//------------------------------//
// Chapter 15: Friendship Retreat, Part 2 
// Story: How A Realist Saved The Show 
// by Mare Of Mystery 
//------------------------------//

"So far so good, Thorax is willing to trust me bringing Chrysalis back to the hive and I'm about to try to dive deep into the inner machinations of her mind. We already have her in chains and I'm already on standby at the chair."

James was lazily sitting in his chair and waited patiently for Chrysalis to awake from her slumber. He was staring deeply at his phone screen, anticipating opening up an app and tapping vigorously with one thumb. Thorax was trying to make sense of what he was doing by inspecting the screen from James' right side while Pharynx stood to watch with Chyrsalis' condition.

"Can't wait to collect my welkin, oh crap! There's an update..." mumbled James, frustrated a tad bit at the slowly ticking loading bar. 

"Amon, I don't know if I should be the one to give her the talking..." Thorax from his side sheepishly spoke out. "I don't even know what to say?"

"It's alright Thorax, just give her the most brutal thing you could say to anycreature; the truth! Take whatever is clawing inside you and spew it out at her. Make her feel the vulnerable one!" answered James, keeping his steady focus on his game.

"I don't know...it just doesn't sound like...me..."

Thorax's reply to his advice made James sigh, "Look, just say what pops in your mind. I'll help if I need to, but you need to be the one to do it."

"Alright..." 

"Excuse me, Amon!" called out Pharynx a few feet away from him, "I think she's starting to awake now!"

The changelings watching them in the front were sounding anxious as the limp changeling that is Chrysalis slowly rose from the ground. This event made James close down the app he was playing and moved over to another app in preparation for the big moment. 

"Alright, I'll try to take this on in half an hour or so." he stood up from his seat and proceeded to walk over near Chrysalis, still keeping his distance away from the furious changeling.  

It wasn't long before Chrysalis' eyes adjusted with its surroundings after falling in slumber for a while, she was quick to become active as she scanned the area with her head looking in different directions. But, only to be surprised when she felt a hard harness around her neck and legs. Countless attempts to pull off the chains and shackles on her hooves came to a stop when she noticed the big audience staring at her; her very own children.

"It's...MY HIVE!" she gasped, "What is this!? Why am I in these chains!? And what are you doing here!? What kind of creature do you think you are shamefully displaying me in such a manner!?"

Clearing up his throat with a loud cough, James raised his left hand for the changelings to turn their attention towards, "To all of the changelings in the humble hive, I give you...your very own queen! I have brought you here to go into the inner machinations of her mind and see what she is on the inside! Chrysalis, how do you feel?"

"I feel the need to strangle you once I break free from captivity!" she hissed pushing her hooves over at James, but to no avail, as the chains were strong enough to resist her strength. "Why are you even meddling with me and my whole colony!? Who gave you the right to do anything!?"

Blankly ignoring her question, James paced himself back and forth in front of the helpless bug to explain his procedure. "Here's the situation; I'm here to give you some enlightenment by making you 'see' the wrongs in you."

"No! I refuse to participate in this humiliation!" hissed Chrysalis, trying to pull off the chains with her horn, but found that she was devoided of her transformations. "My magic! What did you do to it!?"

James could feel his heart pumping, seeing himself overpowering the queen of the changelings himself made him playful. "You can try all you want, but you will still have to go through my program. Before we begin, I just want to make sure our 'special' guest will cooperate with me."

"HMMMPH! I'll never answer you! Or take part in this cruel game of yours!" her barking made the changelings startled a bit from their seats.

Crossing her forelegs and sitting down on the dirt she witnessed a majority of her subjects staring and whispering amongst each other. James was at a small stump, but an easy one to hop over. Carefully pondering what to do, a bright idea popped into his head. 

"If you decide 'refuse' to take part, I would gladly make you a new tenant in the Hotel de Tarturus!" he grinned back at her, concealing his phone behind his back as Chrysalis made a small laugh.

"So you say you are ever so powerful enough to make a portal to Tarturus?" she cried out in a burst of laughter, "Only powerful alicorns can create...."

One tap with his phone later, A blue swirling vortex appeared right in front of Chrysalis that made her come to dead silence. Seeing the blue vortex creating a gate to the main entrance of the prison on the other side made her gulp, seeing she was only a few inches away from entering the other side.

"That cannot be..." she staggered, "How is one capable of creating alicorn-level magic? What exactly are you!? Where did you even get him, Thorax!?"

"We don't know ourselves, he just kinda showed up!" answered Throax, walking over to James as he noticed the big smirk on his face, "Are you sure Tarturus is a good place for her when this whole thing backfires? There's not an ounce of 'love' to feed her. She's practically dead if we send her there."

"Well then," James steered clear of the portal to lean over towards Thorax's face, "We just have to be lucky she would make the right choice, Unlike the other time!"

A frustrated groan later, Chrysalis clenched her teeth in and reluctantly agreed. "Fine—I guess I'll 'cooperate' with your little game. As long as you don't throw me into that putrid place!" 

"Excellent!" he nodded, pushing a button on his screen to close the portal in front of her, "Before we begin, I want to go over the last time you came to this hive on your own. You made one crucial mistake that would have been carefully avoided if it weren't for your quick thinking."

"Mistake? I never make mistakes!" she pouted again, this time, attempting to push her whole body towards him and failing miserably. "You could get all the witnesses you want, but nothing can show that I've made a fatal error. What are you going to do? Show us the past or something?"

"Now would be a great time to test out that new feature..."

"That can be arranged!"

"What now?"

"Are you saying you can travel through time?" Asked Thorax from the far right from James. "But, isn't that time magic risky?"

Smiling, James went to reach out for his phone and navigate to the Netflix App, "No need to to go back to the past, I'll just bring the past to us!"

Thorax, Pharynx, and the rest of the changelings were anxious to figure out what he meant by 'bring the past to them'. James carefully closed the previous apps in his background to converse battery life when he entered the Netflix App and tapped on the show itself. A list of the 8 seasons in order appeared before him, tapping on the season 6 tab and scrolling down to the last two episodes only to find that the video was buffering. The anticipation from the changelings watching in the crowd and Chrysalis was building up. James could only standstill as he waited for what was about to come.

"Just a few more seconds and... there it is! This holographic projection can let me display my phone's screen from thin air. This is like every Star Wars fan's dream. It drains my battery like hell, so I'll only use it for short time."

One tap from the bottom right corner of the screen and the contents of the screen projected out, revealing a paused scene from the end of the season 6 finale, just after Thorax transformed. James could see the mouths on all faces on the changelings, even Chrysalis', gawking at the still imagery. The changelings spectating were talking amongst themselves reliving the events from the breakthrough.

"Amon, just how on Equestria did you do that?" Thorax could never be so much in dismay, he was staring at his previous self from the screen, "How did you get this?"

"Let's just say I've procured the necessary tools for this job." answered James, adjusting his face to glare at Chrysalis and tapping on his phone screen at the same time, "So Chrysalis, let's take a trip down memory lane shall we?"

He can hear her huffing out a disgruntled groan, watching the video of Starlight's speech about sharing the love and the scenes of the rest of the changelings transforming before her eyes and following Starlight's last plea to make her turn over a new leaf. It ended as he remembered, Chrysalis refusing her offer and scurrying away from the hive and out of frame. Before she could speak though, James paused the video just at that last frame of her.

"Let me first summarize the situation; your plan to take control of Equestria by capturing and replacing every royal figure in Canterlot and the Crystal Empire was going so smoothly. But it only took a swag-tag team of four, including Thorax, to thwart your plans and freed everypony. Finally, by some 'magical force', Thorax managed to share all the love and was able to create a sustainable form for changelings to live. Then in some frustrated cry, cheese legs here dipped and left all rulership to him. To be honest, I don't know why he changed the way he is, but that's a question for another day! Chrysalis, there's just one thing that always bugged me— Why?"

"Why?" 

"Why did you have to refuse to embrace friendship? Yes, she sabotaged your plans and made your hive change on the spot. But you could live without needing to feast on love AND get to be a ruler. It's pretty much a win-win situation!" he gave her something to think about as James carefully walked closer to her.

"Perhaps you are right, but!" Chrysalis started to fume up as her temper grew exponentially, "That doesn't change the fact she turned my loyal subjects transform into those pastel-looking freaks! She and that rag-tag team of an illusionist pony, the king of Chaos, and the sole reason for my demise as ruler and the mole who ruined my plans; Thorax!"

All of the changelings n the crowd gasped as they were dismayed by the 'shocking' accusation by CHrysalis. But, Phayranx quickly made a huge disappointed face dragging his foreleg across it. "Aw come one everyone, we already knew that."

"Revenge, it's always the way with these archetypes." James muttered to himself, trying to mull over his next few steps, "Chrysalis, don't you think it would be better to just, forgive and forget?"

She answered back with another growl from her voice. "Why forget the time my hive was taken from me by that traitor you call Thorax!? I won't quit unless I take my revenge and make them have the last laugh!"

"This is getting nowhere, I need to get Thorax the one to tell her off. Here goes..."

It didn't take a while before James gestured his shoulder at Thorax, making him realize that it was his time to speak to her. One huge gulp of his throat later, Thorax gently approached her close enough for her to see him upclose. He slowly reached in front of her and began to choke a bit on his words before saying, "Look, Chrysalis...I didn't—"

"—Hmmph! I won't listen to whatever pitiful words he spews out!" she scoffed at Thorax, crossing her forelegs and facing away. "You should be the one in these chains! After all, you were the one who ratted on me to that Starlight Glimmer and ruined my grandmaster plan! You were always such a pathetic subject who questioned every bit of my commands. You were such a weakling in confrontation, so you hire this creature to carry you? You're never going to be a ruler just like me!"

The atmosphere around everyone, including James, grew intensely as ever as everyone came to silence. It took a few seconds for Thorax to let her scoff at him to sink in. But he didn't back down from his huge moment, no. Thorax's timid nature slowly faded, and soon his temper was at a loss. His brows scrunched up and his nostrils flared up, he slowly responded to Chrysalis  "You're right...I'll never be a ruler like you. I'll be someone better. Unlike your stubborn attitude and your high-and-mighty ego!"

"Don't you dare insult your queen! Even if you are the traitorous scum around here!" barked Chrysalis, "

"Settle down now!" Pharynx was eager to help out diffuse Throax and Chrysalis' feud, "Thorax, I think that's enough—"

"—Always a worthless subject always will be!" once more she scoffed at Thorax again, staring back at him with her stern look. 

It was that moment where Thorax faced the rest of the changelings, appearing to be invested in this, "You see everyone, is this what you what is a leader? A stubborn creature who only cares about revenge and hate? She doesn't deserve to be welcomed back into the hive!"

Most of the changelings were scratching their heads and shrugging at the response to Thorax's question, James on the other hand was facing his direction and watched him address the whole hive. 

"I think Thorax is about to reveal his 'true feelings' to Chrysalis. Well, not feeling as in the romantic kind of way—that'll be awkward. Unless..."

Hissing once more from her chains, Chrysalis shouted, "How dare you to call me—"

"—No! Shut your trap and listen for one damn minute! You're always trying to one-up every conversation to make you feel empowered!" hissed back Thorax, ranting onwards from a safe distance, "We're giving you a second chance to come back to the hive and become a better ruler, no questions asked! Yet, you still focus on revenge and draining love?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, the changeling who RUINED MY PLANS OF CONQUEST!" she sarcastically apologized straight to his face. "You are an imbecile for betraying your very own queen!"

"You're the imbecile here because you cling onto the past! Not to mention denying to learn the power of friendship, you only care about yourself! I'm fed up already! I should have called Twilight in to blast you away with some rainbow laser or whatever they did to the Storm King, Not whatever we're doing!"

"Hey, Thorax..." James slowly walked up to Thorax to soothe quell his anger, putting his right palm on his shoulder, "I think that's enough of this, I can take it from..."

Thorax used his magic to lift off James' palm away from him. "Hold it, Amon! I appreciate your time with us, but she's way beyond fixing.  I don't even know why you wanted me to speak to her after what she did to my friends. That doesn't solve her problems. Speaking of problems, I'll gladly list off yours!"

"I am the changeling queen! I don't have any flaws!" she shouted back with all of her might, 

"Wrong..." he slowly walked up to her and stared deeply at her eyes, "You're a manipulative being that only cares about herself and not for the sake of others. You trained us to feed on creatures' love for food and you never seem to fathom the true meaning of love; It was always a tool for you, not a way of life. You never cared for the sanctity of one's marriage or the feelings of unity! You just take what you want and claim it as your own! I never really said this to you back then, but now I'm willing to speak my heart out! You didn't lose your hive because of Starlight, it was you! You put this upon yourself, run away from your children because you couldn't let things change for the better. "

"En—"

"Shut your trap! I'm the ruler of the changelings now! Not you! You're already well-spent here!" he cut her off right as she was going to reply, "I have one more thing to say to you. I've been dying to say this for a long time now. Chrysalis...you are...you...are...

YOU'RE THE WORST MOM IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!"

That incredible roar shook the whole ground of the changeling hive, James described it as a 5.0 magnitude earthquake at the epicenter. Those last few words alone were enough to cause a wave of cries and agony from all of the changelings in the crowd. When James turned to see them all, he could see a majority of them either fainting behind their backs or gasping from their seats. He can even see Phayranx' putting his foreleg on his mouth to hide his shocking reaction to Thorax's potty mouth. Being winded from his big speech when he panted slowly to catch his breath. Sweat beads formed from his forehead to catch a breath from his big outcry. It left James scratching his head over all the fuss trying to process all of this. 

"Th-Th-Thorax just spoke out the language of the forbidden tongue!" one changing from the background called out.

"He insulted the hive mother!?" another changeling from the audience asked out loud, "Shall we go into DEFCON 3?"

"Dude...that's not my brother..." muttered out Pharynx, slowly making his way next to James, "Amon, I know you wanted him to speak with her, but he just spoke out the forbidden tongue"

It took a few seconds for James to process all of this, putting back his aviator glasses on his head and recuperate from the event, "Wait for just a second their Pharynx; you're telling me that calling her a 'bad mom' is an offense here?"

Pharynx answered scratching his head, "I'm pretty sure calling any creatures Mom a 'bad mother' is always offensive"

He was very much dumbfounded by that, James chuckled. "Whatever, I don't think Chrysalis would take pity insults as serious as..."

"Thorax..." 

It was already given that Chrysalis wouldn't take that lightly, she stood still, but her facial expressions speak for themselves as her big eyes were locked onto Thorax. Things felt pretty tense, James didn't know what to do next; Was she going to break free from the chains in some blind rage and attack him soon after? All that James could do is simply wait for 

"I...cannot...comprehend...*sniff*"

"Hmm? That's odd, for a second there, I thought a sniffle from her?"

"that...*sniff*...you w-w-would...*sniff*" she continued, as a single tear rolled down her cheek.

"She's sniffing like crazy, is it allergy season for changelings?"

"w-w-would...*sniff*...would...*sniff*...SAY THAT TO YOUR MOTHER!"

She formed into a fetal position and bawled out from the confines of her shackles, her forelegs covered her soaking eyelids as she wept her heart out. It wasn't just some act to gain sympathy this time around nor it was some plan of hers to free herself, she truly was heartbroken by her child calling her a terrible mother. This whole scene was a complete turn-around for James, it was head-scratching to see her like this. 

"Damn, if this is one big act of hers, she's a well-good actor. But I don't think"

"T-Thorax, you just made your mother cry..." is all he could conjure up from this, seeing the changeling frightened by his loss of temper.

Thorax averted all of his attention to Chrysalis and covered his eyes. "Oh no! I didn't mean to say the forbidden words! I was just...I didn't know what I did...I just panicked and..."

"You did what I told you to do; you spoke the truth, that's all!"  his sentence was finished with James slowly coming up to him and placing his right hand on Thorax's shoulder.

"I...did?"

"Yes! Now we just need to wait for her to settle in her breakdown— Let's give her time though..." he stared directly and Chrysalis for a while, still weeping loudly as ever.  





Over at the campgrounds, which was just located near the large area near the Tree of Harmony, Twilight and the rest of the creatures finally stopped to make camp. She got out a clipboard to check off a box from her lengthy checklist as she settled down her stuff on the ground.

"Okay, every creature! This is where we'll set up camp! I want the student's tents to be situated across from us to form a big circle!" Twilight announced out loud with a huge smile, preparing to set up her tent with her magic levitating the base and the tools. 

The two age groups split it into two different sides of the campgrounds. Mobius' tent was nothing to write home about, just a basic dark blue, enough to fit him and one more pony. His sister was happily setting up her tent near the adult's area as he made final preparations hammering the last nail on the ground. It wasn't soon after when he accidentally bumped into someone while taking a step back to see his finished tent. That someone was none other than Ocellus.

"Excuse me Ocellus," he humbly apologized to the mare, "I didn't see you there, I was just finishing up my tent and didn't spot you."

"Mobius, I have something very important I need to tell you." requested the curious sounding changeling, rubbing the bottom part of her chin with a foreleg.

"If you're worried about us pranking you at night, don't worry. We are not going to..."

"No, it's not that. It's something that I could never discuss with the others or the teachers. I think you're the only one I could speak to with this." she cut him off as she was waving her foreleg over in the direction. "Follow me!"

He hadn't figured out what is bothering her so much that she was dragging him to speak in private; is it a personal matter? Relationship issues with Smolder? Or worse case, she caught suspicion over him and his cover was blown. The two scurried off to the nearest place that was perfect enough to talk alone, near the entrance to the tree of harmony. While he visited this place back in his human form, Mobius acted like this was his first time stepping inside the cave curiously staring at the shimmering tree. They stopped just in the middle of the area as they were completely alone together.

"So tell me, what's been bugging you?" he sincerely asked Ocellus, still keeping her anxious face 

She sounded very displeased telling what was on her mind, but Ocellus was eager to let this out to a trusted friend. "You are aware of the changeling invasion at the Royal Wedding and the fiasco from the hive just recently?"

Mobius answered with a slow nod, "Of course, those stories made headlines around Equestria; What about them?"

"Well, this is coming from Thorax, but I believe he's planning to reinstate Chrysalis as ruler of the hive."

It immediately clicked inside him; Thorax had told the secret he was specifically told NOT to spill out to Ocellus. It was too late to give Thorax a little beating from his host self, so Mobius played dumb and tilted his head as soon as she stopped.

"Oh? What did he tell you exactly?"

"Some strange creature in a black coat offered them to capture Chrysalis and make her return to the hive as ruler. He mentioned that it was a creature that he's never seen or heard before, and we changelings transformed into many," she explained thoroughly of the details. "He said that it stood on two legs like Smolder but wasn't a dragon, had similar anatomy to talons but it wasn't a griffon or hippogriff. I believe his name was Jo?"

"Jo? Who's Jo?" he tried to contain a burst of laughter contained in his system as he asked.

Ocellus had to shrug on that one, "I don't know, but he didn't seem like a threat or hostile, he acted kind and friendly as Thorax described. I'm just worried that Chrysalis would try to revert everything and try to take revenge on Starlight."

Before Mobius could send his host self to strangle Thorax, he briskly tried getting things to simmer down. She doesn't seem suspicious to him, that's a plus. 

"Well, do you want her back?"

That question made Ocellus turn away from him, staring at the tree from a distance and answering, "That's pretty difficult; half of me would love to see the hive mother return to rulership, and the rest of me wants her out of it. It's just a lot to take in. She refused to change out of her own volition and ran away from the hive. "

"Hmm...this may be conjecture," pondered Mobius out loud to Ocellus, "But how would you feel if your very own children changed right in front of you that you couldn't even recognize them? Everything you've spent your whole life working for them nurtured them and raised them to be what you expected them to be only to completely derail from your plans for them. I mean, why did you even transform into...whatever you are now in the first place!?"

The next assault of questions made Ocellus ashamed of herself as Mobius looked down on her frown. He believed he took it too far when he asked her that last question. The silence was growing longer, and the awkwardness was filling the atmosphere.

"Sorry, I came out too strong..." apologized Mobius, "You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

"It's alright," she turned to him, taking a deep breath afterward, "I don't know why I did it. We were always told what to do and where to go. Feeding on love was the only choice of substance for us, I didn't mind it because I never thought there were other options. But Starlight's speech gave us a realization that feeding on love wasn't the only way to live. Maybe Chrysalis wasn't too happy that we turned on her, but I don't know who's in the wrong; Her for not changing just like us, or us for leaving her out."

"Listen, you came pretty far changing who you are and attending this school." the sincere smile on Mobius' face gave her a bit of relief on hers, "I may not know what this 'Jo' is going to do, but I take it he has good intentions."

"Yeah..."

"Who knows, maybe this 'Jo' fellow is doing you all a favor?" he smiled back at her looking optimistic as ever. 

"I'll just wait and see what happens," Ocellus took caution of what the future of her hive maybe, "Chrysalis is a strong and stoic queen. She doesn't go bawling her eyes out due to petty insults."

"Well...I wouldn't count on that..."