Things Change

by Equimorto

Thirteen

"Are you sure about this?" Twilight asked to Celestia, extending a wing to stop the white alicorn from leaving the room.

"Not really, but you did tell me to do something. This is how I used to deal with Chrysalis back in the days, so it's the only thing that came to my mind," Celestia answered, turning to Twilight.

"How many cakes ago? But beyond the fact that you might no longer be that good at fighting, the circumstances here are vastly different. Back then you were protecting Equestria from Chrysalis. Now you'd be attacking somepony whom the citizens love. I don't think it's the right thing to do."

"So you're saying I shouldn't go out there and fight?"

"You shouldn't."

"Thank me!" Celestia said, discarding her armour, "I completely forgot how you're supposed to fight. And that thing must have shrunk with time-" she pointed to the armour "-I remember it used to fit me perfectly when I was young."

"Metal doesn't shrink with time, Celestia."

The white alicorn perplexedly looked at the younger princess. "What are you suggesting?"

"Maybe it was, you know, all the cake you eat." Twilight looked at Celestia but found only more confusion in her face. "Forget that, it's a topic for another time. We have more important things to take care of right now. So what is your new plan to deal with Chrysalis?"

Celestia looked around. "Well, you know," she said, fidgeting in place, "I don't really have a plan. I was thinking you could come up with one for me." Celestia looked to Twilight expectantly. "Please?"

"Do I have to?"

Celestia looked at Luna, who had fallen asleep on the floor. "Depends. Would you rather let me come up with one on my own?"

"Oh fine!" Twilight barked, walking up to the balcony. "Hey!" she called to Chrysalis down below.

"What is it?" the Changeling Queen replied in her camouflaged voice.

"You said you wanted a chance to talk to Celestia before dethroning her, right?"

"I did, yes."

"Come here in five minutes, she agrees to your offer of trying to solve things peacefully. And come alone," Twilight said before walking back in.

"Why haven't we entered the castle through that opened window up there?" a pony among the crowd quietly asked to the one near him.

"It wouldn't have been polite," Chrysalis answered despite the large distance, leaving the pony shocked at how she'd heard him.

Twilight walked back in. "She'll be here in five minutes, alone. You'll have a chance to avoid a nation-wide crisis by talking to her, try not to mess things up. I'll be here to stop you, but if you're unsure of what to say ask me first."

"Actually, I think you should leave the room and let me talk to her alone."

Twilight turned back towards Celestia. "Why? Do you want to ruin things?"

"No, and that's why you should leave. She'll be alone, ponies wouldn't like it if I wasn't too. It wouldn't be fair."

Twilight pondered for a moment. "You're right," she said, then she stared at the ground. "I didn't think I'd ever get to say that. What about Luna though?"

Celestia looked at her sister, still sleeping on the ground. Her horn flashed with magic, and Luna's body was enveloped by a golden aura, then unceremoniously thrown out of the window. The groans that came from outside indicated that she had probably landed on somepony.

"Well, Chrysalis should be here shortly, so I'm going," the purple alicorn said.

"Don't forget your FiMC reference," Celestia said as she tossed the book back to Twilight, who grabbed it in her magic and walked out of the room.

After a few minutes of waiting the door opened again and Chrysalis stepped in, still transformed, the door closing behind her. "I'm glad you accepted my offer, Celestia. You see, I am the Princess of Ju-"

"Cut the act, Chrysalis, I know it's you."

Green flames ran over the changeling's body and she returned to her normal appearance, an annoyed expression on her face. "How did you know it was me? I had come up with and utilized an intricate disguise."

"It was really bad. Now-" Celestia took a step forward "-will you please cease this madness and stop this revolution of yours? I don't care what you'll do after, if you'll choose to stay with me or if you want to go back to being a villain, but I won't let you take away my throne."

"Celestia, why are you doing this?" Chrysalis asked, taking a step forward herself.

"Why? Why are you doing this? After I gave you a home, after I fed you, after I tried to make you a part of pony society. I believed you had changed, I believed you could finally become my friend, but it seems I was wrong. You're still my enemy after all. Maybe you didn't change. Maybe this was your plan from the start."

Chrysalis stopped and laughed. "My plan from the start. You know what's funny? It could be. Pretend that I changed, infiltrate your castle, get as much information as I could, use the freedom gained after gaining your trust to ruin your reputation, then assume the identity of some mysterious saviour that came out of nowhere and dethrone you. I'd never have expected that you would have done a better job than me at ruining your reputation, but here we are now. You can't win this fight, the other alicorns have been dealt with, and every citizen in Equestria loves me. I'll defeat you, take your place on the throne, and feast on the love of all your precious little ponies until I become invincible. And the funny thing is, no matter how bad of a ruler I might become, it will take very little effort to still be better than you."

"So this is it then?" Celestia said, readying a blast of magic in her horn. "Fine. If this is what it's come to then so be it. But I won't go down without a fight."

Celestia fired her horn at Chrysalis. The changeling easily deflected the blow, which fell outside through the window. The groans that came from outside indicated that it had probably landed on somepony.

"So are you going to try to stop me or what?" Chrysalis asked.

Celestia remained silent, almost looking embarrassed.

"Wait... That was your strongest shot, wasn't it?"

Celestia swallowed. "You know, I saw this going differently. I mean, I was sure you would have defeated me eventually, but I thought I could put up a bit of a fight before that. Make a last effort to survive, so that ponies would remember me for how I bravely fought with all my strengths until the last moment. This is just kind of sad. Celestia, the evil tyrant who didn't really put up much of a fight and was swiftly dealt with. Doesn't really have a nice ring to it, does it?"

"I've been absorbing the willingly shared love of all the city for the last hours, what did you expect?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Can't we at least pretend this was a great and hard fought battle?"

"No."

"Oh well." Celestia positioned herself on the ground, lying on her side. "Come on, finish me. Like you should have done back then during the wedding. I guess I should have seen this coming, I really lost all my talent when it comes to fighting. Maybe I should have listened to Twilight when she said I spent too much time eating cake."

Chrysalis stood over the alicorn. "Celestia, I..."

"Come on, there's no need to make an evil monologue when there's no one else to listen to it. This is what you want, isn't it? You'll finally defeat your greatest enemy. And even if you did really change, this is what the ponies want."

"I..."

Celestia looked up. "Come on. End me. Figuratively, I mean, I'm still immortal."

Chrysalis charged her horn, then she hesitated and dispelled the magical energy. "Celestia, I... I can't. I don't want this."

"Why? Am I in the wrong position?" Celestia looked at herself. "Of course! I should be lying on the other side," she said as she got up.

"No, it's not that!" Chrysalis said, stopping Celestia with one of her hooves.

"Then what is it dear?"

"Celestia, I don't want you to be thrown in a cell! Even if you're as evil as they say, I want you to be good! From the moment I first met you, back in that room, my memories of the past gone, I always looked up to you. I thought you were a good princess. I don't want to take your place. I know nothing of how to properly run a nation. I want you to be the princess I thought you were."

"But that's not who I am," Celestia said.

"And so? Can you not try to change? Look at me, Celestia. I was a monster, and now I'm here to free your citizens. If I can become so much different from what I was, then you can become what you were always supposed to be."

Celestia looked at the changeling. "But why should I? You had nothing when you lost your memory, and you found friendship and acceptance from the ponies of Equestria. But there's nothing for me to want. Not for this me, not for the one who doesn't care about her citizens or her nation but only about herself."

"But that's not true."

Celestia looked at Chrysalis with a questioning expression.

"There is something else you care for, something you dedicated yourself to in these past few days. Something that you are caring for even now, I can feel it. I can feel it in my love-receptor-thingies, or whatever Twilight called them. You won't change for your subjects, and you won't change for yourself, even if it would be the right thing to do for both you and them. But please, Celestia-" Chrysalis looked deep in the alicorn's eyes, giving her that same wide-eyed green stare she'd given her when they'd met each other in the castle after she'd crashed through the window "-will you change for me?"

Celestia's heart warmed at the sight. She pondered what the changeling had said to her for a few moments, then stood up, having taken her decision. "Okay, Chrysalis. For you, I will try to change myself for the better. Stand back, please."

Chrysalis took a couple of steps back.

Celestia's horn began to glow with magic, and the alicorn began to levitate. The amount of energy in her horn kept increasing, becoming a larger and larger globe of light that expanded on top of her. The glow was becoming almost impossible to look at, and Chrysalis found herself staring through the holes in her front legs. Currents of wind began to swirl around in the room, gathering around Celestia, the ground began to shake slightly and a vibrating sound could be heard. Then, suddenly, all movements ceased and only the large sphere of magic remained, balanced on the tip of Celestia's horn.

The ball of energy slowly detached itself from the alicorn and floated to the middle of the room, still levitating in mid air. "I'm doing this changing thing for you," Celestia said, "but I want you to know that if I wanted to I could hit you with this big ball of magic right here and knock you out of Equestria. Be thankful that you're so adorable that I couldn't bring myself to trick you."

With a backwards jerk from Celestia's horn, the sphere of glowing magic slammed into the alicorn's body. A loud boom was heard, and an explosion of light came forth from the point of impact, rapidly expanding over the whole city and momentarily blinding everypony. The writings on the walls disappeared, the furniture in the room returned. All windows in the castle except for one repaired themselves, as did every other damage done inside the castle's other rooms. The ponies outside and most of the ones inside fell asleep and were teleported to their homes. The giant statue of Celestia's face was replaced with a house. Somewhere in Canterlot, a toy broken in four pieces put itself back together, and two more copies appeared. The hollow in the road near the bakery was fixed. Finally, the light dissipated and Celestia descended back to the floor.

"Congratulations, Chrysalis," the alicorn said, "you passed your test."

Comments

[DominiusTWD]

huh?

[Dream Seeker]

Ahahahahaha, I love it!

[Hazey Logic]

Ah, the "can you put others before yourself" test

[Rosegfx]

"Congratulations, Chrysalis," the alicorn said, "you passed your test."

Nuh-uh. No way. You are not getting away with all that "this was just a test" bullshit

[Rabe]

9192591
Actually, assuming she isn't lying like Luna said she is, Celestia said that she's only been like this for a short time, so when she talked about losing all the magic in Equestria she was probably referring to the season 8 finale.

[Dr Freaky]

Wat?

[LunaFan183]

[dj-pon3fan]

Wait... what?

[AyanamiRei]

I couldn't even finish this. It's just too much. Just...no.

[JazzyWaffles]

Celestia fired her horn at Chrysalis. The changeling easily deflected the blow, which fell outside through the window. The groans that came from outside indicated that it had probably landed on somepony.

Same pony.

"Congratulations, Chrysalis," the alicorn said, "you passed your test."

Lolwat

[JazzyWaffles]

iT wAs AlL a DrEaM

[Spiritus Arcane]

...Send her to Tartarus anyway. No, using the Crystal Empire's situation as a test was bad...this is just...I have no words.

[Zeebra Monger]

"Thank me!" Celestia said, discarding her armour, "I completely forgot how you're supposed to fight. And that thing must have shrunk with time-" she pointed to the armour "-I remember it used to fit me perfectly when I was young."

"Metal doesn't shrink with time, Celestia."

The white alicorn perplexedly looked at the younger princess. "What are you suggesting?"

Did Princess Luna called Princess Celestia......FAT?.....No just saying.....Also...*taking out a megaphone* PLANET EATER FAT PLOT CELESTIA!
"Maybe it was, you know, all the cake you eat."

[Animatorsnake]

I FUCKING KNEW IT! NO MATTER WHICH VERSION OF CELESTIA THERE IS, SHE SOMEHOW MANIPULATES EVERYONE, EVEN HERSELF!