A World Forged at Midnight

I looked into the shimmering rift I had opened. A portal that would lead me across the continent with ease in an instant. Below me, I heard a choir of screams and shouts. My body was illuminated by neon-blue light coming from that very same direction.

I devoted no further thought or time to it, and allowed my blackened, magical wings to propel me forward through the portal. The travel was, expectedly, instant.

My hooves met the ground with a thud, followed by an electric fizzle as light blue magical bolts disperesed all around me, only to fizzle out before getting to anyone present.

A choir of gasps filled my ears from all sides. I heard a rattle as some readied spears or other weapons against me, while others fell on their behind in shock. I didn't bother with them, and looked only ahead.

"Who-" muttered Chrysalis, seemingly equally as puzzled as her servants and guards all around me. "Who are you! Answer me this instant!"

The changeling stomped one of her hole-filled hooves on the tower of rocks which was her 'throne', but I remained defiant, and began to approach her.

"I asked you a question! Answer me!"

"Stand back from the Queen!" a guard then shouted, readying his spear as he came close.

"I was looking to see if I could make a friend of you, Chrysalis."

The entire room seemed to be on pause as changelings looked at me, each other, and then their Queen for some semblance of guidance. Chrysalis seemed more insulted than confused, however.

"Fool! You think you can parade into my hive and make a fool of me!? Guards!"

The guard that had previously leveled his spear at me lunged forward, yet shortly before he would have made contact, a rift opened which sucked the bug inside. It closed just as easily as it had been opened.

I grinned, just as the rest of the changelings gasped yet again, while the soldiers present hissed and growled.

"Get her!" the Queen commanded yet again.

An entire swarm of royal guards jumped into action. Some of them I had already seen prior, positioned around the throne room, while others came crawling out of hollow spaces in the walls and ceiling like the insects they were. Clad in their emerald armour, they charged through the air with their fragile wings.

I looked at Chrysalis with an unmoving smile as I charged my horn. Even Chrysalis could hear and see it, and her head appeared to recoil in anticipation.

A purple sphere formed around me. Some of the creatures were not fast enough to realise, and hit the barrier head on. Their comrades watched in fear-stricken horror as their body was eaten up by a dark purple, bubbling shadow that crept up their entire body, gradually disintegrating whatever parts of the body it reached.

"What is... what is this madness!" Chrysalis cried out, clearly shaken but attempting to remain steadfast. She wasn't fooling me, or many of her attendants. "Stop her already!"

The armoured changelings were unsure how to respond as they simply hung in the air, their wings' buzzing filling the room. They didn't make a move, and so I obliged and did it for them.

With a simple, dim shine from my horn, the purple bubble expanded outward at rampant pace. The insects did not even have time to properly respond as they were covered entirely by the purple shadow. I didn't watch, my eyes still fixed on Chrysalis, but I heard and felt their bodies falling apart and turning into their base particles.

The barrier had stopped just short of the false monarch. She had covered her face, flinching in fear, but looked at me again when I dispelled the barrier. She looked desperate, her head flicking back and forth as she frantically scanned the room.

Nopony was there. Nopony except her and me.

"Y-You... who... what are you!?"

"You should recognise me," I replied. "A good friend never forgets about times spent together, after all."

The Queen blinked, her eyes again looking around the room before locking back onto me.

"What sick joke is this!?"

"You were there for my brother's wedding, remember?"

That, finally, seemed to have flipped a switch within her.

"You...? But you're..."

She stuttered as her eyes ran me up and down.

"It can't be! You're not-"

"Oh I am. I assure you," I interjected. "And I've finally come around to showing you the light of friendship."

Her head recoiled as her snake-like tongue hissed. "Ridiculous!" she shouted. "How did someone like you even get in here in the first place? My throne is meant to-"

"Your piece of furniture will not oppose the power of friendship, Chrysalis."

She flinched as my horn radiated with power yet again. Her eyes and head looked down, staring at her own feet as the throne began to glow in the same neon-blue as my horn. There was a gasp from her, and then a bright explosion.

***************************************************

"Wake up."

A quiet groan escaped the bug's mouth as she laid broken at my hooves.

"Wake up."

Her eyes opened, slowly, and looked upon my glowing hooves and purple fur. It seemed to take her a moment, but eventually her eyes shot open in realisation, and the insect queen crawled backwards a short distance until hitting a wall with a thud.

"W-What have you-"

She cut herself off as she saw for herself, glancing past me and at the place her throne had been. Now, it was smoldering ash. Little pebbles of stone remained, with most of her precious seat of power evaporated. She clearly intended to stand up for one reason or another then, but didn't have anywhere near the strength to do so.

"What have you done!?"

"Demonstrated to you the power of friendship and harmony, of course."

"You destroyed my throne! You killed my servants!" Chrysalis hissed, laying on her back as I towered over her.

"I dealt with traitors and threats to friendship. There is little to be mourned regarding them. If they would attempt to kill without question, then they have clearly forfeited kindness."

Chrysalis blinked twice, before shaking her head. "What are you saying!? You're not making any sense, and neither do your stupid pony morals!"

My face turned sour. A visible stroke of magical energy sparked from my left front hoof across the ground, meeting one of Chrysalis' rear hooves and charring it in an instant.

"Argh!" yelped the bug as she scrambled a little further up against the wall in response. "Whatever do you think you're doing? Do you want money? Fame? Prestige? Surely the Princess of Friendship already has all of that and more."

"I don't need any such frivolous things. Unlike most, I carry within me the virtue of friendship incarnate. I don't need to boast, because I am kind, I don't need-"

"Kind? Kind!? You wiped out the entire throne room without second thought!"

I scoffed at her interruption.

"A good friend is generous and kind enough to let their friend finish, Chrysalis."

"I am not your 'friend', and never was! I was a fool to believe Shining Armour's love alone would be enough back in Canterlot... I should have drained you, as well!"

Just as she finished, the insect found herself hurled against the wall by my telekinesis. Immediately after, a metallic rattle echoed throughout the now otherwise vacant room as magical chains materialised to bind her to the wall. She moved her two front hooves to aid herself, but at a moment's notice those were fixed in place also.

"I can tell then that you might not be redeemable even in the face of being offered true friendship."

"What friend, gah, barges in and kills dozens of my servants!?" questioned the queen as she tried to move her hooves to no avail.

"The friend who gave you a chance at redemption. However, since you seem so deadset on refusing, I might show just show you the fate of those who turn their backs on the Princesses and their holy rule, and all their virtues such as friendship and harmony."

"You're talking nonsense! Are you even listening to yourself anymore?"

"Nonsense?" I chuckled, and stepped aside to allow a rift to appear beside me. It cracked and ripped open into a full-blown portal... and through it, Chrysalis could see where I had last been.

The ruins of a city. Neon-blue fires, burning with the heat of the sun, tore through the last smoldering remnants of houses, with plumes of smoke filling the skies. Charred remains of traitors laid in the streets, unrecognisable now. Even they had underestimated the power and fury of harmony, and Equestria's drive for peace at all costs.

"This is the fate of those who cannot be redeemed. Those who not only turn their back to our divine morals and ideals, but who reject the possibility of redemption."

"You..."

Chrysalis' breathing became faster, her eyes locked onto the glorious display before her. It was a city now free of corruption and treason. Ponykind could rebuild here, and lay the foundation for a newfound destiny.

"You're insane. You're insane!"

"No. I used to be."

I closed the rift once again, and she seemed thankful about no longer being a witness to the advancement of harmony.

"Now I see clearly what must be done. I know the path set out before me, and I am ready to tread it until the end."

"You're absolutely off the rails!" denounced the queen in some semblance of continued defiance.

"No, it's you who strayed from the path. It is the hives you rule who, under your leadership, chose to absolutely, fundamentally reject Equestrian morals and ideals. It was you who turned them against us."

"What? That's not true! We were always-"

"And since you continue to stand by your decisions in the past, foolish as they were..."

She whimpered as she heard the now familiar sound of a portal opening up. She moved her head to look downwards towards the origin - where a portal showed a simple, black nothingness.

"W-What are you..."

"You refuse to adapt. You reject the truth even when it stares you down. You spit in my face when I offer you redemption."

I smiled, then grinned.

Justice was at hand.

"But I am kind, so I shall let you live. I am generous, and so I shall let you have all the time in the world to correct your mistakes and accept what is right."

I looked at the portal, Chrysalis doing so also, before she looked at me again with a mixture of fear and anger.

"Let me go this instant! This prank of yours has gone on for too long!"

I chuckled, my horn pulsating visibly, much to the building dread of the insect traitor before me.

"Let you go? Oh, very well then."

With a brief spark from my horn, my opponent was released from her restraints, the chains dematerialising just as they had first come into being. Chrysalis immediately fell, but to my surprise, she reached out for the edge of the portal and managed to hang on just in time before slipping through.

I stood still, looking down at her pathetic form and situation. She deserved this. Every little bit of it. An eternity to memorize her many mistakes and crimes. An eternity to redeem her mind. An eternity to suffer for all the harm she had done in her defiance against Equestria.

I raised my left hoof slowly, grinning back down at the desperate monarch. She wanted to speak, but the inner workings of the portal were pushing her downwards with great power as if she were in a wind tunnel.

"Enjoy your eternal midnight, majesty."

My hoof came down upon hers, removing it. Her cries from the other end were very brief, and she quickly became nothingness in the vast, black realm beyond.

The portal shut again. I was glad, but as soon as I intended to smile a new thought came upon me. The thought that there were still so many towns opposing me. The thought that there were entire nations living in absolute contradiction to our teachings and morals.

But it was no matter. A new portal opened before me, and I nodded once as I inspected what laid beyond. The image of Griffonstone's iconic architecture, and its inhabitants who were so utterly hostile and selfish. They would need a friendship lesson right away, and they would be more accepting than Chrysalis had been.

Or they would be sweeped from the face of the new world.