We Are Each Other

“Is that the last of them, Wisteria?” asked Princess Celestia quietly through gritted teeth. Her eyes were closed, and she could hear the clip clop of receding hooves on the marble floor, hear the opening and closing of the large throne room doors, and then there was silence.

‘I need a break…’ the alicorn thought to herself as she leant back into her throne and rolled her neck and shoulders, wincing when several tight muscles popped. She felt weary, the eight hour long day having felt like twenty, each minute had been a lifetime in itself. ‘I’ve hardly been working at a coal face,’ she chastised herself, ‘But I do need a break. Las Pegasus is good this time of year…’

Celestia allowed herself a smile at that. Las Pegasus was good any time of year. That was part of the magic. Her closed eyes tightened, and she imagined the west coast resort in her mind’s eye. Riding the Wild Blue Yonder rollercoaster, rock climbing the Applewood mountains, free fall sky diving, scuba diving the South Luna Ocean… all of those seemed an eternity away from the stuffy throne room.

‘But I can’t just go, can I?’ Celestia thought to herself sadly, ‘Not without a whole day’s worth of pomp and pageantry, ticker tape parades in my honour…’ Celestia hated it all, but she couldn’t get away from it, as much as she tried. ‘Oh well.’

Wisteria, an elderly Neighponese earth pony mare, stood quietly by her Princess’s side until she judged that the alicorn had concluded her inner monologue. Having been her attendant for fifty years, she knew by the minute shift in her expression, when that time had come. “Yes, your highness,” she didn’t bother to keep the amusement from her voice, “No more petitioners lobbying to reduce the carbon hoof print of the ethnically diverse disability access policy for single parent mothers.”

“Thank goodness for that,” Celestia sighed from the very bottom of her eternal soul, regretting that Las Pegasus never felt further away, “I have time for a quick snack before dinner.”

“Um,” the lavender coloured earth pony shuffled on her hooves, unwilling to be the one to add to her Princess’s already heavy workload when the end was so close, “I’m afraid there is a non-court item for you, your highness.”

Through a sheer act of willpower that bordered on the miraculous, Celestia maintained her serene façade. “Yes?” she asked softly, though internally she was screaming at the loudest her Royal Canterlot Voice could manage.

“This letter came in today, just a few hours ago, from the, um, Overlord of the Badlands.” Wisteria explained, holding the letter in her hoof.

That got Celestia’s attention. “Have you read it?” she asked, at last opening her eyes and turning her head to her attendant, whom she regarded with a fond affectionate smile, just so she knew the Princess didn’t hold it against her for adding to her day when cake was so close at hoof.

“No, your highness, it is sealed, and I lack the skill to break it without destroying the contents. The Royal guard said it is harmless, but enchanted, nonetheless. Only an alicorn can open it and it is addressed to you.”

That piqued Celestia’s interest all the more. Curiouser and curiouser! She was so intrigued that for a moment she forgot to speak good Equish, even in her thoughts. “Bring it to the dinner table, please Wisteria, I'm sure my sister will want to look at it too.”

In the sisters’ private dining room, seated at the round table, Celestia had the mysterious letter by her side and a thoroughly amused look on her face directed at the tired looking alicorn sat opposite her. “Did you sleep well sister?”

Luna, midnight blue alicorn and sovereign of the moon, blinked once, then twice and rubbed away the bags under her eyes before letting out an exhausted yawn. “We have...I apologise, I, have slept well, thank you sister.” She caught herself just a little too late from using the royal ‘we’. “How was your day?”

“Interesting, by which I mean, long, dull and incredibly boring,” Celestia giggled at her sister’s valiant attempts to wake up. To be fair to her, she had only had two coffees so far. She needed at least five before she was capable of taking the Night Court. “I only ask because your wife sounded quite, excited, earlier.”

Instantly, Luna’s dark blue cheeks turned a deep red colour as she blushed violently. “Octavia is...adventurous...” she said softly in an attempt to excuse her actions, “I ah, didn't realise we were that loud.” ‘Again.’

Celestia covered her mouth with a hoof, pleased to see that she still had the power to embarrass her sister after all this time. “You're not, I was making a guess since you two act like newlyweds every day. Kissing, cuddling, rutting like rabbits all over the palace.”

“Well, we have only been married a year,” Luna made no attempt to deny her sister’s claims as she shifted uncomfortably in her seat, “It is still new to me that we were able to marry at all. So many things have changed since my return.”

“Yes,” Celestia took a long sip of her imported Neighponese tea to cover her own blush, “They have and I'm sorry that I didn't make those changes a long time ago. For another matter, there is this.” The Princess skillfully changed the subject and lifted up the letter still sealed in the vellum envelope before slicing it open so that Luna could easily see from whom it was addressed.

“Things would not have been different, sister. We have been over this, many times.” Cocking her sister a wry eyebrow, Luna took a drink of her zebran coffee, one of the many – and more welcome - improvements since her return. “I see you have mail,” said mail was floated over to her and Luna took it in her magical aura. “Chrysalis!” she exclaimed after a quick but thorough magical scan, “Sealed and protected by powerful magic, too. It has been two years. Why now?”

Celestia nodded her head thoughtfully as she drained her fine china teacup of its contents. “I thought you would figure it out. My staff is scrambling to figure out who claims to be the ‘Overlord of the Badlands’,” she giggled, though there was no humour, “I'm more concerned as to why she still lives. Where is she getting the energy?”

Luna did not giggle, in the slightest. Her dour expression mirrored her sister’s mood. “I do not find it funny, sister. Why contact you now?” she asked again, getting a shrug by way of an answer, “I hope it’s not to declare a second war. The city has only just rebuilt itself after the last one.”

“My pardon, the day is long and my staff clueless,” Celestia apologized for her ill placed giggles and she followed up with a sigh, “None of them should be alive!” she exclaimed in frustration, “Twilight herself calculated that they shouldn't have lasted longer than a year. I've heard of no incidents where they may have infiltrated a village. That’s what I want to know from you, dear sister. What do your spies tell you?”

“I have heard nothing from the Night Watch regarding those...” Luna shuddered, “Things for a while. As per your orders, I've had permanent watches placed along our borders. There was a scuffle ten months ago, but that was a couple of rogue drones. My thestrals put them down on sight and destroyed the bodies. If they have managed to eke out an existence, it is beyond Equestria's territory.”

“Then, there is naught to do but open this,” having stalled enough, Celestia cast her powerful magic over the scroll she had taken from the envelope and the seal fell away, evaporating into the ether. “Cunning, yet simple to defeat,” she passed her judgement, “It does make me think this is from a changeling, as it has magic of all three tribes sealing it.”

“Well, what does it have to say for itself, sister?” asked Luna, curious as to the contents of the letter now it was open.

“Dear Princess Celestia, ruler of the Sun, I, Queen Chrysalis wish to meet with you at my hive to discuss the future of my race, come alone…” Celestia read aloud the contents of the letter until she reached the end, where she shared a look of concern with her younger sibling. “Of course, she wants me to come alone...” she sighed deeply, “I have the shields I need; she will not lay me low this time. Hmmm, Tap the solar seal. What do you think that means?” Celestia wondered out loud, though she did notice her cutie mark had been stylized on the bottom of the scroll.

“It could mean anything. I suspect, sister, it is a localized teleport spell. Activated once you touch your horn to it, it will take you to the Hive, wherever it is.”

“Hmm, you could be right,” Celestia studied the cutie mark at the bottom of the scroll, hating the way it seemed to mock her just by being there, “But that is rather powerful magic. I think it beyond Chrysalis. Maybe something simpler. You see these decretive arrows on the edges? Both sides point in the same direction instead of toward or away from each other like a standard compass.”

“I see them. Perhaps they are directions of some kind?”

“Do I just ignore this?” asked Celestia, her voice rising with her frustrations, “What if somepony or ponies are being held hostage?” she reached out with a hoof to tap her cutie mark.

“Stop!” Luna cried, her voice loud enough to be heard down the corridors, “Sister, wait!”

Celestia groaned, the toe of her hoof a mere hairs’ width away from touching the scroll, “I'm being foalish again, aren't I?”

“No, not at all,” Luna shook her head, “I am not suggesting you ignore it, you should go, just...go prepared.”

Again, Celestia studied the scroll. “I see no time limit, so you are right, of course. Some artifacts would help, but do I dare get Twilight involved in this?”

“Sweet Mother, no!” Luna gasped, almost choking on what was left of her coffee, “I fear Twilight would not be able to be objective in this matter, given what happened in the lower caves a couple of years ago. My Night Watch have been developing some artifacts, to aid them in their work. Since we know that only changeling magic works at the Hive, I implore you take some with you.”

Celestia nodded in agreement and set the scroll aside on the table before refilling her cup with more of her favourite tea, “That is wise, I would need something passive to see through their disguises, but so help me, if I see one pony in a cocoon, I swear I'm dropping the sun on them.” She threatened darkly, her features for the moment looking nothing like the serene solar ruler, then a thought occurred to her. “I have a broach, the one mother gave us, the one you have matches. It will allow us to keep in contact, but I don't know if it will work in her hive. Is there a way around that?”

“Actually, yes! One moment, please…” with a face that Celestia described as being as giddy as a filly from her school, Luna teleported away. Ten minutes later, she reappeared with a number of small gadgets held in her turquoise aura. “These are all mechanical, the Quartermaster of my Night Watch assures me. Nothing magic. Radio, fits under your torq.”

“Isn't that a magic in its own right?” Celestia asked as she levitated the small two way radio device and placed it under the golden ring around her neck. It was so small, it didn’t disturb the line, “Where is the receiver, and does it receive? That could be embarrassing if I'm in the wrong spot.”

“My engineers call it elastic-trickery...no, sorry, electricity. I have the other one to hear what you say. Now, here's an earring. It lets me see what you see on a computer screen!” she then passed her sister four new horseshoes that looked identical to the ones she always wore. “Put these on. you'll like these. Stamp your hoof and a blade shoots out covered in manticore venom!”

Celestia rolled her eyes, though her sister’s enthusiasm was rather infectious. “Why do I feel like I'm in a Sam Spade novel?”

“Laugh all you want,” Luna shot her older sister a deadpan look, “The blades can pierce a fully grown dragon hide. Now, if you have your armour, I think you're ready to go. The radio is also a locator beacon. Should you not return, I'll know where to go to get revenge.”

Celestia’s humour evaporated as quickly as it had appeared, and when she spoke, her voice was soft, almost inaudible. “You were not there when she laid me low the first time. I laugh to keep away the fear. I will do my duty, as I know you will do yours.” Then, she lit her horn and summoned to her an ornate suit of golden armour, one she hadn’t worn since the Second Griffon War.

After helping to dress her sibling in her armour, Luna stepped back and hugged her tight, “Mother protect you, dear sister. Should I not hear from you, I promise I will give them reason to fear the night.”

Now she was ready, and dressed for the occasion, Celestia tapped the cutie mark on the scroll with a hoof, instead of her horn, to see what would happen. The effect was immediate. The scroll rolled itself up and spun in the air to point in a direction based on the arrows. “I do not believe that is the direction of the Badlands,” Celestia stated, “But the Crystal Empire. There is much unclaimed territory between here and there.” She moved the scroll about in mid-air, but it returned stubbornly to point in the same direction.

“Well, nothing to it, but to do it, sister. Know I will be with you. I will see and hear everything you do.”

The knowledge that her sister would be with her in some capacity gave her the courage to go ahead with what she knew had to be done. “I think an unplanned visit to my niece is in order so I can conserve my magic. I'll take the train. I will let you and only you know where I exit when the scroll indicates I've reached where I need to be. I hope that when I finish the journey her location is not in the Empire.”

“I believe you are right. I also hope you don't end up in the Crystal Empire. Though, if you're going by train, take this,” Luna passed her sister a small golden horn ring. “Illusion buffer. You might get less attention as Sunny Day.”

“Is that wise?” Celestia asked with a raised eyebrow, “I was going to have Wisteria have my personal carriage attached with just two guards...” under Luna’s stern gaze, Celestia trailed off. “You may be right, but Sunny Day is for our fun times. Still, you are right.”

“I would prefer it be just us who know where you're going. If you have to teleport off the train mid-journey, nopony will miss a white pegasus from Whinnyapolis.”

“Wisteria has to know,” Celestia stated determinedly, “My personal attendant is far too smart, which is for my own good. I think will be gone for up to three days.”

Rather than draw out the conversation into an unnecessary argument, Luna chose to bow to her sister’s judgement. “Good luck and be safe.”

“Tarry a moment with me, please?” Celestia closed her eyes and lit her horn, activating the illusion ring that slid easily down her horn. When she opened her eyes, the armoured alicorn was gone, a demure white pegasus with a two tone yellow mane in her place. “Besides,” she said in an accent that was as far removed from Celestia’s normal voice as Manehatten was from Vanhoover, “I'm sticking you with my Friday schedule!”

“Does this mean I have to oversee the farmer's dispute, open the new museum and launch the newly rebuilt airship docks?”

A second bright giggle left the pegasus’s lips, “I don't think that’s on the schedule, but I'm sure Wisteria could squeeze it in, just for you.”

“Squeeze what in, your highness?” Wisteria asked serenely, as if she had been summoned to the dining room by the mere mention of her name. After all, a good attendant prided herself on being there when she was required, and Wisteria was the best attendant.

“We are among family here,” the disguised Celestia said, and Wisteria nodded, completely unruffled by the presence of the pegasus among them. “I'm taking an unscheduled leave of absence for a three day weekend. What will my sister have to deal with on Friday?”

Quick as a flash, Wisteria had the answer. “The Manehatten delegation is pushing for more autonomy, and the stone crafter's guild is seeking higher wages and a change to the membership rules. There is a school that needs to be opened, as well as the new wing of the Canterlot Royal Hospital. Plus the usual spat of petitioners.”

“Oh, joy, and here I thought all you did was smile and wave all day,” Luna giggled for once, suddenly wishing it was her that was going on the dangerous undercover mission to whoever knew where, “Fear not! I shall deal with it!”

Stepping forwards, Celestia gave her sister a much needed nuzzle, “Till my return, Lulu.”

“May I ask where you're going?” Wisteria enquired politely.

“Out. Somewhere north, Wisteria. I have a train to catch. Please let the kitchen staff know it was another wonderful meal.” And with that, the white pegasus trotted out of the private dining room.

Completely unruffled, like a good attendant should be, the elderly earth pony bowed respectfully to Princess Luna. “Your highness. I'm at your disposal if you should have any questions or needs. I do not mean to step on Miss Crescent Moon’s hooves.”

“I thank you, Wisteria,” Luna smiled gratefully, “Do not think your work goes unappreciated, nor do I think my own attendant will mind your help in the slightest.”

~ ~ ~

Princess Celestia, in her disguise as Sunny Day, had been on the Friendship Express steaming towards the north at top speed for several hours before she noted that the enchanted scroll was turning to the west. Taking that as her cue, she quickly made her way to a vacant bathroom where she had some privacy. “Luna,” she spoke into her radio as she shed her disguise, “I'm about just over half way to the Crystal Empire and the scroll is pointing west.” She studied the scroll, “I can't think of a better place to hide. I'm teleporting off the train a good mile and looking from there.”

“That's good,” Luna’s voice crackled in Celestia’s ear, “At least your fears for your niece are unfounded. There's nothing out there but uninhabited wasteland and tundra, as far as my sources tell me. You're almost at the northern borders of Equestria. No minerals, no ponies. Wear your armour, sister.”

Celestia smiled grimly, for she hadn’t taken it off since she had donned it back in the palace. “As the Element of Generosity is fond of saying, 'Dress to Impress'. I just hope the goo will clean off.”

“I hope it will not come to that. If it should, you are prepared.”

“I'll keep in touch as things develop, but I'm going to run silent for now, lest she have some detection magic up.”

“Very well. Mother protect you, Tia.”

Once she had teleported off the train, Celestia surveyed the grim terrain. It was indeed barren and uninhabited. Inhospitable, too. The rocky plateaus, the thin wiry decrepit trees and complete lack of anything comforting didn’t inspire the alicorn to want to stay where she was. Looking up, she sighed, because even the moon and stars seemed dimmer somehow.

This was a place where hope went to die.

Deciding on a course of action, Celestia teleported a few miles north and then back to where she started, and then she teleported to the south so she could triangulate where the scroll was pointing her. She soon figured out that her destination was at least a hundred miles to the west, which placed it roughly four hundred miles from the Lunar Ocean.

Celestia reported her position to her waiting sister and then she started teleporting closer in ten mile hops, each time she reappeared she was ready to fight, but no resistance was forthcoming. When she was twenty miles away from her target, she spread her powerful white wings and flew, staying low to the ground.

“I hear thunder and lightning,” Luna said with a very slight giggle, “I do hope you aren't getting wet out there. What do you see? There's definitely no civilization out there, it should be as barren as the mo...” Luna thought it best not to finish her sentence.

As the dark night sky clouded over, thunder rolling and lightning forking down to the ground, Celestia, wholly unconcerned, snickered, “You are showing wisdom, dear sister? That you didn't finish that. Nothing out here but frozen ground and a little snow. The weather is wild, outside the pegasi’s control.”

“Even I can learn, so Tavi says, anyway,” Luna responded with a snicker, “How much further now? I suspect this may be a wild cockatrice chase, but the communication was definitely from her.”

Celestia slowed her flight to a hover, “Well, having never been to a hive before, I see there is a large rocky outcrop and I do see an underground entrance. Figures that they would be underground like ants.”

“Now, now, no assumptions, sister of mine,” Luna chided her elder sibling in much the manner their mother used to, “Do not underestimate them. Again.”

Showing wisdom of her own, Celestia chose not to answer that. Instead, she flew forwards towards the large foreboding hole in the ground. As she got closer, she saw there were two gigantic carcasses and scores of dead changelings left rotting outside. Not only that, but chunks of the ground were missing, highlighted with lightning and a fine rain that started up.

It looked like the aftermath of a war amid the desolate landscape, death was everywhere, in the ground, on the surface and even in the air.

Dispassionately, Celestia surveyed the bleak scene through cold eyes. “We aren't the only ones with something against the changelings. Some kind of giant mole-like monster doesn't like them either.” Flying up to one of the dead creatures, she poked the carcass with a hoof, “Hmm, whatever they are, these mole monsters are magic resistant, and by the looks of it, one can take down dozens of bugs with ease.”

“Sounds like something from the Everfree Forest,” Luna said with a shudder. On her screen, she could see what her sister saw, and she didn’t like the look of the huge dead creatures. “Or something from the scary stories Starswirl used to frighten us with as foals.” As she watched the screen, a sudden flash of lightning illuminated the carcass - highlighting the exposed ribs, rotting organs, the dead fur – that was laying half out of a tunnel. Scattered all around it were smashed and crushed bodies of changelings that had tried, and failed, to defend their hive.”

“I'm going in, I think I'd rather face her than one of Starswirl’s scary critters.”

“Probably wise, sister.”

As Celestia walked up to the vast hole in the ground, more of a wound in the earth, a tiny changeling was just inside the entrance. “Halt...” the creature spoke in a voice that sounded as weak as it looked, “Who trespasses our territory?”

“Your territory?” Celestia was beyond amused. The changeling that stood before her wasn’t even half the size of those that had invaded Canterlot. It looked like it could barely stand on its hooves, let alone guard the entrance. ‘A hatchling?’ she mused to herself, “You are very much mistaken to think any of this land is yours.”

Gazing up at the white alicorn, the tiny changeling bowed before her magnificence. Easily four times his size, and looking resplendent as the dawn in her full battle gear, the difference between them was laughably wide. “You are the Princess!” he squeaked, bowing so low his muzzle touched the floor, “She said you would come!”

“Who said I would come?” Celestia asked imperiously.

“The Queen, Princess,” the changeling replied, still bowed low to the floor, “I am Blank Slate. I am to escort you to her.”

“Queen?” Celestia didn’t even try to keep the sheer contempt from her voice, “Of what queendom? I see nothing but wasteland here.”

“We are underground, Princess,” Blank Slate stood and turned, the small changeling coming up to just above the knee of the alicorn’s foreleg. Impatiently, Celestia motioned with her hoof for him to move along. Obediently, Blank Slate led his guest through the hive. The myriad tunnels and passageways were illuminated by sickly green glowing crystals, some glowing brighter than others.

Through tunnel after tunnel, Blank Slate led the way unerringly, past gaping open side passageways that once upon a time would have opened and closed, but now remained frozen in place. He led Celestia into a large cavern, a vast open space, one side of which was half destroyed by another dead mole creature. “Not much further, Princess.”

Although Celestia was at the ready with a shield spell and a pre-loaded stun ray, there were clearly no signs of life other than her guide and herself. They progressed in silence into another, even larger cavern. Looking around, Celestia noted that this had obviously been a nursery of sorts. She saw larger changelings laying dead in smashed cocoons, small hatchlings lay crushed, some reduced to green smears amid destroyed eggs.

“Tia,” Luna spoke in her sister’s ear, “Report please, sister, the camera has stopped working.”

Using her teeth to tap out a short coded message, Celestia replied curtly, “One bug. Small. Weak. Looking.”

“Keep me informed.”

“We are here, Princess,” Blank Slate announced after another thirty minutes of silent walking through tunnel after tunnel, each as deserted as the last. He stopped at a completely blank wall and he pressed his hoof on it, between two large glowing green crystals mounted in the rock. For once, there was a flare of magic in the otherwise dead Hive and the 'door' melted open, revealing the throne room beyond. “My Queen, may I present the Princess Celestia.”

The sole occupant of the throne room, Chrysalis was laid on her throne, seemingly asleep. Her room was actually luxurious, compared to the rest of the hive thus far. Faded tapestries hung from the walls, marble, though old and dirty, covered the floor instead of bare rock. The décor was reminiscent of the palace bedroom. “Leave us, Slate. Celestia, do come on in, won't you?”

Walking into the chamber, Celestia openly cast a spell looking for any of her little ponies’ life essence within range, which was roughly twenty miles, of her current position. Sensing the magic, Chrysalis scoffed and snorted, though she didn’t open her eyes. “Please, don't bother with the detect life spell, Celly, there's none of your precious little ponies here.”

Smiling sweetly, Celestia stepped further inside the chamber. Though she smiled, she piled upon the Queen’s black chitinous hide the sum of all the rage and hate felt by her whole being. If her chest had been a cannon, she would have shot her heart upon it. “True,” she said, a monumental effort keeping her voice even, “For you are still here.”

Chrysalis then actually opened her eyes, and when she looked at Celestia dressed in her raiment of war, a momentary look of fear flashed across her face. It was there for but a second, but it had been there. “Aw,” Chrysalis affected her best cocky tone, “You came dressed up in your Sunday best just for me? I'm flattered, really.”

“I saw you had a few visitors, so I dressed for them,” Celestia made an exaggerated show of looking around the throne room, “I don't seem to see any of them in here though.”

For a split second, Chrysalis’s green eyes twitched, a ghost of a tear there on her black cheek before it was blinked away, “Ah...you saw the maulwurfs. Pesky things, they are. Not dangerous on their own, but in groups... Ahem!” catching herself, she fluttered her gossamer wings and she flew from her throne. “Where are my manners, to my summoned guest? Would you like something to drink?”

Dangerously, Celestia’s eyes narrowed to slits. If looks could kill, then Chrysalis would have been reduced to ash. “Summoned, I think your lack of understanding Equestrian is showing. Nopony ‘summons’ Celestia!” she then casually looked around the chamber as if inspecting it for the first time, “My engineers report this area is rather useless to develop, but I do have an excess of toxic waste that would do us well to put underground…”

Chrysalis’s laugh was as demeaning as she could make it. “Oh please, Celly, we both know you're only here because you received my scroll. Besides,” she said as she walked over to her store and pulled out a wine bottle filled with a strange pink substance, “If nopony summons the great Celestia, then it pleases me to be the first.”

As she made her way across the marble floor, there was a definite limp to her gait that no amount of effort could cover up. Not that she didn’t try. “So, I summoned you here for a reason,” she stated, before levitating a glass of water over to her guest.

“If it is to readjust your attitude, I don't have the time. There are no ponies here, so there’s no need for me to be here,” Celestia declared as she dropped the glass and allowed it to shatter before turning on her hooves and walking out by the door she came in.

“Celestia! Wait, please!” Chrysalis cried, all trace of bravado gone like they were never there, “Hear me, please, I beg you!”

While Celestia did not turn around, she did stop, her muzzle twisted in a smile of satisfaction at the desperation in the changeling’s voice. Oh, how she had lived to hear that! “Why are you still alive? Twilight said you wouldn't survive a year, and it has been two.”

Fear laced Chrysalis’s voice, “The love spell charged me for a long time. Then, we fed off the native wild animals that exist out here,” the fear changed to a pleading tone, “Please...I wish to talk, parley, beg you, anything...we need your help!”

At last, Celestia turned around, a cold wrath on her face such as no living pony had ever seen, “I don't remember you knocking on my door two years ago for help.”

“Please! Look around!” Chrysalis dropped to her knees and gestured all around her with her forelegs, “My Hive is dead! My subjects are under siege!” she waved a hoof at her store of pink glowing bottles, “That's all the food we have, when they’re gone, we’ll starve! With every attack, the maulwurfs get deeper into the Hive, the last one destroyed the main nursery, help us, please!”

“I thought you all had died off,” Celestia said coldly, “Tell me, why should I help you now?”

“I don't beg for me, I beg for my subjects!” Chrysalis scrabbled over the dirty marble floor to prostrate herself before Celestia’s hoof, “I have less than two hundred left, under siege in the lower tunnels. One more attack by the maulwurfs and they'll be gone. Please, Princess, we need your love! Help us, or we'll die!”

“That didn't really answer my question,” Celestia looked down on the prone form of the Queen mere inches from her hoof like she would look down on an ant. It crossed her mind briefly that all she had to do was stomp her hoof and the blade would shoot out and end her problem. “Why should I care?”

Celestia lifted her hoof and prepared to deliver the cous de grace.

Her head was so close, she doubted if Chrysalis would even feel it penetrate her brain.

On the floor, Chrysalis’s horn glowed a pale green, “It seems I was wrong,” she said dejectedly, “All I sense is hate and contempt. Even if we could eat that, it's bitter and tainted.” Chrysalis pulled herself back to her hooves and she turned back to her throne, her head low and tail between her legs. “Where's the love, Princess? The compassion? I doubt there's any left in you to give.”

Celestia’s eyes went wide as dinner plates, “How dare you!” her powerful voice echoed around the chamber, “How dare you lecture me on compassion! I buried more ponies than I could count after that attack! That’s where my compassion went, in the ground along with the innocents you killed!”

Resigned to a slow, painful death, Chrysalis reached her throne and draped her thin body over it. “Yes, of course you gave it away. That’s why even ponies have forsaken you…” she didn’t see Celestia stood there slack jawed and stunned to the point of immobility, “You'd really allow a whole race die to sate your need for vengeance,” she sighed, “Then you are heartless, and not the salvation I hoped you were.”

‘I can't be my sister,’ Celestia thought sadly, ‘I can't give my love to just anypony, isn't that right Sunset?’ Celestia didn’t know why she had suddenly thought of her estranged daughter in that moment. But, stood in Chrysalis’s chamber, staring at her, the changeling looked back at her with the same mix of resignation, confusion, disappointment and defeat that Sunset Shimmer had given her before she had ran away from home and stepped through the mirror portal all those years ago.

‘Am I really about to make the same mistake again?’ the alicorn asked herself as she created a magic bubble around herself. She could see out, but Chrysalis couldn't see in. Sound could enter, but it couldn't leave. She needed counsel, and she needed it now. “Luna, I need you to send a letter to Twilight right now. Would she reform a villain that ponynapped her sister in law? I need the reply soon as you can.”

“I understand, Celestia,” Luna replied in her ear, “It has already been written and sent. I have been listening, after all. You think she's on the level?”

“Does it matter, sister? I'm dying on the inside.”

“No,” Luna conceded, “I do not suppose it does. Wait, the letter has returned. Twilight's first impulse is obviously no, but...it seems the young and impulsive Rainbow Dash is an influence upon her. Apparently, everypony now deserves a chance at redemption, sister.”

Celestia stared at the marble floor like she was hoping for a pit to swallow her whole. “I do hope that includes me. But how? We don't have the infrastructure necessary to accommodate over two hundred changelings into our society.”

“Apparently, Miss Dash points out that according to Daring Do and the Amulet of Wisdom, the fourth in the Labyrinth of Madness series, to err is equine, to forgive, divine.” Luna didn’t try to keep the amusement from her voice, “Ahem, as it happens, I know of somepony who may be able to help, though I am unsure of her trustworthiness.”

A snort left Celestia’s lips, “My life decision is being based on a fictional novel, now? Okay,” the alicorn forced her mind to work, “Contact this pony and have them checked as only you can. Then work logistics at your end. I need a cargo train at the point I left the tracks. At least twelve box cars, I will be retuning on that train. I hope to be at the tracks in ten to fifteen hours. It depends on whether or not things are as bad as Chrysalis says they are. If... If the one you contact is willing to send ponies to... feed them, then put them on the train. Add a boxcar for each group of fifteen if there are that many.”

“Consider it done, sister,” Luna’s usual severe tone softened somewhat, “Mother would be proud of you, because I, am proud of you.”

Strangely, that didn’t comfort Celestia in the slightest. “Then why do I think I'll never wash this off of me? Thank you for your faith in me sister, for now I even doubt if I truly loved you those many years ago.” At that moment, she was in doubt of a great many things.

When she dropped the bubble spell, Celestia saw that Chrysalis hadn’t moved an inch, but her bottle of pink liquid was a little bit emptier. What caught her attention the most though was the look on the changeling’s face. The look of one about to be executed who had accepted their fate.

And yet, in her moment of victory, of revenge on the creature that had hurt her, Celestia felt no such victory. She just felt empty, like her soul had been hollowed out of her body and the shell that looked like her remained. “Others have more faith in you than I do,” the shell spoke with a voice that sounded like hers, but still Celestia felt nothing, “We leave now, you need to get your... subjects to the rail line one hundred miles to the east. You, are under house arrest for the foreseeable future.”

In a somber melancholy fashion, Chrysalis was up from her throne, nodding her head. “I'll go and stand with them, one last time...” then, her brain actually processed what Celestia had said, “Wh-What?”

“We leave now!” Celestia roared in her Royal Canterlot Voice, stomping her hoof so hard into the marble that she shattered it, making a small crater that obscured the blade that shot forward.

“You...you're helping us? Truly?” Chrysalis was so shocked that her wide eyes didn’t see the blade or the alicorn retract it into her horseshoe. “House arrest...um, what will you do to me, exactly?”

“I will do what I must,” Celestia replied curtly, stepping towards the round opening in the chamber wall, “Others will do what they can. You will do what you're told. Or, you can stay here and I'll go. A few more lives will hardly be noticed to the weight that already presses down on my heart.”

Removing herself from her throne, Chrysalis limped over to Celestia and painfully, she bowed low to the floor, “I submit myself to you, and to whatever you say. Thank you, your highness.”

Celestia let out a derisive snort through her nose, flaring her nostrils, “You can thank me later. We have a hundred miles to go, and those mole things are clearly formidable. I don't know what will happen with your...subjects, or you, for that matter, but others believe I should try.”

It crossed Celestia’s mind, briefly, that she could just leave and nopony would be any the wiser. Las Pegasus was lovely this time of year…

Celestia sighed. Las Pegasus was lovely any time of the year, and she wanted to be able to look herself in the mirror tomorrow.

The sound of Chrysalis bursting out into a flood of tears shook Celestia from her reverie. The changeling sobbed and bawled as she sent a silent command to her few remaining drones to mobilize at the entrance to the underground Hive. “It...they...th-the m-maulwurfs…they destroyed a whole generation in seconds! I tried to fight them...it, nothing worked…” she felt the need to explain herself, to at least justify her failure to protect her people, but she just trailed to silence.

“We move.” Celestia’s harsh tone made Chrysalis stand up from the floor when what she wanted to do was curl up and cry, “I will do what I can to get them and you there. You will do what you must to get them there.”

Reaching up to her head, Chrysalis removed and placed her crown on the floor. Somehow, given the circumstances, it didn’t seem right for her to wear it any longer. “I present this to you. I have no need of it anymore. It is unlikely the maulwurfs will attack during the storm, but you are right, we should move.”

Celestia looked at the offered crown and she frowned like Chrysalis had just reached into her chest and put her heart on the floor before her. “That is a symbol of the past,” she stated and quickly, she moved forward and shattered it into pieces with her hoof. “It is a new beginning, it’s on you not to make this the start of another ending.”

With that, Celestia walked to the entrance of the chamber and through it into the tunnels beyond not looking or really caring if she was being followed. It was a deeply relieved Chrysalis that quickly gathered up her remaining store of love energy and followed Celestia out of the soon to be deserted and abandoned Hive, limping her way all the way to the exit, and whatever future awaited her and her changelings.