Two rough nights in a row was starting to catch up with Applejack. It was mid-morning, though she didn’t exactly feel like it should’ve been so late in the day already. What sleep she’d gotten hadn’t been very restful, and it wasn’t for a lack of good accommodations. Her bed at Twilight’s castle was a touch of Elysium in Equestria, but she still tossed and turned most of the night until Princess Luna helped her relax with a lullaby of all things. It’d been more than a little embarrassing, but she couldn’t argue with the results. The princess had probably spiked her song with a spell or two.
Greeting Fleur de Lis in the hallway, Applejack knew the captain didn’t seem to be doing much better. She’d stayed up the entire night watching Chrysalis sleep after discovering none of their traditional magic sealing items worked. The former queen was either resistant or outright immune to everything they tried. The guard had kept a vial of anti-changeling salve at hoof just in case.
Even with the castle’s unorthodox guest in her makeshift prison, nothing much had happened. The most interesting thing was Spike serving up a buffet of haybacon breakfast burritos for everypony. Chrysalis had demanded to be served a plate for herself. Apparently, she could eat, which wasn’t all that surprising to AJ. After all, how would Chrysalis know what a pony’s love tasted like if she didn’t eat food?
Despite her sleep deprivation, her body was raring to get back to apple bucking after finishing her hearty breakfast. She didn’t have time for stress relief though. Applejack had a different job on her plate. In fact, everypony else was waiting for her to get her mind right. She’d taken her go-to of finding a good tree to sit under for a spell, but she really wished she had her momma’s old guitar to help her calm down. Instead, she just pulled her hat over her face and listened to the mostly sweet nothing around her.
Applejack savored the sweaty smell of her daddy’s old hat as the grass rustled from a warm breeze blowing through Ponyville. Two birds were singing in the tree above her, but their song sounded more like they were having a disagreement over a nest than something more pleasant. That was fine by her. Bittersweet matched the mood better. Amid the arguing, AJ heard the sound of approaching hooves.
“Have you prepared, Applejack?” Princess Luna inquired.
“I’m about as good as I’m gonna get when cranky, your highness.” She pulled her hat back and tilted her head to look at the sky peeking through the leaves. “But I reckon with my friends there, we’ll get it done.”
“Thank you. That is all I can ask.”
“I hope this plan of yours works, princess.”
“It shall in whatever way Harmony sees fit.”
Applejack frowned, feeling a bit more prodding of the princess was in order. “And you’re fine with that after what happened to you?”
“My feelings are irrelevant.” Luna’s piercing gaze faltered under AJ’s scrutiny. “Nothing would change, even if I told you otherwise.”
Applejack frowned deeper, but eventually shrugged it off. “I suppose you’re right, your highness.”
“Applejack, you are not alone in your keen perspective. You may recall that in ancient times, it was I who first wielded honesty. Though, it would be clear that this outcome displeases you even without my perception. You wear your thoughts on your withers.” Luna chuckled, but relented after failing to lighten the mood. “Being the guardian of dreams, it falls to me to help my subjects face their true selves and deal with their inner demons. I am not blind to what you see.”
Applejack raised an eyebrow. “But?”
Luna sighed. “But, also like you, I cannot see the truth that is obscured under Chrysalis' lies. Her intentions remain hidden to me. That is what we must bring to light before it is too late, by any means necessary.”
“If y’all think it’s for the best, I ain’t gonna argue none of it.”
“Again, what I consider to be best is irrelevant. Her actions may be strange—confusing even—but that forces me to be even more wary of her. I must not fall for her trap if she intends to betray our sympathies.” Luna shook her misgivings away to remain resolute in her decision. “That being said, my personal curiosity demands an answer from you, if you are willing to share.”
“Shoot, Princess. I ain’t got nothing to hide.”
The princess’ strength faltered as she winced. “Please. There is no need for you to stand on ceremony when it is just us. I have done nothing as of late that warrants your respect as a princess.”
Remembering her time with the Oranges as a filly, Applejack softened as she recalled what ceremony meant outside of a shindig. “Helping me get to sleep was princess-y enough as far as I’m concerned, but alright. Fire away, Luna.”
Luna’s face flickered with a starlit smile before it fell away. “Chrysalis is a creature wrought from illusion and deception. She has tried to manipulate all of us to satisfy her desires time and again. So, why is it that you, Honesty, care at all about what happens to such a villain?”
“I was trying to figure that one out when you knocked me out with your singing,” she admitted with a nervous chuckle.
“So you lack your answer?”
“I didn’t say that. I got one, but I ain’t too sure if it’s good.”
“I would prefer any answer over nothing, Applejack.”
“I honestly don’t know where Chrysalis’ lies are going, but I think I know why she’s lying in the first place.” Applejack turned her trusty hat around in her hooves, facing it towards her and trying to remember the face of the pony who used to wear it. “She ain’t the only one who’s run away when things hurt too much.”
Luna closed her eyes and nodded in understanding. “A good answer indeed. For what it is worth, I am truly sorry that we cannot afford to let the truth reveal itself.”
Applejack affirmed Luna’s opinion with a nod, but said nothing more as she put her hat back on. She pulled herself to her hooves and followed solemnly behind as Luna led her out of town.
Whitetail Woods wasn’t a long way away from Ponyville, but it was far enough out of town for the wanted criminal to not cause a ruckus just by being there. Alongside them ran a sprawling, picturesque prairie brimming with untamed grass, patches of wildflowers, and a few rolling hills, giving the nothing around them a little more character. They’d settled in a place where the land dipped a bit into a valley for some privacy. Celestia waited patiently on the slope, flanked by Captain Fleur and Zecora while Twi and the other elements had gathered in a circle around Chrysalis. They’d left an Applejack-sized hole in their ring of friends for her to join.
As she drew closer, Twilight hovered AJ’s element to her. The orange gemstone sparked with recognition of its chosen scion. It reshaped itself into a necklace bearing a jeweled apple like her cutie mark. The necklace clicked around her neck and a comforting resonance flowed through Applejack’s body, pulling at her cutie mark and filling her with a familiar power. It never felt different, just more of herself.
Her warm reunion with her element was cut short by Chrysalis’ mocking laughter. “It looks like an orange having an identity crisis.”
“Don’t make me smack you upside the head,” Applejack shot back with a small smile.
“Oh please.” Chrysalis grinned while turning her head towards her sixth executioner. “You’re about to do a lot worse than that.”
“Don’t remind me.”
Chrysalis’ grin faltered, but the proud villain dismissed it with a scoff and turned back to face the sun and moon looming over her in judgment.
“Chrysalis!” Luna shouted from the hillside. “Former Queen of the Changelings and disruptor of harmony: you stand before the leaders of Equestria, the land you sought to subjugate for your own selfish ends. We cannot allow such injustice to go unpunished for the terror you wrought and pain you inflicted upon our little ponies. However, we will not ignore what you’ve already suffered: the loss of your kingdom, your exile into—”
“Oh, Blah, blah, blah! And I thought I liked to talk.” Chrysalis groaned impatiently with a dramatic roll of her eyes. “Can we speed this up a little? I’ve got better things to do than have my accomplishments summarized by somepony who slept through them.”
Luna’s eye twitched slightly as she took a quick breath for patience through her nose. “Very well. However, it would be remiss of us to not hear a last request in the event Harmony dictates this to be your end.”
“Fine. I request that you shut up and get on with it!” Chrysalis seethed at Luna's formality. She brushed a hoof on her chest and shot a sidelong glare at Celestia. “Besides, this sun is absolute murder on my exoskeleton.”
Luna growled back, but affirmed the request with a silent nod. She turned to her sister who took over the proceedings.
Celestia cleared her throat, surprised at Luna’s literal interpretation of her final request. “Do not attempt to make any sudden movements, Chrysalis. We are ready to subdue you by force if this proves to be part of a scheme.”
“We’ll just have to see about that one, won’t we?” Chrysalis taunted.
“C’mon now,” Applejack complained quietly. “Ya ain’t gotta be so abrasive.”
“Just hurry up and do your little rainbow friendship thing already!” Chrysalis snapped back as she kept her gaze locked on the princesses, refusing to look at the honest mare.
“Very well, Chrysalis. For your sake, I hope there is truly some good within you.” With that, Celestia bowed to Twilight, leaving the task to the element bearers.
AJ nodded along with her friends as they focused on the Elements. She closed her eyes, dwelling on the love she had for them. Feeling the depths of their bond, Applejack’s essence surged with primal power as she became one with Honesty itself. She could sense the light of her friends connecting with their own Element as her hooves left the ground. Harmonious energies intertwined as a purifying clarity washed over her soul.
At once, Applejack’s eyes shot open along with her friends, seeing the world bursting with color as reality became more real. She watched their spirits connect with each other as a spiraling rainbow star of magic gathered above them. She looked down to see Chrysalis gawking at the prismatic nexus building above her.
Before AJ could second-guess herself, a waterfall of Rainbow Power bore down on the little bug, crushing it under the flood of ancient magic. For her part, Chrysalis did her best to stand tall and bear it, which became easier as her legs solidified under her. Seeing what was coming next, Chrysalis closed her eyes to accept her fate as her green light faded to a dull gray.
The torrential rain of harmonious magic subsided, and Applejack could feel the grass under her hooves again. She opened her eyes slowly to see what she already knew had happened: Chrysalis had been turned to stone.
“It would appear that she was lying all along.” Luna clicked her tongue for allowing herself to be swayed by the liar in the first place. “Such arrogance to think she could fool Harmony itself.”
“Well, I guess she had me fooled till the very end,” AJ joked as Fluttershy draped a wing over her back.
“I’m sorry, Applejack,” Fluttershy pulled her friend into a comforting wing-hug. “I know you wanted to help her.”
“No, it’s not that, sugarcube.”
Applejack looked at the petrified Chrysalis standing in front of them. Her head was turned down with her eyes forced closed, a subtle tension drawn on her furrowed brow to show her resolution in the face of what might as well be a death sentence. It was almost convincing if not for the angle of the frown. It stretched taut, with enforced stoicism of an unrelenting pride. The only tell of the truth in her heart was the subtle curl of her lip as she bit down to stop herself from screaming. AJ didn’t need the help of Honesty to know the truth behind that fractured mask.
In the end, Chrysalis had been absolutely terrified.
Applejack tilted her hat to hide her eyes. “Shoot, Chrys. Why couldn’t ya just be honest? Just once…”
“Perhaps if the seal ever breaks, I will ask her the reason for lying to you so cruelly.” Luna nodded a silent order to Fleur. The captain saluted and summoned a parchment and quill. “For now, we must prepare to transport the villain to watch over her in Canterlot for however long Harmony demands it.”
Zecora approached the frozen Chrysalis and pursed her lips as she traced an out-of-place line along her surface.
“I’ll be the first to admit if my eyes are wrong,
But, I do not believe we’ll be waiting for long.”
Applejack pushed her hat back and looked through her misty eyes to see a break in the statue’s stonework.
“Holey crack-a-cola!” Pinkie swore as more and more fissures developed along the surface.
A spiderweb of fractures formed along the stonework and burst in a gray cloud of pebbles as Chrysalis was freed from her magical prison. Instead of roaring back to life, the black bug wheezed fresh air into her rocky lungs and coughed a dust cloud as she came out of the seal. With the initial shock subsiding, the changeling swayed from side to side before collapsing.
“Chrysalis!” Applejack cried as she rushed to the mare’s side.
“That… really… hurt…” Chrysalis moaned.
Twilight strode up to the changeling, looking between her and the Element on Applejack’s necklace. “I don’t understand. I felt the power of our friendship. I know we did everything right. Why didn’t it work?”
Luna joined Twilight’s side and looked over the freed enemy of Equestria, but her eyes were drawn to something in the grass. “Don’t be so quick to deem this a failure, Twilight Sparkle.”
Luna walked past them and reached into the vegetation with her hoof. From its depths, she plucked Chrysalis’ crown. Unlike the rest of the deposed queen, it was still perfectly petrified and whole.
“‘Whatever fate Harmony has in store for Chrysalis, we must be ready to accept it,’” Luna reminded everyone and herself as she contemplated the stone crown in her hoof. With a tired sigh, she turned to the criminal and towered over her with regal authority. “Judgment has been passed, Chrysalis.”
“Good to know. Guess not even your friendship was enough to ‘fix’ me, huh?” Chrysalis began to cackle, but a coughing fit interrupted her petty victory.
“With this, you have been formally stripped of your title and given one more chance to change your ways.”
“Lucky me,” she groaned in reply.
“Indeed you are, you ungrateful cretin!” Luna bit back, having lost all patience with the villain. “If only we had been so fortunate, we would not have lost a millennium to our hubris!” She slammed her eyes shut and took a moment to silently vent her frustrations and reset herself.
Chrysalis said nothing.
“My apologies.” Luna took the stone in her magic and hovered it to Chrysalis. “Here. Take your tarnished crown. Let it serve as a constant reminder of the mercy you have been shown this day. Pray that you will not forget, for I will show you none if you waste such a precious gift!”
The changeling took the crown in her magic and set it down in front of her, frowning at its dull surface. “Shame. I thought it really pulled my whole look together.”
“Well, no use crying over spilled milk. Now, let’s get you up’n at ‘em.” Applejack reached a hoof down to the changeling, who rolled her eyes at the gesture, but accepted the hoof-up.
With the peasant’s help, Chrysalis stood to her hooves firmly and reached down to grab her crown. She hugged her former symbol of power close to her chest with one of her forelegs and frowned with a complicated stare.
“What should we do with her now, your highnesses?” Fleur asked.
“I think that I should have a say in that,” a voice replied from overhead.
Over the crest of the hills, a large metamorphic changeling descended with a buzz of his wings. His green exoskeleton and orange horns shimmered, beautiful and whole, in the light of day. The new leader of the changelings, Thorax, landed with stern authority.
“Well, someone has stepped into their new role rather quickly,” Chrysalis seethed as she glared at the changed changeling. “Have you rebuilt the throne you broke yet?”
Ignoring the villain’s snide greeting, Twilight rushed to welcome her friend with a warm hug. “Thorax! It’s good to see you again, but how did you get here so fast?”
“T-thank you. I was actually already on my way here when I ran into your courier.” The changeling smiled uncomfortably from the sudden contact. He backed away from the princess while eying his former ruler. “When I heard you’d captured her, I knew what I had to do. I’ve come to take Chrysalis back with me.”
“Take me back?” Chrysalis asked as she began to giggle to herself. “You say that as if you have any authority here.” Her giggles grew into a maniacal cackle.
“Chrysalis, you should come with me. Now,” Thorax demanded.
The former royal’s laughter died as she eyed the other changeling in utter contempt. “That’s still ‘Queen’ to you, worm.”
“Chrysalis, ain’t he the new king of the changelings or something? He kinda does have authority, you know.”
“Looks can be deceiving, ‘AJ,’” Chrysalis answered as she narrowed her eyes. “He’s no king.”
“Chrysalis!” Luna boomed in anger. “Have you learned nothing? You have only been held accountable for your wrongdoings in Equestria. Harmony’s absolvement does not pardon your crimes against your former brood!”
“Crimes?” Chrysalis laughed again. “If making sure fools like this one didn’t starve is a crime, then fine. I’ll play along.”
Applejack sighed at the ornery mare. “Look, Chrysalis. Don’t make this harder on yourself.”
“Don’t worry. I needed some stress relief anyway,” Chrysalis spat in reply. She shoved her crown into the farmer’s face. “Make yourself useful and hold this for me.”
Applejack grumbled as she took the stupid rock in her hooves. As she was about to ask why, Chrysalis vanished in a tower of changeling fire and appeared behind Thorax. Before he could react, Chrysalis swept his hind legs out from under him and flipped the green bug on his back. She slammed her forelegs around him and flashed her fangs in rage.
Thorax furrowed his brow, completely confused by the situation. “What do you think you’re doing?”
“You dare show your face to me like this, you ungrateful pest?”
“What are you talking about? I’m trying to help you!”
“Come now,” the queen purred as she stuck her forked tongue in his face. “You know I can’t take you seriously when you look like this.”
Chrysalis hissed as her horn glowed with sickly green magic. Seeing her chance, Fleur shot the vial of anti-changeling salve which burst over Chrysalis’ lit horn. The dispelling gel interrupted her casting and was enough to throw off the weakened changeling’s spellwork. She growled bitterly as she ran a hoof on her horn, scooping some cream in it, and slamming it down on Thorax’s chest with a sickening crunch.
A blue midnight beam of magic knocked the queen off, but as she fell back, Thorax exploded in a green flare. In his place laid a mean-looking black changeling with deep purple eyes and a red frill. The dark drone shook away the pain from the blow before realizing his disguise had failed. He scrambled to his hooves and tried to activate his magic, but his horn flopped uselessly on his head.
“What trickery is this?” Luna asked.
“You took the words right out of my mouth.” Chrysalis chuckled through the groans of pain from Luna’s magical blast. “Well? Explain yourself, Pharynx.”
“What do you think? I came here to get you, your majesty!” Pharynx yelled in a whisper.
“Interesting proposition,” Chrysalis said as she stood to her hooves, eying her drone with suspicion. “The hive is quite a long way away. At least a day’s flight.”
“My Queen, we shouldn’t discuss sensitive information—”
“You’ve been spying on the ponies, haven’t you?” Chrysalis yelled over him. “I never ordered you to leave your station!”
“But, your majesty! I was only intercepting messages—” A vicious hoof across the impudent changeling’s face silenced him as he fell to the ground.
“You dare talk back to me, drone?”
“Chrysalis!” Luna yelled as she charged forward towards the rampaging changeling. The former queen turned around and crossed horns with Luna.
“This is a changeling matter, princess! Your precious harmony has already absolved me of my crimes against you, so unless you wish to risk an incident between the Changeling Kingdom and Equestria, you will allow me to deal with my drones as I always have!”
“Our alliance is with The Changeling Kingdom under the leadership of Thorax. We do not recognize you as a leader of anything, Chrysalis!” Luna pressed her horn forward, causing the weakened royal changeling to struggle from the alicorn’s overwhelming pressure. “Under our treaty, all changelings, even this love-feeding one, fall under our protection from threats of all kinds. That includes you.”
“Fine! I’ll be nice. Just back off!”
Luna yielded, allowing Chrysalis to save face as she turned away from the princess to address her former subject. “Now, explain to me why you have abandoned your patrol route?”
“Because you’re back! We need you, your majesty! The changelings are nothing without your—”
“Don’t lie to me!” Chrysalis screamed, stomping over towards the downed changeling. “You dare say that to my face with a belly full of love? Tell me, from whom did you receive it?”
“Thorax won’t let us steal it!”
“I asked you a question, worm! Now tell me!”
“Thorax and the others have… sustained us in your absence.”
Chrysalis paused her advance. “Us? There’s more of you?”
“We may have been deemed ‘renegades’ but we are not the ones who turned our backs on the old ways. We’ve fed ourselves like this for hundreds of years! We struck fear into the hearts of our enemies as we drained them to fuel our strength. But now I’m surrounded by weak cowards who can’t even fend off one lowly maulwarf!”
“I see.” Chrysalis straightened up and regarded her drone with a small smile. “If you want to live by the old ways, then let’s return to the hive and set things right.”
Pharynx buzzed with fiendish excitement. “Yes, my queen!”
“Of course, my loyal drone. First, we must capture and imprison every last traitor to the hive and drain them of their love.”
“W-what?” he muttered as his joy dissipated.
“What?” Twilight echoed his horror. “Do you think we’re just going to let you undo all of Thorax’s hard work?”
“Wait,” Luna whispered as she stopped the young princess with her hoof.
“You said you stand by the old ways, didn’t you?” Chrysalis trotted over to Pharynx and stroked the stunned changeling’s frills. “That means we feast on the love of all harmonious beings. Your former broodmates have turned their backs on me. They are nothing more than food to us now.”
Pharynx looked around, wondering why the ponies were just standing there. “My Queen, there are only seven of us left…”
“That’s wonderful news!” Chrysalis bubbled back with a delighted giggle. “If these traitors are as weak as you say they are, then defeating them should be nothing to us! There will be plenty of love for us to start again.”
“But—”
“Just think, Pharynx. Thorax, Ocellus, and the rest of those love-sharing fools will serve as fuel for a new age of my glorious rain.” Chrysalis leaned down and whispered in his ear, “Let’s savor all of their love until nothing but emotionless husks remain, my new consort.”
“But I don’t want to do that! I want to protect the hive, not destroy it!”
Chrysalis pulled away and grabbed the drone’s head with her hoof. “The old ways are my ways! What I say goes! And I say: if they won’t steal love for me, then you will help me subjugate them! All of them!”
“No!” Pharynx yelled as he exploded in a brilliant flash of pink and white power, launching his former queen away.
As the light faded, a dark teal, metamorphosed Pharynx buzzed his scarlet butterfly wings in defiance. “The hive is the most important thing to me! I won’t let you hurt—”
“If you already knew that, then why did you come to me in the first place?” Chrysalis shouted over his heroic spiel as she picked herself up from the ground.
Pharynx stepped back, almost confused by the question itself. “Because I thought you’d want to help us.”
“Me? Help that usurper Thorax?” Chrysalis laughed weakly as she shook the dizziness from the sudden impact away. “I can’t believe I placed an idiot like you as our first line of defense. No wonder Starlight Glimmer was able to thwart my plans so easily. I had fools like you failing me at every turn!”
“But we’re still your hive, Chrysalis!” the reformed changeling urged.
“Oh, back to ‘Chrysalis,’ are we?” Chrysalis fluttered her eyes as she sauntered over to her former drone. She leaned down, meeting his purified eyes with utter contempt. “Listen closely so I won’t have to repeat myself, prey. You no longer need me, so you are useless to me. I have no hive!”
“But, my Queen—”
“Don’t. You. Dare!” Chrysalis roared, grabbing Pharynx by the throat in her emerald magic and holding him to the ground. Her anger boiled into rage as she flared out of control. “I am not your queen! I am no one’s queen! My crown is nothing but a useless hunk of rock now thanks to miserable failures like you! I don’t need to surround myself with braindead idiots that can’t even do the simplest things I ask of them!”
“That is enough, Chrysalis!” Luna ordered. Chrysalis' jaw clenched as she gripped tighter, refusing to let him go.
“We said… Be still!” Princess Luna’s royal Canterlot voice thundered across the fields as a lightning blast crackled overhead. Chrysalis’ magical grip faltered allowing Pharynx to kick her off with his hind legs and escape her frenzied grasp.
The changeling hovered away, coughing as he caught his breath and looking upon his fallen ruler with a pained grimace.
“Leave. Protect your hive from monsters,” Chrysalis ordered as she stumbled to her hooves. She turned to face Pharynx, her eyes burning with exhausted hatred for the traitor.
Receiving the command, Pharynx nodded and took to the skies, flying southwards towards his friends and family. As he flew higher, he changed into a falcon and sped off as fast as his wings could carry him.
Chrysalis’ bitter gaze lingered on the sky before she slumped back down, quivering in unvented frustration. Her left eye twitched furiously as she searched for something, anything to release her overwhelming anger on.
“Calm yourself, Chrysalis,” Luna said as she approached the unstable queen.
With manic, feral energy, Chrysalis lunged at Luna. Without flinching, the princess raised a shield that the weakened queen pinged off of.
“Chrysalis! You have been given a second chance. Do not waste it.”
Chrysalis dove again, ripping at the shield, bucking it, stabbing it, and biting it. After a moment, Luna furrowed her brow in concern as she shifted the shield into a large ball that the changeling ripped away.
Applejack bit her lip and winced as Chrysalis unleashed all of her fury onto the blue orb. She stomped it, wrestled it to the ground, and chewed it in her mouth, trying her best to destroy it every last ounce of anger swirling within her. She screamed at it, swore at it, and lashed out in all manner of ways a mad dog would think to kill another critter.
With a final battlecry, Chrysalis fired a powerful magical beam into it, blowing the ball up in a sickly green blast. The deed was done and the spherical shield was no more. She caught her ragged breath that matched the flickering pulse of her barrel’s drained love reserves. Her cheeks burned green with humiliation, but what little was left of her shattered pride refused to shed the tears building in her eyes.
Applejack risked getting closer. “Chrysalis?”
“That stuff you threw at me. It uses Poison Joke as a key ingredient, doesn’t it?” Chrysalis said to no one in particular.
Seeing no harm in confirming the anti-changeling’s formulation with the only one she’d consider using it on, Zecora answered plainly.
“The pollen requires changeling fire,
For the cream’s true effects to transpire.
Without the blaze of a dispelling mask,
The gel alone isn’t up to the task.”
“Good,” Chrysalis muttered as her head sagged in unsteady relief. “This has already been a terrible day. I don’t need a stupid plant making it worse.”
“His heartfelt turn towards harmony’s light,
Seems to have cleansed the salve’s vicious bite.
However, your horn is covered with green goo.
If that blast was enough, it might still—”
Before Zecora could finish her warning, Chrysalis burst into green flames.
“—prank you.”
Left behind in Chrysalis’ place was a beautiful, silvery blue metamorphosed changeling queen. Gone were her holes and jagged horn. They were made whole and smooth with her sickly green shifted to beautiful gold. Her pale gossamer mane and tail became as blue as waves of the ocean. Their wavy beauty matched her shimmering, sky blue eyes that had softened with rounded pupils to reflect an everspring of love flowing within her.
The lovely butterfly looked at her hooves, and fluttered her beautiful wings in frustration. Her eyes narrowed, filling with self-loathing as she grit her perfectly straight, pearly white teeth. The fake reformed queen whispered bitterly with a voice as sweet as honey:
“I hate everything.”