The Enemy of My Enemy

by Pen Stroke

Chapters

The Enemy of My Enemy

The Enemy of My Enemy

By Pen Stroke

Preread, Edited, and Reviewed By

Illustrious Q, El Oso, Obselescence

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“Then we have an understanding.”

Celestia sat in her seat with a posture that would make a mountain envious. She was a pillar of strength, with the sunset to her back. Twilight and Luna sat to her left and right respectively, but neither could emanate the room commanding aura Celestia did. Yet, such a thing was necessary. What they were doing, the thing that brought them to the table, was one of national importance. They faced a dangerous threat, one that could not be solved by Twilight and her friends alone. It was a threat that put the nation, perhaps the whole world, in great peril.

And such an enemy required a new alliance to be made.

Celestia’s eyes remained transfixed on the far end of the table, where their new ally sat inspecting the final version of the treaty. Queen Chrysalis did not look happy, and both sides had been horribly paranoid of sitting down in the same room. Either side could use the opportunity to spring a devastating trap. Chrysalis protested vehemently against any offer of negotiation, convinced the so-called threat was nothing more than a ruse to lure her someplace where she could be struck down. It seemed like the alliance would never manifest between ponies and changelings.

Yet, that all changed after the first attack. When it became clear to Chrysalis the threat was real, and that her changelings were a target, her willingness to meet increased ten fold.

“I find the terms acceptable.” Chrysalis spoke with a subtle hiss, as if the words left a foul, sour taste in her mouth. She set down the treaty in the middle of the table, before looking up to meet Celestia’s gaze. Celestia knew few beings who could meet her gaze with such confidence, but at the moment Chrysalis sat with mental fortitude and resolve equal to Celestia’s.

“Then I shall bind this treaty with the agreed upon ancient magical pacts. Queen Chrysalis, please stand with me.”

Chrysalis did as was requested, rising from her seat as Celestia did the same. Twilight and Luna excused themselves from the table, taking a few steps back to ensure they would not get caught up in what was about to occur. They had wanted to sign the treaty as well, but Celestia convinced them otherwise. If something were to happen, she wanted Twilight, Luna, and the absent Cadance to be able to act even if she could not.

The guards, both pony and changeling, stepped back as well. Everypony but Celestia and Chrysalis gave the meeting table as wide of a berth as possible. The two rulers began to call on their magic, intricate lines forming in the air between them. At first the lines were straight, like many sharp needles, but they then began to twist. As if caught in a whirlpool, the strands of magic were being drawn to the treaty.

“I, Princess Celestia of Equestria, she who bears the burden of the sun, do hereby swear to this treaty until the shadow of King Sombra has been defeated. I swear this to you, Queen Chrysalis of Newland Hive.” The treaty began to rise from the table, and Celestia’s magic wove into the paper as the ink shimmered.

“I, Queen Chrysalis of Newland Hive, last changeling queen of this continent, do hereby swear to this treaty until the shadow of King Sombra has been defeated. I swear this to you, Princess Celestia of Equestria.” The queen’s magic flowed into the treaty, joining with Celestia’s. Like fabric on a loom, their magic twisted, braided, and wove together with the treaty as the linchpin. Both of their signatures appeared on the scroll, cast in magic as the paper and ink shone with a metallic sheen.

One final snap cut the air, and then the spell was complete. Chrysalis and Celestia’s magic dissipated like smoke, and the treaty floated to the table. The moment it touched the wooden surface, a magical barrier surrounded it. To the uninitiated, the barrier appeared thin and frail, but Celestia knew better. She doubted even the combined strength of herself, Luna, Discord, and Chrysalis could hope to crack the spell.

It was magic older than most of Equestria’s written history.

“Well, now that we’re all nice new friends, I have a question,” Chrysalis said with false giddiness. Celestia could see Twilight bristle, taking the words as an insult against the power of friendship. Still, Twilight did not interrupt as Chrysalis continued. “Would one of you care to tell me how King Sombra, who you supposedly defeated, is commanding an army of crystalline dragons to assault my changelings?”

Luna returned to the table, her brow furrowed. “He’s not just attacking you.”

“But we have learned more about the situation,” Celestia said, interrupting her sister before any aggression could take root in the conversation. “Twilight, would you please share your report?”

Twilight grudgingly nodded, retaking her seat at the table as she began to cast her magic out, forming images in the air. The guards around the room retook their original positions as well, their eyes all focused on the purple magic floating above the freshly signed treaty.

“We have ascertained how King Sombra returned. His horn managed to survive the revival of the Crystal Heart, and was flung deep into the northern mountains. There, it was found by a dragon, who sensed the magic within and took the horn for her hoard. This is all we know for certain after speaking with some of the dragons Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy intercepted as they were fleeing south, but I do have a number of working theories on what occurred after that.”

~~~

The Crystal Empire became the focus of Sombra’s assaults, either because of his obsession, its position close to the northern mountains, or some combination of the two. The crystal dragons attacked the empire on a near daily basis. Celestia had feared the empire would have to be evacuated. The alliance with Chrysalis, however, provided the defense the empire so desperately needed. Using the Crystal Heart as a power source, Chrysalis’s changelings were able to construct a consistent, sustainable barrier, a barrier that Shining or Cadance could reinforce when needed with their own magic.

Despite the aid from the changelings, Cadance and Shining were still understandably cautious of the queen and her motives. It was a sentiment that Celestia was hoping to ease. She and Chrysalis had just arrived in the empire, coming to inspect the front line and to speak with Shining and Cadance at length about the situation. The trip had been spent in almost complete silence, she and Chrysalis choosing to look out different sides of her royal chariot instead of trying to make any painful small talk.

They were in no way friends. Celestia still remembered in crisp detail the changeling attack on Canterlot, but for the moment she knew she could trust Chrysalis. The magical treaty they had signed ensured that much.

Celestia stepped down from the chariot first. She stretched from the long trip, looked up at the Crystal Palace, then looked down to the Crystal Heart. Shaped and sculpted changeling goo tightly hugged the twin spikes the heart floated between. They pulsed with energy like a heartbeat, and each pulse was carried along lines of goo to the outer edges of the empire. There the army maintained the strange, magical constructs of changeling goo which projected the green-hued shield above the city. It was a shield composed of numerous, interlocking hexagons, a stark contrast to the smooth, round shield spells of Equestria.

“It’s a shame this place wasn’t around before Shining and Cadance’s wedding. That Crystal Heart is such a delicious little power source.”

Celestia rolled her eyes, knowing Chrysalis couldn’t see her face. The changeling queen always seemed to have a cutting comment, an antagonizing jab, or passive-aggressive phrase she’d lay out. It was a sign of her ever-present discontentment with the treaty. After the initial dragon attack, the changelings seemed largely ignored. Their central hive was also in the far south, putting them a great distance from the danger. Those factors combined to make Chrysalis less and less interested in maintaining peaceful relations.

Once more, Celestia felt her choice of binding the treaty with magic was wise. Otherwise, Chrysalis may have already made good on some of her idle threats.

“Yes, I suppose it is, but only when the crystal ponies carry hope and light in their hearts,” Celestia commented as Chrysalis came up beside her. She could see it in the queen’s eyes; she was contemplating just what she could do with such a powerful relic. “It speaks volumes to Princess Cadance and Prince Shining’s leadership that they’ve been able to keep that hope alive despite the near daily attacks.”

“Yes, yes, all credit to the loving couple. Speaking of them, I thought they were supposed to meet us?”

“Well, we thought we were just going to be meeting Princess Celestia.”

Chrysalis and Celestia turned their heads to the left, seeing Shining and Cadance stepping around one of the castle’s four crystalline supports. They were walking close, shoulder to shoulder. Celestia saw the strength of their love and their desire to support one another in a situation neither would enjoy. Chrysalis must have seen something else, because a small chuckle escaped her lips. It was a chuckle befitting someone who was watching a child trying to be intimidating and succeeding only in being cute and harmless.

“I thought it was high time that the Princess Cadance and Queen Chrysalis had a face-to-face, considering we have been allies for nearly a month now,” Celestia said as she took a few steps. She positioned herself to ensure she could break up an argument or all-out fight if Chrysalis, Shining, or Cadance turned aggressive.

“It is a shame. I had hoped to see you two at the treaty signing.” Chrysalis put on a fanged smile while using a bit of magic to push some of her long, lanky mane out of her face. “We do have so much to catch up on. How was your honeymoon? You’ll have to tell me all about it. I could use a late breakfast, and I’m sure you two would give off a few clouds of love while reminiscing. Though, I doubt you’d be able to say the honeymoon was more exciting than your wedding.”

Shining took a step forward, a flicker of magic on his horn. He opened his mouth to bark back at Chrysalis, but Celestia extended a wing and caught her nephew-in-law before a single syllable could escape his lips. She shook her head once, then withdrew her wing and looked back at Chrysalis. “I think we can all agree the events of that day are a sensitive subject. Why don’t we focus on the task at hoof, hmm? Princess Cadance, have there been any breaches in the protective barrier?”

“None,” Cadance answered, looking to Celestia and acting as if Chrysalis wasn’t even there. “A few of the panels, as the changelings call them, showed signs of fractures during some assaults. However, they were reinforced before a breach could truly occur.”

“And what about my changelings?” Chrysalis asked. “Celestia assures me you’ve been taking good care of them. She and I can’t lie to one another because of the treaty, but I can’t help but wonder if maybe you lied to her.”

“I would not betray Princess Celestia’s trust like that,” Cadance said, pronouncing her words in a sharp rhythm, as if wanting to stab them into Chrysalis’s brain. “They’ve constructed their own housing just outside the empire from goo and some crystal building materials. They are allowed to come and go as they please, and they are being well fed.”

At that Cadance turned her head, looking into the distance. Celestia followed her adoptive niece’s gaze, noticing she was focusing on the top of a nearby building’s roof. There was something on the roof resembling a weather vane attached to a barrel. Cadance was manipulating the device. She pulled out the cork from the barrel before levitating something out of the interior. She then replaced the cork while levitating the barrel’s contents over to where the four were standing.

“What is that?” Chrysalis asked, and Celestia couldn’t deny her own curiosity. It was liquid, similar in density to water but with a rich, red tone like raspberry jam. She sensed something from it, a kind of magic, but it was not one she had encountered before. Warm, gentle, and with a quiver of life. She imagined holding the liquid, in magic or in hoof, would feel like gingerly holding a dove.

“Oh, has the great and powerful Queen Chrysalis never seen liquid love before?” The grin on Cadance’s face made it clear she was enjoying turning the tables on the antagonizing queen. Her smile only grew as she levitated the sphere of liquid until it was inches away from Chrysalis’s face. “Here, first shot’s on the house.”

Chrysalis eyed Cadance, but after a few moments she called on her own magic. The levitation spell around the red liquid changed from blue to green, and then Chrysalis cracked open her mouth. It sounded as if she was just breathing in through her mouth. Yet, slowly and surely, the liquid began to evaporate and flow into Chrysalis’s waiting maw.

To watch a changeling drain love was, in a way, like watching a pony yawn. A long, drawn out expression involving a wide open mouth. Chrysalis let her eyes slide shut, the corners of her mouth trying to form a smile despite her gaping maw. She seemed to lose track of the world for several seconds before she was forced to exhale. The stream of love ended, and Chrysalis rejoined reality while her tongue flicked against her lips, trying to catch any stray vapor.

“Well, somepony sure likes that liquid love I invented.”

Cadance’s words soured Chrysalis’s moment of jubilation. For a moment Celestia feared she would throw the love back, splashing it in Cadance’s face, but Chrysalis's magic held tightly to the liquid. It was like she was guarding some precious treasure. “How did you create this?” Chrysalis hissed.

“It was thanks to your drones,” Cadance said, her smile only growing as she began to explain. “They were bothering the patrons of the most romantic restaurant in the empire by standing on the other side of the street and staring at it with their mouths open. It was an awkward sight, but it gave me an excuse to ask them just how your kind feeds on love. After I learned that, I began to wonder if I couldn’t apply my special talent of spreading love to capture it as well. With some help from Twilight, I was able to construct the device on the roof over there.

“It is a magically charmed crystal that naturally absorbs the ambient love in the air and then condenses it into a liquid. The liquid then flows through a tube into the accompanying barrel. We’ve placed a dozen collectors adjacent to some of the most romantic areas of the empire, and just those dozen are managing to keep all the drones and warriors you sent well fed. In fact, we’re generating a surplus. I can send you home with a full barrel of liquid love if you’d like. Consider it an apology for kicking your boney flank out of Canterlot and making you miss the wedding reception.”

Celestia didn’t entirely approve of Cadance’s attitude. She was obviously trying to dig and poke at Chrysalis just as the changeling queen had been trying to get a rise out of them. Yet, at the same time, Celestia couldn't deny the pride swelling in her chest. Cadance had done her very best to ensure the changelings were well taken care of, and in the process, she may have provided a means for a peace that could extend past Sombra’s defeat.

“That would be... very kind of you.” The liquid love was beginning to boil inside Chrysalis’s magical grasp, but she didn’t throw it to the ground or in Cadance’s face. To Celestia, it was a sign that Chrysalis knew the importance of Cadance’s discovery, despite her own anger and frustration. “Still, perhaps we should discuss this later. We are, after all, here to inspect the front line.”

“Of course,” Shining said, wearing a smile like Cadance’s as he turned and motioned with one hoof. “Please, follow me and I’ll take you to the command post where you can ask your changelings just how much they love my wife’s liquid love.”

Chrysalis growled and sneered, but didn’t mutter a word as she followed behind Shining. Celestia and Cadance lingered a moment, watching the two pass. Celestia then put a hoof on Cadance’s shoulder, giving an approving nod before they too began walking towards the command post. Yes, there was still tension, but Celestia now had a hope of her own. Peace could last past the defeat of their mutual enemy, and like Discord, an old foe could be turned into a new ally.

~~~

“What does it taste like?”

A few more weeks of the stalemated war had passed. Sombra’s crystal dragon army had yet to penetrate the empire’s defensive barrier, yet the alliance was equally unsuccessful in locating Sombra’s lair. The northern mountains were treacherous, similar to the Everfree Forest in varying degrees. There were not as many monsters, if you didn’t count the crystal dragons, but the cold temperatures, frequent storms, and dangerous terrain made for an unforgiving landscape.

She and Chrysalis had sent troops into the mountains to try and scout out where all the crystal dragons were coming from, but Sombra was being smart. The dragons weren’t taking the same path through the mountains. Some, in fact, were just roving in packs, as if biding their time until they were given the command to attack. That or they were patrolling the mountains to defend against the possible incursion of a large equine army.

Thus it had become a waiting game, one where life in Equestria had to continue. Celestia had ruling to do, meetings to attend, but now there was a new oddity in her routine. She now crossed paths with Chrysalis on a regular basis. The changeling queen was only in Canterlot every few days, but she came to the capitol nonetheless to ensure the treaty was still being respected and to oversee the transfer of another shipment of liquid love.

That was what had made Celestia voice her question. The five words broke the silence between her and Chrysalis. She had been eating her own lunch when Chrysalis came in to sit and drink a glass of liquid love. That itself was another interesting development. While the liquid love was too potent to be drunk raw, the changelings realized they could dilute it with water. The diluted liquid resembled wine more than raspberry jam, and Chrysalis herself had taken to sipping the mixture from a long-stemmed glass.

“Come again?” Chrysalis asked, having been too lost in her own thoughts to hear Celestia’s rather unprovoked question.

“What does liquid love taste like? Does it taste different from when you consume love in a more traditional manner?”

Chrysalis took a long drink from the glass, as if needing to prepare herself for the trying task of having a pleasant conversation. She then set the glass down and turned in her seat to face Celestia properly. “It does taste different. When I consume love straight from the source, it has a very discernible flavor depending on what love the pony is feeling. I’m sure you can understand that there is a difference between loving a pet, loving a garden, and loving a husband.”

“And the liquid love?”

“It’s something of a mixture, a cocktail.” Chrysalis picked up her glass again, turning it slowly and watching as the liquid within swirled in reaction. “Because those condensers are gathering love from multiple sources, the flavors all blend together. Sometimes it tastes rather bland, little different from the water I’m mixing it with. But certain barrels from certain collectors have a more discernible flavor. The barrels marked with a number six taste mostly of the romantic love between couples. I found out from Cadance that collector number six is very near the restaurant where my changelings, as she said, were standing on the other side of the street with their mouths hanging open. That liquid love tastes of the gentle allure experienced when couples enjoy a candlelit dinner.”

Celestia nodded, honestly enjoying the conversation. Chrysalis wasn’t being condescending or passive-aggressive, and Celestia found the topic truly interesting. It was something she herself wouldn’t have considered in regards to the collectors, yet at the same time it made a great deal of sense. If she took a bunch of different foods she liked and just blended them all together, then all those flavors would intermingle and mix. With pony food the result would probably be gut-wrenchingly horrible, but with love the different flavors seemed at least modestly compatible.

Once more she was reminded of wine, and how very different flavors could be produced by changing what varieties and quantities of the grapes and the kind of barrels they were stored in.

“I wonder if it’s digestible by ponies?” Celestia mused as she watched Chrysalis take another sip, yet before the conversation could continue further, one of the halls windows burst apart. Something large and black had smashed through the glass, sending shards showering across the table. The black mass itself bounced once with a sickening crack. It then slid across the table, leaving a gruesome green smear against the polished wood before coming to a stop next to Chrysalis.

It was one of her warriors.

“My queen... the hive,” The changeling choked out, but even that much effort seemed to take the last of the changeling’s strength. He collapsed, body growing still though faint breathing motions continued in his chest.

“We need a doctor!” Celestia shouted, using magic to carry her words throughout the entire castle. Chrysalis, however, did not linger. She released the wine glass, and before it was able to fall to the floor, she was out the door. Celestia stayed just long enough for her guards to arrive, ensuring the warrior would not be left alone, before she ran out the door to pursue Chrysalis.

~~~

By the agreements in the treaty, Chrysalis had not been required to divulge the location of her central hive. When the first attack came, a branch hive in the north had been the target. It was what drove Chrysalis to agree to the treaty and alliance. It, however, had also driven her to paranoia, as far as Celestia could say. The location, layout, population, and defensive strength of the changeling’s center hive were all secrets that Chrysalis had taken great pains to keep. None of her changelings spoke a peep, and every time the topic was mentioned to the queen herself, she’d wave it off with a snide remark.

The layers of secrecy, however, had meant none could come to aid the changelings when the enemy stood at the gates.

She landed gingerly, if only to keep herself from falling from the sky. The air was acrid. It smelt of burning goo, an odor that had permeated Canterlot for a time while they had been recovering from the wedding day attack. But there were undertones of something else, the odors of death and disaster that Celestia could not ignore.

Celestia stood within clear view of Knight’s Peak, a well-known landmark visible on the horizon from the southernmost watchtower of Equestria. Looking like the proud knight of a chessboard, the natural rock formation was a silent guardian on the very edge of the kingdom. Smoke now rose from unseen holes in the mountain’s weather-worn eyes, and below its smoldering gaze, the dry, brown earth was stained green and littered with body both insectoid and crystalline. She would have never guessed this was where Chrysalis’s hive was located.

But Sombra had found out, and either by sea or spell, he had smuggled an army to the opposite side of Equestria.

Celestia took a few steps forward, daring to reach the crest of the hill she had landed on. She could see everything from there, and swallowed down the vomit that had tried to rise from her throat. Over a thousand years Equestria had not always been peaceful. At times, they had been forced to show the strength of their armies, preventing wars through the demonstration of might. But this... to call it a battle was only to offer some honor to the dead.

If Celestia spoke honestly, to herself and to the world, what she saw before her was a massacre.

The faintest movement drew Celestia’s attention from the still and silent horrors. At first she hoped it was some sign of life, of survivors, but there was no such mercy. The living soul amongst the dead was Chrysalis, running at full gallop towards Knight’s Peak. A large cavern had been exposed in the cliffside, one that had been previously hidden by a boulder that now lay split in twain.

Taking to her wings, Celestia followed without hesitation. She kept her eyes upon Knight’s Peak, using it to guide her flight without looking at the carnage that was passing swiftly below her. The smell of burning goo and bodies were growing more pungent the closer she got to the hive. She coughed, her lungs rebelling against the tainted air, but Celestia pressed on until she had landed at the hive’s entrance.

There were fewer bodies inside, but the source of the smells became apparent. The interior of the mountain had been a veritable city of changeling goo, and it now lay in ruin. It looked like burnt marshmallow with small patches of green oozing between the cracks in the blackened surface. The dragons had managed to breach the defenses and get inside.

“Chrysalis?” Celestia shouted into the tunnels, fading into the depths. She then turned her ears forward and listened, hoping to hear even the smallest noise in reply. The silence stood to face her, like an unrelenting demon, for several seconds before she heard something. It was distant, and she wasn’t able to discern precisely what the sound was, but she followed it all the same.

The princess began running scenarios in her head, trying to ensure she was prepared for anything she might encounter. If it was Chrysalis, she could ensure the changeling queen’s safety and then try to get her to return to Canterlot until her army could secure the area. If it was a group of survivors, then she would tend to the wounded and ensure they stayed safe. If it was some lingering crystal dragon, then she’d unleash all the fury she could muster. Though the beasts were powerful, a single one stood no chance against her.

Turns and twists led her through the tunnels of the hive. The architecture was unworldly, but despite the damage, Celestia found herself wishing she had been able to see the hive in its glory. Even charred, marred, and melted, the splendor remained. It was a mixture of the winding tunnels of an ant hill, the complex hexagonal structure of a beehive, and an underlying semblance to pony structures. There were doors and windows, benches and lampposts, homes and businesses. It had been a hive, but it had also been a sizable city.

It had been a home all the fallen changelings outside had fought to defend.

Celestia chased the sound for several minutes, eventually finding herself outside a pair of what had been ornate doors. Now, they looked little more than burnt toast, but they were her destination all the same. She was very close to the sound she had been chasing, a noise she was now sure originated from Chrysalis.

Had the queen perhaps fled to her throne room, hoping to find some changelings that had holed up in what was likely one of the hive’s most secure rooms? Had she been successful? The noise, at the moment, was still too muffled for Celestia to discern its nature.

The only way she’d be able to learn more about what lay beyond was if she opened the doors, so Celestia did just that. She applied her magic, pushing on the doors since she saw no visible hinges from the exterior. The righthoof door gave, opening silently despite its singed appearance. Celestia then peeked in, being cautious to ensure she herself wasn’t falling into some trap.

But there was no trap. There was only Chrysalis, sitting in the middle of a room that, at first blush, looked like any other burnt and barren room in the hive. But nuances in the architecture began to catch Celestia’s eyes. Large holes in the ground, filled with goo that was still burning and smoldering with subtle green flames. Walls choked with changeling pods, looking like cloudy, black pustules. But the size was all wrong. They were too small for regular ponies or changelings. For a moment, Celestia pondered why they were smaller, and why Chrysalis would be drawn to the room.

The realization hit hard, like the weight of the world collapsing on her, and Celestia couldn't stop the gasp that escaped her throat.

It was a nursery. In that way the changelings were very similar to ants or bees. Though she was not bound to her duty one hundred percent of the time, Chrysalis was the biological mother of the hive. And like a mother, not like a queen, when she saw the devastation she had rushed in to search for the youngest of her subjects, some of which may not have even been born.

Celestia felt a wave of guilt wash over her. This was a place in which she did not belong. This was a place she was not supposed to be. To be looking in at this moment was an intrusion. She took a step back, intending to close the door and to simply wait for Chrysalis at the hive’s entrance.

Chrysalis, however, had already noticed her presence.

With a hiss and a snarl, Chrysalis turned and launched a beam of magic at the doors. Celestia teleported herself, appearing at the far end of the conjoining corridor just in time to see the two doors fly off their hinges. Chrysalis stepped out a moment later, growling and snarling like a rabid wolf with a thirst for blood in her eyes. She turned to look at Celestia, her accusing glare laying every guilt and sin at Celestia’s hooves.

“It’s your fault!”

~~~

Celestia soared from the open tunnel of the hive, shooting through the air like a dart before banking hard. She turned herself all the way around, slowed her forward momentum, and eventually skidded to a stop on the dirt of the battle-stained plain. She looked back to the hive, coat dirty and a few feathers out of place on her wings. Chrysalis was not at the strength she had been at the wedding, but she was fighting like an uncaged beast.

Still, Celestia had maintained control of the fight. She had been hit only a few times, and so far she had not needed to attack Chrysalis back. It was a queen’s rage, a mother’s rage. She couldn’t blame Chrysalis for lashing out.

The queen appeared from the entrance to the hive. She looked exhausted, magically and mentally fatigued to the point she was little more than a walking zombie. Still, by force of will and rage, she was keeping herself on her hooves. Her horn popped and fizzled, trying to gather enough magic for another blast but failing. Still, she continued to march towards Celestia, baring her fangs with a low hiss.

She walked right up to Celestia, cursing and mumbling under her breath as she began to use her horn as a weapon. With twists and turns of her head, she jabbed at Celestia with her jagged horn. The movements were slow and sloppy. Celestia found no difficulty predicting where the horn would go next. Chrysalis tried to raise her forehooves to grab Celestia and hold her still, but the sun princess just pulled away.

With the failure of her grapple, Chrysalis collapsed to the ground. Her chest smacked against the dirt, eliciting a cough and a gasp from the queen. Then she lay still, as if wishing to be just another corpse on the battle-scarred landscape. Her breathing was the only thing that told Celestia she was still alive, and it was erratic. Deep breaths followed by stuttering short exhales.

The rage was gone now, leaving only sorrow behind.

Celestia could only stand and watch as the queen cried, letting the dirt muffle her voice and absorb her tears. Celestia had consoled many over the years. She had known friends who lost parents, friends who had lost children, and other friends who had lost true loves. Some bore the true misfortune of suffering all three pains of loss, but how did she console this? Would any words ease her pain if Canterlot were to fall in such a manner, or would any attempt at comfort only make things worse?

But why? Her mind began to spin to try and find some reason for the massacre. Sombra surely didn’t hold such a grudge against Chrysalis. Did he attack the changelings because they allied themselves with Equestria? She wouldn’t put it past the corrupted king to lash out at any and all that would aid the ponies he was trying to conquer. Did he attack here simply because it was an exposed target? How did he even locate the hive?

Could this have been avoided if Chrysalis had shared the hive’s location? Celestia tried to think what she would have done in the past if she had known the hive was isolated so far south. At the very least, if they had known, the guards at the nearby watchtower might have seen the smoke and been able to report the attack occurring magically. Maybe then they could have arrived in time to hold the line, to at least, perhaps, save the youngest lives that had been lost.

The princess had to catch herself. She knew such thoughts were pointless. There was no changing the past. She had battered herself with enough what-ifs when she had been forced to banish Luna. At the moment, her priority had to be getting Chrysalis back to Canterlot.

“We can’t stay here,” she tried to whisper with the gentlest tone she could manage.

Chrysalis rolled her head to the side, to free her mouth from the dirt, but she did not look at Celestia. She just stared into the distance, looking at the battlefield from the perspective of one of its victims. “Why bother? The hive is dead. I have failed as a queen.”

“What about the changelings in the north?”

“A thirtieth of the hive, at best, and I cannot take them from their post. That would break our little treaty.” She turned her head a little in the dirt, then spat on Celestia’s shoe. “This would not have happened if I had not agreed to help you.”

“Maybe not,” Celestia admitted. She took a seat, and made no effort to clean the green changeling spit from her right hoof shoe. “But I doubt Sombra would stop if he was able to conquer Equestria. Eventually, he would have come knocking at your door, bringing an even larger army than what attacked today.”

“Then at least I’d have my pride. If the old queen could see this... or my sister queens. All of them are turning in the grave.”

“I did not know you had sisters.”

“It is not a fact I like to advertise,” Chrysalis said, letting her tongue lash out at Celestia since her body could no longer manage it. “We are a hive. We are unified under a single queen, but I am not the first queen of the Newland Hive, of the hive that followed the ponies to this new land. How could we resist when you founded this happy-dappy little country of love and tolerance? You were laying out a buffet.”

Chrysalis struggled, trying to raise herself off the dirt. She managed to get into a sitting position, facing partially away from Celestia as she surveyed the battlefield from her new perspective. “But the windigoes were not kind to the hive. A changeling queen is just as immortal as you. A queen only dies by injury, illness, or by her own choosing. Age is never a changeling queen’s reaper. Yet sickness was the reaper of the old queen. She caught an illness in the windigoes’ blizzards before the hive could get further south. She lived just long enough to birth her successors, a royal clutch of twelve.

“Yes, I had eleven sisters, but there can only be one queen, Celestia. We changelings are not as touchy-feely as you ponies. I imagine that’s enough for you to figure out just what happened to my sisters.” Chrysalis turned her head, glaring down Celestia once more. “I didn’t have the luxury of banishing them to the moon to secure peace for my hive.”

Celestia wetted her lips, trying to find some words to say, but what could she say to that? Thankfully, Chrysalis seemed entirely uninterested. The queen stood, some of the strength returning to her legs as she stomped at the dirt and looked across her fallen warriors and drones. “I bet none of them would have let this happen. I bet any of them would have prevented this. They were bigger. They were stronger. The only reason I managed to seize the crown was because I was smarter. Well, I’m sure not the smart one now.”

Chrysalis’s rage was devolving back into sorrow. Though she kicked and stomped at the dirt, the tears she had previously hidden now flowed freely on her face for Celestia to see. “The hive is dead. My hive is dead, and they died while I was sipping love with your fat ass. That’s right, I called you a fat ass.” Chrysalis’s legs lost their strength again, her flank plopping to the ground. She was now facing Knight’s Peak, staring up at the towering, equine rock formation.

“I wish I had died with them.”

No further words escaped Chrysalis’s mouth. She sat in silence, letting the natural world fill the void where her words had been. Celestia watched and waited, trying to find words of her own. Finally, her mind began to grasp something, and though she was not sure how the kind act would be received, she began to approach Chrysalis all the same.

If Chrysalis heard her coming, she didn’t seem to care. She just remained seated, staring at broken remnants of her hive. The gap between them was only a dozen steps at best, but to Celestia, closing that distance felt like walking a mile. Eventually, she took a seat next to Chrysalis and, with slow caution, she draped a feathery wing across Chrysalis’s back.

The touch of feathers made the changeling queen go stiff. She turned and glared at Celestia, a hailstorm of rage building in her throat. “Don’t lie to yourself. You don’t care. You’re probably happy to see this. One less threat to your precious ponies. Get your wing off me. Get your wing off of me!”

Chrysalis tried to shrug the wing off her shoulders, but Celestia did not relent. She, in fact, tightened the embrace, as if trying to shield Chrysalis from the horrors that surrounded them. “I am never happy to see a mother lose her children,” Celestia said, her voice firm but kind. “I truly wish we could have prevented this, and you will need time to mourn. But do not wish for death. There are still changelings who need you. There is still a hive as long as you are alive and are willing to lead it. You can rebuild. Equestria will help you rebuild. With Cadance’s invention, a lasting peace is possible between our two races, and together we can work toward a brighter future for both our kinds.

“Mourn the loss, weep for your children, but do not give up.”

Chrysalis cursed under her breath, trying to resist but failing. Her body began to collapse into the comfort of Celestia’s wing, and she weeped into the princess’s shoulder. And Celestia let her. She sat and comforted Chrysalis for as long as she had tears to cry. And when they were gone, when she had cried herself out, they began a slow flight back to Canterlot.

Much needed to be done. Chrysalis would need a place to build a new hive, someplace within Equestria’s borders where it could be protected. Celestia would need to commission a memorial, and send ponies to tend to the dead. She did not know if changelings had burial rites, but she’d ask one of the drones in the north. They would need to be informed as well of what had occurred. They would likely want to rush to Chrysalis’s side, but doing that would leave the empire unprotected.

Perhaps Cadance and Shining could be convinced to let Chrysalis stay with them for a time. Surely they could bury the hatchet considering the circumstances.

~~~

The gentle tapping on the door made Chrysalis sit up from bed. The days had streamed together since the hive’s fall. Celestia had brought her to the Crystal Empire, and there she had stayed to recover. Her few remaining changelings came to mourn with and console their queen. Cadance and Shining enlisted the aid of a psychologist to help her through the grieving process. The gestures were all made with the best of intentions, but the thing she wanted most was solitude. Her changelings respected that. Cadance, Shining, and Dr. Five Steps didn’t seem to know how to take a hint. The tapping came again, and Chrysalis’s brow furrowed at little.

“Doctor, if you’ve come with more ink blots, I’ll shove them down your throat.”

The door cracked open, and a familiar yet unexpected voice flitted into the space. “I imagine that would be difficult for him to do since you threw him, and all his supplies, in a fountain yesterday.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes and lay down in bed, turning her back on her uninvited guest. “What, did Cadance tattle on me and ask the high and mighty sun princess to come straighten me out?”

“No, I had been planning to come visit for a few days now. It was only after I arrived that I heard about yesterday.” Celestia circled around to the far side of the bed, putting herself in Chrysalis’s field of vision. The queen just grumbled and flopped over on the bed, once more facing her back to the princess. “Cadance tells me you’ve been leaving the room on your own the past few days though.”

“To escape the quack,” Chrysalis said, still refusing to look at Celestia. “He’s almost as dense as you are. No, I don’t want to talk about how I feel. No, I don’t want to participate in hypnotherapy. No, I do not want to go outside for a meditation walk. No, I don’t want to sing a song about my childhood. No, Dr. Five Steps, I don’t need a psycho-babbling nanny.”

She finished her tirade, and for a few moments the room was all but silent. Then she heard, a subtle snickering. She sat up in the bed and glared down Celestia, who was trying to cover her mouth and mask her giggles. The fact the sun princess was trying to hide her bemusement irritated Chrysalis even more, making her snarl and bare her fangs. “What’s so funny?”

“I’m sorry. I am just happy to see you’ve regained some of your fire,” Celestia said, managing to contain her laughter but not her smile. “It actually makes what I’m about to say easier. I believe it is time you begin rebuilding your hive.”

Chrysalis's frown lost its fierceness, and her eyes drifted from Celestia and became distant. In her mind's eye, she could still see that battlefield. She could still see Knight’s Peak. “I... don’t think I’m ready to go back there.”

“I am not suggesting we rebuild where the old hive was,” Celestia said. She got a step closer to the bed, and extended a forehoof to the queen’s shoulder. “My ponies and I have been working on a little something in Canterlot the past several weeks. Why don’t you come back to the capital with me, and I can show you?”

Chrysalis glanced to her side, looking at Celestia in the periphery of her vision. “Only if the psycho-babbling nanny stays here.”

~~~

The royal chariot landed in Canterlot, and Chrysalis arched an eyebrow in reaction to where they had come to a stop. They did not arrive at the castle. Instead, the chariot had come to a stop a few blocks away from the castle’s main gate, in a building that looked to be under repair and renovation.

“What a dump,” Chrysalis said as she looked over the building. It was a story shorter than any building around it, and looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in decades. The stone comprising its walls were a rough, dirty gray. The whole building stood in stark contrast to the clean, smoothly hewn white stone of the neighboring structures. “Let me guess, it’s some national landmark.”

“In a manner of speaking,” Celestia said as she dismounted the chariot and then stepped to the side to allow Chrysalis to do the same. “It’s one of the oldest buildings in Canterlot, the first griffin embassy. You can tell by the architecture that the Griffin Empire was in the middle of a strong gothic period. It used to have some very lovely griffin gargoyles, but when the embassy moved to a new building the statues were sent back to the empire to be museum pieces.”

“So why didn’t you tear it down when the griffins moved out?”

“Because of a nasty little oversight in the original treaty the griffins saw fit to exploit,” Celestia said. “The treaty said ponies could not take griffin land, and it established the land the embassy was built on as sovereign territory of the Griffin Empire. Even after they abandoned the building, the griffins saw fit to maintain their claim to the land. For a few hundred years, it was illegal for anypony to go into that building without a passport.”

“You let them get away with that?” Chrysalis asked, craning her neck to try and see some hint of a joking expression on Celestia’s face. The sun princess was smiling, but it was not because the story was a joke. It was the smile of someone looking back on a previously annoying situation and seeing humor in hindsight.

Celestia opened the door to the embassy, stepping in and navigating her way through the restoration process. “I knew eventually the griffins would want something, and I’d be able to use this place as leverage in the negotiations. Still, by the time we were able to get the land back, the building was old enough to be declared a historic landmark. Thus, Equestria has been paying to keep it from falling down for the past two hundred years.”

“And this matters to me because...?” Chrysalis asked as she followed Celestia further into the building.

“Because of its very unique location,” Celestia opened another door, leading Chrysalis down a long set of stairs. It was a part of the building that looked like it had already been restored. There were no lights at the bottom, but Celestia lit her horn as the pair descended deeper. The warm, yellow light revealed a tall pair of wooden doors, the kind you’d expect to see protecting the exterior gate of a castle. Celestia came to a stop right in front of the massive door, a playful smile on her lips as she began to open them with her magic. “I believe you are familiar with the crystal caverns below Canterlot.”

The doors swung inward, revealing a stone corridor glistening with natural gems. The cavern walls and ceiling were still natural, rough and unshaped, but the ground had been smoothed, leveled, and covered with stone tiles. Chrysalis and Celestia’s hooves clicked and clacked against the stone, the sounds echoing into the depths of the tunnel beyond the light of Celestia’s horn.

“You may recall that Twilight visited only a few days after I sent you to the Crystal Empire to recover from the loss of your hive,” Celestia said. “She visited you, to ensure you were eating and getting proper rest, but I also had her speak to your surviving drones and warriors. We asked them what basic necessities a hive would need to function, architecturally speaking. They were more than happy to answer, and with that information I decided it was high time to give this old building a new purpose.”

Celestia came to a stop at a four-way intersection, and motioned in each direction as she spoke. “The above-ground building to the west is being retrofitted to become an entrance for the new hive. To the north are a half-dozen large chambers that you can renovate to suit your needs. To the south are a set of smaller, interlocking chambers that would be suitable for your private quarters. Your changelings told us that you used to have quite the manor in the old hive.

“Finally, to the east are the winding tunnels and massive caverns of the old crystal mines.” Celestia called on her magic, strengthening the beam of light coming from her horn to push back the darkness shrouding the longer tunnel. “You can’t expand into that area just yet. Some of the deeds and subterranean mining claims are still being sorted out. It’s amazing how tightly some ponies will cling to something they’ve never used or seen once they find out somepony else wants it.”

“Wait, you’re serious about all this?” Chrysalis asked, waving one of her forelegs around the air as if trying to motion to everything she had been just shown. “You're going to let me rebuild my hive below Canterlot, right below your precious pony hooves?”

“Yes,” Celestia answered plainly.

“What’s the catch?”

“There is no catch, Queen Chrysalis,” Celestia said, her words wrapped in warm, comforting tones. “This isn’t a trick, or a trap, or some secret plot. By the magical treaty we share, I couldn’t deceive you if I wanted to. I want changelings and ponies to be able to live in peace. It’s only by working together we’ve been able to hold off Sombra’s assault in the north. You are an ally, and after these few months, I’d like to also say you’ve become a friend. And when a friend suffers a terrible loss, it's important to help her mourn and recover. That is why I’m giving this place to you.”

“Laying it on a little thick, aren’t ya?” Chrysalis said, stepping away from and turning her back on Celestia. “I do suppose I’ve seen worse places to build a hive. There’s a lot of space to expand. Could probably get a lot of bits for some of these gems. The neighbors are a bit annoying, though. There’s this one fat ass that lives nearby. She’s an over-protective, goody-four-hooves, know-it-all, but she isn’t the most annoying creature I’ve ever built a hive near.”

Chrysalis glanced over her shoulder at Celestia, looking to the princess through the strands of her mane. “You know some of your ponies aren’t going to be too happy about this.”

“You let me worry about them.”

Chrysalis nodded, and then began to smile as she turned her attention back to the cavern. “Well, if you don’t have any other options, I can make do. I’ll need to pull a few of my changelings off the front line to help get things going here, but it shouldn’t take too long. Do you think we could put some of those love collectors of Cadance’s up around the capitol?”

Celestia stepped up beside Chrysalis, giving a knowing smile. “I’ve already asked Cadance to create a few for us to make use of.”

“Well, didn’t you think of every little thing?”

“I do try my best.”

Chrysalis gave a single, barking laugh before turning and heading into the south corridor. “Well, don’t get too full of yourself. All I’ve seen is this entrance tunnel. If you’re going to really sell me on this little piece of real estate, I need to see the rest of the rooms. Also, I do hope you remembered the indoor plumbing. I’m not about to found a hive someplace where I can’t have a half-decent bathroom.”

~~~

Celestia wore a stupid grin, as if every faculty of her normally deep and thoughtful mind had up and vanished. She lay on a couch, sprawled out while she rubbed her face against the silken cushions like a dog trying to settle into a bed. “I lllllooooovvvvveeee this couch.”

Chrysalis pulled the door shut she had cracked open just moments before, then looked to her left. Twilight Sparkle was standing there with a toothy, embarrassed, and partially pleading smile. Chrysalis herself was smiling a little, drinking up the situation. “So, tell me again how this happened?”

Twilight forced a laugh as she glanced at the door. “Well, Celestia and I were discussing the need to expand the front lines. Some of Sombra’s crystal dragons were seen near other cities in the north, and we were worrying about how we’d defend them considering your changelings are already spread so thin. We eventually decided to take a break to work on something else, and I suggested maybe making a few more love collectors together. After that, one thing sort of led to another, and Celestia decided to try some of the liquid love. Then she... started acting all... lovely... like that.”

“And that’s when you high-tailed it to come get me. I thought you were Celestia’s number-one problem solver.” Chrysalis made a little pout with her lips and used her magic to pinch Twilight’s cheek.

Twilight squirmed away, freeing herself like a niece from an overbearing aunt. “Well, I’m sure I’d be able to handle it, but this is so up your alley, and I really need to be getting back to Ponyville.”

“Let me guess, she tried to kiss you, didn’t she?”

Twilight blushed red as a beet, then violently shook her head. “No no, nothing... nothing like that. Nothing like that at all happened. Still, whoa, would you look at the time? I’ve got a whole section of books that need to be reorganized for the second time this month.” Her words became more hurried, as if sputtering them out faster would let her escape. “I’d better get going. Have fun. I’m sure it will wear off quickly. I mean, it’s not like love is the strongest force in the universe and about the only thing I’ve ever seen that’s capable of getting Celestia drunk. Just... I’m-going-to-tell-Luna-to-take-care-of-the-sun-tonight, andthatCelestiacangrabthedawntomorrowmorning!”

Forcing her smile to widen to the point that it was about to leap from her face, Twilight took a single step away from Chrysalis. “So... goodnight!” Like her words had been the tweet of a whistle, Twilight spun around and sprinted down the hallway, leaving Chrysalis to snicker to herself before turning her attention back to the door.

“Oh, you ponies, you’re all just a little too innocent, but that’s what makes you so cute.” Chrysalis cast her magic on the door, opening them wide to see Celestia laying on her back, squirming into the soft cushions of the couch of her private study. “Good evening, fat ass.”

“Chrysalis! Have you sat on this couch before? It’s soooooo soft.” Celestia flipped onto her belly, rubbing her chin against the silken cushions. “I lllloooovvveee this couch, Chrysalis! And I just... I llloovveee this room! It’s got so many books, and I just llllooovvveee books! Twilight loves books too, did you know that?”

Chrysalis was struggling with all her might not to burst out laughing. Her cheeks puffed and her eyes watered, but she kept it in. “No, I—” She snorted. It felt like a laugh was trying to escape her nose. “No, I didn’t know that.”

“Oh, it’s true.” Celestia attempted to roll over on the couch again, but only succeeded in falling off. She landed on the floor with a thud, but the new situation seemed to please her just as much as the previous. She began to rub and scoot along the floor, a smitten look on her face and a warm blush on her cheeks. “Oh, I love this floor too. It’s so smooth and cool, and I just love the color.”

Celestia scooted up to Chrysalis before finally having the sense of mind to pull herself up off the floor. Still, she stood on her own four hooves for just a moment before leaning forward and almost collapsing against Chrysalis. “And I llllooovvveee you too! You’re my crazy friend.”

Chrysalis was cataloging every moment and detail. It would be sweet, sweet blackmail against the sun princess. Not for any monetary gain, but just to get her flustered when she was being too much of a stick in the mud. “Your crazy friend? Really?”

Celestia nodded her head firmly, not even realizing she was but inches away from impaling Chrysalis’s eye on her horn’s tip. “Oh yes. Everypony else is so... bleh around me. Yes, Princess Celestia. Of course, Princess Celestia. More tea, Princess Celestia? You have to sign these papers, Princess Celestia. No more cake, Princess Celestia. But you... you just call me Celestia and I... I lovingly respect you for that.”

“This is priceless.” Chrysalis made no effort to hold back her laughter now. She was openly snickering, chuckling, and grinning as Celestia stumbled back, landed in another chair, and nearly knocked it over with her momentum.

“Isn’t it though? Friendship is priceless, and I llloovvveee friendship. And I love my friends... and I love everything about them. I mean look at you. I’d kill to be that thin. And you have those... pretty wings and... all those adorable little holes.” Celestia’s voice went up an octave while she lifted a forehoof and made little circles in the air. “They’re just so cute and tiny and all over your hooves. I could just gobble them up like swiss cheese.”

Chrysalis lifted a hoof and held her ribs, which were growing sore from laughing so much. She coughed, laughed, and then used some magic to wipe a tear from her eye before managing to calm herself down. “Okay, I think I’ve got more than enough to hold over your head for the next few centuries. Come here, Celestia. Let me take that excess love.”

Celestia stumbled out of the seat, and fell into Chrysalis as a giggle escaped her throat. She then looked up at Chrysalis, the pair locking eyes for a moment. Celestia’s whimsy seemed to disappear for a moment, and her stare grew intense. “And... you know what... I love your eyes. They’re such a lovely color.”

“Sure,” Chrysalis said as she cracked open her mouth a little. Vapors of love began to seep off Celestia, a slow bleed of the excess energy.

“No, I mean it. You’re... very pretty, and I’m sorry that we ever had to be enemies. Sure, you were trying to take over and rule Equestria, but at least on some level, you were just trying to take care of your hive. You and me, we’re more than just a princess and a queen. You’re a mother, and I’m a teacher. You can look like anyone you want to, and I can move the sun. We’re a pair of pretty amazing mares and... and...”

Celestia blinked a few times, and took a step back. The warm blush on her cheeks was beginning to fade. The blissful smile on her face was slowly fading into a concerned frown, and her eyebrows furrowed like she was struggling against a headache.

“That should take care of that,” Chrysalis said as a few final wisps of vapor slipped into her mouth. “So, do you want me to wait until tomorrow to laugh and ridicule you, or do you want to get it out of the way now?”

“T-tomorrow,” Celestia said, blushing a little as her mind began to properly recollect all that had just happened. She began striding towards the door, trying to outrun the blush of embarrassment growing on her cheeks. For a moment, Chrysalis was content to let her escape, but as she heard the doors open she couldn’t help turn her head and shout over her shoulder.

“By the way, I love that couch too.”

Celestia slipped out the door and snapped it shut behind her, causing Chrysalis to laugh to herself for a few moments longer. She then looked to the one table in the room, seeing the mostly empty glass of liquid love. It seemed Celestia had forgotten to dilute the mixture. Even she, a changeling queen, would struggle not to be affected by such a high concentration of love. Still, with a smile Chrysalis picked up the glass and quickly drank down the last little sip it contained.

The taste was noticeably different, and for a moment Chrysalis was caught off guard. The liquid love tasted of restaurant romance, but what she had just drunk from Celestia was love for another creature. It wasn’t true love, like Shining and Cadance shared, but it was a kind of kinship, something that could grow into a more powerful love. It was also love of a certain orientation. It was a very interesting and unexpected flavor.

“My, my, my, Celestia,” Chrysalis said, musing to herself as she set the glass back on the table and turned to leave. “I guess that would explain why Equestria’s only eligible bachelorette princess for a thousand years of lonely ruling never found herself a prince. Well, I can’t really blame you either. I don’t have a high opinion of the opposite sex. The only changeling ‘stallion’ I ever dated was from some hive across the ocean. He knocked me up like a bee queen and then went flying off into the sunset. I won’t deny, it’s what my species does, but he could have least stayed for breakfast.”

~~~

“I think I know why the dragon attacks have grown more infrequent,” Twilight said. She, Celestia, Luna, Cadance, and Chrysalis sat in the private sanctity of the Canterlot war room. “Over the past several months King Sombra’s been trying to wear down the Crystal Empire. I believe his desire was to take the city without causing a lot of collateral damage. The distinct lack of crystal dragon attacks in the past week, however, makes me believe his patience has run out. I believe we’ll be facing a major, full scale invasion of the Crystal Empire within the next few days.”

“How certain are you of this?” Celestia asked.

“Very certain, Your Highness,” Twilight said as she spread her numerous calculations, formula, and predictions across the table. “But, I have good news too. I think I know how to find King Sombra, and it may very well be the same reason he attacked Queen Chrysalis’s hive.”

Twilight called on her magic, forming figures in the air that began to resemble mountains. In those mountains she made a picture of Sombra, a dragon, and a gold-filled cave appear. “King Sombra possessed a dragoness, that much we know for certain. However, even if the dragoness’s horde was over eighty percent enchanted items, that stockpile of magic should have run out a week ago. That means King Sombra has found some other means of fueling his army, and I believe that fuel is love. As Queen Chrysalis can attest, significantly powerful love is a near limitless resource. Also, if the lore and legends I’ve been reading are true, the crystal heart was carved from a very rare kind of gemstone located in the northern mountains.”

“I think King Sombra has found a vein of that gemstone, and corrupted it to some degree with his dark magic. I believe the gem is acting as some sort of magical converter. If that’s true, he could be mentally manipulating the dragoness to feel love. The love is then absorbed by the gem, where it is converted into a form of magic King Sombra can more readily use.”

“That seems quite far-fetched, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said. “Do you have any proof to substantiate your theory?”

“I’m very glad you asked,” Twilight said. She levitated a box out from beneath the table, and quickly unpacked its contents. In the center of the table she set out one of Cadance’s ambient love collectors. Then, surrounding it, Twilight placed several large piles of shattered crystal shards from one of king Sombra’s dragons. “Now, watch what happens when I grind down these shards.”

Twilight manifested a rolling pin in her magic and began to run it across the table. The grinding of the crystals was hard on the ears, but Twilight persisted until she had crushed most of the gems into a fine powder. Then, she lifted up Cadance’s love collector, and with a careful touch of magic, withdrew a single drop of liquid from within its crystalline structure.

“This collector was perfectly clean before I brought it into this room. I triple checked it,” Twilight said before focusing her eyes on the drop of liquid. “This bit of liquid love came from these crystal dragon shards, meaning they were animated by either love magic or something derived from love. This is my evidence, and this is why I think King Sombra wanted to get Queen Chrysalis and her hive out of the equation.

“Changelings can sense love, and I imagine Queen Chrysalis can sense it over a very wide area. If King Sombra is in fact using love to fuel his army, then Queen Chrysalis can lead us straight to his lair.”

“And if you’re wrong?” Chrysalis asked, the doubt heavy in her voice.

“Then you, me, and my friends fly around the mountains for a while, get cold, don’t find anything, and then go back to the Crystal Empire for hot chocolate,” Twilight answered before looking to Celestia. “I can’t say for certain I’m right, but if I am, we could catch Sombra off guard. If we wait until we’ve confirmed that he's committed most of his dragons against the Crystal Empire, then my friends and I can sneak into his lair and hit him with our rainbow power. Without him, the crystal dragons will either break apart or, at the very least, will be incapable of coordinating their attacks.”

~~~

“I’m surprised you don’t wear armor more often. It hides your fat ass.”

Celestia turned her head, watching as Chrysalis came up beside her before returning her gaze to the horizon. The both of them were garbed in heavy armor. Celestia’s was golden, like the shining summer sun. Chrysalis’s was green, a rare kind of hardened goo made by her changelings for the battle to come. And there was a battle coming. It loomed over them like a rumbling thunder storm.

Twilight’s theory had been correct. They had located Sombra’s lair in the mountains by the aura of love surrounding it. Unfortunately, the rest of her theory had been proven true as well. He had been amassing his forces for a single assault, one that could wipe the empire off the map. Twilight and her friends had to wait until that army had begun to march against the empire before they could try to sneak in to defeat Sombra.

In fact, for the best possible chance of success, they had to wait for the siege to begin. They had to be sure Sombra’s forces were committed to assault the Crystal Empire before going in to confront the dark crystal king, or the army could fall back to defend its master.

The army in question was visible from the high balcony of the Crystal Palace. It was beautiful, despite the deadly danger it represented. Hundreds of crystalline dragons, each about the size of a horse, moved like a shimmering sea across the landscape. They’d crash against the empire’s shield like the wave against the shore, and it was up to Celestia, Chrysalis, Luna, Cadance, Shining, and their loyal armies to hold the line until Twilight and her friends could defeat Sombra.

“The way you’re always bringing up my flank, Chrysalis, would make some think you’ve got some sort of obsession with it. Is there something you’re not telling me?”

“I don’t know. Do I need to mention a particular night involving liquid love and a couch?”

A faint smile grew on Celestia’s lips, the first to reside on her face that whole day. “You’re never going to let me live that down, are you?”

“Never,” Chrysalis said with a smile of her own. Still, as both of them looked to the horizon, the fleeting joy was replaced with cold reality. “I wonder if this is what my changelings felt like when Sombra’s forces were bearing down on Knight’s Peak.”

“I wouldn’t be able to say for sure, but I do know this. Today, Sombra’s the one that will taste defeat.” Celestia lifted a forehoof, placing it on Chrysalis’s shoulder. “Today, we avenge all of your fallen changelings. Those six will defeat King Sombra. All we have to do is buy them the time they need.”

Chrysalis nodded, rolling her shoulders and ensuring her own armor rested comfortably on her narrow frame. “Just try to keep up. I don’t want a posh pony princess slowing me down.”

“You say that now, Chrysalis, but prepare yourself,” Celestia said, her horn glowing as she felt an old fire flicker to life in her heart. “I imagine that by the end of today, I’ll have changed your tune.”

~~~

The hexagonal barrier, formed in cooperation between changelings and ponies, held valiantly against the charge of the crystal dragons. Yet, the dragons’ force was unrelenting. They began to find weak points in the barrier, and they exploited them. Hexagonal panels began to fail, and before the holes could be covered, some dragons would swarm in. The armies of Equestria met these dragons head on, smashing them to dust. But each dragon did not fall easily. Many ponies were injured, sliced by sharp claws or crushed under the beasts’ horrible weight. Those injured were rushed to the medical tents, far from the front.

Not all would live to feel the healing magic of the medics.

Yet morale never faltered, for flying amongst the pegasi above were the beacons of leadership the ponies of the armed forces had sworn their allegiance too. Celestia and Luna fought with strength spoken of only in legend. With blasts from their horns they sent dozens of crystalline dragons crumbling to dust. They alone held back many of the beasts that managed to get within the barrier, leaving only a few stragglers for their armies to clean up.

Cadance and Shining waited in reserve, watching the battle unfold from the Crystal Palace. Their unified barrier spell would be the army’s means of retreat, should the tides of war turn too greatly against them. And Chrysalis, she and her changelings worked tirelessly to repair the breaches in the outer shield. She would use her own impressive magic to force back any dragons trying to cross a breach, and then hold them at bay while her changelings and some of Celestia’s unicorns repaired the damage.

The delegations of duties led to the battle leaning in their favor. The full force of the crystal dragon army was never able to penetrate the barrier, allowing the allied forces to fight them off dragon by dragon. It was a long, slow, drawn out way to win the day, but it would ensure many of Equestria’s finest would live to return to the warm embraces of their families and friends.

That was, until, the tactics of the dragons began to change.

Chrysalis had just finished patching a hole in the barrier when she saw it. One crystal dragon, a few rows back from the very front of the offensive line, stood up on its hind legs. The jeweled beasts had no eyes, no facial features, yet this one dragon had a green and purple haze flowing from its head. That one dragon was staring at Chrysalis. She could feel its gaze even though it had no eyes. That one dragon had a murderous intent ten times any of its fellows, and every drop of that aggression was focused on her.

Yet that one dragon did not simply lash out at the barrier. No, it reached out for its brethren, grabbing hold of two other jeweled beasts. From that contact a chain reaction began to occur. The other dragons were absorbed, becoming the first of many as the one unique creature grew larger. It consumed a dozen of its brethren, becoming as large as a true adult dragon. It then reared its head back and roared, a sound that shook the ground and the hearts of the army.

With one slash of its claws, a gaping hole was ripped in the defensive barrier. A single step, and it had crossed the front line. Chrysalis lashed out at it, trying to use a magical blast to force the dragon back through the barrier. The beast, however, was unfazed. It reached out for her, blocking her magical blast with the palm of its claw before snatching her up like some foal’s toy.

Chrysalis shouted and struggled, fighting with all her strength against the grip of the crystal dragon. She was carried up, higher and higher until the beast was holding her in front of its face. She then saw something forming in the crsytaline reflection, the familiar visage of a black coated stallion.

“You die now, changeling,” Sombra said, his voice and will projected through the colossus of crystal. The dragon then began to squeeze, and Chrysalis screamed. The air was leaving her lungs. Her body was beginning to fail. She was moments away from being crushed like some bug beneath a hoof.

Yet, before the final crunch, a brilliant light filled the air, and the giant dragon’s grip loosened. Chrysalis felt herself falling, and in a moment she realized why. Celestia and Luna had come to her aid. Celestia, with the unbridled strength of the sun, had sliced the colossus’s claw clean off. Luna had then come in, swooping behind her sister to catch the falling Chrysalis and return her safely to the ground.

“Are you injured?” Luna asked once the pair had landed.

“N-no...” Chrysalis said, coughing as she struggled to speak through her gasping breaths. “I’ll... be okay. Just hurry and help—”

The pair of them heard the smack, a painful sort of sound like someone belly flopping off the highest diving board in Equestria. The truth, however, was far more terrible. In her efforts to distract the colossus, Celestia had been struck. Like a fly swatted from the air, the dragon’s remaining claw had struck her broadside. Luna and Chrysalis looked just in time to see a white form tumbling towards the Crystal Empire, where it crashed into the side of a building before falling to some unknown street.

“Celestia!” Luna screamed, her wings spreading as she prepared to take off. But Chrysalis stopped her, shaking her head firmly.

“You have to keep that thing from getting any further inside, or this battle is lost,” Chrysalis said, pointing a hoof at the now unopposed colossus. “I don’t have the strength to hold it off. You do. I’ll go find Celestia. You need to stay here.”

Luna was livid. She growled and bared her teeth, but she did not protest. She turned to face the giant crystal dragon, body trembling with anger before she launched herself into the air. The battle cry she unleashed was like lightning cutting the air, and the following blast of magic sent the colossus stumbling back.

It was a sight that rallied the army, bringing back the morale that had been lost when their sun princess fell. Yet, it was a sight Chrysalis did not see. She had turned her back on the battle, flying with all the speed she could muster towards the empire.

~~~

Chrysalis found Celestia in a dark alley. Her fall had been broken just barely by a pile of trash. Her white coat was marred with filth and blood. One of her wings was bent at a sickening angle, a sign of the shattered bone within. Worse of all, she was not moving. Even as Chrysalis descended to the ground below, Celestia neither stirred nor spoke. She lay, still as the dead.

“Come on, fat ass, if you die because of this I’ll never respect you again,” Chrysalis said, cursing as she used her failing magic to levitate Celestia out of the garbage. She laid her down in a clear part of the alley, putting her on her left side so there wasn’t any weight on her broken right wing. Instinctually, Chrysalis put her ear to Celestia’s chest and listened. It was faint, distant, and weak, but she detected a telltale sound of clinging life.

“Heartbeat, but no breathing. Okay, just got to get her breathing,” Chrysalis said to herself, trying to call on her horn but feeling her magic falter. She was spent. The last reserve of her love-fueled magic had been used freeing Celestia from the garbage. Still, Chrysalis did not linger nor panic. She had lived a hundred lives as a hundred ponies, and one of them had been as a non-magical nurse at a hospital.

She positioned herself quickly, remembering the simple procedure for rescue breathing: a simplified variation of CPR for when the heart was still beating. The first step was to position the victim. She rolled Celestia just slightly, ensuring the sun princess was on her back despite her injured wing. The second step was to position the head and plug the nose. Third, provide the victim with two regular breaths, blowing enough air into their lungs to see their chest rise.

Chrysalis drew in a deep breath of her own then sealed her mouth around Celestia’s. One breath, exhaled into Celestia’s body until her chest rose. Chrysalis then repeated the breath once more, forcing just a little bit more air into Celestia’s lungs. At this point, if Celestia’s heart had stopped, Chrysalis would have switched over to chest compressions. A quick check, however, confirmed Celestia’s heart was still beating, though the rhythm was still very weak.

“Come on,” Chrysalis said before bending down and forcing in a third breath. “Come on.” Another breath, another check of Celestia’s heart. It may have been Chrysalis’s paranoia, but it sounded like the heartbeat was getting weaker, more distant. She cursed and gave another rescue breath. Again and again and again she breathed for the sun princess, trying to keep her from dying in the alley.

“Come on!” Chrysalis bent down again, her anger starting to make her movements sloppy. She sealed her mouth around Celestia’s, but this time her fangs closed tighter than she intended. The sharp teeth pierced the skin of Celestia’s nose, and with a sudden spurt the sun princess opened her eyes and began to cough.

Chrysalis quickly turned Celestia’s head to one side to ensure that anything she coughed or threw up would not find it’s way back into her lungs. Still, through her own ragged breathing Chrysalis smiled. “Really? The thing that woke your fat ass up was because I bit your nose.”

Celestia coughed a few more times before managing to open her eyes and acknowledge Chrysalis’s presence and words. “Well... I have a very... sensitive nose.”

Chrysalis wanted to be angry, wanted to shout at that horrible attempt at humor. She couldn’t, though, because she was laughing. It started small, but her giggles grew quickly to loud, long laughs at the utter stupidity of what had just been said. Celestia was trying to laugh too, though her chuckles soon devolved into groans of pain as the injuries across her body began to make themselves known.

Still, as Celestia laughed through the pain and Chrysalis just laughed, a bright light cut through the sky. Chrysalis turned her head skyward, seeing a rainbow twisting and turning amidst the borealis of the Crystal Heart before diving down to earth like a vengeful comet. The earth shook, and then there was peace and stillness.

Chrysalis could only shake her head as she continued to look up at the sky. “You six couldn’t have done that five minutes earlier?”

~~~

“It’s a lovely party.”

The changeling queen smiled as Celestia strode up to her. The war had been over for a week now, and to celebrate Chrysalis had thrown a celebration at her hive. It was a chance for her to welcome home the warriors and drones who had been in the Crystal Empire for so long, and it also allowed her a chance to make a good peacetime impression with the ponies of Equestria.

Celestia had been right, now felt like the time for changelings and ponies to live together in harmony.

“Well, I have to thank you for convincing Twilight and her friends to assist. I don’t know if I would have been able to pull it together so nicely by myself,” Chrysalis said as Celestia joined her near the steps to the newly opened changeling embassy. The party had started just in the embassy lawn, but over the course of the evening the festivities had spilled into the street, becoming something just short of a block party.

“Well, they do good work, whether it's stopping evil villains or assisting with a wedding.”

Chrysalis chuckled at Celestia’s attempted jab. “I seem to recall a day they managed to do both at nearly the same time.”

“Ah, she wasn’t really much of a villain,” Celestia said with a shrug. “She was more an overworked mother with too many mouths to feed.”

“Overworked, underpaid, and sore all over,” Chrysalis said before swigging back the last of her drink, water with a double shot of liquid love. “The joys of being royalty.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Celestia said before tipping back a beverage of her own, a fruity number that may have had just a bit of liquid love as well. “Still, it is a nice party.”

Chrysalis nodded as she turned and took a step towards the doors of the embassy. “Yeah, but I’m kind of partied out. Hey, follow me for a second. I’ve got something to show you.”

Though she hesitated for just a moment, Celestia did fall in line behind Chrysalis. The pair entered the embassy, passed two changelings standing guard, and began to descend into the hive proper. It was almost a reverse of the first day Chrysalis saw the place that was to be her new home. She was in the lead now, taking Celestia to see something the princess would never expect.

They got to the hive’s main corridor, reached the first intersection, and then headed north. They passed a few of the larger chambers, which Chrysalis’s changelings had filled with pods and hexagonal cells for her changelings to sleep in. It still wasn’t quite home, but they’d be able to build more accommodating apartments once they could start expanding into the rest of the crystal mines. Before the final battle had broken out, Celestia had said she was only one deed away from being able to turn ownership of the entire mine and cavern system to the changelings.

“Where are we going, Chrysalis?” Celestia asked.

“Just to the last chamber on the right,” Chrysalis answered, the pair needing to take only a few dozen more strides to reach their destination. Chrysalis opened the doors ahead of them, then let Celestia head in first before following a few steps behind.

The room was a sight to behold. The walls of the relatively small space were lined with changeling goo. Dozens of small changelings pods dotted the surface of the walls like the sprinkles on frosting, and in the floor were a few large vats of warm, liquid goo. It was a layout Celestia had seen, and as her mind recognized the shape she looked back at Chrysalis, an awestruck smile spreading onto her face.

“Chrysalis, is this what it looks like?”

“It is,” she answered as she came up beside Celestia and looked across the room. “It’s the first brood of the new hive: about two dozen new changelings. This is maybe the one part of our lives where we’re a lot like ponies. We don’t have a larval stage like some would have you believe. The cocoons are our wombs, and we grow a little faster, but when a changeling comes out it’s just about the same size and weight of a pony foal. I’d say it’s a lot cuter too, but then I might be biased.”

Celestia turned and pulled Chrysalis into a hug. The abrupt embrace made some of the sore spots on Chrysalis’s body flare with pain, but she ignored the sharp stabs and hugged Celestia in return. “I’m so happy for you,” Celestia finally said when the two separated.

“Well, I don’t think they or I’d be here without you. Without this little alliance, I’d have probably been wiped out with the old hive, and I don’t think either one of us want to imagine what would have happened to Equestria.” Chrysalis smiled as she looked over the pods of her unborn changelings. “I’m really glad I came to the negotiation table that day.”

“As am I,” Celestia said, her lips wearing a warm smile similar to Chrysalis’s. “I still can’t stand Discord sometimes, even if he is reformed, but in you I feel like I’ve found a real friend.”

“Yes, but... how’d you like something a little more?” Chrysalis asked, her smile getting just a little sinister.

Celestia blinked once then tilted her head a little to one side. “What do you mean?”

“Well, let me be honest, Celestia. When you got yourself drunk on love, I had to siphon off the excess. That let me get a good taste of just what kind of love rolls around in that pretty head of yours. To put it another way, I don’t think the liquid love was the only thing talking when you were complimenting me on my eyes.”

“Now, Chrysalis, I was... I had no idea—” Celestia tried to say, only to be cut off when Chrysalis placed a hoof against her lips.

“Yes, I think you are attracted to a particular kind of figure, and I’m honestly impressed you’ve kept your preferences hidden for so long. I would have thought somepony in your precious little kingdom would have realized their dear Princess Celestia prefers mares over stallions, but then again you don’t let your little ponies get that intimate with you. Maybe you’re just scared of it, or maybe it’s a lesson you learned once. In any case, we both know that when an immortal loves a mortal, the pain of loss is almost entirely unavoidable. That alone makes me wonder how long it has been since you’ve been held by a lover. In fact, tell me, Celestia, are you virgin?”

Celestia’s face was beginning to turn a bright red. She was being read like an open book and couldn’t do anything to stop it. Still, Chrysalis continued, her smile only growing as she continued to look Celestia dead in the eye.

“Now, as a changeling, I don’t put a lot of stock in appearance. What attracts me to anybody is the taste of their love and their lips. Now Celestia, I’ve gotten a sample of both from you. I drank of your love that one night, and though it was to save your life, I also got a taste of your lips last week.

“So, allow me to be perfectly forward,” Chrysalis said, closing the gap between her and Celestia till their faces were just a breath apart. “Right now, of the immortal mares in Equestria, one is your sister, one is your niece, one is your student, and then there’s me. I can’t say if anything between us will be more than a passing interest. For all I know, we’ll start driving each other crazy again within a week.

“But I do know this, Celestia.” Chrysalis leaned in even closer, bringing her mouth to the princess’s ear to whisper gently. “When you weren’t breathing, that was the first time I truly feared for something that wasn’t myself or my hive. You’ve left your mark on me, and because of you, my hive and I have a brighter future than we’ve ever had before. Call it selfish, but I think you’re good for me, Celestia, and I want more. That leaves just one question. Are you interested?”

Chrysalis leaned back out, her smile widening a little at the dumbfounded look on Celestia’s face. It had probably been centuries since anypony had dared speak with such forwardness to the princess. Still, the blush on Celestia’s cheeks deepened, and though she tried, she could not look away from Chrysalis. She licked her lips a few times, swallowed once, then licked her lips again. It was the longest Chrysalis had ever seen Celestia struck silent.

“W-what about my fat ass?” Celestia asked, though her blush only deepened at the flimsy attempt to cut through tension.

“Yes, it is fat, but I never said I didn’t like that,” Chrysalis said as she leaned back in into her personal space.

“I—“ Celestia cleared her throat, trying to regain her composure while, at the same time, not making any attempt to step away from Chrysalis. “I do enjoy your company, and I cannot deny that you have certain traits I do find attractive. I just... would you really want to attempt a more intimate relationship?”

“One thing I know as a changeling, Celestia, is sometimes the only way to know is to take the plunge.” With that Chrysalis closed the last distance between the pair, pressing her lips against Celestia’s. She could taste those lips once more, this time clean and without the oppressing cloud of battle distracting her from the taste. Perhaps it was a lip balm, or something more natural, but the sweet smells and flavors of a fresh summer day assaulted Chrysalis’s senses as the pair locked lips.

They kissed for a few moments before separating, and this time even Celestia was smiling. “Well, I do believe we have an understanding,” Celestia said, finally managing to break eye contact with Chrysalis.

The turn of phrase drew a memory out of the depths of Chrysalis’s mind, causing her to chuckle. “You’re not going to make me sign a treaty now, are you?”

Celestia couldn’t help but snicker before looking back at the queen. “Well, only if you stop calling me fat ass.”

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The End

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Author's Note

If you notice any typos, please send them along to me in a private message. I usually fix them as promptly as I can.