Lovesplosion” that expelled the Praetorians and, apparently, some of the changeling regulars, but not all.
Thanks to Cadence and Shining Armor’s reaction, Chrysalis sat just at the foot of the throne, chains running through her legs in an interlocking web. Her horn, jagged as it was, had plenty of crystalline shards added to it courtesy of Cadence. And while Luna had managed to convince the couple to remove the massive gag they’d shoved into Chryssie’s mouth, they had only done so if the remaining changelings were restrained.
The royal couple now sat side-by-side with the other mares, barring Luna who had inexplicably decided to sit closer to Chrysalis. In the middle of the room, Bait, Switch, and at least a dozen other changelings remained, heavily restrained in shackles from the Crystal Dungeons beneath their hooves.
Securing the last shackle on the last surprisingly-compliant changeling, Cadence took her seat next to Twilight, sitting with the other mares and token stallion. “Well, at least that was the last of them,” she huffed, glaring out over the crowd.
“Our love spell was a lot more thorough last time,” Shining grumbled, glaring alongside his wife as one of her wings fanned around his shoulder. He pulled it tight around himself, not even pausing in his glaring.
“I don’t get why Auntie Luna doesn’t just cast them out with her own magic already.” Cadence remarked, adding her own extra-toasty special glare at Chrysalis. If looks could kill, the changeling queen would have died a dozen times over by that point, not that she seemed to notice. Or care.
“At the very least, we need to determine why these changelings were spared where so many of their brethren were not,” Twilight said, inspecting a changeling separated from the rest of the group. Without looking up, her magic reached out and pinned the tail of the pink mare trying to creep closer to the mass of changelings. “Besides, things have been a little...complicated around here.”
“Oh?” Cadence asked, eyeing Pinkie curiously whimpered, forcibly dragged back to the other mares. “I don’t see how it can get so complicated that we’d tolerate a bunch of these bugs in the Crystal Palace!”
Twilight sighed. “Believe me, if I had six years, six months and twenty-nine days, I wouldn’t be able to tell you.” She stood up from them, pulling a chalkboard apparently out of thin air. “And besides that, what I can tell you about our new friends here is that they have very little in common, aside from all being regular army.”
Rarity nodded. “None of those Praetorian brutes, I see.”
“Nope. But other than that, we have a pretty even distribution of genders and builds here, from petite mares to buff stallions and everything in between.” She said, her gaze drifting off the chalkboard just long enough to lock eyes with a certain smaller changeling in the crowd before continuing.
“Ummm...why the hell did she look at me when she said that?” Bait asked.
“Uhhhh...maybe you’re one of the buff stallions?” Switch replied.
“No, she did it while she was saying ‘everything in between’.”
“Uhhhhh….dude, some things are better left unsaid.”
After a moment, a light flicked on in Bait’s eyes. His ears folded down. “Ow. My pride.”
Over by Luna and Chrysalis, the pair had taken to sitting rather close to one another at the edge of the dais. Every now and again, one of Luna’s wings would fan out, as if to reach for the queen, then would quickly fold back to her side.
“The uh...chains aren’t too tight, are they?” Luna managed to ask.
“No.” Chrysalis said, scouring her memories for any time she may have asked Luna about her own comfort in captivity. “They’re fine.”
Luna nodded. “Good, good...so…”
“So...Chickit looks like he beat you pretty badly,” Chrysalis went on, reaching up to her own throat with her chained hooves.
Sighing, Luna ran a hoof over the aching skin, knowing she likely had some very visible bruising around her neck. “He managed to gain the upper hoof by threatening a filly. Were these the olden days, he never would have lost all royal respect for such a cowardly, underhooved act.”
“It doesn’t hurt, does it?”
Luna shrugged. “A slight ache, we’ll survive.”
Chrysalis nodded again. After a few moments, she let in a breath, held it, tried to work up the words she wanted to say, then blew it out again.
“You...wish to know how he died?”
Chrysalis only nodded.
“We understand. ‘Twas not our hoof. At least, not directly. We used the force of yon couple’s explosion of love to shove him off, but in doing so, changed his trajectory right into the path of a pile of rubble. He was impaled upon it, down the throat and through the chest.”
Chrysalis nodded again, eyes still staring blankly out at the crowd, and right through them. “Well, that’s one way to a stallion’s heart,” she finally remarked.
It took all of Luna’s fortitude to suppress her laughter, disguising it as a dainty cough behind her hoof. When her leg dropped, Chrysalis was gazing at her, face unreadable.
“What?” Luna asked.
“You have a dark sense of humor.” Chrysalis said flatly.
“I...you noticed, huh?” Luna said, a blush rising on her cheeks.
“I like that.”
Luna finally just nodded, turning away. “Th-thanks,” she said.
Chrysalis only groaned. “Luna, I’m...so, so sorry.”
Eyes widening, Luna whipped around to face her. “What?”
“You’re a treasure, I mean it.” Chrysalis sighed, unable to look her in the eye. “You saved my kingdom from the rule of a tyrant, forgave me the injuries I inflicted upon you, and put an end to a long conspiracy within my own ranks that has likely killed many a royal before me.
She hitched in a breath. “And I’ve been nothing but wretched to you this entire time.”
“We...were a prisoner.”
“That’s no excuse!” Chrysalis’s voice rose a hair in volume, and with a quick glance around to see if anypony noticed amidst Twilight’s ongoing auditory bombardment, she lowered it again. “That’s no excuse. I knew what kind of pony you were, and still, when Chickit set you and your own up for the fire in the nursery, I fell for it, hook, line, and sinker.”
“You had every reason to believe...”
“No, I didn’t.” Chrysalis hissed with a light stomp of her hoof. “I didn’t. I let my emotions cloud my judgment, and I played right into that madstallion’s hooves. Were it not for you, I would have simply died in that throne room and his evil flank would be in control of everything. Thousands of ponies and changelings would have suffered, all because I thought a crush...”
She cut herself off with a gasp, realizing how much she’d revealed, but Luna only smiled. “You thought your crush on me was being manipulated?”
After a long moment, Chrysalis nodded.
After another long moment, Luna’s wing finally fanned out to wrap around her shoulder. Chrysalis flushed a deep emerald.
“You’re blushing, your highness.” Luna giggled.
“Sh-shut it.” Chrysalis grumbled.
“Baka~” A changeling with strangely-large eyes added from the crowd.
Luna couldn’t help the smile that drifted onto her lips. She also couldn’t help but to gaze over the changeling in her grasp. Chrysalis stared stubbornly ahead, apparently determined to go without acknowledging her for as long as possible until finally, she caved, turning to the princess. “What’s that look for?”
“Has anypony told you how adorable you are?”
The blush now traveled over Chrysalis’s shoulders, cascading down her neck and halting just short of her chest. Luna smirked. “That’s a new trick, I take it using transformation magic to change colors means you’re recovering?”
“Sh-shut it, i-it’s not like that!” Chrysalis grumbled. “And you darn well know it!”
“Yes.” Luna replied, her muzzle leaning in. “I do.”
Chrysalis blanched, seeming at a loss of words, and then, she looked away, already working up the courage for what she knew had to come next. “Luna...” she started. “I...”
Suddenly, a loud thud filled the room. All eyes turned to the large set of doors leading out to the hallway. Twilight’s magic warmed up and she rose as Luna swooped over and opened it a crack. Much to everypony’s relief, a crystal mare stood there, gazing in, her star-studded eyes shimmering in the weak light filtering through the goop on the windows.
“E-excuse me,” she said bashfully. “I-is this where the changelings were taken?”
“Yes...” Luna said carefully. “And...who would be asking?”
“Oh, m-my name is Amberlocks, your highness,” the mare swept in a little bow. “I-I was just wondering in case this is where Hissfang was taken.”
“Hissfang?” Luna asked.
“Amby!?” One of the changelings from the crowd stood on her hindlegs, blinking in surprise.
“Hissy!” The mare tried to shove her way in through the door, only to be blocked. She clambered up, reaching over Luna’s shoulder. “Hissy! I’m here!”
“Amby! Oh, Amby!” The changeling tried to reach for the crystal mare, only to be held back by her chains. “I’m so sorry Amby, I’m so sorry...”
“Don’t be Hissy, don’t be!” The mare shrieked as Luna shoved her bodily out the door. “I’ll wait for youuuuuuuuu...” she cried.
“Your changeling is fine, we’re just trying to determine a few things with her!” Luna shouted, glaring at the mare. “We’re not monsters here, this isn’t an execution! We’re just trying to figure out why these particular changelings weren’t thrown by the blast!”
“Ohhhh,” the mare said, looking away bashfully. “I-is that all?”
“Yes, of course, if you wish you may stick around and we will have visitation time!” Luna huffed.
“W-well that’s alright then,” the mare said, then looked around Luna at her ‘Hissy.’ “I’ll wait for you, Hissy! I’ll wait for you!”
The changeling mare sniffled and nodded, returning to her spot in the crowd as Luna gently shut the door. She had just started trotting back to the dais when she was interrupted by another knock. Letting out an impatient snort, she turned back, opening it for a crystal stallion.
“Pardon me, yer highness,” he said, tilting a cowboy hat. “Y’all wouldn’t happen t’have a sweet li’l thang by th’name of Antennae in thar, wouldja?”
“Periwinkle!?” A voice lit up from the crowd.
At that, all pretenses of masculinity washed from the stallion. “Anty!” He gasped, tears pouring from his eyes as he tried to reach around Luna. “Anty!”
“Peri!”
“Ant--”
“Oh for...the crystal mare there will explain!” Luna shouted, tossing the stallion at the aforementioned mare’s hooves. “But everything is going to be fine so calm down!”
With that she slammed the door, intent on having opened it for the last time. She turned back to the room with a huff, started trotting back to the dais, only to be interrupted once more.
With a frustrated snarl, she turned back, only to nearly be trampled by a veritable tide of ponies, all intent on the crowd of changelings as they poured through like water surging through a busted dam.
“Choctal?”
“Nectis!”
“Mandible!”
“Vaguely-bug-sounding-phrase!”
The horde flowed around Luna, a variety of colors bearing down on the changelings, whose bound hooves strained to reach out for them. Then, a sparkling midnight-blue radiance enveloped the group, lifted them up, and shoved them right back out the door.
“The mare and the stallion in the ridiculous hat will explain!” Luna shrieked as she piled them up just outside the door. Huffing, she twirled a little key in the lock just to drive it home that she was officially done with the door, before turning back to the room. “The next pony who opens this door is on their own, got it!?” She shouted.
Everyone in the room, eyes wide with shock, all nodded their understanding. Then, Rarity turned to Twilight, her brow hunched in thought.
“Dearie...could love have something to do with it?” She asked.
Twilight inhaled, her cheeks puffing out, then she turned back to her board, erasing everything and starting to scribble away. “Love is their food, what the burst of power from Cadence and Shining Armor was made from, it’s everything,” she muttered, sketching out a surprisingly-detailed, black, hole-filled heart. She then sketched a regular, red one, then a chain link uniting the two. “If a changeling feels love, it...”
She looked up, realizing for the first time that all eyes were on her. Smiling, Twilight announced her conclusion: “A changeling’s feelings of love for a pony could anchor them here, even amidst the strength of the lovesplosion!”
“Wait,” Cadence said, shaking her head. “You’re telling me that every changeling here has fallen in love with a pony?”
“It would explain everything we just saw,” Twilight shrugged. “Those ponies fell in love with changelings, and vice-versa.”
“Oh c’mon!” Shining Armor interject. “You’re telling me those little parasites fell for one of us!?”
At that, a vibrant, pink blur materialized in front of him, glaring him down. “You watch what you say, buster brown,” Pinkie hissed, glaring him right in the face.
Shining cringed back, leaving Cadence to pick up the slack. “He just means we should be more cautious about this than just accepting this isn’t a ruse somehow! These are changelings we’re dealing with!”
“Oh!” Fluttershy appeared in her face. “So now we don’t know any better!? Now you know oh so much more than anypony else about what we’ve seen and done these past few weeks!?”
Cadence joined her husband in her cringe. “I-I didn’t say that.”
“But you were thinking it,” she said, huffing with the beginnings of her Stare sparking in her eyes. Only Cadence’s Alicorn countenance kept her from buckling under the sheer force of it. Then, with a huff, she turned away, trotting towards the group of changelings with a steely glare in her eyes.
“You,” she hissed, pointing at a random changeling along the edge of the crowd. “Who do you love?”
The changeling raised a chained hoof to her chest, making sure she was the one getting pointed out, then her ears folded down. “Umm...I dunno if it’s love per se, but there’s this cute little stallion who goes for a walk around my square and who started out bringing me packed lunches awhile back...”
She drifted off as Fluttershy nodded, already walking to the next stallion in line. “You?”
“Ummm...there’s this sweet Crystal Mare...”
She moved on. “You?”
By now, the changelings were getting a bit more enthusiastic. “Heartmend! Her name is Heartmend!”
“You?”
“Oh,” the next couple stallions gripped one another, sharing knowing smiles. “We have each other, but there is this little colt who um...is real good with their tongue...”
“Burnyyyy...” the other stallion chided, swatting at their partner’s chest.
“Sorry Crash,” the stallion chuckled, then shot a glare over his shoulder at a certain changeling avoiding eye contact behind him. “I just like ponies knowing how very, very much we love eachother.”
“...and that other stallion,” Fluttershy added, finally calming as she strode to the next changeling. “And you?”
The smaller mare sighed, looked away, her lip quivering. “Petals...”
Fluttershy blinked, then her hooves raced to her mouth. “Oh gosh, Sprinkleshine!” She surged forward to embrace the mare in a hug, pressing her to her fuzzy, yellow chest. “S-sorry...”
“I-it’s not your fault...” the changeling whimpered, tears wetting Fluttershy’s coat.
Even as they sat there, Fluttershy turned her glare back on Shining and Cadence. “See? Every single changeling, down to a single one, is here because they love somepony.”
Cadence, looking on with wide eyes, raised a hoof to her chin. “That...is pretty compelling.”
“Cady!” Shiny gasped, head whipping around to his wife.
“Well, what other explanation is there, Shiny?” She said, wings flaring. “I find it hard to believe too, but all the evidence is there. I know love can bloom from the most unlikely of places, and maybe, just maybe, these past few weeks, with so many ponies and changelings pressed together like they’ve been, it took root in the hearts of these changelings?”
Shining opened his mouth, then closed it, then looked back over the crowd, frowning. Cadence gazed back at him, her eyes wide and shimmering. He knew that look all too well. “Your mind’s already made up, isn’t it?”
Lips quivering like a puppy, she nodded.
“It doesn’t even matter what I say, does it?”
Still gazing up at him with those massive, pink, pony princess eyes, she shook her head.
He let out a long-suffering sigh. “Fine. I won’t like it straight away, but...I know how damned awful it can be to be kept from the one you love.”
With that, his horn glowed, and the throne room doors opened.
“I’ll be the last to get in the way of somepony’s love,” he said as the crowd of ponies trotted in, first unsure, then breaking into all-out gallops as they realized nothing was stopping them. His lips curled into a tiny smile that Cadence shared as she nuzzled him. “After all, that’s how I married the Princess of Love.”
“That and so many other things,” she whispered as she planted a kiss on his neck, an action being repeated multiple times throughout the room as the first few ponies made it to their goal.
“Love...” Fluttershy breathed. She turned, gazed into the crowd. Switch wasn’t hard to find: he still towered over the rest of them, now looking at Crash and Burn with what appeared to be new eyes before slowly turning to her. She made her way through the crowd, careful to try and avoid stepping on anypony’s hooves. It took nearly a dozen “excuse me’s” and at least twice as many “Oh, I’m so sorry’s” and even an “Ohmygosh was that your tail!? I’m so sorry!” But through it all, Switch simply sat there, a warm smile on his face, right up until she was sitting in front of him.
“Love,” she said. “That’s why you’re here.”
He blushed a deep fuscia, a hoof trying to rise to rub the back of his head, only to fail with a rattle of chains. “Dang...um….yeah. Yeah, I guess it is.”
She stepped closer, within reach now.
He raised a chained hoof, ran it along her cheek. “Fluttershy...you’re the most beautiful, kindest, most wonderful mare I’ve ever met.” He finally admitted. “And I would consider myself the luckiest stallion alive just to spend a few more evenings with you.”
“Oh, Switch...” she breathed, her own blush rising to match, and quickly beat, his own. Her whole body flushed red. “I-I...”
“Fluttershy...” he breathed, leaning in.
“Switch...” her lips puckered to meet him.
His hooves brushed back a curl of mane as he leaned in. “Flutter...shy...”
And then a loud scream, followed by a whump, interrupted them. They bolted back in surprise, only to heave out a sigh of relief as a pink blur slammed into Bait at just under Mach Two. Spinning with him, Pinkie held the smaller changeling up as she twirled, dancing with him on her hind hooves. “It’s real it’s real it’s real it’s real!” She screamed, squeezing until he squeaked.
“Aheh...” Bait looked to his friend with a shrug. “Yeah, I guess it...”
In a flash, she had him on the ground, locking lips with him, kissing furiously. His eyes widened, then slammed shut as he gave in, throwing himself into the kiss entirely. His chained hooves wrapped around her shoulders, and they rolled on the floor together.
“That’s um...Pinkie...” Fluttershy said, still blushing.
“Yeah,” Switch said, eyes wide. “And that’s not Bait. Not how I know him.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah,” his wide-eyed gape slowly morphed into an easy smile. “But y’know what? I think this is actually better.”
Meanwhile, on the dais, Luna had retaken her place beside Chrysalis, who had her muzzle buried in her hooves. “So...” Luna said.
“Not. A. Word.”
“Oh c’mon, Chryssie!” Luna gasped, smiling to the changeling. “This isn’t seriously that big a deal, is it?”
A single tear landed on the dais. Luna’s smile faded.
“Oh Maker above, it is, isn’t it?”
“Don’t look at me.” Chrysalis said. “Please.”
Luna whipped her head away, looking to some far corner as Chrysalis sniffled. For a bit, nothing filled their ears but Chrysalis’s occasional, jagged whimper, and the contrasting jubilation from the crowd below them. Finally, Luna turned to her. “I...want this too.”
Chrysalis paused at that. She didn’t lift her head out of her hooves, but her tears seemed to have stopped along with her sobs.
“I know this is a big deal for you, Chryssie, but I want to be a part of it. You’ve been through a lot, through so, so much, and...if you’ll let me, Chrysalis, I want to...help you put the pieces back together.” She said.
Chrysalis finally straightened up. The only evidence of her tears coming from the emerald streaks that stuck to her cheeks.
“So, I must ask,” Luna said, trotting around to face her, a warm smile filling her visage. “From the real monster here to you, what dost thou say?”
Chrysalis sniffled, if only to cover up the way her heart suddenly skipped a beat at Luna’s Ye Olde Ponish. “I...Luna, I think...”
And then, there was an explosion elsewhere. A deep thud slammed into the castle from the portcullis.
“Oh jeez, what now!?” Pinkie groaned.
“Did Chickit get a second wind or something!?” Bait shouted beside her.
“No, I know that sound all too well...” Luna gasped. “It’s Celestia! She’s on her way here!”
For a moment, everyone only stared. Then, the changelings flipped out, running, straining against the bonds that everypony had apparently been too distracted to remove, hooves waving in the air.
“I’m too young to die!”
“I’m too pretty to die!”
“Not like this, man. Not like this...”
“I peed so much!”
“Everyone!” Luna bellowed at full, Royal Canterlot Volume. That quieted the room immediately, every pony and changeling in the room turning to give her their full attention. With a hum of her magic, the doors shut again, locking against anyone approaching them. “We will speak with our sister and straighten this out, but yes, you will all have to go into captivity for some time.”
“Oh crap...” someling squeaked.
“But at this point, I can only ask that you place your trust in those around you.” She gazed out over them. “We have trusted you with our hearts, can you trust us with this now?”
For another second nopony moved, then, Switch stood up, walked over to Fluttershy, and placed a loop of his shackles in her hoof, taking a seat beside her. She responded by fanning a wing over his shoulders and blushing. Bait was right behind his partner, thrusting his chain into Pinkie’s hooves before curling up beside her and glaring out like an angry guard dog.
“Kinky,” Crash giggled as he and Burn hugged one another. The group kept moving along like that, chains draped into ponies hooves, to which Cadence’s wing’s fluttered.
“Such an amazing display of trust...” she cooed.
“All I see is a big headache to explain to your Aunt,” Shining grumbled.
A thud sounded against the doors, this time accompanied with the sounds of solar magic baring down upon it. Luna let out a breath, then realized there was still one changeling that had to commit.
“Chryssie?” She asked, turning to face the queen. “Chryssie, do you trust me?”
Chrysalis let out a breath, her eyes darting to the door, to the crowd, to the throne, everywhere but the princess. “I...I, uh...”
Another thud sounded, crystalline shards drifting down over their heads from the ceiling.
“Moment of truth, Chryssie,” Luna said, leaning forward, jaw tense.
“I...I...”
“Chryssiiieeee...”
Another thud, another mound of dust drifting down. “Almost got it that time, Tia!“ Discord’s voice sounded from the other side of the door.
“Please...”
“I...I...oh Maker above...”
“Oh just say it already! Haven’t we been blue-balled long enough!?”
Everyone perked up in surprise to hear somepony say that. Everyone perked up in more surprise when they realized it was Cadence. In fact, as the room turned to stare at her in slack-jawed amazement, she kept up her glare, gritting her teeth at Chrysalis.
Another crash against the door snapped them out of it. “Aww, I really didn’t want to do it over Cadence saying it...” Chrysalis grumbled.
“Chryssiiieee...”
“Fine! Yes!” She cried as the doors finally burst open.