//------------------------------// // The Queen's Kite // Story: The Black Heart // by Wooden Wheel //------------------------------// Queen Chrysalis was sitting on a grassy hill on the outskirts of Ponyville, with her back turn to the town. Beside her was no one but Starlight Glimmer, the pony whom she had threatened to unleash an inconceivable revenge upon her; both looking towards the sky, seeing a pair of kites flying. Starlight's was a multicolored 'Box Kite' built with a mastery that could only be achieved with years of experience. The Queen's kite was a 'larger than usual' hexagonal one; to no one's surprise, black accompanied with teal ribbons. And although its design was crude, denoting that this could very well have been her first, Chrysalis showed an unusual joy as she put it together, much to Starlight's delight. And while Starlight held the thread of her kite with her magic, the thread of Chrysalis's kite was tied to her right foreleg, around one of its holes. Looking at her kite with a contained joy disguised with a frown, ignoring the lecture on kites and how to fly them that Starlight was giving her, something inane about the weight balance of the spars, Chrysalis rewound for the umpteenth time the events of the previous day and the morning of this one. She remembered when Twilight broke the news to her that her next interaction with a Pony would be with Starlight Glimmer. In those moments Chrysalis' blood boiled with rage at that notification, how could it not? Starlight Glimmer was the Pony, no, probably the creature she hated the most in the world; of course she did not make this apparent to the Princess of Friendship. That night she could barely sleep, planning every horrible thing and merciless punishment to which she imagined subjecting that loathsome unicorn, to the point of needing to buy a new set of pillows, since her current ones ended up playing the role of Starlight in her most heated temperamental moments. In the morning, seeing Starlight Glimmer sitting at the table, talking with Twilight and Spike... the Queen still felt hatred for her, but now it was as if inside her there were only the smoldering ashes of the raging fire that she felt yesterday for the unicorn. "Good morning, Chrysalis. Come, sit with us," Starlight said once she saw the Queen standing in the threshold of the entrance to the dining room. Chrysalis remembered coming in and taking her place at the table, and throughout the breakfast they didn't exchange another word. Between bites, she was trying to measure the lilac Unicorn. Just like on all the previous occasions when she caught a whiff of her emotions around the castle, Chrysalis couldn't detect any negative emotions on her part towards her. In truth, Starlight was neither worried nor afraid of the Changeling Queen. She was, for all intents and purposes, content. Once breakfast was over and Twilight and Spike said their goodbyes and left them alone, Chrysalis tensed, thinking that this would be the moment when Tartarus would be unleashed between the two of them, but whatever the Queen expected to happen, it never came. Instead, the Unicorn simply asked the Changeling to accompany her. Twilight had taken her to a library (even if it was inside her castle), Fluttershy took her to the forest, Rainbow Dash to that pegasus gym, Rarity to a restaurant and subsequently to a Spa, and lastly, Applejack took her to the town market. Of all the places Chrysalis thought Starlight might take her to, she never even remotely imagined that it would be a craft store. Inside, the Unicorn asked her to choose some specific items and with which, to her confusion, they began to work with them to shape the kites that were currently flying through the air above them. "What are we doing here?" finally asked the Queen, not being able to bear the lack of understanding of her situation any longer. "Flying kites, is not that obvious?" Starlight responded, giving Chrysalis a quick glance before returning her attention to her kite. "Ugh! I know that!" shout out the Queen, clearly upset, not only by that answer, but by the honesty of it; Chrysalis's Changeling senses were telling her that Starlight was neither patronizing nor pitying her, which only made her incomprehension greater; If the response had been full of mockery or sarcasm, that would have at least brought some understanding to her annoyance. "What I am asking is: Why are we doing so?" "Some ponies do so for the joy of it, others find the activity exhilarating, if you can believe that. I really like kites. I just think it is a therapeutic activity." "Really?" asked the Queen, unamused after a few seconds of silence in which she digested that answer. "You bring me here not to share a profound lesson in friendship or a great speech with the intention of making me change my way of thinking, but to fly kites, because you think it is a relaxing activity." Chrysalis wanted to scream and show her fury towards Starlight, but every time a scowl come to form on her face and her voice reach that threshold of becoming a scream, her attention and concentration needed for that were taken away by her kite, shaking at her movements, risking crashing it to the ground; and because that was the Queen's kite, it took priority above everthing else to keep it in the air. "It is just what I think you need," said Starlight with her full attention on her kite. "It is one of the things that help me out to keep away intrusive thoughts. “You see, I was like you once." She continued. "Thinking I was above anyone else, that I could dictate how things should be done. And, let's just say that... that when my views on life were challenged..." Starlight paused to take a breath and collect her thoughts. Bringing back her past actions turned out to be difficult, too much guilt, regret and shame attached to that; much to her relief, it turned out not to be as difficult as she had originally believed; maybe it was because enough time had passed, or because she was telling it to someone she knew could relate better than any of her friends. "I lashed out and tried to hurt ponies, really hurt them. I didn't care if I hurt myself or others in the process, as long as I hurt those I saw as the ones who wrong me." Starlight concluded. "How dare you, Starlight Glimmer!" Chrysalis howled, finally managing to give her full fury to the mare next to her and at the same time keep her kite in a healthy position in the sky; with Starlight Glimmer reacting with a mix of shock and surprise to the Queen's outburst. "How dare you?" Chrysalis repeats, continuing her rant. "Our situations are nothing alike and we are not the same! I am fully aware of your past actions, Glimmer, and why you are so ashamed of them. "You were nothing but a mere child who felt that the world had taken something away from you, and in retaliation you were going to take away something from the world. All that you did, you did it for yourself, to make yourself feel good, to make yourself feel better, and nobody else. I, on the other hoof, am not ashamed of anything that I did, because nothing I did was for personal aggrandizement, to stroke my ego, or pushing a personal agenda; all of it was for the greater good of my race, for my Changelings! Your problems could have been solved with therapy and knowledge of the concept of pen pals!" Finished Chrysalis, directing the most angry and indignant expression possible towards Starlight. Starlight frowned and brought one hoof to her lips in deep thought about what the Queen had said. The way she speak of, her high sense of personal importance bordering on narcissism, her need to divert attention to other people's failures, among other small details, all of this seems oddly familiar to her. Where have I seen a similar behavior? And after a couple more seconds of contemplation, Starlight realized that Chrysalis was looking for a conflict on purpose. She couldn't be careless and fall for such an obvious ploy. She had to be smart. She was no longer the young (relatively speaking) student of friendship who had failed to convince the Changeling Queen to turn a new leaf so long ago. Now she had graduated and become a Master, well, technically an experienced Guidance Counselor in the process of becoming Principal of the School of Friendship, but let's not digress into specifics. This was as much a new opportunity for Chrysalis as it was for Starlight, and this time she knew she couldn't settle for just trying. What is my best course of action here? Starlight pondered. Countering her argument is out of the question, that is exactly what Chrysalis want and what I must avoid. Maybe a passionate and impromptu friendship speech? Negative, that is not what she need. Guilt-tripping her would be a waste of time, Chrysalis already made it clear that she doesn't regret anything, not to mention that this would irritate her. How should I respond? And then Starlight realized that she was overthinking it, and not only that, she was overthinking it in the wrong direction; and for a second there, she almost smack her face with a hoof. Starlight had almost forgotten that Chrysalis wasn't a student seeking a lesson in friendship; she was a 'repentless villain'. She shouldn't treat her in the same way... and, luckily for her, she didn't need to either. And when that realization finally dawned on her, Starlight looked at the Queen with a sly grin. "You don't believe a single word you just said about yourself, do you?" Slowly, very slowly, the judjamental scawl on Chrysalis face began to transform in to a smile. "Only half of them," the Queen manages to say, and soon enough both mares start laughing to the tears. The next few minutes, they both pass them in silence, contemplating their kites in the sky. "You know what? This is actually therapeutic." Confided Chrysalis.