When the world reached a specific point in time, Celestia sat back down on her restored throne, and watched as the guard came hauling in the unconscious body of Chrysalis's son, and the queen herself. She watched as they were set down before her, and the changeling prince woke up. She smiled at him, and looked Chrysalis in the eye. She asked her, "Now, are you willing to tell me all you know about the hive?"
A knowing look about her, Chrysalis waited for the nearest guard to remove her halter, and closed her eyes. She nodded, and glanced at her son, who was still breathing, still alive, still here. She said, "I... Yes, Celestia, I am willing." She looked at her son, and back at Celestia. "Please... help him."
Celestia thought for a moment, and said, "Well, I'll need your word on this, as you have been less than cooperative." She lifted a paper and quill in front of Chrysalis, who immediately signed the bottom of the contract. She looked at Celestia again, eyes pleading.
Celestia shook her head slowly. "You yourself once said that blood is thicker than water, and you cared not for this very oath," she told Chrysalis. "I will need much more assurance than your name on a piece of parchment. I can't be sure that you won't turn on me the instant I help."
Chrysalis clenched her jaws, and glanced at her son, who was completely still. She whimpered, and lowered her head, she closed her eyes, and began to cry. She knew that her son, barely living, barely even thinking, could hear her, and that he was looking for her, his brain demanding more and more of his blood than his forcefully slowed lungs could provide. Such a state of panic was unsustainable.
Celestia stood up, stepped forward, and said to Chrysalis, "I will need his secret name from you, or I will never be able to trust you." She lowered her head to look the great changeling in the eye. She was still not showing any emotion, but could not see any better options, or she wouldn't have done any of this.
Chrysalis cried more loudly, and she whispered, "It's... It's..."
Celestia leaned closer to her, and said, "It is best that we create another contract, so you will be sure that I don't harm him, should you turn on me."
Chrysalis's will caved, and she nodded slowly, tears streaming down her face, and falling onto the floor, where they formed the shape of a small heart, which separated, leaving a crack in the middle of it. She heard Celestia standing up, grabbing another piece of paper, and holding it in front of her.
She read it, carefully this time, and her sobs died down. She whispered, "I... I loved you, Celestia... And now..." She lifted the quill to the paper, and swallowed hard. She felt another wave of pain approaching her, and she looked over at her child, who had passed out, and was still breathing. "He... Please don't... I will do anything but this..." She felt her throat freezing up, and her entire face numbing. "I... 'Tia, I can't sell out-" She was wracked by a fit of coughing, and kept talking. "-his son... Please, ask if this is what your brother wanted."
Celestia finally winced, and her eyes flared with rage for a brief moment. She sighed, took a deep breath, and considered this. She said, "I will think about it, Chrysalis, and in three days, if I have not made my decision, I will send both of you on a boat to the southernmost reaches of the Celestial Sea."
Celestia lit up her horn, shook her head, and wound back time just a moment. She heard Chrysalis finsihing her last sentence. She sighed, bit her lip, and said, "Chrysalis... I... Comsos would not approve of my actions, no. But you must understand that, no matter how many times I've had this very conversation with you, I have his best interests in mind."
Chrysalis didn't even waste a second before saying, "Forcing me to sell out our child to you is not with his best interests in mind. Scarring me for life by forcing me to watch him die, was that with his best interests in mind? Ordering me to give up his soul to you, where are his best interests in any of that?"
Celestia opened her mouth to speak, and closed it again. She sighed, placed her horn on the queen's forehead, and said, "I... I have regrets." She lit up her horn, just late enough to hear the queen ask one more thing. She answered, "I wasn't aware that this one was my brother's son, though I suppose his ears should have clued me in. And, in any case, what's done is done." With that, the room undid itself, and she slowly stepped back to her throne.
She watched as, for the umpteenth time, the guards carried the two changelings towards her throne. No matter what she did though, Chrysalis's questions still burned in her mind. It haunted her, but she'd been asked it a million times before. "Is screwing with time one of them?"