By Europa
Out in the icy tundra, just beyond the Crystal Empire's protective sphere, stood Queen Chrysalis and Princess Twilight.
Or rather, only Chrysalis stood. Beneath her long, dark legs Twilight lay in a puddle of her own blood, gasping for breath, staining the ice pink.
"Twilight!" she said insistently, nudging her with a forehoof. "Twilight!" she shouted over the roaring of smoke around them. "Hold on, I'm going to get you safe, alright?"
Her wife, barely able to breathe around the large, dark crystal embedded in her flank, stared up at her fearfully with wide, purple eyes, begging her to run, save herself.
Chrysalis shook her head, ignoring the way the heavy wall of shadow smoke around them undulated in a perfect ring, or the way it had faint flashes of red lightning within, or the circle of small gray gems pulsing with hatred, slowly closing in on her.
This was all her fault. She'd been the one who shouted at her wife's brother, she'd been the one who stormed out into the cold and prompted Twilight to follow her, she'd been the one who'd walked just a little too close to the resting place of a curved horn. If it hadn't been for her and her stupid mouth, Twilight would be fine!
"You're going to be okay, alright? I'm sending you to Cadance. Look at me, Twilight. Keep your eyes open," she begged, ice crystallizing in the corner of her eyes.
"Nuh... no," the pony breathed. The crystals were getting closer now. If they reached Twilight, Chrysalis feared she'd never be able to save her. "Chrys... d-don't - "
"We'll both get out of this Twilight, I promise." Her horn lit up, green fire briefly outlining her wife's form before it whisked her away to safety.
She rose, her legs trembling and chitin cracking from the unnatural cold. The hatred shards reached her hooves, clinging to Chrysalis's exoskeleton and rising up her form like armor. She looked down and sobbed, an ice tear falling to the snow. In all honesty, she didn't know if Twilight would be fine; that was all in Cadance's hooves now. But she did know one thing...
Chrysalis, her head still down, glanced up at the smoke surrounding her. Inside of it she could see a figure, a pony stallion, his features blurry, mane and tail streaming from his body and enlarging into the shadows around her. The crystals were up her legs, spreading along her barrel now.
She shook her head and gritted her fangs, summoning magic to her horn. Twilight's love for her had granted Chrysalis strength beyond even Celestia's, enormous power that coursed through her veins and proved, beyond all shadow of a doubt, that love would always overpower hatred. Always.
As the gray shards began creeping up her neck she fixed the shadowy figure with her best glare, then threw back her head and screamed.
There was a supernova of eldritch flame.
There was the sound of crystallized hatred breaking like glass.
There was the whirling of angry smoke.
There was the thump of a metal crown in melting snow.
There was a terrible, piercing silence.
There was a terrible, piercing noise.
There was a terrible, piercing silence.