Peculiar Situations Require Peculiar Solutions
It was a brisk, early morning in Ponyville. Twilight’s castle caught the rising sun’s rays, refracting them into a rainbow of hues. In the distant, roosters crowed and alarm clocks blared to rouse ponies from their slumber.
Inside the castle, Spike smacked the top of one said alarm clock and sat up in bed with a yawn. Stretching his arms over his head, he scratched at an itch on his back before climbing out of his bed.
He scanned the calendar by his bed, and gave a hum and a nod when he saw it was a free day. No helping Twilight with friendship duties, or the others around town. It was a rare opportunity for him to relax, snack on some gems, and catch up on his comic books.
It was a different opportunity altogether, however, that knocked on the front doors of the castle.
Spike was barely able to hear it from his bedroom upstairs. He quickly hurried out the door and down the stairs – Twilight’s friends always came right in, so it had to be urgent. He was panting by the time he got to the front doors, throwing one open. “Can I help you?” he asked, expecting a pony.
Instead, he encountered a changeling with blue eyes and shimmering blue wings. “Hey Spike,” he said cheerfully.
“AH!” Spike screamed and stumbled back, before recognition finally clicked. “Wait… Thorax?”
“Yep.” The changeling trotted inside and held out a hoof to the dragon on the floor, who quickly accepted it and pulled himself to his feet.
“What are you doing all the way out here? I thought you were supposed to be in the Crystal Empire,” Spike remarked, shutting the door hastily before any other ponies could see him.
“I was. I’ve been talking with Princess Cadance, about Queen Chrysalis. She thought it was a good idea that I go back to the hive and talk to her,” Thorax explained. “You know, try to let bygones be bygones and all that.”
“And… how’d it go?” Spike asked, bracing himself for the answer.
“Pretty well actually.” Thorax beamed. “In fact, I brought someone along to—”
A yawn echoed from the stairs. “Spike…?” Twilight called, coming down the stairs and rubbing one eye. “Who’s at the door?”
At the sight of Thorax quickly blinked the sleep from her eyes, her horn flickering with magenta magic briefly before calming down. “Oh… hello Thorax. What brings you here?”
“Well, you could call it a diplomatic mission,” Thorax said, opening the door.
A pale green unicorn stepped into the castle, and Thorax shut the door behind her. She had a drooping reddish-brown mane and tail, green eyes, and the cutie mark of a ladybug and three leaves.
“Um… hello. Who might you be?” Twilight asked, walking over to join Spike.
Thorax nudged the unicorn. “Your majesty,” he muttered, nodding to her.
With a sigh, the unicorn went up in a swirl of brilliant green fire. Spike and Twilight jumped back as her equine form was replaced by the tall, dark, and brooding visage of the changeling queen herself – Chrysalis.
“Queen Chrysalis!” Twilight and Spike both exclaimed, the former charging her horn.
“Whoa! Hold it!” Thorax said, getting between the queen and Spike and Twilight, holding out a forehoof to each. “She comes in peace!”
“Peace?” Twilight and Spike both said incredulously.
“Her?” Spike added, gesturing to her with a look of disgust.
Chrysalis snorted, averting her eyes away from the Equestrians. “Thorax, I told you this was a waste of time,” she said down to her changeling.
“Your majesty, please. If they hear you out, I’m sure they’ll understand,” Thorax pleaded.
Chrysalis gave a huff and turned back to Twilight. “The only reason for my consistent attempts to usurp the Equestrian throne is my hive’s need for love,” she explained. “We need love in order to live, and we need a constant supply of it. I was merely securing my hive’s future.”
Twilight and Spike shot each other a look.
“Well… that’s a very… noble goal, your majesty,” Twilight said, wincing at the formal title. “But why not just… intermingle with ponies normally?”
“Ponies are afraid of us, even more so after what happened in Canterlot,” Chrysalis said. “If there were a way to prove we’re not scary, I would love to hear it.”
“So, you need love, right? Why not consult Princess Cadance?” Spike offered. “I’m sure she’d know how to get some for you, or make it easier for you at least.”
Chrysalis cringed and shook her head. “That wound is still too fresh. I doubt highly she would be that willing to help us after all I put her through.”
Spike opened his mouth to reply, only to shut it and give a shrug. “You have a point. So, if not Cadance… then who? I mean, you’d need some sort of plan, right? Why not Twilight?”
“Well, I could use the practice in diplomacy and management,” Twilight said with a nod. “But what you changelings need is a good planner who knows ponies. Somepony who could think of way to make you less scary. Somepony good at making ponies happy, seeing as you need ways to harvest love.”
Spike and Twilight looked to each other instantly.
“Pinkie Pie.”
Pinkie Pie took the reveal of Chrysalis better than Twilight or Spike had.
“Oh, hey Queen Chrysalis! Can I get you anything to eat?” she asked when the changeling queen revealed herself in the lobby of Sugarcube Corner. And after all the patrons had fled, leaving just her, Thorax, Twilight, and Spike opposite of the counter.
“Oh, uh, nothing, thanks,” Chrysalis muttered.
“Pinkie, we need your help – or more specifically, the changelings need your help. They need a way to make themselves less scary and get enough love to sustain themselves,” Twilight explained. “We thought you’d be the best pony for the job, being such a good party planner and all.”
“Party planner?” Chrysalis snarled. “The changelings don’t need a party – they need love!”
“Don’t you worry your chitin, oh royal bug, just follow me upstairs!” Pinkie said cheerfully, bouncing out from behind the counter and heading upstairs.
The group looked between one another with mixed shrugs before following her up. Only, when Pinkie got to the top, she pulled one of the bannisters, causing the stairs to turn into a slide down into an opened hatch below. Pinkie hopped on and slid down with the others, the stairs reverting and the hatch shutting behind them.
They found themselves in a crumpled heap, in pitch blackness.
“Where are we?” Chrysalis snapped. “Someone get your hoof off my wing!”
“S-Sorry, your majesty,” Thorax muttered, climbing out of the pile. The others did the same.
There came a click, and the entirety of Pinkie’s party planning cave came into focus around them under an overhead light fixture. Pinkie bounced away from the light’s pull chord and over to a space on the wall.
Sticking her tongue out with concentration, Pinkie tapped a series of spots on the wall. With a hiss, part of the wall slid away, revealing a small recess behind it. In that recess was a small, three-drawer filing cabinet, painted bright red and plastered with “top secret” stickers.
“Whoa, there’s an even more secret party planning cave?” Spike asked, craning his neck to see.
Pinkie giggled. “No silly, this is my super-duper top secret reform-a-villain planning cave,” she said, opening the top drawer and rifling through the files contained within.
“How long have you had this?” Twilight asked, watching as Pinkie produced three manila folders. Squinting, she could see each was labeled “Operation: Royal Bug.”
“Oh, since we reformed Discord.” Pinkie shrugged and kicked the drawer back closed, bouncing over to a planning table with the three files balancing precariously on top of her head.
“And you never showed us this… why?” Spike asked.
“Well, frankly, I wasn’t sure a lot of villains wanted to be reformed, seeing as we had so many problems with Discord. So I kept my plans in case the opportunity arose.” Pinkie opened the first file. “Alrighty, so… changelings want love and friendship and understanding, right?”
“Yes,” Thorax said with a firm nod. Chrysalis scowled at him.
“And Queen Chrysalis is willing to do what it takes for her hive, right?” Pinkie looked up from the file at her.
Chrysalis blinked, her cheeks warming. “Well… yes. I suppose since we’ve come this far…” she muttered.
“Great! Then I need to go see Rarity about a special order. The rest of you take Chrysalis to Canterlot,” Pinkie said. “I’ll explain everything there.”
“Why Canterlot?” Twilight asked, frowning. “Princess Celestia isn’t going to like her coming back after the whole wedding fiasco.” She pointed to Chrysalis, who looked offended.
“I’ll call ahead!” Pinkie produced a rolled up scroll—sealed with a golden seal with three balloons engraved into it—and bounced over to Spike. “Go for it, Spike!”
Spike looked to Twilight, who shrugged. He turned to the scroll and blew green fire on the scroll, disintegrating it and whisking it away.
“So, where in Canterlot do you want us to go, exactly?” Thorax asked.
“Market Street, anywhere along there you can find a spot,” Pinkie said, stuffing the files away in her mane. “There’s no time to lose!”
The others watched as Pinkie bounced over to the slide they had used to enter, and slid right back up it, opening the hatch and slipping out.
“So, uh… how do we get out of here?” Thorax asked, looking between the others.
Twilight gave a tired sigh, and the four of them vanished away in a burst of magenta magic.
Market Street was bustling by the time they departed from the train station. It was now nearly noon, and ponies went to and fro among the various stalls that gave Market Street its name.
Twilight, Spike, Thorax, and the disguised Chrysalis made their way down the street, and were surprised to see a familiar pink pony sitting against a barren wall. Under one leg, she had a rolled up, bright neon green bundle.
“Pinkie!” Twilight called, the group racing over to her.
“Oh, there you guys are!” Pinkie said, breathing a sigh of relief.
“How… how did she get here before us?” Chrysalis asked.
“Don’t question it, trust me,” Spike said, crossing his arms and shaking his head.
“Alright, step one of my plan involves this – put it on, Queen Chrysalis.” Pinkie unwrapped the neon green bundle, revealing it to be a sweater, in the queen’s size judging from how big it was. On the front was a lighter-colored bullseye with the words “Hug Here” stitched on in black.
Chrysalis looked at it once and frowned at Pinkie. “You can’t be serious about this,” she said flatly.
“No, I’m pretty sure this is Pinkie being serious,” Spike said. “A sweater though?”
“The sweater’s only the first part – just transform back and put it on already!” She chucked it at Chrysalis, smacking her in the face.
The queen removed it, looking at the wording on the front, then to Pinkie. The pink pony gave a rapid, eager series of nods. With a sigh, Chrysalis’s disguise went up in a burst of green fire and she worked to slip the sweater over her head.
It took some navigating so that her jagged horn didn’t spear the garment and tear it asunder, but she finally got her head through the neck hole, which hugged the queen’s neck comfortably. The sweater’s long sleeves slid effortlessly down her legs, and a glance down their lengths made it seem like her forelegs were once again whole.
She adjusted it and smoothed it out, so that the wording and bullseye on the front were plain to see. She had to admit – the fabric, at least, was soft to the touch and very warming. There were even slits in the back to let her wings slip through. Around them, a few of the shopping ponies eyed the spectacle, murmuring to one another.
“There,” Chrysalis huffed. “Now what?”
“Now…” Pinkie produced an easel from her mane – astounding the changelings present. Spike and Twilight merely watched her work with curiosity. The pink pony set the easel up next to Chrysalis, and put a placard on it that was adorned with pink hearts and read: “Hugs 4 Bugs.”
She then produced a small arrow-shaped sign and propped it up on its own tiny easel, angling it towards Chrysalis. It merely read “Bug.”
Chrysalis looked between both signs, frowning. “Alright, now you can’t possibly be serious,” she huffed. “Hug me? What good is a hug going to do?”
“Plenty! Haven’t you ever been hugged before?” Pinkie pointed an accusatory hoof at the queen. At the hesitant opening of her mouth, Pinkie cut Chrysalis off. “Exactly! Don’t knock it until you try it!”
Pinkie then turned to Thorax. “So, how does this love gathering business work for you changelings?” she asked.
“Well… we usually absorb it, and when full, we carry it back to the hive for storage and distribution,” Thorax explained. “Why?”
“See if you can find as many changelings as you can. You’re gonna need it!” Pinkie turned to Twilight and Spike, urging them away with gentle pushes. “Now let us scram and let the queen do her thing.”
“Pinkie,” Twilight muttered, glancing back at Chrysalis as she and Spike were ushered away by their friend, and Thorax flew off. “Are you sure an unsupervised Queen Chrysalis in the middle of the city she tried to conquer is really the best idea?”
“Oh Twilight, have some faith,” Pinkie chirped. “I know this is gonna work – just trust me!”
“Well…” Twilight sighed. “Alright. I trust you. I just hope this idea of yours works out for Chrysalis and the changelings.”
Back at the wall, Chrysalis glanced around, before turning to the retreating Pinkie Pie. “What am I supposed to do?” she called to her.
Her answer was a bell, the kind with the long wooden handle that’s meant to get a group’s attention, landing at her hooves, and Pinkie shouting “Good luck!”
Chrysalis grumbled. Not only was she outside of her comfort zone – practically naked in the middle of a densely-populated pony city without a disguise and trying to call attention to herself – but the pony whose idea this was had just left her to it!
“Honestly, what does she think is going to happen…” she muttered to herself, picking up the bell. It clanged quietly as she turned it in her hoof, gripped through one of the holes in her foreleg. Glancing at the bigger of the two signs, she gave a sigh and began ringing the bell.
To her surprise, it drew a lot of attention from the meandering ponies. A large number of them gathered around where she had set up, some reading her signs, some muttering to one another, trying to figure out what was going on.
If only Chrysalis knew herself.
She decided to wing it – Twilight and her friends had heard her out, after all. “H-Hear ye, hear ye!” the queen finally decided on. “The Changeling Hive is in need of as much love as ponies can give! I am here on my changelings’ behalf!”
“Changelings?” one pony exclaimed. “Aren’t you the ones who tried to take over Canterlot at the wedding?” There were a few angered rumblings among the crowd of ponies, and quite a few glares shot her way.
Chrysalis felt her face heat up. “That was in the past,” she quickly announced. “I am here to secure my changelings’ food myself, so that what happened at the wedding doesn’t need to happen again!”
The murmurings quieted back down, but none of the ponies were willing to step forward. None of them, that is, until a unicorn mare with a green coat and purple mane and tail stepped forward. She rubbed one foreleg behind the other anxiously, glancing between the larger sign, Chrysalis’s sweater, and Chrysalis herself.
“So… that’s all? J-Just a hug?” she asked nervously.
“A hug will suffice,” Chrysalis replied with a nod, lowering the bell.
The crowd fell silent, seemingly holding their collective breaths, as the mare stepped forward. Awkwardly, she extended out her forelegs and wrapped them around the changeling queen. Just as awkwardly, Chrysalis wrapped her forelegs around the mare, careful not to exert her strength.
A familiar sensation tickled the queen’s lips, and she inhaled it. It wasn’t the most love she had ever tasted—Shining Armor could outdo just about any outpouring of love a normal pony could give—but it had a different taste to it. It was sweeter, stronger, more filling even in its small amount. At first, Chrysalis couldn’t figure out why it tasted to different from all the loves she had sampled. Then she realized why.
It was because this love was freely given, not taken.
“Hey, this sweater feels nice,” the mare replied, pulling away. “Thanks for the hug.”
Chrysalis smacked her lips, the sensation of this new kind of love brought a genuine smile to her muzzle.
“You’re welcome,” Chrysalis said, her reservations about Pinkie’s plan fading away. They were all but forgotten when her eyes slipped back to the crowd of ponies – the amount of willingly given love there could’ve fed the hive for years!
As the mare returned to the crowd, their apprehension seemed to dwindle away. “I want a hug next!” one pony near the back shouted.
“Me too!” shouted another.
“One at a time, please,” Chrysalis said, sitting back on her haunches and opening her forelegs to the crowd.
One by one, ponies lined up and slipped into the queen’s embrace. All of them thanked her for the hug. Some of them complimented her sweater, or how nice the hug felt. Others just thanked her and left, albeit with a little more pep in their step.
And Chrysalis inhaled the willingly-given love, iota after iota. Its strength and potency, however, was starting to overwhelm her. Her head grew light, and her stomach felt full. Her vision began to blur, and she had to blink hard to refocus her eyes.
Fortunately, relief came in the form of some ponies pointing to the sky and remarking “Hey, look – more changelings!”
The ponies, now used to the queen’s presence, seemed less skittish about the sudden arrival of half a dozen smaller changelings, with Thorax at the lead. He blinked in surprise at the queen’s appearance.
“Your majesty!” he said, standing at attention and saluting. “I got as many scouts and gatherers as I could.”
“Great,” Chrysalis slurred. “Fetch more after you’ve deposited this at the hive.”
Each changeling stepped forward, and Chrysalis breathed the sweet, potent love into them. Fortunately, she just able to give each changeling their fill – and empty herself for more love to be collected. She didn’t notice how the crowd of ponies fell silent at the gesture – some had turned away, while others watched with a morbid curiosity.
“Sweet larva!” one of the changelings remarked. “What kinda love is this?”
“Come on! We need to get the others!” Thorax exclaimed, taking to the skies with his brethren.
“Huh, I guess it was for their hive after all,” one of the ponies in the crowd remarked, breaking their silence.
That seemed to erase any remaining apprehension towards the queen and her free hugs - and Chrysalis barely had time to brace herself when the hug floodgates opened.
Across the street on the upper floor of a building, Twilight watched the spectacle below through a pair of binoculars. It had taken some convincing on her and Spike’s part, but Pinkie finally conceded and let them keep an eye on Chrysalis. Just to make sure things went smoothly.
And they weren’t alone.
“Amazing,” Princess Celestia remarked, biting down on another forkful of her afternoon cake. She had brought it with her on the stakeout – she too had apprehensions about Pinkie’s plan. Now, she too was marveling at the result.
“Wow, Pinkie. I think… this might actually work,” Twilight said, passing the binoculars over to her former mentor and turning to the pink pony. She was seated at a table, craning dangerously back in her chair with her rear legs propped upon the table itself.
“Yes, how did you know this would work?” Celestia asked.
Pinkie giggled cryptically. “Oh, that’s easy: because hugs work wonders!”
Author's Note
Date of Creation (D.o.C.): 11/03/21 but I've had the idea for a long time.
I couldn't tell you how long I've been meaning to write this - probably over a year. I've had this idea since I saw the artwork - and believe me there's going to be a sequel in the future. Also inspired by artwork.
One of my favorite pastimes is reforming Chrysalis, and this time I went with the Pinkie route - the infallible Element of Laughter. She has just enough willpower and ideas that are just crazy enough to work with just about any villain. That's one of the reasons why TempestPie is probably my favorite Pinkie ship.
The song I listened to while writing this was "Bounce Man Stage" from Mega Man 11.
-yours truly,
The Legendary Bill Cipher, Equestria Enthusiast
