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Chapter 22 - Freedom and lies.
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Pistil is with the queen in the cell, he had between his hooves some documents, several blank sheets of paper to write down, some quills, and ink.
"Well Ms. Chrysalis, I will transcribe your story to present it before the judge and the princesses, along with copies of the documents and the evidence you showed me it will be just an administrative procedure for the judge to sign the release order."
"But what about the princesses, don't I need permission from any of them to get out of here?."
"Technically yes, according to the law of Equestria, 1874-A and I quote `A princess may override her will over the other princesses in court cases concerning effective convictions if she has the support of a judge and if said princess agrees to have said convicted pony under her custody or surveillance`."
"So with these papers and a princess to sign them, I can go free?"
"Exactly, I already spoke with Princess Sparkle, and along with sending her greetings and an apology she promised me that she would sign in favor of your release."
"The distribution of state powers is confusing."
"They should imitate Yakyakistan's justice system, it's very simple and efficient."
"Then what should I do?" Asked the queen.
"Tell your story from the beginning and be as clear as possible, I will transcribe everything, make the relevant copies and present them to the princesses and the judge."
"I understand." Chrysalis cleared her throat and drank some water before beginning. "After the attack on Canterlot, I..."
Chrysalis told her story once again from the beginning and hoped it was the last time she would do it while Pistil wrote everything down and asked the queen things to write down for reference or to clarify the story, almost an hour later Pistil had everything written down along with a confession from the queen about the foalnapping of Clear Spark.
"Well Ms. Chrysalis, that would be all I need to present it to the judge and the princesses if all goes well your release would be in less than a week but there is still a problem I'm afraid I can't help you." Said the changeling putting away the papers and other instruments in the briefcase.
"And what would that be?"
"How do you plan to tell Clear Spark the truth, he's going to have to know when you get home."
The queen knew she had to tell him and she didn't know how to do it, she loved the foal like a mother, but she was afraid to tell Clear Spark the truth, the foal loved his birth mother, and knowing the truth would be a very hard blow at such a young age, but the lawyer was right, she had already put off telling the truth for too long and she should tell him when they got home, at least the queen and Clear Spark had many friends who would help and support them to get over it.
"I have many friends in Ponyville that will help us get through this, I know it will be a hard thing for both of us but we won't be alone."
"That's good to hear, so I am now going to Ponyville to get Princess Twilight to sign these documents and I will send the copies to the other princesses, in about two or three days we will be done with all of this."
Pistil said goodbye to the queen and traveled to Ponyville to talk to Princess Twilight, after getting her signature and giving her a copy of the documents he went to the post office to send a copy to Princess Celestia, Luna, and Cadance, it struck him that even though he was in his true form no one seemed to care much to see a changeling in Ponyville, some even greeted him.
Twilight was excited that Chrysalis would return to Ponyville, but now she would do it as the queen of the changelings, she wanted everything to be perfect for when the queen returned and she had a long list of things to do and the whole town was participating and helping in some way or another.
Cadance for her part when she received the letter about Chrysalis being released under Twilight's watch, felt bad for separating a family to get her revenge and made it a point to visit Ponyville in a few days to congratulate Chrysalis on her new life and apologize for her short-sightedness and not believing she could change for the better.
Luna when she saw her copy of the papers on Chrysalis' release was glad and filed them with the other documents she had on her little investigation of Chrysalis and Clear Spark, she was happy that everything ended well for everyone.
Celestia for her part did not take it well like the other princesses, she did not want to free Chrysalis but she could not do anything against a court order with the support of one of the princesses, even if she was her protégé and the new princess Twilight Sparkle, Celestia had to find a way to prevent Chrysalis from being free.
The big day had arrived and Chrysalis was released from the dungeon, Cadance regretted not being able to attend that day but promised to visit the queen with Flurry Heart in Ponyville, the little ones had gotten along very well and she wanted them not to lose contact, besides it would serve them both to eliminate old grudges and possibly start a new friendship.
Twilight stood next to Luna and a cheerful Celestia, there was also Cheerilee, Red Bug, and Pistil, all waiting for Chrysalis to come out the wooden door to greet her and congratulate her on her new life.
"You are unusually cheerful today dear sister." Luna said.
"I'm glad this all ended well and I hope Chrysalis has a beautiful life together with Clear Spark, that little one needs a mother, a real one." Celestia's words were left turning in the head of the princess of the night by the way she said them.
"When we all get back home I'm going to talk to Chrysalis and I'm going to help her in finding the best way to tell little Spark the truth." Cheerilee said.
"If you want I can help you with that, I have a lot of experience helping little ones with their problems in the dream world."
"Thank you Princess Luna, I know Chrysalis will appreciate your help."
The group continued to talk about different things until the wooden door opened and the queen walked through it approaching to hug her friends.
"Thanks for everything girls and you too Pistil, I couldn't have done this without you."
"You know we weren't going to abandon you."
"As princess of Equestria, I want to be the first to apologize if we caused any trouble, we didn't have all the information, and we acted on suspicion and grudges, but I hope we can put all this behind us and start over in Ponyville but this time as friends." Twilight said with a smile extending her hoof towards the queen.
"I would like that too Twilight, and has anything interesting happened these days in Ponyville?". Replied the queen waving the young princess back.
"Just monster attack and Pinkie's parties, nothing out of the ordinary."
"I have to get ready for the surprise homecoming party that Pinkie Pie organized?". Asked the queen with a bit of fear.
"You haven't the slightest idea." Twilight replied with an evil grin causing the whole group to laugh.
"I'm glad you were able to get out of prison Chrysalis, I'm sure Clear Spark will be happy to see you." Celestia said with a smile causing much intrigue in the queen at the sun princess' quick turnaround.
"Celestia, are you serious?". Asked the queen with much distrust.
"It's true Chrysalis, I'm sorry for causing you so much trouble and just like Twilight and Cadance I acted out of silly resentments but reading your confession I could realize how wrong I was, I hope you forgive me."
Chrysalis didn't believe that Celestia could change so much overnight and there was a possibility that what the princess said was a trap, but she couldn't deny her congratulations in front of the group and she had to accept them, after all this nightmare was over and she could live new peacefully with little Spark in Ponyville.
"Well thank you, I also hope to leave everything in the past and we can start again." Chrysalis extended her hoof in friendship and Celestia extended her own to reciprocate the greeting.
The group left the castle and walked through the gardens until they reached the palace gates when Chrysalis stopped abruptly before crossing the gate.
"Is something wrong?" Cheerilee asked.
"It's just... I was thinking of disguising myself to walk across town to the train station."
"So what's the problem?"
"I'm a new mare now, with a new life, a new family, and new friends, friends who know who I am and aren't afraid of me, friends who are waiting for me to return, for the first time in my life I can walk the streets freely, without fear of being seen, for the first time I am... truly free." Chrysalis slowly put her hoof outside the castle gates and took a deep breath of fresh air.
The group continued on their way to the train station where most of the ponies of Canterlot were stopping to watch the princesses of Equestria walk alongside the changeling queen leisurely through the city but as they reached the train station a large number of guards appeared and surrounded the group with their spears.
"Is something wrong?" Twilight asked.
"Chrysalis you are under arrest for the foalnapping of Clear Spark." A guard replied.
"I think you are in a mistake, the charges against Chrysalis were dropped this morning and she is now going to be on probation in Ponyville for Twilight." Replied Luna to which Chrysalis and Twilight nodded in agreement.
"We received the report a few moments ago from Clear Spark's mother, GUARDS!" Shouted one of the guards to which the rest closed the circle a little more and got into a battle stance.
"NO!." Shouted the queen. "This is a joke right?, I am not going back to prison, I have changed and now I am a different mare who intends to return home to her son and... get that pointy thing out of my sight." Said the queen annoyed hitting one of the spears and pushing it aside only for three other spears to take its place making the queen take a very nervous step back.
"Chrysalis calm down, surely it's a mistake." Cheerilee said touching the queen's shoulder to calm her down only achieving the opposite.
"Calm down?" Chrysalis took another step back. "I will not calm down Cheerilee, they will not lock me up like a bird again, I will not allow it, NO, I WILL NOT BE TAKEN AWAY FROM MY BABY AGAIN!!!" Shouted the queen before turning around and leaping over the group to tear off through the streets of Canterlot quickly getting out of sight.
"Stop her, don't let her escape!" Shouted a guard before the entire platoon took off in pursuit of the queen.
"We must help her." Twilight shouted to the group to which they all ran off in search of Chrysalis, Celestia came a little further behind trotting.
Chrysalis had her adrenaline at its highest level and her heart beating a thousand times a minute, she couldn't hear the ponies screaming in terror around her, she didn't know where she was running, and she was trying to concentrate to disguise herself but her mind only had two things at that moment, get out of the city and go back with Clear Spark, as she turned a corner she collided with some trash cans falling to the ground and making a lot of noise, a few seconds later Cheerilee and Red Bug appeared and they were the ones who heard the crash.
"Chrysalis calm down." Cheerilee said but the queen was in defensive mode and wouldn't listen to reason, she was only thinking about getting out of there.
"Please Chrysalis stop, I'm sure it's a mistake." Red Bug took a step closer to the queen.
Chrysalis backed up and tried to climb a wall like a trapped animal and when she failed she tried to fly away but she couldn't coordinate her flapping and ended up crashing hard against a wall falling to the ground a little dizzy, at that moment Luna and Twilight landed next to Cheerilee and Red Bug.
"Chrysalis stop right now." Luna shouted to which Chrysalis turned her head to look at the princess the blow brought the queen back to her senses.
"Lu-Luna?" Asked the queen somewhat stunned.
"Your friends are right and surely this is all a mistake, but if you escape you will only prove your guilt and we won't be able to help you."
"B-but I must get back to-."
"CHRYSALIS CALM DOWN!" Luna shouted. "Take a deep breath and calm down, we will work this out but we need you to calm down and breathe."
Cheerilee approached Chrysalis and stood at her side breathing deeply and calmly for the queen to mimic her movements, Chrysalis mimicked Cheerilee's movements and after a minute of breathing exercises the queen was able to calm down as guards arrived to apprehend her.
"Wait a minute!" Twilight shouted getting in the way and stopping the guards from approaching. "If you guys get close she'll escape again, we'll take care of escorting Chrysalis back to the castle."
"But we have orders to take the queen to the dungeon to-."
"Are you questioning my authority?" Twilight asked seriously approaching the guard.
"No princess but..."
"Good, then go back to the castle I will take responsibility for escorting Chrysalis, that's an order." twilight didn't like to use her authority over others but sometimes it was necessary, the guards nodded and retreated.
"Feeling better?" Red Bug asked to which Chrysalis nodded her head still doing the breathing exercises.
"Do we have to take her to the castle?" Cheerilee asked.
"I'm afraid so and it's surely a mistake but Chrysalis must come back so we can fix this whole problem." Twilight replied.
Cheerilee and Red Bug helped Chrysalis up and the three of them slowly walked back to the castle with Twilight following a little behind them, Luna left the alley just as Celestia came trotting onto the scene.
"Ohh... but how unfortunate for Chrysalis, I hope it's a mistake, well I'm going back to the castle, I'll wait for you for lunch sis?." Celestia asked with a smile.
"No Tia, I'm not hungry right now." Answered Luna very worried watching as Chrysalis went back to the Canterlot dungeon.
"Ok, see you later then." Finished saying Celestia walking away with a smile on her face.