The door opened and a unicorn walked inside the room, closing the door behind her with her magic. "Good morning," she said.
The pegasus sitting at the desk looked up from her notes. "Krysalis, I suppose? Please come and sit here." She pointed to a red sofa near a chair in front of her desk.
The unicorn did as she was told. "So," she began, "everything I say here stays secret, right?"
The pegasus adjusted her glasses with her wing. "Well, you need to sign this first," she said, passing a form and a pen to the unicorn.
The unicorn gave a cursory read to the paper and filled the blanks, then signed at the bottom and returned it to the pegasus. "All in order?" she asked.
The pegasus looked over the document. "Yes. I thought your name was spelled with a k though. My assistant must have written it down wrong."
"Well, actually, I intentionally gave her the wrong one. I sort of escaped from prison last week. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to get rid of this disguise." The unicorn's body was enveloped by a green blaze and Chrysalis emerged from the fire.
The pegasus began to reorganize her notes, bringing out a notebook and a pencil. "I think we can begin," she said, getting up.
Chrysalis cocked her head to the side. "I was expecting some reaction. You know, screams of terror, you quivering on the ground in fear, begging me not to eat you. Ponies usually do that when they see me."
The pegasus sat down on the chair, not taking her eyes away from her notebook, quickly writing something down. "Trust me, I've seen a lot of weirder things than this."
Chrysalis reclined back in her seat. "Okay, so what do we do here?"
"You talk, I take notes, maybe ask questions while you're talking, then I talk."
"What do I talk about?"
"Well you already paid me so for all I care you can talk about whatever, but if you want to get your money's worth you should talk about yourself."
Chrysalis thought for a moment. "Where do I start?"
"Start at the beginning," the pegasus replied. "What's the first thing you remember?"
"Oh, that's easy! I remember being born. It was in the middle of a swamp. My mother was there, but my father had already left. My brothers were there too. We left shortly after to find something to eat."
The pegasus began to take notes. "Tell me more about your parents. Have you ever met your father? Do you know who he was?"
"I know who he was, although I never met him face to face. Starswirl the Bearded, you've probably heard of him. I don't think he even knew about it, he just nailed my mother and then left."
"And what about your mother? How did she react? What did she tell you?"
"Well, she didn't talk much. You know, being a tree and all. I never saw her again after the day I left."
The pegasus looked up. "So when you say Starswirl nailed your mother what do you mean?"
"He nailed her. With a nail and a hammer, you know? He put up a big sign that read 'PROBABLY MAGIC... DO NOT APPROACH' and then left. And then me and my brothers popped out of the crack he left in my mother, already fully grown."
"By your brothers you mean?"
"The rest of the changelings. The first generation of us at least."
"So you aren't their mother?"
"Oh, no, that's a common misconception. I'm their ruler, but changelings actually reproduce on their own. I think it's because I call myself a queen, and we kind of look like bugs. I'm not really a queen, I just stole King Orion's crown and declared myself as one after I'd drained him and taken over his city. Mostly because I thought it sounded good. My changelings agreed. That city was rather tasty, I remember."
"Why do you think you are their ruler?"
"Don't know," Chrysalis said, tilting her head to the side, "it's always been like that, I never really questioned it. I guess because I was the bigger one."
The pegasus took down some more notes. "So what did you do after your father left?"
Chrysalis slouched on the sofa. "Well, we were hungry and there were only bones and flies in the place, so we left in search of something to eat. We found a pony after a while. Now, at the time I hadn't really grasped the concept of sucking the love out of something, since I'd been, you know, alive for only some hours. All I knew was that there was something inside the pony that my instincts told me I was supposed to eat. So I just sort of tried to eat the whole thing. Didn't go too well, his head got stuck in my mouth and it took me five minutes to get it out. The poor guy got so scared that he passed out. My jaw still gets locked in place when I open it too wide after that." Chrysalis massaged her jaw.
"What after that? How did you learn?"
"Well I just sort of did. You know how it is, you try out until it works. It got a lot better when we learned we could shape shift, that way we were finally able to get ponies to love us and finally had enough to eat."
"Interesting. Any important moments in your life? Any traumatic experiences? Something you feel left a mark?"
"Oh, a lot of them!" Chrysalis sat upright. "I think the first one was that time I got these holes. We were laying siege on the town of Trot, and I'd just finished draining Incitatus. And then Celestia arrived, mane on fire and all that, and she just blasted me in the face with this spell. It wasn't really nice of her. And that's why changelings have holes now. We didn't have them before. I used to look pretty before. I still look pretty. I still look pretty, right?"
The pegasus stared at her. "So, wait, Celestia hit you and now all changelings have holes?"
"Yeah. Crazy what magic can do, right?" Chrysalis's face darkened. "Well, not like it matters anyway, now that those idiots have decided to turn their backs on me and become all colourful and cute."
"Tell me more about your relation with Celestia."
"I hate her. Why do ponies love her? She's always so nice and gentle and cute and-How can she rule a nation when she's like that? That's not how you're supposed to treat your subjects! You're supposed to let them know that you're the one in charge."
The pegasus returned to taking notes. "What happened after the battle at Trot?"
"Celestia sealed us away inside a volcano. Luckily a dragon passed there and opened up the place, and I managed to get him to show off his wings so I could throw one of my changelings at them and make him unable to fly."
"And why did you throw one of your changelings?"
"His fault. Get him to breathe fire he'd said. And I listened to that idiot! After that I threw him inside the volcano. He used to be my second in command. I miss him sometimes."
"What after that? Any more relevant events?"
"Not much. Not until the stuff you've probably heard of yourself."
"I want to hear about it from your point of view."
Chrysalis adjusted herself in her seat. "There was the wedding in Canterlot. I came so close that time. Finally managed to beat Celestia. It would all have been fine if it hadn't been for that purple brat. I hate that stupid pony. And she even refused to become my student! And then she left me trapped in that castle! The one good thing I got out of that experience was the time I fed in front of her little friends. Those three probably still have nightmares about it."
"So how did your relationship with Twilight evolve?"
"Well, after she got me imprisoned, and after I learnt that she'd become a princess, I became, uh, let's say I was a bit obsessed with her," Chrysalis swallowed.
The pegasus looked up. "Obsessed?"
"Well, I mean, uh, it wasn't anything too serious..."
The pegasus kept staring at the changeling.
"I have a picture of it if you want..." Chrysalis took a picture out. "Stole it from one of the guards when we got out of there," she said, passing it to the pegasus.
The pony grabbed it and looked at it.
"See? Nothing too serious," Chrysalis commented.
The pegasus put the picture inside her notebook. "What happened after that?"
"There was the time we attached the Crystal Empire. I finally beat Twilight there. We had to leave though, Sombra wanted to bring back the Umbrum, and we would have been left without food. And then, well... Do I have to tell you about it?"
The pegasus nodded.
"I lost everything. I lost my kingdom, my throne, my changelings... All because of that stupid Starlight Glimmer! And that traitor! And my changelings listened to them! After we'd already captured all the ponies that could have stopped us!" Chrysalis threw her hooves up and laid back on the sofa.
"Anything after that?"
Chrysalis massaged her temple. "I tried to take over the Tree of Harmony and the clones I'd made turned against me and then melted. And Twilight's clone overpowered me! Again! I managed to make a living by being an acting teacher for a while after I lost my kingdom, and then Celestia came there and ruined everything! At least I managed to escape from my prison."
The pegasus looked at her notes. "Is that all?" she asked.
Chrysalis nodded.
"I think your problems come from your relationship with your parents. Your mother never took care of you, and you had to take care of your brothers as their mother. You hate Celestia because ponies see her as a motherly figure and love her while they hate you. You hate the idea of the changelings you grew as your children now having their independence, and the fact that they now live with ponies. Your hate for Twilight comes from how she stopped you from having a real family with her brother and then refused to be your student, instead choosing to remain faithful to Celestia. Your tendency to eat love comes from the lack of love you received when you were young, you think you have to take love by force and hate those who get it for free. You should go talk to your mother. And to your father, too, now that he's back. The way he abandoned you is also part of the reason you hate your changelins for having abandoned you, and you hate that they now have a father-like figure in Thorax. Go talk to them."
Chrysalis looked at the pegasus with wide eyes. "I paid you to make me feel better, not to tell me I'm wrong."
"Well, actually..." The pegasus took out the document she'd made Chrysalis sign and passed it to the changeling. "Right there it says 'I will tell you you're wrong'. It's kind of tiny so you might have to squint a little."
Chrysalis looked at the thing. "This is the last time I listen to what Black has to say."
"But don't you feel a little better now?"
Chrysalis got up and walked to the door, then opened it and peeked out. "Do you mind if I use the window? I sort of got away from jail last week and it looks like the guards have found me."
"No problem," the pegasus replied.
"Thanks. And if they ask something, I wasn't here today." Chrysalis jumped out of the window, smashing through the glass, and on her way down she transformed back into a unicorn.
