The Love Bugs Have Returned
“Sister! Sister, wake up!” Celestia shouted with little care to volume, busting through the doors of Luna’s sleeping quarters.
Somewhere behind the dark blue curtains of a four-poster bed, a disgruntled alicorn grunted. “Nngh… Celestia?” Luna popped her head out through a part in the drapes. She peered through the dark of the room with bleary sapphire eyes, stumbling to prop her tiara on her head. “What is the matter?”
“We have an emergency.” Celestia lit her horn, throwing open the curtains to two opposing windows in the room.
“Guh, wha— T-Tia!” Luna attempted to shield her eyes from the blinding sunlight with her fetlocks, only to slide off her bed muzzle-first and onto the floor. “OW!”
“I’m sorry, sister,” Celestia said, trotting back for the hallway. “But we must hurry! Chrysalis has returned!”
Luna groaned as she stumbled to her hooves. “But how is that possible? I thought that she was—”
“There’s no time to explain! Come, we must hurry to Ponyville!”
Luna shook her head in a feeble attempt to clear some of the sleep still lingering – or at least see if this was just some weird dream. “Chrysalis is… in Ponyville?”
“Yes,” Celestia confirmed. “I received a letter from Spike only moments ago. The unicorn guard have been put on high alert around Canterlot, and I’ve already sent a messenger to the Crystal Empire for Cadance and Shining Armor to do the same. Now we must deal with the issue at hoof.”
Luna stepped into her slippers and looked at her sister with a furrowed brow. “And what, pray tell, is that?”
__________
“Sister, are you certain that such a spell can be cast by the likes of a changeling?” Luna asked as she, Celestia, and an army of royal guard pegasi flew toward the outskirts of Ponyville beneath the afternoon sun.
“I believe so. At least by a hive queen.” Turning her attention to the large crystal castle glistening on the border of the small town, Celestia fanned her wings out, allowing her body to glide into a slow descent.
Within moments, the Canterlot armada was at the front steps of Twilight’s castle. Several pegasi broke off into groups of roughly a dozen, surrounding the castle on the ground and in the air. Ranking officers shouted various orders to their subordinates in preparation for the worst, leaving the Princesses alone at the castle’s stoop to make the first move.
The two regents of Equestria gave each other an uncertain glance. Drawing a steeling breath together, they faced the tall double doors head on, each wrapping a door in a field of magic to pull open.
“Chrysalis!” the sisters shouted simultaneously.
The Queen of the Changelings strode onto the stoop with a clack of hollow hooves against crystal, her head held high with a haughty grin. Harlequin irises glowed with venomous strength around slit pupils, pulling tight beneath the sunlight to behold her foes. “Indeed, it is I. It would appear that news travels far and fast on your side of the world, Princesses.”
Celestia scowled at the creature. “What have you done here, Chrysalis?”
“And how have you returned?” Luna added with an uncertain tone. “Was it not true that you were—”
“I have no intention of getting into the finer details of my return,” Chrysalis barked with a sneer. Suddenly, several changelings swarmed out from behind the Queen, filling the air with the buzzing of insect wings beating with purpose. “Besides, I’m quite sure you already know the nature of my tactics.”
Several pegasi squadrons broke off to pursue the creatures now heading toward town. Stepping forward toward the Queen, Celestia narrowed her eyes and said, “Where are they?”
Chrysalis cackled. “You mean the precious bearers of the Elements? Or should I say, former bearers? My, how times have changed.”
“Answer the question!” Luna shouted in response, daring a step forward toward the far taller creature.
“Hmph.” Chrysalis frowned, fluttering her translucent wings. “They are within. Though there is little you can do to help them at this point.” Crouching low, she bounded off the stoop and into the air. “I shall return when they are ready!”
Celestia gritted her teeth as she watched the dastard bug-pony launch herself toward her subjects. Lighting her horn, she prepared to cast a restraining spell—
“Tia!”
— before hesitating at the frantic tone of her sister’s voice. She spun around. “Luna?”
“Hurry!” Luna called from inside the entrance to the castle. “I think I hear crying within!”
Celestia’s blood chilled at the sound of those words. Without hesitation, she galloped past her sister and down the long hallway.
Very little time had passed since Celestia received word from Spike – a letter he no doubt scribbled down himself with much haste, given the panicked handwriting – about a strange occurrence that had taken place all across Ponyville while he was shopping. Three sentences made up the full summary of his account on how the inhabitants of the small town had mysteriously changed in the blink of an eye, leading into how he discovered Twilight and her friends victim to the same fate upon his return to the castle. After reading the letter, Celestia surmised there was no reason to believe anything fatal had befallen her little ponies. But if Chrysalis had already finished what she most likely had set out to do…
No, she couldn’t think like that. Celestia shook her head clear of speculation as she and her sister banked around a corner in the hall. If Chrysalis’ most recent words rung true, her need to return to the castle meant she had yet to feast. That alone sufficed for a modicum of comfort while she barreled down the cold emptiness that was Twilight’s foyer.
“Sister,” Luna said, her breaths coming in short pants through her struggle to maintain her elder sister’s stride. “Do you know why Chrysalis would choose this spell?”
“Yes. Yes, I believe I do,” Celestia said. Ahead, they spotted the opening to the castle library. The sound of crying was indeed coming from within. “There is only one reason a changeling hive queen would want to use this spell on such a broad scale, and that is to feast on love. Not just any kind though, but a very specific, pure form of love.”
“A pure form of love?” Luna mused aloud as they turned the corner into the library. The second her eyes locked with the scene splayed in front of her, she skidded to a halt, jaw agape.
With an audible exhale, Celestia sidled up beside her sister. “Indeed. And that is…”
“…The love of a foal,” Luna finished with a whisper, staring forward in awe.
There, in the middle of the library, sat, lay, flailed, and ran several squishy-faced foals of familiar pastel colors, each producing wails or giggles that rang painfully loud against the bookshelves lining the curved walls – much to the chagrin of three older fillies in the room.
“Calm down, Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo shouted as she whisked a cerulean toddler off a rug into her grasp. Sitting on her haunches, she lifted the dewy-eyed pegasus over her shoulder and started patting her back.
“She’s not a baby, Scoots!” Apple Bloom yelled over to her friend as she chased after a small giggling orange blur around the library. “Toddlers don’t need to be burped!”
Rainbow Dash burped.
“Hey, I’m trying over here!” Scootaloo shouted back, moving to cradle Rainbow in her forelegs. “It’s not like I’ve ever cared for a foal!” She looked down at the shimmering magenta eyes of the younger pegasus, who then proceeded to wail with newfound vigor.
While Apple Bloom ran around the full circumference of the library, Sweetie Belle stood from her spot in front of four screaming foals, eyes wide with panic. “DIAPERS! Please tell me somepony brought diapers!”
“Right here!” Spike brushed past the Princesses with nary a thought, hoisting in his arms a cardboard box. “Twilight’s gonna kill me when she finds out I had to steal these.”
“Steal them?!” Sweetie Belle lifted the box out of Spike’s arms with her magic. “Why’d you have to steal?”
“‘Cause everypony else in town is a foal, duh!” Spike and Sweetie Belle knelt down beside the four foals, heralding another chorus of shrieking.
“Gotcha!” Diving over a chair, Apple Bloom caught the thing she was chasing after. Pinned down by her hooves, a tiny blonde filly giggled and flailed about, trying desperately to get out of the larger filly’s grasp. “Land’s sakes, jus’ hold still, Applejack!”
Amidst all the chaos, cries, and laughter, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna stood side by side in the library’s threshold, watching wide-eyed and unblinking.
After a moment, Luna tilted her head to the side, keeping her attention locked on the mayhem unfolding before them. “I do hope you have a plan in mind, sister.”
