With the knowledge that her childhood friend was alive, Chrysalis cried until she had no more tears to cry. It took some time, but eventually she recomposed herself enough to look at Mael once again. The pain that welled up in her chest was more than enough to tell her that she still had her heart, despite trying to get rid of it over 2 centuries ago.
“Mael, where have you been all this time?” Chrysalis asked, “I have been searching all across Equestria, the World even, just for a sign that you were still alive.”
Mael sighed, knowing it would be difficult to explain.
“My brother took me away to my old homeland, or rather my birthplace, a place where mortals cannot reach without some sort of divine assistance.” Mael explained it in the most simple terms he could, “As the years passed, I went from being a child who couldn’t couldn’t hurt a fly to a warrior who is only rivaled by his brother.”
“I can see that you have changed a lot since we last met.” Chrysalis replied solemnly. “And so have I.”
“Chrysalis, my Mother has already told me that.” Mael said, “But no matter what you did, I’ll forgive you, because you're one of my best friends.”
“One of?” Chrysalis teasingly inquired, knowing exactly what she was wanting to do, “Are you trying to get better friends to replace me? I would never have thought you would’ve done such a thing.”
Chrysalis’ teasing went right over Mael’s head as he flew into a flustered frenzy. “What? No! I didn’t mean it like that.”
“Then you must be hiding something from me… Wait,” Chrysalis gasped in exasperation, “You got yourself a filly-friend in my absence, didn’t you?”
“Wh-what?! I, uh. Huh?”Mael stammered over his words as he was caught completely off guard by that statement
“I can see it on your face.” She replied, “You got yourself a filly-friend.”
“No I don’t.” Mael finally was able to say something coherent.
“Come on, don’t deny it.” Chrysalis continued relentlessly, “was she at least cute?”
Mael sighed, knowing full well that he wasn’t going to get anywhere without at least answering Chrysalis’s question. “Okay fine, I admit I did have a crush on someone else while I was gone. But nothing was made official, and it probably never will.”
That last part of what Mael said was spoken with a melancholy undertone, making Chrysalis worry over her old friend. “What do you mean by that?”
“Her name is Elizabeth, and she is very well known among my kind. She is the daughter of the god and ruler of the goddess race, the Supreme Deity.” Mael said, “When we first met she was one of the most avid warriors of the goddess race, having been given the nickname ‘Bloody Ellie.’ But as the years went by, she became more open about her ideas of a world where the goddess race and the demons race one day living in peace. But a few weeks ago, Elizabeth agreed to an arranged marriage with Meliodas, the Demon King’s eldest son, to bring an end to this war that has predated any historical records. And as part of my duty as her friend, and as an archangel, I have to stand by her decision all the way. There, happy now?”
Chrysalis stood there in silence as she tried to process everything Mael had said. She honestly felt sorry for Mael, having to leave his home to prevent a war only to be sucked into another war only because he possessed the blood of one of the sides. Mael had never been one for violence, so she wondered just how much pain rested on his heart.
“I’m sorry.” Chrysalis apologized, “I shouldn’t have pressed so hard.”
“Don’t be,” Mael told her, “It actually feels pretty good to get it off my chest.”
“Well, I’m glad I could help.”
“So now it’s my turn.”
“What?”
“Come on, did you really think I’d let you ask all the questions? You’re going to tell me everything that’s happened since I left, and I am not going to stop bugging you until you give me an answer.”
“… Was that a pun?”
Mael paused for a moment as he thought about what he said, “Not intentionally, but my point still stands.”
While Chrysalis was being overly interrogated by Mael as petty revenge, both Sariel and Tarmiel actually decided to pay that small town a visit and properly relax, or at least that was their original intent. When they arrived, they saw a familiar Cyan pegasus being a little boastful, especially about her speed. After Rainbow Dash called Sariel a kid, he wanted nothing more than to crush her in what she was the best at.
At the start of the race, Rainbow Dash easily took the lead with her initial burst of speed but Sariel managed to quickly catch up. It wasn’t long until he managed to barely overtake her. Or at least that’s what Rainbow had first thought.
“I know you said you were fast, but I didn’t expect you to be this fast.” Sariel complimented her,
“And I can say just about the same about you. But I’m not going to just let you win.” Rainbow tried to accelerate and escape his pursuit, but it felt like no matter how fast she went Sariel always managed to keep up.
“Come on, is that the best you can do?” Sariel mocked, as he kicked one leg over the other as his flight pose became a lot more casual looking. “And here I thought you said you were the fastest in all of equestria.”
“I haven’t even gotten serious yet,” Rainbow Dash responded angrily, “You haven’t seen what I can do.”
“Go on then,” Sariel responded as he regained his competitive flying form for optimal speed, “Show me just how much you can do.”
“Oh, you’re going down!”
Pushing herself to her limits, Rainbow began pushing against the sound barrier preparing the Sonic Rainboom. Sariel easily noticed this, and in response he used his grace to create a miniature tornado in front of him to push excess air out of the way and increase his speed drastically. Going at this level of speed had always had one major flaw, it was almost impossible for her to dodge clouds at this speed, but Sariel was different. Instead of even attempting to dodge clouds, he barrelled right through them turning the smaller clouds into confetti with his razor winds.
From the ground, Tarmiel watched the race before he noticed three little foals had rushed up to him with curiosity in their eyes. They were a yellow earth pony, a white unicorn, and an orange pegasus. And for whatever reason, Tarmiel had some sort of bad feeling about this.
“Hey, How do you do that thing with your head when Rainbow Dash bucked you in the face?”
When Tarmiel had heard this question, it took him a while to understand what they were asking. After thinking for a moment he tried to answer them in ways they’d understand; but before he could even utter a word, they had already moved onto asking another one.
“And why do you have six wings?”
“Why do you have three heads?”
“Are each head a different personality or are they all you?”
“Can you think of three things at the same time?”
“Can you look in three different directions at once?”
“Why are your teeth so sharp?”
“Why is your friend so short?”
“How does your other friend see despite his eyes being closed all the time?”
What once was one simple question, quickly spiraled out of control into a question asking free for all as the three fillies began shoving each other out of the way to ask their own questions. Tarmiel tried many times to speak but he was always quickly silenced by another question. He even tried to back away slowly, but the never ending assault of questions followed Tarmiel wherever he went.
“Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo. Where are you?” Fluttershy said as she looked for the three foals earnestly, only to find them bombarding Tarmiel with questions. “Oh no…”
As Fluttershy approached, her expression quickly changed from despair into humor when she noticed just how overwhelmed the archangel was by the trio of terror Cutie Mark Crusaders. Tarmiel’s mouth was left perpetually opened as whenever he tried to answer one question 2 more popped up before he could answer it. She wanted to laugh at the situation because she knew just how much of a hoof-full they were, but maybe it would be better if she just de-escalated the situation before it got out of control.
Mael had finally coaxed the information out of Chrysalis, and he was quite surprised to say the least. While he was somewhat aware of what had happened, Celestia had left Mael in the dark on all the specifics of what had happened in his many years of absence. So after hearing Chrysalis basically confess everything she did, it left him in a state of shock.
“So first you kid- I mean foal-napped my cousin, Princess Cadence, then you hypnotized her fiancé into thinking that you were her so you could gain access to his near limitless love for her so you could feed your hive. But before you could marry him as an imposter, Twilight Sparkle came in with the real Princess Cadence and completely thwarted your plans with the power of love, more specifically, the same love you put so much effort into stealing from her now husband.”
“Yeah, that’s basically the entire story.” Chrysalis refused to make eye contact with Mael out of a mix of shame and embarrassment
The two of them stayed silent, they both knew fully well the threat of losing each other loomed around them. Mael wanted to say something, but he’d have to choose his next words very carefully. Right before the guilt and shame in the air grew to an unbearable level, Mael broke the silence, carefully selecting what words to use to make sure he didn’t make the situation worse.
“Chrysalis, while I cannot justify what you did,” Mael said, “I have already decided to forgive you.”
“But you just said you can’t justify what I did.”
“And I also said that I have already forgiven you. If they want to hold a grudge against you, let them. What’s important is that I, someone who is your friend, have forgiven you. And while I am dwelling in this world, I will not let any harm come to you.”
For the first time in over a hundred years Chrysalis was genuinely happy, “I don’t deserve a friend like you, but at the same time, that is why we are friends. You could never bring yourself to hate anything, much less any creature.”
“It’s never too late to continue our dream of peace between Ponies and Changelings.” Mael added on, “but speaking of late, it is getting pretty late in the day.”
“What are you talking about? It's barely past noon.” Chrysalis said, “We still have quite a few hours left in the day.”
“That’s what I’m saying, it took me the majority of this morning to make it all the way out here.” Mael explained.
“So if I left now, I should be able to make it back to Canterlot right before sunset. While I doubt mom would mind me being late, I’m more worried that my brother would come looking for me. And there’s no telling how he’ll react because he’s probably never even heard of changelings before.”
“Never even heard of changelings?” Chrysalis said, “How’s that possible?”
“Long story short, I do not originate from this world, at all, and if changelings did exist in that other world they would go by a significantly different name.”
“Oh, that actually makes sense.” Chrysalis said, as she put all the pieces into place as to why she couldn’t find any trace of Mael for 300 years.
“Well, I won’t make you stay any longer if you don’t want to.”
With a simple ‘thank you,’ Mael made his way to the exit door. Only to be stopped moments before opening it.
“Wait! One last thing.” Chrysalis said, grabbing Mael’s attention
He didn’t know what to expect from Chrysalis, even in their youth she wasn’t one who waited until the last moment to say some. Turning around, Mael was greeted by a swift peck on the lips, his face blushed bright red. What compelled Chrysalis to give him a kiss like this all of a sudden? Seeing Mael’s flustered face was more than enough to make Chrysalis laugh.
“There, we’re even now.” Chrysalis said, “Don’t think that I have forgotten who it was that stole my first kiss.”
Mael was surprised she remembered that, because that happened over three hundred years ago. But then again, one's first kiss was always special, so she was justified in remembering it after all these years.
“Well, what are you waiting for? I thought after you made such a big deal about getting home on time, that you would’ve practically rushed out the door as soon as I was done.”
“Oh, um, yes.” Mael replied, trying his best to ignore what had just happened because he honestly didn’t know how to react.
“Bye Chryssi, I will see you again sometime soon.”
After Mael had closed the door behind him, the effect of Chrysalis’s actions set in. Her smug and cocky mask fell off as her face blushed brightly. Chrysalis’s mind raced, trying to rationalize why she had done that, but her embarrassment kept her from finding her answer.
“Chrysalis, you Idiot!” She yelled at herself, “You finally get to see him again after all these years, and what’s one of the first things you do? You kissed him! Not to mention, you also invited him to your bedroom of all places. Ugh!”
Burying her face into her pillow, Chrysalis tried her hardest to hide her blushing face from any-ling that would dare to enter her chambers. When she had calmed down, Chrysalis noticed a lingering taste on her tongue. Even though she only got a minuscule portion, Chrysalis easily recognized it even after not tasting it for so long.
“His love, it is just as delicious as I remember it being.” Chrysalis remarked to herself, “So why does it feel so different? Has something happened to you… my friend?”