Princess Celestia sat in her throne room. It was another slow day – in fact, not a single pony had yet come to visit her. Then again, the day was just beginning. Just beginning to pick up, that is – a knock on the door signaled her first visitor. The door opened, and two ponies she had seen just a few days prior entered. An irate white unicorn mare stomped in, followed by an incredibly nervous blue unicorn stallion.
“Ah, Mister and Missus Sparkle! So nice to see you again! What brings you here this glorious morning, if you don’t mind me saying?” Celestia asked, her gloomy demeanor gone, replaced by all sorts of cheerfulness at a chance to converse with her favorite student’s parents.
“We have a serious problem,” Mrs. Sparkle replied, through gritted teeth, “That monster, Queen Chrysalis, is still at large, and worse, has my son under her control again!”
Celestia arched an eyebrow. “So they told you, and you didn’t believe them?”
“Yes, he’s in great danger and… wait, what?” Anger suddenly lost direction, dissipated by confusion.
“Shining Armor and Queen Chrysalis visited you, last night, yes?” Celestia asked. Mrs. Sparkle nodded in response. “He told you she was his wife, and he knew what she was, and that he loved her, correct?” Another nod. “He then explained that you never knew the real Princess Cadance?” Celestia could see the gears turning in Mrs. Sparkle’s head, and, surmising the answer to her question, had to suppress the urge to facehoof.
“Of course we knew the real Cadance, she foalsat for Twilight for years, and romanced my son,” the mare replied.
Celestia sat for a moment, trying to decide what to say, when a scroll materialized beside her. She reflexively caught it before it hit the ground, and opened the seal. A letter from Twilight, especially at this particular moment in time, was likely rather important. She read it quickly, smirking slightly, before knowing what to say to relieve the Sparkle family’s tensions.
“Mrs. Sparkle, this is a letter from your daughter. I believe you will find its contents quite intriguing,” the Sun Goddess stated calmly, levitating the letter towards the couple. Mrs. Sparkle gently took the parchment from her ruler’s grasp, moving it close enough to read.
“Dear Princess Celestia, I write to you in hopes this letter reaches you before my parents. Shining Armor and Chrysalis made a rather unexpected visit last night, with some rather disturbing news – he and Chrysalis informed my parents of her true nature, and they received the information poorly. Granted it was entirely my idiot brother’s fault for relaying the truth poorly and incompletely, so if you could please visit them and let them know that we never knew the original Princess Cadance, that it has been Chrysalis from the very start, and that neither I nor Shining Armor are under any spells, I would be most grateful. I love my brother, and so do my parents, but he can be a real goof at times. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle,” she read aloud, her face changing to one of recognition as she reached the end. She looked at the letter, to Celestia, and back to the letter. She gave another glance to Celestia, who merely nodded knowingly.
“I’m a fool, oh I’m such a fool…”
“It’s ok, honey, we didn’t know, we couldn’t have known,” Night Light finally spoke, his voice quivering with fear.
“No, that is true, but still, we overreacted, horrifically. I did, at the very least. Princess, can you send letters back?”
“Of course I can, my loyal subjects. Would you like me to?”
“Yes, please, if it is no inconvenience to you, Princess.”
“Of course not! Between you and me, I wish more ponies would come here simply asking me to send letters. It allows me to get a more personal look into my subjects lives, get to know their fears and hopes, etcetera. I was once practically a one-pony mail service, but that was thousands of years past. Now, what would y-” Celestia was interrupted by the materialization of a second scroll. She broke the seal and read it, this time failing to suppress a facehoof.
P.S. He also assaulted three members of the Royal Guard and is now Equestria’s most wanted. If you could do something about that, I would be forever in your debt, Princess.
---
Twilight Sparkle was pacing around the central table in her library, growing increasingly worried by the second.
“Twiley, calm down, you sent the letter seven minutes ago. The Princess might not even be awake yet,” Shining Armor tried to calm her.
“Might not even be awake? In case you haven’t noticed, the sunrise happened! She’s kind of an integral part of that!” Twilight restrained herself from yelling, gesturing emphatically to her window with a hoof. To accentuate her statement, the sun seemed to grow extra-bright for just a second, as if smiling.
“I… suppose you’re right about that, sis,” Shining Armor said, mentally smacking himself for missing something so obvious.
“I think what he’s trying to say,” Chrysalis cut in, “is that seven minutes is an awfully short amount of time for Princess Celestia, as powerful as she is, to remedy the situation with your… our parents, remedy the situation with the Guard, and reply back to you? While she is practically a god, the ponies she needs to interact with on this are not,” she finished, a hint of humor trickling down in her voice.
Twilight Sparkle smirked, puffing out a little extra air from her nose. “You’re right, Chrysalis,” the nervous unicorn said with a sigh, “Though at least a quick confirmation that she got my letters would be nice.”
“Yeah, letters, plural, Twiley. Was that second one really necessary?” Shining Armor asked, and was met with glares all around.
“Was the second one necessary?” Twilight exasperatedly asked, “Of course it was necessary! Celestia is the only one aside from yourself with the power to rescind that order, and your orders don’t count for anything at the moment!”
“Oh… right…” Shining Armor hung his head.
“Oh, Twilight, don’t be so mean to him. He was just trying to protect me,” Chrysalis said, shifting to put a foreleg around her husband. She pulled him close and kissed the top of his head. “He might be a goof sometimes, but he’s our goof.”
“That’s true, but still… Ugh, I just wish Celestia would respond!” Twilight Sparkle said it and it was so.
Spike felt his stomach rumble for just a moment and belched a small gout of flame, the green fire dissipating to reveal two pieces of parchment wrapped in a red ribbon. Before Spike could formally declare the letter’s arrival, Twilight had already grabbed it and began to read.
“My most faithful student, I had the good fortune to receive your letter while your parents were in my presence. They had, in fact, come to me to discuss the issues raised in your letter, namely their fear for the safety of your brother and our fair city. Enclosed is a letter dictated by your mother, and, on occasion, your father. In addition, please inform your dear brother and my faithful Captain of the Guard that he is, indeed, a blockhead, and that I will do my best to mitigate the situation (of which your parents have not been informed). However, please also inform him that my direct order that Queen Chrysalis is no longer a fugitive or a threat would raise significant suspicions, and that I cannot do so. Your mentor and friend, Princess Celestia,” Twilight finished.
As she had read, her voice had grown higher in pitch out of fear from the first few sentences, shifted to amusement at the regal Sun Princess referring to Shining Armor as a ‘blockhead,’ to somewhat solemn acceptance that the situation would not be so easily remedied. Shining Armor and Chrysalis heaved synchronous sighs of relief when Twilight finished the letter.
“Well, it’s good to see that our parents have some semblance of sense…” the white stallion groaned.
“This whole situation could have been avoided if you had explained it better in the first place,” Twilight said to her brother, “Don’t think there’s any way you’re not taking the blame for this, BBBFF.”
The use of his childhood title let him know that Twilight was only half-kidding, and he lowered himself to the floor.
“Oh, Shiny, it’s not so bad,” Chrysalis encouraged, laying down next to him.
“It isn’t?” Shining Armor and Twilight replied in unison.
“Of course not. You’re a blockhead, but you’re my blockhead,” Chrysalis giggled, nuzzling her husband.
Twilight pretend-gagged at her family. “If you two are done poisoning Spike with your sickeningly sweet displays of affection, I can read you Mom and Dad’s letter,” she said, receiving a nod from the couple.
“Dear Shining Armor, Queen Chrysalis, and Twilight Sparkle, I would like to formally apologize for my absolutely horrific behavior two nights ago. Chrysalis, I can hope you understand that your sudden appearance coupled with my son’s incomplete explanation… we had no idea that you were actually the Cadance we had known all along. You have done so much for our family, and provided so much for us. Every one of us loves you to death, your sudden shift in appearance was just… jarring, given the events of Shining Armor’s (and your) wedding day. We welcome you back gladly with open hooves, and we wish you can forgive us. My husband also wishes to convey his intentions of trying his best to not be afraid of you.
“Shining Armor. You, my beloved son, are more than I had ever hoped you would ever be. You are the Captain of the Royal Guard for Princess Celestia, you married a beautiful and talented Princess of Love, and you’ve darn near ruined it, on account of us. Please understand that you gave us very little information to process before informing us of the truth on your wife, but please forgive us for how terribly we overreacted. I take back everything I said about you having to leave, and your father and I fervently hope you will as well.
“My dearest daughter Twilight, thank you for showing us how blind we were to our own son’s love, even if it was somewhat of a surprise to us. We are so very thankful that you had the wits to send a letter to Celestia to explain to us the situation properly. Were it not for your letter, we very likely would have been disinclined to believe our beloved Princess, given her less than stellar performance against the changelings at the first ceremony,” Twilight laughed at how the writing became slightly agitated at these words, “but we believe that you have a level head and enough magical prowess to know if Chrysalis is telling the truth. If you believe her, we believe her. With love and hopes of forgiveness, Mom and Dad.”
Twilight smiled. She had known that between herself and the Princess, her parents were sure to believe her.
“See, Shiny? I told you they’d see reason if they knew the whole story. I can’t believe Mom talked down about the Princess while she was dictating that letter though. I hope she’s not locked up in a dungeon somewhere,” Twilight said after a moment of silence.
Shining Armor smiled back at his sister. The letter had done much to lift his spirits. “Thanks, Twiley. It was totally my fault, yeah, I’ll admit that and accept it. I’m just glad that they did come around when you explained it better.”
“Of course they came around. It was your sister, the brightest and most talented unicorn ever to live, explaining it to them, not you, the most handsome and toughest stallion,” Chrysalis said, nuzzling her husband again. A moment later she realized the implications of her statement, and gasped. “Oh, Shiny, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to call you stupid. You’re not stupid! Not at all! I just mea-”
Chrysalis was silenced by another kiss from her husband.
“I know what you meant, love. It’s ok,” He said, smiling, after he pulled away.
Wow. They really could not possibly be better for each other. He’s a coltish goof and she’s still a massively in-love little filly at heart. Nothing could ever break this romance apart. It’s almost like something out of a novel for young fillies, Twilight thought, giggling at the romantic display in front of her.
“Well…” Twilight said, giving a light cough to break the silence. Shining Armor and Chrysalis were lost in each other’s’ eyes. They both blushed slightly and turned to Twilight. “A train is leaving for Canterlot in about half an hour. We can easily make it if we get packed quickly, to go back and talk to our parents in person. Chrysalis? Would you mind turning into Cadance again? Even a failing disguise is better than nothing.”
Chrysalis nodded, and green fire flashed around her. When the light faded, she stood before them, unaltered.
“Chrysalis? I said you should turn into Cadance, not you,” Twilight laughed nervously. This can’t be happening. This isn’t happening.
Another flash of green.
“I… I can’t.”
dun, Dun, DUUUN
Well fuck.
Congrats, Shining! It's now officially "Pick on Shining Armor Day"!
TenebrisSol: you forgot the bird screech. And Chrissie is in a bit of a pickle
She's totally boned
1597990 It is called a Tortoise. A tortoise cannot die of old age.
2162199 before I even saw your comment I thought the same thing
We're going to need a bigger fan...
attempts to change..nothing
attempts again..journaldugeek.com/files/2012/10/FUUUU_RE_FFFFFUUUU_Pizza-s508x387-44250-580.jpg
Nice job again, Vash. Also...hi.
Awesome.
2125314>>2125930 So what? Your ignoring of storge, philia, and agape is superior intellect? So what you're saying is that by ignoring anything that makes me wrong I can be more intelligent than, and superior to, everyone else?! Wow, that makes SOOO much sense!
ps. You ain't written shit here. Claiming you have done something with no proof IS NOT PROOF OF ANYTHING!!
Well, they're boned.
Commence read.
Family togetherness.
Followed by a conundrum.
wish i could do more than 1 upvote
well.....shit maybe that legend IS true after all.
This story is simply amazing. First of all, another person who thinks Chrysalis' voice is beautiful? I love you for that.
The plot is great, the character interactions are very believable, and the way you have each character down to a T is just amazing. I got praise for these same things in one of my stories, but that was only Twilight and Discord with very minor appearances from the other ponies. The fact that you've done so well writing for so many different characters speaks volumes about your skills as a writer.
You, sir, have earned a like, a favorite, AND a follow!
2125314 Stand upon your pedestal and speak out among the community as if they were no better than live stalk. I have seen your kind before. Hell I live with one. Thinking they are better than everyone else. Said person will grow old and alone because said person hurts so many in her wake. You can never live up to said person. Said person has no friends. Said person is very much disliked at said person's work. Said person is always angry. Said person yells at inanimate objects because they 'don't work', which is very funny in my opinion. Said person does not give a shit about others. Said person feeds on the pain of others. Said person wants nothing more than to feel superior to others. Said person has been this way their whole life. Said person cannot be helped.
Life is not measured in success but for what you contribute or not to peoples lives ( And I'm not talking about money or the like). Think about it, those who are more remembered are the ones who people want to remember. And all you have done is call people left and right 'stupid'. If you think those of people as mindless animals, then isolate yourself. But then again, what is life without human interaction?
2130465 Sorry about posting the comment previous but if this escalates, I will take the debate away from your comment section and relocate it to private messaging. Love the story though, have been with this the whole way through.
Now, see, if Chrysalis just changed her name to something else, it would diffuse a whole lot of tension when explaining things to people, and give her a chance to relay her story.
"Oh no, it's Chrysalis!" "Yep! But I'm not evil." "So? You nearly killed me" "But that wasn't-" "I cannot hear you over my rage anymore!! rar"
OR
"Oh no, it's Chrysalis!" "Nope! I'm not Chrysalis. I'm Pupa." "What? Huh. Well, I'm still suspicious, but I suppose you should at least be allowed to explain yourself."
2162250 stole the words right out of my mouth.
DOOOOOOOOOMED.
*Alondro rushes in with a big vat of bubbling SCIENCE!!* I can help you change your appearance!!
*He dumps the entire vat over her!*
*Chrysalis eeks and starts to melt* No... not that way... *gurgle.... she becomes a pile of gelatinous goo... and then sort of shifts into a blobby shape vaguely resembling a giant mucilaginous pony*
*Shining Armor gasps!* Ch-chrysalis... are you ok?
*the blob forms one hoof into an axe! It swings at the annoying Alondro who barely dodges!* Chrysalis is gone! She's never coming back! There's only me now: Gakface!"
Chrysalis used Transform!
But it failed...
After seeing Chrysalis about nearly rape-out of love-/Dominate-sexually- Shinning and now unable to transform a line of thought came to me...
Chrysalis wants to learn Dominate but already knows four moves....
Cuddle___Kiss
Sex_____Transform
.......Chrysalis forgot Transform and learned...Dominate~
Holy Celestia she can´t transform!!! this is the worst possible thing
*gasp*
Wow. They really could not possibly be better for each other. He’s a coltish goof and she’s still a massively in-love little filly at heart. Nothing could ever break this romance apart. It’s almost like something out of a novel for young fillies, Twilight thought, giggling at the romantic display in front of her.
The foreboding foreshadowing makes itself known!
2175021
That was more a jab at it being practically the definition of a fairy-tale romance, not foreboding foreshadowing. Rest assured, Chrysalis and SA are not going to get broken up.
Oh no, Chrysalis can't disguise herself and has to now reveal the truth or suffer being exiled or spending the rest of the honeymoon in a jail cell. My reaction.
Seriously, though the plot has been driving to this from the moment her ability started to fail, so it's not all that big of a shock to those that are observant. That aside there are things here that I do like. I do like how Twilight's parents go straight to their ruler for their complaint. I also like how it is not Celestia who sways Twilight's mother but Twilight herself with her own writing. One can assume that because Celestia is the ruler of Equestria, anything she says should be believed without question, that is if she hadn't gotten her butt kicked (fairly I might add) in a magical duel a few days before. Her mother's reservations about Celestia's ability to maintain her rule after her surprising defeat to a creature who looks like her son's wife is certainly not one without merit. Looking at it from her perspective, she just watched a mare whom she believed to be all powerful and grew up learning a history that tells of all those who ever challenged her in combat ended up losing, lose to an imposter. Regardless of how much Celestia was trying to hold back her power to protect her subjects (i.e. not going all out against a very real hostile threat that has made their intentions clear) the only thing that matters in Mrs. Sparkle's mind is that the mare who has promised to protect them, who has a flawless battle record, whom she has entrusted her own daughter to be educated by, just lost to some usurper masquerading as her future daughter-in-law, and worse yet the ruler she trusted was warned a head of time about said usurper being evil by her (Mrs. Sparkle's) own daughter who was ignored. Her blindly following whatever Celestia says despite having real reasons to harbor reservations would be strange. Mrs. Sparkle's reaction is a natural one, it's the mother bear protecting her cub reaction. Sure its an emotional reaction and not one driven by logic, but looking at it from her stand point changes that whole situation around a bit. In her mind, her son is once again in trouble by the very being she could not stop last time and having failed him once she's not going to do it again. She goes to Celestia with the sole goal of seeing Chrysalis gone and her son safe and when Celestia-for the second time in less than a week-is about to fail to do anything because she's been in on a lie that she has allowed to be told to everyone the whole time, and once more the voice of reason is Twilight, her daughter--who was the voice of reason last time but was ignored then and the results speak for themselves. Not wanting to be wrong again, she changes her mind solely because her daughter indirectly calms her maternal need to protect and makes her see the truth. All this happens without directly saying any of this. This bit is genius; this is what I mean by showing not telling, even if this were a fluke and not intended it is still a great moment in the story. Everything we need to know is told through character interactions and knowing basic knowledge about the situation. You may not have recognized it immediately, but your brain did. Equally good is Celestia's response to the new knowledge that Shining Armor (who shall be hence forth be known as Prince Myshkin) and Chrysalis are both now personae non gratae by virtue of Prince Myshkin's rash drunken decisions. Her response is that of a politician with their hands tied or in this case hooves tied. True, Celestia could override Prince Myshkin's order but to do so would show favoritism while at the same time raise a ton of questions best avoided--one of which being if she's known who Cadence was the whole time and lied to the public about it and let an invasion that nearly turned the entire country's subjects into living food sources that would later become mind slaves to the invaders based on said lie, then what else has she been lying about? A dangerous question that still lingers and could come up should there be an unsatisfactory conclusion to the situation. It isn't like it was with Discord and Nightmare Moon where they just happened to get one over on her, here all the stars aligned for Celestia to have a sweeping victory but because she decided to not passingly question the situation with Cadence's odd behavior despite knowing who she was, she got beaten and is now in a bit of a predicament because of a seventeen year lie (see kids, lying doesn't solve your problems. It only makes it worse later when the truth does come out, especially when you do it for years) Therefore, her decision to basically tell them that officially her hooves are tied and they're on their own is both selfish in the sense that she's saving her own rear and selfless in the sense that she's delaying potential questioning of her rule until she can think of a way to best handle it without possibly causing the citizens to get upset. The best situation is to officially not help them but secretly provide all the aid you can without raising suspicion. In short, nice job on having her play politician to a busted spy.
Ultimately, there's really not much here that I could criticize as being problematic. We're at that point in the story where the only reason why you would not want to continue reading is because you simply dislike it on the virtue of being wish fulfillment or the relationship between this and the established canon characters themselves. If the first is the reason, then allow me to ask why are you reading fanfictions to begin with; and if it's the second reason then did you not read the first chapter where it is clearly stated that the two beings known as Chrysalis are--as they pertain to this story--not the same? If you think of it in the same way Twilight views Pinkie Sense (in that its something that happens so just roll with it), then there are fewer headaches to be had. The only thing I can even ask (and even then it's both a minor nitpick and what I imagine to be potential plot spoiler) is how our resident apothecary (aka Zecora) is going to potentially rain on Myshkin's and Chrysalis' parade with whatever she's been brewing for the past several chapters? Which, now that I think about it how does she know exactly what the problem is for Chrysalis' disguise ability failing? Does she know Changeling lore and if so how does she know this? Is she a Changeling herself, has she treated this before, or did she read and or hear the legend from another Changeling? Is her cure harmful or beneficial (i.e. make the love equines stop loving each other or will it give her access to her disguise powers another way)? I imagine that there might be a spell that the ponies have to do artificial disguises for a brief amount of time as we see Luna do something similar when she turns herself into Nightmare Moon again then back to herself and when Nightmare Moon herself does some shapeshifting turning herself into the Shadowbolts and a formless vapor. If Luna can do this (after all she would have to learn it from somewhere as it isn't her special talent), then the likelihood of such a spell existing is pretty good, assuming it hasn't already been brought up.
Overall, what's here in this chapter is quite good. There is a well done resolution to one of the conflicts that has sprung up in the past few chapters and a continuation of a conflict already in progress. At this point, the story can go a few ways ranging from believable climax and resolution to Disney level, no real consequences occur climax and ending. While I personally, lean more towards believable as opposed to sugary sweet, everything wrapped up in a nice happy bow (i.e. there be consequences for all involved and a lesson learned as opposed to none at all), how things resolve is entirely up to you but know that for this chapter I have no real complaints to offer as everything that is presented is handled well and we can now finally, FINALLY move forward with them going about revealing the truth to everyone.
2176907
http://www.fimfiction.net/blog/131741/paragraphs :P
Thanks for that. It's nice to wake up and read a wall of text about how someone appreciates my work, especially considering most of the long comments are picking at plot holes >.< Admittedly, I am leaning towards the Disney-esque ending, if only because I am a sucker for happy endings, but I am trying to make myself write a less "and then everything turned out just fine" ending. Perhaps. We'll see.
2176907
Dafuq your comment probably has more words than the chapter.
2177213
It's always nice to receive praise for a job well done. As enjoyable and fun it is to poke a plot holes and think of snarky jokes related to them, at the end of the day, I prefer being both entertained and pointing out the good things in a story. I only notice the plot holes and inconsistencies when they happen to such a degree that I'm taken out of the story; only then do I comment on them. However, just like there is no such thing as zero percent error, there is always going to be a plot hole or two in a story. What makes it an issue (at least for me) is when its one that causes me to no longer enjoy the story. But as I said, I like commenting on good things in stories; and despite most of my comments which consist of pointing out issues with the chapter/story, I would rather point out the good stuff as opposed to the bad. It's like going to nice restaurant with your friends/ significant other, do go to have a good time or to point out how bad the cooking is?
2178646
Could be, never actually thought to check myself.
I tend have long comments mostly because I believe in being productive with my comments. I'm not really a big fan of just saying "nice job, keep up the work" or "this sucks, unsubscribe". I would rather say that something's good or bad then explain why I like it or have issue with it. After all, the comments are more for the writer's benefit (and partially my own if they can clear something up that I don't get) as it let's them know what works and what doesn't. That's kinda the point of feedback, right? If the goal is to be a better writer, then it helps to have good feedback, no? While I'll try to keep it short if I can, if not I usually leave a warning a head of time.
DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUN
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2196592 *nods with a yes*
2180804
twilight.ponychan.net/chan/ep/src/132744435889.png
And now take this reasonable stance and apply it to Celestia as well.
Because if you really think about it, the whole thing is mostly her fault. It's completely unfair that she gets a pass for it.
It's funny:
Had I read this story when I became a part of the fandom (which was actually at least a few weeks after this story was posted, oddly enough), I'd have found Celestia saying that Shining Armor is a blockhead to be a bit out of character for her.
But now, a little over two months after "Slice of Life" came out, and it showed that Celestia and Luna, despite being both alicorns and having been around the most of the characters we know of, were the same as the rest of the ponies of Equestria, I can say with full confidence that she really WOULD say that.
2162943 Chrysalis as a whole is awesome, looks and voice both.
Well, shit.
Cya
Raziel-chan
Dunce Hat for you Shining
SNERK