(Present Chapter 41) Cognitive Dissonance
Celestia carted off Chrysalis before she could wear out her newfound welcome, and as she did, I began to grow nervous. Something was clearly wrong. Had I lost the ability to hate? I always knew I might become Restless, and I knew losing the ability to feel hate was a red flag of the highest order. I had plans, of course, to mitigate the effects, but-
I thought about Celestia's serene smile and laughter, and warmth bloomed in my chest. Good, I hadn't lost the capacity to utterly hate someone.
"Luna, do you sense that?" I say quietly to the Lunar Diarch, who shakes her head.
"Exactly. Something drained the hatred out of the area. They should have torn that bug apart, and yet..."
I growl. "It doesn't make any sense! What happened?! Why did I stop hating her? Why did the others?"
Luna's expression turns into a mix of surprise and... Disappointment?
"Please tell me you're joking..." she responds.
I return her incredulous look with one of my own. "I know hate, Luna, it doesn't just disappear, stop dodging my question, we need to figure out what's happening, maybe Queen Cold did something, some kind of Windego spell. I thought I knew them all, but..." I trail off as I note the princess's expression.
Luna looks into my eyes searchingly, and that feeling of disappointment, of pity, only seems to grow. "You've really forgotten what it feels like to forgive?"
The word feels like a missing tooth, an irksome gap with something hard peeking out from the vacancy it left in its wake. I know what the word means, of course, but I only ever remember using it in the way that things are said when they lose all meaning.
"Good morning", "How are you?", "Forgive me",
Just words meant to put together a dialogue. To push along a conversation. I tried to think to the last time I had felt something like this, hate towards someone disappearing. There were many times I chose not to hate someone who wronged me, and many times I got my revenge and satisfied my hatred towards an enemy, hatred could disappear then, of course, surely there had to have been a time when revenge wasn't a necessity.
I force out a laugh to break up the long silence between us. "Of course not! Ha! Just, slipped my mind is all," I grin, scratching my neck casually.
It was the wrong thing to say, I could tell by her reaction. The look in her eyes, she was deciding whether it was worse for me to be lying, or worse for me to be telling the truth, that something like the sensation of forgiving another person had just 'slipped my mind'.
"Stop looking at me like that," I say, breaking eye contact with the princess. It didn't help in the slightest, as I could still feel the pity in her expression.
After a moment, it hits me, the sheer ridiculousness of it all. Here I am, trying to convince Luna of all ponies, that I haven't become so corrupt that I can't recognize forgiveness when I feel it.
'It's almost comical, how edgy it sounds, when I put it like that,' I think bitterly to myself.
Turning to the others, I cracked my neck and began to speak. I needed to abort this horrible interaction, and there was no better way than to move things forward.
"Alright everyone! Time to lay down some ground rules! We've got too many ponies in too little space, nearly everything here is busted, and I haven't been a ruler for the last seven-hundred years! Needless to say, things are going to be a bit rough until we can get you all settled and homed!" I shout, getting everyone's attention.
I wave to Luna. "In the time you all were gone, there was some major problems that went on, and Luna, as I planned, was given the Shadow Realm as an Equestrian Territory! Obey her as you would me!" I announce.
I turn to Luna. "You're going to want to get your ponies here to establish order. They're going to need shelter and supplies, and to be frank, the only functioning Magitek I've been able to scrounge up is all a million miles thataway in my various dungeons and temples," I point in the general direction of the Everfree Forest.
Luna listened as I explained and tried to establish a plan, but every time I glanced at her, I could see her staring at me in a way that hurt to experience.
"I believe there are some airships I can have brought here to help ferry ponies to shelter. Can you call for your own?" she asks quietly, distracted by something, and unnerved by the things I've said.
"Good idea. I'll try to get ahold of the Fizz Guard. Tempest'll be here in short order."
I spot Priss approaching as we gather up some of Luna's fastest guards and mingle them with the Shadow Guard to establish a plan of action. Eclipse is still over in the crowd, discussing those plans with several others.
"So, uhh, why not just get the Kingdom Heart up and running again instead of leaving home? We've got enough ponies to ignite it again," she asks.
"No!" I shout instinctively before I can catch myself. I let out a shaky breath.
"No. That wouldn't work out well for any of us. With Sombra defeated, where exactly do you think the hate for it is going to come from?" I demand, more sharply than I meant to.
Luna interrupts, laying a wing across my shoulder.
"In my brief time ruling the realm, I abolished the Kingdom Heart's formation. It is as Weiss said, without a single enemy, the heart lacks balance. However, Weiss, with the Crystal Heart, and Princess Cadence at our side, we may find a solution, given time."
Priss thinks on this. "Alright. But I've spent more than long enough away from home already. I don't think ponies will be satisfied if we can't come back here, Princess Luna."
Luna simply nods. "I understand. Once we find a way to stave off the cold and establish livable homes, I will personally see to it that you all reclaim your land."
Nightmare, who had simply been watching and sneering in Luna's grip up until now, suddenly sneers even more than before, a feat that I'm certain I didn't build into her form's capabilities. "So can we leave now, or what? I'm sick of this place, and the miserable company I could certainly do without," she says, shooting a glare at me.
Priss raises an eyebrow. "So, is this your little crotchspawn, Your Highness?"
"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!" Nightmare squeaks, igniting her horn in a flurry of sparks as she snarls at the snarking Longma.
I can't help but grin, silent chuckles wracking my form as I cover my face with an inconspicuous fist.
How did I ever do without Priss's wonderful prose?
Luna tries to hold back her own laughter "Well, technically from a certain perspective, Weiss is the one responsible for this particular filly."
And now it isn't funny anymore, no matter how loud Luna's laughter is.
Tempest was shocked when Weiss called her. It was a bad sign, up until Luna joined the call and informed her some of what had happened. The Shadow Realm, the loss of which was the reason for Weiss's descent, had returned in its entirety, and her ship was needed to help ferry them out of the blasted wasteland of ice that was the Frozen North.
It was with an odd sense of confusion that she ordered the Halberd to turn to the heading she received from the princess, but what sent chills running up and down her spine was Weiss's last ominous words towards her before ending the call.
"When you get here, we need to talk about what you did to the Devil's Machine," he explained in no uncertain terms.
As his dispassionate face blipped off of the Halberd's central screen in the command room, Tempest collapsed back in her chair with a shudder. She knew what he did to ponies he thought had wronged him.
Grubber, as always, was snacking on something. A sleeve of cookies that he was steadily chowing his way through, making jokes and bumbling around. The little hedgehog wasn't much for a lot of the work that an airship crew needed to function, but what he did do was critical. He entertained, and when he saw someone down, he noticed.
"Hey, Tempest, what's up?" he asks, hopping up onto the armrest of the captain's chair.
She groaned. "Weiss Noir. That's what's up. He wants to 'talk to me' about a machine. I tampered with it without his knowledge."
Grubber shrugs. "Well, whatever it is, I doubt he's that torn up about it if he told you about it. If he was, he'd just show up out of nowhere and do something horrible."
As he munches a cookie, he clarifies. "That said, if I spot a big eight-armed dragon flying at us, I'm hiding in the broom closet."
Tempest rolls her eyes and suppresses a smile. "Of course."
He holds out a single cookie. "Want one?"
Making sure to give her crew a very brief glare to forestall any overdramatic reactions, she takes the cookie and eats it.
She needs something to go her way today, damn it all.
She was shocked at Weiss's ultimate reaction to her treachery. As soon as the Halberd landed alongside several other airships, and she made her way down the ramp, the sage ran towards her, and wrapped the mare up in a six armed hug.
It was brief, but shocking, and as he let go, he only had two words for the captain, in response to her earlier actions.
"Thank you," he says.
Tempest blinks. "Is... Is that it?"
Weiss only smirks as he saunters off. "Well, I had to scare the piss out of you somehow. Tampering with my precious Relic of Darkness... For shame. I'd be pissed if you weren't completely right to do it," he muses, shaking his head as he leaves.
As she manages her crew and helps shuffle families onto the oversized airship, she thinks on what she saw in her brief meeting with the sage. Something had changed in the way he carried himself. Hope seemed fragile, but growing in the way he spoke.
Once the ship is ready to take off, she approaches one of the hollowed out buildings that had been turned into a temporary point of organization for the leaders, and as she does, she hears the beginnings of a conversation.
"You shouldn't have just out and said that. You're lucky I'm here to take on some of the load," Princess Cadence's muffled voice says.
Weiss's own voice retorts harshly. "Well, it's the truth isn't it? These ponies aren't under my rule anymore. Luna's the one with that job."
"She can't do that job for them. It was always supposed to be you. Having to try and clean up your mistakes, and having to fail without you there hurt her," Cadence retorts as Tempest sidles quietly up to the window.
"...I'm sorry. I'm trying to change for the better, but I'm not fit to lead anymore. But I know someone who can be."
"Eclipse Flash, right? Do you think she's ready for that?"
The response comes immediately. "No. I think I can get her ready, though. She was almost ready before everything went wrong. I can teach her what I know. Finish out her final lessons and get her up to speed on the modern era. She'll lead the Longma in ways I never could."
"Are you sure?"
This time, it takes him longer to respond, but when he does, Tempest can hear the conviction in his tone.
"I'd bet my life on it."
A long silence fills the gap after this statement, before Cadence suddenly interjects one last time.
"Also, no way in hell are you getting out of leadership duties. You will be taking on some of the burden here for organizing these lemmings, or I will strangle you. We need all hooves on deck, so you're out of luck Lord Uncle, you emo sad sack."
"Yes ma'am?" he responds in a tone that lies somewhere between thick sarcasm and incredulity.
Tempest starts to walk away, thinking about what she heard. As she does, she hears Weiss fire off one last retort.
"Remind me to send Shining Armor an apologetic gift basket. A Longma Alicorn of Love... Poor bastard's probably-"
'Thwack!' goes Cadence's wing as she slaps him over the head.
Queen Chrysalis sat in her little wheelchair, trying to somehow fit the impossible in her mind.
The Longma, creatures born of pure hatred had forgiven her.
The Windego, creatures born of pure hatred, had stood up for her.
Weiss Noir, the Anathema, the one living thing on the planet who reforged himself into a thing of pure vengence...
Had spared her.
It was an impossibility, there was no getting around that, and yet it happened. It happened because of a simple apology. Words alone!
A changeling had overcome hatred.
"My Queen, are you alright?" Squiggles asks, noticing her growing still.
Celestia, who had been dragging the chariot behind her, glances back. "Is something wrong?"
With a dry, papery noise, a seam had split through Chrysalis's body, as the light in her eyes grew dim and dark.
Stats
Page generated in 0.028 seconds
Total duration
671 users online
967,646 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Okay, so, this could mean something good—like, her old self was just a chrysalis (heh) and she’s about to turn into a colorful bug deer ... but on the other hand I hate the designs of those bug deer with a burning passion.
10872446
Unfortunately (Fortunately?), canon sour-patch changelings only are born when they share love willingly with one another. Chrysalis hasn't done that, so this is something else.
10872447
Oh how interesting. I like the idea of there being multiple ‘evolutions’ of changeling depending on the circumstances, it really jives with their whole emotion-based everything. Like maybe indulging on one type of emotion to an extreme degree could warp them into something else.
10872467
Plus, part of my lore, if you recall, for this fic is that, in order for ANY creature to metamorphosize into something entirely new, it has to be something that changes their destiny.
"Blast Day" explains that, for ponies at least, the Subspecies come from ponies in unison deciding to change their destiny together in unison with incredibly powerful unified emotion.
Likewise, in "Allusions of Grandeur", Weiss explains that when he added his Dragon Arms to himself and changed his body, his soul changed as a result to match due to the metaphysical significance of "stealing" dragon arms out of the most petty reasons imaginable.
**Edit: Also, Luna's Draugr (Batponies/Thestrals/Whatever) were explained to be caused by the same thing that made the Longma and Crystal Ponies in Blast Day.
10872447
Bless every beeing in existence for that!
for a moment thought Chryssie just finally dies in peace with no more regrets. But metamorphosis is cool too
This is much better (for them both) than the apathy she showed earlier
Well, Chryssi is either dead or about to be reborn
I must be the only person alive that likes evolved Changelings... Oh well.
On another note, it always felt like Luna has developed some deep emotions for Weiss... Its a shame he doesn't seem to acknowledge it.
…Huh. Looks like the butterfly is exiting their Chrysalis.