I was just lonely ...

by Rune Caster the First

Look Inside To See The Truth

Inside Twilight’s castle, the front hall was lit by multi-coloured flashes for a few seconds and then was quiet.
The seven ponies stood in a semi-circle around the prone form of the big changeling. Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were still holding Chrysalis’s hooves.
Rarity promptly took this opportunity to lower the changeling hoof that she was holding to the ground. She then brushed her hoofs together, frowning at the imagined dirt on them.
Now I’ll have to take a bath … goodness knows how long that changeling’s been lying out there in the woods.
“Now then”, the white unicorn said, “we’ve got her here, so the next thing that we need to do is find her some … er … accommodation.”

---

The Mane Seven had no trouble finding a spare room in Twilight’s crystal tree castle, but they had some problem finding a bed that was large enough for Chrysalis to lie on it. The storepony was pretty perplexed at the bed size they specified, but in the end, thought Princess Twilight and her friends knew best.
When they had at last got the large bed into the spare room, Starlight and Twilight levitated Chrysalis over it and laid her down gently. The two mega-powerful mages then used their magic to create ropes made of pure mana that wound themselves around Chrysalis’s hooves and neck, and then tied themselves to the bedposts. The ropes were loose enough to not be uncomfortable, but tight enough to prevent the changeling from escaping.
“Right, that’s done and dealt with”, said the pink unicorn, blowing on her horn to cool it down.
“Not quite”, Twilight said, summoning a strange grey ring with a purple flash of magic. She placed it, with some difficulty, around Chrysalis’s horn. “This will prevent her from doing any magic when she wakes up … I think she probably will try, once she sees us.” Starlight blushed.
“Oh yes, of course”, the pink unicorn replied. I’m probably still tired, not quite at the top of my game yet.
Fluttershy came forward, carrying various medicines, herbs, and warm towels. She laid them down on a table next to the bed and then picked up a couple of warm towels and began to cover parts of Chrysalis with them. The changeling still looked uncomfortable, as could be guessed by the grimace on her face and her over-high temperature. The yellow pegasus bit her lips gently as Chrysalis groaned quietly again.
“Oh, I hope that this goes okay: I can make my animal friends better easily … but magical creatures? Ummm … I have trouble.” At this point, Fluttershy was trying to hide behind her mane, as she normally did when she got really shy. Her best friends (except for Starlight) all looked at each other as they remembered a certain incident that involved Princess Celestia, Fluttershy and a sick phoenix called Philomena.
“Don’t you worry, Fluttershy,” Applejack put an arm around the yellow pegasus’s shoulders. “Ya’ll are very good with sick creatures. It’s gonna be dandy.” Fluttershy smiled in a thankful way at Applejack.
“Come on everyone”, the purple alicorn said. “Let’s leave Fluttershy to her healing work.” Everypony else nodded … except for Rainbow Dash.
“Uh … I’m gonna stand guard here, if that’s okay. Just in case, Bug-Face over there gets feisty”. The blue pegasus struck a brave pose as she spoke. Twilight and Starlight rolled their eyes and then smiled.
Ever loyal to her friends, Starlight thought. She’s wonderful. They all are. The pink unicorn was still getting used to having such new great friends at the moment.
Twilight considered the matter for a few seconds.
“Well, if Fluttershy is okay with it, then it’s fine.”
Everypony (and Spike) looked at Fluttershy who looked up at her friends.
“Oh, it’s fine with me … I think.”
The yellow pegasus smiled, a bit shakily. Rainbow took her turn at putting-an-arm-around-her-Fluttershy’s-shoulders.
“Don’t worry about it, Flutters”, she said.
Twilight cleared her throat and pointed at the door, looking at her other friends. The rest of the ponies (and Spike) exited the room, leaving Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy in there.

Half an hour later …

The five ponies and one dragon had drifted away from the door of that spare room and were each doing their own thing. Rarity was making some sketches of the castle’s halls for future designs. Applejack and Pinkie were making apple turnovers and apple tarts in the castle kitchen. Twilight and Starlight were in the library, studying magic and reading about ancient history.
With a sigh, Starlight put down the big book of the history of enchanted horseshoes and looked at Twilight, who was reading a book that was twice the size of hers.
“Twilight, can I ask you a question about something that’s been bothering me.”
Twilight looked up from her book, and shut it with a snap.
“Yes, of course”, she said. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s just … how come some friendships are harder to make than others?”
Twilight thought for a moment.
“Well, I personally think that it all comes down to knowing somepony’s real self. If you know what a pony’s personality is like, how they act towards others, maybe even something about their past … then you might know how to approach them better.”
The purple alicorn princess smiled and spoke softly.
“After all, I didn’t know what you’d been through in your fillyhood, until you told me, Starlight.”
“Oh right.”
The pink unicorn mused over what she’d just been told.
“Now I see, it’s about looking past appearances and seeing what’s inside.”
“Exactly.”
Twilight patted Starlight on the back, and the two smiled at each other.
“You do say some pretty wise things at times, you know”, said Starlight.
“Well, I have to credit Princess Celestia for her gentle guidance, of course.”
The alicorn’s expression then changed to a frown.
“Speaking of her … Spike, take a letter. I think the other princesses need to know about this ‘sick changeling’ incident.”
Spike nodded and fetched a quill and a piece of parchment.
***
Dear Princess Celestia and Princess Luna,

This morning, my friends and I discovered Chrysalis in a woodland clearing. She’s sick with a really bad fever and is currently in no fit state to move. I’m keeping her here in my castle for the time being, with an inhibitor ring on her horn and is tied up.

Yours, Princess Twilight Sparkle.

P.S. I think that Cadence and Shining Armour need to know too.
***
Spike finished the letter with a flourish of his quill. “There, all done.”
The little dragon put his quill and the letter down, and then spoke again.
“Do you think that we should send a message to Thorax too? He might have some useful advice for us.”
“What a great idea! Okay then, send him a quick note about it.”
Spike nodded and then wrote quickly on another piece of parchment. He picked up the two scrolls and set them ablaze: the scrolls burning away into green sparks that swirled their way out of the window.
A second later, the library doors burst open and Rainbow Dash flew in.
“Twilight! Starlight! Fluttershy needs you right now!”
The alicorn and the unicorn didn’t waste any time when they heard that. The three ponies rushed towards the spare room that housed the large changeling, joined by the others as they ran past.
Twilight opened the door quickly and walked in.
“What is it, Fluttershy?” she asked as she walked up to the bed.
Fluttershy had put a couple of blankets on the changeling and was patting her head with wet cloths.
“Her twitching has slowed down, but her temperature’s risen at least one notch. Oh, I don’t know if I can do this.”
“Don’t worry, Fluttershy. We’ll sort it out. Twilight gave her a small smile.”
“It’s strange that she’s still catatonic after all this time”, murmured Starlight, frowning a little.
“Yes … it is, now that I think about it.”
Twilight frowned too.
“I’ll just check the state of her health again.”
Her horn glowed, and then she was quiet … too quiet.
“Twilight?” said all of her friends.
“Starlight, I think that you’d better come over here.”
“What’s wrong, Twilight?”
“Well, Chrysalis isn’t suffering from just fever, as we’d originally thought. She’s actually suffering from four different maladies. And they’re all as bad as each other.”
“Four?!”
The cry came from everyone in the room.
Fluttershy quivered. “Oh my.”
“What are they?” Starlight asked.
“Well, there’s the extremely horrible fever that we first saw, and then very severe malnutrition, extreme magic drainage, and pure exhaustion.”
Silence reigned for a minute in the room.
Everyone was shocked at that revelation. Pinkie’s reaction to it was very strange indeed.
She was, at this moment, blowing steadily into a yellow balloon. Well, she was until the balloon exploded for lack of air space.
Rarity was the first one to break the silence with words.
“Well … at least her twitching has stopped.”
“No, it hasn’t”, Rainbow Dash pointed out, “she’s started twitching again.”
“Wait a minute, her eyelids are flutterin’ too.”
Applejack’s sharp eyes had seen that.
“Ah think she’s waking up.”
As they watched the rise and fall of Chrysalis’s chest, Starlight coughed meaningfully. The purple pony turned to look at her student.
“Do you think she’ll be roaringly rageful when she wakes up?” Starlight whispered.
“I think that we’re about to find out”, Twilight whispered back.

---

Uuuuugghh … my head.

Pain zing-zanged through her head and her whole body ached terribly.

Whaat happened … I feel like I’ve just crash-landed into the Badlands … again.

She tried to get up but her legs felt like floppy jelly, so she settled for opening her eyes.
All she could see at that particular moment was a blurry blue background, and two large blurs that could possibly be faces looking at her.
One of the large blurs was purple and the other was pink. Their voices were strangely familiar.
“She’s awake.”
“What’ll we do?”
“Nothing for now. It looks as if she’s too sick to move much.”
Too sick to move?!
She felt affronted, because she’d always prided herself on her strong stamina.
I’ll show whoever that is that I can move.
She blinked her eyes a lot and it seemed to be working. Soon her vision was less blurry and she could see better.

Her eyes widened.

WHAT THE …

Author's Note:

Here's another chapter! I'd actually got a very long chapter sometime ago, and I've decided to divide it into two chapters: the previous chapter and this one.

This chapter has a friendship lesson in it that is possibly useful when approaching potential friends.

Comments

[Razzy]

Welp, that'll be an awkward wake up.

Okay, now, when Thorax comes over, Chryssie needs to request to talk to him to bury that hatchet and then punch him in the throat and/or groin.

'inhibitor ring on her horn and is tied up' - remove is

[GIGA-XISBASS]

So Chrysalis awakens and has a quadruple threat happening to her in terms of her illness making it worse. Here's hoping she knows what humility is cause she definitely needs to know when to ask for help and not refuse it, especially since she's already getting it.

Also where's chapter 6 at? I got a notification that 3 chapters were updated in a row and I only see the first 2.

[Rune Caster the First]

8063691

Oh yes ... sorry, that was me. My Internet malfunctioned when I was submitting the two chapters: causing a duplicate of one of the chapters to appear. I then had to fix the problem. I'm sorry if I confused you.

8063368

No one is going be punching anyone. There will be some harsh words and arguments in the future ... but hitting ponies and other creatures will not happen in this fimfic.

[GIGA-XISBASS]

8064291 Understandable then.

[ForSpite]

The storepony was pretty perplexed at the bed size they specified, but in the end, thought Princess Twilight and her friends knew best.

Well, the store pony is probably coming up with his/her own explanations as to why seven ponies walked into the shop and asked to buy an oversized bed together.

[euphgeek]

Interesting start. But not updated since March? I hope this hasn't been abandoned.

[Rune Caster the First]

8639973
It hasn’t been abandoned. I’ve been tangled up in other projects, but there’ll probably be a new chapter on the 2nd of January. I’m very sorry for the wait.

[euphgeek]

8640389
Oh, good. I just discovered this yesterday, so I haven't been waiting as long as those who have been following it from the beginning.

[Doctor_Den]

somehow in your universe Chrysalis turned out to be too helpless and dependent. It turns out that she could not live a day in the wild without her minions (children).