Kai went in first to motion for Chrysalis to follow him. This came across as strange to those who were watching, sure that the queen should be in front and this funny looking thing should be behind her.
To their left sat the House of Commons, to the right the House of Nobles, and the royals on the dais straight ahead.
Cadence sneered at the Changeling queen, but regarded the human as something she was totally unprepared to deal with.
Cadence spoke in a watered down version of the Royal Canterlot voice, “Queen Chrysalis, you have been charged with crimes of invasion, kidnapping, acts of violence against officers, acts of violence against civilians, multiple acts of attempted kidnapping, desertion of property, attacks against two royals, and several other war crimes. How do you plead?”
Kai turned to Chrysalis with kind eyes and she answered them with harsh words, “I don’t want to do this you know.” Kai whispered back, “You don’t do the right thing because you want to anyway. You do it because it’s the right thing to do.”
“Guilty,” replied Chrysalis.
Cadence didn’t know what she had been expecting, apparently the Nobles didn’t either.
Kai made a graceful bow towards the Crystal Princess, “If I may, I would like to say something your highness.”
Cadence may or may not have agreed under different circumstances, but she wanted to find out as much as she could about this strange creature and allowing its question was the best way to find out what it wanted. “Speak,” Cadence commanded.
Kai looked up at Cadence with pleading and reverent eyes, “I assume you have been told about the Changelings ‘debt’ and
I have been told about your Crystal Heart. The Crystal Ponies more than anyone else are experienced in giving love away for free. They do so with the Crystal Heart every Crystal Fair. No one can be commanded to love and even if they could, it wouldn’t be a gift anymore. It would instead be a tax.
I want you to plead with your people to ‘adopt’ the Changelings as neighbors, thus donating them enough love to pay off all of their debt and break their curse once and for all.”
“YOU WHAT?!” screamed the two royals of the Crystal Kingdom. The Nobles present likewise began debating fiercely, “AND WHY WOULD WE EVER DO THAT?”
Kai explained, “They were once ponies just like you. If you became one wouldn’t you want someone to help you?
Unconditional love is doing for others just because it’s the right thing to do.
And, if you cannot let go of your grudge,” Kai put his hand over his heart like he was pointing to himself, “then punish me. I will take any vengeance that you have in their place.”
The only living thing in the room that had any certainty left was Kai. Everypony else was speechless because they had stopped thinking. They had no idea what to think of this, let alone what to say or do.
Cadence stared into the determined eyes before her, more imprisoned by them than staring at a cockatrice. She couldn’t even bring herself to want to object to him. Cadence noticed Chrysalis behind him was even more shocked than the others.
No one had ever done anything like this for her kind. Cadence stared at Chrysalis and remembered the last time she saw the Changeling queen. She felt like she was boiling inside, but no matter how hard she tried to ignore it, she still saw Kai standing there. Kai pacified her just as much as Chrysalis enraged her, leaving her feeling numb.
“Court will take a three hour recess,” said Cadence. Everypony needed a chance to take a breather.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cadence paced in the judge’s chambers. Shining Armor stood nearby, unsure what to say. Cadence pleaded with her husband, “What am I going to do Shining? We were the ones she hurt the most, but she tried to destroy our whole way of life! She’s a monster! But I can’t deny, that human has a point. Even if their queen is a monster, does that give us the right to turn our back on her subjects, subjects who used to be ponies and are now hurting?”
Shining answered, but it seemed he was trying to convince himself as well, “I’m not sure I can forgive her either, but I agree that we shouldn’t punish all the Changelings just because of her; but it isn’t like they are innocent either.”
Cadence growled at him, “If you’re trying to make me more certain, you’re not doing a good job.
If you think about it, HEALING the Changelings means BEING RID of the Changelings. Once the curse is broken, the Changelings will be no more. We can be free from there kind forever.
But on the other hoof, we would essentially be pardoning them of their crimes and aiding them in their goals, the same goals that they nearly ruined Canterlot to achieve.”
Shining Armor finally spoke, “I know. I feel the exactly same way.”
KNOCK, KNOCK.
Shining scowled, but answered calmly, “Come in.”
The doors opened revealing several Nobles from the Crystal Empire. The eldest, Old Ways, addressed Cadence, “Your majesty, we have been talking this over, and if you do not have an ideas, we may have the solution.”
Cadence had already been having problems with the Crystal Nobles before this trial. They were doing their best to make her a mindless puppet of a ruler so that they could rule from behind the scenes. Cadence was weary of their advice, but couldn’t deny the influence they had. Cadence asked, “What?”
Old Ways grinned, but it could not be seen under his beard, “We know that you have the power to reach into other ponies, or in this case, humans, and draw out the love they have deep down in their hearts and draw it to the forefront of their thoughts and feelings.
This human has taken the Changeling’s side and for reasons I personally don’t understand, the common ponies seem to have taken a shine to him; but neither the human nor the common ponies have heard much about her crimes.”
Cadence was growing impatient, “Get to the point, Old Ways.”
Old Ways bowed gently, “My apologies. In short, we want you to use your power on the human, but to draw the fear of the Changelings out of him, rather than love. Kai was not hurt by Changelings; let us give him some of your pains and he will turn on her, winning us the case.”
Shining roared at the Nobles, “What you're talking about is King Sombra’s magic! We would never ...”
Old ways continued, “It’s just one little spell. If he agrees, despite having your pain, she must be worth helping. If not, then even if her allies turn on her, we win. It’s simple.”
Cadence had been through enough. She didn’t want to start a civil war with the Nobles, she didn’t want to aid the Changelings, nor did she want to use Sombra’s magic. Cadence put her hoof down, “I will not force that tyrant’s magic on anypony! I guess he’s a human, but still I ...”
Old Ways interjected, “Then you will be happy to know that he agreed.”
Shining Armor and Cadence froze, “What?!”
Old Ways continued, “So what will you do? We got his consent and we’ve already excited the common ponies about this brilliant plan.”
Old Ways bowed and the Nobles left the room, “It’s your call of course, your majesty.” With that, he was gone.
Shining screamed to himself, “That fiend! That old goat already went behind our backs, tricked the human and rallied the commoners to agree with him!”
Cadence moved towards the courtroom doors, “We will simply have to make do.” She tried to sound confident, but Shining didn’t need to look hard to see she didn’t have a clue what to do. She had run out of ideas. Shining followed. For better or worse, he was always going to be by her side.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Cadence had the least confident eyes in the royal court and she was staring into the eyes of the one with the most confident eyes, Kai. Cadence wanted to plead with him one last time, “Are you sure about this? I’m going to give you all the bad memories and fears we collectively have of the Changelings. The Crystal Ponies may not have any, but we have many here from Canterlot to help us rebuild the Empire. We’re talking about dozens of Ponies worth of fear and mine alone is …”
Kai remained confident, “You’ve already said this a dozen times. I’m ready to do it.”
Cadence had lost. Old Ways had talked everypony and the human into this foolish plan. She had done everything she knew to talk him out of it, to no avail. “Alright then,” and with that Cadence’s eyes became like Sombra’s and she struck Kai with the magic of fear itself. It didn’t work at first because Kai was so powerful. He literally had to work to absorb the (comparatively) weak magic through his natural resistance to spells.
Kai began to remember events he had never experienced. He felt what all the ponies of Canterlot felt for the Changelings. Kai feared them and that drew out his wrath. He turned on Chrysalis with fury in his eyes, “You did this. You are responsible.”
Kai turned on Chrysalis and made ready to strike.
Chrysalis would normally have run away, but she knew that escaping from this Titan would prove impossible. Besides, their plan had failed. Without the help they had come here to get, restoring the Changelings would be impossible. Chrysalis closed her eyes and awaited her end.
SMACK!
Chrysalis felt that she had been hit with the same blast that knocked her out of Canterlot. Kai had swatted her across the face so hard she felt she might never breathe again. She might even have been sent reeling if he hadn’t brought the same hand back to backhand her and balance out the forces that were seeking to move her.
And yet, that was all there was. No stab through the heart, no mountain shattering blow, just a slap that knocked the wind out of her, accompanied by a furious look.
Kai screamed at her, “Chrysalis! We do not hurt ponies! Apologize right now or so help me I’ll beat some sense into you the hard way!”
Chrysalis was more afraid of the scream than the actual hit. She turned to Cadence and Shining Armor, “I’m sorry! I was just trying to help my people! I want to make things right. That’s why we came here!”
Kai’s eyes, which had (almost) completely turned like Sombra’s, now became his usual ones, and he resumed his perpetual calm.
Kai turned back towards Cadence with a bow, “I beat your Nobles challenge; now please keep your word.”
Cadence knew she should have felt defeated by this, but she didn’t. She felt glad that she hadn’t made friends tear each other apart. She spoke with purest happiness, “Yes of course, but why did you leave it at that? Not many are that forgiving.”
Kai raised an eyebrow like it was obvious to him, “Because she is my friend. When friends do something wrong you bring them to justice for their own sake; but even if your friend sells their soul to the devil, that doesn’t give YOU the right to change. You never give up on your Nakama. Never.”
All were speechless, until the leader of the common ponies of the Crystal Empire stepped forward and spoke, “You have proven to me that your will is unbreakable and your love unconditional. We Crystal Ponies live by the power of love, as we have for generations. We know that unconditional love is the most powerful and rarest kind. Even if no one else will, I will give you my support.”
Cadence stepped forward and addressed the Changeling Queen, “We certainly have our differences, but we are both ponies whose people live on the power of love.”
Cadence turned to the Noble Crystal ponies, “Let us help them.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Chrysalis had spent lifetimes planning every possible way to get the love needed to heal her people, but she wasn’t prepared for this. The Changelings had been gathered and the Crystal ponies had been assembled.
They had been told about the Changelings curse and had all come out to help, each of their own accord. Cadence walked up and stood alongside Chrysalis before addressing her, “They were under a curse until recently too, you know. They also need the power of love to survive. Kai was right. They are the perfect ponies to help your people.”
Cadence turned, teary eyed, to the Changeling Queen, “Forgive me for nearly letting a grudge ruin so many lives.”
Chrysalis turned back towards the heart, “You should thank Kai for now, but when my heart comes back, I will forgive and forget and say my apologies as well.”
Shining Armor approached the two and said the only thing he could, “It’s starting.”
Indeed it was. The Crystal ponies had begun what they had done before with Sombra. The power of love filled the Crystal Empire and the Changelings basked in its warmth. It was more love than they ever could have gathered but more importantly, it was a gift. It wasn’t love meant for someone else and it wasn’t being stolen or loaned, it was a gift.
But it still wasn’t enough.
Chrysalis spoke, “This is still not enough. It’s very close, but not enough. We still need a little over a hundred ponies more.”
Cadence wasn’t going to give up that easily, “We are almost there. We can’t fail because we’re short by just that much!”
Chrysalis lowered her head, “There is only one way. I can reduce the number of Changelings that need to be healed. Then there will be enough to go around.”
Cadence looked betrayed and growled at the Queen, “I was right about you! You’re talking about killing your own people so that there will be enough to save the rest of them. You …”
Chrysalis’s eyes began to glow and she backfired the spell she had powered up straight into her cranium.
All the Crystal Ponies gasped in terror and shock. The heartless queen had just made the ultimate sacrifice for her people.
The Changelings all began to glow with pure white light. Their queen’s sacrifice had worked. The Changelings all began to turn back into ponies of various races, right before passing on. Everything had worked. They Changelings were all healed, except one - the Queen.
Shining had run to his wife’s side. She had certainly needed it. She stared at him with guilty eyes, “She sacrificed herself.
She gave up her life for her people and the last thing I said to her was that she was a monster and that I never should have helped her. She may have made some bad choices, but she lived and died for her people. I was the monster.” Cadence then wept bitterly as her husband cradled her.
Kai had made his way to Chrysalis’s corpse and checked the pulse in her temple. “Stupid girl” said Kai “You hit your brain. You went straight into mental death. Do you know how hard that is to heal?”
Kai put his hands together as though he was praying, “But you have only died in the last half a day; so I can still heal you. Rinne rebirth - art of resurrection.
Kai placed his hands on Chrysalis and looked much, much older, his hair as white as snow, his skin as worn as leather.
Chrysalis on the other hand looked much better - alive! Chrysalis looked over to see her healer, who hushed her to say what he had to in what small time left till unconsciousness, “I won’t live unless you get me back to my crew. And they should be enough to heal you too.”
“You’re better now, so I need you to lead me to my friends. Lead on Chrysalis.”
Chrysalis lifted the human onto her back before turning back to Princess Cadence, “The ‘Changelings’ won’t remember anything more than a passing dream when they awake. Take care of them. I have three debts to repay now.”