A New Home II: A Queen’s Revenge
Original Story by APoeticHeart
Alternate Ending by Sonik (A.K.A Sonikclaw2)
(Note: Starts where chapter fourteen begins.)

Forgiveness for a Queen

After they left behind their three new allies to fight the few remaining changeling drones, the Elements of Harmony and Princess Cadence soon found themselves entering the Canterlot castle. Immediately upon entering the castle, chills of intense shock coursed through the veins of everypony-fowl darkness ran rampant throughout the once creatively colored and magnificent castle, and it seemed to have swallowed the entirety of the now forlorn structure. It was an omnipresent feeling, and it felt completely unreal to the group of ponies. The entire interior of the castle was a murky dark-gray or black color; the windows held a creepy, dark-green luminescence to them.

“The interior of this castle has become just ghastly,” Rarity scoffed out of pure disgust with the sight before her. “Chrysalis must really like the Gothic style of fashion. Bleh!” she coughed out.

“Yeah! She must enjoy parties that are eerie, bleak and totally not any fun at all!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing alongside the others. A frown soon etched itself on her face as she continued being unnerved by the inkiness of the large fortress.

“Alright, girls! Cadence and I will go to look for Princesses Luna and Celestia! You five go and try to find Toby!” Twilight instructed, stopping and turning toward the others.

A fierce look of determination soon found itself on each of their faces as they nodded and grunted in agreement. The two groups soon split off, attempting to find their destinations. Along their hunt to reclaim Toby, the five ponies decided to break off on their own to make it a quicker process.

While traveling through the vast maze of corridors that the keep held, Fluttershy could hear a sound deep within her heart. It was a desperate cry for help, and while it was drowned out at first, it became louder as she traveled along the hallways.

‘Oh, no! That sounds like Toby’s cry!’ Fluttershy thought to herself. She stopped for a moment in attempt to hear the cry more clearly. ‘Momma, please help me! Please, momma…I need you…’ she could hear in the core of her very being.

A spark of tears shot forward from her eyes as a new type of determination shot through her body. It was a true adrenaline rush of raw power, and it seeped through her very being.

‘Don’t worry my precious, little one! Momma’s coming for you!’ she cried out in her thoughts as she lifted herself off the ground with her wings and darted forward through the labyrinth.

After what seemed like a terribly agonized eternity of looking through the many twisting hallways in the rook, Fluttershy began to hear something, not in her heart but with her ears. As she sped along the lobbies of passages, it became closer until she came upon a door at the end of a lengthy hallway. The door had a sun carved into the top center of it, and Fluttershy knew by instinct that this was Princess Celestia’s dorm. She walked up to the door and placed her ear against it. She could hear uncontrollable sobbing from her position through the door, and she knew that this would be the ultimate showdown. With an increasing bravado coming through to her, she spoke through the crevice of the door.

On the other side of the door, Toby lay on the floor in the corner of the room. Chrysalis was asleep on a royal-purple and light-green carpet and hadn’t heard Fluttershy’s gentle voice. Toby, however, did hear the voice, and stopped sobbing for a moment to make sure that he had heard her voice. After a few moments with no further voices, he decided to call out himself.

Fluttershy heard his voice and had some sort of relief, knowing that he was still alive and sentient, out of Chrysalis’ demanding control. Salty tears of reassurance rolled down her cheeks. She backpedalled a few steps before lifting herself off the ground once again.

In a wave of unprecedented valor, she shot herself forward, twisting her body slightly so that her shoulder would ram into the door. She made herself into a battery ram.

Once again, she rammed into the door, but to no avail. Again and again, she kept careening herself into the fine, wooden door. Each and every time she slammed into the blockade, her shoulder stung more and more, but she knew that this was an easy obstacle compared to Chrysalis, so she suffered through the pain.

Chrysalis heard the banging on the door in front of her and yawned, not lifting herself up. The very sound of just her yawn caused Toby to silence himself from fear. She looked over to her morsel of emotional food and allowed herself a moment to wake up before sitting up on her haunches, unchaining him from the marble floor underneath him and carried him directly behind her with magic. She chained him to the floor once again, this time with chakram-like cuffs. She gave herself a second to stretch herself out, fainting a grin upon her dastardly face.

The sound of a few pairs of hooves came from behind Fluttershy and presently after, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie Pie each came forward from around the corner of the hall. Rainbow Dash was the first to approach her.

“Fluttershy! Stop!” she ordered, but received no sign of acknowledgement from the butter-coated mare. She flew beside her friend, which was difficult in the limited space of the hallway. “Stop! You’ll wake up Chry-“ she started, but was cut off by a scream.

“Momma!” Toby shouted, gaining Rainbow’s utmost attention. Meanwhile, Rarity was holding Fluttershy back in her periwinkle magic.

“Rarity, let me go! My baby is behind there! I need to save him!” she pleaded.

“I understand, darling, but-“ Rarity began but stopped when she saw a malicious, light-green aura surround the doorknob of the door.

A clicking noise could be heard as the door slowly swung itself open, creaking oddly every inch of the turn. Fluttershy and the others carefully advanced into the room. They spotted Chrysalis, each of them staring with deep anger into her harlequin eyes. The looks of ire in their eyes brought a wide grin to her face.

“Where is by son, Chrysalis!?” Fluttershy ragingly asked, with near-murderous intent lacing her eyes.

“Ah…so, my tasty, little morsel of food really is your son after all,” she cackled, taking a few steps to her left.

She revealed a disheveled Toby before them. His clothes had a few rips and tears along them, and his body physique was startling to them. His head was hung down, and he was trembling rapidly out of both fear and how cold he was. He looked much skinnier now than he had on his birthday, and he had much paler skin, too. They couldn’t tell his stature much more than that due to the darkness of the room and his clothing, but they could tell he would be in serious life danger if he didn’t eat or become hydrated soon. The five mares before her all gasped and Fluttershy put a hoof to her mouth.

Fluttershy galloped toward Toby, but found herself being launched back by a barrier that she couldn’t see. As she flew back, she could see the jade transparency of the shield ripple along a spherical area in the room, extending all the way to the walls. Fluttershy got back up once she landed and looked harshly at Chrysalis.

Before Chrysalis answered her, Toby lifted his head up, showing to them his tear-ridden face. They were all taken aback; each of them had tears that were attempting to escape from their eyes from the sight of complete despair that filled his face. He attempted to slide toward them on the ground, but the glowing, green shackles around his wrists cut into his flesh as scars appeared. He winced out of pain before giving another look.

“Auntie Rainbow, Auntie Pinkie, Auntie Rarity, Auntie Applejack, Momma…” he addressed, crying once again, “I’m so sorry…This is all my fault…” he despaired, looking back down to the ground and shivering. Fluttershy couldn’t contain her tears any longer and let them slip down her cheeks.

“No, my precious, little one, please don’t blame yourself. Nothing of this is your fault. You’ve had no control over anything that’s happened in the past couple of days,” she begged in attempt to deter him from self-blame. Her lip quivered in sadness. Chrysalis ill-intently grinned wider.

“Aw…” Chrysalis falsely cooed. “This is such a tender moment…I wish it could last forever, but I have to deny further actions from you,” she spitefully remarked.

A nasty emanation swirled around Chrysalis’ horn that lit the room around them. Patterns of various things, such as stars, butterflies and rainbows began spinning throughout the room, and they suddenly became multicolored. They all honestly felt like they were in an acid trip and found themselves wandering off from Chrysalis, onto the various figures. Even Fluttershy found herself struggling to keep her focus on Chrysalis. Before they could respond to the LSD effect around them, Chrysalis shot out a beam of grass-colored energy around them, shocking them all with cursed energy and sending them flying back into the wall behind them.

“Momma!” Toby shouted, seeing how much that had to have hurt them. He saw her trying to lift herself up, but she was struggling hard.

Deep pains aroused her body, both in a physical and emotional sense. She gave her hoof to Rainbow Dash beside her in order to assist her.

“Oh, look at that! Not even Celestia’s precious Elements of Harmony can touch my power!” Chrysalis bragged.

“Momma is fine!” she informed as the others each stood up one by one. Rarity was the first to speak.

“Okay, you beast,” she started, swinging her head back to get her mane out of her face, “normally, I would be hesitant to participate in such barbaric activities, but if that is how you will handle the situation. I will be honored to rip you to shreds!” she threatened.

“Rarity’s rahght, ya no good scoundrel. If you want to continue hurtin’ our little nephew, you’ll have to go through us!” Applejack supported.

“Yeah, you big meanie pants! Nothing gets away with hurting our little-wittle nephew!” Pinkie contributed with a growl.

“That’s right, you hag! If you mess with my little pal, you’d better be ready for a good, old-fashioned bucking!” Rainbow Dash supplied. Chrysalis arrogantly grinned, releasing a small giggle.

Well then, this should be fun,” she chuckled, uprising an eyebrow to her foes.

Her horn once again glowed with the green energy. Toby shook in his shackles, still trying to break free. Chrysalis turned to the young human and gave a fanged smile.

“Say good-bye to your family, little one!” she guffawed, shooting her dense beam of energy straight at the mares.

The beam of energy spread out once again, approaching the mares. Before it hit, though, the beam bounced off an invisible wall, quickly ricocheting around the room. Chrysalis looked confused for a moment, trying to follow the movement of the beam to dodge it. Before she could spot it, however, it hit her in the left side. She gave a low grunt of pain, but was fine otherwise.

“Ooh, heheh…Is that really the best you’ve got, Chryssy?” a sly voice ringed throughout the room.

The next moment, a flash of light revealed Discord in front of the mares. A deep concern roused his face as he took a look at Toby. He gave an angered glare to the changeling queen.

“Don’t worry little guy, I’ll free you,” he braved, giving a snap of his talon. He expected the chains around Toby’s wrists to break, but nothing actually happened; a look of shock printed itself on his face.

“Even the ‘Almighty Master of Chaos’ can’t touch my magic!” Chrysalis snarled, using her magic to wrap him in tight binds, slamming him hardly into the floor. “Now, be a good, little draconequus and bow to your true ruler!” she charged, gaining an angry glare from Discord.

‘This is all my fault! She’s only so powerful because I love my family so much…’ Toby thought as he brought his head down to his hands, burying his face.

“Oh, I promise to you, Chryssy, you haven’t won ye-“ he started, but was cut off as he was squeezed by his bindings.

The present mares looked on in shock at how easily their friend was incapacitated. A deep growl was emitted from Chrysalis’ throat as she stomped her fore hoof in front of Discord’s face, causing him to recoil slightly. She turned around and began to walk.

“You will bow only to me, your queen, you intolerant, little pile of waste!” she snapped at him, looking to Toby. “Let me give you a taste of what will happen if you further decide to disobey your queen!” she angrily shouted, shooting a beam at Toby. Toby was lifted off the ground as he shook with convulsion in her magic.

“Ah!” he cried out of intense pain, being launched back into the wall behind him through his wrist chains.

He slammed into the wall, wincing in agonizing pain as he slid down. He eventually dropped off the wall, hitting the ground face first. His wrists were nearly snapped as he lay motionless on the floor. His breathing became shallow.

Fluttershy, having witnessed what could’ve been the death of her child, was immediately thrown into lividness. An anger greater than that she had ever felt showed itself around her body as she almost glowed with pure rage. She looked up at Chrysalis, breathing heavily and gritting her teeth. She used her strength to force herself up before screaming at the queen. The look she had in her eyes was completely intent on killing; a raging fire was looming through every fiber of her being. A chill was sent down everybody in the room’s spines as she took a step forward.

“Will…” Fluttershy continued, taking a large step forward. The ground cracked as she slammed her hoof down.

Before Chrysalis could respond, Fluttershy launched herself at her, slamming into Chrysalis. She gave a deep, guttural screech as she slammed her hooves into the ruler's chest, causing her to lose her breath.

“You monster! I will destroy you! I am going to make it so that you will never see the light of Equestria ever again!” she howled, bringing her hoof up and then back down on Chrysalis’ neck. She pressed as hard as she could on the now helpless changeling, attempting to shatter bones or at least strangle her; Chrysalis gasped desperately for breath before growling.

“You…insolent pony…do you think you can intimidate me that easi-“ she started, but was cut of when Fluttershy smacked Chrysalis as hard as she possibly could across the cheek. A light-green mark was left as she recoiled.

“Chrysalis!” a regal voice came from the door as Celestia and Luna walked into the room.

Fluttershy turned her attention to Celestia for a moment, allowing Chrysalis to throw her off. Chrysalis didn’t seem to care that the princesses had arrived as she took a deep gasp of air. Fluttershy used this to her advantage and galloped over to Toby’s form. She lowered herself to all fours, lifting Toby up into her fore arms. She cradled the boy instinctively, without even a thought. Tears fell like rain from her eyes.

“Please, my baby, stay with me…Momma will make everything better,” she begged as she lifted herself up with her wings, still holding Toby. “I need to get him to the hospital!” Fluttershy shouted to the group of mares behind her, who all nodded in agreement.

She flew toward the balcony of the roof, but was stopped by an invisible force field. The recoil she suffered caused her to drop Toby to the ground. She shrieked, immediately dropping to the ground next to Toby.

“Toby!” she cried. She took a quick turn around and saw Chrysalis glaring down at her.

“You foolish pony. Did you truly believe it’d be that easy to get rid of me?” she asked, snapping her jaw in Fluttershy’s face. The other’s had stood up by this point and were ready to attack. “Let it be known that Equestria will bow down only to me, its one, true ruler!” Chrysalis boasted loudly, charging her horn, Out from behind Celestia and Luna came Riley, Kevin and Nikolai.

“Not so fast, you witch!” Nikolai shouted, catching Chrysalis a bit off her guard.

“Chrysalis, do thou honestly think it’s that easy to get us out of the way? If so, thou are little more than a foal!” Luna said in her royal Canterlot voice. Chrysalis’ brows gave a furrow of anger but was soon replaced by a small smile of cockiness.

“Of course I didn’t, you hack,” she poisonously spat at Luna, earning a face-scrunch of anger from the commander of the moon. “No matter, because you are all to fall by my hooves!” she shouted, charging for another blast. Nikolai stepped forward, electing a look of confusion from Chrysalis. “And what do you think that you’re doing, weakling?” she quizzed.

Nikolai didn’t acknowledge Chrysalis’ statement as he shut his eyes tightly. He took the deepest breath he could muster and opened his eyes with an entrancing glare. Where his pupils and irises used to be were crimson-colored stars. The whites of his eyes were dusk-black. Tears were flushing from his eyes at a rapid rate. Chrysalis took a look into his eyes and found himself entranced by the strange stare as her own eyes also turned into crimson stars. She found that she was unable to speak and unable to move. Frozen in place, she was at the mercy of her foes. Without looking away from Chrysalis, Nikolai unsheathed his secondary katana, passing it to Kevin.

Kevin galloped speedily up to Chrysalis, giving a fierce battle cry. With one swift movement, he slashed upwards, the katana clashing against her horn. A high, shrill cracking sound could be heard as the blade cut its way through her horn, eventually slicing through the other side. Her horn was now split into two pieces-a smaller one that was still connected to Chrysalis’ forehead and a larger one that rolled away on the floor away from her.

She felt no pain while she was in the trance, but the moment that Nikolai released his hold on Chrysalis, she gave a high-pitched scream of crucifying anguish. Dropping to the ground, she pushed her fore hooves to where her horn was. All she could feel was a stump there, and it was even more painful as she poked at it. She was giving quick, small breaths at this point, trying to make the pain lessen. Her pupils had reduced in size.

“You…what have you done to me…you pathetic…parasite?” she gasped, moving her hooves away to see her conqueror.

“Oh, it’s nothing, really. Just a little trick that I’ve mastered along my journeys,” Nikolai informed as Kevin trotted away from Chrysalis. He turned his attention to Kevin. “Good job, kid,” he congratulated. Kevin sheepishly grinned.

The two shared a quick chuckle and then turned toward Chrysalis when they heard a thump on the floor. She had keeled over; the sound they heard was her head hitting the ground. She was clearly in a whole lot of pain, but they felt no pity for the bug’s agony. After what she had done, they felt glad that she was finally feeling the kind of pain she had caused others. Celestia and Luna both trotted majestically up to Chrysalis and glared down at her.

“Chrysalis, it really is a shame. We really would’ve liked you to be our ally. You could’ve been such a good leader, but because of your actions, you’ve become a monster and lead your race to near extinction. You’ve caused so much pain for others that it’s unbelievable how you have lasted to this point. Unfortunately for you, it’s all over. Have you anything to say before we banish you from this world?” Celestia asked.

“C-Celestia…” she addressed, not changing her position. “Do you…think that I ever…wanted this?” she asked. “That I wanted to be…like this?” she painfully coughed, trying to look up at Celestia.

Toby had managed to regain his consciousness, if just barely. He could hear the exchange between the two and was listening as hard as he could. The sound was fuzzy, but he could get the gist of what they were saying.

“I…never wanted to be like this. Like a…monster. You say that…you want to be allies…but you’ve never given me…the chance,” she explained, rolling tiredly onto her stomach. She managed to raise her head enough to see Celestia’s face, trying to look into her eyes. “Every single time I’ve tried…to be a good ruler…something comes up that ruins it! Celestia, you’ll never know what kind of…pain I go through every day…the struggle…just to get my subjects to survive. You wouldn’t understand…” she trailed off, tears threatening to escape her eyes.

“Chrysalis,” the solar princess addressed, “you’ve had many opportunities to try turning it around, but you’re the one who always does something foolish to mess it up! Take the invasion, for example. Before then, ponies didn’t have any major issues with the changelings, or at least none that I know about. Afterwards, however, you eliminated any chance of becoming friends with Equestria by your own actions. Can’t you see, Chrysalis? It’s your own fault!” Celestia raised, putting a hoof on Chrysalis’ head, pushing it back into the floor. “We would’ve been more than happy to become allies, but now, it’s all but a dream,” she coldly stated as Chrysalis moaned in pain.

“And…why do you think…I did the invasion in the…first place?” Chrysalis asked.

“That’s a complete lie! You even said it yourself! ‘First, we take Canterlot, and then, all of Equestria! You did that for your own self-glory!” she angrily bellowed, stomping her other hoof on the floor.

“That…was in the spur of the moment…the adrenaline kicked in…and I lost myself in my own power…” she explained, wincing in pain. “At the time…I may have been thinking about taking over Equestria…but what I really wanted…in my heart…was for my subjects to be happy and not starving…” she groaned, barely holding back her tears.

“Chrysalis, if thoust needed food, we would’ve been more than happy to work something out with thee!” Luna admitted, gaining a stare from Chrysalis. “Why didn’t thou just ask?”

“Because…every time I’ve asked other nations for food…they’ve turned us down…the gryphons, the sea ponies, the diamond dogs…even the Equestrian’s…we’ve been turned down. We’ve always been alone… There were no other options…”

As Toby heard Chrysalis speak, he could understand that she had been in clear distress. To him, it really sounded like she just really needed a friend; however, he didn’t really know how to feel towards her.

All the time he had known her, she had been a malignant, obnoxious creature to be around. She had manipulated his friends and kidnapped him, hurt him and his family multiple times, and appeared to be set on possibly killing them. She had nearly killed him already.

On the flipside, she was telling Celestia that she had been doing it all for the sake of her race. She made it sound compelling, and with the details that she had given, he really did feel somewhat bad for the poor creature.

He didn’t want her to suffer anymore than she had already suffered and felt sympathy for the changeling.. He was ailed for how to really feel.

“There were certainly better options than invading our home twice and stealing one of our most precious children!” Celestia shouted, annoyed. Chrysalis soon found herself angered.

“Oh, and what was I supposed to do!?” she cried, looking up to Celestia. “Risk having you denying us of food and having to address to my subjects that we would be going on with no more food!? Celestia, you don’t understand! I couldn’t trust anyone… It’s shameful, having to come back to the hive and telling my citizens that…that we’d have to continue with no food…” she bawled, beginning to cry. The sudden show of tears was unexpected to Celestia, but she still had little sympathy.

“No, you can’t! You’ll never be able to understand anything about our people! About the pain we go through every single moment of our lives! About the kind of suffering we go through on a daily basis…about the sadness that we share when our loved ones starve and die! Every single kind of creature hates us because of what we are! They don’t even take a second look at one of us before drawing the conclusion that we’re evil! They just assume!” Chrysalis shot back.

The Mane Six, as well as Nikolai, Riley, Kevin and Discord were all having mixed reactions about what Chrysalis was saying. Fluttershy was still incredibly angry at Chrysalis and couldn’t find sympathy for her. Twilight was confused as to how to think-her friends had been tricked by Chrysalis at the wedding and she had been sentenced to the caves; although, she couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit of compassion toward Chrysalis. Rainbow Dash still believed that Chrysalis was a horrible creature, but after hearing Chrysalis’ reasoning, she had to think about whether Chrysalis was truly as evil as she originally thought she was. Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Rarity were all torn.

All Nikolai and Kevin knew of Chrysalis was the events that had happened in the last few hours, and all evidence they knew of pointed towards her being evil. After hearing Chrysalis’ and Celestia’s exchange, however, they were starting to think about the weight of the insect-like creature’s position, responsibilities and how difficult it must’ve been to keep track of all those little things.

Discord himself knew how it felt to be rejected and treated like a monster, so he could sympathize with Chrysalis a little bit more than the rest. He, too, had always been treated like a monster until his reformation a few years prior.

“If you are going to continue refusing the truth, then yes…I’m done talking with you…” Chrysalis muttered, setting her head back down to the floor.

“In that case…” Celestia murmured, giving herself a moment to think about what the traumatized changeling had told her. “While I can tell that you’ve been through tough pains in your life, what you’ve done to hurt us, our nation, our ponies and our beloved Toby is completely unacceptable, and you shall be banished to Tartarus, where you shall live out whatever life you have left in you. Perhaps you will have the chance to reassess your life while you are there,” Celestia suggested. “Discord, could you take her?” she requested.

“Of course, my princess,” he accepted, looking to Chrysalis with a look of mixed feelings on his face.

Realizing he had little more time to think about what to do, Toby decided that he would do what he thought was truly right in this situation. Before Discord could take Chrysalis from Equestria, he gave a cough and used his voice.

“W-Wait…!” he gutturally and quitely said, gaining the attention of everypony present. They all stared at him with confusion in his eyes.

“Please…spare her…” he weakly begged, gaining wide eyes from everypony, including Chrysalis.

Toby attempted to stand up, but fell when he realized he didn’t have enough energy to do so. He crawled instead, slowly inching his way toward Chrysalis. I His broken wrists made it very difficult to move. After a few moments, Fluttershy trotted over to him.

“Momma, c-could you please put me closer to Queen C-Chrysalis?” he requested, earning a rubberneck from the mare. The others were all speechless at his request.

“Um…” Fluttershy grumbled, thinking about why he would ask for something that ridiculous. She didn’t know what he was going to do, but she could see that there was something desperate that he wanted to do. “O-Okay…” she complied, lifting him up in her forearms and setting him down in front of Chrysalis. He sat up the best he could.

“C-Child…?” Chrysalis stuttered, staring at the child of which looked up at her.

“Well…I just want you to know…that I’m sorry…” he informed, which made everyone present more astonished then they were already.

“I’m sorry…that you’ve had to go through so much…pain in your life. You really seem like…a caring changeling on the inside. I’m also…sorry that no matter where you go, you’re…always rejected and sent away. That you’re hated…by everyone. That has to be…the worst feeling…any ruler could have to feel,” he sympathized, letting a few tears out for her.

“Queen Chrysalis…you don’t have to be alone any longer…with no one to trust, no one to call…your friend. If you want, I’ll be your friend…” he offered, gaining gasps from the present generality. Chrysalis had her own gaze of astonishment in her eyes as she could feel tears welling up.

“You look like you could…use a friend,” he softly spoke into her ear. The tears that had welled up had begun to drizzle out from her eyes,

“Child…how could you ever want to be friends with someone like me?” she curiously questioned.

“After hearing what you said…I came to realize that you were sad and in grief…I know what that feels like. The pain of being all alone…” he admitted, letting his head hang down. “I never want anyone to have to go through the pain that I’ve gone through. Queen Chrysalis…I can’t stand it…this sorrowful power! Please, make the sorrow disappear!” he begged, looking up into Chrysalis’ eyes.

At that very moment, something within Chrysalis snapped and she couldn’t tell what it was. She could feel a pressure within her chest being released from within her heart. It was a luxurious feeling; knowing that she didn’t have to be alone, that she didn’t have to be in sorrow all the time was a gracious sense to her. She was now crying harder. Suddenly, she pushed her head up into his chest, putting her hooves around him.

“I’m so sorry!” she whined, the tears staining his shirt. “I never wanted to be evil! All I ever wanted was to live a life of peace with my fellow changelings, but that was never allowed to happen! I kept getting pushed back, further and further, and I was never able to catch up! I just wanted to be happy…but that never happened…I’ve wanted to rule over my brethren since I was a young nymph, but nothing ever happened right! Oh, child, could you ever forgive me for what I’ve done to you?” she pleaded as Toby put his arms around her neck in a deep hug, resting his head on top of hers.

“O-Of course I f-forgive you, Queen Chrysalis,” he embraced, letting his own tears come down over the back of Chrysalis’ head. He tightened his embrace on her

“I promise that I’ll never do anything evil or cruel ever again!” she wailed, her sobbing becoming louder.

Everybody looked on at the display of charity he had given to Chrysalis. It was very unexpected for the masses, as he was willing to forgive her, even after all she had done to harm him physically, emotionally and psychologically. Celestia was the first to address the child’s actions.

“Toby?” she asked, receiving no immediate response from the child as he was preoccupied with the hurt changeling.

Celestia cocked her head and couldn’t help but give a small grin to his actions. A few minutes later, Chrysalis’ sobbing had quieted down.

She used her magic to gently lift him off the changeling’s head and saw that he was asleep. She walked over to Chrysalis and saw that she was the same.

Fluttershy trotted up to them, her eyes still wide with shock. She couldn’t believe that Toby had forgiven her at the snap of a finger. She could tell that he was talking about when his mother had been killed when he said that he knew what her grief felt like, but she didn’t think that he would use that to help comfort Chrysalis. Was Chrysalis really acting out of the concern for her people? Was she acting out of the good she had in her heart, or was she making up a giant lie for her to follow? It was a perspective too difficult for her comprehend.

“…What do we do now?” Fluttershy asked. “I mean, we need to get Toby to the hospital, but what are we going to do with Chrysalis?”

“I think that we should let this play out before we make a final judgment on what to do with Chrysalis,” Celestia suggested. “And yes, we’ll get him to the hospital immediately,” she informed.

Moments later, a chariot came with paramedics inside of it, of which lifted Toby off of the ground and into the vehicle with their magic. They saw Chrysalis laying out on the floor and looks of disgust immediately creeped their ways onto their faces. They took their minds off the queen and put them back onto the endangered child. The chariot swiftly took off and flew down towards the Canterlot hospital.

“I think that you all should also take a visit down to the hospital,” Luna proposed.

Everyone agreed and the room began to empty out as they walked out of the castle, except for Nikolai, Riley and Kevin.

“We cannot thank thee enough for helping us through this crisis,” Luna addressed to them, giving a bow to them.

“Hey, we were glad to help however we could,” Nikolai rejected with a smile. “And, uh…good luck with her,” he said, looking to the changeling queen.

“Well, I guess that it’s time that we continued our own journey,” Kevin announced, gaining nods from his companions. “One question though: How do we get out of here?” he asked.

“When you turn the first left, keep going straight until you come to the fourth intersection. Turn right there and again at the next turn and you’ll be in the main foyer of the castle. It should be easy from there,” Celestia explained.

“Okay. Thanks,” he replied, the rest of his team following him out the door. Celestia and Luna both turned to Chrysalis.

“Sister, Toby seems to have somewhat befriended her. What do we do with her?” Celestia asked.

“I don’t know. I just don’t. I know that Toby wants her to live, but she has committed such great crimes. I can’t decide on one thing to do,” she explained.

“Maybe we should think of it how Toby thinks of it. If she really was acting from the heart to feed her subjects, maybe we should try to show her some compassion ourselves. I think it is what Toby would want us to do,” she suggested.

“How could we show her compassion past what Toby has already shown? The only thing we can think of is not putting her in a dungeon cell,” Luna quizzed.

“Maybe we should put her in the hospital as well. I don’t know how bad of an injury getting your horn cut in two is, but it has to be incredibly painful,” Celestia put forward, wincing from the thought of having her horn sliced in two. She and Luna both shrugged.

“If that is what you think Toby would do, then we shall execute it that way,” Luna accepted. A few moments later, another chariot arrived, but when the doctors opened the door to lift their patient in, they looked confused.

“Do you dare to object to my authority?” Luna threatened with a glare, causing the doctor to recoil.

“O-Of course not, my princess,” he answered, transporting Chrysalis into the carriage, which took off soon after.

About ten minutes later, Fluttershy and all the others rushed into the hospital. Nurse Red Heart was standing in the center of the room, having apparently been expecting them.

“He appears to be severely dehydrated and starved. Both of his wrists were also broken and cut. What happened to him?” the nurse instituted.

“He was taken and attacked by Chrysalis,” Fluttershy explained. A look of disturbance appeared on the nurse’s face.

“Yes. A few minutes after your child arrived, another carriage came that had Chrysalis in it.”

“Princess Celestia must’ve called for another chariot after we left,” Twilight postulated.

“Possibly,” Red Heart answered. “In any case, we’ll give your son food and water rations over night. If you want to see him, you should come back tomorrow in the morning,” the nurse informed.

“Is there any way we can stay here overnight? We want to be here immediately if you have any updates about my precious, little one’s situation,” Fluttershy desperately asked.

“We don’t have rooms for non-patients…I suppose you could sleep here in the lobby. It won’t be very comfortable, but I could go get you some pillows and blankets if you want to,” the nurse compensated.

She and the others waited for the nurse to leave and come back with the promised blankets and pillows. A few minutes later, they all found themselves tucked under plain-white blankets and black pillows and bidding each other good-night. Soon after, they were all falling asleep in anxiety of what would be made of Toby.

The next morning, Celestia and Luna both walked into the hospital, wanting to know if Toby was okay. She saw the mass of ponies laying on the floor and spoke up.

“Wake up, my little ponies,” she ordered, causing everypony present to quickly wake up.

After collective yawns and stretches, they were all springing to their hooves. Upon hearing Celestia’s voice, Nurse Red Heart cantered into the room.

“Nurse Red Heart, is my son okay?” Fluttershy worriedly asked. Red Heart walked over to her and comfortingly placed a hoof on her weighted shoulder.

“Yes, he is okay,” she smilingly said. “If you would like to see him, you are free to,” she granted.

“We would love that!” Fluttershy exclaimed, relieved. Tears of raw joy began to spark from her eyes.

“I’ll go get the fillies and Spike. They will be more than happy to learn that Toby is okay!” Twilight informed, walking out of the hospital.

“Thank you, Nurse Red Heart, for saving my precious Toby,” Fluttershy once again gratified.

“Hey, it’s what I do,” Red Heart humbly replied, motioning for the mares to follow her to the back.

When they entered the room, they all had tears in their eyes as they saw the calmly sleeping Toby on a bed in the far left side of the room. His chest gradually rose and fell as he rested. There was a tube going into his arm with liquids pouring inside, and his wrists both had casts on them. On the opposite corner of the room was Chrysalis, who was stirring a bit in her sleep, rolling over and grunting multiple times. The group walked over to Toby’s bed first, sitting down on their haunches aside.

“Toby? Fluttershy softly called out. Upon hearing the noise, the child slowly opened his eyes and tilted his head toward her.

“That’s right, sweetheart. Momma’s here,” she assured. Toby put his head to her shoulder and let his tears run.

Fluttershy put her fore hooves around Toby and held him as tightly as she could as he relinquished his supply of tears. He was literally shaking from the joy that he could feel tensing through his body.

“Shh…Momma’s here…it’s okay now,” she lovingly whispered as she lifted him up from the bed and into her arms. She put her head down to his and gently nuzzled his head by rubbing her nose against his face.

“I missed you so much, Momma! I love you!” he cried, wrapping his arms around her neck, making sure not to move his wrists.

She placed her hoof at the top of his head and relaxingly rubbed it down the back of his head. She repeated this action multiple times as he warmly cooed. Then, she planted an affectionate kiss on his forehead. Eventually, she stopped stroking his head as he had stopped making noise. She looked at him to see him toothily smiling, letting the last of his tears go. He opened his eyes and looked into his adoptive mother’s.

“Momma…where’s Queen Chrysalis?” he asked, gaining a small shrug from Fluttershy.

“She’s in the bed on the other side of the room. See?” she revealed, lifting his head slightly so that he could see the Queen.

He felt worried for the queen’s health, as he didn’t know what would happen to her without her horn. He didn’t like that she was tossing and turning in her sleep as he knew that it meant that she was in a state of unrest. He wished that he could help her, but he was confined to his bed at the moment. A frown found its way to his face as he turned his head towards Celestia and Luna.

“Toby, Chrysalis has done a lot of damage to our kingdom already. While she may seem like she has changed, we will need to wait longer to really see if she has,” Celestia explained.

“Well, she took and hurt you, for one. She instilled fear into all our hearts by threatening us with claims that she would hurt you. On the other hoof, she sounded like she really was going to make that change. I would find this believable, but as a changeling, she is naturally very manipulative. I can’t take one side or the other.”

“If she’s willing to show us that she’s changed, however, I may be willing to forgive her.”

“I understand. How about you, Auntie Applejack, Auntie Pinkie, Auntie Rainbow and Auntie Rarity?”

“I think I’ll have to go with Fluttershy on this one, dear,” Rarity agreed.

“I see…” Toby sighed, taking in the information. He was glad that they would potentially be willing to forgive her, but he wished they would forgive her more easily. “I have one other question.”

“Last night, Queen Chrysalis said that Equestria has turned the changelings away from food. Has there been any fighting between the two?” he asked. The two regalities looked at each other for a moment, exchanging glances that asked ‘Do you know?.’

“We’re not sure. If there have been any, we were either too young to remember or not born yet. As long as we can remember, there’s always been complications between us, but we are not sure if it has been caused by previous affairs,” Luna responded.

“Yes, actually. She was born on February 22nd, roundabout 470 years ago,” Celestia keyed.

“Auntie Celestia, what if something happened before Chrysalis was born that caused problems between the ponies and the changelings? That doesn’t seem fair.”

“I understand what you’re trying to say, little one. Again, I don’t quite know if there has been tensions between us. I can agree with you that it hardly seems right that she would have to be born into such troubled times, but it was something out of our control,” Celestia reaffirmed.

“We’re here!” a voice rang out. Twilight, Cadence, the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Spike all walked into the room. Twilight immediately approached him, not even acknowledging Chrysalis for the moment. “I’m glad to see that you’re doing better,” she praised, relieved. She gave him a gentle nuzzle under the chin as he folded his arms around her.

“Thank you, Auntie Twilight,” he said back, releasing his grip around her. Next, the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Spike walked up to him. “Big sisters! Uncle Spike!” he called out as they all jumped on him, enveloping him in a massive hug.

They held the hug for a long minute, which felt like a blissful euphoria to the child. His friends were all glad to see that he was safe, and their support for him made him feel spectacular. The whole time, the adults in the room were smiling. They broke up the hug and took a step back. To Toby’s concern, they suddenly wore frowns upon their faces.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, allowing a frown of his own to be on his face. Apple Bloom took a step forward.

“Well, it’s our fault that you were taken by that grahmy, gross excuse for a queen, so to that, we say…” she started.

“We’re sorry, Toby!” the CMC cried out, letting their heads swoop downwards from shame and sniffling.

“Please, don’t be sad. Queen Chrysalis needed food for the changelings, so she did what she thought was the best way. It’s not your fault at all that you were lured by her,” he excused, reaching putting his arms over the side of the bed to give them another hug of which they gladly accepted. “I love you all!” he exclaimed.

“We love you too, Toby!” they reiterated, breaking the hug and trotting to the side. The next to approach him were Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara.

“Hello, sweetums,” Silver Spoon warmly opened, planting a kiss on his cheek. “I’m so glad that you’re doing better now. I was so worried about you,” she whispered, prodding him and placing a hoof on his hand, causing him to recoil in pain. She immediately took her hoof off of his hand as he made a sizzling sound with his mouth.

“Thank…you,” he managed to say through the pain, even mustering a smile. “I’ll be okay now, so you don’t need to be concerned about me,” he voiced, leaning in on Silver and pressing his lips against her left cheek. She blushed madly and giggled as she walked towards the others.

“I’m also glad that you’re okay, little guy. No one should ever have to deal with that kind of pain,” Diamond Tiara stated, giving him a soft hug.

She held it for a second before letting go and joining the others. Finally, Cadence walked up to his bed, giving him a deep smile as she also embraced him.

“It’s a joy to see that you’re alright. Shining Armor wants you to have his best wishes,” she vocalized.

“Thank you, Auntie Cadence. I want you and Uncle Shining to both know that I love you, so tell him when you get back home, please,” he requested.

As she turned around, she saw something from the corner of her eye. She turned her head towards the other end of the room and saw Chrysalis laying there on the bed. Out of shock, her eyes widened. She tried to utter the words on her mind, but she was too speechless to say anything.

“Chrys…Chrysalis…” she worded, lifting a hoof to point at the disabled queen.

All attention in the room shifted over as Chrysalis rolled over, facing them. She rubbed at her forehead, wincing in her suffering. She opened her eyes a tad, but closed them and scrunched her face from the migraine she was feeling. Once again, she tried to open her eyes, this time managing to do so. She soon felt a wave of intense fear rouse her body as she witnessed seven deadly stares from the CMC, Silver Spoon, Diamond Tiara, Spike and Cadence.

Chrysalis didn’t know what to do. She could literally see and feel the hatred rushing out of their bodies. In her eyes, their bodies were all crimson red and flaming with a murderous dark-blue gas that filled the room. When the gas came over her, it funned down into her chest with great velocity. It was a huge vortex of raw loathing. She could feel a deep pain in her heart as the substance relentlessly struck at her, causing her to grasp her chest out of the boiling feeling she had. Sh1e really felt like she was going to die right there. She breathed heavily as her vision began to blur. She began to cry.

“Toby, what are you-“ Cadence started, but didn’t have the chance to finish.

Toby unhooked the hose supplying him with fluids from his arm and jumped down from the bed. He was being stared at by everypony, but he didn’t care. He limped his way over to Chrysalis and placed his arms on the bed.

“Chrysalis, are you okay!?” he worriedly interrogated. It looked like she was suffering from some sort of heart problem.

“…All the hate…it’s…killing me…” she wheezed, shaking from fear and struggling to stay awake.

“So much hate…” she coughed. Toby knew what she meant by this and turned around to face the seven ponies.

“Everypony, stop! Your anger is hurting her!” Toby pleaded, staring each of them in the eyes.

“I can understand why you’re all so angry, but please, stop! You’ll kill her with the hate!” Toby begged.

“Why are you defending her!? She’s evil!” Cadence cried. Toby suddenly felt anger rise in his body, an anger that he had never felt before.

“She hasn’t been doing anything that’s harmed any of us for her own gain. She’s been doing it to feed the changelings!”

“Auntie Cadence, she broke down and cried about it! She’s been through so much pain in her lifetime, and it’s not fair that she’s had to go through so much of it! Everywhere she goes to try to get food, she gets sent away! Why would anyone lie about something like that!?” he ranted, Cadence looking to the floor as she took in what he said. “Everyone thinks she and the changelings are monsters, when they don’t know anything about them! It’s so cruel, how even you, the princess of love and tolerance, can hate her like this!” he yelled, letting tears fall from his eyes.

It was a like a golden dagger to the heart for Cadence as Toby struck down his powerful words. In her mind, all she was thinking about was what happened at the wedding and what had transpired in the last few days. Chrysalis had done them all so much wrong, yet here was Toby, protecting her, begging them to stop hating her. That thought seemed preposterous to her, so she attempted to make her point again.

“You’re putting your own thoughts before the life of another! I understand what happened at your wedding and I understand why you’re angry at her, but it’s nothing more than selfishness that you would think that what’s happened to you justifies her to die! Do you really think that she ever wanted to have to invade? Do you really think that she ever wanted to hurt others?” he winded down, his head hanging down. His hands were curled up into fists and shaking as he cried.

Cadence stood there, shocked at what he had said. She didn’t know how to respond to that. In her heart, she knew that any logic she had was completely destroyed; she had no other comebacks to those words. She took a moment to contemplate on what he had just said. She wanted to hate Chrysalis, but Toby’s words made her think hard.

Did the changeling really want the invasions and to hurt them? Was she being sincere when she told Toby all of those things? Was she, herself being selfish as Toby had accused her? These questions plagued her mind as she tried to figure out a way to answer. She knew that in her soul, she had no right to wish death upon Chrysalis like she had before. She felt a wave of guilt tingle her body as tears began welling up in her eyes.

“I…I’m sorry,” she said. “You’re right, Toby. I am just being selfish. I…I…” she stammered, unknowing of what to say. “I’ll leave and come back later,” she sobbed, turning around and walking out the door in shame.

The six other haters looked on to Toby to see him trying to calm himself. He took a few deep breaths, alleviating the stress that he was feeling. After a few more moments, he looked up to them. His fist were still shaking and the tears were dripping from his chin, onto the floor.

“Do you all still hate her, too?” he asked. They stayed silent at this question.

“…I don’t like her, but I won’t hate her if it’ll kill her,” Spike started.

“That wouldn’t be very cool if I did something that would kill her,” Scootaloo continued.

“Ah won’t hate her, but no promises that Ah’ll like her,” Apple Bloom maintained.

“I suppose I can suppress the bad feelings,” Diamond Tiara finished. Toby suddenly felt a wave of relief over him that his words affected them, too.

The pain in Chrysalis’ heart went down as she could see the cobalt waves of crashing hatred evaporated into a jade indifference that left an odd, indescribable feeling.. She found herself once again able to breathe normally and her vision was becoming clearer again. She dropped her hooves from her chest and lay them out in front of her.

“…Thank you,” she said to the six as Toby turned back around. “For allowing me to live. It means a lot to me that you’re willing to not despise me after what I’ve done to you,” she added, her tears of pain turning to relief. The six just stared at her as she closed her eyes, trying to fall back asleep.

“…Alright, everypony. We think that we should leave them to rest,” Luna announced, getting a collective nod from the crowd.

As they all began to leave the room, she walked over to Toby. She looked down at him with happiness and gave a warm grin. She turned her head towards the door, waiting for everypony to leave the room. Once the room was cleared, she looked back to Toby, sitting on her haunches.

“Our dear Toby, We are proud that you were willing to do that for Chrysalis. We know that it takes much courage to stand against those thy love and protest to their feelings,” she started, giving him a small hug. “Thee truly have a heart of steadfast gold and are very brave. We commend thou,” she congratulated. After a few moments, she broke away from the hug and stood up. “And Chrysalis, while me, my sister and everypony else may not be ready to forgive you quite yet, we have an offer. If you say that you will not be evil any longer, we will forgive you shall you express it.

“…Thank you, Princess Luna. I’ll try,” the changeling agreed, nodding her head. She winced in pain.

Good! We will leave thine to rest now,” she said, gaining a smile from the boy as she walked out. He turned around.

“Queen Chrysalis? Are you alright?” he quietly asked as she opened her eyes again and stared into his.

She gazed into his eyes for a long while before swiftly extending her fore hooves, wrapping them around his body. She lifted him up on the bed and immediately pulled him into a hug.

“You…You saved me again,” Chrysalis stated, beginning to tear up again. “Words cannot describe how much I appreciate what you’ve done for me, even after what I’ve done to you,” she gratified, trembling as she held him.

“Hey, that’s what friends are for: To overlook your wrongs and forgive them, and to help you when you need them the most. I was more than happy to help you,” he explained as Chrysalis nuzzled him.

“Thank you, chil-…Toby. Your friendship feels like something that I’ve never felt before. I can’t describe the feeling, but it feels…wonderful,” she sobbingly expressed. “Like a great weight being lifted from my heart after being held down for my entire life.”

“I’m glad that you feel good, Queen Chrysali-“ he started, but was interrupted.

“Oh…okay, Chrysalis,” he giggled, closing his eyes. “I also want you to know that I’ll be here every step of the way for you,” he whispered.

The two lay there cuddling each other. After a few minutes, Toby could hear the clip-clop of hooves into the room behind him. He turned his head and saw Cadence walking in. He smoothly broke his and Chrysalis’ cuddle, turning around to face Cadence.

“Toby, I just wanted to come back and say that I’m sorry for how unjust I was acting earlier. I don’t know what got into me-“

Cadence trotted up to him, softly putting her arms under his and lifting him up into a kind embrace, rubbing up and down on his back. She warmly kissed him on the forehead as she sat him down on the bed.

“I’m sorry for yelling at you like I did earlier. I never wanted to hurt your feelings.”

“I forgive you; although, you didn’t hurt my feelings, sweetheart. It just felt…weird to me that I was outsmarted by someone as young as yourself. Not to say that you’re stupid, of course.”

“I know that what you did at the wedding and in the past few days was wrong, but I would never want to kill you. Could you forgive me?”

“It’s alright. I understand why you felt like that. I should be the one apologizing for what I’ve done to hurt you. I-“

“Yes. I was once told by a wise person that if you stay angry at someone for too long, you’ll turn bad just like them.”

“You’re welcome. Now, I think I will take my leave. See you later, Toby. And maybe Chrysalis,” she parted, waving good-bye to them and walking out of the room.

The two lay there for a while, happily snuggling each other. Chrysalis felt a tide of relief wash over her heart as she could understand that she would be given the chance of redemption, all thanks to the sacred child she was cuddling against. It was the happiest she had ever felt in her life and she didn’t think it could get much better than what it was.

Toby felt a joy he had never felt before in his heart as he realized that he would be given the chance to show Chrysalis the world in a way she had never seen it before. He felt that, even though his standards were looking a bit uncertain for him, his steps had grown wider since a few days prior. He knew that he had a long journey ahead of him in helping the changeling queen to become better, but he also knew that it would be one that he would not be regretting in the slightest. After all, it all begins with forgiveness for a queen.