"Is that... her...?" Spike was standing on top of the hill overlooking the bench. On the bench was a pegasus mare with a stormy blue coat, and a long, black drooping mane.
He started on his way down the hill. Chrysalis noticed him not a moment later.
"Hello, baby dragon." Her voice was gentle and warm. She gave a kind smile towards Spike, her slate-grey eyes giving a sympathetic tone to her expression. "Meet the real me. Well, kind of."
Spike stopped in front of the bench. Something about the way she was acting reminded him a bit of Fluttershy, if Flutter were a little more confident in herself. "So, Chryssi..."
She held up a hoof to stop him. "The name of this form is Dragonfly. I would be very appreciative if you referred to me as such."
Spike smiled. "Alright, Dragonfly. What were these lies you told?"
Dragonfly sighed. "They weren't quite... lies. They were just omissions of the truth. Either way... the first thing... is..." She slid a book out from behind her. "I kind of stole this."
Spike looked at the book, then rose an eyebrow at Dragonfly. "Why did you do that?"
Dragonfly looked away. "There was a hypnosis spell in there."
Spike smiled. "Good. That's the reason I left it there."
"W...what?" Chrysalis stared at Spike in shock. "You left it there on purpose?"
"Well, yeah." Spike walked over and picked up the book. "You seemed pretty distressed about it, so I figured I'd help you out with your hypnosis problem. It's what friends do."
Dragonfly gave a slight smile, but quickly frowned and looked away. "The second thing is much, much worse."
Spike gave her another sarcastic look. "Ya know, building it up like that does nothing for you."
Dragonfly couldn't bring herself to look at him. "I've been feeding off of you consistently since the second day I was here."
Spike stretched and gave a slight yawn. "That would explain why I've been more tired. No big deal, though."
Again, Dragonfly stared at Spike in awe. "B...but... I... you..."
"Look, Dragonfly." Spike stared her straight in the eyes. "It's not a big deal. I decided around the third or fourth day that if you needed to feed off of me because you were having trouble feeding off of others, that would be perfectly fine. Though, considering what you said about the types of love yesterday, it probably didn't help that much..."
"That's what you're concerned about, baby dragon? Not about the fact that I hid it from you?"
"No. Not really." Spike smiled. "You're my friend. Sure, you probably should have told me, but you don't mean any harm by it. I already told you, I know you're a good pony."
Dragonfly shook her head. "There you go calling me a good 'pony' again. You do realize, baby dragon, that I am not a pony?"
"It's just a phrase, Dragonfly." Spike finally sat down next to her. "And besides, at the moment, you look like a pony to me. Unless I'm insulting you in some way..."
"Nonono. It's just..." Dragonfly looked away nervously. "It's giving me a weird kind of deja vu..."
"Oh." Spike couldn't help but feel that there was something suspicious about her response, but he decided to let it go. "Alright, Dragonfly. Anything else you feel the need to tell me about?"
Dragonfly put a hoof to her chin. "Umm..." She then looked at Spike and sighed. "I don't really have anything else pressing to tell you, but I guess I could tell you a little bit more about changeling monarchs."
Spike's eyes lit up. "Really?"
Dragonfly smiled. It was the kind of reaction she had been hoping for. "Now, I can't say much, because I'm still a bit uncomfortable about it..."
Spike nodded anxiously.
Dragonfly sighed. "Alright. Even though the Changelings live under a monarchy, the way that the monarchy works is quite peculiar. The next monarch normally comes along well before the previous one dies, and it isn't anything like bloodlines that decides the next monarch. It's something that's passed down... in the most cruel way possible."
She looked away from Spike. "I... don't quite want to say anything else about the passing of the crown. But I can tell you a bit more about what makes the monarchs different from normal changelings."
"A...alright." A lot of the excitement had drained from Spike. He had stumbled across something a lot darker than he had hoped for.
"First of all, there is only ever one changeling monarch at a time. That may sound kind of weird to you, considering how much royalty exists in your society; but it's the truth.
"Secondly, whereas normal changelings can only speak when they are transformed, the monarchs have a speaking voice in their changeling form. While changelings have no reason to be able to speak to ponies while undisguised, for some reason, the monarchs are give the ability to anyway.
"Thirdly, only changeling monarchs can disguise as Alicorns. If you remember, changelings can't disguise as anypony bigger than them; only ponies that are the same size or smaller.
"Finally... changeling monarchs cannot remember anything before they became monarch."
Spike's jaw dropped when he heard that last statement. That meant...
"When did you become monarch?"
Dragonfly looked at him, surprised. She then turned away. "One month ago."
"S...so... What you're telling me..." –Spike was stammering, barely able to get his words out– "is that you can't remember anything from before a month ago?"
She nodded slowly.
"I... I'm sorry." Spike looked away regretfully. "I didn't mean to pry..."
"No, no." Dragonfly finally brought herself to smile at Spike again. "I have no problem telling you. You're... my friend, right, baby dragon?"
Spike looked up at her. He smiled. "O...of course!"
Dragonfly closed her eyes. "Good." She slumped back in the bench.
"Tomorrow's the last day, huh?"
Dragonfly opened an eye to look at Spike. "What?"
"Well, the deal was that you'd come back here every day for a week. Tomorrow's the last day of that week."
Dragonfly looked away slightly. "R...right."
"Either way..." Spike hopped off of the bench. "Looks like it's Luna's shift once again. My cue to go. I'll see you tomorrow." He began to walk away.
"Wait!"
Spike turned back to look at Dragonfly. "What is it?"
She smiled the most honest, genuine smile that Spike had ever seen from her. "Thank you," she said, her voice breaking ever so slightly.
Spike gave a nod, and then continued on his way home, blissfully unaware of the tears that were in Dragonfly's eyes.