//------------------------------// // Chapter sixteen: Summer wrap up! // Story: Kyōka Suigetsu, crumble! // by The Archiver //------------------------------// Pov: Queen Chrysalis (One week later and disguised as Jumping Bugs) I still can’t believe I let him talk me into staying at Ponyville for their Summer Wrap up celebration and help Aizen with his booth, of course I won’t be staying here the entire time, that would be ridiculous. At least I brought a few of my changelings here so they could passively absorb love while disguised. Speaking of disguises. I’m not publicly known about. Not even any of the widdle itty-bitty elements know about me, besides that pesky Twilight. Princess Celestia was a pain in my royal flank to deal with but she conceded only to the matter that Aizen would watch over me for weekly check ins. The progress on trying to find a sustainable source of love for my hive. He said that he’s close to figuring out a solution but for some reason I don’t believe him. For now, all he said that he could do would be to provide safety as he said that he would. I told him I’d only give it by the end of the month to show results. “Hey Jumpy, could you hang that up for me?” Aizen asks me. “Yeah, don’t understand why you couldn’t have gotten it yourself Sōsuke but sure.” I light up my horn and levitate a wooden sign and four nails above Aizen’s booth. Elegantly pinning it to the top of his small booth. “Thanks Jumpy, much appreciated. So now “Sōsuke Aizen’s illusionaire” booth is now complete.” “Mhm, well I’m not staying for this little ‘celebration’ Sōsuke. I have better things to do.” Cutting to the chase I’m not ignorant to Aizen’s disappointment, however I don’t care. “Aw… I was hoping you’d stay to help me bring a augmented reality experience to the ponies of this celebration. Also, you look very adorable. Your green coat and shiny purple mane look so cute together!” “Sorry not sorry. Now if you’ll excuse me I have queenly duties to get to.” I move past the first pony who happened to find this place to be interesting despite it being set-up mere seconds ago. Time to check on how Beetle’s stand is going. Accessing the hive mind I ping Beetle to get an immediate response back. “Yes my queen?” I hear him mentally ask. “Progress report. Approximately how much love will you be receiving this night?” “My estimate is around two months worth if rationed correctly. Ponies truly do love the idea of winning easily gained prizes and chocolates. I thank Aizen for supplying it for us. Also my agents running around should get up to a half a years worth if they look in the right spots.” His pride doesn’t go unnoticed by me. But I shall let it go, he deserves it. “Good, make sure not to blow any of your covers. Resume progress as normal.” I get an assortment of buzzes in return. I trot between the different roaming ponies who are moving between booths and stands. Passively absorbing love from other ponies around me. “What is a changeling to do in this situation? Boredom is something I haven't felt in a long, long time.” I feel a hoof tap me on my shoulder. “This had better be good.” Turning around I find a dark blue alicorn behind me with a shirt that says “blame my sister” on it. “Ah, so it is you. Greetings Chrys- I mean, Jumping Bugs, as you now go by.” I do have some fond memories with this mare. Can’t say I dislike her but I cannot say that I was too close to her either. “Hello Luna. Why exactly are you here at this pathetic get together.” “Jumping! This is not a mere ‘pathetic get together’ as you call it. The Summer Wrap up celebration is a wonderful time of year where the days finally get shorter and many ponies welcome me as they should. And most of all, you participate in a series of games that I always triumph in.” Wow, she really didn’t change. What a cocky little ball of energy, I suppose that was why we were best friends. Fine, she’s caught my interest. “Hm… I guess I could join in some of these activities if it means that I’ll show my superiority to these other ponies. Show me where we could start.” Luna points a hoof at some stage with a smile and starts to open her muzzle but it closes as a bundle of fireworks launch in the air, flying over our heads and in some other direction. “I pity whichever poor sucker that hits.” I sadistically comment. -Meanwhile with Aizen and his point of view- I’m here with not just Fluttershy but also Rainbow Dash standing in front of my booth. “Mhm, you’ll both be able to see practically anything, you name it and I’ll make it a temporary reality for you.”  “Shy, why’d you wanna give Aizen’s thing a try. There are so many other things we could be doing right now.” Rainbow tries to convince her friend. “Yeah I know…” Fluttershy quietly mumbled. “But I still wanted to give Aizen a chance with this one. He’s participating in the community after all and I’d like to see this kindness.” As they go back and forth I can’t help but wonder. “Why didn’t Spike use the Master Seal to turn into a Hero? Guess he’s probably bored or something, or maybe he’s too lazy to do so. I can relate.” “Fluttershy I’m not saying you shouldn’t give him a chance. I’m just saying that there are other, way cooler booths that are selling Daring Do merch.”  Rainbow Dash defensively told Fluttershy. “Well I still think that… Wait, did you hear that?” Fluttershy pauses in the middle of her sentence and looks around to see where the large whistling, like noise is coming from. Picking her gaze on upwards towards the source of the sound, the butter colored pegasus makes a small ‘eep’ before hiding behind Rainbow Dash. “Why is there a gigantic pile of bucking fireworks coming at us?!” Rainbow Dash panickedly grabs Fluttershy and flies her out of the way. I’d be lying if I said I was happy to stay silent that entire time. “Standing Ovation.” I snap my fingers five different times at the amalgamated meteorite and create five light-blue cubes on the fireworks. Clapping my hands together the boxes turn from blue to red and bisect some of the fireworks while containing the explosions of others. Multiple ponies who were duking under shelter start clapping their hooves and stomping them as well. I, as always, bow from my well deserved applause. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy both peak from under their cover before doing a slow walk to my booth “Uh, okay I think we’ll take you up on your offer.” Rainbow Dash shakily admits. Pov: Queen Chrysalis “Is this really necessary?” I ask Luna as she quickly ties some rope around both our forelegs. I never thought I’d ever even be caught dead doing a foalish activity such as a three-legged race. “Absolutely dear companion, if not this then what else? We shall win many tokens for our victories.” Luna rhetorically questions, there’s also a night guard staring suspiciously at me as he fits royal horseshoes on Luna’s hooves. Just as I’m about to continue arguing with Luna, a small pop is heard, signaling the start of the game. Luna sports a grin only a maniac could wear before taking off with me along with her. Forcing me to immediately start running at irregular speeds, already reaching the end in seconds. “Huzzah, we have prevailed in these trials once again.” The bucking crazy alicorn announces. “Huff why would you puff do that? I’m out of huff practice when it comes to breaking out into sprints like that… Dear Hive.” My heart is pounding at this point, I forgot how competitive this mare could be sometimes. “Come Jumping, there are many challenges for us to claim victory to.” Luna unties her bindings from me while an old stallion quietly walks over to us and hoofs over two small bags of silver coins. “This is one of the best parts of the Summer Wrap up celebration, the prizes you can win at the end are grand!” Luna leans down and takes her bag and hoofs me mine while thanking the old pony. Some pony waves her hooves in the air, wearing pitch black sunglasses. What a stupid stylistic choice. “Everypony who will be participating in tug of war. Come this way.”  Some dread had followed through me after hearing that. “Maybe I should’ve stuck with Aizen. At least now I know how I’ll be spending the rest of my day.” I mumble to myself. And I did, it was a pain to degrade myself with such meaningless activities. Stomping out the competition however, was a good feeling for me. I did get some actual love from Luna as tedious as it was to get. Nevertheless night soon befell upon us which gave me the much deserved rest at the end of all of this madness. The two of us found a secluded grassy spot to lay down at and stare the starry night.  “This spot is so dull Luna I can’t see why you’d ever find this enjoyable.” Seriously, this feels about as nice as breathing air. “Chrysalis I do not see what you mean. This is soft, smooth, and very paced. An excellent way to unwind after such wondrous games.” Defending such a useless celebration should be above a princess… Useless. “…Lulu?” I said aloud. There’s a soft ‘hm’ as a reply. Ugh how could I use her old nickname I gave her? “Do you ever think about where all those years went by? And why has everything turned out the way it is now?”  “Chrysalis…” Luna starts off. I knew this was a stupid question to even ask in the first place but I needed to get this off my chest, especially now. “Ponies… No, people like us cannot dictate what our future will be. We can only move forward and adapt to whatever comes our way. Aizen has shown me that multiple times, even after the Nightmare Moon event.” “But why, why do we act as though it never happened?! He wronged us both, he knew you were unstable and he knew he’d leave me so WHY?!” I can’t possibly put into words how I felt after he disappeared. There's one thing that comes to mind though, useless. Luna takes a deep breath and exhales. “Chrissy I let you say that because I know you required a release, still. None of us forgot what happened, none of the memories we made were forgotten, and I felt the same way as you did. There is a difference though. I had my old family when I got back but you stayed in the same place yet your family left you.” “That is going to change though.” Luna holds out a hoof at me. “We are still best friends as if it were the olden days, are we not?” A part of my past reaches out to her through me. I take and accept her hoof, gently shaking it as a loud *bang* is heard in the background, wonderful sparks dance through the air. We both fall to our respective sides and smile.