As the crowd of changelings erupted into uproar, Isaac facehooved, Blush tilted her head, Chrysalis reared her head back, and Mitul and Feng continued talking about flying, computers, and flying computers.
“C-calm down!” Chrysalis yelled, a fair amount of panic in her voice as she lifted her hoof off of Discord’s wing. For some reason, the changelings obeyed her, although they weren’t quite sure why.
“I was only checking if he was using magic—” she tried to explain, but didn’t get far.
“Hey!” Chrysalis yelped once Discord grumpily snapped his talons. The white flash of magic transformed Chrysalis’s legs into pillows, which collapsed and let her entire body flop onto the ground, as if she were some sort of large fish. Then, with another snap, Discord was back in the stands, yawning and stretching.
“A draconequus can’t even rest his eyes around these buggers,” he said.
Pinkie gigglesnorted. “Hehee! Buggers.”
“Hey! Change me back right—” Chrysalis started, but she decided not to ask her enemies for favors. “Ugh, nevermind.” She lit her horn, trying to analyze and undo Discord’s magic, but after a couple of moments, she gave up and enveloped her legs in a green fire, transforming them back.
“Look!” Chrysalis turned to the now thoroughly baffled crowd, some of which were holding back screams of terror. “I was just—”
Instead of listening, several changelings in the crowd started murmuring, drowning out Chrysalis’s voice. A few near panicked changelings could be heard over everybug else.
“Pillow legs! I just saw pillow legs, didn’t I?” one asked in a refined English accent.
“Could he have just snapped his fingers and turned her entire body into an inanimate object?” a bug with a gruff voice asked.
“She might be a softy now,” another bug started in an Australian accent, “but what I wanna know is: were those down or feather pillows?”
The cacophony continued as the changeling in the Hawaiian shirt slowly raised his hoof. “ORDER!” He yelled, slamming his hoof against the log in front of him and shattering it into wooden chips.
The crowd stopped and looked back at him. Even Chrysalis turned to him.
“Wow, didn’t know I could do that.” He looked up from the log and back to Chrysalis. “Oh, if we’re to have a proper court, you need to go back to your defense stand.” Now he looked off to the left. “At least, I think you do.”
“You think I do?” Chrysalis raised an eyebrow and glanced over to the ‘stand’ where Isaac was beckoning her over.
She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll humor you for now.” She flew back to her ‘stand’ and rested her hooves against the ‘stand’, or log, in front of her. She looked like she was actually enjoying herself for a moment. Her mouth formed a small smile. She was ready for any question her changelings could throw her way.
Discord slowly raised his talons. “I have a question.”
Chrysalis’s cute smile warped into a potent death glare.
“Oh god, what now?” the judge pinched the bridge of his muzzle with his hoof.
“Do I actually need to be here?” Discord asked.
“No,” the judge answered. “Get out.”
“Oh!” Discord’s eyes sparkled as he clasped his paw and claws together. “I’m free to go? I don’t have to watch you all use the most boring method possible to overthrow your queen. if that’s even what you’re doing?”
“Hey now,” the judge started. “I’m not trying to overthrow anyone—”
“Well, as they say—” Discord stepped onto the log acting as the prosecution stand. He was suddenly wearing a pair of pink stilettos. “—there’s no place like home—”
“Hey!” Spike yelled, jumping up and shoving his hands between Discord’s feet, stopping him from clinking the stilettos three times. “You can’t just ditch us! Again! You’re suppose to be helping us!”
Discord turned and stared back at Spike. “Help you?” he asked. “How am I supposed to do that?”
Spike was at a loss for words. “You know, uh...”
“You’re supposed to be protecting us from all the nasty changelings that want to suck out all our love and leave us in this scary, dark forest as husks of our former selves until we finally manage to gather our wits and survive off the fruit of the land, only to have our love sucked out again by all these nasty, horrible changelings.” Pinkie stopped for breath
Every changeling stared at Pinkie.
“I would never!” somebug in the crowd said.
That started a chain reaction. The entire crowd was once again in uproar, and random bits of sentences could be heard.
“—just horrible—”
“How could she even think—”
“What does that mean?”
“—racist—”
“ORDER!” the judge yelled again, quieting everybug down.
“Thank you,” Discord said to the judge over his shoulder, still standing on a log in pink stilettos. “Now I can tell this pony and that dragon that—”
“I thought I told you to get out,” the judge interrupted Discord. “Go home,” he continued, “go sunbathing. Take a nap. Eat some food or something.”
Discord turned and faced the judge. “Are you ordering me around.” He placed his lion paw over his chest.
“Yes,” the judge deadpanned.
Discord frowned and flew up to the judge, his muzzle only inches from the judges. “You do realize that I could turn everybeetle here into the most adorable plushies, confectionaries, or whatever else I wanted? And nopony would bat an eye because nopony likes changelings.”
“I dare you,” Chrysalis said as she crept up from Discord’s right, her smooth, soft voice failing to hide the edge her sadistic anticipation was giving her. How she managed to get from the stand to Discord’s side, no changeling knew. “If you so much as touch a single one of my changelings...” she trailed off, smiling, her slitted, shrunken pupils set on Discord.
Slowly, Discord reached out his talons and placed one of them on the judge’s face.
Chrysalis frowned. Her eyes were still pinpricks, and they were still latched onto Discord.
Discord slowly pulled his talons back. Then, after another moment of hesitation, he snapped them. The judge disappeared in a flash of light, replaced by some sort of giant mole creature.
“Aww, what the...” the judge looked over his new body, grimacing.
Suddenly, a thunderclap could be heard from the center of the crowd as green magic lit the area for a fraction of a second. Before any changeling could react, a massive green shield surrounded the crowd of changelings, and both Chrysalis and Discord were gone.
Nearly every changeling turned to see what the shield was, why it was up, and what was going on. But what they saw only led to more questions.
Outside, green lightning rained down as black and white clouds gathered to a central point only to vanish into nothing. Mint jelly that radiated pure hatred rained sideways, eating away at the trees and the rocks. Thunder and lightning boomed as the forest itself was bent and twisted so it could be hurled at random points in the sky, only to disappear behind some cloud and come out of some completely separate location. The few animals that hadn’t burrowed underground for shelter betrayed their normal behavior, swimming through the air to gnaw at the shield. New mountains could be seen popping into existence in the distance, only to be blasted into dust by unseen forces.
It was chaos.
It was awe inspiring.
But after about a minute or so, some found it boring to stare at, and a few bugs started turning back to the court scene.
The mole judge cleared his throat. “I don’t think calling ‘order’ at this point will help anything.”
Several more changelings turned to him. Pinkie turned as well, and Spike looked back over his shoulder.
“I suppose we can continue,” the judge said. “The most disruptive people are gone, so it should actually be better.”
“Now”—he put his hoof down on his so called stand, green thunder flashing behind him—“if the defendant and the prosecution are to be believed, Chrysalis, and apparently all of us as well, were involved in some sort of resource war. I’m not really sure what to believe anymore, but I really don’t think we have to worry about Chrysalis intentionally killing us, even if she’s not very good at foreign affairs.”
He waited, but only heard attentive silence from the crowd. He looked up. “I personally don’t feel like doubting her if she’s fighting for me right now, even if it’s a fight that could’ve been avoided... I don’t want to be a mole-thing for the rest of my life, so I hope she wins.”
A few changelings in the crowd nodded in sympathy. Though, many had huddled towards the center of the shield for safety, and a few were still curiously inspecting the shield and the creatures outside of it.
The judge continued, staring his beady mole eyes down upon the prosecution stand. Many of the changelings still there started backing away.
“Does the prosecution have anything to say that will prove Chrysalis is a danger to the changelings around her?” the judge continued. “That was what this was originally about.”
Pinkie hesitantly raised her hoof.
“Yes?” the judge asked.
“She stepped on Discy’s wing for no reason. He was just resting his eyes.”
Again, the crowd started murmuring.
“And then her legs transformed into pillows,” somebug from the crowd spoke. “And then all this!”
The judge nodded. “I now believe she might have had a reason for doing so.”
“But...” Pinkie started, but nothing else came out. For the first time in a long time, she was at a loss for words.
There was one more deafening crash from above, much louder and closer than the other thunderclaps. Several changelings looked up to see Chrysalis’s battered and bruised body smash through the shield. She hit the ground with a resounding smack and flopped onto her side.
After a blinding white flash, Discord was now standing in front of her, panting heavily.
Several changelings in the crowd were having a hard time believing Chrysalis was still alive. Their hearts ached, hoping that she hadn’t died for them while they were only doubting her.
A soft green glow surrounded Chrysalis’s body. Her cuts and bruises could be seen healing themselves.
Chrysalis turned over, her body shaking, and stood up one hoof at a time. She growled at Discord.
“You know,” Discord panted, “this would’ve been so much easier if you’d have just stayed in the puppet dimension.” Then, he frowned back at Chrysalis, raised his eagle talons, and—
“STOP!” Spike yelled.
Chrysalis only turned her eyes towards the dragon. Her eyes were filled with contempt, and she quickly turned back to the draconequus, only to turn back to Spike when she noticed Discord was no longer paying attention to her.
Discord was staring back at Spike, one eyebrow raised. “Stop?” he asked. “But why? Isn’t this what I’m here for? Helping you? Protecting you?”
“You’re not helping us!” Spike yelled, his fists at his sides. “You’re making us look bad. We were called by the map to help these changelings, one of which saved my life, and you’re making us look like complete jerks!”
Discord shrank, both figuratively and literally. “Well, that one changeling might’ve been good, but their queen—”
Spike wasn’t having any of it. “We don’t even know why she did any of the things she did. That’s what this whole court is here to figure out!”
Discord shrank even more, floating back over to the prosecution stand. “Fine,” he said awkwardly, “I’ll just… be over here...”
Seeing that the battle was now over, Chrysalis shakily took to the air and flew over to sit by her defense.
“Are you okay?” Blush asked.
Chrysalis eyed her changeling, her face quickly changing back from murderous to motherly. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, I’m fine.” Her stomach growled. “I am a little hungry though.”
Blush smiled and slid her plate of fish-love-orbs to her queen.
Chrysalis smiled back, then turned to the plate, leaned her head down, and slithered her long tongue around several of the orbs before sucking them into her muzzle and smashing them with her teeth, glowing pink-fish-love-magic now dripping out of the side of her muzzle.
Isaac cleared his throat. “Your honor,” he said in a questioning tone.
“Go ahead,” the mole-judge replied.
A small, “hey, change him back,” could be heard from the prosecution before the judge turned back to a changeling in a flash of white magic.
Deciding to ignore the random magic, Isaac continued, placing his front hooves on the log in front of him, “While Chrysalis may not be perfect, she has gone out of her way to make sure we were safe.”
“In addition to defending us now, when she met me, I was with Andres, like nearly everyone here was. He tried the same routine with me; convincing me that Chrysalis, and perhaps every other being in this world, was a monster. However, he was the one that struck first, tossing a rock with enough force that it could’ve killed Chrysalis if it hit her. Yet she didn’t retaliate. Instead, she only made us follow her and gather all of you guys to this spot.”
He gestured at the destroyed forest around them, including the cave that stood strong and the shield that was evaporating into tiny shards and floating away. “Do you think it’s a coincidence you were all gathered under shelter? Do you think Andres put you here? No, Chrysalis gathered you here so everyone would be safer.” He stood back and nodded towards the other changelings near him.
Feng stepped forward hesitantly. “She protected me from a manticore.”
“She helped me with flying,” Mitul said, flapping his wings and managing an unsteady hover.
“I actually remember the ‘resource war’ and a few things before it,” Blush said as she pushed another plank of pink-fish-orb to her queen, only to have it pushed back when her own stomach growled. She looked down at the plate, then looked back up. “She’s the only reason we’re all alive right now.”
Isaac looked at Blush for a second before turning back to the judge and nodding. “As I’ve come to understand, her only goal is making sure we’re safe and happy. However,” he turned to Discord, who was now standing on Spike’s head in miniature form, continually cringing as he wrote things down on paper, ”she doesn’t trust other species at all. I’m not sure what to make of that.”
The judge nodded. “Well said.” He adjusted his sunglasses. “So, what should we do with Barney, the frankenstein, and the horse-kitty?”
Every changeling turned to stare at the trio.
Pinkie backed away from the crowd, only to bump into some of the formerly prosecution changelings behind her. “Uh, I wouldn’t do anything mean...”
“It doesn’t matter.” Isaac looked at her. “Even if you don’t, if you return, there could be others like your friend there. And if they gathered our location from you, we could be goners.”
Pinkie simply stared back at Isaac with a blank look.
“I’m actually wondering about that.” the judge gestured to the destroyed forest around him. “Does this still count as hidden?”
Chrysalis spoke up, “Actually, it’s both hidden and guarded now. While a few curious species might show up to see the aftermath of my battle, it would be dangerous for any species that can’t fly. We’ll have to only allow changelings out in pairs on the ground unless we’ve established safe paths, but that’s always been a good idea.”
“Fair enough.” The judge shrugged.
“Oh!” Pinkie blurted out. “You guys totally shouldn’t elect Chrysalis for mayor! She’s speciesist!”
Spike turned to Pinkie, raising an eyebrow. “You’re still doing this?”
Chrysalis blinked. “‘Speciesist’?” she repeated. “What does that mean?”
“It means you only care about changelings and don’t like other species,” Pinkie clarified.
“Oh.” Chrysalis smiled. “Well, that would be true then.”
Many of the changelings in the group facehooved, and the rest just frowned as if they’d eaten something bitter. Pinkie pumped a hoof. “Wow, I’m good. I actually really didn’t think that would work, like, at all.”
“Well...” Chrysalis squinted at Pinkie, the first pony she remembered that didn’t direct hate or fear at her when shown her true form. “That’s because all species fend for themselves. That is why we changelings nearly starved. Back in my parent’s home, there’s a stack of letters.” She looked over the crowd. “If Discord’s actions aren’t enough to go by, there’s a stack of eighty two letters, all calls for help, for food, rejected vehemently!” She stomped her hoof. “Not only were all those other species happy to let my changelings, all of you, starve to death; they insulted us as well!”
Pinkie’s jaw went slack. “B-but that’s impossible! Celestia would never do that!”
“Oh really?” Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure one of those letters was from her.”
Pinkie just frowned.
“Okay, everyone,” the judge said after a few seconds of silence, “I’ve come to a judgement.”
The entire crowd stared back at him.
“From what we’ve seen and heard, it should be obvious that meetings with other species should be handled with extreme caution. I find it hard to believe that other species wouldn’t help each other simply because they’re different species. In the span of this small court session, we’ve seen species attack each other as well as help each other. If not for that lizard creature, Chrysalis’s fight would have gone on even longer.”
Her eyes widening in sudden realization, Chrysalis turned to Spike.
“In case the verdict isn’t already clear,” the judge said, “I hereby declare Chrysalis, not guilty!”
“Not guilty of what?” Somebug from the crowd asked.
“I, I don’t remember...” the judge answered back.
Meanwhile, Chrysalis was still staring at Spike. Wait, was she remembering correctly? Did she hear that one of her changelings saved him? She couldn’t deny that he had stopped a battle that she wasn’t sure she could’ve won.
Memories of her childhood with Scale flashed into her mind. She could almost feel herself once again laughing whole heartedly at those silly mad libs books.
Her eyes started watering before she managed to tear her head away.
Spike was glad to not have a large bug queen staring back at him. He smiled to himself, examining his claws. He managed to save somepony else—well, somebug else—and he managed to stop Discord from doing something he would probably regret.
He also heard something in the grass.
Spike looked back up. Chrysalis was standing right in front of him.
“You,” Chrysalis said, making spike jump. “You’re different somehow. There’s plenty of hate in you, yet I can taste love flowing freely as well.”
Spike narrowed his eyes at her.
“You saved my life,” Chrysalis said. “Even though you hate me. Even though we’re different species.”
Spike continued glaring back.
“Why?” Chrysalis asked.
Spike crossed his arms. “I didn’t do it for you. I did it for your changelings.”
Chrysalis blinked. “Still, I don’t understand why.”
Spike knitted his eyebrows. “You may have ruined Cadence’s wedding and given Twilight one of the most horrible days of her life, but your changelings were just following orders.”
“Oh,” was all that Chrysalis said in response.
Chrysalis then turned to the draconequus and the pony, tasting the unexpected emotions from each. Remnants of guilty pleasure came from the draconequus, and, strangely enough, the scent of curiosity easily overriding fear came from the pink one. As they almost imperceptibly huddled together under her gaze, she could taste comradery flowing between them as well, even from the draconequus she had suspected was using mind control magic.
Suddenly, a changeling called out. “Everyone!” it yelled. “We got all this wood. Let’s try putting a roof over our heads before we go to bed.”
The rest of the group jumped to action, though many were either tired, shaky, or huddling close to other changelings for fear that some stray magic from that battle would still strike them down.
“You three,” Chrysalis spoke. “How would you like to be my guests?”
“Oh!” Pinkie smiled. “We’re invited? What to? That’s super nice considering we were just arguing against you in this court case.”
“To be her prisoners...” Spike mumbled under his breath.
“Oh,” Pinkie deflated a little.
Chrysalis grimaced at Spike before smiling back at Pinkie. “No, nothing like that.” She waved a hoof. ”You and your friends get to watch me and my drones rebuild the hive. Really, it should be a rather joyous occasion, building and decorating our new home.”
Pinkie’s smile grew wider.
“And”—she looked at Pinkie’s cutie mark—”Oh! I remember you. You’re that party pony.”
“That’s me!” Pinkie put a hoof to her chest.
“Is this really happening?” Discord asked Spike.
Spike shrugged.
“So, party pony,” Chrysalis said, her mouth turning into a smirk, “do you think you can provide the entertainment and the refreshments for my hive in between work?”
“Can I?” Pinkie asked, looking at Chrysalis like she just asked her if she could walk on her own hooves. “Of course I can.”
Chrysalis squinted at Pinkie. “Please remember this is recreation for adults, not birthday parties for foals.”
Pinkie tilted her head. “Well duh. Why would you think I would get the theme wrong.”
Chrysalis paused for a second. “No reason,” she lied before turning to the others.
Both dragon and draconequus were staring at Pinkie and Chrysalis with bemused looks, arms crossed, and one eyebrow raised.
“Do you two have something to say?” Chrysalis asked.
“I don’t know,” Spike replied, “do we get to choose whether we want to stay or not?”
Chrysalis looked at Discord, her face appeared world weary for a split second before her gaze hardened. She turned back to Spike. “I’ll be honest, you could try to fight your way out with your chimera friend there, but would you or that pink pony survive the battle?”
Spike frowned. “Fine.”
Around then, the changeling in the Hawaiian shirt trotted up.
“Oh,” the former judge said to the queen, “looks like you’re handling it.”
Chrysalis turned to him. “You assumed I wouldn’t?”
The bug shook his head. “Oh, no, I just thought you would’ve passed out already. Besides, we still have to set up a list of people to watch these creatures, someone to cover our tracks, clean up the battlefield, write the procedures for traveling through the forest and looking for other changelings, talking with the prisoners—”
Chrysalis flinched.
“Oh, come on.” The changeling stomped his hooves. “They can’t possibly not know they’re prisoners. I mean, they can write letters and stuff, but they’re gonna have to stay here until we sort things out.”
Chrysalis turned back to Pinkie, but she noticed Pinkie’s expression hadn’t changed one bit. Apparently the pony was only playing the fool.
She turned back to the changeling. “I’m impressed. You actually have something of a plan.” She patted her changeling on the head. “But it can wait until morning for the most part. For now, having changelings watch over our guests at all times, as well as posting a watch-changeling, should suffice.” She yawned. “You deal with that, I’ll oversee and help with building shelter, I’ll have… Isaac, and then myself check over your work, and then we can sleep.”
Chrysalis turned back to the trio of non-changelings.
“So, are we just going to go along with them?” Spike asked Discord.
“Well, I suppose so,” Discord replied, scratching his neck. “Like you said, we’re not really helping them if we’re fighting them.”
Spike nodded.
“I dunno,” Pinkie said, “that battle was fun to watch.”
Discord considered this.
“Hey,” the former judge spoke up, “why should only Chrysalis and Discord fight? Why don’t you join in too?”
Pinkie stared back. “Huh? Me? I don’t want to fight you. I found you in the forest, and we traveled together.”
“OK,” the judge replied, “then as best buddies, can we just get some sleep? I woke up this morning as a bug in summer clothes, a June bug if you will, and I still tried to be a voice of reason here. But then your friend decides to make me his mole right before giving the rest of my kind a healthy fear of mint jelly. I’m not having a good day.”
“...Fine,” Pinkie sighed.
With that, Chrysalis and her changelings guided their guests to what would soon be the new hive.
“Hey,” Discord whispered to Spike, “Since when did Pinkie Pie become our spokespony?”
Isaac scrunched his face as he trotted by Chrysalis. He, Chrysalis, and almost every other changeling were carrying log after log towards the large just inside the mouth of the cave. When he came up to Chrysalis’s side, he gave her an exasperated sigh. “You were supposed to stay quiet or discuss things with us before we talked to the rest of the court.”
Chrysalis looked over to him, a little annoyed. “Why? The truth in my words was obvious? Every changeling saw how little that monster and his friends cared for us.”
Isaac squinted at her. “You know that’s not true. That lizard thing probably saved your life.”
Chrysalis was silent for a moment as she trotted. Eventually, she simply decided to change the subject. “Why should I ‘stay quiet’? As long as I’m correct, I shouldn’t need anyone else to defend me. The truth behind my words should be obvious.” She paused. “It’s typically the ones that opt not to speak that are actively hiding something, and from my experience, most creatures assume as such when one refuses to speak.”
Isaac glowered. “Your ‘self evident’ words and actions nearly got everyone killed! At this point, I don’t think anyone doubts that you’re fighting for us, but you’re pretty darn reckless! I don’t know if we’re truly safe with you as a leader. Though you’d make a fine guard.” He turned, nearly smacking a few nearby changelings with the wood he was carrying. “But I don’t know who else is better suited to lead us. I certainly don’t want to, that ‘judge’ is a joke, and the last person who stepped up tried to commit murder.” He let out another frustrated breath before trotting towards the half finished house at a faster pace.
Chrysalis rolled her eyes. She was too reckless to lead? What did he know? She had given Discord a second chance even after he disobeyed her and laid his dirty claws on one of her changelings. There was the confusion and murky feelings that every changeling seemed to feel whenever her ‘speciesism’ came up, but they would just have to get used to the way the world worked. Though, that dragon apparently wasn’t used to the way the world worked…
As Chrysalis pondered, she fell behind Isaac and Blush trotted up from behind. “I think he’s right. You could’ve talked that thing’s friends into stopping him before that battle started.”
“What?” Chrysalis snapped. “Was I supposed to ask some other species for aid to stop their captor from fighting me? Was I supposed to beg for help, just to give another species a chance to spit in my face when I’m most vulnerable! The only thing I know about changelings outside my hive is their demise at the appendages of other species!”
Blush jumped back in surprise.
Chrysalis sighed. “I’ve never heard or seen different species working together until that abomination and his pets came by just now. The only real example of that is the ponies and their different limbs, but they nearly killed themselves trying to figure out which of their races was better. And they’re not even different species! Every other species keeps to themselves. The griffins? The minotaurs? The dragons? Except for the stray pet or dignitary, they keep to their own species and let the others deal with their tragedies alone.”
She looked at Blush, who was now just tilting her head at her, waiting for her to continue.
So she did, “I’ve seen the rare donkey and mule among the ponies, but they seem to be the butt of the joke more often than they are equal citizens...”
Blush was silent for a moment as they flew up and laid their logs onto the house. “Did you give the ponies other options before invading? Did you request help?” She asked.
Chrysalis paused, trotting in silence towards the next set of logs.
“No,” she said finally. “Those letters I talked about were all from my parent’s home. They were probably written before I was born. I didn’t want to actually receive one of those vile things.”
Blush frowned. “You should’ve written a letter anyway.”
The duo trotted back to the makeshift court at a leisurely pace.
“I did write one letter,” Chrysalis said quietly enough that no other changeling would hear. “That was the declaration of war. The response was… not quite what I had been expecting.”
“I believe one of the things she wrote back about was lending help if I needed it. I suspected that this Celestia was either very desperate to keep a war away from an important wedding day, or she was just scared and trying to trick me. Actually, I still believe that, and any sort of meeting to receive ‘help’ would have put you and the rest of my changelings in danger.” She looked over at the four prisoners in the log cabin and the changelings now watching over them. Only one of the prisoners was actually restrained at all, and that was Andres in his ball of vines.
“The dragon and the pink one were anomalies,” Chrysalis continued. “Though, they might turn out to be incredibly useful anomalies.” She slowed down as she thought. “If we wanted to change the way the world worked, to have species help each other when in need, then that pink one might work well to pacify the ponies into accepting such cooperation. Same with the dragon. If it’s in their genes to not hate us on sight like so many others, or even to help us, then perhaps we should help make some more of them...”
Blush frowned. Many things about what Chrysalis just said didn’t sit right with her. As they picked up another log from the ‘courtroom’, Blush decided to respond to a couple of those things.
“There was another pony that didn’t hate or fear us on sight, back in Canterlot. A brown stallion, if I remember correctly. Instead, I felt curiosity from him. It made him easy to subdue. Same with one of the guards. And that’s only including the ponies I personally dealt with.” She turned to look directly at Chrysalis. “You can’t ignore four separate creatures. Did you only get your outlook on other species from a stack of letters.”
Chrysalis clenched her teeth. How dare—! No, no… She calmed herself. She had to think matters like these through logically. If what Blush told her was true, then she couldn’t ignore it, but what did it mean? Two instances might have been a fluke, even across species, but four was a pattern she couldn’t ignore.
“But there’s something that bothers me...” Blush tapped her chin, going back to her work. “Why were we starving in the first place, back in the original hive? You were able to gather a bunch of food with Isaac. It seems like the only reason we had trouble finding food back then was because you had to command us all. But I don’t think changelings would be born under the effects of malnutrition.”
Chrysalis furrowed her brows. “I never said you were born that way. My parents told me you were refugees.”
“Refugees from what?” Blush turned to look Chrysalis in the eyes. “Even without the strength and intelligence we have now, you were nearly able to defeat another species. What could possibly have turned us into refugees?”
“...It was something from our home continent,” Chrysalis answered vaguely.
“You don’t even know what species it was?” Blush raised an eyebrow. “You have a bunch of rejection letters as records, but nothing about the species that supposedly put us in this situation to begin with?”
Chrysalis stared down at her changeling. She hadn’t expected an outburst like that.
“S-sorry.” Blush looked off to the side. “I don’t know what got into me. Something about all of this just seems off.”
“No.” Chrysalis shook her head. “I believe it was the minotaurs. But it is a little strange that they were so far in the background that they became forgettable. I don’t know if I’ve actuall
y seen a picture of a minotaur from our continent up close before, drawing or not.” She made a not to remember that inconsistency, along with the strange runes, and the not-hateful non-changelings.
“So, what was our history like?” Blush asked. “I’m sorry, something in me just has to know.”
“Hmm...” Chrysalis tapped her chin. “There was one article where the changelings were wearing metal spikes in some sort of desert wasteland.”
“Wait, what?” Blush’s eyes widened.
Perhaps she remembered the poster, or the events behind it, Chrysalis thought.
“There was also some sort of disease that turned changelings against each other. I swear some of the diseased ones looked like they should’ve been dead,” Chrysalis continued.
Blush started gaping. Chrysalis could feel a sense of dread flowing from her. “You can’t be serious.”
“There were also these silver changelings with red eyes—”
“Okay, Stop!” Blush shouted.
Chrysalis stared at her.
Blush held a hoof up to her face. “Those,” she said through clenched teeth, “those are movies. Mad Max, zombies, and the Terminator.”
Chrysalis blinked. “Movies?”
“You know,” Blush said. “Cinema?”
Chrysalis looked at a tree in the distance. “I think I remember something like that from the ponies.” She paused. ”Wait a second.” She turned back to Blush. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying”—Blush stamped her hooves—“that my gut is telling me there’s something wrong with our whole situation, and I think it has a lot to do with our ‘history’.”
Chrysalis stopped moving. In her head, she was back where she had been first introduced to her changelings—to all the refugees she had to take care of.
She walked through the cramped room, all of its pictures of weird races and other changelings doing crazy things, but didn’t pay much attention to it. Then, she remembered turning around and seeing those terrifying runes form on the now locked door.
After that though, the closest memory she could bring up was her first hunt. She had given up searching her home for her parents, but as she hunted, she repeated to herself that she’d find her parents, maybe beat them up a little, then make them help her out with her hive.
She repeated that hope every day she hunted, to the point where she started to believe it. It was only after several months that she thought they might not be worth the effort, and it was only after that when she began to consider how hard it might be to find two changelings in all of Equestria. Further, two changelings that specialized in the shapeshifting spells that earned her species its name in the Equestrian language.
Just now, she realized that she’d been passing through that history room nearly every day, because the only room large enough to house all of her changelings was directly behind it.
Chrysalis’ heart started racing. Why was the history room positioned there if not to hammer it into her head? Why couldn’t she have been trusted to honor the passed changelings’ memories and read up on their history by herself? If that history was a lie, then whoever, whatever had fabricated it not only insulted her, but the entire changeling race! Even if it wasn’t, the mere placement was an insult to—!
Chrysalis quickly came back to reality as her eyes tracked something black and hoof-like moving back and forth rapidly in front of her face.
“Hellooo.. Chrysalis?” Blush continued waving her hoof in front of Chrysalis. “Are you okay?”
Chrysalis smiled, thankful for the interruption. She needed time to think about a proper method of torture for the being that put her changelings’ ‘history’ where it was.
“Yeah.” Chrysalis smiled at the ideas that came to mind. “I think I’ll be just fine.”
After what felt like hours, Chrysalis finally swept her gaze over the inside of the completed log cabin. The house was fine; it was fully made, and it was more than she expected to have done in a day. It was also large enough to house all of the changelings she had found so far, even if it would be a bit cramped. There was just one problem with it.
Discord, in what seemed to be a form of apology, filled the house with furniture. The comfortable looking beds filled the floors, as well as parts of the walls and ceiling. On each bed was what looked like an apology letter. Apparently, from what she heard from her changelings, Pinkie, the pony, and Spike, the dragon, urged Discord to apologize to every one of her subjects.
The beds were comfy, so Chrysalis didn’t mind them. No, she minded how they were being used.
If there was one thing Chrysalis liked about her life before the Canterlot invasion, it was when she slept in the center of a giant pile with all of her changelings. Now it looked like there were only one or two changelings per bed.
“Hey!” Blush waved at her from across the room. “I saved you a bed.”
Shrugging, Chrysalis flew over. Indeed, Blush had two beds.
Chrysalis looked from Blush to the other bed, then back to Blush.
“Oh...” Blush’s smile sank. “Right.”
“I thought you remembered being a changeling?” Chrysalis fluttered down to the bed Blush was currently occupying.
“Yeah, just...” Blush trailed off as her queen pushed the two beds together with her magic and laid down, using Blush’s body like a headrest. “Right. This is completely normal. A regular, normal, changeling cuddle puddle.”
“Cuddle puddle?” A nearby changeling perked up.
Suddenly, green flame enveloped Chrysalis’ legs, turning them back into pillows.
Blush turned around and shrieked once she laid eyes on the pillow legs.
It looked like Chrysalis would actually have to undo Discord’s spells now.
Discord, Pinkie, Andres, and Spike all laid down on their respective beds, and only Andres’s bed was contained inside a wooden jail cell. They were all sleeping, except for Pinkie.
“Okay, this stopped being fun an hour ago!” Pinkie suddenly shot up in her bed and stared at the changeling with the hawaiian shirt just outside of her bed. “Why do you have to keep staring at us?”
“I’m just doing my job,” the changeling responded.
“Yeah, I get it!” Pinkie threw her hooves up. “You’re job is to stare at us creepily! That doesn’t explain why though!”
The changeling shook his head. “No, my job right now is to make sure none of you escape.”
Pinkie looked hurt for a second, then looked around at her fellow inmates, all of whom were sleeping. “Yeah, I really think you’re overdoing it here.”
The changeling nodded. “Just how I roll...”
Then he lit his horn and levitated a stack of leaves, checking it and writing something down before glancing back at his prisoners.
“Hey,” Pinkie spoke up, “what are you writing about all the time anyway?”
“Can’t talk,” the changeling answered, “on the job.”
Pinkie blew a raspberry. “What, are you keeping a log of how we often roll over in our sleep?”
“No”—the changeling shook his head and levitated a much smaller stack of leaves—“that’s this one.”
Pinkie just stared back at him.
Just then, another changeling came up to the one in the hawaiian shirt. This one had a painful looking scar across its cheeks.
The changeling in the hawaiian shirt perked up once he noticed her, but only slightly turned his head away from the captives. “Ah,” he said, “Blush, right? Are you relieving me?” He glanced over at a ‘clock’ that was really nothing more than a swinging pendulum hanging from the ceiling with a few closely spaced ticks marked in the dirt in a around it. “Ah, right on time.”
Blush yawned. “Ah huh. I just stare at the prisoners, right? Uh, wait, what’s your name?”
The changeling in the hawaiian shirt thought for a second. “Chrysalis prefers the term ‘guests’. As for my name… eh, I’ll just go with my real name. I’m Henry.”
“Nice to meet you.” Blush smiled politely.
Henry nodded back. “Okay,” he started, “if anything strange happens, make sure to jot it down in the log.” He levitated the smaller stack of leaves to her, along with what looked to be a burnt sharpened stick. “Otherwise, just write that you took over, exactly like I wrote it before.”
Blush nodded, took the leaves, and copied what was on the first leaf onto the next blank one, replacing his name with hers.
Henry started trotting off, but turned back around after a second. “Oh, one more thing. Don’t fall asleep on this job. If I remember right, I think that can be punishable by death in a time of war, maybe.”
“Wait, what!?” Blush turned back around, but Henry was already trotting off back to bed. “Argh, jerk.”
“I know, right?” Pinkie commented.
“Go to bed already,” Blush responded.
Henry laid down in his bed, his horn occasionally pulsating with magic as he levitated the notes on the leaves he had been working on.
“So,” he said, now charging his horn, “bloom filters.”
He started concentrating, the magic around his horn growing. As he did, sparks flew off and vanished. That wasn’t what he wanted.
He concentrated again, this time focusing on the first large spark that flew off. For some reason, a green glow enveloped the solid green spark, both levitating it and keeping it from vanishing.
“Heh heh.” He smiled, slowly levitating the spark of magic around while keeping it alive. “I’ll get there...”
He turned to his notes and started writing as much as he could.
It had been several hours and Chrysalis still couldn’t fall asleep, despite undoing Discord’s pillow spell long ago. She was probably the only changeling still awake now. What in the world was keeping her awake? Was it the prisoners? No, if the prisoners ever did anything, the changeling watching over them would alert her through the hivemind.
Oh, right, the changeling pile. She must’ve been pretty tired if she forgot about that. She had a pile of five or ten changelings now, but most of the changelings had opted to sleep alone.
Chrysalis lit her horn. Every single one of the fifty or so beds Discord created in his sleep levitated towards each other until their sides touched. Then, Chrysalis yanked all the headboards off as quietly as she could.
Now it wasn’t so much an array of beds as a very cushy raised floor that held all of her changelings. Once she found the rest of her hive, they would form a pile large enough to completely cover the entire area.
With her mind now at ease, Chrysalis could finally feel herself succumbing to the sleep she longed for.
Twilight trotted into the huge open field by a cliff. For a changeling hideout, it wasn’t very well hidden, especially with the trees that were blasted away everywhere, the mint jelly, and the craters. It looked like Discord decided to fight the changelings, but if that was the case, why hadn’t he, Pinkie, or Spike come back to her? The thought set her on edge.
Oh, there was also a changeling wandering around, undisguised, trying to wipe away several hoofprints that led to its’ so called hideout.
“Hey there!” The slightly reddened changeling noticed her and turned, then trotted up to her. “I’m really sorry, but you’re going to have to turn back around. This is private property.”
Twilight grimaced and twisted her head at the changeling. “What? I don’t…?” She shook her head. “No, my friends are here.”
“Oh!” The changeling’s eyes widened. “If that’s the case, we’ll return them to you shortly. Wait, whoops, I mean...” He paused for a second. “Well, I suppose it’s safe to tell you: we found your friends at a pretty bad time. We’ll have to clear up a few things first, but we should give them back in a few days.”
Twilight’s eye twitched. “Yeah, after you’ve drained them to husks! Stop trying to trick me and just show me where my friends are!”
“I’m sorry, but I can’t—”
“Argh!” Twilight ran past the changeling, looked left and right, then ran back to the changeling once she realized she couldn’t find the actual hideout. She lit her horn. “Ok, you’re going to—”
Before Twilight could finish her sentence, the changeling crouched to the ground, dodging a blast of purple from Twilight’s horn, grabbed her below the neck with his hood, and threw her backwards. But before she hit the ground, her horn lit up once more, and both changeling and alicorn were held still in a purple glow.
“So, you want to do this the hard way?” Twilight said as she levitated herself back to standing position. “Just stay right there, and...”
Twilight stared back at the changeling for a second. While most ponies would’ve stayed still in her magic’s grasp, this changeling pressed himself against it as hard as he could, his chitin flexing and crackling against her magic. She was surprised he wasn’t crying out in pain.
Returning her attention to the battle, she lit her horn once more to subdue the changeling, but it was now rocking back and forth rapidly, cuts appearing all over its chitin. She couldn’t get a lock on it.
With a shattering sound, the changeling broke out of her magical grasp and flew off.
Well, this was new. This one changeling was much, much stronger than any of the ones she fought back in canterlot. She would have to stay on guard—
She heard something whistling as it sped toward her. Turning around, she noticed that same changeling dive bombing her. She had just enough time to bring up a shield spell before the changeling… turned and flew out of the way? Only to be followed by several rocks the size of her head!
Twilight gritted her teeth as the boulders slammed against her shield, waves of force rippling over the purple barrier with each hit.
From behind, she could hear another changeling trotting up to her.
She turned around, but there was no changeling in sight. Just rocks and plants.
Before she knew it, another barrage of rocks rained down upon her shield.
She heard more hoofsteps, but she only saw one changeling in the air.
Suddenly, she heard a crashing sound, and outside her shield she could only see dust.
After waiting for the dust to clear, she noticed a large crater right in front of her. In that crater was a changeling. Its skin was red and covered with cuts.
Twilight held a hoof to her muzzle as she lowered her shield. Was that changeling even still alive?
She trotted down into the crater, just to be sure. It was a nasty changeling kidnapping her friends, but she didn’t mean to hurt it that bad.
Twilight stood above the changeling in the smoking crater.
“Uuugh...” the changeling groaned.
Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. She was in the middle of turning around to continue searching for the hive when a green flash caught her attention.
Turning back around, she noticed she was now facing a completely different changeling. This one had what looked like a painful scar across her face. But before Twilight could defend herself, that changeling sprung up and smacked its hoof against her horn, hard.
“Hey, I could’ve taken her myself,” was the last thing Twilight heard before she passing out.
Isaac hefted the purple horse onto his back.
“Yeah right,” Blush replied. “From the looks of things, you were just going to kill each other. What was with that rock thing anyway? That would have killed most ponies.”
Isaac blanched. “Really? After that battle Chrysalis had, I thought everything on this planet was strong.”
“You thought wrong!” Blush snapped. She shook her head as she continued trotting up to the front of the new home. “And you called Chrysalis reckless. Geez.”
Isaac opened the door, letting Blush through. He trotted to the cage Andres was sleeping in and dumped the alicorn onto the floor.
“So,” Mitul spoke up, pointing to the stack of leaves, “Do I log this, or do you log this now that you’re back?”
“Yeah yeah, I’ll log it,” Blush said as she levitated the leaves over to her. She scribbled something down on the next blank leaf, recording the time indicated by the still swinging pendulum.
Suddenly, Isaac stopped and turned around. “Wait a minute,” he said, looking at Twilight. Then he looked around and spotted some of the bright wads of magic floating over Henry. He leapt up and flew over.
“I gotta borrow this for a second.” He grabbed one wad and flew off.
“Hey!” Henry called back. “Eh, oh well.” He want back to playing with the other orbs he had.
Isaac landed, walked back into the cage, opened one of Twilight’s eyelids with his hoof, and held the glowing wad of green magic in front of her face.
He paused for a couple seconds. “Uh, aren’t her pupils supposed to shrink a little more than that?”
Blush merely tilted her head. “Maybe? I don’t know. Shouldn’t you be worrying about yourself?”
Isaac stood back up, placed the orb on his back, and gave Blush a quizzical look. “What do you mean? I feel completely fine. I think we may need an actual doctor for miss purple horse here though.”
Shrugging, Blush looked around the room, then back to the cage. “But everyone’s asleep.”
“Gah, fucking interns...” they heard Henry speak. “HEY!” he yelled, waking up almost every changeling. “IS ANYONE HERE A DOCTOR?”
“I am!” a changeling yelled back, her voice slurring with fatigue. “Where’s the emergency?”
“I was just about to do that,” Isaac grumbled.
Henry pointed to the cage. “The purple winged unicorn thing.”
The changeling doctor galloped over to the cage, but stopped when she saw Isaac, “Whoa! Are you sure you don’t need my help?”
Isaac tilted his head, blood leaking from one of the many cuts on his body as he moved. “What do you mean?”
The doctor stared back, jaw slack. After a couple seconds, she simply shrugged and turned to the cage where the purple pegasus-unicorn was lying unconscious. “What’s wrong with her?” she asked.
“I think she might have a concussion,” Isaac answered.
“That’s it?” The doctor frowned. “Now, don’t get me wrong, a concussion’s pretty serious, but I really wanted something more interesting.” She grabbed the wad of magic from the air, held it in front of Twilight’s face, and forced open Twilight’s eye with her hoof. “I mean, I retired years ago, but not doing work is actually pretty boring. Unfortunately, when you get old, all the same things are still fun, but your hands aren’t steady anymore, you can’t remember the symptoms of the more important diseases, and only the less important ones, and then you cut off the wrong leg.”
Isaac stared back at the ‘doctor’, one eyebrow above the other. He was less and less sure about this every second.
Suddenly, as the doctor was examining her, Twilight woke up, scurrying back and forcing herself up against the other side of the cage. “W-w-what are you doing with that?”
The doctor answered immediately. “I was checking for dilated pupils and any head bumps or bruises, in case you had a concussion.”
Twilight blinked.
“But now that you’re awake…” The changeling smiled and looked at Twilight at an angle. ” Tell me”—the doctor suddenly leaned forward—“do you have a headache? Difficulty with vision? Recognition? Thought? How many fingers am I...” She raised her hoof and stared at the fingerless appendage. “Ah, oops.”
Twilight just stared at the changeling for a moment before responding, “I have a bit of a headache, now that I think about it.”
The doctor nodded. “That’s to be expected.” She sighed. ”Don’t hesitate to come to me if anything gets worse.” Dejected, the doctor trotted lazily out of the cage.
“Hey, wait a second!” Twilight pointed at Isaac, but then she noticed the door to the cage was still open. Without hesitation, she flew up, grabbed a sleeping Discord, and flew to the door of the cage, only to be caught in a field of green magic.
“Nice try.” Blush levitated Twilight back to the ground.
Twilight powered up her own horn in response, only to have a few sparks of purple magic pop out.
“Ouch!” she yelped and held her horn in her hooves as she was levitated back down to her bed.
Meanwhile, a massive green dragon flew over the forests of Equestria. He wasn’t one to explore just for the sake of exploring. No, like other dragons, he roamed only to increase his wealth. Of course, also like other dragons, he had his own interpretations of wealth. While other dragons occasionally added weapons or art to their piles of gold, he added books, whether they were written by him or someone else.
So although he could ignore that annoying ‘summoning of the dragons’, especially after mostly blocking it with spells from some of the books he found, he couldn’t ignore the scent of magic that floated into his book filled cave.
It smelled almost like a young dragoness he once took care of, just like that strange cave…
Now that he thought about it, Crystal’s old cave was on the way to where he smelled that magic. He decided he might as well visit it to get a refresher, thought it still felt a little wrong going in there without her permission.
Ah, that was it right there. The black mountain. For some reason, after that magical explosion from Canterlot, that mountain started changing. It was almost like some form of rot was now eating away at it.
Scale landed in the mouth of the cavern, the place still managing to make his scales stand on end.
While the outside of the cave, and practically the whole mountain outside it, was covered in that strange black substance, the inside only had some of it. Around and beneath the black splotches that randomly lined the cave, Scale could see countless mechanisms connected together with chains. He always wondered why one would go to the trouble of making machinery that complex when they could just use magic.
Well, maybe this next exploration would tell him why.
He stomped off into the far left room, squeezing his way through the opening. Inside, the room was filled with what many creatures would've identified as torture devices, but Scale remembered several of the devices from his old medical texts.
In the center of the room was a gurney with clamps that were modified with a spring wound mechanism that would release in a day if the patient was left there, or if the mechanism was broken. But what kind of doctor would need to install such a mechanism?
Putting that question aside, Scale swept his gaze across the rest of the room.
Aside from the strange gurney, there were several piles of medical equipment sitting on tables scattered throughout the room. The piles included normal equipment like syringes, scalpels, towels, and magic regulators, but there were several devices that Scale couldn’t recognize at all.
Scale turned around and trudged on to the next room. Once he passed through the hall, he found the room devoid of all furniture, just like last time. The tree that had previously dominated the room had grown smaller since his last visit, probably dying due to the lack of sunlight.
It was like no tree he had ever seen before. It had two black trunks spiraling around each other, and two wrinkled green orbs at the top that lit up the room. At the base, the skin-like bark of the trunks spread out into the floor as if they were slowly being reclaimed by the splotches of black ooze that coated everything. But the strangest thing was that it constantly threw off magic that smelled similar to Crystal’s.
He quietly turned around and left the room without disturbing anything. For some reason, that tree felt sacred. Perhaps that was because it was the first thing that reminded Scale of Crystal’s magic after so long, but he could’ve sworn there was something more.
Shrugging, Scale turned and walked down the hallway, to the left, and to the next door.
The third room was the one that was full of ‘history’. It wasn’t a history of dragons like him and Crystal though. Instead, it was ‘history’ of black pony-like creatures and… well, to be honest, it was a room with a bunch of movie posters, newspapers that you’d find in typical pony cinema, and for some reason, hate mail on a podium that was all written in the same handwriting. He wasn’t sure what the purpose of all that stuff was, but it certainly looked half-assed.
Putting the letters down after a quick leaf through, scale turned and made his way into the large area behind the history room.
The area was filled with a softer form of black goo. Some slowly turning chains from under the goo linked to what looked like a propeller, if he recognized it correctly, but only after they went through some round thing. The propeller was still spinning fast enough to blow a calm breeze throughout the chamber. It looked like there was supposed to be something in front of it, given the fact that there were several bars attached to the front of the mechanism, but Scale couldn’t tell what should’ve been there.
Backing out of the room, Scale made his way into the history room. The door was closed again, and it had those burnt out runes on them again. He just stepped up to the door and shoved it aside.
Next, he made his way into the room with the really large machine. It looked like a giant wheel connected to a crane which was in turn connected to a chain that went through a hole in the ground. He could feel great heat coming from that chain. In fact, it seemed like it nearly went all the way down to the lava.
It was pretty impressive that the wheel was still spinning after so long without magic. Then again, that black goo might have had something to do with that.
Scale gave the machine one last glance before stepping out of the engine room and walking towards the last room. When he looked inside, there was a pony-sized bed, stacks of drawings, pony plushies, and, most telling of all, a few drawings of him, Crystal, and one of those black pony-like figures, one of which was particularly disturbing. That disturbing picture showed Crystal smiling and playing with her dragon friends, while that black pony like thing was curled up into a ball inside her. Behind that curdled up and crying black pony, other black ponies laid behind her, all with x-marks for eyes.
Scale turned around and left. He spent enough time wandering around Crystal’s home. If she were a regular dragon, he would’ve respected her privacy, but Crystal’s life was a mystery that deserved a well written biography.
Now that there were no more rooms to explore, Scale unfurled his wings as he walked back to the mouth of the cave, and leapt into the open air, trailing Crystal’s scent once more.
For a moment, Scale thought about what he would do if he found Crystal instead of another strange tree. He did just tour her home without asking, so he wasn’t sure how he would explain himself if she happened to still be alive. Her still being alive was pretty unlikely though. No living dragon would leave their home in such a state.
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After Blush finally finished her night shift, she crawled into bed. It was so late that she could hardly form a coherent thought before sleep took her.
The world around Blush faded from wooden ceilings and comfortable beds into nothingness. However, that nothingness smelled a bit like the ocean.
The next thing she knew, Anna was standing right before the edge of a cliff, overlooking the water below with her boyfriend.
“Nice view, huh?” he asked. “I come here occasionally to destress, y’know?”
“I can see why.” Anna smiled. “It’s nice.”
“Yeah!” Her boyfriend smiled back. “Especially after you get to swim around some.”
“Huh?” Anna turned back. There was no way he was serious about diving off that cliff, right?
But the look on his face told her everything she needed to know. Apparently this was an everyday occurrence for him.
“Hey,” he said, smiling playfully, “you should try it!”
“N-no, I’m fine,” Anna said, taking a few steps back from the cliff.
“Aw, come on,” her boyfriend complained. “It’ll be fun!”
“No, it’s a bit too high for me,” Anna answered.
Her boyfriend sighed. “Well, ok. I guess I’ll just have to work you up to it. Just stand a bit closer to the edge for a while until you’re not freaked out anymore.”
“Okay...” Hesitantly, she did as he asked.
As she peered down into the ocean below, she felt a pair of hands press onto her back, pushing her over the edge.
Blush screamed as she fell, flailing and trying to flap her wings to get out of the way, but to no avail. Somehow, she knew this was where she died. She knew there was a rock in just the wrong place beneath the water, that she was headed straight towards it, and that there was absolutely nothing she could do now.
As she fell, her human life flashed before her eyes. She saw herself hiking through a mountain with the rest of her class, laughing at a joke her dad made at a barbecue, and how she would joke around with her friends at the nature club about stupidest things. Throughout it, her friends and family were always there to cheer her up, whether she broke her arm, did bad on her tests, or was just feeling down for whatever reason. But she gave them up for her boyfriend. She hardly spent any time with them since he always wanted to hang out with her every single day. Actually, didn’t she give up a bit too much? Was he really worth any of that? Why did she like him in the first place? Other than the fact that he looked cool, she wasn’t sure she had a good reason.
She felt two arms gently wrap around her.
Blush opened her eyes. Instead of hitting the ground, she was in Chrysalis’ arms, her heart filling with succulent love as the queen filling her with it wept. She could even feel the other emotions coming from her queen, encouraging her tears as well. She remembered listening to her intuition, opening the door to where her queen sealed herself off, and saying, “thank you”, instead of leaving her to sulk alone like she wanted. She couldn’t understand why she was being hugged instead of scolded.
Wait, yes she could. It was the same a thousand years ago as it was now: Chrysalis spent every waking moment keeping her and her brothers and sisters safe. She could’ve left the hive and lived her life happily masquerading as a pony, a dragon, or whatever she wanted, and occasionally she did, but her hive always came first. The hive was the only thing she really decided to care about.
This wasn’t worth giving up. This love, it was much more important than the escaping she did with her ‘boyfriend’.
Finally, Chrysalis set Blush down.
Blush opened her eyes, and she was somewhere else entirely.
Looking around, Blush found herself in her hive’s old main room. A green dragon she had never seen before crawled its way into the cave and peered down at Chrysalis, its head touching the ceiling.
Blush looked at Chrysalis to see if she knew what was going on, but her queen was too busy cowering before the dragon.
“Why didn’t you just ask for help?” the dragon asked in Blush’s own voice.
Chrysalis slowly raised her head, peering at the dragon with wide, teary eyes.
The great dragon cleared its throat. “I find it hard to believe that other species wouldn’t help each other simply because they’re different species,” it said in an exact duplicate of Henry’s voice.
Blush looked back from Chrysalis to the great dragon, only to see a blurry image of Princess Celestia standing before her queen. She felt herself take on a battle stance beside her queen.
“Please calm down, there is no need for such hostility,” the blur of an ethereal horse said, her words from forming images in Blush’s mind, as if she remembered reading those words from a hoofwritten letter long ago. “If you or your subjects need anything, we will gladly send aid, and we will ask for nothing in return. There’s no need for a war. It would only harm us both”
As Blush watched the image of Celestia fade, its voice lingered in her ears like heavenly, beautiful bells; like something far, far too good to be true. the princess’s strange blurring enveloped everything around her, and as it came, Blush could feel her consciousness starting to slip. Before she was fully enveloped by what must’ve been the enemy princess’s strange magic, she ran towards her queen. Her steps were slow and it felt like she was being pulled away faster than she was moving forward, but in her mind she imagined herself finally reaching her queen and grabbing onto her back, which, strangely enough, was exactly what happened.
With her mind no longer able to make sense of anything else that was going on, Blush held onto her queen as tightly as she could.