It was a particularly cold day in the Crystal Empire, the air itself carrying shards that cut much deeper than the weather could. Ponies still milled about, taking care of their errands, getting some exercise in, or what have you, but they all walked slower than they did a few weeks ago.
Nary a breath could be exhaled without a reminder of the cold, its shards cutting a little deeper with each inevitably shaky inhale that followed.
Still, as the citizens of the kingdom of boundless hope, the Crystal Ponies thought it their duty to hold their chin as high as they could manage and keep on going. So, despite the cold, they got up in the morning, they showered, and they went along with their daily routines.
But there’s only so long that a pony can withstand the cuts before the wounds open wide, and they break from the pain. But breaking is not an option for the Crystal Ponies, so they stay quiet and they keep their brave faces on until they can see their beloved Princess Cadance in her court.
Court was held in the throne room every day for a certain slot of time in the late afternoon, the time having been changed from the evening as of late to escape the extra chill that came with nightfall. Despite this, the throne room was still one of the coldest places in the Empire.
For the most part, the throne room looked no different to how it did a few weeks ago; the tapestries depicting past rulers of the Empire were all still carefully hung on the walls, the rug leading to the front of the room was still pressed flat against the crystal floor, and the stained glass windows were still polished to perfection. But there was one glaring change in the throne room that ruined any semblance of normalcy.
There was only one throne.
And there Cadance sat, in the lone throne, waiting for the last pony scheduled to come into the court today to walk through the castle door at the far end of the hall. She sighed as she straightened her posture, her face plastered with as much of a neutral expression as she could muster. As much as Cadance despised sitting there with no other throne at her side, it hurt less than sitting idly all day with no stallion to spend her time with, so she looked forward to court every day.
Her ear pricked as she picked up the distinctive sound of hooves walking on the crystal floor. The steps were slow and measured, trying their best to limit the click clack they made on the floor as much as they could.
Cadence straightened her posture, took a deep, shaky breath, and cleared her throat. “There’s no need to be so cautious,” she projected, her voice still measured and soft despite her volume, “you’re not going to offend or upset me by walking normally.”
The pony at the end of the hall had frozen in her tracks when Cadance spoke, then continued forward at a faster pace after she was done.
Cadance beheld a young Crystal Pony mare— about teenage age, she guessed —meekly looking up at her with her ears folded level with her head. Her general disposition could be described as ‘shaky’. Cloudy tears obscured the mare’s eyes, but she refused to let them fall.
The mare looked up at the princess, her ears still folded, and spoke. “H-Hello, y-your majesty…” She gave an awkward and shaky bow. “M-My name is Tempered Heart—” she took some index cards out of her saddlebags and fumbled with their order for a few seconds, “—I came here because I wanted to ask how the Empire is going to proceed from now on?”
Cadance’s whole body tensed at the question. It was asked frequently since Shining Armor’s passing, and she was never properly prepared for it; how could she be?
She inhaled a deep breath, then regarded Tempered Heart with as much compassion as she could. “The passing of my husband is an unprecedented tragedy for the Empire,” Cadance said with her eyes closed and a hoof to her heart, “but I have full faith that, so long as we support one another in this time of mourning, we will be just fine.” She offered a warm smile.
Tempered nodded weakly. “Thank you very much, Princess, but that’s not really what I m-meant.” She flipped through her index cards again and shakily cleared her throat. “O-Our Empire is one of the best defended in Equestria, but only because of the Crystal Heart. W-With all this uncertainty going around, and with the, um…” She looked down at the ground, fidgeting with a hoof. “With the greatest source of love g-gone, the Crystal Heart i-isn’t going to be as s-strong, i-is it?”
Tempered was shaking more visibly now, her tears now flowing, though unbidden. “S-Sombra’s gonna come back one day! Or maybe something even worse! A-And we don’t have the Heart, and we don’t have our general, a-and nopony has any faith! The entire Empire is doomed!” She broke out into uncontrolled sobs and dropped to the floor.
Without a second thought, Cadance leapt down from her throne and embraced Tempered Heart, squeezing as tightly as she could. The two stayed in an embrace for several minutes, until Tempered stopped shaking and stood back up.
“Now,” Cadance started, her voice firmer than before, but not without the motherly quality it always had, “I want to ensure you that Sombra is defeated. He will not be coming back. As for any other threats, we are not helpless just because the Heart’s magic is weaker. We still have one of the greatest militaries in Equestria, we still have our magic, and if all else fails— which it won’t, I assure you— we can call the Elements of Harmony here.”
Cadance put a hoof on Tempered’s shoulder and stroked it softly. “We’re okay,” she whispered, “we’re okay.”
Tempered wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled at her princess. She nodded, then turned to leave. “Thank you, Princess.”
As Tempered trotted out of the castle, her hoofsteps not as strained as before, Cadance sighed and returned to her throne. She waited until she could no longer hear the click clack of hooves against crystal, then put her face into her foreleg and cried.
She cried alone for a while, then took a deep inhale, the shards only nicking her a little, and sat with her eyes closed. Wrapping court up for the day was always quite a process; it usually took up another 15 minutes of her schedule.
Then, she heard the distinctive click clack of hooves on crystal again. Her ear pricked at the unwelcome sound, and her nostrils flared. Quickly, she remembered her station and composed herself, rationalizing that she must have just been mistaken about Tempered being the last pony for the day. She looked down to the end of the hall, trying to get a better view of the pony coming in.
The pony that walked in was of average build, her coat a rather dark navy blue; almost dark gray. Her mane was an interesting dark blueish-green seafoam color and had waves that flowed over her head in a way Cadance couldn’t help but passively admire.
The pony bowed once she reached what she must’ve considered a respectful distance from the throne, though Cadance thought it a little far.
“Greetings, Princess. I am here to ask you a few questions, and then I’ll be right out of your hair. I do not mean to impede upon your schedule, but I deem these questions important enough to come into your court unscheduled.”
Cadance raised an eyebrow, and her nostrils flared involuntarily for a moment. “You may proceed.” She couldn’t help but notice how calm this pony seemed. It irritated and confused her, but she forced the thought down, instead deciding to appreciate the change of pace a calm court-goer brought.
The pony nodded. “Regarding the Crystal Heart, I’ve noticed as of late that the magic in the air has been… thinner, to be frank. Are things alright between you and Prince Shining Armor? Or has something else happened?”
Cadance’s face tensed. She inhaled deeply, so much so that the pony in front of her noticed and recoiled. “I’m going to… give you the benefit of the doubt, and assume that you’re just recently coming back into the Empire after a long trip.” She inhaled again, more steadily this time, to calm herself.
“Three weeks ago,” she continued, her face as neutral as she could force it to be, “during an attack on the Empire by King Sombra, Prince Shining Armor, my husband, the l-love of my life—” she took in a shaky breath and stifled the tears that were beginning to form in her eyes “—he… He was lost.”
The room fell silent, and the pony in front of Cadance froze. “What… I…” She stuttered. After a few moments more of silence, the pony bowed to Cadance, hiding her face. “I-I understand. I apologize for intruding upon you during this time of mourning.”
She swiftly turned and started toward the exit, Cadance still recovering from the unexpected jab in her still-fresh wound.
But something was bugging her. It just seemed too unlikely that anypony, let alone a citizen of the Empire, hadn’t heard of Shining Armor’s passing; it was in all the newspapers, all across the country. And the pony who had just left hadn’t given Cadance her name.
Curiosity started to build, and since it was starting to overpower her grief, Cadance decided to feed it. She stepped down carefully off her throne, then removed her hoof guards and quietly deposited them on the floor.
Cadance followed the mysterious pony from a distance, making sure to walk softly so as not to alert her. The strange pony made a turn, which she shouldn’t have done, since the path from the entrance to the castle to the throne room was a straight hallway.
Her curiosity piqued even further, she picked up her pace and leaned carefully around the corner. She gasped as she saw the pony taking a route that Cadance recognized: the path to her own chambers.
She waited at the corner until she saw the strange pony step into the royal suite, then rushed in after her, an irritated yet determined look upon her face.
“You! What are you doing in my chambers!” She shouted, her magic prepared to restrain her if she tried to run.
The pony snapped her head toward Cadance and glared, then readied her own magic, which was a sickly green that Cadance recognized immediately. A pyre of green flame surrounded the pony, and she transformed into the charcoal-gray, hole-ridden Queen Chrysalis.
Taking advantage of Cadance’s guard dropping due to her surprise, Chrysalis blasted her with a bolt of magic and jumped over her, sprinting out the door and into the castle.
“G-Get back here!” Contempt oozed from Cadance’s voice, though her surprise mixed with a twinge of fear led to a stutter.
She took to the air, her eyes full of a dark determination powered by hate and fear, and shot after Chrysalis like a bullet.
Cadance flew with all her might, her eyes locked on the Changeling Queen. She didn’t say anything more as she flew; all that left her mouth were grunts, yells, and no small amount of foamed-up saliva.
Chrysalis looked behind her and saw Cadance start to gain on her. She swore under her breath and leapt off the ground, her wings buzzing rapidly.
The two flew with such speed that the guards they passed couldn’t even register what was happening, and Cadance issued no commands to them due to her hyper-focus on her enemy.
They continued like this for a few minutes, neither seeming to be winning the altercation, when Chrysalis suddenly veered off to the left, careening into a room with its door open. Cadance reacted quickly, flying toward the wall directly across from the door, then kicked off it to get a better landing angle than Chrysalis.
She skidded to a stop on the smooth crystal floor, only barely clipping her wing against a fancy double bed. She threw her head around the room, searching for Chrysalis but finding no one. She found that the window was closed, though, so she slowed her breathing and used her magic to close the door behind her. She was going to find Chrysalis, and she was going to stop her here.
She stopped in her tracks as she finally noticed a noise in the room; her senses too unfocused from the earlier adrenaline to catch it, but now, she could clearly hear it: the sound of somepony crying.
She turned her head toward the source to find Queen Chrysalis laying limp on the floor, her face pressed into the cold crystal, cooling it further with her tears.
Cadance stopped, just staring at her, then took a tentative step forward, her horn starting to glow. The Changeling before her hit the floor and snarled at Cadance, but she just took another step forward. She got close enough to touch Chrysalis, at which point she hesitantly offered a hoof to help Chrysalis up.
Chrysalis snapped her jaw at the air and smacked Cadance’s hoof away, then put her face back down on the floor and resumed her sniffling.
Cadance leaned back when Chrysalis snapped at her, then slowly started to lie down on the floor next to Chrysalis and stay quiet, not removing her gaze from Chrysalis’ form.
After a while of the two monarchs sitting quietly together, Chrysalis finally lifted her head off the floor, begrudgingly making eye contact with the Princess of Love. She gasped softly when the two’s eyes locked; she was surprised to find that Princess Cadance’s eyes had no pity in them, they had no hatred anymore, they simply carried an air of concern. She looked away in thought for a moment, then grunted softly and started to change her position to a more natural laying-down pose.
Cadance smiled. “Feeling better?”
Chrysalis stared daggers into Cadance’s eyes. “No.”
Cadance’s smile quickly turned into a disappointed frown. “Hm. Do you want to tell me why you’re here?”
Chrysalis sniffed. “It’s… a long story.”
Cadance put her hoof to her chin. “Hm…” Her horn lit up, and cushions from the bed the two were lying beside floated down to the floor and under the two of them. “Then we better get comfy.” She waved her hoof, signaling her ‘go-ahead’ to Chrysalis.
Chrysalis sighed. “Do you remember the first time we met?” She scoffed at herself. “Of course you do, it was your wedding day. You and Shining Armor’s love blasted me and my Changeling army all the way to the Badlands. Did you know that? When we landed, we were closer to Klugetown than we were to Canterlot.”
Cadance’s ears leveled. “I… didn’t know that.”
“Mmm. I have to give you and him credit, though. That was, hooves-down, the most powerful spell I’ve ever been hit with. Half of my Changelings were knocked unconscious.” Chrysalis let out a sigh of relief. “Ha… I’ve wanted to complain about that to your face for a long time now.” She laughed again. It was a weak laugh, and it put Cadance on edge, but it was a laugh of genuine amusement.
Cadance put on a playfully over-exaggerated pout. “Oh come on! You were invading not just my wedding, but the most politically and tactically important city in Equestria! Of course we’d retaliate strongly!”
Chrysalis just smiled. “Ha, of course… well, on to my story. Where to start…” She put a hoof to her chin and looked up at the ceiling, then her gaze shot to the door when she noticed a cacophony of metal Royal Guard’s hoof guards clanking against the crystal floor outside.
Cadance perked her ear to listen closer. “Sounds pretty hectic out there… I probably wouldn’t be able to tell them what’s going on before they attack you,” she whispered, “I say we just stay here, stay quiet, and figure out the guard situation later.” She made direct eye contact with Chrysalis, her gaze firm. “I want to hear your story.”
Chrysalis faltered for a second, just staring into Cadance’s eyes until the latter gestured for her to continue. “R-Right, so,” she straightened her posture, “the Changeling Hive only functioned the way that it did because of complete obedience. If even one Changeling stepped out of line or deserted, others would follow their example, and the Hive would collapse.”
“You wouldn’t have needed ‘complete obedience’ if you were a better leader…” Cadance said under her breath.
Chrysalis glared. “Ahem. So, even before the Canterlot invasion, I had known about seeds of rebellion being sown in the Hive. I couldn’t make an example out of them, because I knew that any rebels I didn’t know about would see whatever punishment I gave to their leaders as martyrdom. So instead, I opted to inspire loyalty to the Hive by having every last one of our able-bodied and able-minded Changelings participate in the invasion.”
Cadance stopped Chrysalis with a hoof and shook her head. “Wait, so you attacked Canterlot just as a punishment for rebelling Changelings?”
“Well, yes, actually. It was meant to be a simple stealth excursion into Canterlot to get a feel for its defenses, while also serving as a punishment for the rebellious Changelings. They were scared shitless, you know.” Chrysalis chuckled as she jabbed Cadance in the barrel with an elbow. “The only reason that it got any further than a simple stealth mission is that, well, things just kept working out for us.”
Cadance scoffed. “I hardly believe that. Canterlot’s Royal Guards would have noticed you and put a stop to you right away.”
Chrysalis grinned. “Oh, but the Canterlot guards did find us. Pretty quickly, actually.” Her smile got more toothy. “It’s just that the Canterlot guards were so easily fooled by quickly thrown-together disguises and a horrible explanation that we were, and I quote, ‘just chilling’, that all they took back to their general was suspicion of a Changeling invasion.” She chuckled, earning a frown from Cadance.
“Anyway,” Chrysalis continued, letting out the last vestiges of her quiet laugh, “you already know what happened during the Invasion itself, I replaced you, the Changelings broke through the shield, blah blah blah.” She twirled her hoof in the air as she said this. “Now, back to the interesting part: your giant love bomb.
“Like I said, it blasted all of us all the way to the Badlands; some Changelings were… more seriously hurt than others.” She discreetly wiped a tear from her eye and looked wistfully up at the ceiling. “I remember getting up off the ground and getting my bearings— which was just sand in every direction, by the way— and looking at all my Changelings strewn about. I couldn’t see them all, of course, but we shared a hivemind back then, and I… I could tell that we had lost a few dozen of our own.”
Cadance put a hoof up to her mouth.
Chrysalis shook her head and pressed on. “All things considered, it should have been a more devastating loss. Only losing as many as we did was a blessing, but…” She sighed long, staring at the floor for a moment before continuing. “But all the Changelings are— were my children.” She closed her eyes and inhaled sharply, the shards cutting her mercilessly.
She coughed, then blinked to disperse the drop of water forming in her eye, that side of her face turned away from Cadance.
Cadance hesitated, the obvious question balanced on the tip of her tongue. “...may I ask why they aren’t your children anymore?”
Chrysalis idly flicked her forked tongue, avoiding eye contact with Cadance. She sighed. “It was because of one stupid little rebel.” Each of those words left Chrysalis’ mouth laced with more poison than Cadance had ever heard before. “Thorax, I’ll never forget that little traitor’s name.,” she growled.
Cadance started to move a hoof to place it on Chrysalis’, but stopped partway through, returning it to its place under her barrel.
“Thorax, I learned, was the main leader for all this rebellion. He had been the one going around, telling as many Changelings as he could that our ways were ‘outdated’. How I never found him out until that day, I will never know.” She shook her head regretfully and sighed, “I never should have attacked Canterlot. That was one of his points. ‘Our Queen subjects us to the most unreasonable of punishments!’ he said. ‘Look at how many of our own have died today!’ he cried.
“I expected his message to be ignored, so I stepped over to reprimand him, but so many other Changelings… my children… started agreeing with him. All of them, every single one of my children abandoned their mother, and all because of one little Changeling who thought he knew better than his queen!” Chrysalis threw her hooves up exasperatedly, venom still lining her words. Then, her hooves shaking and blood vessels looking ready to burst, Chrysalis started to scream.
She only got a fraction of a second of noise out before Cadance dove onto her, shoving her hooves over Chrysalis’ mouth to silence her.
The queen, still shaking with rage, tried to wrestle the Princess of Love off of her.
Cadance held on tight, though, trying to keep Chrysalis on the ground.
Chrysalis responded with more muffled angry noises, but then was shocked to silence by Cadance gently stroking the back of her neck. “Shh… no more of that.”
Chrysalis started to relax the longer Cadance kept stroking her neck, and Cadance’s grip relaxed in turn. They sat there for a while, Cadance gently stroking Chrysalis’ nape, Chrysalis only making soft whimpering sounds.
Eventually, Chrysalis lifted her head off of Cadance’s shoulder and spoke. “Oh, my poor children; I shouldn’t be angry at Thorax, I should feel pity for him.” Chrysalis’ volume increased, and she stood. “I should rescue my poor, misguided Hive from Thorax’s stupid—” Chrysalis was cut off by a pink hoof shoved into her mouth.
“Shh!” Cadance shout-whispered. “I said no more of that! The guards are going to find us!”
Chrysalis, looking dumbstruck, just nodded and lay back down.
Cadance shot a glare at Chrysalis, broken by a short laugh and a smile. “Alright, you wanna tell me the rest of your story without any more yelling?”
“Right, so, after Thorax finished his speech and all the other Changelings were standing behind him, I found myself banished from the Hive.” She cleared her throat as quietly as she could. “I’m certain I could have fought them and won, but… they’re my children, after all. I would gladly take being banished over having to kill even one of them myself.
“So, without an army to collect love on which to feed, I found myself starving in the Badlands. I knew exactly where I was headed, but the Crystal Empire is incredibly far from there. I know I could have gone to Klugetown, but that was probably my Changelings’ first stop before they went back to the Hive.
“As you can imagine, the hike took a toll on me. The only reason I made it to the Empire alive was because I found a group of Abyssinians headed that way, and I managed to disguise myself and hitch a ride, siphoning only the tiniest bits of love, only during times when they were already exchanging love between themselves, so they wouldn’t notice.”
Cadance nodded. “Clever. And you were of course headed to the Crystal Empire because you thought it would be a never-ending food source.” Chrysalis nodded. “Okay, so, I do want to know one thing: were you planning on just living here in the Empire for the rest of your days, or staying just long enough to recoup your strength, maybe give a cursory try at overthrowing me, then go back to the Hive?”
Chrysalis opened her mouth with a confident expression, but no words came out, and her expression dropped. “I… I don’t know, actually. I’ve only been here for a few days. Maybe I could have lived a nice life…” She looked absently at the wall next to her. She sighed. “But that chance is gone. I just had to get too curious, I just had to learn why I wasn’t living the easy life here.”
Cadance gave a look of concern.
Suddenly, the two’s heads snapped toward the door as they heard a group of guards convening on the door. “She’s in here!” “Get the flanking group ready!” “Hold!” The guards shouted, their overlapping commands getting lost in each other.
Cadance burst into action, using her magic to lock the door from the inside and shove a few close-by pieces of furniture in front of it to slow down the guards. She looked back at Chrysalis to give an encouraging smile, but she was just met with the hyperventilating face of a panicked Changeling Queen.
She cupped Chrysalis’ face with both of her hooves and stroked her cheeks.
Cadance, with a passionate determination in her eyes and a smirk upon her snout, locked eyes with the Changeling Queen. “Get on the bed.”
Eventually, the guards burst through the door, scrambling in and shouting in unison their declarations to defend their princess from the evil Changeling Queen. They were instead perplexed to find their princess protectively holding a young mare in a hug with a wing.
Cadance looked at the group of guards with irritation. “Excuse me, what are you all doing?”
Most of the guards silently continued their incredulous stares at the pair, but one pointed accusingly at Cadance and angrily asked, “What are you doing?”
Cadance glowered at the guard. “Well, first of all, it’s none of your business, but since you’ve already so rudely burst in on us, I suppose I’ll spell something out for you” Cadance removed her wing from the mare at her side and stood up, gingerly hopping off the bed. She sauntered over to the single brave guard, stopping only inches from his face, and stared him down. “Do not judge me for satisfying my need for closeness after the passing of my husband. Are we clear?”
The guard gulped and nodded his head quickly.
Cadance smiled. “Good.” She looked over to the other guards.
They all nodded in turn and started awkwardly shuffling out of the room, the unicorns among them putting the furniture back in its rightful place and swiftly repairing the door they had broken through.
“T-Terribly sorry, princess,” the mouthy guard muttered, offering a bow as he left the room and deftly locked the door behind him.
Cadance smiled contentedly and turned back toward the bed, the mare on top of it now transforming in a swirl of green fiery magic back into her true form. “Well,” Cadance started foxily, “I suppose that’s our cover story.”
Chrysalis smiled back and licked her lips. She slipped under the covers and drew a circle in the spot next to her in the bed with her hoof and patted the center.
Cadance’s smile widened as she hopped into the bed, sliding under the covers to join the queen. She hesitated for a moment as Chrysalis’ cool, hard skin came in contact with her own, but nonetheless locked limbs with her. She held eye contact with Chrysalis for a moment before settling her head underneath against the queen’s neck.
She sighed, though her smile was tugged downward a moment by a twinge of uncertainty, then settled herself, eventually falling asleep in the Changeling Queen’s arms.
