“C’mon, gals!” Apple Bloom shouted. “She went into th’ Everfree Forest!”
The Cutie Mark Crusaders stood before the closest thing to an entrance they could find into the dark, unregulated woods. Over time, many of the stories about Everfree were disproven and forgotten, due largely to Zecora’s residence and the frequent trips made by the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. The fact of the matter, however, was that the forest was still extraordinarily dangerous, and the majority of ponies were still scared to venture within.
These fillies, of course, had relatively little fear of the forest now, especially Apple Bloom. She knew a mostly safe path to Zecora’s home, and she visited the zebra frequently with or without Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Everfree was also the site of some of their riskier, more disastrous attempts to earn their cutie marks, and their only issue had been with a cockatrice, which Fluttershy had fended off. Well, there was one incident in the past with a patch of poison joke flowers, but Scootaloo had demanded that they never speak of it again.
“Do we have to go after her?” Sweetie Belle asked. “She can handle herself, can’t she?”
“You’re not chickening out, are you?” Scootaloo teased.
“Of course not!” Sweetie insisted. “It’s just that the last time we came in here at night, we needed Fluttershy to save us.”
“Ain’t no better durin’ the day,” Apple Bloom stated. “Half the time Ah don’t even think th’ animals can tell the difference. Besides, she’s our friend, and we’ve gotta help her!”
“What could she possibly need help with?” Scootaloo inquired. “Those angry ponies aren’t gonna get anywhere near the Everfree Forest. She’ll be fine.”
Apple Bloom smacked her forehead. Scootaloo just wasn’t getting why it was so important that they find Chrysalis. Bloom knew she needed help, but it wasn’t anything to do with the mob. Her sister had always told her that she should seek out family and friends for comfort if she was feeling down, and after what happened at town hall, Chrysalis was just about the downest pony she’d ever seen.
“Scootaloo... remember when the front wheel and handlebars broke off yer scooter?”
“Yeah,” Scootaloo answered. “That week of waiting for it to get fixed was pretty rough. That thing’s practically my baby.”
“I think that was the first time you ever cried in front of us,” Sweetie added, smiling a little more than was situationally appropriate.
Scootaloo scowled at Sweetie, then sighed and turned back to Apple Bloom. “She’s right, I guess. I was more of a wreck than the scooter. If you guys hadn’t been there for me, I don’t know what I would’ve done.”
“That’s my point,” Apple Bloom explained. “Ya needed yer friends pretty bad after that. Miss Chrysalis is the same way right now, prob’ly even worse, and we need to be there for her. Ah’m goin’ in that forest and findin’ her whether y’all come with me or not.”
“If it’s for Miss Chrysalis,” Sweetie proclaimed, “then why wouldn’t we come?”
“And maybe if we do a good enough job,” Scootaloo suggested, “we can get our cutie marks in making changelings feel better!”
Apple Bloom glared at Scootaloo. “You’re seriously thinkin’ ‘bout yer cutie mark at a time like this?”
“You never know!” Scootaloo insisted, smiling sheepishly.
“This is serious, Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom scolded. “We’ve gotta find her and help her!”
“The Everfree Forest is pretty big,” Sweetie observed. “She could be anywhere in there by now. Where do we start looking?”
Apple Bloom smirked. “Where else? Zecora’s hut!”
When Chrysalis awoke, her first thought was that it didn’t feel like she was lying on the forest floor anymore. In fact, the surface on which she lay felt soft and cushioned.
When she opened her eyes, she realized she was lying on a bed. She remembered a pony addressing her before she lost consciousness, but could not recall the voice or the words. She was certain, however, that she was currently lying on that pony’s bed.
She looked down at her torso to find it wrapped in gauze, stained red around the chest area. The hospitable pony who took her in must also have treated her reopened wound.
Who could have recovered her from the Everfree Forest, though? It certainly wasn’t a villager from Ponyville, which would still be in unanimous turmoil. She doubted it would be any of her friends, least of all Twilight, who felt so unsafe around her that she’d thrown her out of town. The room looked far too humble and simplistic for it to belong to any of the princesses. Who did that leave, out of the ponies who knew she was here?
A number of factors played into the realization of the pony’s identity. The first was the recollection that those words she heard before passing out were spoken in rhyme. The next was Chrysalis glancing towards the open doorway, recognizing the cauldron and masks in the next room. The one that really drove it home was the sight of the pony herself standing in the doorway.
“Zecora...?”
“C’mon, gals!” Applejack shouted. “The Crusaders went this way!”
The six mares galloped in pursuit of the three young fillies, Spike desperately clinging to Twilight for dear life. Once they saw where their hunt was leading them, however, they stopped dead in their tracks.
“Th-th-the Everfree Forest!?” Fluttershy exclaimed, backing away frantically.
“What possible reason could they have for journeying into the forest alone at this time of night?” Rarity demanded, as if anypony present could accurately answer her.
“Ah don’t rightly know,” Applejack replied, “but Ah swear, when Ah get my hooves on Apple Bloom...”
“Cool your jets, AJ,” Rainbow Dash cautioned. “Save it for when we find them, which we’re not gonna do by just standing here talking about it!”
“Let’s get this search party started!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, inexplicably flinging confetti into the air.
“I vote we check Zecora’s place first,” Spike declared. “Apple Bloom’s pretty close to her, so I bet that’s the first place she’d go, and if she turns up there, so will Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Twilight, what do you think?”
Twilight didn’t answer. Her mind was barely even on the renegade schoolfillies. She was simply following her friends around while they fretted over the girls’ disappearance, and even then, it had been at Spike’s insistence.
She felt awful for not caring more, but it was because she was too busy feeling awful for what she did to Chrysalis. Cadance was right; she did the right thing the completely wrong way. She was never one to assume that the ends would justify the means, especially not if there were other lasting consequences to meeting those ends. What she’d just done could potentially have sabotaged her friendship with Chrysalis, a friendship that had taken so much heartbreak and hardship to forge in the first place. Who knew what Chrysalis might have been driven to do between then and now? Twilight prayed they wouldn’t find her hanging by her neck from a tree after several days, but she wasn’t convinced that there wasn’t a chance of it happening. She needed friends now more than ever, and all her friends had driven her away. Well, most of them; it wasn’t like the Cutie Mark Crusaders had any say in—
Twilight gasped. All at once, the pieces of the puzzle fit themselves together in her head. At the thought of the Crusaders, she suddenly realized where they went, why they went there, and who they went there for.
“They’re looking for Chrysalis.”
“Now just hold on a minute here,” Applejack stated. “How could ya know that? How’d ya figure it out?”
“They must have come to the same conclusion Cadance did,” Twilight replied, explaining without properly answering. “I think they followed her into the forest, just like we’re about to do, so she could have friends by her side.”
“I’m still angry at you for doing that, you know,” Fluttershy informed her. Twilight shrank back, not wanting to be subjected to another round of scolding.
“Spike’s right,” Twilight continued. “The first place they’d look would be with Zecora. Depending on her mental state when she ran through here, Chrysalis may have had the same idea.”
“Called it,” Spike declared, smiling smugly.
“Yes you did,” Twilight muttered. “This search just got a lot more urgent, girls. Let’s move out.”
And move out they did, storming into the depths of the Everfree Forest.
Zecora stood smiling by the doorway to her bedroom, keeping an eye on Chrysalis as she regained her consciousness. Dragging her from the forest floor all the way home was physically taxing and definitely didn’t do the changeling any favors, but it was refreshing to see her come to and realize where she was.
“You should have left me to die,” Chrysalis spat, though Zecora detected a hint of thankfulness in her tone.
“And exactly why would I leave you to die?” Zecora asked, still somewhat alarmed that Chrysalis would even say such a thing.
“Your potion worked all too well,” Chrysalis explained. “Chicane is alive and well. He remembers everything... and he holds me accountable.”
She sighed deeply, and Zecora could see tears welling up in her eyes. “All of Ponyville is against me, even worse than when they were against you. They have become violent, and I fear for the safety of my friends.” She paused for a moment, and when she continued, her voice was wavering. “They fear for their own safety as well. Twilight Sparkle... she told me I was a risk to them all, and she threw me out of town! I cannot turn to them, the subject I’ve fought so hard to save won’t let me turn to him, and I’ve made myself the enemy of an entire village, if not an entire kingdom! There is nothing left for me, Zecora. You should have left me at the mercy of the forest!”
Without a word, Zecora ran to the bed and wrapped Chrysalis in a hug. Those seemed to work often enough.
“We’re all clear on this?” Cadance asked.
“We’re not clear on anything!” Shining Armor answered. “Do you realize how much this is gonna take out of you, running around and performing all these spells? I don’t want you to overwork yourself!”
“It’s our best option,” Cadance insisted. “Chrysalis needs us.”
“And Chicane needs you,” Shining replied. “Heck, I need you. I won’t have you killing yourself over this!”
“Just wait for my signal,” Cadance ordered. “I’ll be fine. I’ll talk to you again in a bit.”
Without further warning, she cut the connection and very nearly collapsed to the floor. Shining was right about one thing; using the communication spell this many times would seriously exhaust her. Having already used it once before today, this one made her feel lightheaded, and she was certain it would be topped off with a headache later on.
“Why even bother?” a voice asked from the couch. “She’s not worth it.”
“I don’t want to hear it, Chicane,” Cadance demanded. “You should be resting right now.”
“I don’t want to watch you do this to yourself,” Chicane insisted. “Not over her.”
“You won’t have to watch me if you just go to sleep!” Cadance snapped. The foreseen headache was taking effect, and on top of the day’s events and the extraordinary stress, she was seriously starting to lose her patience. Mercifully, Chicane must not have seen the sense in arguing, and he shifted uncomfortably on the couch to face away from her.
Her aunts, the ruling powers of Equestria, were next. Wasting no time, not even to recover from the last spell, Cadance cast another communication spell targeting Princess Celestia. To her good fortune, both sisters were present.
“—where that rumor originated,” Princess Luna stated, Cadance seemingly having come in during a conversation. “You are far more slender than the average pony.”
“Neither of us are average ponies,” Celestia replied, “and it started because they’ve seen my appetite. I blame my own metabolism for it not showing in my appearance.”
Luna smirked. “Perhaps the weight all goes to your—” She stopped in surprise when she looked toward the spatial window beside them. “I believe we have an eavesdropper, big sister.”
Celestia followed Luna’s gaze to the portal. She smiled at first when she saw who was on the other side, but her face twisted into a look of concern. “Cadance? Are you alright? Is something wrong?”
“There’s not much time,” Cadance hastily explained. “Something terrible has happened in Ponyville, and Chrysalis had to go into hiding. She needs moral support, and she needs it now.”
“You disrupted our conversation for this?” Luna complained.
“Have care how you speak, little sister,” Celestia cautioned. “Cadance, what exactly happened? This isn’t about the newspaper, is it?”
“It must have been,” Cadance replied. “Apparently Ponyville’s gone into full riot mode. It’s so bad right now that Twilight thr—convinced Chrysalis to leave her care and skip town. She’s all alone, and at a time like this, she shouldn’t be.”
“I should have publicly pardoned her the moment I made my ruling...” Celestia lamented. “I’ll use this spell to contact Queen Chrysalis immediately. In the meantime... you look like you could use some rest.”
“How can I rest at a time like this!?” Cadance asked. “I still need to get back to Shining Armor to tell him it’s time to talk to Chrysalis, then I need to actually get in touch with Chrysalis herself—”
“I will talk to Shining Armor,” Celestia declared. “You’re exerting yourself far too much. You need to save your energy.”
“Not until I can help Chrysalis,” Cadance asserted. “She needs me. She needs all of us.”
A lengthy pause occurred between the three princesses. Cadance looked to her elders with determination, waiting for their response.
Ultimately, it was Luna who spoke. “Do what you must,” she decided. “Leave Shining Armor to my sister, but contact Queen Chrysalis posthaste. If you like, I could lend a hoof as well and discuss this with Twilight Sparkle and her friends.”
“I talked to her when all this was just starting,” Cadance informed her. “If I know her half as well as I think I do, she’s already on it.”
Chrysalis had no idea why Zecora tried the hug. Those never worked.
She certainly didn't feel any better, not even as she let her tears flow freely in the zebra's embrace. Her problems were going nowhere. The kingdom still hated her, her subject still rejected her, and her friends still evicted her. No amount of ponies ensnaring her in their forelegs would make any of that go away.
“What are you doing?” Chrysalis demanded.
“You were in a rut,” Zecora explained, “so I wished to try to alleviate your desire to die.”
“And you’re doing a fantastic job of that,” Chrysalis spat. “You should have left me. My well-being is none of your concern.”
“Your cries were impossible to ignore,” Zecora explained. “It was sorrow unlike any I’d heard before. And when I found you lying there, I had to bring you into my care.”
“Why!?” Chrysalis shouted. “What possible reason could you have to do this!? Why do you care!?”
“Because you are my friend.”
Chrysalis nearly went limp in her shock. The lack of rhyme did not even register. For just how long had she known Zecora before now? And yet a connection had already been made? For a fleeting moment, the notion seemed simply outrageous.
Then she began to recollect. Had it been any different with Fluttershy? With any of the others, save Twilight Sparkle? Almost all of her connections had been made within moments and cemented during the wait for Princess Celestia’s verdict. Pinkie Pie had practically befriended her on sight! Chrysalis had even taken the time to assist Zecora with her potion, so she may have done more to earn her friendship than to earn anypony else’s.
The train of thought came with a new feeling of guilt. She should have sought out Zecora in the first place rather than running blindly through the forest, and she only had either unconscious guidance or coincidence to blame for coming as close as she had.
The hug started feeling like it was working. Chrysalis returned it with great force, smiling for the first time that night.
The first knocks came as Chrysalis clung to the zebra, and a young voice called from the other side. “Zecora? Ah need to talk to ya! It’s important!”
Of course. Apple Bloom. How could Chrysalis have forgotten about her and the Crusaders? She had only seen them the previous day, and the event was one of the most pleasant she'd experienced in her time in Ponyville despite its brevity. It was through Apple Bloom and her sister that she had even heard about Zecora, and at this moment, she couldn't help but feel thankful for that.
“Go ahead and answer the door,” Zecora offered. “It just might be you she’s looking for.”
Chrysalis released her grip on the zebra, ready to ask how she could possibly know that, when she heard another, higher voice cry, “Please, Zecora! We need to find Miss Chrysalis!”
The voice belonged to Sweetie Belle. It was not much of a stretch to assume Scootaloo was with them as well. Apple Bloom had gotten the gang together just for her.
Chrysalis climbed off Zecora’s bed, wincing in pain as her chest wound reacted to the movement, and gingerly approached the door. When she opened it, she was greeted with the sight of the three fillies who called themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
The sight remained for only a second, as the girls immediately leapt up and tackled her to the ground, hugging her as she fell. She howled in pain as she landed on her side, aggravating the bandaged wound.
“That didn’t sound good,” Scootaloo remarked as the girls climbed off the injured changeling.
“Miss Chrysalis!” Sweetie Belle shouted. “Your chest! What happened?”
“It’s an old wound,” Chrysalis groaned, working through the pain as she sat herself upright. “I acquired it upon my first visit to Ponyville. It must have reopened as I was running through the forest.”
“Why were ya runnin’, though?” Apple Bloom inquired. “Ah thought ya woulda come right here to Zecora.”
“One seldom acts rationally under extreme emotional distress,” Chrysalis admitted. “I never even gave it a passing thought. I was so distraught by the actions of my friends in Ponyville that I neglected my other friend here.”
“We’re really sorry about what happened in town,” Sweetie stated. “Is there anything we can do to help other than just being here?”
Chrysalis was utterly dumbstruck. These three fillies took the risk of skipping town and venturing through dangerous terrain to find her, and now that they had, they wanted to help her. She couldn’t imagine how they would be able to, but just the fact that they were dedicated enough to her to make that effort...
She must really be getting soft, she realized, if such a sentiment could still bring a tear to her eye after everything else.
“Your presence is enough,” Chrysalis declared, wrapping the Crusaders in as tight a hug as her chest would allow. “Thank you. I had almost given up hope.”
As eased as her troubled mind was becoming, Chrysalis still dwelled on the day’s events as the fillies returned her embrace. It pleased her to know that she had not been shunned by all of her friends, but it still bothered her that the ones who had driven her out were the ones she was closest to. The moral support these friends strove to provide was also not enough to eliminate her concerns about the town and her subject. There was no way for them to fix all of her problems.
Still... it was nice of them to try and fix one.
As Chrysalis released her grip on the three girls, she heard three very strange sounds, akin to the tearing of the fabric of reality itself. Before her eyes, three spatial windows opened, each with distinct aura coloration. The first to appear behind the magenta-bordered window was Shining Armor, who seemed to be travelling through an expansive desert. The second was rimmed gold, showing Princesses Celestia and Luna in the throne room of Canterlot Castle.
The third opened into the residence of Princess Cadance, whose bright blue magic was straining to keep the window open. The princess looked spent, like she had been exerting herself far more than any magic-wielding pony ever should.
“What is the meaning of this?” Chrysalis demanded, partly in delight but mostly in confusion.
“Cadance said you were in serious emotional trouble,” Shining explained. “She told me she was getting a bunch of ponies together to get you out of it.”
“We know of the events in Ponyville,” Luna added. “It is truly distressing to hear, and to an extent, I am able to empathize. When I first visited Ponyville after—”
“I will not hear of it now,” Chrysalis interrupted. “I am more concerned about Cadance.”
“Don’t be,” Cadance insisted wearily. “I’m trying to help you. I’m trying to get you to see that you’re not alone, and that you shouldn’t feel like you are.”
“I think we beat you to that,” Scootaloo quipped, earning a glare from Sweetie and Apple Bloom.
“You should not have put yourself at such risk,” Chrysalis stated. “My well-being is not worth the jeopardy of your own.”
She heard a cry of “That’s what I said!” from Cadance’s background. The voice was recognizably Chicane’s. For the first time, she was hearing his physical voice rather than his thoughts. She became aware that she should not be as pleased as she was by the milestone, given the circumstances.
“You are also risking your patient’s well-being,” she remarked. “If you lose yourself to exhaustion, he will be left without care, and I will not have that.”
“If I didn’t think I’d be fine,” Cadance replied, “I wouldn’t be doing this. You’re my friend, Chrysalis, and I want to do everything in my power to make sure you get through this. This is still in my power.”
Shining sighed at his wife’s remarks. “You can be real stubborn when you want to be. You can’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“I will make sure she rests after this,” Celestia assured him. “For now, we must address the matter of Ponyv—”
Her speech was cut short by a second round of knocks at the door, followed by a cry of “Let us in, Zecora! It’s urgent!” Chrysalis glanced toward the window of Zecora’s home, noticing a great deal of activity on the other side. A fair group of ponies had gathered at the zebra’s doorstep, some of them trying to peer through the windows.
She recognized the seven individuals outside in an instant. When Zecora opened the door to let them in, the changeling couldn’t take the smile off her face. Their purpose for being here would likely be the same as the others’.
The instant that door opened, Twilight bolted inside and wrapped her forelegs around Chrysalis, screaming “I’m sorry” on an endless loop as she did so. The others came in wearing expressions of considerably less regret but equal amounts of sympathy, and they wasted no time in joining Twilight in her hug assault.
“I was wrong, I was so, so wrong!” Twilight sobbed. “I never should have thrown you out like that! I only wanted to protect you! I’m sorry I didn’t do it right!”
“Please don’t be mad at her,” Fluttershy insisted. “Or any of us. We wanted you to be safe, and there was no other way.”
“In her defense, you were getting pretty clingy,” Rainbow Dash added, getting a smack in the head from Applejack for her trouble.
“I really hope you didn’t think we abandoned you,” Pinkie Pie remarked. “I know what that’s like, and it’s really not fun to think that!”
Chrysalis couldn’t find the words to respond. Mere moments ago, she had been on the run, lying alone in a pool of dirt, leaves, and her own blood. She may never know exactly how, but in a short amount of time, she found herself surrounded by everypony whose lives she had influenced in her time in Ponyville. Surrounded by all of her friends.
She went from feeling abandoned to feeling utterly loved.
“Thank you all,” Chrysalis finally said, tears streaming from her eyes as she spoke. “Thank you all so much. I truly needed this. I don't know what I would do without you."
"Let's hope you won't have to find out anytime soon," Spike replied. He and the mares he arrived with released their grip on Chrysalis, leaving only Twilight clinging to her.
“So... you forgive me?” Twilight asked hopefully.
Chrysalis simply wrapped her forelegs around Twilight in a hug of her own. At the feeling of her grip, Twilight tightened hers, the two crying against each other as the only reconciliation they needed.
“It’s all gonna be just fine, sugarcube,” Applejack assured her. “Ya got us here to help ya through it.”
“And help you we shall,” Rarity announced. “Starting with the chaos in Ponyville. In their state, there is still no safe haven for you in town. Surely there is something else we can do to ease their troubled minds.”
“Troubled?” Rainbow quipped.
“Leave that to me,” Celestia declared. “Matters as serious as a town-wide riot fall within my jurisdiction. Queen Chrysalis, you are long overdue for a royal pardon. If anything will stop this madness, it is my word that you can be trusted.”
Chrysalis looked up from Twilight’s embrace. “You would really do that for me?”
“I’m ashamed of myself for not doing it sooner,” Celestia answered. “I will make the announcement immediately. Equestria will know that you’re no longer a threat, and in time, I’m sure you’ll be accepted and welcomed like my sister before you.”
Yet again, Princess Celestia had come in for the save. Chrysalis felt rather bad for leaving her to fix everything on her behalf, especially something as monumental as this. It almost felt wrong to use her as a tool to undo all of this damage that the princess had no part in causing. At the same time, however, it felt like Celestia had just lifted a gargantuan weight off of her shoulders, and she was not about to complain about her good fortune.
“I am once again in your debt, Celestia,” Chrysalis thanked her, cracking another smile. “You’ve been the solution to my problems more times than I deserve.”
Celestia chuckled. “One of these days you’ll find a problem you’ll be able to solve yourself.”
Chrysalis’ cheer sapped in an instant. As two of her major conflicts resolved themselves before her, her third conflict, almost forgotten in her rejoice, forced its way into the forefront of her mind. The one problem that directly tied into her purpose for coming back to this kingdom in the first place.
“Twilight?” she asked, releasing the mare in question. “Can your teleportation spell reach Canterlot?”
“I’ve used it to get to Manehattan a few times,” Twilight replied, “so Canterlot shouldn’t be as much of a problem. But... why?”
“Because there is a problem that I must solve myself. Take me to Cadance’s home.”
She sent out a thought, a single statement. It went unnoticed by the other ponies, unheard except by one. That one seemed to resist at first, but ultimately, everypony took notice of the cry of frustration from Cadance’s side.
Chicane. I’m coming to meet you.