Fallout Equestria: Blue Destiny

by MagnetBolt

Chapter 66: The Only Thing I Know For Real

“Somehow, Chrysalis has returned,” Star Swirl said, leaning on the plotting table’s glowing crystal surface.

“Are you sure?” I asked. Everypony in the room turned to look at me. “I’m just saying that ponies don’t come back from the dead that often, do they?”

“You’ve done it two or three times,” Destiny reminded me, the helmet’s eyes flashing where it was hovering over the table.

“Ach, it isn’t even close to the first time this has happened to us,” Rockhoof shrugged.

“Dark magic. Mirror pools. Secrets only the seaponies know,” Mistmane said, still sounding exhausted. She sipped a tiny cup of steaming tea that had a strong medicinal scent to it, Meadowbrook refilling it when she put the cup down. “Evil often finds a way.”

“Yes, well, it’s nothing to be impressed about,” Star Swirl said. “If I had a bit for every time one of my enemies has come back from the grave I’d… well, I’d have a few dozen extra bits.”

“Maybe the Queen should have done a better job killing her the first time,” Flash joked.

“I assure you, I was quite thorough,” Flurry Heart replied.

“How did she come back?” Somnambula asked. “Maybe we can find some way to simply reverse or undo what was done!”

“Mmm…” Star Swirl stroked his beard. “The truth is, Chrysalis’ spirit has been haunting us for a long time. The changelings can sense her presence and hear her voice in some places, especially the Eclipsed Places.”

“I’ve heard it too,” I agreed.

“What you're experiencing is probably some form of thaumoframe resonance,” Destiny suggested. “It can, clearly, capture and interact with spirits.”

“In my day, mediums would use spirit boards to communicate with the dead,” Mistmane said. “I’m always impressed with what the younger generation invents.”

“It’s actually quite an interesting phenomenon,” Star Swirl said. “This place is so empty, so shaped by perception and belief, that the echoes of her presence reinforce themselves and become self-sustaining. I’m not even entirely sure if it’s really her spirit, or some kind of collective memory from the changelings.”

“Speaking of which,” Flash Magnus coughed. “I realize I’m a little out of the loop, but I know just enough about politics to know that this is probably pretty bad, right? Half the ponies here are changelings--”

“If you can even call them ponies,” Star Swirl groused.

“I do,” Queen Flurry Heart replied firmly. “Continue, Flash Magnus.”

“All I’m saying is, it might be a good idea to keep things close to the vest until we know what we’re going to do about it,” Flash said. “You can’t run a tight ship if you’re worried half the crew might mutiny.”

“No,” Flurry Heart dismissed immediately, waving a hoof. “I am aware this will cause unrest among my subjects. Some may even decide to rebel or turn against us. It would be worse if I tried to keep it a secret.”

“We could confine them to quarters,” Destiny suggested. “We had to do that during the war with Zebras living in Equestria. We put them in internment camps. It was better for everypony. They were protected from ponies that wanted to hurt them, and we made sure they weren’t there to sabotage anything.”

“Absolutely not,” Flurry Heart stated. “Do you know what those camps were like?”

“Yes, I do,” Destiny said. “They were fine. More than some of them deserved, especially when we started putting prisoners of war in them and they became the most dangerous places in Equestria!”

“Dangerous for who?” Raven asked. “Forgive me for speaking out of turn, but the majority of violence in the camps was directed towards the Zebra. Prisoners of war would fight with Equestrian-born zebras. The guards would take out their frustration and anger on the prisoners. Supply shortages caused disease and starvation. It’s why Princess Celestia tried to find another way.”

“But she didn’t,” Destiny pointed out. “If she couldn’t find a way--”

“She couldn’t find a way because she was unwilling to countermand her sister,” Queen Flurry Heart interrupted. “Do not mistake it for a lack of options. She was an excellent ruler in many ways but Luna was a soft spot. She carried too much debt with her, and Luna took advantage of it, knowingly or not, to do things Celestia disapproved of.”

“Hmph. They never outgrew being oversized foals,” Star Swirl mumbled.

Flurry Heart sat back, straightening her back. “I am the only ruler here, and so I have the power to do what I wish. I answer to no one except my subjects. Even discussing such things is foolish beyond belief and will only foster discontent.”

“Why?” I asked.

Flurry Heart waved to Raven to explain.

“For one thing, there are at least three changelings in the room with us,” Raven said. “One is camouflaged against the ceiling, another has replaced one of the Queen’s maids under the guise of covering her shift, and the third believes he is very clever and has taken the form of a potted plant.”

There were three flashes of green light, the changelings revealing themselves as they were called out.

“Changelings can assume the form of anyone or anything,” Raven explained. “It’s a very impressive metamorphosis.”

“Get them out of here,” Star Swirl grumbled. “We can’t--”

“Wait,” Queen Flurry Heart said. “They might be able to offer valuable insight. They cared enough to listen in on this meeting, so I must assume they have some strong feelings about the situation. Chamomile, if you would move so they can sit at the table with us? Thank you.”

I shifted down, and the three changelings sat down in the gap between me and Rockhoof, two of them looking ashamed and guilty. With three of them there, I could start to see the differences between them. The shape of their horns and eyes, little variations of color, like something painted brightly and then layered over in black.

“You have to stop her,” the first changeling, the one who’d been on the ceiling, said, immediately, without even being prompted. She hadn’t even really sat, just sort of moved into the space and stayed standing to command the attention. “For weeks, I’ve been hearing these voices and…” the changeling shivered.

“I’m not saying you’re a bad leader,” Flower Pot stated firmly, his forehooves folded defensively. “But Chrysalis is our real Queen. She has a right to rule.”

The Maid shook her head, wiping at her eyes.

“This isn’t a debate,” Ceiling said. “We’ve got it good, and if you’d heard half of what I did in all those dark places…”

“If she’s crazy or evil, we can put her in prison,” Flower Pot said. “We could at least talk to her! Maybe she’ll see reason and we can work things out and--”

“It’s not really her,” the Maid whispered. “It doesn’t matter if it’s really her spirit, or if she has a right to rule. That egg…” She looked up and at Flurry Heart, shaking in her seat as if afraid she’d be killed just for speaking. “...I’m sorry. We should have told you! It was something we hid, a-and it--”

“It’s the last royal changeling,” Queen Flurry Heart said. “I know.”

“You knew about it already?” the Maid gasped.

“Of course,” Flurry Heart said. “It’s Queen Chrysalis’ last true daughter. Or would have been. I had Raven keep an eye on it to ensure it stayed safe. I owed it to your people to care for it, and I allowed you to think it a secret you kept from me along with your dignity.”

“Why?” Ceiling asked.

“Because you’re all my beloved subjects, and I do what I think is best for all of you,” Flurry Heart said. “But this has given us something of a conundrum.”

“Yes,” Star Swirl agreed. “That egg was stolen, and the Darkness used three of us as tools to transport it to the Cage and complete a ritual to bind a new spirit to it.”

“It has been Taken by the spirit of Chrysalis,” Flurry Heart said. “But she can be saved. For that reason, we will not be discussing how to kill Chrysalis. I could do that on my own if I so desired. I have done it before. I want to banish her spirit and save her daughter. Present me plans that will do that. And you three--” She looked at the changelings. “This meeting is not a secret. I expect you to tell the others what happened, and what will happen. Your former Queen is holding your future Queen hostage.”

“Some changelings are still going to want to follow her,” Flower Pot said.

“If they would follow a ruler who would sacrifice her own daughter just to prolong her life, they are welcome to go to her and be devoured by her ambition,” Flurry Heart declared, standing up and looming over the table. “Make no mistake, I do not threaten them. I have no need to do so. Following her is suicide. She is a servant of the Darkness now, and all the Darkness can do is swallow up your light and love.”

---

“She’s really dramatic,” I said. We’d been dismissed after that last dramatic speech. Star Swirl had essentially ordered us to go sit somewhere quietly and not disturb him, but I didn’t feel too bad about that. It reminded me of Dad, and Star Swirl had said it to everypony instead of singling me out.

Maybe I had some father issues I needed to work out.

“The funny thing is, most ponies would need to prepare a speech like that,” Destiny said. “I’m almost entirely sure she just does it off the cuff. Princess Celestia was like that too. She could say anything and make it sound important.”

“It’s too bad you didn’t get along with her,” I said. I bounced a rubber ball off the wall, catching it on the rebound. It wasn’t just to keep busy. My reflexes were off, like the nerves on my right and left side fired at different speeds.

“Hm?” Destiny looked up from what she was doing, scrolling through lines of text on a screen. Raven had just about finished the software upgrades for the armor, but Destiny wanted to look over it all first, like she expected to find a self-destruct switch hidden in the files.

“You always make little references to how you were hiding things from the Ministries, implying enemies on all sides, strange geases keeping you from talking…” I waved a hoof. “I could keep going.”

“It’s complicated. Two of the Ministries actively funded me, you know. The MoP and MoA both funded construction of Exodus Arks. The MoP was very specific with their needs, and Fluttershy was actively involved, as you know.”

“Yeah,” I shrugged. “And she wanted to save everything except ponies. Like a Stable in reverse.”

“Maybe it wasn’t a bad idea. The Stables seem to have saved a lot of ponies. They didn’t do much for the plants or animals.”

“So what makes it complicated?” I asked.

“You already know,” Destiny retorted. “The Arks, and the Stables, were both seen as defeatist. The Ministry of Image and the Ministry of Morale both had problems with them. Stable-Tec had a lot of freedom thanks to nepotism, so that put BrayTech in the firing line. We moved away from Canterlot just to make things a little easier.”

“Yeah, but…” I hesitated.

“Look, I don’t know what they teach in history classes these days, but back then? A lot of ponies disappeared. You know why we built five Arks? Because four of them were bribes to let us build the Exodus Blue. If it wasn’t for Twilight…” Destiny hesitated. “But… there was something about Twilight. I can’t remember. It’s another hole in my memory, but she was… she was Twilight but not Twilight… the Boss Mare introduced us, but…”

She trailed off, looking stuck, like a skipping record.

“You okay?” I asked.

“No,” Destiny admitted. “I should know this. The worst part is, I’m sure Flurry Heart knows, but I’d feel like an idiot asking her.”

I gave her a pat, my metallic hoof clanging against the helmet. “Now you know how I feel basically all the time.”

Another knock, softer and gentler, came from the doorway. “Excuse me, do you have a moment?”

I turned to see Mistmane, smiling at us.

“I didn’t want to interrupt,” she said. “Meadowbrook has been worrying over me since I got back, and I haven’t had a chance to thank you. She’s a bit like a brooding hen.”

“You don’t have to thank me, ma’am,” I assured her.

“Nonsense,” Mistmane scoffed. “I know Star Swirl made you feel like you had no choice and that the whole world depended on you alone.” She shook her head. “This was never your responsibility, but you chose to help. Even when it hurt you, you got back up and kept trying.”

“I’m just good at getting myself into trouble. Heck, I’m so good at it, I’m exploring brand new kinds of trouble nopony has ever been in before!”

“You don’t have to. You could leave.” Mistmane glanced behind her, then turned back to me. “After all you’ve done for us, I don’t want to see you hurt.”

“She always bounces back,” Destiny joked.

“I picked up a few scars along the way,” I admitted.

Mistmane touched my cheek. “You know, in my homeland… well, it’s a bit of a cliche to mention it, but there’s an ancient artistic practice of mending something broken by using gold to set the broken pieces. It was old fashioned even when I was a foal, but it was from a time you’d probably find hard to imagine, when every necessity of life was precious. A good drinking cup or plate was worth fixing, and heirlooms and antiques would grow more beautiful with use instead of simply being worn out.”

I snorted. “Ma’am, with all due respect, I have never been beautiful. I’m just doing my best to not think about what’s gonna happen to me ten or twenty years from now.”

“Whatever happens, remember that as long as you work to make the world a beautiful place, the work makes you beautiful where it matters most.” She put a hoof over my heart.

“Thanks,” I said.

“It’s nothing, child,” Mistmane said. “I wish I could give more than words. We should be celebrating, but instead all of us are worrying about this next trouble. I fear it’s striking while we’re at our weakest.”

“Half of you are still recovering,” Destiny agreed.

“No, that’s not it.” Mistmane sighed. “Or at least, not all of it. I’m exhausted to my bones, but that’s nothing new for me. Before, when we came together, we had another pony helping us. Stygian. He was a good pony. Others didn’t consider him a hero, but he was the one who helped us with lore and local legends. It would be good to have his skill at planning.”

“I can’t help you there. Destiny comes up with all my plans.” I nodded to the ghost.

“I wouldn’t want to… I mean…” Destiny paused, embarrassed. “I’m sure Star Swirl will come up with something. He’s a genius!”

---

I knew I wasn’t going to be part of the planning. I lacked two things that would have put me in the hot seat helping out with ideas. First, I was neither gifted nor educated. One could substitute for the other, but my combat tactics usually came down to charging directly at an enemy and making myself a problem for them on my own terms. That wouldn’t work so well against an opponent that could do almost anything.

The other thing I lacked was a childlike devotion towards Star Swirl. Destiny practically worshiped the deck plating he walked on. That meant she was enjoying the privilege of being a sounding board for him to bounce ideas off of, while I found some other way to worry about what was going to come next.

That was when I realized I’d never actually seen much of the city. I’d been flying to and from the palace and I’d seen the sprawl, but I’d never gone down into it, and it seemed like a good place to go.

It was like the ship had been turned inside out and carved up into streets and districts, huge pumps humming quietly next to houses only a little bigger than they were. Cables were buried under the street, and the whole place felt clean and sterile and futuristic in the way ponies thought the future would look like a few centuries back.

It was also pretty empty. There were probably ten thousand changelings and crystal ponies in the city, and all of them stayed near the core of it just outside the palace. There was room for ten times as many.

When my stomach growled I stopped to try the local cuisine. I didn’t expect the first noodle shop I found to be run by changelings.

“Well, the ship can make almost anything,” the waitress explained. “So crystal ponies don’t really ever need to cook, right?” She was dressed like one of the palace maids, mostly. I was certain they wore slightly more fabric.

“Right,” I agreed. “But you don’t need to eat.”

“Ah, wrong!” She grinned, showing fangs that would make a wolf jealous. “We need to eat love, and the best way to get love is…?”

“By being lovable?” I shrugged. “I’m not really a romantic.”

“Aw, you did just fine,” she assured me. “You’re right. The best way to get love is to make ponies want to spend time with you, so instead of just providing food, we provide service! Ponies can get suggestions on new things to try, someling friendly to talk to, and we clean up afterwards.”

“Oh, well--”

“Also there’s the special menu on the back,” she said. I flipped it over and blushed.

“Oh.” I said. “That’s why foals aren’t allowed in.”

“Do you want to reserve a private booth?” She sounded hopeful.

“Um, uh…” I think my blush was in danger of becoming terminal. “Not today, thanks. Sorry. Um…”

She giggled. “Don’t worry about it. How about I get you a bowl of spicy mushroom and soy noodles?”

The noodles ended up being really good, for what it’s worth. As for any kind of dessert, all I’m willing to say is that changelings are extremely friendly and persuasive.

---

A few hours later, in what should have been near sunset but just lingered in that same vague fog light as every other minute in Limbo, I was trotting through something halfway between a park and a plaza when I noticed that I was being followed. Something was stalking me through the tall silvery grass, and I might not have noticed it if it didn’t make a sound like wind chimes every time it brushed the metallic strands aside.

“You want to come out or am I going to have to come and get you?” I asked. I wasn’t sure if it was a spy or an assassin. It could have even just been somepony sent to keep me out of trouble, so I didn’t want to just jump at them screaming with a knife in my hooves.

I turned and found the one thing I didn’t expect. Foals. A crystal pony and a changeling half the size of the others I’d seen came out of the brush.

“How’d you know we were there?” the changeling asked. “We were super sneaky!”

“Please don’t tell our parents,” one of the crystal foals mumbled. “They said you were dangerous and we should stay inside.”

“I am dangerous,” I agreed. I was going to ask them why they were following me around but I already knew the answer. I hadn’t been a foal all that long ago, and back then if my mom and dad had told me to stay away from something dangerous I’d have immediately gone behind their backs to look at it.

“Is it true you’re from the wasteland, and you’ve killed a thousand ponies, and you go around killing anypony that looks at you?” the changeling asked, excited.

“Uh… no?” I hesitated. “I mean, you can debate some of that but-- I definitely don’t do that last thing. I’ve never hurt anypony that didn’t attack me first.”

“Oh,” the crystal foal said. He looked at the changeling, and something unspoken passed between them. “You wanna play changeball?”

“What’s changeball?”

---

I looked at the ball in my hooves skeptically. It had been a changeling a few moments ago. I’d been brought to a field of soft plastic grass, so short it was more like an outdoor carpet. An arena had been set up, an oblong shape with a line down the middle. It looked like it was set up for a real sport, but I was quickly grasping that they’d made up almost all the rules themselves sans adult supervision.

“Okay, explain it again,” I said.

The crystal foal groaned and looked at the others like she couldn’t believe she needed to keep explaining things to an adult pony. They hadn’t met an adult as stupid as me before, I guess.

“Fine, we’ll do it again,” she sighed. “There are two teams. Everypony with a red cloth is on one team, and everypony with blue is on the other.”

I guess there wasn’t an official uniform. They had them tied around fetlocks, necks, worn as headbands, whatever each foal seemed to think was coolest.

“Each team has a wicket. That’s the stick behind you.” I glanced back at it. It was precariously balanced, ready to fall over. “The red team tries to knock over the blue wicket, and the blue team tries to knock over the red wicket. You use the balls to do it.”

“And the balls are changelings,” I specified.

“Yep!” the ball in my hooves confirmed.

“If you get hit by a ball, you’re out,” the crystal filly said. “And if your wicket gets knocked over the other team gets a point -- even if it gets knocked over because you fell into it, Dazzler!” She shot a look at a filly on the other team. “If you catch a ball, the pony who threw it is out and the ball joins your team.”

“The ball… joins your team,” I said slowly.

“Well duh,” the filly scoffed. “The balls are changelings so they can like, do stuff after you throw them! They can change size or swerve or whatever, as long as they don’t stop being a ball.”

“If they don’t get caught, they can transform back and fly over to their team,” one of the colts put in.

The filly sighed. “We used to hit them with bats instead of catching them, but we had to stop because Springtail got a concussion and cracked his carapace.”

“I got better,” the ball in my hooves said. “After I molted you can’t even see where the crack was anymore!”

One of the other fillies, a crystal pony colored like amethyst and emerald, snorted with laughter at that.

“Are you sure it’s fair?” I asked. “I’m a lot bigger than you.”

“That just makes you a bigger target!” the lead filly said. “I’ll show you! You join the blue team! Reds, let’s get that wicket!”

---

I was out in about ten seconds in that first round. I vastly underestimated the foals, and was totally unprepared when the balls curved in the air to smack me right in my big dumb face. I was unceremoniously ordered to the sandbox, which was where all of us fallen ponies had to go between turns.

The amethyst filly soon joined me, sighing and sitting down on the edge of the sand and looking annoyed.

“They got you too, huh?” I asked.

“It’s a more clever game than it appears,” she said. “Ponies can’t just run and evade because they have to protect the wickets. I’m not sure I like that some of the changelings volunteered to be sporting equipment, but it does take advantage of their natural abilities at deception. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’d tried to sneak in as balls to begin with, and it just became an accepted part of the rules.”

“Maybe,” I agreed. “It kinda reminds me of cloudball, especially if there used to be a bat, but that’s more about hitting the ball as far as you can and flying fast around the bases to score points.”

“You’ve seen the real Equestria, right?” the filly asked. She squatted down to start building a sandcastle, pushing the sand around and carefully shaping it. It clearly wasn’t any kind of normal sand, because it stayed together like wet sand without actually being wet.

I nodded cautiously. I didn’t want to say anything that might give her nightmares. “It’s a dangerous place.”

“There aren’t a lot of safe places anywhere,” the filly shrugged. “What’s it like?”

“Well…” I hesitated. What was safe to say? Probably what I’d learned when I was her age. “After the war, civilization collapsed. I guess none of you were around for that, but on the surface, things got bad. I haven’t been to the Crystal Empire so I don’t really know what happened there, but in most of Equestria, basically everything was destroyed. All the cities are broken and burned, and there are monsters everywhere.”

“Is that so?” she asked. “But you’re here, so there must be some safe places, right?”

“Some. There are a lot of bad ponies, though. Some good ones, but… it’s very hard for some ponies to be good when they don’t have everything they need, and they think they can get it by hurting somepony else.”

“Yes,” the filly agreed. “That’s how it’s always been. Hunger can be a terrible curse.”

“Trust me, you don’t want to go out there if you can help it,” I told her. “It’s no place for a filly. I’m sure Flurry Heart has a plan for taking everypony back when it’s safe to do it.”

“I admire her,” the filly said. She kicked at the sandcastle, knocking over a crooked tower and starting to rebuild it. “I didn’t at first. Princess Cadance overshadowed her, for a number of reasons.”

“She kicked Sombra out of the Crystal Empire a long time ago, right?” I asked.

“Yes, among other things,” the filly agreed. “She was beloved by everypony who saw her, the Princess of Love. Sometimes ponies forget that she started helping rule Equestria even before Princess Luna.”

“Oh right,” I nodded. “I remember reading that in the history books. Princess Celestia found her like ten years before Princess Luna returned, right?”

The amethyst filly nodded. “Flurry Heart was sort of… ponies forgot about her. The Empire decided to be neutral in the war, and that meant they didn’t get headlines. She was just a junior princess to a junior princess.”

“She seems pretty great to me,” I countered, feeling a need to defend her.

“You’re right,” the filly said. “It’s too bad I have to kill her.”

She stomped on the sand castle, knocking it all down into dust and ruins. A chill ran down my spine. I felt the hate boiling off her. My wings fluffed, ready to spread and bolt into the air.

“You’re…” I swallowed, nervous. “Chrysalis.” I glanced at the foals, trying to figure out some way I could direct this fight somewhere else. Anywhere else.

“Oh, calm down,” she spat. “I’m not going to trample these foals into paste. I used to be a mother, you know. My subjects loved me. Or worshiped me, anyway. It wasn’t love. We didn’t have the love to spare for simple devotion. We were hungry and sharp, and keeping them hungry made them such a useful tool for me.”

“What do you want?” I asked.

“I came here to see how Flurry Heart treated my subjects,” Chrysalis said. “I’m disappointed. They’re soft and tame. Dogs instead of wolves, lapping at her heels and begging for attention.”

She gave me a look like she could tell I’d visited the cafe. She didn’t have to say anything. I could feel what she thought about that.

“They’re happy,” I pointed out.

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Happy. Yes. I suppose so. But they are not mine.”

“You could, um…” They should have had a poet. Somepony who could negotiate. “You could try talking it over. I think everypony would be happier if we could just compromise and resolve this peacefully--”

Chrysalis cackled, a laugh that didn’t belong to the body she was wearing. She looked up at me. “Oh, you silly little pony. You could never understand. The true shape of victory is this -- to rule so completely that nothing can exist without your consent. Flurry Heart knows this. She learned it better than her mother.”

“What if we--” I winced. Something inside me twisted. The filly’s eyes were glowing green.

“I could flence you apart, cell by cell. It is within my power,” Chrysalis hissed. The glow faded, and the pain stopped, and she backed down. “What we’re going to do is play their game. I’m enjoying stretching my muscles. As long as you play along, the foals will be safe. Isn’t that wonderful? You get to protect them just by playing a game!”

“Great,” I mumbled.

“Come along,” she ordered. “It’s time for the next round.”

Comments

[star1wars3]

You know that kid sure does talk strangely for a pony that young.

“You’re…” I swallowed, nervous. “Chrysalis.”

Oh.

[Reese]

"“Yes,” the filly agreed. “That’s how it’s always been. Hunger can be a terrible curse.”"
...Um. Hm.

"“I didn’t at first. Princess Cadance overshadowed her, for a number of reasons.”"
UM.

"“It’s too bad I have to kill her.”"
Yeeeep. :D
Well. On the plus side, sounds like there's indeed a fair bit of hope for redemption if the Darkness can be purged?

(Also, in retrospect, "the amethyst filly's" commentary on changeball in the sandbox also seems somewhat telling, I think -- but not enough that I started suspecting at that point. Nice buildup. :D)

Oh, hm. Though from the end of the chapter, it looks like Chrysalis may have been that filly the whole time, rather than just taking her appearance to show up in the sandbox. I wonder how she joined them without any of them already knowing her? I think there are enough possible solutions, based on what I do and don't know, that I'm not finding my suspension of disbelief endangered, to be clear -- but I am curious what in particular happened.

Anyway, I should probably stop here, probably for a while, again, due to time, but... I really want to know what happens next. :D

[Ahsoka Tano]

Was totally expecting Chamomile too go into a vision and hurt one of the fillies on accident not what actually happened lol.

[Medic Olkie]

“Somehow, Chrysalis has returned,” Star Swirl said, leaning on the plotting table’s glowing crystal surface.

Oh god did you get bought out by Disney???